Happily Married

They seem to live happily together, but then comes the tragedy...

Chandler: [In response to Wendy making a move on him] I'm married!
Wendy: So? I'm married.
Chandler: I'm happily married.
Wendy: Oh. What's that like?

— Friends, "The One with Christmas in Tulsa"

Against all the odds, in defiance of the laws of drama, spitting in the face of the Awful Wedded Life, there is... the Happily Married couple.

This is a couple, Alpha or Beta, who are in love and not wangsting it up dysfunctionally all the time. They avoid Poor Communication Kills, won't jump to conclusions, and treat each other with love and respect. In short, whatever troubles they have are minor and don't lead to the misanthropy of No Accounting for Taste or The Masochism Tango.

Both inside and outside of Romance Parental Abandonment, Shipping Bed Death and the Cartwright Curse tend to kill them off like flies. Aiding this is that most drama considers the above "boring!" (remember, Rule of Drama) and will usually try to make things "interesting!" with "plot twists" that threaten to split them up, and otherwise fill their path with rocks to make them Star-Crossed Lovers. (Their safest bet is as the Foil to a more turbulent couple.)

The net effect of having a Happily Married couple in a series is one of stability. (As a general rule, Happily Married couples with kids will be depicted as more loving and more stable than those without.) Just having them around gives viewers and characters in the show an emotional anchor and safety net, as well as someones to root for while the Official Couple is deciding Will They or Won't They?. Needless to say, most viewers will thusly become very protective of said couple and complain when authors needlessly torment them.

These couples benefit from The Power of Love. In addition, any time a sequel is set a generation later than the original, the main couple from the original will probably have this type of relationship to show that they did get a Happy Ending — and Babies Ever After to prove it.

Despite some fiction likening this to a Discredited Trope (partly because common knowledge dictates that happy marriages are ill suited for drama. Whether common knowledge is right or not is another matter entirely), a lot of people out there would call this Truth in Television, which is why we won't list all those examples. (Congrats to you!) Apparently the secret is to understand that you will end up arguing at some point and that does not mean you are no longer in love but keep working at your marriage, talk to each other, do little things all the time, and never confuse falling in love and being in love; they feel different. This advice is often summed up with "Don't go to bed still angry at each other." There's absolutely no shame in simply getting along well, if it works for the two of you.

Not to be confused with Sickeningly Sweethearts, which is basically puppy love. They can overlap, but it's rare. This trope usually gives viewers warm fuzzy feelings—usually, as the cynicism of the viewers still has to be taken into account. If and when they have kids, they will often become Good Parents. Can result in or be the result of Single-Target Sexuality, especially when it is mutual.

When this overlaps with Arranged Marriage, it's a Perfectly Arranged Marriage. When this overlaps with the characters being unrepentant villains, it's Unholy Matrimony. When it turns out that they're not really as happy as they let on, it's Happy Marriage Charade.

May end in a Last Moment Together due to illness or long life.

Obviously, this is the desired outcome for most who want to marry, so No Real Life Examples, Please!

noreallife

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Example Subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Other Examples:

Asian Animation

• In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the main villain Wolffy has a wife named Wolnie. Despite the constant abuse Wolnie puts Wolffy through for constantly failing to capture the goats they want to eat, she does genuinely love her husband and the two otherwise seem to have a pretty happy marriage.

Audio Plays

• This is the premise of Our Honeymoon. Each of the four tracks are of you sharing a cute morning with your husband and each of the four are a different voice actor and character type scenario.

