Four of Wands and Four of Cups

The celebration and the person not enjoying it. The Four of Wands is a genuine threshold, a homecoming, something worth marking; the Four of Cups is three cups already there and a fourth being offered to somebody who is not looking. The tradition reads the pair as arriving somewhere good and feeling nothing.

Associated with a settled relationship and a flatness inside it that has no obvious cause. The pair notably does not read this as a fault in the relationship.

Having got the thing that was wanted, and finding the wanting was the interesting part. Frequently read after a promotion or a completion rather than before.

The Four of Cups is not read as ingratitude. It is read as a temporary inability to receive, and the fourth cup is still being held out at the end of it.