Time and Unrequited Love
I think unrequited love stories are some of the worst representatives of the phenomenon of romanticization. You can romanticize your love for five, ten, fifteen years - but eventually the rose tint on your glasses will weather away and all you'll be left with is a brutal, clear hindsight. Unrequited love stories in media are so well-loved (the irony) because there is an end to them - and more often than not, the closure is a happy one. We love these stories because we love the excitement of the chase, the romanticized sadness and longing, the hope that the loved one will, one day, turn around and say "I love you, too." There is a whole world of possibility - but it is very neatly contained in start and end brackets. You know that the happy ending is on its way, but the time frame is just long enough to give you the suspense and excitement of a real, honest-to-God unrequited love story. But since time in media only moves as fast as you do, a whole lifetime of love, happine