Comic Strips

• Calvin's parents from Calvin and Hobbes are quite loving, despite the stress of having a kid like Calvin. Or possibly because they have a kid like Calvin, moments of peace and restaurant dates are so much more enjoyable (even if Calvin's dad keeps turning his head because he thought he heard sirens).
• Many newspaper-strip comics are more about the travails married people find than about their personal relationship. Dagwood and Blondie, Hi and Lois, Hagar and Helga, the parents in Baby Blues, the parents in For Better or for Worse.
• In Zits the loving, stable marriage between Connie and Walt Duncan infuriates their son, Jeremy, by adding to their general dorkiness: their happy stability makes him too well-adjusted to have a tragic backstory. One strip shows the parents talking and laughing over doing the dishes, prompting Jeremy to sigh, "The award for 'person whose life least resembles MTV' goes to..." (or something like that.)
• Roger and Andrea from FoxTrot (much to Jason's disgust when he sees them kissing). Despite every crisis they've been through (Roger quitting his job, Andy desperately acting young again, the many horrible, Horrible Camping Trips), their love shows no signs of faltering.
• Bob Weber's Moose and Molly are heavy-set, low-rung blue-collar types, totally blissed out on each other.
• One Big Happy has two generations of married couples and a couple of children living in the same house.
• Spider-Man: The newspaper comic version of Peter Parker and Mary Jane are blissfully unaffected by One More Day.
• Sally and Ted Forth. Each would probably drive another spouse crazy, but they're perfect together.
• The couple who became/inspired Gomez and Morticia Addams. Unlike all the other couples whom Charles Addams depicted, they are perfectly and eternally un/happy together.
• The Mr. Potato Head comic strip clearly shows Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head to be happy together, with a fair number of strips having them make out or say sentimental things to one another.

Fairy Tales

• In The Handkerchief, the king and queen have one of the most trusting and loving relationships in folklore. The queen loves the king for his kindness and wisdom, and the king loves the queen for her own cleverness.

