Nobody wants to think they’re going to spend their whole life unloved and alone. The notion that there is someone out there who is your perfect match and it is just a matter of finding them is a comforting one.
I have some issues with this, but I’ll boil it down.
Being alone does not make you unloved. Some people actively choose to remain unattached as that is their own personal lifestyle. I hate relationships. HATE. I have ZERO need to be in one. I choose to be unattached and “alone” but that doesn’t make me unloved and it doesn’t make my own version of a happily ever after any less valid or fulfilling than someone who chooses to be in a relationship.
I also think that the idea of a perfect match is not comforting because there is no such thing. It’s a…wait for it…fantasy.
So I think the message of Once, in particular to love and romance, is about hope. You can overcome your past and find love and happiness. Your past doesn’t have to define you.
And I am going to amend this. ONCE’s message might be that, you’re right, but it’s really “you can find love and happiness in OTHERS,” and that’s troubling for people who don’t find happiness by way of romantic attachment. There is no self-love, only the some what super watered down idea that happiness must exist with love of another person, and super specifically: in a romantic love with another person.