Hi. My name is Becky, and I love love triangles. I've met some who oppose of geometric romance, so I wanted to sit down, and get out some of my thoughts, and subject you to them at the same time. Hurray!
Love triangles are when one person digs someone, and someone else digs them. It's not necessary that two points of the triangle dig each other, but that's often the way.
In Fight Club's case, he liked Marla, and Marla just liked him back, but he thought that meant she liked someone else. He was a little confused. It's okay.
So, who would say, "I don't like these love triangles!" when obviously it's a smashing happening? I don't know, dudes. But they say things like, "This is a trope, and tropes are evil!" So, is it a trope? Define "trope!" A trope is, according to whatever came up when I Googled it, "a common or overused theme or device." BUSTED! Looks like love triangles are a trope, guys. Shut it down.
Why are you still reading? We've decided it's a trope, and we all know tropes are bad. Move on with your lives.
Fine. Okay. Let's divide tropes into two categories, JUST FOR FUN! First we've got our CRAPPY WRITING TROPES. In this section we'll cram all the tropes that aren't REALISTIC, and perhaps are downright insulting. IN YOU GO, ADO ANNIES OF THE WORLD! SEE YOU LATER, KAREN SMITH! References: The Oklahoma! character whose personality is promiscuity, and the Mean Girls character whose personality is promiscuous idiot. Why was there ever more than one of these!? Also, we can say goodbye to the nerd who is passed over in their career, then gets evil, and hot. I couldn't believe it when Wonder Woman 1984 did this AGAIN.
But there's another category, my friends: REALISTIC TROPES. And we should keep these. I'm making this up as I go, and so I haven't thought much about what else fits into this, and maybe we should get rid of those, but let's go ahead and put love triangles here, because - let me ask you a question; have you ever been in love? YOU HAVE!?! And did that person like you back? NO!??! Well, then my friend, congratulations, YOU HAVE BEEN IN A LOVE TRIANGLE! Wait. What? They did love you back? That's WONDERFUL! Did anyone have eyes for you, or them, while you were jonesing for each other? THEY DID?!?! You know what that means, friends? YOU'VE BEEN IN A LOVE TRIANGLE! I can almost completely 100% guaran-freaking-tee that every single relationship ever, except maybe, gosh, I hope, Adam and Eve's, has been a love triangle.
My second point.
All the best movies have love triangles. Gone With The Wind, Hunger Games, and not even just romances. There's also Harry Potter, Encanto, Indiana Jones, Les Miserables, X-Men, Spider-man.... We've also got Gladiator and Star Wars which both managed to have love triangles even when two of the points were related! Lord of the Rings? Check! Even your precious Titanic is one big love triangle. So stop bashing on love triangles, when you know you love them! Even if they love someone else.