The Ubiquitous Love Triangle

[rachelmanija]

Love triangles, always popular in many genres, seem to have become a near-requirement for YA fantasy and science fiction.

I usually do not like love triangles. They bring up the possibility of infidelity, which I hate in literature.

They bring up a lot of angst which I find hard to identify with - this is probably a very personal reaction, but I always think, "Having not one, but TWO attractive guys you like? What a great "problem" to have! That's like getting two fabulous job offers, or being accepted by your top two colleges!"

Plus I find it annoying that, if the heroine genuinely loves them both, no one ever even considers the possibility of polyamory, or even not choosing immediately and seeing how things shake out. (Honorable exceptions: a few books whose titles are spoilery given that this is surprising and happens at the end, but they're by Janni Simner, Guy Gavriel Kay, and Caroline Stevermer. Um. And Laurell K. Hamilton. Maybe that one should be dishonorable.)

It's also usually excruciatingly obvious who the heroine will pick, making her angst annoying and pointless - one guy is clearly evil, unworthy, or doesn't reach the heights of exquisite wonderfulness as the other.

It is very annoying when the triangle is resolved without the heroine making a meaningful choice, because one of the guys dies or turns out to be evil or falls for someone else. Total bait and switch!

Finally, the ubiquity in certain genres may be why many seem to be pasted on as an afterthought. Elements pasted on due to marketability rarely add to the artistry of a work.

One of the few that I've ever liked was in Patricia McKillip's Changeling Sea, in which there were three guys and a girl, and they all had about equal screen time and were all attractive and likable in some sense. Plus, she picked my favorite.

Talk to me about love triangles. Why do you like them? Why do you like the ones you like? Why do you dislike them? And which are your most and least favorites?

Please mark triangle-related spoilers in the header of your comment, ie, "Spoilers for Hunger Games."

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

What I loved when I first read The Changeling Sea was that it hadn't even occurred to me boy 3 was an option, because all the focus was on the triangle.

In a different book from the one above, I have someone who's clearly just not interested in any of the alternate boys who come along. I've seen a review or two commenting that as new male characters came along they expected a triangle (but didn't mind there wasn't) which I found interesting. But for that particular character, any boy beside the one she's in love with is just people, not a potential love interest. It feels like triangles ignore other options in both directions.

I don't dislike triangles, but I do feel like they're only one option. And I do dislike when the triangle resolves too easily, or when the werewolf one guy has to start acting like a jerk to make the choice more clear.

And I also wonder about boys who just wait around to see who the girl chooses. I mean, if a girl were involved with both me and someone else, and all of us felt like we were ultimately going to be monogamous, wouldn't I eventually begin getting involved with other girls and exploring my options, too? Why should there be multiple possibilities for happiness for her and only one for me?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Good points!

For the last, I think there's also structural issues. That would be much easier to do in a book in which the boy also has a POV, but YA sff now seems almost exclusively first or third person, one girl's POV only. You could still do it, but it would be hard to get a sense of that other relationship since you could never see them interacting alone.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

These are the main reasons I hate them. People aren't *items* that you just pick out. I hate the perspective that sees other people as something on a shelf. Or yourself as something on a shelf, waiting to be chosen! It's why I hate the language "steal my boyfriend/girlfriend" What, don't they have any say in the matter?

I do think people sometimes hope against hope that someone will really love them the way they love that someone, and when you're in that hope against hope stage, even if s/he's clearly leaning toward someone else, you might keep thinking somehow you could make them love you, or you might delude yourself that actually they do ("sure, he's always hanging out with her and smiling at her and calling her, but he values me in a **deeper** way")

But yeah, most people do give up and start pursuing other options.