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Withered Hope says she has a soul mate,
Living in a city in another state.
But the soul mate thinks about a picture in a book of a beautiful crook.
And the picture of the crook in the book is in love with the brand new motorbike.
But the motorbike doesn't like crooks,
it's obsessed with the Very Sad Sack — They Might Be Giants, "Withered Hope"
You love her
But she loves him
And he loves somebody else
You just can't win.
— The J. Geils Band, "Love Stinks"
Love triangles are stressful and often heartbreaking. Add five or ten more people to the mix, and instead they become comedy: Characters A, B, C, and D all love character E, who might love any of them, but can't commit for reasons of honor or basic wishywashiness. There's also character F, who might love E, and whom he might love back, but they get on each other's nerves so it's hard to tell. Meanwhile, there are guys who are each sweet on A, B, C, D and F who all want to pound the crap out of E because he took their girls from them. Except on alternate Tuesdays, when their third cousin from Osaka expresses her intent to marry Character F's dog...
You get the idea.
If the Love Dodecahedron is ever resolved, it's always with F. Who by that time has annoyed you so much that you're rooting for B. In case E and F aren't believable enough on their own, the writers will attempt to quickly deal with the competition beforehand.
Writers are always aware of it, and many series have official diagrams so the fans can keep track of the Loads And Loads Of Characters.
Christopher Booker uses this concept as the very nature of (his definition of) the Comedy genre, only the point is that the Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends isn't a shoehorn but the very soul of the plot:
- Start with at least 3 ideal relationships;
- Each relationship is stymied because the people involved are:
- The Villain (or sometimes the Hero) is the source of the biggest road block, so
- Make him repent (dramatically), and then
- Everyone can cheerfully enter into the relationship they were meant to be in all along.
The Villain (or Hero) acts as a Fisher King, casting a darkness and confusion across all the relationships until his Heel Face Turn, which frees up the main couple to get together and that, in turn, frees up everyone else.
The Love Dodecahedron is a superset of the following tropes:
Also, see Thirty Xanatos Pileup, which is similar to this trope, but with Xanatos Gambits. Though Love Dodecahedra can be the cause of such pileups. The opposite of this is No Loves Intersect.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
Comics
- The Scott Pilgrim graphic novels are known for this. The inside back cover of the third book consists of an absurdly complicated diagram detailing the relationships of all of the characters thus far (including such descriptors as "in a band with", "still likes" and "dating(?)") that is rendered obsolete before the end of the first chapter of the next book.
- Archie Comics has the famous Archie/Betty/Veronica triangle. However, Veronica also regularly dates Reggie, who keeps trying to date Midge, much to her boyfriend Moose's wrath. Other than Betty, Jughead mostly runs from girls, especially his constant admirer Ethel, who occasionally has to settle for Dilton. Then Cheryl Blossom came along. They've all had countless one-time love interests. Chuck and Nancy have enough sense to keep out of this mess.
- After they turned it into a soap opera, the Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog series twisted Sonic's love life into a Gordian Knot: Originally hooked up with Sally Acorn, she got stuck ruling the country and shoved the relationship to the side to focus on her new duties, prompting Sonic to fall in with Mina Mongoose, starting a rivalry between the two women for Sonic's affection. He then started seeing Fiona Fox on the side, which not only pissed off Mina and Sally, but Tails, as well, who had a crush on her due to falling in love with a robotic duplicate created by Robotnik several years earlier (don't ask). Eventually, Mina got her own boyfriend, Sally got Sonic once again, and Tails got tossed into a brick wall by Fiona, who gave them all the finger to have a relationship with Sonic's evil clone from another universe. And that's not even counting the mini-tangle between Antoine, Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, and Antoine's evil clone from the same universe Fiona's new beau comes from.
- Almost every member of the X-Men has been in love with another member at some point. One of the more famous dodecahedrons: Wolverine loved Jean Grey, who loved Cyclops, who loved her back but married her clone Madelyne Pryor, who had an affair with Cyclops' brother Havok, who almost married Polaris but left her at the altar for Nurse Annie, who kissed Iceman, who was unaware that Northstar was secretly in love with him...
- Kitty Pryde is practically the shrine maiden of X-Mansion, given that she's only dated two other residents... and consecutively, not concurrently.
