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

[gehayi]

As soon as I see the term "love triangle," I instantly know that 99% of the time, the story is going to be boring and pointless. While I do know people who can and do write fanfic love triangles well, the same cannot be said of published works. And I know that as a rule, the triangle will break down this way:

1) The two men are both going after the same woman.

2) One is an old friend of the woman. The other is a new guy with a dark and mysterious past.

3) The old friend (or current fiancé) is generally kind, or at least less abusive. The Extraordinary New Guy With a Mysterious Past is generally an abusive jerkass.

4) Both are handsome. However, the old friend will be from a different race or culture than the ENGWAMP. If the ENGWAMP is white, the old friend will be the Ethnic Third Wheel. If the ENGWAMP is from a particular ethnic group (Rom, Native American, Latino, Sicilian, Greek, etc.) the old friend will be pure white bread.

5) The woman, as a rule, has little to no personality. Her primary value seems to be her beauty. She often also has Informed Abilities; that is, the narrative tells us that she has wonderful traits, such as brilliance, perception, compassion, understanding, etc., but we never see her display them. In fact, she will do demonstrably stupid things on a regular basis, probably because the author can't think of any other way to keep her in the vicinity of the ENGWAMP for more than two seconds.

6) The woman will blame the old friend for every fault he commits and will absolve the ENGWAMP of everything.

7) Unless the non-fanfic story is being written as published/filmed erotica or as part of a menage line of romances, no one will consider resolving this with a consensual polyamorous threesome. (In fact, don't be surprised if the ENGWAMP is pretty homophobic.)

8) The ENGWAMP will win. This is a given; ENGWAMPs always win, because writers and publishing houses think that they are the epitome of masculinity. Some publishing houses (like Harlequin/Mills & Boon) even pride themselves on having nothing BUT alpha heroes (read: abusive, controlling, rude jerkass male protagonists).

It's a very boring formula. And since I don't like reading stories (or watching them) in which rude, controlling dickwads are romanticized, I do my damnedest to avoid them.

[kindkit]

Huh, I think there are interesting differences between that kind of love triangle (which sounds like it's mostly found in books with a female protagonist and a strong romance storyline?) and the kind I usually encounter, which I find mostly in movies and tv of the action-y sort (war stories, science fiction, etc.). Those tend to focus on the men, or usually on one of the men. He's like the ENGWAMP a bit, in that he's more likely to be a Brilliant Outsider while the other guy is richer, higher-ranking, an insider. And so for Brilliant Outsider, winning the woman is part of proving that he's really the best despite everything! So, definitely a dick-measuring contest, although I've often seen this play out with the insider scripted as the abusive one, whereas the hero/winner's bad behavior goes unrecognized by the text. Both scenarios favor the exciting, exotic bad boy, but in slightly different ways, and of course with a different focus depending on whether it's the woman or the bad boy who's the protagonist.