why are there so many love triangles in the west these days?
I read How to Kill a Rockstar by Tiffanie DeBartolo because of the hype and after coming across quotes from the book. I expected a story about deep, passionate love. In the book, the heroine talks about her conflict between loyalty and her love of hookups and casual sex. She falls in love with the ML but there’s another very handsome man in the story, and somehow she ends up sleeping with him as well. I always thought exclusivity, and the loyalty that comes with it, was a part of passionate love.
There’s also the popular series Clockwork Angel, which I haven’t read and don’t plan to. Apparently, the FL falls in love with two men. She ends up with both somehow. I find it unfair. These LT stories are not even tragic anymore, because it's obvious it's greed on the author's part.
Sometimes, as in How to Kill a Rockstar, the ML has “revenge sex” with other women, and the author makes sure the reader knows he is nowhere near as attracted to them as he is to the FL. It feels as though the story is mostly about stroking the FL's ego. It felt like the FL got to fulfill her desires with the second lead she truly desired, while the ML was heartbroken. Technically, it may not count as cheating because of the plot twist, but it still feels emotionally dishonest to me. Apparently, DeBartolo’s newer book, Sorrow, features the FL in an open relationship, which honestly makes me not want to read it.
The worst LT I read is a Japanese manga called Vampire Knight. FL ends up with both monogamous men in heaven because being with both of them wasn’t possible on earth. Then there’s this manga Domestic Girlfriend, where one woman gives birth to the ML’s child but the wedding is with another woman. At this point, I feel like whenever there’s a LT Japanese manga, you almost have to expect that the main character is going to sleep with both people. It makes me feel like it’s better to avoid love triangles altogether, because older stories used to focus on who the central character would ultimately choose. Now, it often feels like the story is heading into a “both are important” direction, and if it doesn’t, the protagonist will at least f them both before going back to the main chosen love interest.
I don’t like stories like Twilight either. Bella kisses Jacob and Edward doesn't even break up with her. I don’t care if people say she was manipulated, she was biting her lip and aware of what she was doing. She shouldn’t have kissed him. And I dislike comments saying she could have been happy with her other love Jacob too I mean I'm fine with her moving on and trying to be happy but not in the sense that Edward is replaceable while in the same story Edward waited 100 years for her? I don't like the one sidedness and the double standards and hypocrisy.
If she can be equally happy with Jacob, then what’s the point? Why even write fantasy romance? At that point, it starts drifting too much into reality. In real life, yes, people can move on after breakups and find happiness with someone else if they open their hearts to love again. That’s not exactly rocket science. But I always wanted fantasy romance to be about two people who feel irreplaceable to each other. I’ve read that, in love triangles, readers often self-insert into the central character. For example, many women empathize with the heroine’s confusion between two men, while in male-centered love triangles, male readers may empathize with the hero instead. Personally, though, I don’t think I self-insert into characters. What bothers me is how the person in the middle often gets involved with both people while the other two remain loyal.
