There are endless possibilities of romance tropes for a book to follow. Friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, fake dating. Every trope has its flaws, but the most overdone, fake trope is by far the love triangle trope.
There’s so much wrong with this trope. For one, it’s incredibly toxic in many ways. Two people fighting over another person is such a weird thing to write about. If you like two people at the same time, you don’t like either of them enough to have a healthy relationship because if the attraction was actually strong enough for a relationship, there wouldn’t even be a debate on which one you should choose.
In books especially, there is almost always a very obvious option that the main character is going to end up with at the end. In very popular books, there was never any real competition between the two. For example, in The Hunger Games, Katniss’s relationship with Peeta was so much stronger than her relationship with Gale. In The Summer I Turned Pretty, Belly was obviously going to stay with Conrad. And in Twilight, Bella’s love for Jacob was never going to be stronger than her love for Edward.
There is always a better option in love triangles. The main character is always going to run back to the person they love more, and it’s extremely easy to predict which one it will be.
Additionally, people picking sides of the love triangle will always cause disagreements, no matter the fandom. Again with the previous examples, anyone who is team Gale, team Jeremiah, or team Jacob are always going to be looked at weirdly when they tell people which character they like more, because anyone familiar with these stories knows that the other choice is better for the main character.
It’s like this to a point where I’m convinced love triangles are just not real. Obviously they can be written about, but since they’re so common, it seems like it’s just there to thicken the plot. Of course a good romance novel needs a bit of angst, but there are so many ways to add conflict without a third party getting involved.
I am so tired of love triangles because they always turn out the same way. The main character falls in love with one of them, they meet another person who makes them question their feelings, they’re stuck choosing between the two, and they end up with the one the author put more time and effort into.
They’re just too predictable. Authors are generally not super subtle about which side of the love triangle they like better. I’ve never read a love triangle story that I was surprised about the results of. And because of their predictability, they don’t hit as hard emotionally, and they make reading the story boring.
There are so many interesting plotlines to explore, yet people always resort back to love triangles. We need something different and new. Authors need to turn away from the cliche and write something that tugs at the heart strings. Surprise me. Make me want to read more.
