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Dexter and Rita
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As mentioned on
Votaries, Hansel and Gretel is not a retold
tale I encounter often in classic or romantic form. It's hard to see a romance unless Hansel or Gretel grew up to be either
seriously traumatized or Dexter.
Dexter
belongs to the "bad rogue who is nevertheless faithful to one person"
category. I stopped watching the series at the end of the Lithgow
season. The season ended by purporting that Dexter realizes that he can
never have a "normal" life because the serial killer Lithgow tried a
normal life and failed.
I've never read the books but I felt
that the Lithgow season ending was a betrayal of the character. The entire
point of Dexter was that the "code of Harry" made him an outlier--from
other members of society and other serial killers. He could mimic normality with the first group and therefore act as judge and jury on the other group.
I'm not saying I agree that psychopaths and serial killers can operate that way. The writing point here is not plausibility. The point is adherence to a premise.
A romance that postulates, This person--no matter how bad and faithless in other regards--remains good and faithful to this one person will work...if the premise is presented and maintained.
Spike and Buffy could have worked--if the writers were willing to remain true to the
characters.
