History Main / OfficialCoupleOrdealSyndrome

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/{{Hancock}}'' Hancock and his one true love are destined to be apart forever, because if they're together too much, their powers leave them and they eventually die. This is what has happened to their entire race; only she and Hancock are still alive.

** Season 5-6: Booth struggles with his feelings for Brennan after a coma dream where they were married. He admits he loves Brennan but she runs away to an island in the Pacific. Booth trains soldiers in Afghanistan and brings home a girlfriend, causing Brennan to angst over missing her chance. Then finally TheyDo and Brennan gets pregnant

** Season 4: After Beckett nearly dies, she realizes she only wants Castle, and TheyDo.

* In ''LightNovel/BeyondTheBoundary'', [[StarCrossedLovers Akihito and Mirai]] get hit with this ''hard''. Akihito is a half-human, half-youmu hybrid. Mirai is from a spirit hunter clan whose blood is deadly to youmu. [[spoiler: Even worse, it's revealed that Mirai was given a mission to assassinate Akihito because the youmu inside him, known as Beyond the Boundary, is a powerful reality warper who could potentially destroy the world. Mirai can't bring herself to do it because she realized Akihito was the only one who understood her and cared for her, and that she'd [[InLoveWithTheMark fallen in love with him.]] So rather than kill Akihito, Mirai sacrifices herself and absorbs Beyond the Boundary, essentially [[AFateWorseThanDeath wiping herself from existence.]]]]

* Averted in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', which is notable for a harem series. While [[OfficialCouple Issei and Rias]] do hit the skids early on, it's because being with an open HaremSeeker who nonetheless has [[ObliviousToLove self-worth issues and difficulty expressing his feelings]] is emotionally taxing for everyone and takes some getting used to. Once they work through these issues and Rias establishes her claim as TopWife, the relationship solidifies and steady, supportive, and healthy for all involved - ''including'' the other half-dozen harem members. From there the only internal drama the relationship sees is the girls bickering over who gets to be first mistress.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' has Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, who, after surviving two Mortal Kombat tournaments and Outworld's invasion to Earthrealm, after all is said and done, hook up and even have a daughter, Cassie Cage.

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': Winston Smith and his love interest, Julia, have sex, rebelling against the system. Then, with TheReveal, [[spoiler:O'Brien is found to have turned them in and takes part in re-institutionalizing them into the system. They ''are'' reunited at the end, if briefly, but it turns out they have no feelings for each other anymore.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}'' by Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt, Beatrice and Seth have an extremely difficult time. To be fair, [[IdiotPlot it partly is their own fault]], but they also have to deal with [[BigBadEnsemble three villains]], who do everything to keep them apart. It takes them ''twenty months'' [[spoiler:and alas, Beatrice being raped and almost killed]] before they can solve their misunderstandings and find happiness together.

This trope exists because people tend to identify with an OfficialCouple. Therefore a good way to keep up the suspense is to make their relationship dramatic, as having them be happy with no issues runs the risk of ShippingBedDeath because TrueLoveIsBoring. The entire point of creating this couple and making it official is to make the tragedy of its demise/near-demise all the more obvious/painful to the reader. If the OfficialCouple stays together despite being put through this trope it's an EarnYourHappyEnding.

This trope exists because people tend to identify with an OfficialCouple. Therefore a good way to keep up the suspense is to make their relationship dramatic. This trope is the DarkerAndEdgier version of that. The writer creates an OfficialCouple knowing people will care for it. The entire point of creating this couple and making it official is to make the tragedy of its demise/near-demise all the more obvious/painful to the reader. If the OfficialCouple stays together despite being put through this trope it's an EarnYourHappyEnding.

* In ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'', this happens to Lucy and David post-TimeSkip. And oh boy, is it a sad example of this trope in play. [[spoiler:Their relationship becomes strained due to David's increased obsession with chroming up at the expense of his tolerance to cybernetics and Lucy's unwillingness to share her efforts in eliminating Arasaka netrunners pursuing data related to David's tolerance of cybernetics. Lucy eventually gets kidnapped by Faraday with plans to send her back to Arasaka, and he uses Lucy's voice to provoke David into installing the cyberskeleton. Once David realizes Lucy was being held hostage, his RoaringRampageOfRevenge ends with him rescuing Lucy... and also ending up in a hopeless fight against Adam Smasher. [[HeroicSacrifice He only has time to get Lucy to safety (with Falco's help) before ultimately being outmatched and killed by Smasher]].]]

