If you love two people at the same time, choose the second. Because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn’t have fallen for the second.
Johnny Depp couldn’t have said it better.
A Love Triangle typically refers to a situation in which there are three people and each of them is in love with either one of the other two characters. If used nicely this can end beautifully, leading to tremendous growth in the characters and their relationships, but if not used in the way it is supposed to be….😞
Since the latter is more likely to happen than the former, Love Triangle has become a pet peeve for me and I would like to add my two cents to the topic, this might end up being a rant so proceed at your own risk.
I most definitely DO NOT stand in favor of this never-ending debate known as the Love Triangle. The truth is I have once, literally stopped reading a book on discovering it has a Love Triangle.
There are several ways a love triangle may be formed, siblings may be fighting over a love interest, sworn enemies may be fighting over one, best friends may be fighting over one, a bisexual person may be confused between two different people one male and one female, There might be unrequited love + love triangle if done right, it may turn out to be tragically beautiful.
I can like a one-sided love story, no one is leading anyone on, and the protagonist most probably has a love interest. However, if the protagonist is the person one-sidedly in love, in books where lots of other things are going on, the author is, if I quite plainly say, cruel. Don’t the poor heroes and heroines have enough on their plate already?
Why do I dislike Love Triangles? Well since the books I like to read have romance as a subplot, a love
triangle brings in unnecessary drama, don’t get me wrong I love drama, but I’d rather not have my protagonist being confused about who he/she loves, it doesn’t make sense, that person is supposed to be saving the world, I would rather see their growth with one person and getting some much-needed support from that one person than being confused. It is even worse when both the people are amazing and the protagonist is leading both of them on. I don’t exactly want to dislike (read: hate) the protagonist out of all people but in most cases in the end either someone dies or someone gets heartbroken, so not disliking becomes rather difficult.
Another factor is that I like the other tropes too much, be it enemies-to-lovers, best friends-to-lovers, or marriage of convenience, did I mention slow burns have a special place in my heart. You could use these tropes along with the love triangle, but it is very difficult to capture their beauty. When the character is suddenly drawn to that one friend or the nemesis doesn’t feel like a nemesis anymore, it just isn’t possible to depict it so finely if they are thinking about two different people.
Also, I am the sort of person who believes that loyalty is the most important thing, in any relationship. So, when the character doesn’t stick to one person and jumps from one to another as they see fit, just doesn’t go down well with me.
Let’s take a few examples so that you can clearly understand what I mean,
Rick Riordan did it amazingly in Percy Jackson and The Olympians and Heroes of Olympus, Percy, and Annabeth were endgame everyone knew that, and all the ups and downs were shown beautifully, all the others like Luke, Rachel, or say Calypso sort of helped them grow as people, all in all, it actually made sense. Over the series, their relationship blossomed wonderfully. I have read a lot many books having a lot many couples but Percebeth remains one of my favorites.
When we talk about Hunger Games, I will agree It was pretty good, and who the protagonist ended up with made perfect sense I was kind of rooting for him too, but I will admit that more than a few times I was really annoyed and frustrated at how Katniss was treating Gale and Peeta. The confusion about her feelings leads to her leading both of them on, until a certain turn of events that I won’t spoil.
Though I would like to specially mention Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices, if you want to read a good, heart-breaking Love Triangle that is where you should go, the triangle is just Chef’s Kiss.
[Also Read: Book Review of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare]
There is one situation though where I love a good ole’ Love Triangle, when there is an extremely vile person, who has done terrible things, and then the person who is supposed to choose between the two people doesn’t choose that person, and ends up making the right choice. Call me evil, for being happy over someone’s heartbreak. (shrugs)
I respect all opinions and perspectives and hope I will get the same treatment from whoever is on the other side of the screen. Our opinions may clash since no two perspectives are the same and I would love to hear your thoughts, so don’t forget to comment.
Until next time.
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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