10 Popular TV Couples Who Didn't Get Their Happy Ending

Everyone loves a good TV love story, and these can take many forms. A few good seasons of Will they or Won't they. Opposites attract. A couple who come together over an epic journey, or fall in love against the odds in the midst of an apocalyptic wasteland.. Epic, beautiful, love stories for the ages, or even couples who, for one reason or another, simply just belong together.

In the age of the internet and social media, fans can be more involved in support of their favourite couples or 'ships' than ever before, discussing and debating with other fans online, making fan art, videos, and edits, and even writing fanfiction. 'Shipping' is a known and accepted part of fandom.

Unfortunately, a devoted fanbase is not always enough to ensure a couple will end up together by the end of a series. Sometimes, beloved couples will end up being torn apart by tragedy, death, or other unfortunate circumstances. In worse cases, fans believe writers resort to character assassination to force a break up. Here, we'll take a look at 10 popular TV couples who, for one reason or another, didn't get the happy ending fans wanted for them.

1. Ted and Tracy/The Mother (How I Met Your Mother)

While many romantic comedies or sitcoms begin with the first meeting of the eventual lead couple, when How I Met Your Mother launched in 2005, it trialled a very different format: leading man Ted Mosby beginning to tell his children a very long story about the events that led to his meeting their Mother. For nine seasons and 208 episodes, fans were enthralled, putting together a growing series of hints and clues towards the identity of The Mother, and when Ted would come face to face with her for the first time.

By the time Cristin Milioti made her debut as The Mother, Tracy McConnell, in the show's eighth season finale, fans were deeply invested in Ted and Tracy's expected happy ending. So, they were understandably disappointed by the final episode fast-forwarding through the entirety of the couple's relationship to reveal that Tracy had died of an unspecified illness six years prior to Ted telling his story, and the entire series had been his attempt to ask his kids for permission to move on and date their 'Aunt' Robin.

Series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas attempted to justify the unpopular decision to kill Tracy by telling audiences that this ending had been planned from the beginning, but the damage was done. HIMYM's finale is still slammed in retrospective views, with many claiming Bays and Thomas's planned ending did not fit the story the series eventually became.

2. Buffy and Angel (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

One of the biggest twists in the first season of cult classic series Buffy The Vampire Slayer is the reveal that Angel, the mysterious but helpful stranger for whom Buffy has developed feelings, is actually a Vampire. However, he has been cursed with a soul, leaving him haunted by his actions as the evil vampire Angelus. Angel's soul emboldens he and Buffy to give their forbidden love a chance, but disaster strikes when the pair make love for the first time, giving Angel a moment of pure happiness, breaking his curse and costing him his soul. Angelus then proceeds to torment Buffy and her friends for most of the show's second season.

After Angel regains his soul, the couple reunite for a time in season three, but Angel becomes increasingly aware of Buffy's youth, and the fact she can never have a full life with him. He decides the best thing he can do for Buffy is to let her go, departing from Sunnydale after the battle against The Mayor is won. While their love for each other never completely fades, a love story between a vampire and a Vampire Slayer was always somewhat doomed.

3. Maggie and Glenn (The Walking Dead)

Even a series detailing the journey of an unlikely group of friends as they struggle to survive in the midst of a Zombie apocalypse has room for an epic love story. The Walking Dead's is the tale of Glenn Rhee and Maggie Greene. What begins as a casual, friends-with-benefits arrangement while Glenn and his fellow survivors stay at the farm belonging to Maggie's Father, Hershel, quickly grows into true love.

For many fans, one of the best moments of the series is Glenn and Maggie's heartwarming reunion after they had become separated following the fall of the Prison. When the group finds security within the walls of the Alexandria Safe-zone, the couple make plans to start a family, but tragedy soon strikes when the survivors first encounter Negan. Negan brutally bludgeons Glenn to death in front of the pregnant Maggie and all their friends. Maggie is left to raise their son, Hershel, alone.

Fans of the comics already knew Glenn's death was coming, but it was no less of a gut-punch when it did.

4. Willow and Tara (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)

For many fans, the relationship between witches Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay will always hold a special place in their heart. It is Tara who helps Willow to heal following her break up with Oz, and also helps her advance in her skills as a witch. Eventually, the pair fall in love, and during most of season five, have one of the healthiest relationship dynamics in the entire series.

Willow and Tara part for a large chunk of Buffy's sixth season as Willow fights her addiction to the magics, but begin finding their way back to each other in the later episodes, eventually reuniting officially in the episode 'Entropy'. Tragically, Tara is killed in the closing moments of the very next episode, 'Seeing Red'. Tara's death pushes Willow back to dark magic, becoming the inciting event for the three-episode 'Dark Willow' saga that closes out the season.

5. Lexa and Clarke (The 100)

In the post Nuclear Apocalypse world of The 100, it at first seems Clarke and Lexa are destined to be enemies. Clarke quickly emerges as a leader among a group of one hundred juvenile delinquents dropped to Earth to test if the planet is safe for resettlement. Lexa is the Commander of twelve clans of 'Grounders', the descendants of those who had been left behind when the apocalypse occurred. The Grounders dub Clarke, The 100, and other settlers that follow as the Sky People, and view them as Invaders.

