I have an issue with love triangles. I know, you're thinking 'so what else is new? Don't most people?' but oh no, my reasons are so very very different to your traditional 'but it's annoying' reason. No, mine are frustrating, irritating and put me off trying books with love triangles entirely - I'm very much what you'd call a one man woman. But what are these reasons you're asking me? What can annoy you that much? Well, take a seat lovelies, I'm about to tell you.
Definitely the most obvious of problems I have, and it's definitely the most serious. Say, why is their a competition anyway? a) The female charcater should never be seen as a prize, she is a human being, she is not your winning trophy, she is but a person and a love triangle only tends to creative the feeling and atmosphere of the woman being the prize, more often than not anyway. b) More often than not, you have a good guy and a bad guy and it seems to me like the choice is obvious - by going for the bad guy, she'd only be ruining her future and the world, right? So what's the logic, she's of course, not going to go for him, which leaves the good guy, which is, yet again, obvious. c) It's just plain frustrating, and leads onto my second issue with love triangles..
When you create a love triangles, you're going to have two sides, one for each love interest, and by doing so, you split a fandom. When you split a fandom, things can be a little okay, you can have some readers who appreciate and understand that some people have a different opinion, but when you split it so harshly, you have manipulative. Lets take the Splintered series (and consider that this was written before Ensnared was released) as the perfect example. There's an awful large portion of the fandom that are very much Morphus lovers, and there's the other chunk that are Jeb fans. Now what happens when Howard chooses one over the other has her 'winner'? Well, half the fandom are going to be in uproar, half the fandom will more than likely dislike and maybe even hate the other half. When you split a fandom, you split opinions, you split what could be amazing friendships, amazing companions, and potential sequel readers. Is that wise? Is that your best choice? I can't bare it, it angers me.
I mentioned this quickly before, but let us take The Grisha series as an example in this point. You have Mal, best friend from a young age, struggles to see through the friendship to see the actual romantic emotions underlining their connection and then finally makes his feelings known. Then, you have the Darkling, brooding, moody, and really, very twisted, very manipulative and generally, the 'bad guy' of the series. I don't particularly want to thrash opinions, because they are just that, opinions, but how can you honestly want a romantic relationship with a genuinely evil character, and even on the other side, a charcater with very little emotions? There doesn't even have to be a 'good' and 'bad' option - A.J. Pine's novel If Only gives Jordan two perfectly good love interests and not a single one is either the 'good' or 'bad' option, she created two very good, well balanced out characters and you know what, it worked and it made sense, and I don't understand why you can't use the same technique in fantasy, paranormal and dystopian novels.. Sometimes, it's worse and there's a split 'royalty' vs 'poor' option which is just crossing a line into 'don't get me ragey', so I shan't go into detail, but these opposites, these love interests, they frustrate me.
If you're a series and you have a love triangle, I will more than likely avoid you were possible until I can read you without the world telling or asking me who to ship. I just cannot deal. Not when there's a chance that I will likely choose a team or side or love interest and become irritated or annoyed about interactions with the other love interest. I will also more than likely never want to see the option of characters ending up with other people, so I just avoid them, leave them unread, never bother with them at all. In fact, it's one of the reasons I decided to avoid Splintered and the rest of the series, I just couldn't stand Morphus as a love interest. It's also the reason I've been swaying on Shadow and Bone, because the Darkling is clearly not right in the head, so how can Alina still feel anything for him? Lets also not get me started on The Hunger Games because - nope, I will not rage, I will not be angry.. Love interests or romances shouldn't make or break a series, not really, and especially not non-contemporary reads.
Oh yes, I went there. There's plenty of examples for this issue, so lets start with.. Splintered. Alyssa supposedly loves both Jeb and Morphus.. err, I'm doubting that, one guy you've been crushing on for ages, another you used to be friends with and can morph into a big butterfly (moth, whatever), you're telling me you seriously love these guys? I'm thinking drama hunny.
Next! Ahh, hello Meghan, Ash and Puck, nice of you to drop by. Does Meghan love you two lads as well, well, I'm doubting it, it's all about making Ash a little jealous so you two can argue amongst yourselves over a typical blonde haired damsel in distress, so lets not go there..
Next! Helen, oh Helen, you've got Orion and Lucas both madly in love with you and you can't choose between them, you love them both, right? So it's just a coincidence that they dislike each other hugely and refuse to be in the same room then? Because that's all just one very annoying, frustrating trope that obviously ends in you choosing one and the 'left-over love interest' finding themselves someone else, right? Of course.
There's very rarely love flowing between these characters, it's all about the tension, the arguing, the emotions and the drama, oh, and the creating teams and picking and splitting fandoms and almost everything else I've already mentioned. Love triangles, most of the time, are created for drama, nothing more.
Love triangles have to be damn brilliant to win me over, and only if there is two realistic love interests who could both be good for the main character, who would bring out the good in them, who would die for them. If you're just two characters trying to define an alpha male feel, then I'm sorry, we cannot be friends. I like my romance realistic, honest and true to earth, I don't even mind some cases of love at first sight, if you can generate that amount of feeling without 'sparks' and such, but drama ridden, tension making, fandom splitting romances can go and do a run and jump. I am certainly not interested.
