weasleyspotter:

Day 08: A Pairing with the Most Baggage?

Oh dear god, that honor goes to Taylor and Ryan. I mean, nothing says let’s be together than the death of your first love right? I think it’s pretty easy to pass off these two. They got together in the final season of the The O.C. They were together for about eight or nine episodes (5-13). It’s not a lot when you think about it. Especially considering a lot of people had hated Taylor from Season 3. But I think you have to give Townwood a lot of credit. You see, I started watching The O.C. from season 4, I saw a bunch of episodes before I decided to start watching from the beginning, so by that point I had already fallen for Ryan/Taylor and I thought I was going to hate Marissa. That actually changed. I tended to go with the flow when it came to Ryan, I shipped him with everyone, only my OTP with him was always going to be with Taylor because they always made me smile no matter what. The thing is that the fandom generally tends to see Taylor as a replacement for Marissa, but I digress. I think Taylor was necessary. I mean did everyone expect Ryan to sit around moping the entire season? Ple-fucking-ase. Marissa may have been his first love and I will whole heartedly accept that. But they were never really meant to be. I mean when she dies, he loves her, but they aren’t together and it doesn’t even look like they’re going to get back together ever. If anything Ryan felt guilty and pissed as hell and they continued that theme for four episodes, but then he needed to move on. He needed to see that there was more to life and because Marissa wasn’t there, he didn’t need to miss out. Same with Summer, she needed to realize that there were always going to be friends in her life, even if Marissa wasn’t going to be there. I think that Ryan and Taylor could have made it in the long run. They compliment each other. Ryan mellows Taylor out and helps her realize that she doesn’t need someone to constantly reassure that they love her, that all she needs to do is trust her heart. And Taylor helps Ryan see that he can’t always bottle up his feelings, he needs to face them, even if it’s difficult. Even though it’s ambiguous, I like to think that Ryan and Taylor made it in the end. That they got married and had children and were happy together. I like to think that despite all their baggage they had when they started out together (Dead first loves, french ex-husbands, amongst others), they loved each other enough to work through it all.