What makes you fall in love with a LI?

Becca C. said:

He's secretly very vulnerable and he's terrified to show it. He covers up a lot of insecurity. One of the reasons he's hated Harry since first year is because Harry basically spurned his offer of friendship in front of a huge crowd and I think he always carries that hurt. He wants to look a lot tougher than he really is, especially in front of his father (who is a pretty crappy dad, no unconditional love there).

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I actually agree with this analysis, but that made me dislike Draco more, not less. I mean, not only he is what maggi90w1 said, he’s also a weakling.

missesdash said:

I had no idea how many people dislike knowing the love interest up front. Does this count if they *start out* as the love interest? I tend to write these ambiguous romance-friendship hybrids that grow over the story. But the interest is always clear.

But I also write small casts.

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Me too, me too. I usually don't mind knowing. One exception is a fake love triangle which I often whinge about. It's when one LI is obviously never going to get MC, but the book pretends there is a triangle going on.

I like a bit of a chase. Some of my favorite YA romances are with sort of recalcitrant female MCs who struggle with their feelings, or maybe there's even a little antagonism. See: Katsa and Po in Graceling, Remy and Dexter in This Lullaby, Sam and Kent in Before I Fall. I like it when a dude is confident enough to not let a little bitchiness get him down.

Rhoda Nightingale said:

This is an interesting point, because it highlights one of the things that bugs me about love triangles in general--although I don't think you meant it that way. Slightly off-topic, but what's the dramatic appeal of a love triangle in which the OTP is blatantly obvious? I've never understood that. It happens all the time, but I always feel like, as a reader, the FMC (assuming it's the FMC) is just dicking around the Other Guy for no reason, when surely everyone else in the readership knows she's going to eventually wind up with the LI proper.

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I don't know. I don't get the appeal of that either. When I say love triangle, I don't necessarily mean that both girls (or guys) are involved with the singular person. It could simply mean an unrequited crush. What I'm referring to, however, is literally the fact that you'd have to be an idiot not see who the love interest is from my query. The other leg simply isn't a viable option for an emotionally healthy relationship, but the MC is stuck in the abusive relationship, anyway. Hope that makes sense.

I only like true love triangles when you can't tell who the MC will end up with. Kind of like with harem anime, except when even they make the LI blatantly obvious. That annoys me because I always end up rooting for the other girls and settling for alt endings.

I freaking hate love-triangles!!! If the author's main source of tension/conflict is 'Who will FMC choose, Mr. Awesome McCoolGuy or Mr. Lesser NotAsCool-ProbablySuckyGuy?' I just literally don't even feel like reading a book like that.

I thought the The Summer I Turned Pretty was doing a good job of having BOTH the boys be realistic and awesome and just really had the reader thinking 'Which one will she choose? They're both great!' and then, SPOILER: the author goes ahead and demonizes one of the boys in the last book and as him do very OOC awful thing and the girl ends up with the other boy out of default.REALLY??? REALLY??? UGHHH!!!

lolchemist said:

REALLY??? REALLY??? UGHHH!!!

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OMG, yes. Someone who understands.

The last book in the trilogy is such a let down for this very reason ( well, this and how the whole book revolved around the boring-ass wedding planning). It's like Han threw out all prior characterization of the two boys to make one of them a Golden Boy and the other one clearly the wrong choice. It was so frustrating. The second book basically didn't matter and come to find out, every bad thing the previously mentioned Golden Boy did in books #1 and #2, was justified by some altruistic intent.

Belle_91 said:

Why do all love triangles have to be about two boys competing for one girl? I'd like to see a story where the MC is competing for a boy's affection with another girl.

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I have an addendum for that: I'd like to see a story where the MC is competeing for the LI's affection with another girl who isn't a stereotypical bitchy cheerleader who couldn't be more The Wrong Choice if she served kitten 'n puppy salad at her sweet sixteen while infecting the guests with voracious alien parasites. In other words, the same thing everyone's saying about the other kind: I'd like the resolution of that kind of triangle to not be so obvious, either.

ETA: Also, I'd like more "bitchy cheerleaders" who are good guys. But I guess that's kinda off-topic.

thebloodfiend said:

I don't know. I don't get the appeal of that either. When I say love triangle, I don't necessarily mean that both girls (or guys) are involved with the singular person. It could simply mean an unrequited crush. What I'm referring to, however, is literally the fact that you'd have to be an idiot not see who the love interest is from my query. The other leg simply isn't a viable option for an emotionally healthy relationship, but the MC is stuck in the abusive relationship, anyway. Hope that makes sense.

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I assume it's because, while people know of and love the One True Love himself, the idea that the MC is desirable to others is quite popular. If you're meant to relate to the MC and feel like you're in her position, that wish fulfillment, desirability, and the power to choose whoever you want from two "perfect" options would be quite attractive.

Castaspella said:

I assume it's because, while people know of and love the One True Love himself, the idea that the MC is desirable to others is quite popular. If you're meant to relate to the MC and feel like you're in her position, that wish fulfillment, desirability, and the power to choose whoever you want from two "perfect" options would be quite attractive.

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I detest that situation. Which is probably why I've never written a "true" love triangle, in the sense of having two "perfect" options. It makes me want to strangle the girl or boy in the center and it makes me want to tell the love triangle legs to run away. I simply don't get the appeal. It makes me very violent. Probably because I can never relate to the perfect pretty (stupid) white girls in those situation.

While some situations are more complicated than this quote, I feel like Johnny Depp sums up the very, very, simple mode of thought behind YA love triangles: "If you love two people at the same time, choose the second one, because if you really loved the first one you wouldn't have fallen for the second."