- Also, Daredevil, Hawkeye, and Iron Man keep dating the same women. Daredevil dated Black Widow, who also dated Hawkeye and Iron Man, and Hawkeye flirted with Echo who is another of Daredevil's ex-girlfriends, as was Heather Glenn who was involved with Iron Man for awhile, etc. Yet another DD ex, Typhoid Mary, once tricked Deadpool into sleeping with her. Iron Man, for his part, has had a plethora of ladyfriends including Emma Frost (Cyclops' current flame), She-Hulk, and the Wasp. Remember kids, when you kiss Tony Stark, you taste Galactus.
- Strangers In Paradise begins with a Love Triangle and then... hooboy. Katchoo loves best friend Francine unrequitedly, then takes up with David. Then Francine, who had a crush on David, starts to sort-of reciprocate Katchoo's feelings. Casey, unhappily married to Francine's ex-boyfriend Freddie (who still loves Francine), falls in love with David at first sight. With their marriage on the rocks, Freddie pursues Francine while Casey pursues David. Katchoo tires of David and finally drives him away. Francine breaks off her engagement to Brad for Katchoo, but still can't consummate the relationship, so a frustrated Katchoo sleeps with Casey on the side. When Francine discovers this, it's back to Brad. When confronted at gunpoint by Katchoo's sister Tambi (who insists the family produce an heir), David offers to produce a child with her in exchange for his life, and after they attempt this, Tambi secretly falls for David. David returns to marry Katchoo, who divorces him amicably once she learns about Tambi and realizes she prefers women. Casey finally gets to shack up with David. Eventually, Francine leaves Brad for cheating on her; David dies, leaving Casey to take up with Tambi, and Francine and Katchoo end up together for good.
- Jaimie and Gilbert Hernandez's Love And Rockets features several of these, particularly Gilbert's Palomar stories which are influenced by Hispanic telenovelas.
- Due to their decades of continuity, many Marvel Comics series have dodecahedrons so complex you need a 3D model to keep track. For example, Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four romanced Crystal, but she married Quicksilver instead and they had a child. But Crystal also began an ill-fated romance with Dane Whitman, who was not only involved with Sersi but also hopelessly pining after Wasp. Wasp was the ex-wife of Hank Pym, had an ill-fated one-night-stand with Magneto (Quicksilver's father!) and briefly dated Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (see above). To top it off, Crystal is currently betrothed to Ronan the Accuser, ruler of the Kree, who was formerly romantically involved with Una-Rogg, who tried to seduce Genis-Vell, who... you get the idea.
- Due to various destructions, memory wipes and rebuilds, Marvel's Vision is a one-character love dodecahedron.
- In the classic Flash Gordon, Flash loves Dale, Dale loves Flash, Ming loves Dale, Aura loves Flash, and Barin loves Aura.
Films
- There's Something About Mary features a Type 3 Triang Relation extended into a Love Dodecahedron with Mary at the center. Everybody is in love with/stalks Mary, including the main character and even football star Brett Favre. Naturally, Mary chooses the main character over Brett. (She's a Niners fan.)
- Tootsie has a great example of this:
Michael: You should have seen the look on her face when she thought I was a lesbian.
George: "Lesbian"? You just said gay.
Michael: No, no, no — Sandy thinks I'm gay, Julie thinks I'm a lesbian.
George: I thought Dorothy was supposed to be straight?
Michael: Dorothy is straight. Tonight Les, the sweetest, nicest man in the world asked me to marry him.
George: A guy named Les wants you to marry him?
Michael: No, no, no — he wants to marry Dorothy.
George: Does he know she's a lesbian?
Michael: Dorothy's not a lesbian.
George: I know that, does he know that?
Michael: Know what?
George: That, er, I... I don't know.
Literature
- Twilight: Edward loves Bella. Bella Loves Edward and Jacob. Jacob loved Bella but then falls for her unborn daughter. Mike, Eric, and Tyler all have deep crushes on Bella, but she ignored them. Mike dates Jessica but breaks up with her. Tyler dates Lauren. Rosalie was supposed to be Edward's mate, but she ended with Emmet. Alice is with Jasper, but she kind of gives off lesbian vibes for Bella. In the end, everyone of note loves Bella in some way.
