Originally Posted by
Revolutionary_Jack
Doing Peter and Gwen as if they were "meant to be" all along is a bit like following Han and Leia for the first two SW movies and in the third one, either of them dies (don't bring up the ST, that's far in the future when they had a relationship/marriage/child and so on...different context), and somehow you have to expect to return to the bright optimisitic feeling you came in at the start. Like imagine how ROTJ would have felt if Han died, and you had a morose and sad Luke and Leia, and then you had the smash cut of credits to Williams' soaring fanfare, it would never have worked.
If you want an example of how that would have played out, look at The Amazing Spider-Man 2, at the very end, Gwen dies and then Peter spends a year sulking and not being Spider-Man, and then has the epilogue with Rhino where he suddenly becomes quippy again...and it just doesn't work. You can't sell two movies on a big romance, and then have Gwen die, and then basically manufacture a upbeat tone to end on. You need some kind of relief and sense of hope, but for Spider-Man to lose what's basically celebrated and spotlighted as the love of his life and the relationship that will never be as good, it's catastrophic for the movie and the character. The only way forward is to make it like Spider-Man Reign. (I know there were plans to bring in MJ in the third but that would never have worked under the conception that Marc Webb and Co. chose, after the way they built up Gwen, whoever cast as MJ would come off as weaker by far).
The story of Spider-Man isn't supposed to be "man loses the love of his life and spends the rest of his life being sad". You could work that with Wolverine, and with Batman , since they're supposed to be a tragic but badass brooding dude, so for instance BATMAN RETURNS, MASK OF THE PHANTASM, THE DARK KNIGHT ends with Batman permanently separated from the woman he loves but him continuing to be Batman regardless of loss is meant to be inspiring and cathartic nonetheless. In the case of Wolverine, however sad and f--ked up and dark you make his life, especially something like Logan, he's gonna crawl out claws popped and screaming.
In The Night Gwen Stacy Died, Gwen dies midway into the comic, and the rest of the comic is Peter in a violent rage lashing out at people, going in a dark place and then beating the stuffing out of Green Goblin (in the movie Dane DeHaan skulks off...which yeah), and then Goblin dies at the end, and then you have the epilogue with Mary Jane showing that no matter how bitter and alone and sad Peter feels (and should feel), there are people in his life who care do love him and that eventually he'll be alright.