Films — Animation

• Bob and Helen Parr in The Incredibles, though this is played with a little. A lot of the first movie focuses on the hitches in their marriage that come as a result of their differing reactions to leaving the superhero life (Helen is able to handle it, while Bob basically has a midlife crisis). Later, Helen is absolutely devastated to think that Bob is cheating on her. When they reunite and finally are open with each other though, Bob refers to her as "the most perfect woman in the entire world", and they are shown much more happy and adjusted once the rift between them closes. Continues in the sequel, where Helen offers to become the breadwinner so Bob can become a House Husband and not have to return to a job he hates, showing her concern for Bob's happiness. He nearly breaks himself completely to make sure Helen does well and does not hesitate to suit up and rescue her when he finds out she's in danger.
• Manny and Gypsy in A Bug's Life present a subtle example. Their marriage is only alluded to sparingly, and they don't so much as kiss, seeming content to hold hands in tender moments. Gypsy is quite understanding of her magician husband's eccentricities, offering support both on and offstage, while Manny provides the Large Ham stage presence central to their double act.
• Shrek and Fiona have their problems to deal with, but they love each other. This is best showcased in the second film where Shrek does his best to be a supportive husband and Fiona deliberately waiting past-midnight to prove to Shrek that she loves him just the way he is, ogre and all. They later have triplets, which puts some strain on their marriage but they still love each other and are Good Parents to their children.
• Carl and Ellie in Up definitely qualify, even if they had trouble making a family and fulfilling their dream to go to South America since by the time they were able to afford the trip Ellie soon passed away. This is demonstrated at the end, when Carl looks through Ellie's Adventure Book one last time to find the message "Thanks for the adventure! Now go have a new one."
• Toy Story:
  • Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Though the former has to repeat to himself in Toy Story 2 that he's married when he meets one of the Barbie dolls.
• This is implied in most Disney movies and frequently supported in sequels, such as The Little Mermaid (1989), The Lion King (1994), and Beauty and the Beast (technically a midquel, but the ending fastforwards a year after the first movie so the audience can see Belle and the Prince together). The first two,, for instance, show them content in their relationship and raising their children, who are now Spin-Offspring.
  • Also the case in Cinderella III. Heck, the first song of the movie has Cinderella telling us how happy she is in her married life and the prince several times referring to her as his "perfect wife". The sequel for Sleeping Beauty shows us that Aurora and Philip are quite happy as well.
  • Tarzan got an animated series where we see Tarzan and Jane are happily married. Jane even proudly admitted it to her high society friends when they came for a visit; she's referring to Tarzan's heart but they see another reason.
  • Rapunzel's parents in Tangled. One of the first things in the movie is the king (and most of his subjects, for that matter) searching furiously for a way to heal the ill queen. Even after their baby daughter is kidnapped, the two are shown supporting each other in the hope of finding her again.
  • King Fergus and Queen Elinor in Brave, crossed with Perfectly Arranged Marriage. While Elinor admits at one point that she herself was uncertain about her arranged marriage, she now is very happy with her husband. On his side, Fergus was shocked to think that Elinor was ever uncertain about marrying him. Later, when he suspects that Mordu broke into the castle and attacked Elinor, he goes from his normally pleasant demeanor to a berserker rage.
  • Roger and Anita in 101 Dalmatians. The loss of the puppies (and later Pongo and Perdita) never puts a strain on their relationship. Pongo and Perdita themselves also qualify; like their owners, the loss of their puppies never affected their relationship, and they even team up in order to find them.
  • Pacha and Chicha in The Emperor's New Groove have a well-established, humble life on a hill with two young children and a baby on the way. Their first scene together sees them threatening to be Sickeningly Sweethearts to get their kids to bed and Chicha threatening to hurt the Emperor for daring to blow off her husband after he traveled so far on the Emperor's request.
• About halfway through The Prince of Egypt, Moses marries Tzipporah, and the two stick together through thick and thin for the rest of the film, with Tzipporah deciding to come with Moses to Egypt even if it would mean leaving her family behind forever, as well as rushing to help him when he's knocked into the dirt by the angry Jews.
  • The spiritual sequel/prequel/whatever, Joseph: King of Dreams has Joseph marry Asenath. The two are shown working together on plans to save Egypt from famine, have several children, and see their life together as proof of a better future ahead. When Joseph imprisons one of his brothers later, Asenath's reminding him of their earlier relationship was able to sooth him for a short period of time.
• Zigzagged with La Muerte and Xibalba from The Book of Life. Word of God confirms that they both only have eyes for each other, and have many children. However, due to a previous wager (the exact circumstances unknown), Xibalba cheated on it and was sent to the Land of the Forgotten. The prologue shows that La Muerte is still upset about it, but they're talking, meaning that they're now on good terms (somewhat). Xibalba endangers their marriage again when Manolo reveals that he cheated on the wager of who would marry Maria. She is furious. But, by the end, after Xibalba apologizes for his actions and asks for her forgiveness, she accepts, and they kiss. By the end of the movie, they play this trope straight.
• At the end of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Hiccup and Astrid get married and then are shown several years later with two kids.
• In Turning Red, though Jin is something of a Hen Pecked Husband, it's obvious throughout the film that he and Ming do truly love each other.
• Migration: Despite their contrasting personalities (or one could argue because of them), Pam and Mack’s devotion to each other is as clear as it is tenacious. They enjoy being together and openly show affection through gestures such as touching beaks, hugging, and snuggling. Near the beginning of the film, Pam plants a cute kiss on Mack’s cheek. They also engage in romantic dances three times during the movie, proving to be quite skilled at shaking their tail feathers in tandem too.

Music

• Kids Praise: Psalty finds a wife named Psaltina by the third album, and they are quite happy together and had triplets.
• Ob-La-De, Ob-La-Da by The Beatles is the story of the long-term happy marriage of Desmond and Molly Jones, who first met in a marketplace and have Babies Ever After.
• Stan Rogers:
  • Though the protagonist in "Lies" has become older and less conventionally beautiful, her husband still loves her face "line for line" and still takes her out dancing when they get the chance.
  • "Forty-Five Years" is about how besotted the first-person character is with his partner, even after years with her, and how he wants to be with her for another forty-five years.
• "Whatta Man" by En Vogue and Salt 'N' Pepa is about being married to the perfect man, who is romantic, a Papa Wolf to his children, respects women, and knows how to please them.