- At the heart of The Brothers Karamazov is an intricate Love Dodecahedron which isn't really fleshed out until the later chapters. It starts with Fyodor Karamazov and his son Dmitri (the eldest brother) who are both smitten with Grushenka, the local Hello Nurse. But in love with Dmitri is Katerina, an aristocrat who is smitten with him for some services he did for her in the past. In love with Katerina is Ivan, the middle Karamazov brother, but he maintains that he doesn't really love her. Grushenka herself plays with Fyodor's and Dmitri's affections, but really she's been pining after Mussyalovich, a Polish gentleman who spurned her five years ago. Grushenka also shows some attraction for Alyosha, the youngest Karamazov brother, but his attentions are turned towards Liza, a young girl crippled by a fever at the outset of the novel. But towards the end Liza shows more attraction to Ivan than anyone else.
- Pretty much every Blandings Castle novel, and, in fact, most of the works of PG Wodehouse. He was a master at these, and could successfully create and solve one of these plots in a single book. If one were to create a chart detailing the relationships of all the characters who appear in his connected universe, one would probably go insane just from reading it.
- Luckily, Jeeves has a pick-me-up for curing that too.
- In Maria McCann's As Meat Loves Salt, Jacob loves and marries Caro, but rapes and abandons her over jealousy of her, friendship with his brother, Isaiah. Then he meets and falls in love with Ferris, only for Caro to reappear and start an affair with Ferris. Then its revealed that Jacob may have had a sexual relationship with Isaiah in the past.
- In Chekhov's The Seagull Medviedenko loves Masha, who loves Treplyov, who loves Nina, who loves Trigorin, who is loved by Irina. Everybody's unhappy.
- A poem by Brazilian author Carlos Drummond de Andrade: "João loved Teresa who loved Raimundo who loved Maria who loved Joaquim who loved Lili who loved no one".
- The main characters of John C Wright's Chronicles of Chaorgars consist of three boys and two girls. Some interesting permutations work out.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Ned Stark married Catelyn Tully to cement the Stark/Tully alliance against the Targaryens, but he also apparently had a thing for Ashara Dayne (who may or may not be his babymama). He also had a healthy amount of Ho Yay with his best friend, Robert Baratheon, who was in love with Ned's sister, Lyanna, but ended up marrying Cersei Lannister. Both Lyanna and Cersei had the hots for Rhaegar Targaryen, though Cersei is also getting it on with her twin brother Jaime, her cousin Lancel, Lady Taena Merryweather, all three of the Kettleback brothers and possibly Moonboy (Yeah, Cersei's kind of a slut). Catelyn's sister Lysa is married to Ned and Robert's adoptive father, Jon Arryn, but is also engaged in a clandestine affair with Littlefinger, whom she eventually marries after her husband's death. Littlefinger, however, was madly in love with Catelyn, who loves him like a brother, but no more. Robert's brother, Renly, is married to Margaery Tyrell, but is
implied stated (by Word Of God) to be sleeping with her brother Loras. Additionally, Renly's bodyguard, Brianne has a major crush on him, but latter develops a rather tender relationship with none other than Jaime Lannister, Cersei's brother. Yeah, love in Westeros is complicated, and this doesn't even get into Jon and Dany's generation.
- Literally the entire point of Pride And Prejudice is resolving one of these. To clarify...
 ◊ (and beware spoilers)
- Another 19th-century example: in Anthony Trollope's Ayala's Angel, the title character is beloved by Tom Tringle, Johnathan Stubbs, and Captain Batsby, but Batsby also takes a fancy to Tom's sister Gertrude, who wants to marry Frank Houston, who is in love with his cousin Imogen Docimer. Meanwhile Lady Albury has an interesting relationship with Stubbs, but is determined not to cheat on her husband Sir Harry. Also Tom's other sister Augusta accuses Ayala of trying to steal her fiancee, the honourable Septimus Traffik.
- The Secret History revolves around six college students, five men and one woman, who are all too smart for their own good. A Love Dodecahedron and many Tragic Dreams ensue.
