i can’t help but notice how sincerely uncomfortable barb looks after the vault-tec commercial when cooper comes up from behind her and puts his arms around her. she’s clearly not a fan of pda while he clearly is, and it’s just an interesting moment showcasing how even at this point, they’re on two different pages.
the cracks are already showing.
I think that all of those cracks we see throughout the show really boil down to one fundamental issue.
This may sound weird but Barb and Coop remind me of Mary-Sue and Daniel Pleasant from the Sims 2 in the sense that if they were sims they would have diverging aspirations. Barb would be a "career" sim and Coop would be a "family" sim.
When you start the game the Pleasants are still together but their marriage is strained - on the verge of breakup even - cause Mary is focused on her job (she's a "career" sim) and Daniel wants to bang the maid (he's a "romance" sim). You as the player, can make them work through their issues and stay married but at the end of the day, Mary will still want to make career and Daniel will still want to bang everyone in town and their mother.
Barb and Coop love each other, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that:
1. Barb is a city girl and a working girl, she may not condone everything Vault-Tec does but I feel she actually fits in that corporate environment. She thrives there. I mean, she is an exec.
2. Coop is a family man and a country man deep down. He's a simple, honest kind of guy who despises that corporate world with all of its scheming and butt-licking and all. What he values and desires most is to be with his family (pets included).
Barb could never relate to Coop's desire to step away from city life, in the same way Coop could never relate to Barb's honest desire to continue that life.
I find it somewat telling that when Coop suggests that they move to the countryside Barb's first response is "and what would I be doing there?" She later gives other arguments why that's not a viable option, but still, her very first response was pointing out that's no place for a woman like her. This has me wondering...
Barb fell in love and married Cooper Howard, the Hollywood actor, a man with money, status, connections etc. Would she have fallen in love and married Coop, a simple man from idk, Nebraska?
Barb the city slicker who goes on summer vacation to the country and falls for Cooper the local cowboy sounds like the plot of a hallmark rom-com. At the end of the movie, Barb would obviously stay with Coop but in real life, she'd have a steamy summer romance but would ultimately go back to the city and perhaps that's exactly what happened. Except Coop fell in love so hard that he left everything behind and followed her there.
It must have been all great at the beginning. He gets the job as a stuntman, then becomes an actor (I wonder if Barb might have pulled a string or two to make it happen), they marry, have a kid and a dog (not necessarily in that order). Life is good, even if he misses the countryside sometimes, but then Barb pushes him into the collab with Vault-Tec, molding him further into the kind of man she needs him to be. Problem is, that's not the kind of man Coop is or ever wants to be. He does everything Barb asks of him for the sake of their love but you can tell he gets more and more miserable in the process. If the opposite scenario was true and it was Barb who moved to the countryside to be with Coop and spent her days milking cows, raising chickens, and baking pies, she'd end up just as miserable if not more.
That said, I feel like regardless of the entire atomic issue, Barb and Coop's relationship would always be destined to fail, at least on some level. As much as I loved them on the show, the rationalist in me recognizes that they could never really work. Not without one of them changing to the point of unrecognition to fit the other's needs and expectations and ending up somewhat unhappy as a result.
They are just two sims with diverging aspirations.