* In ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'', this happens to Lucy and David post-TimeSkip. And oh boy, is this a sad example of this in play. [[spoiler:Their relationship becomes strained due to David's increased obsession with chroming up at the expense of his tolerance to cybernetics and Lucy's unwillingness to share her efforts in eliminating Arasaka netrunners pursuing data related to David's tolerance of cybernetics. Lucy eventually gets kidnapped by Faraday with plans to send her back to Arasaka, and he uses Lucy's voice to provoke David into installing the cyberskeleton. Once David realizes Lucy was being held hostage, his RoaringRampageOfRevenge ends with him rescuing Lucy... and also ending up in a hopeless fight against Adam Smasher. [[HeroicSacrifice He only has time to get Lucy to safety (with Falco's help) before ultimately being outmatched and killed by Smasher]].]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'': The OfficialCouple of [[spoiler:Tomoya and Nagisa]] has them eventually getting married and expecting a child. DeathByChildbirth separates the couple leaving their child Ushio with a broken father and no mother.
* Tuxedo Mask and the eponymous Franchise/SailorMoon. After they're reincarnated, he almost dies, she has to fight against him when he's evil and brainwashed, he's taken away from her many times, and so on. But they are always together.
* In ''Manga/TenYoriMoHoshiYoriMo'', a good part of [[spoiler:Mio and Rei/Shou]]'s conflict of their relationship deals with this. [[spoiler:They went through this ''twice'' in different centuries. In both centuries, it ended up badly for them.]]

* Poor Miaka and Tamahome in ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' get hit with this quite a bit, especially in the first series. Kidnapping, {{Brainwash|ed}}ing, AttemptedRape, PoorCommunicationKills resulting in a few breakups, [[StalkerWithACrush obstructive stalkers]] and near-death experiences made these two ''[[EarnYourHappyEnding earn]]'' their HappilyEverAfter.

* [[spoiler:Hiro and Zero Two]] from ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx''. '''And how'''. [[spoiler:Not long after Hiro made a ChildhoodMarriagePromise with Zero Two, APE soldiers capture the two. Hiro gets hit with LaserGuidedAmnesia as punishment for their escape attempt, while Zero Two once again becomes a subject of ColdbloodedTorture to study her Klaxosaur physiology. Because of Hiro's tampered memories, Zero Two has no idea he was her original Darling when they meet in Episode 1. Then, when they finally recover their memories in Episode 13, Zero Two gets reassigned to the Nines and Ichigo stops Hiro from chasing her. It's not until Episode 15 when they ''at long last'' reunite and make up for lost time.]]

This trope exists because people tend to identify with an OfficialCouple. Therefore a good way to keep up the suspense is to make their relationship dramatic. This trope is the UpToEleven DarkerAndEdgier version of that. The writer creates an OfficialCouple knowing people will care for it. The entire point of creating this couple and making it official is to make the tragedy of its demise/near-demise all the more obvious/painful to the reader. If the OfficialCouple stays together despite being put through this trope it's an EarnYourHappyEnding.

** Taken UpToEleven in the movie, ''Beyond the Boundary: I'll Be Here''. Akihito falls into depression after [[spoiler: Beyond the Boundary [[BackFromTheDead brings Mirai back to life]] at the cost of her losing her memories. He constantly tries to avoid her and has a pained expression whenever he sees her, unable to accept that she's forgotten about him and all they went through together. When Mirai confronts him about this, he insists that he just happened to pass by when she regained consciousness on the roof, and that the reason he broke down in tears upon seeing her was because of his glasses fetish. Despite all of his friends telling Akihito to tell Mirai the truth, he stubbornly refuses because he feels he'd be robbing her of living a normal life. And when Mirai starts to regain her memories after visiting a park she and Akihito had gone to in the past, Akihito tells her that she is "the most important person in his life", but that they can't be together because she'll just be unhappy with him. And then Mirai gets [[DemonicPossession infected by a parasite youmu,]] becomes BrainwashedAndCrazy and tries to kill Akihito and all of her friends. Thankfully, Akihito and Mirai ''finally'' get (back) together at the end, and in fact it's [[ThePowerOfLove their love for each other]] that defeats the BigBad.]]

