Upload: 5 Reasons We Love Nora And Nathan’s Romance (& 5 We Don’t)

Fans of Amazon’s recent release, Upload, are head over heels for the love story that the show centers on. It’s a story as strange and unlikely as the main basis of the show itself–that of an afterlife where a person can upload their consciousness to a virtual haven–and it’s just as intriguing.

The protagonists of the show, Nathan and Nora, are an unlikely duo from the start, all fantastical technology aside. But add on the complex details of the context they function in and their romance seems almost impossible. The real question is, however, are the couple really good together at all? Here are five reasons the are, and five they aren’t.

10 Love: Challenges Them Both

Nora and Nathan come from different backgrounds. Nora is a woman of color, Nathan is a white man. Nora is working-class, Nathan is on his way to being a high-level programmer. Their differences cause them, particularly Nora, to be unsure about each other, but in the end, it challenges them in ways that help them both grow.

9 Don’t Love: Causes Nora To Treat Byron Badly

Just because Nora and Nathan have a seemingly beautiful budding romance doesn’t suddenly excuse their behavior regarding other romantic relationships. Byron wasn’t great to Nora at first, but they but get even on that count. By the time Nora invites him to the staff party and then ignores him the whole time, they have actually gone on dates and she’s lead him to believe she’s interested, making her later actions cruel.

8 Love: Allows Nathan To Keep Living For Something

There may be some things to occupy time spent in the afterworld of Lakeview, but odds are they eventually become a bit redundant.

Nathan is also made out to be one in a few cases of people who upload early, meaning that there aren’t many young people in Lakeview. Therefore, being in a relationship with Nora gives him something exciting to continue existing for.

7 Don’t Love: Begins An Unhealthy Dependency

Their relationship is special because it’s unusual, but this also makes it difficult. Nora is the main focus of Nathan’s attention because he doesn’t have many friends in Lakeview and he doesn’t talk very much with his family–besides, a family isn’t the same as a girlfriend.

But having a girlfriend who doesn’t live in Lakeview creates an abnormal reliance on the departed person, leaving them at the mercy of the living whenever they want to spend time with them.

6 Love: Makes Nathan A Better Person

Nathan is a much worse person before he meets Nora. He is more self-centered, and he doesn’t think things through as much as he does after being involved with her. Nora’s influence causes Nathan to slow down and appreciate his privileges, and she causes him to turn his attention less toward himself and more toward others.

5 Don’t Love: Holds Nora Back

As much as viewers might want to root for Nora and Nathan, it’s hard to look past the likelihood that dating Nathan would hold Nora back from her life among the living. There is only so much that they can do together, and their temporal experiences of life are completely different.

Nora has more going on, and Nathan will exist only for her, putting too much pressure on her and hindering her growth.

4 Love: It’s Groundbreaking

The idea of a human consciousness uploaded into a virtual world than being able to carry on an emotional, romantic and intimate relationship with a living human being is a groundbreaking concept, even qualifying as queer in a way–queer does, after all, imply things that deviate from the norm. Such a relationship is not normalized yet in the future world of the show, and it’s fascinating to consider something in the show that may actually exist one day.

3 Don’t Love: It’s Unrealistic

The likelihood that Nathan and Nora would get away with what they do is very far fetched. That might seem like a funny thing to claim when speaking of a show based on the acceptance that a virtual afterlife is possible, but a virtual afterlife seems more plausible than what Nora and Nathan pull off.

Nora works in a program where her boss can listen at any time she wants. She also regularly speaks to him in a room full of other people who are constantly around her. Viewers are supposed to ignore this, it would seem.

2 Love: It’s Playful

One of the best things about their romance is that it grows out of a lightness, a youthful willingness to let go of facades and seriousness and genuinely enjoy one another’s company. Nathan and Nora come from a very complicated world, one that seems even more confusing than the current one. Their love allows them to simplify things, as love should.

1 Don’t Love:  It’s Unequal

A relationship can’t function well without balance and equality, and such things just don’t seem possible for Nora and Nathan. Nora will always have the upper-hand in their relationship because she is alive, and has more options than he does. Nathan will always be at the mercy of her, being forced to believe that what she tells him is true because he has no way of being in her life in any capacity beyond the virtual.