Trope Talk: Love Triangles

Trope Talk: Love Triangles

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Happy belated valentine’s day! Let’s talk about a super fun trope with absolutely no problems that I DEFINITELY personally understand.

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38 Responses

  1. Jack Rackam says:

    IMO the directional triangle is the most interesting and “true” love triangle, though I’m sad to say I can’t think of any examples besides the Casca–>Griffith–>Guts–>Casca triangle from Berserk. Something tells me there must be a case where someone tried to make it straight by adding a fourth character but I’m hard pressed to come up with one of those either

    • Aditya Chavarkar says:

      You are a big anime fan huh…
      Btw any plans to do a video on The founding of kievian rus
      Will get you views with the current crisis.

    • cai nyo says:

      I tried writing a directional one with characters I didn’t hate but couldn’t diecied who’d end up together

    • Martina SFR says:

      @musgodness That’s really good, but please before you start reading it i need to inform you of some things about this manga, just to be safe that you didn’t get a wrong impression of what you’ll find there:

      1. Berserk is very extplicit whit it’s depictions of s*xual v*olence and alike, like to the point that it’s hard to avoid talking about berserk story and caracters as a whole whiteout taking them into account, especially the more explicits ones.
      So if you have any problems whit that PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF CHTULU DON’T READ THIS MANGA

      2. The fist (2-3?) chapters of the manga are kind of rough on overall quality, to the point that there’s some moments that Guts feels very out-of-character in retrospective (keep in mind that this story was basically improvised from the start). Luckily it gets good really REALLY fast, like im still questioning to this day what kind of black magic did Miura use to improve in such a short span of time.

      3. While bringing up conversations of berserk online you’ll probably encounter some individuals that have a very poor taste in jokes and opinions (and overall compute on 4chan logic). Some years ago this faccion was a major force on the berserk community, but they got themselves exiled when they’re constant whining about berserk chapters release schedule and the autors supposed laziness stop being “fuNny” (rest in peace Miura).
      So be careful where you bring it up, there’s still some pocket colonies of them in the wilderness.

    • Miss Ously says:

      Naruto Sasuke Sakura is one

    • Jibek Mechler says:

      School of good and evil had one, and then they added a fourth person, not to make another character straight but to add even more drama

  2. Jacob VanValkenburg says:

    “There’s nothing simpler and more painless than forging a lifelong mutualistic bond with another human being and exposing the white-hot core of your fundamental personhood to the unconditional judgement of someone who will on some level always be a stranger to you. Romance is a well-documented straight line from prolonged eye contact to happily ever after.”

    I love that. That is easily the best intro you’ve ever done.

  3. Shadowofdimentio says:

    I feel like another huge issue is that due to B or A being the worst. While C being bad means almost nothing to the plot, A and B are vital. If A is gonna be with B but only C seems interesting than the story forces a bad plot. In the case where A is the bad one (or at least not what you care about) then the story starts to really suffer. A lot of shippers will ship B and C because those two will interact in unique ways and actual develop. Beastars is a story about a Deer and a wolf fighting over a rabbit but I have yet to see anyone actually worried about who ends up with the rabbit because the wolf and deer are just so fun together to the point even the writer just forgets about A (the rabbit) while the Deer and Wolf become the best characters. This happens a lot. I’ve been watching Vampire diaries and my god are the brothers way more likeable, charming and overall more interesting when they aren’t talking about the main girl. Their family heart to hearts was the only thing keeping me going through their bickering over A (who is the worst)

  4. Joshua Hancock says:

    This whole video I was like: “so when are we gonna address the dire wolf in the room (by which I mean Jacob from Twilight)”. Was not disappointed.

    • BonaparteBardithion says:

      He’s the poster boy for character assassination and hand of author. Was waiting for him that whole section.

  5. Timothy McLean says:

    7:05: And then there’s Miraculous Ladybug, whose fanfic community largely revolves around the fact that both of its protagonists are in love with exactly one of the other’s identities. The fandom calls this a “love square,” and I’m not surprised that it’s basically unique because it requires a _very_ specific set of circumstances to pull off. You can’t accidentally write a love square.

    • Jibek Mechler says:

      Honestly I want to see that trope done, but their enemies not allies

    • werebunny131 says:

      DNAngel also had a love square: Boy 1 likes Girl A, who likes Boy 2, who likes Girl B, who likes Boy 1. The boys share a body, the girls are twins.

    • Daito says:

      @T- 115, no, the Time Cube, as discovered by the Wisest Man on Earth, Dr. Gene Ray.

    • Violet Smith says:

      @Alexa Martinez I bring you: love nonagon. The four regulars, the four identities luka and kagami have, and cat walker. This forced me to look up ” nine sided polygon” so I hate it.

    • BlueAngel says:

      @PedantiCat i mean most fics i read are a whole lot better than the show my gods its the only reason hat I can keep watching it I have to go through so much fanfic to like the characters. But I’m way too deep soo now I’m waiting to see how this crap show ends.

  6. Anti Theist says:

    Love Triangles: how will B and C resolve their rivalry?
    Homestuck: have you considered hate-shipping?

  7. arthurpprado says:

    Ah, the good old problem with any romance in fiction: giving us reasons to care

  8. Bystander232 says:

    Note: “Othello” is a unique mock love triangle. Desdemona (A) and Cassio (C) have no romantic interest in each other; Desdemona loves Othello entirely. But Othello (B) blows up his own life and Desdemona’s because he can’t believe that their happiness is real. In the end, (C) – who’s not even aware he’s supposedly part of a love triangle – is the only character left on the field.

  9. Just A Dude says:

    9:50 The unlikelihood of someone going full Bad End in a save-the-world type story actually makes it all the more powerful when it happens. I’ve only seen a few, but every one of them has left an impression.

  10. Zack 1 says:

    Meanwhile someone that mostly gives terrible writing advice:
    *”Good, now do the sacred LOVE DODECAHEDRON!!”*

    • Toa Arcan says:

      @leadfoot9x You’ve got a piece of fandom history right there. Very sad, very stupid history.

      What issue was it, do you remember?

    • leadfoot9x says:

      @Toa Arcan What *_really_* subverted my expectations was buying random Sonic back issues on eBay and then unexpectedly receiving comics in the mail with a little certificate saying “This book was used as evidence in the court case K. Penders vs. Archie Comics” along with an advertisement for the Lara Su Chronicles.

    • leadfoot9x says:

      This really was a missed collaboration opportunity. They should have paid him 20 bucks to record a line at the end or something.

    • Violet Smith says:

      Sounds like miraculous lmao

    • John Weiss [hehim] says:

      @Belly Dancer Em  😂😂😂 You too, eh?

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