There's always a Winner and a Loser
Definitely the most obvious of problems I have, and it's definitely the most serious. Say, why is their a competition anyway? a) The female charcater should never be seen as a prize, she is a human being, she is not your winning trophy, she is but a person and a love triangle only tends to creative the feeling and atmosphere of the woman being the prize, more often than not anyway. b) More often than not, you have a good guy and a bad guy and it seems to me like the choice is obvious - by going for the bad guy, she'd only be ruining her future and the world, right? So what's the logic, she's of course, not going to go for him, which leaves the good guy, which is, yet again, obvious. c) It's just plain frustrating, and leads onto my second issue with love triangles..
They Split Fandoms
When you create a love triangles, you're going to have two sides, one for each love interest, and by doing so, you split a fandom. When you split a fandom, things can be a little okay, you can have some readers who appreciate and understand that some people have a different opinion, but when you split it so harshly, you have manipulative. Lets take the Splintered series (and consider that this was written before Ensnared was released) as the perfect example. There's an awful large portion of the fandom that are very much Morphus lovers, and there's the other chunk that are Jeb fans. Now what happens when Howard chooses one over the other has her 'winner'? Well, half the fandom are going to be in uproar, half the fandom will more than likely dislike and maybe even hate the other half. When you split a fandom, you split opinions, you split what could be amazing friendships, amazing companions, and potential sequel readers. Is that wise? Is that your best choice? I can't bare it, it angers me.
There's Usually a 'Good' and 'Bad' option
I mentioned this quickly before, but let us take The Grisha series as an example in this point. You have Mal, best friend from a young age, struggles to see through the friendship to see the actual romantic emotions underlining their connection and then finally makes his feelings known. Then, you have the Darkling, brooding, moody, and really, very twisted, very manipulative and generally, the 'bad guy' of the series. I don't particularly want to thrash opinions, because they are just that, opinions, but how can you honestly want a romantic relationship with a genuinely evil character, and even on the other side, a charcater with very little emotions? There doesn't even have to be a 'good' and 'bad' option - A.J. Pine's novel If Only gives Jordan two perfectly good love interests and not a single one is either the 'good' or 'bad' option, she created two very good, well balanced out characters and you know what, it worked and it made sense, and I don't understand why you can't use the same technique in fantasy, paranormal and dystopian novels.. Sometimes, it's worse and there's a split 'royalty' vs 'poor' option which is just crossing a line into 'don't get me ragey', so I shan't go into detail, but these opposites, these love interests, they frustrate me.
There's a 50% chance I don't/won't read sequels
If you're a series and you have a love triangle, I will more than likely avoid you were possible until I can read you without the world telling or asking me who to ship. I just cannot deal. Not when there's a chance that I will likely choose a team or side or love interest and become irritated or annoyed about interactions with the other love interest. I will also more than likely never want to see the option of characters ending up with other people, so I just avoid them, leave them unread, never bother with them at all. In fact, it's one of the reasons I decided to avoid Splintered and the rest of the series, I just couldn't stand Morphus as a love interest. It's also the reason I've been swaying on Shadow and Bone, because the Darkling is clearly not right in the head, so how can Alina still feel anything for him? Lets also not get me started on The Hunger Games because - nope, I will not rage, I will not be angry.. Love interests or romances shouldn't make or break a series, not really, and especially not non-contemporary reads.
There's rarely any actual love between the three characters, it's all drama
Oh yes, I went there. There's plenty of examples for this issue, so lets start with.. Splintered. Alyssa supposedly loves both Jeb and Morphus.. err, I'm doubting that, one guy you've been crushing on for ages, another you used to be friends with and can morph into a big butterfly (moth, whatever), you're telling me you seriously love these guys? I'm thinking drama hunny.
Next! Ahh, hello Meghan, Ash and Puck, nice of you to drop by. Does Meghan love you two lads as well, well, I'm doubting it, it's all about making Ash a little jealous so you two can argue amongst yourselves over a typical blonde haired damsel in distress, so lets not go there..
Next! Helen, oh Helen, you've got Orion and Lucas both madly in love with you and you can't choose between them, you love them both, right? So it's just a coincidence that they dislike each other hugely and refuse to be in the same room then? Because that's all just one very annoying, frustrating trope that obviously ends in you choosing one and the 'left-over love interest' finding themselves someone else, right? Of course.
There's very rarely love flowing between these characters, it's all about the tension, the arguing, the emotions and the drama, oh, and the creating teams and picking and splitting fandoms and almost everything else I've already mentioned. Love triangles, most of the time, are created for drama, nothing more.
Love triangles have to be damn brilliant to win me over, and only if there is two realistic love interests who could both be good for the main character, who would bring out the good in them, who would die for them. If you're just two characters trying to define an alpha male feel, then I'm sorry, we cannot be friends. I like my romance realistic, honest and true to earth, I don't even mind some cases of love at first sight, if you can generate that amount of feeling without 'sparks' and such, but drama ridden, tension making, fandom splitting romances can go and do a run and jump. I am certainly not interested.
How do you feel about love triangles?
Do you feel the way I do on some of these issues, or am I overreacting over nothing?
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