The last love triangle I read was in The Future of Us. That was such a terrible book, it's just put me off boy/girl caught between two perfect people. And one of the legs wasn't even a perfect person. She treated the MC like shit. He sucked it up like a simpering idiot. Second person rule, right there.

A decent love triangle I recently read was in Flash Burnout. And the love triangle aspect isn't dancing in your face, like in most terrible YA PNR books that I simply won't force myself to read anymore. Guy has a "perfect" girlfriend. Guy has a friend whose mother is a drug addict and he wants to help her. He gets too emotionally involved. In the end, he and the second girl lose their virginity to each other and his girlfriend finds out and breaks up with him. Meanwhile, second girl takes off after her drug addict mother, leaving boy behind. It's kind of sad. He ends up alone. That is my kind of love triangle.

Belle_91 said:

Why do all love triangles have to be about two boys competing for one girl? I'd like to see a story where the MC is competing for a boy's affection with another girl.

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Nothing Like You, by Lauren Strasnick.

Bonus points. It fits this category as well:

I have an addendum for that: I'd like to see a story where the MC is competeing for the LI's affection with another girl who isn't a stereotypical bitchy cheerleader who couldn't be more The Wrong Choice if she served kitten 'n puppy salad at her sweet sixteen while infecting the guests with voracious alien parasites

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I'd like to see more bisexual love triangles. I know about Adaptation and I don't like Lo's writing style so I'm not going to read it. Just simple contemporary bi-love triangles. Bisexual characters are rarer than black characters where being black has nothing to do with the plot, though.

ArachnePhobia said:

I have an addendum for that: I'd like to see a story where the MC is competeing for the LI's affection with another girl who isn't a stereotypical bitchy cheerleader who couldn't be more The Wrong Choice if she served kitten 'n puppy salad at her sweet sixteen while infecting the guests with voracious alien parasites. In other words, the same thing everyone's saying about the other kind: I'd like the resolution of that kind of triangle to not be so obvious, either.

ETA: Also, I'd like more "bitchy cheerleaders" who are good guys. But I guess that's kinda off-topic.

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Agreed on both accounts. Why is it always the "good" MC vs. the "mean girl?" Pitting girls against each other may feel realistic for some girls, but I'd like to see some things where cliques don't rule the world. I also like bitchy cheerleaders if they're bitchy for a reason. (And also not all cheerleaders are rich, perfect popular girls in real life.)

More on topic, I was thinking about this last night and I realized that in movies, I'm drawn to characters and LIs who might be a bit philosophical or lost. People who don't quite know where they're going yet. I guess maybe that's part of why I like YA so much.

On the subject of love triangles (sorry for the derail), what bothers me is relationships being framed in terms of a competition in the first place. When a guy talks about "winning" a girl, I break out in hives, and the whole "Team ----" thing bugs the crap out of me.

But maybe that's just me--I find myself, for the second time, writing a story that includes two girls who have/have had a relationship with the same guy, and who remain friends with each other. So maybe it's just my own fantasy world where there don't have to be winners and losers.

Windcutter said:

One exception is a fake love triangle which I often whinge about. It's when one LI is obviously never going to get MC, but the book pretends there is a triangle going on.

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Totally agreed. I hate that. There's no real suspense. Like in Twilight (specifically New Moon). There's no way Bella will ever give up on Edward. So it makes it all the worse that Jacob is throwing himself at her/being way too nice to her.

At least Hunger Games kept me in suspense about who she'd end up with in the end. I'll give Collins that, as much as I generally detest love triangles.

Belle_91 said:

Why do all love triangles have to be about two boys competing for one girl? I'd like to see a story where the MC is competing for a boy's affection with another girl.

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Ashes, Ashes is a book with a situation like that. It's a lesser known YA Post Apocalyptic tale (and frankly, it's not very good). But Arachne makes the point I was going to make about it:

ArachnePhobia said:

I have an addendum for that: I'd like to see a story where the MC is competeing for the LI's affection with another girl who isn't a stereotypical bitchy cheerleader who couldn't be more The Wrong Choice if she served kitten 'n puppy salad at her sweet sixteen while infecting the guests with voracious alien parasites. In other words, the same thing everyone's saying about the other kind: I'd like the resolution of that kind of triangle to not be so obvious, either.

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That's basically what's going on in Ashes, Ashes except the girl in question isn't a cheerleader, just bitchy. It's very evident that the LI is just in the relationship because he's too weak (or even into himself) to confront her and choose the MC instead. Ugh. I hated it.

eparadysz said:

On the subject of love triangles (sorry for the derail), what bothers me is relationships being framed in terms of a competition in the first place. When a guy talks about "winning" a girl, I break out in hives, and the whole "Team ----" thing bugs the crap out of me.

So maybe it's just my own fantasy world where there don't have to be winners and losers.

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I remember seeing the Hunger Games in theatres and droves of teenage girls wearing "Team Peeta" and "Team Gale" t-shirts. I was peeved because a true fan would've read the books and already known how it resolves. And then what's the point??

Someone needs to write a "Choose your own adventure" love triangle. The author can write both endings and then have their fans war it out over which one gets made "official".

On second thought, that sounds like a terrible idea.

chicgeek said:

Someone needs to write a "Choose your own adventure" love triangle. The author can write both endings and then have their fans war it out over which one gets made "official".

On second thought, that sounds like a terrible idea.

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If she gives the rose to Johnny, turn to page 79. If she picks Jimmy instead, turn to page 92.

Actually, didn't a tv show do this recently? I think it was about a murderer instead of a love triangle, though.

I like LIs that are bad boys, snarky, sassy, flawed, charismatic... I have a thing for those relationships where the MC/LI butt heads a lot, exchange witty banter, don't necessarily agree all the time... because I like seeing relationships that aren't perfect but both sides work things out because they want it to work out.