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A few days ago, someone found my blog by using the following search term:
Is The Fault in Our Stars sadder than Titanic

This lovely reader found my The Fault in Our Stars (TFiOS) review, in which I make a Titanic reference. I don’t know if he or she found the answer to his or her question. So in case he or she didn’t or if anyone else is now wondering about that, this post is for you. 😉

Let’s see…

With memes like this one:

or this one:

You can’t pick sides. They are obviously made by fans of both stories. They only give you the idea of tearjerker movies. But which is sadder?

For starters, you can’t compare both movies YET, as the TFiOS movie hasn’t hit theaters yet. So for the sake of this comparison, I’ll only compare both stories. (If you still haven’t read the TFiOS book, know that unlike my review, this comparison will have spoilers, as I can’t see how I can make a comparison without them.)

Here I go:

TFiOS: Sad, depressed girl, suffering from cancer (her lungs “suck at being lungs“), embarks into an unknown journey as she joins a support group for teens living with cancer, not because she wants to but because her mother makes her.

Titanic: Sad, depressed privileged girl embarks into an unknown journey on the S.S. Titanic, with her controlling mother and rich fiancé who she doesn’t love but has decided to marry because it’s the right thing to do for her future according to society’s rules.

SCORE: Tie. No sad points there on my card.

TFiOS: Girl meets boy, boy meets girl. They are both teens living with cancer. Boy acts wiser than girl and this intrigues her. Immediate attraction, boy pursues girl but there are some walls between them that must be brought down.

Titanic: Girl meets boy, boy meets girl. They come from different backgrounds. Boy acts wiser than girl and this intrigues her. Immediate attraction, boy pursues girl but there are some walls between them that must be brought down.

SCORE: Again a tie. No sad points. Can you believe how similar these stories turned out to be?

TFiOS: They fall in love and have sex on a trip to the Netherlands.

Titanic: They fall in love and have sex on the back of a car, stored in the ship, on a very cold night.

SCORE: Tie. No sad points.

TFiOS: Boy dies.

Titanic: Boy dies while saving the girl’s life after the S. S. Titanic tragically sunk in the cold cold ocean after hitting an iceberg.

 SCORE: One sad point for TFiOS. Two Sad points for Titanic.

TFiOS: No closure.Girl lives? and is grateful for the moments she lived with boy. (I put a question mark because we don’t really know if she really makes it or not.)

Titanic: Closure.Girl lives and never lets go of the promise she made to the boy. She lived her life to the fullest and comes back as an old lady to the sea, where she dies peacefully in her sleep. Her soul reunites with boy’s soul and they live happily eternally after.

SCORE: Sad point for Titanic.

So there you have it. According to my score card and in my humble opinion:

Titanic is sadder than The Fault in our Stars.

“Our sad story won!”

Yes, both movies deal with death, and I don’t mean to minimize death by cancer in any way, BUT Titanic deals not only with the boy’s death, it deals with death in epic proportions (1517 deaths). The movie is not only about the boy or the girl. You also fall in love with the thousands of characters who sadly died on that tragic night. You can’t not feel the pain of all the families that were separated or destroyed because of that tragedy. And knowing what happens to the girl and all the things she accomplished after separating from her beau, gives you a full sense of closure.

Despite all, I’m looking forward for the TFiOS movie. I’m sure it will be a hit with the legions of young John Green fans. I also have a feeling that the TFiOS movie director has worked hard to make the storyline sadder than it actually is. Or maybe he won’t. We’ll see. If you still haven’t read the book, read it, it is a nice fast paced YA read.

And there you have it lovely reader who asked this question. I really enjoyed answering your search term. Til the next one! 😉

**UPDATE July 7 2014**

I saw the TFiOS movie already and I stand by my verdict: Titanic is sadder than The Fault in our Stars.