Where have I been? Away. But Tuesday I ran a marathon with my best friend. And no, you're not mistaken. I did run two marathons in two months. And a year ago I could barely walk. So yeah, if you work your ass off, you can do something great. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
But that's neither here nor there, so let's rant, since it's been forever. Today I wanna talk about: The Tragedy of Love Triangles
(On a side note, am I the only one that finds it mildly strange to refer to a situation where one person is in love with two others as a triangle if the other two aren't, in turn, in love with each other? It's more of a love angle...like...acute or obtuse, y'know. Whatever. Moving on.)
I have three main points I want to cover here, so let's get started:
1. The love interests are always drastically different
It's always the bad boy and the childhood, nice-guy best friend. And I get it to an extent. You don't want two interchangeable characters, but come on. How is it possible that they're the total opposites?
I know I said I didn't date in high school, but I did have flings (as we all know by now) and even though I was known for not having a type, the guys I had flings with did have some similarities.
I mean, I had flings with tall guys, short guys, older guys, younger guys, dark hair, light hair, red hair, dark eyes, blue eyes, smart guys, dumb guys, all kinds of guys. But they had things in common. Out of the six guys I'll admit to having flings with, three were very smart, five were athletes, four were into the arts, and all six enjoyed partying. I could pair any two and find at least three similarities to them.
But these stories are crazy. The bad boy drinks and smokes and parties and treats women poorly and has her breaking the law and going to wild get togethers and stripping naked at every chance they have.
Then the good guy is taking her to fancy dinners, holding the door for her, treating her like a princess, and just rolling out the red carpet.
I feel like we sacrifice too much of the male character when we try to make them such polar opposites. They have to fit so carefully into this strict mold and I don't like that. For once, I don't want the love interests to be classified as a type. You should not, under any circumstances, be able to classify your character into one category if you say they are well rounded.
To me, a well-rounded character has more focus on their personality than their role. They might be a nice guy, but nice guys don't always have to play by the rules. Bad guys don't always have to be on the edge of insanity.
Let's focus more on the characters and the experiences than the labels.
2. It's obvious who the MC will end up with
It's going to be the bad boy. I'm telling you that right now. Why? Two reasons: 1. Bad boys are in, and 2. The childhood, nice-guy best friend can always go back to being just the best friend (because he cares so much about the girls' happiness) and it becomes a win-win for everyone.
I hate that. Not just because it's so common it's not even fun anymore, but because the bad boy becomes this artificially reformation of his former self.
It's not cute when a guy who's been a dick to you forever (calling you names, constantly controlling you, always giving you orders, controlling your life (as most of these bad boys do to the MCs)) finally does one nice thing. It's not. If he opens a door for her, everyone in the comments is saying "awwwwww, that's so cute" and totally ignoring the comment he's almost inevitably making about her "tight ass".
I hate that. So much.
I remember the thing my best friend and I fought about the most when I was with the guy that was a real jerk to me was just that: he was a jerk. And I remember we were sitting in my car one night talking about him (after, probably the eighth time I'd broken up with that guy and was thinking about getting back together with him) and my best friend pointed to the pennies in my ash tray and said "if you keep on like this, that's the only change you have coming". (And that's just a perfect example of why he's the professional and I'm not)
And that really hit me hard. I wasn't going to make this guy stop being a jerk to me by always running right back to him. But that's just what these MCs do. They catch the bad boy cheating and they go right back. They let him treat them like they're kids. They're assholes and I don't like it. At all.
Am I saying that the childhood best friend should win? No. Because that's just as bad, because let's be honest, she treats him like shit the whole time. He deserves better than to be second best. He deserves better than to let that female MC walk all over him.
For once, I want a love triangle to end in everyone learning to love themselves. That would be great.
3. There is not enough dilemma or urgency.
You guys know that I'm pretty open about my short comings. I'm not ever going to pretend to you guys that I haven't been a bitch or a brat. All teenagers are, so I've definitely been there and done that. Hell, I'm still a brat.
That's why I feel it necessary to say this: these MCs have absolutely no emotional struggles with bouncing between two guys. The worst I've seen in a love triangle was a quick explanation of how hard the girl had it because she was so in love with both.
But come on. I would send all day with one guy and all night with the other and to say that I was cheating on either would be a gross misrepresentation of our relationships, but I still felt bad. I felt horrible. It was like having a double life, because I didn't talk about one when I was with the other. It's was physically and emotionally draining. And those weren't even really physical relationships.
I can't imagine if I'd been sleeping with both, but I think that would be something really new and really interesting to explore. I always say sex doesn't have to be a conflict, but having a connection to both and a loyalty to neither would be exhausting.
For once, I want the female MC to put aside her desires for both and really assess what she's doing. If you can't pick between two people, let them both go. Because if you can't give someone your whole heart, nothing good is going to come of it. I wanna see this dilemma. I want the MC to stop continuing both relationships just for her own amusement. It's honestly just for her benefit, because nothing good comes from dragging people on a string.
Can we please have an MC actually feel remorseful for using people? Or at least own up to what she's doing. They're always innocent. They're always the victim. I hate that.
Honestly, acting that way changes you. Being with two totally different people (as we've discussed already that these love interests are) means that at some point, some part of your personality becomes an act.
When you start compromising who you are for other people it starts to get scary. That's the point when you need to step back, assess who you've become, think about who you want to be, and figure out how to get there. I'd like to see a character actually do that.
4. POV is important and should be played with more.
It's always told from the girl who is being fought over by two guys. I guess that's every teenage girl's dream now? I can't remember being so boy crazy as a teenager, but I must have been. Either way, a girl can have other aspirations than being the rope in a childish game of tug-of-war.
But I want the story to be narrated by one of the love interests. How does it feel to have competition? And as cheesy as it sounds, how do you step back and ask yourself which of you is better for the person you claim to truly care about. Because in the end, shouldn't you just care about what's best for them?
And how do you handle knowing that the person that you care about, and must have some feelings for you, also has a special relationship with someone else. That has to suck. So bad. I think there is just so much more emotion you could explore.
At some point you have to make comparisons. And we all know that comparing yourself to someone else is one of the quickest ways to self-destruct. Someone please explore that.
But what happens at the point where you become "the other woman". I'm not sure I've ever really been there, but can you imagine how it must feel to love someone who loves someone else. To always be the second choice? To always be the rebound?
If you have or decide to write a story from the point of view of a love interest instead of the target, please tell me. Please leave the link in the comments. I want to read that badly (and I'm looking to get back into reading more here on Wattpad, so seriously do it). (Unfortunately I'm not talking about being in love with the womanizer boy that all the girls want to be with. I'm talking about a legitimate one love interest with another option).
I want to read that. Someone please do it. I want that side of the story. I want those emotions. I want that desperation and that ambition. I want something new.
And that's all I'm going to say. I'm gonna go relax now. And I'll be patiently waiting for someone to write a lovely story. Or for someone to tell me their thoughts on love triangles. That's equally important.