Do you like Love Triangles?

[King Lycan]

I hate it..... love triangles are a drag

[stelok]

Yes I like love triangles because it contributes to a good romance story. Without a love triangle there is no conflict, no tension.

Cardcaptor Sakura, SDF- Macross, Canvas 2 and Strawberry Eggs were good splendid examples.

[justsomeguy]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

There were 3 girls clearly in love with Tomoya in the show. Yet it was very one sided. Well I guess you can clal it a love diamond if you will.
A love triangle is a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two[/SPOILER]

A harem does not necessarily form triangles/polygons!

Clannad fails both conditions in that definition. There is only ONE romantic link: between Tomoya and Nagisa. Tomoya is unaware of the feelings of the other girls. The relationships among the girls are too weak to form a triangle, except between the twins, and Tomoya ignores both of them.

If you map out Clannad's relationships, there is no closed shape at all: 1) Arrow pointing from Kyou to Tomoya; 2) Arrow pointing from Ryou to Tomoya; 3) Arrow pointing from Kotomi to Tomoya; 4) Arrow pointing from Tomoyo to Tomoya; 5) Arrows between Tomoya and Nagisa pointing at each other.

Compare that to:

To-Love-Ru: 1) Lala loves Rito; 2) Lala and Haruna are friends; 3) Haruna and Rito have crushes on each other; 4) Rito is developing feelings for Lala. Forms a triangle. Extra relationships, such as Run and Yui's crushes on Rito, form extra spokes but not triangles with the Lala-Haruni-Rito system.

Shana: 1) Shana loves Yuji; 2) Kazumi has a crush on Yuji; 3) Yuji cares for both girls; 4) Ike loves Kazumi; 5) Ike is best frends with Yuji. Forms a double triangle.

In order to have a love triangle, one character must waffle between two or more romantic interests, or there has to be a A-->B, B-->C, C-->A circuit.

[qtipbrit]

Well, a love polygon requires another real male character to created. Youhei played the role of the comic relief character, so his actual involvement in what little romance Clannad had was grossly insignificant.

However, Clannad did rather poorly as a romance in the first place, almost ignoring the relationship of the main characters completely and focusing rather on comedy and a character drama arc or two. And as I said before, there really wasn't much behind the other girls' emotions towards Tomoya, so calling it a harem would actually be adequate, as it suffered from many similar pitfalls as well.

From his definition, Reckoner isn't incorrect either. Romantic connections aren't implied, and so several of the other female characters are connected through sibling relationships, rivalry, friendships, etc.
In some "love triangles", romantic feelings towards the secondary character from the lead are never really apparent and are often simply implied by the viewer him/herself; some examples include ef, Da Capo, the latter half of Shuffle!, etc.

[Ermes Marana]

I hate love triangles in which A leads on B, even though A actually likes C, thus setting up B to eventually be devastated.

This makes A a despicable person, yet A is usually the lead character you are supposed to root for.

On the other hand, I am fine with love triangles in which A likes B and B likes C, or in which A likes C and B likes C, or A likes B, B likes C, C likes A.

[LazyCanuck]

Spoiler for Take a guess:

Take a wild guess as to what i voted for?

(yes that is all my amazing editing skills!)

[anime ronin]

love triangles always makes the story more heated and suspesnsful. plus its always fun to predict who will be the one picked in the end and who you want to be picked.

[DunRz]

Actually,i don't like it unless they made it right.Whenever i watch any harem it's like you already know who will be picked , Like "Okazaki met Nagisa first then the others,and in the end,he ends up with Nagisa" or maybe i'm wrong.

[Tiran86]

Not all of them are good, but yeah I generally like them.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by LazyCanuck

Spoiler for Take a guess:

Haha. Oh God, Shana II was horrible. First they were angsty like hell over Konoe Fumina, then after many episodes of badly done teen drama they started acting nice to each other. First time was fine, second was dry, and by the third time I was wishing that Shana would just put out her flame sword and burn Kazumi to ashes rather than the sappy shit they had going. "Mature?" Hahahaha. Who are you kidding?

And over whom? A dead man! Dead! And until his Shining Moment of Awesome when he broke that mage's neck he was a piece of indecisive wimp, his intelligence in battle completely ignored in favor of his utter idiocy in love.

By the time the show ended a majority of the fans hated Kazumi with a passion, a minority also openly voiced concern with "Shana's change in character" (not daring to insult the popular favorite directly), and everybody was tired of it all.

