Keeping Relationships

If you look at movie series, you will find that often, once a relationship is steady, a partner, usually the female character, will vanish for some reason - death, misunderstandings, amnesia, whatever. TV series might not be that horrible with it, but usually the relationships fade into background, once the courting phase is over.

Looking at my own work, I have a bit of a mixed bag. Both John Stanton, whose first three adventures are on their way to release (it was a hectic month and I will need a few more days to get everything ready), and Inez Crowe are not in any romantic relationship (although I’m currently considering one for John). Jane on the other hand has a steady relationship in both series which feature her, with Cedric Thornton in the Knight Agency (they meet and court in “A Plague of Rogues” and have been together ever since) and with Cynthia Wilmington in the Black Knight Agency (where she has been with her girlfriend for about seven years now, starting when they both were eighteen, within the story “Criminal Ventures”). Lucas Swenson and Jeanne Carter are essentially friends with benefits (especially as Jeanne pretends to be a guy), but further stories (if I ever get around to writing them or professionally releasing the first two) might see their relationship shift.

Why do movies often fridge the girlfriend or wife or put her out of the picture in other ways?

One theory is that writers simply don’t know what to do with a steady relationship. The courting phase is interesting. There will be misunderstandings and quarrels and things will be ever-shifting. But once a couple has come together and is planning their life? Boring. So they usually kill the wife to motivate the husband/hero to do something (latest offender? “Deadpool 2”).

Another theory is that the audience doesn’t want to see the boring, regular life of the hero, because movies usually are not about the regular life of a person (TV series are more likely to do that, depending on the genre).

But is it really so hard to keep a relationship going? I didn’t find it a bother to have Cedric/Cynthia in my stories so far. Admittedly, they are both not living with their version of Jane, but there still is a steady relationship in both cases. If they were living with her, she would still be going on her missions in the Knight Agency (and Cedric would accept that, even if it robs him of his sleep regularly) and she would still be Steven’s right hand and second-in-command in the Black Knight Agency.

You see, you don’t have to put the partner prominently into the story of a movie - you can have him or her feature at the beginning and show the hero returning to them at the end. That’s perfectly okay. Or they can be doing background work, be some kind of backup for the hero. Or they can have their own adventures. Or stand by the hero’s side. What choice is the best is pretty much down to the type of person the spouse is.

“Girl Reporter” (see review here) features a long-standing relationship between two heroes, but it obviously didn’t stop them from doing their job for a long time. And we’re talking about a still sizzling, hot-making-out relationship, not about the ‘holding hands and giggling’ type.

Is it more boring for the hero to be in a stable relationship than for them to have a new girl by their side every time you see them?

James Bond is, of course, the worst offender there, since he has a new ‘Bond girl’ in every movie. But on the other hand, with Bond’s life, I can actually understand it. Bond meets those women while in the middle of a mission (okay, that is also how Jane and Cedric met, but still…). He is, as some have pointed out, a different person outside of them. The suave playboy is partially a front, a character he slips into while doing his job. Finding out that the ‘real’ James Bond is much more boring can turn women off. Or the chemistry just won’t work outside of the missions, when the adrenaline is missing. So they went out once or twice after the mission, realized there was no more spark, and parted ways. That is okay. It’s not as if James bonded more deeply with any of the girls more than once in his life. And this one was killed off right after the wedding - talk about downers, although I’m sure they had sex before.

So, what to do with relationships, if you’re writing a series?

First of all, please don’t try to stretch the ‘will they, won’t they’ phase out infinitely. At some point, you have to owe up.

And if you decided to have them get together, then why not find a way to keep them together and work it into the story? You don’t have to make the spouse of the hero a main character who is in every scene. Depending on their skills and character, they can do background work or just go into hiding to make sure there’s no additional way to put pressure on the hero.

Give a partner an agenda of their own, even if it’s just ‘keeping themselves safe.’ Depending on their own background, they can be a lot more, of course. Imagine a couple together on the battlefield, fighting back to back, protecting each other that way. Or the excellent pilot ready to get the agent out of the target area after the mission.

“Despicable Me 3” actually did a very good job with the evolving relationship not only between Lucy and the girls, but also between Lucy and Gru, who are working together at the beginning and the end. But then, the series has done well with keeping up relationships introduced before - they also handled Gru’s new duties as a father very well in “Despicable Me 2.”

Steady relationships are no hindrance for heroics. Quite the opposite, they actually can make heroics better. But you shouldn’t really follow the way it’s done in a lot of stories these days. We have enough girlfriends and wives in fridges already.