Friday, March 15, 2013

Love Triangles

Love triangles are everywhere now, especially in the young adult section. Most of the time between one girl and two boys, it is when a character cannot decide between two other characters in a romantic way.

Anyone else getting a little tired of them?

I mean, I've read some good love triangles before, but anyone else feeling that they are a little overused?

They are getting repetitious. Can't the girl or male just make up their mind? If you love someone, you love someone. There are no buts, ums, or ers.
I wouldn't exactly know, actually. I love people, but I'm not in love with anybody yet, at least not anybody who is living on this planet.

So if someone's in love out there, would you mind telling me what it feels like? That would be fabulous.

OMYROWLING CAT STICK WITH THE TOPIC

Right. Love triangles. Why are they so popular? They're (usually) fun to read or criticise, and they work well with certain plots, but there is only so much you can do with a girl/guy falling in love with one of the two girls/guys that he or she liked. Most commonly it is a she falling in love with one of the two males, just because nowadays a lot of females are authors.

Most of them aren't even written well. Hunger Games had a cruddy romance, even though I loved the characters and the plot. Twilight had a TERRIBLE romance, one that cannot even be mentioned, even though I could rant about it for hours. Matched had a really, really, really bad romance.
If you liked those romances, great. Just sharing my own opinion, which is now a crime on the internet.
Bite me, alien boy!

Actually, there are very few love triangles that I've read and actually liked. Pride and Prejudice had the most fantastic romance of all time - admit it, fellow Austenians, there was a love triangle between Elizabeth, Darcy, and Wickham. The Heroes of Olympus one between three people I shall not mention for fear of spoiling it for you is brilliant. I like the one in Infernal Devices, even though it is breaking my heart into one gazillion pieces (and that's a fact).

They can make great additions to the story. But when written incorrectly or badly, they can ruin the entire book for you.
The entire book.
That's a lot of trees put to waste.

I don't know why there are so many of them! Why do so many authors decide that love triangles are the way that they want the romance in their books? Why is it that the YA section of the library is absolutely flooded with love triangles? WHY?
Someone please explain. Is it because they are easy to write? Is it because that in fact, the idea of a girl or male not being able to choose between two members of the opposite gender is realistic? (I dearly hope not...) Why? I don't get it.

I've got an inkling of what the problem might be: Overcorrection. In the past, most books and movies had the heroine instantly fall in love with the hero when he saves her from a terrible fate of some sort.
Authors look at that and say, "Oh, looks like we need some more conflict in the relationship in my book." What's the easiest way to stir up conflict in a relationship? A third party.
And BANG! There's a romance novel on your table.

What really gets under my skin is when the book is classed as "paranormal", and then turns out to be all about how this girl choose between a werewolf and a vampire. Yes, it is paranormal, but you could've mentioned that 93 percent of the book is the romance!

But here comes the most irritating part of love triangles: Not the repetition, not the popularity, not any of that. It's the fact that the female acts like the other two males are the only two in the entire world.
No, it is simply impossible to see any other men. Impossible! It couldn't be done. There is no way I can be friends with any other male until I settle myself in with one of the two here.
No, they can't do anything like, "Oh, I love Tomas, and I love Epsilon, but I'm going to go talk to BOB."
That can't happen.

Have you realized that she never does? If there is another male in the story that she is remotely connected with, he is either a) Married   b) A social klutz/weirdo/sibling c) Not even considered by the heroine.

THEY ARE NOT THE ONLY ELIGIBLE MALES ON THE PLANET! GET A GRIP, YOU IMBECILE!
Stop moaning about how it is so hard to choose between the two guys! They ar not the only two guys.

Sometimes it makes sense for them to be the only males she thinks about, but other times? Grab the scissors and Cut. It. Out.

I don't understand. I cannot comprehend. I don't get the popularity, or why they are all mostly badly written, or why. I DON'T GET IT.

Sorry.

Can someone please help me understand? Because I sure don't.


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Hey! It's Nutsy. Thanks for reading another one of these blog posts, because if you did, that means you liked the first! It means a lot. Please tell me in the comments what  you thought of this blog post and what I should do next. I hope you all have/will have/have had a wonderful spring break. Cheers!

x Nutsy (aka Cat)










1 comment:

  1. Hi Nutsy! (Cat :])

    Sorry I didn't notice this before! I thought I'd subscribed to your blog by email, but it doesn't seem to be working :(
    Anyway - thoroughly enjoyed your second blog post (and the first!), thanks so much for writing! It also explained quite a few things to me :) Sorry I can't help you there, however, since I'm not a huge reader of YA at the moment :P
    Heartily agree about the waste of trees and the P&P love triangle ;)

    Thanks again for an awesome post - you made me smile more than once :)

    ~Johanna (Hobbit and Proud)

    ReplyDelete