- Ah, Warrior Cats. Let's start with the main character, shall we? Cinderpelt (who seems to have some chemistry with Littlecloud, who had a bit of Ho Yay with Whitethroat, but Your Mileage May Vary) was in love with Firestar, who never knew. Firestar and Spottedleaf liked each other for the brief period of time that she was alive, and they continue to meet in dreams even after her death, much to the chagrin of Sandstorm, his mate, who's been paired with Scourge and previously was friends with Dustpelt, who thought it was something more. Dustpelt eventually became the mate of Ferncloud. Now skip ahead about six books, and you'll find that Cinderpelt has been reincarnated as Cinderheart after her death. Cinderheart may or may not like Jayfeather, and Jayfeather (who's also been shipped with Poppyfrost, who is said to have kits in the next series, and had a love interest named Half Moon when he traveled back to the time of a previous incarnation of himself) may or may not like her back. Then, of course, one must consider the possibility of Cinderheart falling for Lionblaze, who is somewhat like Firestar. Icepaw may have a crush Lionblaze as well. Not to mention that Lionblaze used to be 'friends' with Heathertail, who hates him because he broke up with her, and she may or may not be Just Friends with Breezepelt.
- Don't forget that a fan suggested that Cinderheart have a crush on Firestar, and Vicky liked the idea.
- And that Tigerstar has been paired with Cinderpelt, or that Leopardstar was recently confirmed in a chat to have been in love with Tigerstar. He's also had children with both Sasha and Goldenflower.
- Or that Ravenpaw, who has a lot of Ho Yay with Barley, is occasionally shipped with Sandstorm.
- Jayfeather and the stick. Not to mention Lionblazexbattle and Hollyleafxthe warrior code. Come to think of it, Holly's got some evidence with Sol, and is popular with Breezepelt, despite him being her half-brother.
- The New Prophecy is great with this. Stormfur, Ashfur, and Brambleclaw all liked Squirrelflight. Stormfur eventually ended up with a Tribe cat named Brook. For a while it seemed as if Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight would become and Official Couple, but fell out because of Brambleclaw wanting to be friends with his half-brother (it makes a bit more sense in context, but not much), whom some fans say he had Ho Yay with, and Squirrelflight went to Ashfur. However, she never truly loved him, and later left him for Brambleclaw once more. This drove Ashfur insane, to the point of betraying his Clan, abetting in almost murdering Firestar, and trying to kill Squirrelflight along with her 'kits'. This forced her to admit that they weren't hers, and were in fact the children of Leafpool and Crowfeather. Leafpool and Crowfeather, who had previously been in love with Feathertail (who died), had a brief affair before Crowfeather took a a mate in WindClan solely to prove his loyalty and had a kit with her. They didn't love each other.
- Of course, Feathertail, Leafpool, and Squirrelflight have all been paired with Hawkfrost.
- We also have Whitewing, who's been shipped with just about everyone and everything. Most prominently, we have Ashfur, Birchfall (her official mate), Shrewpaw (who may or may not have liked Squirrelflight), and Spiderleg. Spiderleg became Daisy's mate, but they broke up after having two kits. Daisy's previous mate was Smoky, and he fathered Mousewhisker (who had a crush on Minnowpaw for a while), Hazeltail, and Berrynose. Berrynose hooked up with Honeyfern, but she died, and he's had a bit of Ho Yay with Birchfall, who's been paired with both Applekit, whose warrior name we don't know, and Toadfoot (more Ho Yay).
- Not to mention Graystripe, who's been paired with Firestar and Russetfur, was Silverstream's mate, and later had kits with Millie.
- And Bluestar's been shipped with Oakheart, Tigerstar, Redtail, Lionheart, and Whitestorm, who is her nephew.
- The lesson here is that Warrior Cats fans like their shipping.
Live Action TV
- This trope is why daytime soap operas exist. 'Nuff said.
- Grey's Anatomy features a love dodecahedron in which George loves Meredith who loves Derek who can't decide if he loves Meredith or Addison, who also is still in love with Derek, but at one point was in love with Mark, who slept with Callie, who is married to George, who slept with Izzie, who used to date Alex, who's lusted after by Addison (and that's before you get into the subtext). Coincidentally, the best-remembered episode of the first season featured a hospital-wide outbreak of syphilis.
- The first season of Smallville, after setting up a Love Triangle with Clark and Whitney both wanting Lana, regularly increased its geometrical complexity by throwing others into the mix; the (Kryptonite meteor-rock influenced) Villain of the Week was sometimes romantically interested in Lana as well (and might even start to get somewhere at that until revealed to be hideously transformed when not masquerading as still human), while Lex Luthor would intervene to try to break up some of these pairings... but was this being done as friendly help for Clark's benefit, or because he too had secret designs on
Lana Clark?
