Round Table - To Marry, or not to marry... that is the question...

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Good Sunday to you all.  We had a really fun week with First Meetings, and I believe we may still have one or two stories that will be posted today or tomorrow on that theme.  I enjoyed all of it and hope you did as well.
Today I was thinking about, well you can see it at the top.  Marriage.  Concerning the guys, that is.  Should they marry?  Do they marry in your world?  I have always tended to keep them single and available, a selfish move on my part but it works.  Others have created scenarios, entire worlds, where the men marry and have a family, sometimes leading to danger and intrigue of an entirely different nature from what we read and see in non-marital stories.
The two series devoted to that life with which I am familiar are that of rosywonder and mrua7.  Both of them have written novella length accounts of these affairs of the heart, and in fact mrua7 is posting hers now in mfu_map_room.  
So, the question remains, do you like the married with children scenario?  Are you, like me, still primarily happy with single vision? I'd like to know where you stand, how you view this and why, if you can nail that down.

Comments

[vmccooley.livejournal.com]

I can't see them as married with children types. I know some fans don't accept the return movie as "canon," but I can see them trying ordinary lives and finding them ultimately unsatisfying. Even putting slash aside, I think the most important relationship each one has is the other. I can easily imagine them as crotchety old men in the U.N.C.L.E. Retirement Home, sharing a room and snarking till the end. :D

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I see them, during the 'working' years, as being a tightly knit pair with a friendship that is supportive, perhaps even primary compared to anything else they might encounter. I tend to embrace the Return Movie, have written several stories based on it in fact. I see attempts at romance and long term relationships, although they do not seem ideally suited to them in my estimation.
The marriage scenario is one that wishes them well, while I tend to think failed relationships and solitude is more likely the state of things; it is what they were groomed for.

[vmccooley.livejournal.com]

I've also written a series of stories based on the return movie. While it certainly has its flaws, I think it has merits as well. I don't think the lack of long-term romance (or family) for them is necessarily a bad or sad thing. For some people, a worthwhile career and friendship are enough. I see Napoleon and Illya as these types.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I took on the AU time line of married with children later in their careers, say mid 30's. So given they're required to leave the field at age 40, the family scenario works. It's not all happiness for them though, and there are some tumultuous times, and an angst-ridden situation thanks to a former UNCLE agent turned THRUSH.

So I don't make my AU family stories full of all hearts and roses, to say the least. Most importantly Illya and Napoleon remain dangerous agents in the world of espionage...but they're still human, with human frailties and desires.