The Trope Series #4

Love Triangles

The Hunger Games and Twilight Basically.

The girl is the one, she's going to save a group of people from something because she's amazing. There's only one thing more important than the task ahead of her. Deciding which boy she fancies the most?????

Why are these still a thing? It doesn't add suspense to the story, it just adds whining and boring filler as the girl agonises over two boys when she should be something more important. Like, I dunno, the actual plot of the book? Why does it matter who she ends up with? Usually there's something a lot more important at stake than her love life.

Here are the three main things I find happens with love triangles:

   1.Most of the triangle is white

More likely than not, at least two of the people in a love triangle are white. Nine times out of ten, the girl is white. But that's not necessarily to do with the trope and more to do with the fact that most female protagonists are white.

    2.It's usually one girl and two guys

That's probably because love triangles seem to be more common with books with female protagonists than books with male protagonists. Also: heteronormativity.

It's so rare to have a guy protagonist with two girls in a love triangle, especially without bias on his part. To be honest, it's something I'd like to see more of. I'd also like to see something where the love triangle had at least a chance of a same-sex relationship. But no one wants to read about gay people or something, especially if they're in stories that aren't just about them being gay. 

    3.You know who they'll end up with

You can usually just be able to tell who the protagonist will choose. In some things it's blatantly obvious (read some things as: Twilight). Just putting it out there that I've not read any of the Twilight books. I've seen the films, but that's a different story.

Considering love triangles are meant to add drama or something, it's just silly when it's obvious who she'll end up with. And a lot of the time, I hope the girl picks neither because both guys are dicks.

I don't think I can come up with an example of a love triangle that I've ever liked. Maybe if authors made love triangles less white and less straight, I'd be interested. But if I go to a book shop and pick up a book, I'll put it straight back if there's even a hint of a love triangle.

What do you think of this trope? Comment below or suggest another trope for me to talk about.

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