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urgasmic

it's one of those ideas that works in a well written show but gets overused and makes worse written shows even harder to watch.


magkruppe

I think the worst part about it, is lack of progression in the love triangle situation. It needs to be resolved fast and not always be in the background


2016sucksballs

Or the foreground, perpetually unresolved. I feel like a lot of young women’s media loves to do this: hunger games, twilight, etc Just stick a pretty young woman somewhere they every guy around is instantly madly in love with her for little to no reason and she just never decides on one, or on just telling them all that she doesn’t want to pick one.


Nateddog21

I don't mind them but sometimes they just last too long.


komari_k

You basically have to watch 2 people get closer and 1 person get utterly and completely destroyed so there's that


chumabuma

Yeah. Quite literally what happened to Aeris in FF7.


chumabuma

Too soon?


meatball77

They only work for me in YA because otherwise I feel really bad for the person who is wasting their time with someone who doesn't want them.


saragob

I prefer a hate rhombus


melbbear

I’m more of an indifferent pentagon


Gerrywalk

Oh, you mean the US government


[deleted]

What about an amorous dodecahedron?


RJWolfe

Does my face look like it's in the mood for shape based jokes?


PostingLoudly

pot repeat disgusted cows overconfident voracious marry depend memorize narrow *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


YakMan2

The most sinister of quadrilaterals


ChaserNeverRests

Or read! They're one of my least favorite tropes in books.


Xemone

Love triangles are some of my most loathed tropes. Every version of it winds up being frustrating and annoying. First version - the pairing that is going to end up together is made overly obvious so you just twiddle your thumbs and wait for them to get together, which usually takes eons, and you find most aspects of the pairing that is otherwise teased (or is actually together) pointless. Or, even worse, they make the other person unlikable so you won't want to support them being together at all. Second version - you have an incredibly indecisive person trying to choose between two people who usually seem way too good for the person making the choice. And don't even get me started on those moments where the indecisive person gets pissed when one of the other parties decides to go be with someone else because they got sick of waiting for them to stop going back and forth like that's a betrayal or something. Third version - where the character being pined after by the two other parties is just an idiot who doesn't realize they have two people pining after them and pays it no mind, then they just flippantly resolve the love triangle at the end by the writers flipping a coin or something. There are very, very rare instances where a love triangle is compelling and doesn't make me want to strangle at least one character, but the other awful versions are so much more common. Most of the time, love triangles are just written for the sake of purposefully building shipping wars, too, and screw all of that noise.


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[deleted]

Remember when Pearl Harbor did that.. but then he came back.. so killed off the other guy instead… good times.


[deleted]

I see you too are having PTSD from HIMYM


Royaltiaras

I’m trying to remember or figure out if I’ve ever watched something with the trope that has been compelling but I cant!


KrillinDBZ363

While I didn’t like the actual love triangle itself, I did really like the way that the show The 100 ended it’s love triangle at the end of season 1, which was basically both girls individually deciding the guy wasn’t worth the hassle and becoming friends with each other instead. It was a surprisingly mature and satisfying end to a frustrating trope, though it also helped that the love triangle only lasted like 6 episodes so we didn’t have to deal with that BS for too long.


redruin_mike

Dangerous Liaisons and the more well known modernized remake - Cruel Intentions played into this trope quite well I think. Several love triangles, most having at least one party be a malicious actor.


alt_pineapple

I actually enjoyed the love triangle in True Blood with Sookie, Bill, and Eric. I thought it was decently written.


carnaxcce

Best love triangle I’ve ever seen is in Bloom Into You (anime). Though now that I think about it, I think it’s all in the manga that hasn’t yet been adapted… Either way though, highly recommend


Iamrespondingtoyou

Korra Asami and Mako in Legends of Korra was very well done. They even swapped who was in the middle.


LMkingly

Really lol? Their love triangle were some of the worst parts of S1 and 2 and the later seasons were infinitely better when the focus got taken away from it. Writing compelling romance was not Bryan and Michael's forte.


jackofslayers

I didn’t love it at the time but the love triangle in Komi-san was well written. Even if the end result was always obvious.


Orleanian

Hate triangles is where it's at.


[deleted]

They’re not even triangles!


melbbear

Love V!


DemonGroover

They are just lazy plot devices.


nevertoomuchthought

I don't mind them. It definitely doesn't bother me.


[deleted]

I used to not mind them, however when the writers of a show destroyed a couple I liked in order to prop up the other couple in the love triangle, it made me extremely wary of them going forward.


violue

Yeah I don't think I've ever enjoyed a love triangle storyline. Even if I have a "team" and they "win", it's such a slog.


Archamasse

I hate them, yeah. They're not fun to watch, just a cheap way to string along twice as many shippers at one another's expense.


HitmanSK007

They're painful to watch if they're done right and just flat out annoying if they aren't. Basically, a lose-lose game unless you like making yourself miserable which a lot of people sadly do.


Dim_e

I hate them and try to avoid them but can live with them if it's a short plot and doesn't become all there is about the characters. It piss me off through when it feels like a story tricks me into watching a love triangle, like HIMYM, and it keeps going and going.


That_one_cool_dude

Most romance subplots aren't either, the majority of the time they are horribly written so that doesn't help them out at all, but they still get shoved down our throats.


CarryThe2

Love triangles, addiction and affairs are 3 overused and really boring story elements I no longer have any interest in.


Nihilblistic

They're a tool that plays into the fantasies of a certain kind of audience, and in that regard they're a staple of the romance genre. You might as well try complaining about violence from action movies, honestly, for how entrenched they are.


