Discussion History Main / StrangledByTheRedString

\\\" Joey and Rachel in seasons 8 and 9 with [[BrokenBase mixed success]]. This time, Joey suddenly develops intense feelings for Rachel out of nowhere, upon which he \\\'\\\'accidentally proposes\\\'\\\' to Rachel after she gives birth to Emma, her daughter with her on-and-off boyfriend since season 1, Ross. At the end of the ninth season, \\\'\\\'Rachel\\\'\\\' starts falling for Joey after feeling warm fuzzies for him when she has a dream about him one night, which leads to them kissing in the season finale. They eventually break up in the first half of the final season, after Ross finds out about the relationship, with both Joey and Rachel being uncomfortable for regarding the relationship. It was later revealed that the writers attempted this storyline due to artificially escalating Ross/Rachel [[WillTheyOrWontThey subplot]] since the titular Friends approached the writers to end the subplot because they felt the relationship between Rachel and Joey felt off..\\\"

Is this an example or just complaining about an unpopular couple? The description says \\\"If you feel a certain pairing is badly handled, that doesn\\\'t mean it\\\'s a case of this. If the pairing took a long time to build up and execute, it does not belong here\\\". Joey and Rachel had two seasons of build-up before they started dating. Their build-up was actually much longer than their actual relationship. It\\\'s just badly written, but it\\\'s not a case of \\\"no build-up, sudden hook up\\\" which is what this trope means