* UpToEleven on ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand''. Granted it is a show about people who have been [[MadeASlave enslaved]] and stage a GladiatorRevolt. Naturally this makes their romantic lives complicated to put it mildly. But even the comparatively well-off Roman elite tend to have relationships of the UnholyMatrimony or DestructiveRomance sort. ''Nobody'' has a drama-free relationship!

** In this universe, Philza allegedly fathered Wilbur with a Samsung Smart Refrigerator, which he claims to now be in a dump somewhere. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext It's best not to question how this happened.]]

** Quackity has had [[LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces very terrible luck with love]] in the roleplay. Among his more serious relationships, [[spoiler:his past abusive relationship with Schlatt still traumatizes him to this day, and when he finally got into a somewhat stable relationship with Karl and Sapnap, in a convoluted deconstruction of PoorCommunicationKills (and [[LossOfIdentity memory problems]] on Karl's part), their unintentional abandonment of him to build a country of their own ends up being [[TraumaCongaLine the straw that broke the camel's back]], which finally caused him to [[DespairEventHorizon abandon his idealism]] and fully follow in [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur's]] footsteps down a spiral. A couple of months after that, he's still ''very'' evidently heartbroken, and has unofficially decided that he was going to make his issues ''[[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds everyone's]]'' problem through a mixture of PsychologicalProjection and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]].]]

** In this universe, Philza fathered Wilbur with a Samsung Smart Refrigerator, which he claims to now be in a dump somewhere. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext It's best not to question how this happened.]]

** [[spoiler:In a HopeSpot during Tommy's [[TraumaCongaLine exile]], Mexican Dream got killed by his girlfriend, Girl Dream/Mamacita's SpearCounterpart, Dream.]]
** Sam and Ponk were valentines and dated briefly, but saying that their relationship didn't end well is an {{understatement}} — Sam flirting with [[SmallRoleBigImpact Andrea Botez]] during her date with Jack prompted Ponk to join [[ReligionOfEvil the Eggpire]], blaming Sam for breaking his heart; and later in the series, [[spoiler:Ponk was caught stealing a key card to [[TheAltacraz Pandora's Vault]], which was SeriousBusiness to Sam... who proceeded to canonically kill him in retaliation, [[ColdBloodedTorture torture him]] to get the key cards back, and [[AnArmAndALeg cut Ponk's arm off]]. Yes, this relationship seriously ended with one of the members joining a {{cult}} and having a limb sliced off by his ex-boyfriend.]]
** Quackity has had [[LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces very terrible luck with love]] in the roleplay. Among his more serious relationships, [[spoiler:his past toxic relationship with Schlatt still traumatizes him to this day, and when he finally got into a somewhat stable relationship with Karl and Sapnap, in a convoluted deconstruction of PoorCommunicationKills (and [[LossOfIdentity memory problems]] on Karl's part), their unintentional abandonment of him to build a country of their own ends up being [[TraumaCongaLine the straw that broke the camel's back]], which finally caused him to [[DespairEventHorizon abandon his idealism]] and fully follow in [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur's]] footsteps. A couple of months after that, he's still ''very'' evidently heartbroken, and has unofficially decided that he was going to make his issues ''[[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds everyone's]]'' problem through a mixture of PsychologicalProjection and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulation]].]]

* ''Series/Charmed1998'' has Piper and Leo. They get together quickly, but he has to leave because he's a Whitelighter who gets reassigned. Then he comes ''back,'' but they can't really be together because the Elders forbid Witches and Whitelighters having relationships. Then Piper falls for her neighbor Dan, prompting a MuggleAndMagicalLoveTriangle. She picks Leo and they decide to fight the Elders, causing them to take Leo away again. Once they prove their devotion and manage to get married, it's ''still'' not over. Leo gets promoted to Elder status and has to leave the family (now including his infant son). When he comes back, it's only because he's killed another Elder (who was threatening said son) and is dealing with the emotional fallout of that. He gets put through a SecretTestOfCharacter by yet another Elder who manipulates his decisions to justify keeping him away from Piper, but manages to choose love, causing him to be depowered which leads to more angst. He then joins the Avatars out of belief that they can end the battle between Good and Evil, but can't tell Piper because she considers the Avatars the enemy. Once he realizes his mistake, the only way to snap Piper out of her brainwashing is to ''die in front of her'' ([[DeathIsCheap he gets better). And ''then'' the Angel of Death warns Piper that Leo has to die soon; she manages to convince the Angel of Destiny to spare his life by having him trapped in crystal for a year because she ''has to'' lose him in order to have the motivation to the final fight. She wins and gets him back, but because Phoebe and Paige died in the fight, she has to reset the timeline and lose him ''again'' in order to win the right way. ''Phew.''

* ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'': The OfficialCouple of [[spoiler:Tomoya and Nagisa]] has them eventually getting married and expecting a child. DeathByChildBirth separates the couple leaving their child Ushio with a broken father and no mother.

* Averted in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', which is notable for a harem series. While [[OfficialCouple Issei and Rias]] do hit the skids early on, it's because being with an open HaremSeeker who nonetheless has [[ObliviousToLove self-worth issues and difficulty expressing his feelings]] is [[RealityEnsues emotionally taxing for everyone and takes some getting used to]]. Once they work through these issues and Rias establishes her claim as TopWife, the relationship solidifies and steady, supportive, and healthy for all involved - ''including'' the other half-dozen harem members. From there the only internal drama the relationship sees is the girls bickering over who gets to be first mistress.

** Quackity has had [[LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces very terrible luck with love]] in the roleplay. Among his more serious relationships, [[spoiler:his past toxic relationship with Schlatt still traumatizes him to this day, and when he finally got into a somewhat stable relationship with Karl and Sapnap, in a convoluted deconstruction of PoorCommunicationKills (and [[LossOfIdentity memory problems]] on Karl's part), their unintentional abandonment of him to build a country of their own ends up being [[TraumaCongaLine the straw that broke the camel's back]], which finally caused him to [[TookALevelInCynicism abandon his idealism]] and fully follow in [[WellIntentionedExtremist Wilbur's]] footsteps.]]

* The LetsPlay/DreamSMP, being a CrapsackWorld, has been a major cause of trauma for ''[[DysfunctionJunction everyone on the server]]'', including and not limited to those in relationships. In fact, most of the canonical relationships have [[LoveHurts caused no shortage of pain and angst to those within it]]. This goes to the point that currently, the only (semi-)stable relationships on the server appear to be Puffy and Niki, and possibly Tubbo and Ranboo, and "[[LampshadeHanging love is dead]]" is a recurring meme within the fandom.

** [[spoiler:In a HopeSpot during Tommy's [[TraumaCongaLine exile]], Mexican Dream got killed by his girlfriend, Girl Dream/Mamacita's Spear Counterpart, Dream.]]

* The LetsPlay/DreamSMP, being a CrapsackWorld, has been a major cause of trauma for ''[[DysfunctionJunction everyone on the server]]'', including and not limited to those in relationships. In fact, most of the canonical relationships have [[LoveHurts caused no shortage of pain and angst to those within it]]. This goes to the point that currently, the only (semi-)stable relationships on the server appear to be Puffy and Niki, and possibly Tubbo and Ranboo.

** Season 5-6: Booth admits he loves Brennan but she runs away to an island in the Pacific. Booth trains soldiers in Afghanistan and brings home a girlfriend, causing Brennan to angst over missing her chance. Then finally TheyDo and Brennan gets pregnant

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': From the start, Sasuke and Sakura's relationship has been little but turmoil. The first major ShipTease moment is literally Sakura crying over Sasuke's body because she believes he's dead. It doesn't get much better afterwards and it gets even darker when Sasuke runs off after taking a revenge-driven HeelFaceTurn. Most of Sasuke and Sakura's interactions post-timeskip are tense, with them [[spoiler:even trying to kill each other]], but they part on on a pleasant, romantically tinged note. It's later shown that they ended up married and had a daughter named Sarada. How they became a couple is not clear however it is shown that they're HappilyMarried by ''Manga/{{Boruto}}''. But, even that has its downsides. Sasuke has been on a mission, away from his wife and [[DisappearedDad daughter]], for nearly all of Sarada's childhood. As a result, Sarada has a mixed relationship with her father.