I love Fred and Gunn. Best, happiest, most real relationship in the series, maybe in the Buffyverse. They were fun, loving and worked well together until the end was engineered to force dark-Wes into a relationship with Fred.
Fred needed laughter and strong arms to surround her and a blue collar man to fit the blue collar girl she was. Her mom was a bus driver, not a British socialite. Gunn needed laughter and gentle respect.
They fit. They 'got' each other. They were cute. I know couples like them. I was part of a couple like them. Happiest time of my life.
Wes did NOT fit Fred other than being white. She was smart. He was hyper educated.
Fred and Gunn were both resourceful, flexible and adaptable. They even parented Connor better than any of the others. (Not perfect, of course)
Wes was rigid, fearbased and angry. He was a rich boy (even without the money) and pompous and obsessive and shut down emotionally. It never even occured to him he was not ENTITLED to Fred. He was stunned Gunn-the-muscle got brainy girl.
I love Wes, but he was too broken to be a partner to anyone but someone like Lilah and look how hurtful he was to her. He used her. She OTOH, betrays him.
A man who chains someone up in his closet with a bucket while he #÷!$ his gf in the same room, is not playing with a full deck. No matter the rationalization. I would not want a man like that in my life, though he *is* useful as a ruthless spy.
Wes was warped and OBSESSED with a Fred ideal that did not exist. AEB his sick sexplay with Lilah that hurt her and showed just how nasty and cruel he had become.
He needed therapy, not Fred.
And after all that sturm and drang they never ever got together. They tore up a great real thing for a nothing vapour "relationship"
