When our ancestors could finally put their tills and shovels down to sit under a tree and just think, a gap less easily grasped than the gender gap or the achievement gap of today’s time was formed--the gap between the romantics and realists of the world. Thinking about stuff didn’t have to be solely reserved for which berries were edible to eat, it could also be about whether one thought idealistically or rationally. One debate that has prompted contrasting responses from romantics and realists alike is the quest for the great big love.

Chuck Bass, a prominent character in the hit TV show, Gossip Girl, is the poster child for “seductive playboy with daddy issues.” Fans see him poring over the next girl in manipulative ways as he trudges through adulthood with no real father or mother figure to guide him in the right direction. When he has a brief, drunk fling with his lifelong friend, Blair Waldorf, he soon realizes that someone might actually learn to love an atrocious and aggressive person like him. The two begin a relationship so tumultuous that using Facebook’s “It’s complicated” status to define it would be an understatement, for three reasons. 1) They take a year to finally admit their feelings to each other, 2) they break up and get back together countless times, and 3) melodramatic situations had a knack of pulling them apart. Nevertheless, Blair and Chuck seemed to always come back to each other. It was magnetic. In Season 5 however, when Blair chooses her prince fiancee Louis over Chuck, it appeared as if the power couple was no more. Of course, this could not possibly be the end of Chuck and Blair. In a dramatic and tear-ridden episode, Blair runs to Chuck to tell him that she still loved him. Surprisingly however, Chuck chooses to numb every selfish nerve in his body to tell her to let him go and instead choose Louis. “There's a difference between a great love and the right love. I left the Empire State Building last year after two minutes when you didn't show. Louis waited all night,” he says. But what does this have to do with romantics and realists? In these three minutes, Chuck Bass is the epitome of a realist. He allows Blair to live the life she deserves because he no longer feels that their “great love” is healthy for her.

Chuck and Blair are not the only two star-crossed lovers that have faced the predicament of being romantics or realists in their love conquests. Is it better to seek after that one great, big, passionate love or settle with one that is predictable, fulfilling, and happy? In defense of realists, Romeo and Juliet chose love over family and meet a fatal demise. On the other hand, to make a case for romantics, Noah and Allie from The Notebook overcame years of lies to end up together still madly in love after a decade apart. An example that I witness everyday is my dad’s unrelenting love for my mom. She was literally his one and only and they’ve been happily married for 17 years. Does love have to conquer obstacles to be great?  To what extent does love stop being healthy and start being unrealistic? There are simply so many questions. Even after the Gossip Girl fangirls and the avid Shakespeareans fade into oblivion, the quest for the great, big love is something that realists and romantics will likely ponder for centuries to come.