One Tree Hill was many things: a story about brothers, an intense love of basketball, and surviving high school. At times it was far too earnest for its own good, but fans kept coming back for the enduring characters and undeniably over-the-top drama.

Even the biggest OTH fan can it that the series went on several seasons past its expiration date. Once Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton left at the end of season 6, the show completely lost focus. At points, it meandered, was painfully boring, and only occasionally returned to glorious, albeit ridiculous form. Still, most viewers hung on until the bitter end.

Despite OTH’s flaws, it was impossibly addictive. Fans became so invested in these characters that no plotline was enough to drive them away - and in a show where someone’s transplant heart was eaten by a dog, that’s saying something.

Like many teen dramas, one of the most compelling aspects of the series was its romances. Whether you were a staunch Brucas fan, an ardent Layton er or a lover of Naley, chances are you were majorly rooting for at least one couple.

Not every pair is going to have everlasting love and in certain cases, fans are thankful for that. Some relationships are certainly best left forgotten. However, there were other couples that viewers simply couldn’t get enough of.

Regardless of the obstacles that came between them, from psycho stalkers to crazy nannies, these romances found a way to make it work.

Here are 10 Couples That Hurt One Tree Hill (And 10 Who Saved It).

Saved: Haley and Nathan

Few things were ever certain in the world of One Tree Hill, especially when it came to the romances. Viewers hung on for every twist and turn, often with differing hopes of outcome. The sole exception to this was the relationship between Haley James and Nathan Scott. Nevermind that they were married teenagers who had a baby right before graduation.

Those two crazy kids were going to make it work no matter what.

Although Nathan began as a more villainous character, fans watched his relationship with Haley completely transform him. This couple served as the emotional anchor for a series in desperate need of one.

From Haley’s music career to Nathan’s injury to Nanny Carrie, they weathered every possible storm. There was no love on OTH that fans were more invested in than this one.

Hurt: Quinn and Clay

Season 7 was a rough outing for One Tree Hill. Peyton and Lucas had driven off into the sunset and the show never quite regained its footing.

Quinn James and Clay Evans were serviceable enough, but coupling them up almost immediately never gave either the chance to become interesting in their own right, especially Quinn. Clay, at least, got a backstory that gave him more depth, but Haley’s sister was twelve shades of bland.

Fans had grown used to OTH’s oft ridiculous plot lines, but regardless of what these two went through, it was difficult to care. Watching them wander the afterlife as ghosts was just painful and let’s not even talk about the reveal that Clay had a son he’d forgotten about.

Still, the couple’s greatest sin was how boring it was to watch their love story unfold.

Saved: Lucas and Peyton

Despite the fact that Peyton Sawyer began One Tree Hill in a terrible relationship with Nathan, she and Lucas Scott were obviously always the end game. They were drawn to one another and, regardless of what placeholders they found in between, most fans still hoped that they would wind up together.

Sadly, the series expended so much energy keeping them apart, that by the time they were finally united, it seemed a bit contrived - both times. However, none of that changes the fact that theirs was one of the most compelling love stories OTH ever told.

Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton had undeniable chemistry, lighting up the screen every time they shared it.

The palpable longing and enduring friendship between Lucas and Peyton made the moment that they shared at the State Championship one of the show’s most romantic.

Hurt: Chase and Mia/Alex

Was it possible to care less about this love triangle? The show struggled to make Chase Adams interesting, but whether he was hiding out as a Clean Teen, managing the bar at Tric, or even rescuing Chuck from an abusive household, he was never a terribly compelling character.

His romance with Mia Catalano felt like unnecessary filler, only highlighting how much more interesting the preceding relationships on the show had been.

Chase’s love affair with Alex Dupré was slightly less terrible, as she was one of the better characters to come out of OTH’s later seasons. Still, in the end, they shipped her off on a music tour for a strange new career path that no one asked for.

This made the love triangle not only boring, but pointless as well.

Saved: Peyton and Jake

There are still some fans who feel that Peyton should’ve ended up with Jake Jagielski. She and the young father formed a bond when she helped him out with his daughter, Jenny. However, Jenny’s mom wanted back into her life and made Jake’s miserable in the process. She sent him to jail and then kidnapped Jenny! That’s a whole lot of drama for one relationship to endure.

As adorable as Jake and Peyton were, it was obvious that she still had feelings for Lucas. That’s okay though, because Jake was a good boyfriend to Peyton, ensuring that the character did something other than sit around pining for the guy who was ostensibly in love with her best friend.

Hurt: Lucas and Lindsey

While we can see in flashbacks that Lucas and Lindsey Strauss had a decent relationship, everyone was far too busy rooting for him and Peyton to care.

Poor Lindsey really was nothing more than a placeholder whose character served no purpose other than keeping Lucas and Peyton apart. Aside from the fact that Michaela McManus and Murray had a painful dearth of chemistry, later story developments actually suffered due to this couple.

It was one thing to keep Luke and P. Sawyer from reuniting, but having him declaring his love for Lindsay basically up until the season 5 finale was too much.

The episode ended on a cliffhanger which implied that Lucas could be proposing to Lindsey, Peyton, or Brooke, basically undermining the love story that OTH had spent so much time crafting.

Saved: Karen and Keith

Of all of the heartbreaking developments on One Tree Hill, none were quite so gut wrenching as the loss of Keith Scott. A surrogate father to Luke and best friend to his mother, Karen, he was one of the few unquestionably decent adults to be found on this series. When Dan took Keith's life in that hallway, he robbed the show of its moral center.

The most painful aspect of losing Keith was the missed opportunity with him and Karen.

It took them Luke’s entire life to get honest about their feelings and when they finally found happiness, Dan snatched it away - an act that the show would spend every subsequent season trying to redeem him for.

Even though Keith and Karen’s romance ended in tragedy, fans were still overjoyed to see them together, however briefly.

Hurt: Peyton and Pete Wentz

This romance was painful to watch, not because of any heartbreaking developments, but because it was just bad writing. It’s one thing for shows bring in bands to play local venues. We can all suspend our disbelief because it’s cool to see the Breeders on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Modest Mouse on The O.C.

However, OTH took things too far by having Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz fall hard for high school student Peyton Sawyer. This was upsetting for reasons extending far beyond their age difference.

Fans were forced to watch the awkward exchanges, from Wentz applying makeup with Peyton and her friends to the musician explaining how great it was for a girl to quote his own lyrics to him. Fans prefer to pretend that this never happened.

Saved: Deb and Skills

After the dissolution of her disastrous marriage to Dan Scott, as well as her struggles with substance abuse, we can all agree that Deb deserved some happiness. We won’t judge her for finding it in the arms of one of her son’s friends. They were two consenting adults, so Nathan was the only one with trouble coping and that was definitely on him.

We all knew that Deb and Skills weren’t going to recite vows or anything, but it was certainly fun while it lasted.

They were sweet together and completely there for one another in the end. Skills and Deb proved that there was some true depth to their relationship despite the age difference.

Hurt: Grubbs and Miranda

You can all be forgiven for not ing this bland season 7 storyline. It is best left forgotten. In case you need a recap, Miranda Stone was a record exec, originally attempting to shut down Red Bedroom Records after Peyton left town.

Once she began working with Haley, she and Grubbs the bartender began a brief and boring romance. He was, of course, a great musician, so Miranda was intent on getting him to make a record. Grubbs was intent on getting her to fall for him.

Thankfully, this plot was abandoned when Miranda was deported back to England. It was later revealed that Grubbs went after her and that was the last fans heard of either of these forgettable characters.