- Like it ends there. Chloe is in love with Clark, Jimmy, Davis and Pete are in love with Chloe. Chloe dated Jimmy, but he dated Kara briefly when they were broken up. Jason and Lex later had relationships with Lana, while Lois is destined to be with Clark, but has so far been with Aquaman and Oliver.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Where to start? Willow likes Xander, but Xander likes Buffy. He also dates Cordelia (who later gets involved with Angel). Willow winds up dating Oz. The one time Xander reciprocates Willow's feelings ends up breaking up Willow/Oz (temporarily), and Xander/Cordelia (permanently). Because of that break-up, Cordy invokes the wrath of the vengeance demon, Anya, who later almost marries Xander. The combined Love Dodecahedron for Buffy and its spinoff Angel ends up being so complex that it's mathematically impossible to draw with non-crossing arrows.
- Then you add the vampires: Angel and Buffy wuv eachother. But when Angel goes evil, he starts being naughty towards Drusilla. Spike and Drusilla have been together for around a century, but he starts crushing on Buffy basically from the moment he sees her. Oh, and Darla. She turned Angel, then he got cursed, so she left. Her relationship with the Master was creepy, and her relationship with Drusilla was subtexty.
- Not to mention Angel and Spike's relationship, confirmed through the Word Of God.
- Let's not forget Faith. Definite Foe Yay between her and Buffy, and she takes Xander's v-card.
- Faith is also seemingly obsessed with Buffy's sloppy seconds: in addition to Xander's long-standing crush, she tried to come on to Angel at least once, slept with Riley while she was in Buffy's body, and in season seven she slept with Robin Wood and seemed like she was going to take up with Spike.
- Add in Dawn having a crush on Xander, but switching to Spike, and things just get weird (especially since she didn't actually exist at the time she supposedly liked Xander — it was all implanted memories).
- The Secret Life of the American Teenager has this: Ricky impregnated Amy, who loves Ben. Even though Ben proposes to Amy, we also get a little hint that he likes Grace a bit. Grace was dating Jack, who is now intimate with Adrian, who likes Ricky, who is dating Grace.
- Battlestar Galactica perhaps takes the cake for this. Adama loved Carolanne before they fell out and now he loves Roslin, who was previously having an affair with President Adar. Apollo loves Starbuck and Starbuck loves Apollo, but he married Anastasia Dualla and she married Samuel Anders. Starbuck also once disastrously bedded Baltar, who loves Number Six, who is now pregnant with Colonel Tigh's child, even though the Colonel mourned the death of his promiscuous wife Ellen. Boomer and Tyrol were having an affair until Adama broke them up. Boomer died at the hands of Cally, who married Tyrol, who still loved Boomer. Athena married Helo, who used to have a crush on Boomer, who is the same person as Athena, except not really. Racetrack has a crush on Helo. Helena Cain had an affair with Gina, whom Baltar tried to seduce. Also, Baltar was the object of some affection early on from Felix Gaeta. Not to mention Starbuck's tricky relationship with Leoben Conoy. Practically every major and secondary character has tricky relationship issues.
- There is an Official Frak Chart.
- Torchwood: Jack is in a relationship with Ianto but also has strong feelings for Gwen. Gwen loves Jack and is married to Rhys, and had an affair with Owen which ended after Owen had a thing with Diane, who's thing for planes overrode her thing for Owen. Andy is in love with Gwen. Phew.
- Tosh is also in love with Owen unrequitedly. And Ianto had that... weird... thing... *shudder*
- That would be Lisa, and Owen also had an affair with Suzie (she of the "They Keep Killing" fame) before the series. There have also been signs that Tosh's attraction to Owen isn't entirely unrequited. Tosh also had an affair with a telepathic alien, a memory altering alien, and a soldier from WWI. And Owen was also engaged to a woman called Katie, which ended in tragedy due to alien brain parasites. And not that kind. Did I miss anything?
- Jack is in love with himself, as well. Well, the original Captain Jack, whom he stole his name from. And he has a thing for his brother. Oh, and John Hart, who seems to also have a "thing" for Gwen, and loves to tease Ianto, calling him "Eye Candy." I think we could go all day on Torchwood alone...
