You're meant to root for fictional couples, especially after all the trials, tribulations, and drama they go through that are meant to show us that, at the end of the day, love ~conquers all~.
But if we're being honest, some of these couples wouldn't seriously make it in real life, and redditors u/AnimeKing1108 and u/appledanish_9 wanted to know which popular fictional couples from TV shows and movies people thought wouldn't realistically last a month or would just not last, period.
Here are some of the most eye-catching responses that'll either have you nodding along or clutching your heart (or both):
1. "Ariel and Prince what's-his-name from The Little Mermaid. He's prince of a fishing community. They eat seafood a lot. She'd have to be cool banging a dude who perpetuates the genocide of her friends."
2. "Danny and Sandy from Grease. Yes, they dated during one summer, but in the carefree sun, everything is easy. When they got to real life, they were at each other's throats and fighting most of the movie."
3. "Cam and Mitchell from Modern Family. I really like the show, but I HATE those two: They are petty, jealous, and rude to each other. The arguments and fights they have are really ugly, and the resolutions are so quick and easy. Lily would be living with Cam in San Fran, with Mitchell working out his daddy issues by himself, so quick."
4. "Ross and Rachel from Friends. The series showed consistently that they do not work together, and I am given no reason in the finale to believe it will last any longer than any of their previous hookups. They make each other's life worse."
5. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Two HIGHLY trained assassins are married for that long, and neither one of them has even a suspicion the other is as well? Pffft, OK. Still a fun popcorn movie, though."
6. "Jack and Rose from Titanic. If he hadn't died, he, for one, would have gotten sick of her shit after a while, and she would have underestimated how much it sucks to be poor."
7. "Ron x Hermione from Harry Potter. Never have I ever seen such a toxic pairing. While there is the occasional sweet moment, they are overshadowed by the extreme amounts of toxicity, jealousy, and 'fundamental incompatibility,' as J.K. Rowling herself said it."
8. "I’m not a relationship expert, but I can’t imagine that Harry Potter marrying his friend’s younger sister who was obsessed with him as a celebrity for much of the time they knew each other was ever going to end well."
9. "Leonard and Penny from The Big Bang Theory. Not even the whole 'Oh, she's hot and he's a nerd, har har har' thing, but the fact that (like many sitcom couples) they never fucking tell each other what is going on or how they're feeling. They treat each other with little to no respect. It's just shit. Again, this is most sitcom couples because you need conflict and entertainment."
10. "Sakura Haruno and Sasuke from Naruto. They're one of the most abusive couples — they tried to kill each other three times, at least. And he never visited the family for one decade."
11. "Aang and Katara in Avatar: The Last Airbender. It should've been him and Toph. Just because Katara was the first to bat her pretty little eyes at Aang when he was freed doesn't mean they should've ended up together."
12. "Damon and Elena from The Vampire Diaries. He literally killed her brother and lucked out because said brother was wearing a magical resurrection ring. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of what Damon has done to Elena or the people around her."
13. "Snow White and Prince what's-his-name. Even if the dude was hot, if I got kissed by a guy I've only seen once in the middle of the woods while basically dead, I wouldn't marry him; I'd throw him into the sun, which is what she should have done."
14. "Han Solo and Princess Leia from Star Wars. One's an overconfident, shady criminal who thinks he's a suave ladies' man, even though he has a good heart. And the other is a politician and member of royalty who leads a rebellion against the current government. She's used to being a leader and in control of every situation. Even if they stayed together, they'd butt heads constantly."
15. "Westley and Buttercup from The Princess Bride. True love, my ass. They barely knew each other, never had a conversation beyond her bossing him around, until one day they're suddenly in love? Come on, the only thing they have in common is that they're both good-looking."
16. "I never, ever understood the Arrowverse shipping of Oliver and Felicity. There's not a single moment between them that doesn't feel forced. One of the multitude of reasons I backed out of it years ago."
17. "Honestly? Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter from Captain America. Felt very forced. Yeah, they would have stayed together because of the whole 1940s and '50s postwar nuclear family thing (that’s why my grandparents are still married LMAO), but IDK, it just felt like they were settling for each other."
18. "Robin Scherbatsky and Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. She's too independent, and he's too hyper-focused on the happy ending to care about how she actually feels. Sure, that can change over time, but their respective plotlines never lined up for it realistically to work. If anything, she'd start to feel like he's clingy and end it before it got too serious."
19. "I loved the movie Notting Hill, but there's no way Will and Anna could build a life together in the real world. The scene at the end where she's a wildly famous movie star stepping out of a car with flashbulbs going like crazy, and he's just some dweeb following her around, kind of points out the absurdity."
20. "Edward and Bella from Twilight. And not because vampires aren’t real, but because Edward was LEGIT a stalker, and Bella was boring."
21. And finally: "Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. I'm sorry — I keep a pretty open mind about other people's love lives, and who am I to judge, but they aren't the same species. Not even the same genus. If you have to go back to phylum to find something in common, the relationship seems forced to me."
Are there any other fictional couples you think wouldn't actually live happily ever after in real life? Let us know in the comments below!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.