I am reupping my disclaimer here: I'm here for critical discussions of characters, but blatant disregard for the fact that this is WCTH and every person on this show is inherently good, yet fallible, won't be tolerated here. I love both Nathan and Lucas, I just think one character is more suited to Elizabeth than the other.
Throughout my short time in this fandom space (mostly just Season 11), I am amazed at the vitriol spewed across "team" lines. I see it less in Nathan spaces, probably because most people there are happy to see their ship sailing and most of the bitterness has worn away, but I somehow managed to get all of the really cruel Lucas fans to keep popping up in my Twitter feed. The ones that truly have nothing nice to say about Nathan.
One of the common sticking points, though for a lot of people who would rather see Elizabeth and Lucas together seems to be that Nathan hasn't really "tried" to win over Elizabeth, or court her, or do anything romantic for her. Which, when you just count the moments, sure. They haven't even managed a single date without someone or something interrupting them, he even "makes" her cook dinner for their family meal. Compared to Lucas' swoonworthy "grand gestures," Nathan does seem to fall short in the romance game.
And while that may cause some people to discount him, it clearly hasn't deterred Elizabeth.
Why?
I believe it's because, from the beginning, Lucas did everything he could to insert himself into Elizabeth's life, while Elizabeth did what she could to insert herself into Nathan's life. Lucas' grand gestures were a way to ensure he could gain Elizabeth's attention - why would she notice or continue to cross paths with the saloon owner otherwise? And we rarely see her go out of her way to interact with Lucas. On the other hand, while Nathan was written to cross paths with Elizabeth because of Allie, Elizabeth spends a good portion of the beginning of their relationship inserting herself into their lives, in a way that is deeper than any of the parent/children pairs we've seen on the show. As a result, Nathan doesn't need to try to gain Elizabeth's attention - he already has it.
Let's go season by season to see how this evolves:
Season 6: How they meet is interesting - Elizabeth meets Lucas by happenstance in the street. She does initiate the conversation, but it is very much driven by Lucas. Elizabeth herself gives up nothing about her. On the other hand, she had to deliberately go meet Nathan, and immediately shares quite a bit of herself to him. Lucas gives Elizabeth the library building, and continues to support it, ensuring their connection to the library at least. Elizabeth dives deep into Nathan and Allie's past (not the best example, but she knows more about them than Lucas at this point). I will admit, Elizabeth does a little inserting herself into Lucas' life when he leaves to go help Jeanette - but she pays dearly for it, ending up a hostage to Amos Dixon.
Season 7, Christmas Special: I feel like this whole episode is just a microcosm of my whole theory. Lucas sets up the Christmas festival, and delights Elizabeth with the lanterns he told her about from his childhood. On the other hand, Nathan is on the verge of leaving Hope Valley - which we now know for certain was because he was falling in love with her - and Elizabeth inserts herself into his and Allie's Christmas by inviting herself to help them find a Christmas tree and decorate it, even offering her own ornaments in the process.
Season 7: The first scene in this season again highlights this dynamic - Elizabeth awkwardly approaches Nathan about Allie's school paper on Queen Victoria, and Lucas interrupts. Later, Lucas inserts himself into her writing, offering to read it, and subsequently sending it to his mother to read later in the season. He also inserts himself when he invites her to the reading in Union City. And this I think is where she begins to fall and really pay attention to those grand gestures. This is after Elizabeth helped Nathan navigate things with his father, unsolicited mind you. Both of these set up Nathan's jealousy - to this point, he hasn't had to put effort into getting Elizabeth's attention, and he's losing it because Lucas is doing all these wonderful things for her. Not to mention their fight in the cabin during the windstorm. Nathan is also grappling with his own feelings and guilt (of which Lucas has none) so he's hesitant in asking Elizabeth out (inserting himself) multiple times. He finally manages, but the prisoner transfer squashes that really quick.
Season 8: I think this season starts out with Nathan as both confident and desperate - if that's possible. He has some good things happen: Allie's dad is in jail, he might buy Bill's land. But then he recognizes Elizabeth pulling back from him, and blurts out that he's in love with her. While one might think that would push Elizabeth away - and it does in that moment - she's right back to pushing into his life, both with the inquiry, the adoption, and the information about Ft. Clay. During all of this, Lucas is pushing up against Elizabeth's boundaries, foisting his mother on her, taking her on dates, holding her hand in public, almost kissing her (Side note: Anyone can complain about how Lucas wasn't patient here. It's my one weakness, I cannot understand what the writers thought patience was and how they haven't used the word to describe Nathan who is standing right there...), continuing to insert himself deeper into her life. And yet - she's still not really doing any of the reaching here in regards to her relationship with Lucas. And we all know how season 8 ends, so let's move on...
Season 9: This is where things shift a little - we do see more effort by Elizabeth to be a part of Lucas' life, but I still think he's doing most of the heavy lifting - like watching Jack. But she's still very much a part of Nathan's life by her own actions - she's there in the hospital room multiple times (he did ask for her), she's part of Allie and Robert's "interrogation" after the ice cream fight, she even offers to teach him to drive, despite him asking for Lucas to do it.
Season 10: This season actually feel like it had the least amount of Elizabeth pushing her way into Nathan's life, and most of their interactions in the first half were small, but almost always initiated by her. Lucas is still blinding her with his grand gestures, but as she mentioned in season 9, they aren't necessary. And I think by the time he tries to give her a whole house, she realizes that the motive behind the gestures was "notice me" and not really what she wants (same as the party in Season 9). Then, even the small stuff gets irritating, like the flowers he buys for her in the street. And she's still initiating interactions with Nathan, like asking him to stay for apple juice and approaching him at the ball about his speech. Nathan, for the past two seasons, has been content to allow Elizabeth to interact with him on her own terms. But that changes the second he realizes that she's doing something that's likely to compromise her happiness, and he finally steps in and inserts himself into her life by asking what she wants in the schoolhouse.
Season 11: Once Lucas is out of the picture, Nathan now has the space to start inserting himself: the chocolate egg, being there for Tom, asking for help with Allie, actually asking if they are more than friends. And Elizabeth continues: throwing his birthday party, saving the bone for scout, going with him unasked to find Allie, asking him to teach Jack to ride. It's so much more of a reciprocal relationship than anything we ever saw her have with Lucas.
So, in my opinion, Lucas' grand gestures were his way of getting Elizabeth to notice him at first, but not to open up to him, especially about her past. Their relationship was all about the future, and what a grand future it would be. But because their relationship lacked personal depth, the grand gestures eventually fizzled out and were the death knell of their relationship.
Nathan never needed to do anything "romantic", because Elizabeth immediately (despite her confession to wanting to hate the next Mountie) connected with Nathan and offered parts of herself in ways that were subtle, with their relationship really focusing on their pasts. Nathan always had Elizabeth's attention, but didn't really know what to do with it for a long time (because of his guilt). When he started to lose it or her, he reacted rashly, pushing her to admit her feelings to him. But once the dust settles, he can give her pieces of himself in a very similar way that she gave herself throughout the series. Their interactions are very much about navigating life's trials with someone there to support you, to love you, through the good and the bad. They live life together.
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