Love triangles—overused and boring trope, right?
Wrong, you just need to get more creative. So buckle up fandom members and tired writers, let’s talk love triangle alternatives.
The Classic Love Triangle, aka the Love V
This is your Bella/Edward/Jacob, your Katniss/Peeta/Gale. It’s been done and overdone. Person A has two people interested in them, and they have to pick which one they like best. Boring!! Let’s spice it up.
To make a REAL love triangle, we need to close the last side. Now all 3 people involved are part of their own classic love triangle. If two people end up together, the third will be double crushed because they just lost both of their potential love interests to each other. Now we’re talking.
This is like Harry/Cedric/Cho, Luna/Neville/Ginny (although not quite since it’s not all at the same time)
The Rivalry Turned Romance
Person A is just minding their own business, uninterested in both person B and person C. Person B and C both like person A though, and somewhere along the way, their rivalry turns into a romance. Think about when Alya and Nino got trapped in the panther cage and fell for each other because they had so much (their mutual crush on Marinette) in common. This is the superior love triangle, tbh.
We’re back to classic love triangle land, but we’re spicing it up by adding another one!! One of the people in the classic love triangle is in another classic love triangle. Percy has to choose between Annabeth and Rachel, Annabeth has to choose between Percy and Luke (*gags at mention of luke*). This can end in two couples or in one couple and two lonely people.
The True Double Love Triangle
Ooh what’s this? It’s Miraculous Ladybug, of course. Person A (Marinette) likes Person C (Adrien), but she also likes Person B (Luka). Person C (Adrien) likes Person A (Marinette) and D (Kagami). BUT!! If we add in Marigami and Lukadrien, there’s our true love triangles coming out. Of course this chaos is in Miraculous because not a single character in this show this love triangle is straight.
I honestly can’t think of a good example in any fandoms I’m in for this scenario, but it’s pretty simple: person A has a plethora of potential love interests to choose between.
The Bachelor With Internal Love Triangles
The love interests got tired of waiting for person A to choose one of them and started showing interest in each other.
The Bi Panic/Irene Adler/I am just overall frustrated that these two people are dating or into each other
Person B and C are into each other, maybe already in a relationship, and person A likes both of them (unreciprocated). This is kind of like Irene Adler having an affair with both people in a marriage, except they would have both been into her too. A better example is when my crush in 7th grade started dating the girl that I didn’t know I had a crush on because I still thought I was straight.
The Plus One, aka the Johnlock
Person A and B are in a confirmed and committed relationship (John & Mary Watson), but one of them is not so secretly in love with Person C (Sherlock).
This is a similar situation to the plus one, but it’s just person C having an unrequited crush on someone in a relationship. For example, Nico having a crush on Percy, who is with Annabeth. Briseis loving Patroclus who is with his soulmate Achilles.
I was going to include the Marinette/Adrien/Ladybug/Chat Noir love square but honestly wtf is that mess and how did those fools manage to have a love triangle between two people?
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