- Don't forget Doctor Who, since Jack is implied to love the Doctor. He also seems to have some sort of crush on Martha, who seems to have a crush on Jack, loves the Doctor, and is now married to
Tom Milligan Mickey Smith. And then there's the Doctor's love life in Doctor Who...
- [[Pub/images/torchwood_relationship.jpg See here]]
- Just to be absolutly thorough, Rhys's secretary, Ruth, seems to have a thing for him.
- OK, so let's do Doctor Who. Rose is dating Mickey, but then runs off with and falls in love with the Doctor, who loves her back, though nothing really happens. While they're on their travels, Jack turns up, having a crush on both Rose and the Doctor. The Doctor falls in love with Madame du Pompadour, but she dies, and ex-companion Sarah-Jane turns up, implying that she was once in love with the Doctor. And then Rose gets trapped in an alternate universe, and the Doctor starts travelling with Martha. Martha falls in love with the Doctor (seeing a pattern here?), but it is unrequited. The Doctor turns himself human for one episode, and falls in love with Joan Redfern, but that doesn't last. Then the Master turned up, with shedloads of Foe Yay to share with the Doctor. And Jack is there too. Then Martha ditches the Doctor to hook up with Tom Milligan. The Doctor has a completely platonic friendship with Donna for a while. River Song turns up, seemingly implying that she is the Doctor's future-past wife, in the same episode that Donna marries her second husband (the first was in league with a man-eating spider, and the second she only met in a computer-generated program). Then Rose turns up back from the parellel universe, and that episode ends with her going back to the parallel universe with a human clone of the Doctor. The Doctor goes off and has several adventures, snogging Lady Christina and Kylie Minogue, and attending Sarah-Jane's wedding on the way, before meeting The Master again, ramping up the Foe Yay even further. In this same episode Donna gets married for the third time and Martha has apparently ditched Tom and gotten married to Mickey.
- Gossip Girl: Let's see...there's the short-lived Serena/Nate/Blair, which then turns into Serena/Dan/Vanessa and Nate/Blair/Chuck, which coincides with Bart/Lily/Rufus/Allison. (This is just the first season, btw.) In season two, it's briefly Marcus/Blair/Chuck and Vanessa/Nate/Catherine, and then finally Dan/Serena/Aaron, and Jenny/Nate/Vanessa. Bart/Lily/Rufus is still happening minus Allison and until Bart dies. It makes you wonder if these people even know anyone else in Manhattan.
- Lost's irritating love dodecahedron was originally a simple triangle involving Jack and Sawyer, who both loved Kate, who couldn't decide between them. Then the introduction of Juliet in Season 3 threw a wrench in the triangle, as Jack cannot decide between either (though Juliet thinks he's just using her to make Kate jealous). Thanks to the show's time-travelling, Sawyer and Juliet ended up spending three happy years together, but as of early 2009, it appears that the dodecahedron is about to kick back into play.
- And let's not forget the obvious fanservice moment when Kate and Juliet fall in the mud after being handcuffed together...
- Ana-Lucia filled the same role in a love square during season 2.
- In an episode of My Name Is Earl, this trope was used. Earl was in love with Billie, but so were Stuart, Frank, and Catalina. Paco, Catalina's childhood lover, was in love with her — but she didn't believe him. Frank was also interested in Billie's cousin. And Kenny was in love with Stuart, too. In the end, it was turned into four neat couples, two of which were continued at least until the end of the season.
- The Taiwanese Buddy Cop Show Black and White has a Love Dodecahedron that transcends the borders between police and outlaws. The mismatched buddies dandy Chen Zai Tian and straight-laced Wu Ying Xiong are at the center. They both like Mafia Princess Chen Lin who can't decide between the two. Chen Zai Tian also loves a girl from his past and Wu Ying Xiong rekindles an old flame which ends badly. Chen Lin has another admirer in runaway mercenary Ma Xiao Ming. Then there is Lan Xi Ying from the forensics who has a deep crush on Wu Ying Xiong but developes a nice connection with Chen Zai Tian also and she awakens long buried feelings in the hitman Cheng Nuo.
