Why the love triangle?

Why is there always a love triangle? Well let me just start off this blog post with the fact that I have no idea so please do not read this thinking I am coming at this as someone who has really studied love triangles because I haven’t, but it is a question that I keep thinking of as they continually come out. Why is the idea of a love triangle (or in Sookie’s case a love hexagon always growing bigger) so appealing for authors? It’s often depicted in movies and the books the movies were originally based off of (because there’s always a book first) - particularly if the main character is a woman or teenage girl.  

It is worth noting that within love triangles, there are often two main roles that the love interests fit into are that of what the main character wants and needs. One person is often the nice guy type who is seemingly perfect for the character, but not quite right for whatever reason and is later found to have a major flaw which kills of the perfect image that they originally presented themselves with. The other character is often “physically attractive but potentially hazardous” (thanks Wikipedia) and therefore imperfect but very endearing and later becomes the more desirable after the first is found to have some flaw.

Originally this design seemed like it shouldn’t fit into the Sookie Stackhouse Series, but upon reevaluation it really fits pretty well in spite of the number of love interests Sookie has by being used over and over. What we’ve seen in class is the first of many love triangles in the series- Sam and Bill. Sam could definitely fit into the boy next door who is seemingly “perfect” (problematic as well but whatever) and Bill is the endearing dangerous character who is later more desirable when Sam is found out to be a shapeshifter (his major flaw). This cycle happens again however with Bill and Eric. Bill is at first seemingly perfect, but it is later revealed that he was looking for Sookie on orders from the Queen/his maker and Eric loses his memory and is basically like a puppy rather than a killer blah blah there’s also Quinn and Alcide and others.

            So why is this appealing? Aside from the fact that it apparently sells, who can really know? In my opinion, it may be because to many people, the idea of being overall fairly normal yet having some special thing inherent to you that makes you desired by multiple people is not exactly an unwanted thing. While certainly being desired is not the ultimate thing to strive for, the idea of being viewed by someone as perfect and special and important is realistically something many people want to feel. And if you have two people who feel that way than you must be particularly great (or in Sookie’s case the most precious thing this world has ever seen). So overall, it is probably a reflection of the desire within ourselves to be wanted and feel special just because of who we are inside.