Myths & Religion

• Greek Mythology
  • Baucis and Philemon. An elderly couple who entertained Zeus and Hermes unaware to the fullest extent of Sacred Hospitality and beyond, they received having a wish granted. They wished that they would die at the same moment so that neither of them would have to live widowed. They didn't even die exactly; at the end of their long lives, as they stood looking at one another, they were transformed into a pair of trees with the limbs intertwined so that they could never be separated. It's almost uncharacteristically sweet.
  • Cyane and Anapos. Cyane tried to stop Hades from abducting/marrying Persephone by citing her own happy marriage as an example of consensual relationship, and as the opposite of Hades' own methods.
  • Hilariously, Typhon and Echidna. Two of the worst monsters to ever come out of Tartarus (who by the way is Typhon's father), are entirely faithful to one another and support each other in all of their endeavours. Typhon eventually becomes Sealed Evil in a Can, but Echidna never moves on. All of her young (and there are a lot of them) are also Typhon's. By Greek standards that is weirdly functional.
  • The Rescue Romance of Perseus and Andromeda. Just the fact that neither cheated on the other is a very good sign.
  • Ariadne and Dionysus. Dionysus saved Ariadne when Theseus abandoned her on Naxos and she later accompanied him during his journeys. (Though some sources say that Dionysius had his eyes on Ariadne for a while already, and thus threatened Theseus in his dreams so he'd leave her.) He loved her enough to not only go down to the Underworld after her death to demand her soul back, but also made her immortal afterwards.
  • Hector and Andromache in The Iliad in sharp contrast to everyone else. Priam's a philandering bastard, Helen and Menelaus/Helen and Paris are horribly dysfunctional, and we won't even get started on Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Hector and Andromache honestly seem to have been a good match.
  • Odysseus and Penelope from The Odyssey. Okay, there was the stuff with Circe and Calypso but neither of those was what you could call 100% consensual (because when a very powerful being that could kill you in a heartbeat wants to sleep with you, it's smart not to argue, and Odysseus is nothing if not smart) and he did go to the ends of Earth (and Hell and back) to get back to Penelope. That counts for something. As does the fact that he turned down immortality for her. For her part, Penelope did all she could to hold off the obnoxious suitors and stay faithful to her husband. After ten years of devotion to her husband, Penelope feared the worst and asked Artemis to strike her down painlessly, either because she wanted to be Together in Death with Odysseus, or because she knew her suitors would kill her son and force her to choose between them (or not even let her choose), or both.
  • Hades and Persephone. The fact that he wanted to marry her (as in, keep her around) rather than have a one-night stand speaks volumes in Greek mythology. Hades's brothers Poseidon and Zeus (Zeus being Persephone's dad, even) were quite the philanderers. Hades was not. It also started as an arranged marriage (unlike the Everybody Hates Hades interpretation, the Hymn to Demeter made it abundantly clear that Zeus arranged the whole thing without Demeter or Persephone's consent, because Zeus is kind of a dick), making it even more impressive that they manage to make it one of the most functional and happy relationships in the mythos. Persephone is even said to prefer her time in the Underworld with her husband than with her mother.
  • Orpheus and Eurydice until she's dragged to Hades, but even then, he loves her so much that he goes to Hades and back to try and retrieve her. When he fails at the very last moment, man, how he mourns...
  • Eros and Psyche are an unlikely pair, considering how the vast majority of the Greek pantheon are constitutionally incapable of anything resembling fidelity. The story of the origins of their marriage is about trusting and going to great lengths to mend bridges.

