who else has noticed this?

They stay with the next girl and you have no idea why

i'm talking from the point of view of a friend who has watched a boy she knows throw away his relationship with this gorgeous, stunning girl who was funny, caring, loving, everything, because he got a bit freaked out by the intensity of it all. they had such an amazing chemistry though! after breaking up with her, he got together with another girl and none of us (his friends) can understand why he's with her - she's so boring, so so boring and bland, has nothing to say for herself at all, would never challenge him in any way at all, and we think he's with her mainly for the sex, but why throw away such a good relationship with the other girl? i'm friends with both the first girl, and the boyfriend, and i just hate seeing how depressed she's got about it all - seeing the boy she loves with a really bland, boring girl, who aint a patch on her! and none of us get it. he will talk crap behind this new girl's back as well, he really doesn't seem to respect her, and i just wonder why some boys do this. i've seen it loads of times.

Meh. You're biased though. You're friends with this girl. You don't know the new girl. She could be very nice and interesting, but shy.
And maybe the guy doesn't respect girls in general. Maybe he's immature and doesn't care.

not saying i'm anything terribly amazing, but this kind of happened to me and i can, in retrospect, understand why.

my ex bf left me for a girl who was incredibly plain, verging on the ugly, squat and dumpy, boring mousey hair, boring personality (he was in the same seminar group as her for three years and didn't even notice her - obviously didn't stand out!) not particularly bright, quite a common sort of girl, who likes drinking beer and watching footie.

now whilst on the surface you would think that a guy would want a girl who's more attractive, more intelligent, better social standing etc (not tooting my horn here lol) actually, it was the actual fact that she was plain and common that ultimately attracted him to her. He wasn't particularly intelligent himself, so they were on a similar intellectual level, similar social standing, both liked football and beer and 'laddish' insterests etc.

so whilst on the surface i was the 'better' choice, i wasn't actually the better choice for him because we weren't as well suited.

if that makes any sense? i don't want that to sound like one big self-ego-massage, but i'm just saying that people aren't always suited to the 'best' choice...?

please tell me that makes sense lol

Basically the third party can't choose who makes the best couple, it's up for them to decide themselves.

No, but i've noticed the tendency for ex-girlfriends and their group of friends to demonise the next girl that happens to be in a relationship with the ex-boyfriend, even though she could be more attractive, have a better personality and be a better all-round girlfriend than the clingy monster (who used the term 'intense' as a euphemism) he used to be with. Not that this is the case here....oh no....absolutely not....