However, Clarke and Lexa find a common enemy in the Mountain Men, another radiation-sensitive group of survivors who have been kidnapping both Grounders and Sky People for experimentation. They form an alliance to rescue their people, and begin developing feelings for each other, but any hope for a relationship appears shattered when Lexa betrays Clarke, abandoning her and the Sky People in return for the safety of the Grounders.

Lexa is shown to deeply regret her actions, and Clarke is eventually able to forgive her, and their relationship blossoms. Unfortunately, the couple's relationship is frowned upon by many of Lexa's people, and Lexa is tragically shot dead in a failed attempt to assassinate Clarke. Fans were furious, decrying Lexa's death as an example of the unfortunate 'Bury Your Gays' trope.

6. The Doctor and River Song (Doctor Who)

The identity of River Song was once one of Doctor Who's greatest mysteries. Upon their first meeting, the Tenth Doctor is deeply distrustful of River, until she reveals a startling secret: She knows his real name. River dies soon after to save The Doctor, but they meet again when he becomes the Eleventh Doctor, and it becomes clear their meetings occur out of order in time. The Doctor begins to fall for River, knowing she is destined to die.

The tragedy continues once River is eventually revealed as Melody Pond, the daughter of companions Amy and Rory, conceived in the Time Vortex and born with the ability to regenerate as Time Lords do. Kidnapped as an infant, Melody was raised to kill The Doctor, but falls in love with and marries him instead, after giving up her own regenerations to save his life.

River is the one person who could have had a full life with The Doctor, had she not been forced to give up her regenerations. A true sci-fi tragedy.

7. Wesley and Fred (Angel)

From the moment sweet, quirky Physicist Winifred 'Fred' Burkle is rescued from the Hell-Dimension of Pylea and welcomed into the Angel Investigations family, former Watcher Wesley Wyndam-Pryce carries a torch for her. Wesley steps aside when Fred pursues a relationship with his friend and teammate Charles Gunn, but continues to love her from afar. Most fans believed Wesley was a more compatible match for Fred than Gunn, and rooted for the two to eventually get together.

Following Fred's break-up with Gunn, and a series of ups and downs, Fred finally admits to having romantic feelings for Wesley in Angel's final season. Unfortunately, the very next episode sees Fred killed when her body is inhabited by the Old One Illyria. Illyria 'hollows out' Fred's soul to take her body for her own, and Wesley is forced to watch her walk around with Fred's face for the remainder of the series.

Fans were devastated, often naming Fred's death as one of the most heartbreaking in the whole Buffy-verse.

8. Arya and Gendry

While posing as a boy among a group of youths headed for The Wall to serve in the Night's Watch, Arya Stark meets Gendry, the bastard son of King Robert Baratheon, for the first time. They bond over the fact that both of them are on the run, and Gendry becomes the first to learn Arya's true identity. They share a rather sweet friendship, but Gendry always keeps a respectful distance from Arya due to their differing social stations.

The pair are reunited in Game of Thrones final season, both among the forces massing at Winterfell in preparation for the Long Night. Knowing they both might die, Arya loses her virginity to Gendry prior to the battle with the Night King. Following the battle, when he is legitimised and named Lord of Storm's end, Gendry tracks down Arya to propose. While touched by the gesture, Arya refuses, reminding him that being the Lady of a Great House is not the life she wants for herself.

While these two were a popular pair among fans, most respected Arya's choice.

9. Barney and Robin (How I Met Your Mother)

Barney Stinson begins the events of How I Met Your Mother as the ultimate ladies man, and has no plans to ever settle down. However, over the course of the series, the introduction of Robin Scherbatsky into his friendship group changes this. First, the two of them develop a closer friendship than Barney believed was possible between a single man and woman, and later, Barney is surprised to realise he has developed genuine feelings for Robin. The pairing became a hit with fans.

The entire final season of How I Met Your Mother takes place in the lead-up to Barney and Robin's Wedding. So, it came as an unwelcome surprise in the series finale to learn that Barney and Robin were divorced. Many fans were upset, dismissing the divorce, and death of The Mother, as poorly planned plot twists existing for no other reason than freeing Ted and Robin to get together.

10. Jack and Rebecca (This Is Us)

Fans fell in love with Jack and Rebecca Pearson from the very first episode of the multi-generation spanning This Is Us. It seems they are the perfect couple, and heads of a perfect little family with their triplet children, Kevin, Kate, and Randall. While the first season subverts this initial impression somwhat, portraying Jack and Rebecca going through a rough patch as he battles alcoholism, but they do come out the other side, seemingly stronger than before.

This only served to make the emotional gut-punch all the bigger when it is revealed that Jack died of a massive heart attack decades before the series present day timeline, after rescuing his family from a house fire. While we know quite early on in the series that Rebecca went on to have a perfectly happy second marriage, Jack remains the great love of her life. Some members of the family have never entirely recovered from his loss.

An ending that is not happy is not necessarily a bad story. It is how well the endings are handled that decides whether fans will accept it.