love triangles poll!

[kindkit]

I've been thinking about that ever-so-common plot device, the love triangle, and wondering if I'm especially weird in how much I hate them. So, a poll! It asks only about the "two men in love with and competing for the same woman" kind of triangle, because that's by far the most frequent kind and the kind that especially puts me off.

Everyone is welcome to vote--you don't have to know me or subscribe to my journal or whatever. And if you'd like to elaborate on your responses in the comments, that's great.

ETA: The second question is meant to be pretty flippant and silly, so don't feel like you're answering it "wrong"!

Poll #15018

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 79

View Respondents

1) You learn that a book/film/TV show features a love triangle of the "classic" sort: two men who both love the same woman. Are you:

View Answers

More interested in reading/watching than you were before
0 (0.0%)

Less interested in reading/watching than you were before
60 (75.9%)

Neither more nor less interested in reading/watching
19 (24.1%)

2) Love triangles can be resolved by:

View Answers

Duels
8 (10.5%)

Fistfights
4 (5.3%)

Flipping a coin
5 (6.6%)

Heroic renunciation on someone's part
15 (19.7%)

Kidnapping
2 (2.6%)

Plot-convenient death
11 (14.5%)

Polyamory
64 (84.2%)

The two competitors behaving as though the love object's own feelings mattered
67 (88.2%)

The vertex/love object declaring "a pox on both your houses" and running away
62 (81.6%)

The two competitors realizing they're actually triangulating their forbidden love for each other
55 (72.4%)

Comments

[shadowvalkyrie]

I really love poly narratives, and a canonical love triangle is often the only available starting point for poly fic, unless you're willing to ignore canon altogether, which I'm usually not.

And of course every trope can be written either well or badly, and most of my enjoyment hinges on that. :)

[carmilla]

I loathe love triangles. If it's from the point of view of one or both of the men, I hate the way the woman is a plot device to fuel their competition: her feelings hardly ever seem to be taken into account. If it's from the point of view of the woman, I get irritated with her for not being able to make up her mind! (Seriously, I understand that sometimes a choice like that feels difficult. But not 'three books' worth of plot conflict' difficult! If it's really that hard to decide, and being with both of them is not an option, then maybe the solution is to meet some other men.)

On the other hand, I'm a sucker for stories that look like a love triangle but then resolve in an unconventional way: Bandits, where Kate flat-out refuses to choose and they end up happily poly; Mickey Zucker Reichart's Renshai books, where Kevral marries one half of her love triangle but co-parents with both of them; Y Tu Mama Tambien, where the boys really were in love with each other all along. And if anyone has any recs for a story where one man presents himself to the woman at the centre of the love triangle and confidently says, 'I won! I beat the other guy in this competition! Let's go out now!' and she says, 'What are you talking about? I've never been interested in either of you/I'm dating this other person,' I'd love to have 'em.

[carmilla]

Er, sorry, this was meant to be a reply to the main post....

[kindkit]

An unconventional or subversive resolution is definitely my favorite way for love triangles to be handled.

[kindkit]

a canonical love triangle is often the only available starting point for poly fic

That makes sense. Poly isn't my thing, so I just tend to find the classic love triangle annoying rather than ficcishly fixable.