• From Norse Mythology:
  • Freyr and Gerðr, though getting her to fall for him leads to his death he didn't regret it.
  • Balder and Nanna. The Norse really liked their gods to be happily married before they were killed by giants.
• Egyptian Mythology has Osiris and Isis who were surprisingly non-dysfunctional considering they were siblings. When the former was killed, the latter devoted much of her life to bringing him back.
• Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus are usually portrayed this way, as part of the warm mythology of Christmas. (If Santa and Mrs. Claus didn't get along like the idealized grandpa and grandma, it wouldn't work with the rest of the story. This is extremely amusing for people who know that Santa Claus is based in part on the historical Saint Nicholas of Myra, who was a bishop and therefore celibate.)
• Robin Hood and Maid Marian didn't get married in many of the original ballads (usually because she didn't exist yet), but many adaptations happily pair them off. The commentary for the 2010 movie stated that each era makes them into that era's idea of the perfect marriage.
• Irish Mythology:
  • Deirdre and Naoise from TheExileOfTheSonsOfUisnech. Deirdre is the daughter of the court poet of King Conchobar of Ulster, who orders that she be raised away from the eyes of men, due to a prophecy that she would be so beautiful that kings and lords would go to war over her, much blood would be spilled in her name, Ulter's three finest warriors would be forced into exile and die for her sake, and the kingdom of Ulster would collapse; ignoring the protests of his warriors to kill the baby and totally avert the prophecy, Conchobhar intends to take her as his wife once she is of marriageable age. Deirdre grows up with foster parents and out of sight of all boys, so she doesn't fall for anyone else before Conchobar marries her. Unsurprisingly, things do not go according to plan; Deirdre, repulsed by the aging, foul-tempered king, has a vision of a handsome, fearless young warrior with raven-black hair, snow-white skin, and blood-red cheeks and instantly falls in love. Her teacher and foster-mother, Leabharcham, tells her that that description matches Naoise Mac Uisnich, Conchobhar's finest warrior and hunter. With a small amount of complicity with Leabharcham, Deirdre meets Naoise. When he is initially reluctant to elope with her, she literally pounces on him and says that he will have "two ears of mockery and shame" if he refuses her. Whether it's meant as a joke or totally serious, Naoise agrees to go with her, and his two brothers, Ardan and Ainnle, tag along, unwilling to be separated from Naoise. The little group ends up in Scotland, where they live simply and happily for a while (in a few versions of the story, they have a son and a daughter, who are fostered by Manannan Mac Lir, the god of the sea, for their own safety)... until Conchobhar's men find them. Despite their strange meeting and courtship, Deirdre and Naoise seem to have the most loving marriage in Irish mythology.
• Welsh Mythology:
  • Pwyll and Rhiannon from Mabinogion. They met and got married pretty quickly, but they had to deal with Rhiannon's jealous exboyfriend Gwawl who took advantage of Pwyll's kindness to demand to marry Rhiannon instead of Pwyll. Together they came up with a plan to get rid of Gwawl to get married. In their marriage, they have to deal with judgmental nobles because Rhiannon didn't get pregnant for the first two years of their marriage. When their son was conceived and born, they then lost him due to their careless handmaids falling asleep. Worse, Rhiannon was framed by said handmaids who claimed that Rhiannon ate her son. Pwyll refused to set her aside and stays by her while she did her penance. The couple is eventually reunited with their son and properly named him Pryderi.

Podcasts

• In episode three of Mystery Show, Starlee meets a witness who describes his wife as his "soulmate," and credits the episode's subject, Hans Jordi, with their meeting.
• Frank and Sadie Doyle in the "Beyond Belief" segments of The Thrilling Adventure Hour are very much in love. The only thing they love nearly as much as they love each other is a good martini.
• Rod and Karen, co-hosts of The Black Guy Who Tips, are high-school sweethearts who have been married since 2002. Their on-air interactions can veer into Sickeningly Sweet Hearts (sometimes on purpose).
• Welcome to Night Vale: About four and a half years after they met, Cecil and Carlos get married in episode 100. Although their relationship has had its ups and downs, it's ultimately very stable and loving.

