Consider for a moment, the story of Martha Jones, who one day met a magical man from far away with whom she was clearly infatuated, only to find him preoccupied with his own lost love. Worse still, in the real world, the character of Martha was replacing one of the most popular companions in the history of Doctor Who, a character who helped brings the series back to life and the public consciousness. In hindsight, the decision to define Martha by her unrequited love for the Doctor doomed her, as those who loved Rose would see her only as a replacement, while the Tenth Doctor simply couldn’t have the same connection to a new human the way he did his first human. It was a classic catch-22, leaving us with a sad, unfinished, quasi-romance, but at least leading us to today’s one-sided query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is at least happy that they didn’t kill off Doctor Jones, asking: What’s the best and/or worst and most heartbreaking example of unrequited love in fiction?
3 Comments
Ser Jorah Mormont is at least a very classic example. He is very much defined by his lost loves.
Which is sort of ironic, seeing how impressive a man he would otherwise be.
I’m not sure why this one stands out so much to me, but that stretch of episodes in ‘Boy Meets World’ after Topanga dumped Corey because of her parents’ divorce really plucked at my heart strings.
Gollum and One Ring for sure.