Love Hurts

For Valentine’s Day, I’ve put together a list of fanworks that are deeply romantic but also dark, angsty, bittersweet and sad. Most don’t have happy endings.

As the saying goes — love hurts — and that goes double for a love as intense as Starsky & Hutch’s.

The list includes stories, art and vids that explore themes of death, betrayal, breakup, forbidden love and more. Fanworks are labeled as slash or gen.

As Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote in his 1850 poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.”:

I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

There’s nothing lighthearted here, so grab some tissues and continue at your own risk.

Fic: Not With a Bang by Jat Sapphire (slash NSFW)
No one dies in this story, but it’s absolutely devastating and I actually find it more traumatic than a deathfic. When does love become more than you can bear?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159735

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Art: Happy Ending by Sonja T (slash)
Spoiler: the ending isn’t happy. Sonja’s digital collages combine images and words to tell a story, and many of her creations are full of angst. Incorporating images from Starsky vs Hutch with lyrics from Avril Lavigne’s song “My Happy Ending,” this digital collage tells a story of heartbreak and betrayal.
http://www.false-colors.net/images/ot/starskyhutch_happyending.jpg

The words might be hard to read on smaller devices, so here is what they say:

We were meant to be… we lost.
Fade away my happy ending.
Thanks for watching as I fall. So much for my happy ending.
You were all the things I thought I knew and I thought we could be. All of our memories, so close to me, fade away.

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Vid: Afterimage by hardboiledbaby (slash)
This short fanvid is an excellent example of a constructed reality vid.

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Fic: All That I Am, I Give to You by Daisy Morgan (slash)
I wrote this a few years ago, inspired by the lyrics to the song “If I Were Gay” by Stephen Lynch. Except that song is lighthearted and funny and my story is not.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/36514870

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Art: Missing Piece from the story “A Space Too Big” by Nicol Tyler (gen)
This beautiful red heart with a gaping hole is the personification of love hurts.
https://www.starskyandhutcharchive.net/a-space-too-big

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Vid: Should Have Known Better by kat-byrd (slash)
Putting all those serious S&H scenes from season 4 to good use, this angsty breakup vid between two lovers is told from Starsky’s POV.
https://archive.org/details/shshould-have-known-better

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Fic: The Ground Beneath Our Feet by gideonbd (slash)
One of the most devastatingly beautiful, heartbreaking stories I have ever read.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/245072/chapters/377912

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Art: Overload by anachron (gen)
Sweet Revenge. Starsky lies in a coma and is not expected to live. Hutch is in the elevator, alone with his thoughts, replaying the last moments he and Starsky shared together before his partner was felled in a hail of bullets. He knows he might not make it back in time to say goodbye.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/2751167

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Vid: Rescue by TM Songvids (gen)
It hurts like hell to see the person closest to you endure so much pain, but you’ll be there for them each and every time, because that’s what love is.

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Fic: Fix Me by Daisy Morgan (slash NSFW)
Based on The Fix, this story deals with forbidden love. While writing it, I researched California sodomy laws and discovered that up until May 1975, sodomy was a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment, even if the sex act was private and consensual. And gay men didn’t just run the risk of being arrested, they also risked being beaten, tortured or killed. The Fix aired in October 1975.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/36588361

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Art: Brokeback Mountain-Love is a Force of Nature by Evil Lynn (slash)
Using emotionally-charged images of Starsky & Hutch from Death in a Different Place, this artwork recreates the doomed love affair from the film Brokeback Mountain.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/20016562/chapters/47395267

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Vid: Say Something by Amber Raine (gen)
This vid doesn’t contain major character death or a breakup between lovers, but a breakup between two best friends hurts just as damn much.

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Fic: Only a Change of Worlds by Nikki Harrington (slash NSFW)
The relationship between Starsky & Hutch in this story is so intense and so them.
https://www.starskyandhutcharchive.net/only-a-change-of-worlds/

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Vid: I Remember L.A. by Tolbran (slash)
This historical vid made in 1997 is one of the first constructed reality vids in the SH fandom. You can watch the video below and read more about it on Fanlore here.

I Remember L.A.

Thanks for reading. If you have any recommendations to add to this list, feel free to drop a comment below!