Marie Brennan on Love Triangles

[meganbmoore]

swan_tower, author of the awesome feminist fantasy duology Doppelganger and Warrior and Witch, has posted an article on love triangles here.

My opinion on 99% of the blasted things is fairly well documented, but this is interesting(make it really necessary or I'm gone, make it the main conflict and kill me now, have it there just for the angst and get chunked against something, and in all cases, there had better be something compelling to keep me going.)  I particularly like this part:

It might seem all dramatic and heroic to have one of your candidates die nobly at the climax of the story, but overwhelmingly readers want the heroine to make up her own damn mind. In other words, don’t cheese out of your own conflict; step up and take responsibility for developing your characters, and make them make the hard choices.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

but overwhelmingly readers want the heroine to make up her own damn mind.

This is also kind of why the love triangle resolution in the latest Mercy Thompson was a letdown. Because Mercy didn't choose. It was a sort of "You're not really in love with me. I knew this but was just waiting for you to realize it" sort of thing and wow, that sounds even more lame writing it out like that.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I never liked the "other man" dying to solve the love triangle. It felt like not only a cop out that cheapened the real relationship, but also unfair to the third wheel who did nothing more than love someone. I'm all for everyone ending up with an OTP in the end, much like a movie from the thirties.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

And not make the choice obvious! Or if you make the choice obvious, don't have her hook up with the other guy for no apparent reason!

*shakes fist at Wolf Moon*

. . . I'm in a tangenty mood today.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

*waves at Pearl Harbor*

Just the movie that came immediately to mind, and didn't go away

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

ITA about forcing characters to make choices (preferably hard ones) and responsibility for their own actions. I'm always carping about it as an editor. Also, one of my favorite romantic triangles ever is John vs. John over Aeryn. *sigh*