- Glee has an extensive one. Will is married to Terri but has a crush on Emma. Emma returns the feelings but settles for marrying Ken. Once each of the couples break up, they kiss. Meanwhile with the students, Jacob is into Rachel who, along with Kurt, is in love with Finn who was dating Quinn until he realized that she had slept with (and gotten pregnant by) Puck. Puck is interested in Quinn but he has a sex-only relationship with Santana who may or not be hooking up with either Matt and/or Brittany (who might be dating Mike). Beta-ing are Tina and Artie. And all this is not including one off crushes and relationships that were contained in the episode, such as Rachel and Puck briefly dating, Rachel going Hot For Teacher on Will, Mercedes liking Kurt, and so on. And this is all only 13 episodes.
Music
- The main character in R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet slowly discovers that he has stumbled into one of these. Flowchart can be found here.
Tabletop Games
Theater
- A Little Night Music has a series of interlocking Love Triangles that take in most of the cast.
- Shakespeare loved Love Dodecahedrons; one found its way into most of his comedies, including Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Which means this is Older Than Steam.
- This also extends to all of the plays, books, and movies based off of said Shakespeare works. One such example is All Shook Up: Chad loves Sandra who hates him and loves Ed who doesn't exist because he's actually Natalie because she wants to be with Chad who's first sidekick is Dennis who loves Natalie whose dad is Jim who loves Sandra and later loves Sylvia who is so jaded that she doesn't love anyone at first but later falls for Jim who gives Dennis advice on how to approach Natalie, who is friends with Lorraine who is in love with Dean who is Matilda's son who hates interracial marriage despite giving birth to a mixed child but later marries her (Black) sidekick Earl who is supposed to arrest Chad who later loves Ed/Natalie until he finds out that Ed is actually a woman and runs away. By the end of the musical, Jim is married to Sylvia, Matilda is married to Earl, Dean and Lorraine are dating, Sandra and Dennis (inexplicably) get married despite the age difference, and Chad gets over Natalie being a girl and they marry by compromising "maybe once in a while you can put on that hat and the beard... we'll work something out".
- It isn't indicated in the script that Earl is black (other characters are); however, I can see how that could make for an interesting casting choice.
- In Sweeney Todd, Sweeney loves Lucy. So does the Judge. Mrs. Lovett loves Sweeney, who is indifferent to her. The Judge loves Johanna. Anthony loves Johanna, who loves him back. After that, things get a little confusing.
- There's also one of the "Parlor Songs":
Sweet Polly Pluncket saw her life pass
Flew down the city road crying:
"I am a lass who, alas, loves a lad who, alas, has a lass loves another lad, who once I had in Canterbury.
- "Love" is a rather strange word to use about Judge/Lucy and Judge/Johanna. "Lust" is more like it. Also, Your Mileage May Vary whether Johanna really loves Anthony or not. It depends on the production, of course, but at least in the movie adaptation she doesn't appear very loving.
- In Wicked, (at least the musical adaptation) Nessa loves Boq, Boq loves Glinda, Glinda loves Fiyero, and Fiyero loves Elphaba. Glinda actually sets up Boq/Nessa to get Boq off her trail, but Fiyero and Elphaba eventually fall for each other.
- Then there's the fandom-fodder subtext of Elphaba/Glinda . . .
- The whole point of Aspects of Love. Alex loves Rose who loves his uncle George who loves her back because she looks like his dead wife despite having a mistress, Giulietta. Giulietta and Rose have major Les Yay while Rose and George get married and have a daughter, Jenny. Rose takes on a lover named Hugo while Jenny falls in love with Alex. Alex loves her back but is disgusted since they're cousins. Alex and Giulietta fall for each other while both Rose and Jenny beg Alex not to leave them...and now I've gone crossed eyed.
- Hair
Jeannie: This is the way it is. Sheila's hung up on Berger. I'm hung up on Claude. Claude is hung up on a cross between Sheila and Berger. And Berger's hung up everywhere. As a prospective mother I must say something very weird is going on here. And to make it worse, Woof's hung up on Berger.
Woof: No I'm not. I'm hung up on Mick Jagger.
Video Games
- In Breath Of Fire IV, Ryu is in love with Nina, who is in love with Clay, who is in love with Elena, who is trapped in a marriage with the evil prince. It was a love daisy chain, only made more disturbing by having Nina and Elena as siblings, and everyone else being different species. Significantly simpler in the orignal, as the Nina's love for Clay was added in the translation.
