The eros kind of love is the reason Valentine has become an important celebration for lovers of all genders, sexual preferences and orientations. It was the ancient Greeks who categorized the different kinds of love. To know the other seven, please go to your trusted search engine because today’s column is all about eros or romantic love. It is a passionate, physical and intense love characterized by sexual desire and affection.

In literature, three of the greatest examples of romantic love are that of Tristan and Isolde and the irresistible force that consumed them. The star-crossed lovers in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, immortalized the intensity of their first love, kiss, tryst and tragic conclusion. And, of course, the transcendent soul connection and the destructive and intense passion that Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff shared in Emile Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

In the movies, we all have to thank Walt Disney and the classic Disney princesses for “happily ever after.” Snow White, who dreamed that someday her prince will come, ended up with Prince Florian. Cinderella was the one who waltzed to the heart Prince Charming, and yes, Sleeping Beauty’s Princess Aurora had her first dance in the woods with Prince Phillip as they sang “Once Upon A Dream,” and eventually waking her up from her deep slumber with true love’s kiss.

The Philippines’ perfect romantic pairings that possess all the eros elements in their love stories are that of Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion, Dawn and Richard Gomez and Nadine Lustre and James Reid. We all knew how their love stories started and why their happily ever after did not materialize.

ShaGab

They were in their teens when they tied the knot in a much-celebrated wedding. Sharon Cuneta was just 18 then while Gabby Concepcion was a young man of 19 summers. Age-wise, they were near the digits of young maiden Capulet who, at 14, declared, “My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown and known too late. Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy,” after knowing that the young master was a Montague who was only 16.

Dear Heart, PS I Love You and Dapat Ba Kitang Mahalin are the essential movies of Cuneta and Concepcion that screamed upper middle class, clothes by Christian Espiritu, and all the palatial mansions and affluent sceneries as part of their branding and packaging. Eventually, they had Kristina Cassandra Concepcion, and as to the whys and wherefores of their separation, satiate your curiosity and research about it. It took the longest for the former couple to work together again and make history anew in a commercial for a fast food giant and a series of reunion concerts that happened locally and internationally as well.

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Without a doubt, Dawn Zulueta and Richard Gomez were the Philippines’ version of Catherine and Heathcliff as they became Carmina and Gabriel in the local adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Carlos Siguion Reyna’s Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit.

The movie was instrumental in making their reel partnership to a real coupling. Though they have separated and are happily married to their respective spouses, the fact that they have remained very good friends brings another layer of excitement and proofs that they still have it as a love team are the successful TV series Walang Hanggan and the box office hit movie The Love Affair.

JaDine

Of the manufactured love teams that were for public consumption, JaDine, the portmanteau for James Reid and Nadine Lustre, was my best bet. Watched religiously all the primetime series that they were in as leads On The Wings of Love and Till I Met You. Giddy overload when I watched them bubble gum era movies Diary ng Panget and Para Sa Mga Hopeless Romantic. Felt their angst, insecurities and pain as the reckless love of Gio and Joanne was tested in Never Not Love You.

When they broke up, something inside me screamed. It was as if my two besties ended something so beautiful I cannot fathom why they had to put a period to a nearly four-year old relationship? Until now, every time I manage to watch their break-up scene as Clark and Lea in OTWOL on YouTube, it still hits me, big time!

To those who are in love and in a fine romance, to the ones who said goodbye to love and are at peace with the fact that love has passed them by, or the Valentine that never came, or Cupid’s arrow that missed the target, there is no need to fret anymore.

Even if eros is truly the groovy kind of love, we can always find our strength in love, self-love that is. One must never get tired of believing in romance and happily ever after.