Theatre

• Fiddler on the Roof:
  • Tevye and Golde. It was revealed in a lovely Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other duet.
  • Their daughters end up happily married to the men of their choices. All three unions face varying external conflicts that try to tear them apart, but the love between the couples never wavers.
• Wilbur and Edna Turnblad from Hairspray. Wilbur says it all in their song together - "When I need a lift// time brings a gift// Another day with you".
• 1776.
  • John and Abigail have three duets, with "Yours Yours Yours" expressing how much they love and miss each other. Abigail helps to keep John from flying too far off the handle and reminds him that there's more to his life than yelling at Congress. Truth in Television, too. Most of the content of those songs was taken from the Adams' actual letters to each other — and John did, indeed, sign multiple letters as "Yours, yours, yours".
  • Tom misses his wife so much that he has a crippling case of Writer's Block when he's unable to visit her, so Adams has to ask her to come to Philadelphia—where they immediately fall into each other's arms (and then bed).
• A few of the vignettes in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change have these kind of couples, namely "Whatever Happened To Baby's Parents", "Sex and The Married Couple" and the untitled one featuring the song "Shouldn't I Be Less In Love With You?" It's indicated that the couple in "Wedding Vows" will be this since, despite some initial last minute panicking, they go through with the wedding because they sincerely love each other.
• Macbeth: Lord and Lady Macbeth. Yes, they brought doom and damnation upon themselves together, but they loved and supported each other along the way (though Lady Macbeth could get a little mean in her "supporting"...).
• Wintergreen and Mary in Of Thee I Sing, who get married in the first act finale and stay resolutely together through the sequel Let 'Em Eat Cake.
• It can be taken that Dionysus and Ariadne had this sort of marriage in The Frogs, considering how Dionysus describes their time together: "And the years filled with joy/And my heart filled with pride/Just to know Ariadne was there at my side." And when he's in the Underworld, struggling to figure out who the best playwright to bring back to Earth with him is, Ariadne shows up to comfort him and help him find the answer.
• Chris and Ellen in Miss Saigon. While he clearly loved Kim during the first half of the show, Ellen is the one he wants to build a life with, and she is supportive and accepting of the idea that he has a son by another woman.
• Kristina and Karl Oskar in "Kristina from Duvemåla". They even have several songs about it, with lines such as "It is cold and empty// when you've shared everything// and are made to be apart" and "We shall be together when day adds to day// For where you go, I go as well". Karl Oskar also has a song, "Stay", in which he describes how much his wife (who is at that point very ill from scurvy and might not make it through the night) means to him. The musical depicts their initial courtship and early years of marriage, their decision to be the first in their parish to emigrate from Sweden to the US in the mid 1840s, and building a new life for themselves and their six children in Minnesota.
• Show Boat:
  • Steve and Julie were this until they leave the show and he leaves her. The song "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" shows this (Julie: "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, I gotta love one man till I die...")
  • Joe and Queenie. She's frustrated with him for being so lazy, but their part in the same song makes it clear that they're still very much in love with each other.

Web Animation

• Deadly Space Action! features Saige and Orton, who always seem to be happy around each other and do almost everything together as equal partners.
• Chelsea and Tucker from Season 5 onwards of Anon, their daughter Candace even states she wants a relationship like theirs someday.
• Helluva Boss has Moxxie and Millie. The duo utterly adore each other and Millie is one of the few things that makes Moxxie happy on a regular basis.

