Shameful confession of taste in fictional relationships

[lesbiassparrow]

Hello, I'm lesbiassparrow and I have just realised that I like love triangles. Oh, feck it, I love them.  I think that really smart people probably hate them because they jerk around the viewer/reader for cheap melodramatic thrills, but the thing is, I just can't get enough of cheap melodrama. I'm a sucker for that stuff.

I have one requirement though: the person at the centre has to really feel for the other two. It's not a good love triangle unless they are conflicted about which one they should pick and struggle to remain honourable throughout it. So if you know of any shows or books that I might have missed that feature love triangles of this sort please feel free to recommend them to me.  Who knows, a steady diet of this stuff might cure me.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles will probably ping your buttons.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Oh! This book keeps getting recommended to me. I think I will try and find a copy of the first books this weekend so I can bring it on my travels.

Excellent.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I will warn you, though; Suela's Dunnett icon reads "The first hundred pages of my fandom are really fucking confusing", and they so are.


There's a charming (to me, anyway) and well-resolved triangle in Jennifer Crusie's Fast Women.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Puts it on her reading list. This is going to be the summer of love triangles!

[elspethsheir.livejournal.com]

I'm certain that you've seen the Ivanhoe with Sam Neill, which - guh!!

I would also like to recommend Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan, which reminded me a bit of Ivanhoe, and is absolutely fabulous and makes me tear up when I read it. There is talk of a film, but I don't know when/if it will happen.

What are some of your favourites?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I think I've seen all the Ivanhoes; it's a favourite of mine.

For love triangles on the TV and movies, I like pretty much all of them (they used to have a good one on ER with Carter, Abby and Luka back in the day when I watched the show). At the moment I am partial to Jack-Kate-Sawyer on Lost and the Wolverine-Jean-Scott thing in the X-men.

In books, I think Trollope does them so well - they seem to be a staple of his. The one in the Vicar of Bullhampton is rather excellent as is the one in The Way We Live Now, because there needs to be real pain at the choice when it is made and there is here. And the one in Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Lonliness broke my heart.

Personally, I blame Vergil - the Iarbas-Dido-Aeneas one is a literary classic!

[luftballoons.livejournal.com]

Sadly, being a Passions fan, I am SO SICK OF LOVE TRIANGLES OH MY GOD.

In fandom I rather like the Draco/Ginny/Hary triangles, since they usually involve her torn between what she wants and what she's idolized, which can be interesting.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Heresy! How can you ever tire of love triangles!

Actually, I do understand that they can overstay their welcome and quite frequently they do becuase they work so well as a plot generator, but I still love them. I am a sad, sad person.

Perhaps not watching Passions helps?

[lilly-rose.livejournal.com]

Do you watch any anime at all? If not, would you give one a chance? A dystopic film noir mind f- done in the "realistic" style? If so, try The Big O . One *dozy* of a triangle, and very involving one. It more than meets your requirement.. You do get the feeling that the hero does care for both women for very different reasons.

Not that R. Dorothy couldn't take Angel's scrawny butt. 287 pound android verses Mata Hari Barbie? No contest.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I've never really watched anime; not out of any dislike, just more I don't know what's really good. When I get back from travels I think I will check that one out especially if it has the good love triangle thing going.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[menin-aeide.livejournal.com]

Do you only like balanced triangles (i.e. A and B love C)? How about A loves B loves C loves A triangles?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I prefer when there is something between C and the other two. It doesn't have to be mad love, but something so that they feel horribly conflicted and struggle to do the right thing but are not sure what that might be.

Do you have a suggestion for the other sort? Because I am willing to be convinced...

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm right with you - I've never understood the idea that love triangles=badness, but perhaps that's because I have always been INSANELY in love with all Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere and Tristan-Isolde-Mark stories! I LOVE THEM ALL!!! (Also, I really love "friendship to the brink of death" Vorenus/Pullo type non-romantic stories!)

I am trying to think of how the Lymond books are a love "triangle" and I can't, but I do love them a lot (but there is the 100-page barrier thing). Some friends of mine find them awfully florid, but I love them anyway.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Think about the various women (and men!) whose romantic needs Lymond is constantly playing off against one another. Or about a certain lady who is prominent in Book 1.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Well, playing someone off against someone else isn't quite what I think of as a "love-triangle" - for me, a love triangle is when two people are in love withe same person who only loves one of them back or something... There's an implied equality (for me) and, I dunno, I never feel like that's true about Lymond. I think we just have different definitions of "triangle" but I don't want to spoil lesbiassparrow, so won't get into details :P

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Sighs for the poor misunderstood love triangles. They are the stuff of legend (literally in the examples you use). I think the negative reactions have a lot to do with them getting drawn on TV shows, but as they are like crack to me I don't care.

And I love the 'best friends no matter where it leads us' story also. Which is why sometimes I get stupidly irked when everyone then says it's about the pair doing it. Sometimes non-romantic love can be strong and meaningful - and even stronger than the romantic sort - without involving shagging.

I'm going to try the Lymond stories if I can find them before I leave as they sound nice and solid material for a long trip. As long as I know there is something good awaiting after the first 100 pages I will struggle through those - and florid prose is no stranger to me, so I think I will manage.