msstock87

Right, if they worked through them, maybe that problem or a similar problem wouldn't come up again in the future.

MistyMountainHop

And yet it did ... repeatedly. Donna continued to be subject to Eric's insecurities and sexism (and manipulative lies). She tolerated a lot, and yet she's the one who gets hell for speaking up for herself.

Grazzhopper

It's the world we live in, it seems.

msstock87

She should be allowed to speak up for herself without consequences.

MistyMountainHop

It's too bad the writers didn't recognize that Donna wasn't being unreasonable (most of the time). If they had, Eric might've reacted differently to her and matured. Or Donna would've looked for someone who'd give her more consistent respect.

msstock87

There was a lot of things the writers could have done differently at times.

MistyMountainHop

SO MANY THINGS.

*ahem*

If Eric had been written as having a career goal, something he was passionate about, I wonder how that would've affected their relationship.

Grazzhopper

It either would've driven them apart because pursuing it might have taken him away from Donna or it would've stabilised them because there was a definite direction to go in.

MistyMountainHop

I'd hope the latter. Or Donna would have more of a reason to call him a hypocrite.

Grazzhopper

Or that. I would hope for the latter option as well, as established before, I did think they had a lot of shipping potential for me.

MistyMountainHop

Yeah. If their characters had been allowed to grow -- as individuals and as a couple -- their relationship would've been so much better. Instead, their relationship was very plotty and punny in the second half of the show. Not character-building.

FuriosityShell

Yeah. That's why my interest in Eric/Donna sort of decreases in the later seasons. When I first discovered That '70s Show, I LOVED Eric and Donna's relationship. I identified with it (particularly Eric's character) and I thought, for the most part, the writers did a great job of exploring that teenage first love relationship during S1-S4. But starting in S5, Eric and Donna's relationship definitely became more about humor and plot than it was about character, and as a result, their relationship was less interesting to me. It didn't help that the other's show couple, Jackie and Hyde, only got more and more interesting..

I actually thought it was kind of realistic that they ignored their issues after they got back together because I have seen that in couples before. Couples who are like, "We love each other, we're back together, that's all that matters". I've seen that before, so I thought it was realistic that Eric and Donna ignored all their issues regarding commitment, Casey, etc. But the thing is, the issues that couples want to ignore continue to pop up in their relationship to the point where they are forced to acknowledge them. Eric and Donna's previous issues were just completely dropped and never came up again. They were never forced to acknowledge them, which was disappointing. I would have loved to have seen Eric and Donna ignore their issues for all of S5, only for these problems to pop up again and for them to finally realize that they HAVE to communicate and talk about them if the relationship's going to work. But they... didn't get to do that.

msstock87

If we just saw that these two work out their issues at all later on I would have been happy. It seemed though that they were always there and at times just really tense.

MistyMountainHop

Without tension and conflict arising organically from the characters -- rather than the characters being forced to act to fit a plot or punch lines -- then relationship storylines really aren't that interesting.



Exactly. If the writers wanted E/D to ignore their issues and what broke them up, etc., then it had to have consequences for their relationship. I would've been fine with that. But it had no consequences -- beyond Eric's insecurity as a man and in general making him act selfishly toward Donna. But despite that she calls him on it, he never actually changes.

Exactly #2.

msstock87

I think if they had worked out their issues their relationship would have grown and they could have grown together as a couple.