Webcomics

• Commander Vora and her husband General Lagan from Art of Domination had been married for 20 years at the start of the story, and are very much in love.
• The Bird Feeder has Darryl and Edna, two cardinals, because cardinals (supposedly) mate for life.
• Erika and Matt of DAR!: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary, both in the webcomic and in real life. Erika herself says that her years with Matt have been the happiest time of her life. Made even more noteworthy by her originally being a 100% lesbian with a very dim opinion of "hetero-normativity" until she met Matt.
• Donovan and Miranda Deegan in Dominic Deegan who still get busy every once in a while.
  • Later in the story, Dominic and Luna.
• Finn and Charlie are Hitched: Finn and Charlie have been happily married for years, and are in fact based on the creator and his husband.
• In Fans!, Rikk's parents are happily married. Later Rikk's marriage to Alysin proved to be rather tumultuous (Aly's tendency toward self-loathing led to her wanting to break it off with Rikk at one point). Rikk and Aly (and Rumy) are a happily married couple triple.
• Fox and Collin of Friendly Hostility. Fox's parents (and Rafi) have been happy together for decades.
• Girl Genius:
  • Master Payne and the countess may have the occasional argument, as can be expected of a couple trying to keep themselves and their circus troop alive in the dangerous wastelands, but even their arguments generally devolve into flirting and they do whatever they can to keep each other happy and relatively safe.
  • Old Man Death and the wild princess both stepped away from their former wild lives in order to spend the rest of them together in their youth and are still deeply enamored and happy with each other in their old age, though she never did like his ubiquitous hat so she'll be pleased Maxim tricked him out of it.
• The Dunkels from El Goonish Shive have a peaceful, happy home life. It's made sweeter by a small panel's implication that Elliot was a mistake that happened too early, but they soldiered on through the hardships.
• In Grrl Power, it turns out that team lawyer Arianna has been married to financial adviser Aurelius Shrapnel for fourteen years, though they don't bother mentioning it to anyone who doesn't ask. Presumably they're both happy with it to last that length of time; it's notable that, when everyone in the base is affected by a magical lust effect, and most of them jump the nearest person of their gender of choice, Arianna's response is to call Aurelius to come into the office ASAP.
• In Koan of the Day, the tortoises meet each other, fall in love, get married, and while one tortoise messes with the other, they're both very happy.
• Level 1 Housewife, Angrboda and Hubby are very happily married, although she has trouble not accidentally injuring him due to being twice his size.
• Madame Outlaw: The Marcoses, the captains of the steamship boarded by the characters, are a loving and affectionate couple.
• In No Rest for the Wicked, King Gareth and Claire. He even stopped the war because news about her made him lose the will to fight.
• Realmwalker has Thor and Sif, and Aegir and Ran. Both of these couples love each other to bits, and they both use plenty of pet names. Baldr and Nanah appear this way, but Nanah is actually brainwashed into loving him.
• Phil and Millie, in Phil Likes Tacos, married on the strip's 10th anniversary.
• The epilogue of Rain (2010) reveals that Rain and Emily have eloped and now live a comfortable and healthy life.
• In The Red Star: Maya and her husband deeply loved each other As seen in this speech about the joys of love and married life.
• Mr. and Mrs. Cake from Slice of Life, just like their cartoon counterparts. They shamelessly refer to each other with cutesy nicknames in public, and never get angry or frustrated with each other, even when dealing with their more troublesome customers or suppliers.
  Mrs. Cake: "Well, let's get this over with, ginger-beer."
  Mr. Cake: "We should probably knock, sugarpie."
  Mrs. Cake: "Oh, one of us should, toffeebean."
  Mr. Cake: "Sometime soon, fizzypop."
• Fred and Faye MacIntire, Davan's parents from Something*Positive. Faye dies peacefully of old age, and since most characters are based on the cartoonist's life, his mom started looking at him funny. The strip after this had the tagline at the bottom: "I got a very annoyed voicemail from my mother today. I wonder why?"
  • Also Aubrey and Jason; they are also based on real people, though those people are not a couple in real life.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent: In the Finland segment of the prologue, the two married couples shown seem to be getting along quite well. Tuuli and Eino are shown to be on the same Crazy Survivalist wavelength, while "usually 'dying' from something" Saku responds to his wife coming to comfort him during a bout of seasickness by telling her he's always loved her.
• In Tales of the Questor, Quentyn's parents' marriage is rock solid as demonstrated by how his father cheers his wife up.
• Under the Oak Tree: Maximillian and her husband Riftan are crazy for each other. They do have some tension, because Max's childhood abuse has given her severe issues communicating, and Riftan can sometimes be smotheringly overprotective, but they nevertheless have an intense devotion to each other.
• In Umlaut House 2, the three couples that got a Happily Ever After ending in the first series are now Happily Married with children.
• Unknown Lands: Marya and her wife Keilo are quite in love and devoted to each other. When the elves are trying to sacrifice Keilo her wife, who is usually hesitant to kill even when those she's fighting are doing everything in their power to kill her, snaps and starts killing those holding Keilo without hesitation.
• In Widdershins, Gentleman Adventurer Henry Barber and magical theorist Isabelle Holt wander into each other's lives, hit it off within minutes, and are still going strong when their grandchildren are adults.
• Zoophobia's Alanzo and Jackie are a married couple who are frequently described as "completely inseparable soulmates". They also style their hair after each other.

