Agreed. Vampire Diaries (and possibly True Blood) are the two situations in which the love triangel is necessary to keep the romance interesting. I admittedly don't care who Elena ends up with, not invested in the character at all. But, the tension between the three is interesting, partly because Damon and Stefan are brothers, more than that - they are close brothers who have known one another for more than 160 years and can't live without the other. Stefan made sure Damon also became a vampire, when he could just have died - because he didn't want to be alone. There's a heavy bro-romance going on in the center of that triangel.
Btvs/ATS sort of had a similar sitch - when all three are onscreen together. Angel and Spike clearly have a close relationship that exists outside of and in spite of Buffy. They'd have it regardless of her existence. Unlike VD, Buffy's existence doesn't make their relationship more interesting. The show never really played the love triangle aspect - except to the degree that each character occassionally moped over the past love that was no longer there. Spike moped over Dru. Buffy moped over Angel, then Riley. Angel moped over Buffy then Cordy. A lot of moping, but not really any true rivalry. Heck even when Angel pops up in End of Days - he doesn't share the screen with Spike. Spike is seen lurking in the background and abruptly leaves without confronting them or getting into it with Angel. There's no confrontation scene. We never see Buffy "choose" or even worry about choosing. She more or less tells Angel I love you and I love him, now go.
[I'm ignoring the comics in this bit.]
So agreed - the only triangel is the one that exists in fandom, not in reality...Buffy moved on from Angel, then she moved on from Spike. End of story.
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carisma_sensei
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Date: Oct. 4th, 2010 04:55 pm (UTC)But, the tension between the three is interesting, partly because Damon and Stefan are brothers, more than that - they are close brothers who have known one another for more than 160 years and can't live without the other. Stefan
made sure Damon also became a vampire, when he could just have died - because he didn't want to be alone. There's a heavy bro-romance going on in the center of that triangel.
Btvs/ATS sort of had a similar sitch - when all three are onscreen together. Angel and Spike clearly have a close relationship that exists outside of and in spite of Buffy.
They'd have it regardless of her existence. Unlike VD, Buffy's existence doesn't make their relationship more interesting. The show never really played the love triangle aspect - except to the degree that each character occassionally moped over the past love that was no longer there. Spike moped over Dru. Buffy moped over Angel, then Riley. Angel moped over Buffy then Cordy. A lot of moping, but not really any true rivalry. Heck even when Angel pops up in End of Days - he doesn't share the screen with Spike.
Spike is seen lurking in the background and abruptly leaves without confronting them or getting into it with Angel.
There's no confrontation scene. We never see Buffy "choose" or even worry about choosing. She more or less tells Angel I love you and I love him, now go.
[I'm ignoring the comics in this bit.]
So agreed - the only triangel is the one that exists in fandom, not in reality...Buffy moved on from Angel, then she moved on from Spike. End of story.