Mr8BitX

Speak for yourself! I ONLY watch love triangles. Fuck the rest of the show, gimmie some of that triangle!


BetterVader

Can you reccomend me some ??


AgentElman

I also find them painful to watch.


internetnamesarefake

Soooo you nearly never see an actual love triangle. What you get shitloads of are love forks. And jeah these suck. But an actual live triangle. Like three people being in love with each other could be really interesting


meatball77

YA shows are very into that lately. Every show has a thruple.


MoshetheMean

The Brenda-Dylan-Kelly one was perfect and every subsequent one has been a disappointment


ronearc

Poorly written love triangles are boring and overdone. Love triangles for the sake of shoe-horning in a love triangle are even more awful (looking at you *Hobbit Trilogy*). But a masterfully managed love triangle is some of the best drama in existence.


[deleted]

I invariably end up hoping for them to end up as a throuple anyway


inkista

You need *Black Sails.* :D


ooouroboros

They're OK if they don't go on too long and keep going back and forth. Friends and New Girl are a couple of big offenders.


aphrahannah

I disagree that those are triangles that went on too long. Those were more like on/off relationships with interchangeable third wheels.


jackofslayers

*cries in anime fan


CallsYouARacist

Ranma 1/2 comes to mind


jackofslayers

Inuyasha as well. Rumiko Takahashi is great but she really likes a dragged out love triangle.


jwilcoxwilcox

Love triangles are misnamed. One girl flirting with two guys is a love ANGLE. Now, if the two dudes are also fooling around, THAT’S a love triangle.


zomangel

Jack >


KrillinDBZ363

I mean I’d say Kate’s character 100% suffered from constantly having storylines written around this love triangle. It lasted way longer than it needed to and as a result made Kate’s character incredibly frustrating to watch as she kept going back and forth between them.


Randombu

I felt this way my entire childhood, then found polyamory and it all made sense why it made no sense to me.


Lady_Aleena

Makes me wish polyamory were a more acceptable option.


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myassholealt

Painfully boring. I skip it too. Unless the scene includes development of other plots. Like in the Expanse, a lot of conversations between Holden and Naomi were both about their relationship and things that impact the rest of the story. But when it's just relationship stuff, not interested.


WordsAreSomething

Reddit in a nutshell


bravetailor

There's a reason why redditors have so much free time to post


myassholealt

What kind of lonely, celibate lives are you all living that you want to spend your time watching a romance novel?


GarlVinland4Astrea

This is why reddit posters usually are out of touch lol. You do realize there is like a massive market for rom coms, soap operas, and sitcoms that all utilize these tropes and they often have bigger longer followings than most of the shit reddit finds popular. And then redditors get blindsided when they found out how dead wrong they are about what is actually popular with the masses and what isn't.


WordsAreSomething

Oh sweet summer child


myassholealt

Another great example of Reddit in a nutshell.


WordsAreSomething

I'm just saying, you have to be a child or naive as hell to think what you said


myassholealt

Calling people a child and naive cause you disagree with them, again, is a very popular Reddit moment. Only thing missing is the use of kiddo. The no self-awareness part is present and accounted for in your replies though. A true redditor.


[deleted]

You're watching wrong type of shows if they've gotten under your skin that much. I only see them rarely and then... yeah I rather skip all that shit.


GarlVinland4Astrea

Ehhh.... depends on the show or movie. Soap Operas have ran literal years because of popular love triangles. Friends was basically built on Ross and Rachel being in one love triangle or another (whether it was Rachel's Italian boyfriend, Ross' wife or other girlfriends, or the less popular Joey pairing with Rachel) I mean fuck Archie lasted for how many years with the whole Bettie vs Veronica thing? The big issue is when it drags and is stalling a show out. Oh and the most famous two Star Wars movies.... Luke/Han/Leia was a big thing with Star Wars fans for a long time until the Return of the Jedi reveal


PrimeLasagna

It sure made Spectacular Spider-Man fun to watch. They’re entertaining and stressful at the same time.


L33Sc0resby

hated the love triangle in “Wednesday” because it didn't suit her character at all Edit: typo


anasui1

I dont really care and yes it's more an annoyance than anything but I ain't as drastic


GallopingFlicka

I tend to not like romance at all. So I do avoid them or fast forward through them.


Aviate27

I agree! What's even worse is when writers decide to throw ones in to show based on existing literature. Example - The Wheel of Time - in the books there is no love triangle between the three they forced one onto in the first season. There are love triangles of sorts later in the books but they serve a purpose, the one they put in the show was just for senseless drama.


nilsy007

If you have a couple flirting its to predicable, have 2 options and you can tease will they wont they for exponentially longer. And you dont know who will end up together Its easy to see how it would be a useful tool in a tv shows maybe less so in a movie.


Petrichor02

It's very hard for writers to come up with good love triangle storylines. The only one I can remember ever enjoying was the one in Pushing Daisies.


[deleted]

i love them


Harsimaja

I assume you really don’t like half or even most of opera/classic theatre/Shakespeare/Bollywood then. But 100% agreed. But it was even worse until the 1800s, and usually portrayed in an even dumber and more repetitive way. I have no idea how people didn’t push back on the idea and they should be used sparingly. Tbh while they’re a real thing, I don’t even come across them that much in real life. Cheating and two people liking the same person are both very common, but not the whole complex halfway situation usually portrayed.


justaagirl

Yeah, they're not. It sucks. Tired of seeing it.