Web Original

• Persephone and Hades in Thalia's Musings. Persephone faked her own abduction to elope with Hades against Demeter's orders.
• Several parents of Team Kimba in the Whateley Universe. Chaka's parents are still happy together even with five kids, the oldest of which is about college age. Tennyo's parents have been together ever since they met while both working as mutant agents for the C.I.A. Phase's parents are in their fifties with about six kids and still together, even though Phase's father runs Goodkind International and is the richest man on the planet.
• The Journal Entries contain a surprising number of these, considering most of the characters are immortal bisexuals who either don't have a real concept of monogamy or abandoned it long ago ^note  (the stable, core character grouping is actually a trio, one of whom is a male exclusive homosexual, which doesn't stop him from having occasional sex with females, it just means he doesn't normally do so even if he has been sleeping in the same bed with one for the last 600 years). The implication in universe is that so many characters have stable long-term relationships because the culture does not expect anything specific beyond not being evil; not being able to handle it when your lover beds someone else is seen as a failing on your part.
• Dan and Marc in you could make a life are a married couple in all but name long before they officially tie the knot. They do face their share of obstacles, but their love for each other always remains the greatest constant in their lives.

Web Videos

• Twitch streamer The 8-Bit Drummer is this with his wife and fellow Twitch streamer, Chatia.
• Citation Needed: In season 2 episode 5, concerning the Flitch of Bacon, it's explained that you only receive the flitch of bacon if you have never regretted your marriage during a year and a day. Panelist Gary Brannan had this to say:

Gary: Well, put it this way: I am due me some bacon!

• In the first campaign of Critical Role, Kima and Allura as well as Percy and Vex got married at some point over the Time Skip, both couples having endured great hardship together, and are delighted and relieved to be able to settle down by the story's end. Nott the Brave/Veth Brenatto of Campaign 2 turns out to be married to fellow halfling Yeza and they adore each other, and in Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited, we find out that Shaun Gilmore is in a loving marriage to an elven man named Darius.
• This is painfully subverted and possibly even deconstructed with Dragon Ball Z Abridged. Goku is a complete and total idiot who disappears at the drop of a hat and only thinks of food and fighting. Unlike his anime counterpart, this causes incredible strain towards his family, especially since he tends to treat Gohan as a non-entity and puts Chi-Chi through incredible strain by his child-like actions. It finally reaches a head with Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan, where an exasperated Chi-Chi, having paid Gohan's College tuition through the nose and upset at the fact that Goku both left her and doesn't seem to care at all, tells him that she wants a divorce.
• Doug Funnie in Adult Life: Near the end of the film, one of Doug's students asks him how everything went with Patti. The camera immediately pans to a wedding ring on Doug's finger.
• In a world where the Critic was never born, The Nostalgia Chick would have been a sweet, well-adjusted, hugely successful director with a baby and a husband.
• StephenVlog: Stephen Georg and his wife, Mallory, fit this trope to a T. Often times, it's hard to remember that Stephen and Mal are married because their personalities are so distinctly defined, as well as how their dynamic with each other feels natural and not something to play up.

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