That, friends, is how a love triangle should not be done.

[Mushi]

We must have love triangles or all us shippers would wither up and die.

[dragon4dudes]

I voted "if done right yes" simply because if almost anything is done right, then its good.

[bbduece]

The competition of the triangle give the romance some flare. I'll admit, harems do dap a bit into my fantasies ^^ .

[xia]

I love triangles usually.
But right now i'm fighting my way through Kimi Kiss and the the fact that I loathe this show is thanks to love triangles.

When it's done right it's great and makes me love the show.
When done wrong it turns me off.

[leodamine]

Haha. Oh God, Shana II was horrible. First they were angsty like hell over Konoe Fumina, then after many episodes of badly done teen drama they started acting nice to each other. First time was fine, second was dry, and by the third time I was wishing that Shana would just put out her flame sword and burn Kazumi to ashes rather than the sappy shit they had going. "Mature?" Hahahaha. Who are you kidding?

And over whom? A dead man! Dead! And until his Shining Moment of Awesome when he broke that mage's neck he was a piece of indecisive wimp, his intelligence in battle completely ignored in favor of his utter idiocy in love.

By the time the show ended a majority of the fans hated Kazumi with a passion, a minority also openly voiced concern with "Shana's change in character" (not daring to insult the popular favorite directly), and everybody was tired of it all.

That, friends, is how a love triangle should not be done.

I couldn't even finish the whole series. I made it to 16 and left for multiple reasons. But all in all the relationship chart for that show was cool at first, in season 1. But then it went down the drain. Thank god I stopped.

Edit: I messed up the quotes. Sorry Irenicus

[Irenicus]

I ought to be on topic for once (it's amazing no one has called on me yet over my various transgressions), so...

I really do prefer a love story where it's not a love triangle. To be honest, I usually dislike angst in general -- when I appreciate angst, it's because the characters made me care beforehand, not because I like watching kittens cry -- and a love triangle translates automatically into one. Heck, even the most hardcore comedies take a step back from the laughs and happy sounds when they need to resolve the triangle, and suddenly there's this mix of poisonous angst in your porridge of pure comedy, and I'm like, hmm... However it ends, unless the polygamy route is taken (rare, and nine times out of ten also suck*) somebody's going to get hurt.

It's a lot more fun seeing a romance develop between two interesting people, regardless of gender and, erm, race. Reciprocated feelings? Count me in!

I think that's a lot more romantic than wanting a love triangle, but that's just me I guess. Plus, personally I think it takes more skill to make a romance with two and keep in interesting than a tango for three and a free angst party that many romances do.

A love dodecahedron is an exception though. Those are always fun if only for the wtf factor.

*statistics certified by the Committee For Making Up Statistics On the Spot

Originally Posted by leodamine

Edit: I messed up the quotes. Sorry Irenicus

We all do it from time to time.

On Shana II: while your stopping at 16 means you've saved yourself from a lot of vomit-inducing sappiness, it does mean you've missed one good moment our hero Yuuji has in the series though.

So, like, you might want to take a second look and watch one or two episodes more...I'm not sure which number are they, 19-20? You can ignore the ending (nothing special, just your usual "big battle climax" action anime ending) but the episode where he faced off with the mage and the one where they fought Zabrac was pretty cool.

Coincidentally, both episodes have "romance" taking a back seat, if showing up at all. Coincidentally.

[khryoleoz]

I know I'd like to be in one as the affectionate object of two hot girls. Heck, give me my harem with Mutsumi Otohime, Mahoro Ando, Mikuru, Teletha Testarossa, Sora Naegino, and an older Tomoyo Daidouji.

[Zeroryoko1974]

I am a sucker for harem and love triangles like True Tears (Noe losing still makes me rage), and Shuffle

[Mushi]

Originally Posted by Zeroryoko1974

I am a sucker for harem and love triangles like True Tears (Noe losing still makes me rage), and Shuffle

Noe/True Tears was my first serious shipping experience. I was pulling so hard for her, I think I hurt something.

[momobunny]

Originally Posted by LazyCanuck

Spoiler for Take a guess:

Take a wild guess as to what i voted for?

(yes that is all my amazing editing skills!)

Awww I like Kazumi, but I wanted her to give up on Yuji and just get with Ike. This triangle I did not like.

But I voted for the I don't usually care option because I usually don't care much.