Romance =/= Geometry

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You may have noticed that there's a poll up about the best TV love triangle. This baffles me, for several reasons.

First of all, it's a complete oxymoron to me, since I hate love triangles as a general rule, so "best" doesn't really enter the picture. I absolutely despise when shows derive their drama from all the back-and-forthing and "who will he/she choose??" Especially high school love triangles, because they're always so absurdly melodramatic and unrealistic.

I usually end up having one of three reactions when a love triangle is introduced:

1. "Obviously these two should be together, and the third wheel should take a long walk off a short pier." See: Logan/Veronica/Duncan, Pacey/Joey/Dawson.

2. "I hate every possible outcome and I want all three of them to knock it the fuck off and move on." See: Buffy/Xander/Willow, Amy/Josh/Donna.

3. "Actually, it's more of a foursome, and two of them should've just kept their damn hands off each other and not ruined their existing relationships." See: Sam/Kara/Lee/Dualla, Oz/Willow/Xander/Cordelia.

So, yeah, overall, I'm not feeling the "bestness" of the love triangle poll. But there's a particular reason this one aggravates me.

Buffy/Angel/Spike is WINNING. By a ridiculous margin.

That may come as a surprise to those who know me, given that my favorite show, my favorite character, and my favorite pairing are all to be found somewhere in there. But bear with me on this...

See, I'm over here thinking, "Seriously, people, what fucking show were you watching?" Because the thing I loved most about Buffy and her vampires is that there was none of that shit happening on the show. Buffy and Angel had their time, and then it ended. Buffy and Spike had their time, and then it ended, and except for a bizarre OOC appearance by Angel in "Chosen," it NEVER OVERLAPPED. There was never any back-and-forth about which vampire Buffy should be with (on the show at least, fandom is a whole different, absurd story, which, given the disgusting level of hatred there, ought to earn them WORST TV love triangle), because there was never more than one choice at a time. And even in Angel season 5, when Angel and Spike are fighting - sometimes literally - over Buffy, the thing that made it tolerable is that Buffy's not there. Maybe if she was there, it'd be a difficult choice for her, or maybe it wouldn't, but either way, the show never goes there. It subverts the entire idea of the triangle, because while Angel and Spike are jockeying to be the one Buffy chooses, there is no choice, because Buffy's not there to make it.

So yeah, I am completely boggling that people find that to be the best love triangle, when I see it as the ANTI-love triangle.

If you're wondering, I picked Damon/Stefan/Elena for the poll, because that is one triangle where I really enjoy the dynamic of Damon interfering in Stefan and Elena's relationship. As I mentioned in my TVD post, Damon makes everything more interesting. Without him, Stefan and Elena are BORING, but I also don't just want Damon and Elena together and Stefan out of the picture. It's the love/hate thing that Damon/Elena and Damon/Stefan have going on that makes them interesting, and that goes away if Elena decides she loves Damon enough to be with him instead of Stefan, and if Stefan doesn't care. I also wouldn't mind a straight-up threesome, lol, but I'm sure the show would never go there, as much as it flirts with the idea.

Comments

[shadowkat]

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.

[next_to_normal]

Yeah, the bromance is definitely an important part of the triangle. And the thing about Stefan and Damon is that they've sort of already done the triangle thing with Katherine - and it ended with Damon choosing Katherine, Katherine choosing Stefan, and Stefan choosing... Damon. Heh. And now the repercussions of that are playing out with Elena.

BtVS sort of did that with Drusilla, but the dynamics were very different. And although they had a similarly long history, Angel and Spike were never really in the position of choosing between the other and Buffy, not the way Stefan has. And that wrinkle makes it way more complicated than the typical love triangle "who will he/she choose?"

[mikeda.livejournal.com]

ignoring the comics

I don't think you need to. Nothing has happened in the comics that really changes the basic dynamic of Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike.

Unless that dreamscape in the first arc is supposed to be one of Buffy's prophetic dreams. :-)

[next_to_normal]

Oh, it certainly has. The comics have, if nothing else, made the triangle painfully explicit. That was my whole point - a triangle was impossible because Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike never existed at the same time. Now we've got both of them - the Bangel is explicit (literally, with an NC-17 rating), and the Spuffy, while only in Buffy's imagination for the moment, is hardly to be ignored. Fandom wouldn't be so up in arms about the whole thing if it didn't change the relationship dynamics.

It remains to be seen whether Buffy has or will make a choice, but I think both Angel and Spike are positioned as competitors in a way they never were on the show.