- Made all the more complicated in the official manga adaptation, Utsurowazarumono, where Scias' reason for doing a Heel Face Turn and returning to the party is explained by him developing a big crush on Nina. (In the video game, it's just simply assumed that, due to spending so much time fighting in the party, he developed a bond with everyone.)
- In The Sims, it's far too easy to set one of these up. It can even happen by accident.
- Actually, there's a premade one in Pleasantview. Darren is love with Cassandra who is engaged to Don who is in love with Nina and has a crush on Nina's sister, Dina. Dina is dating Cassandra's father, Mortimer. Dina was also married to Cassandra's uncle, Michael, before he died. Don also has memories of putting the moves on Cassandra's mother, Bella, just before her alien abduction. Don is also currently having an affair with Kaylynn, the maid. Kaylynn is in turn having an affair with Daniel, who is unhappily married to Mary Sue.
- Fire Emblem 10 has a relationship Dodecahedron in game, updated as the player progresses. A full version can be found here◊ (Major spoilers).
- Most of the routes in Brass Restoration focus on Ryo and his love interest, but Yoshine's route has a Love Dodecahedron as part of the plot.
- Luminous Arc 2 have one mostly revolves around Roland. He can end up with either Althea or Fatima, while gaining affections, via Intermissions, from Dia (who also have a few Ship Tease with his brother, Rasche), Sadie and Karen, who's oblivious to Ace's interest in her, as well as getting distracted by some of the girls in their Hot Spring Intemissions (Dia, Luna, Ayano, I'm looking at you). Rina, despite being Roland's childhood friend, just Fangirl over Richter.
- Just look at this chart◊. At least eight people in love with Shiki plus Arihiko on the side crushing on Ciel and Akiha and possibly the maids. Even the girls at school seem to be somewhat attracted despite not being insane like his other love interests. Shirou is only the center of four-six girls' affections (Mitsuzuri being subtext and Ilya being up to your interpretation, but probably only familial), but there's other entanglements besides his making it even more complicated when you figure in Gilgamesh -> Saber and Bazett -> Lancer and Avenger. Curse you Nasuverse!
- Lampshaded in the Nancy Drew game The Final Scene, where a tabloid newspaper headline refers to Light Of Our Love soap opera heartthrob Rory's "Love Octagon".
Web Comics
- As an Animesque production, Megatokyo also features its own Love Dodecahedron: Piro is in love with Kimiko; Kimiko is Erika's best friend; Erika is in love with Largo (Piro's roommate); Largo was nearly seduced by Miho, whom he hates and thinks is an undead wench; Miho has a rather ambivalent relationship with Piro, whom she claims is her former lover; Miho is also best friends with Ping, who is Piro's robotic girlfriend.
- In El Goonish Shive, a rather surreal love dodecahedron is played for both laughs and drama, but has been resolved so that four of the six involved are now in relationships: Eliot with Sarah, and Nanase with Ellen, though whether or not one of those characters (Ellen) qualifies as being in the Dodecahedron is complicated, due to Cloning Blues being involved. Clever way to have Nanase's Loving A Shadow with Elliot end in her finding someone perfect for her, though. The last one, gay Justin, has given up on straight Elliot, and wound up stuck in I Want My Beloved To Be Happy land. Melissa, attached to the Dodecahedron via Justin, doesn't get that he's gay, while Susan, whose Kindred Spirit relationship with Justin is revealed essentially the moment they meet, apparently has some feelings for him but knows she can't pursue them. And, of course, for a brief period after her splitting off from Elliot, Ellen displayed feelings towards Sarah, though it's implied that she's over it.
- Experimental Comic Kotone was basically designed to incorporate every anime trope in the book — and as such, the unnamed main character is caught in the center of a severe Love Dodecahedron, which is constantly in danger of growing even bigger due to him suffering from the rare Love Sim Syndrome...
- Avalon: Ceilidh and Joe are the Official Couple, but Joe is primarily interested in Helène, the girlfriend of Alan (who would much rather be with Ceilidh), and secondarily interested in Phoebe, who, if she likes anyone, likes Ceilidh; Ryan and Iain are also interested in Phoebe. Ceilidh herself isn't sure whether she likes Joe, Iain, or Phoebe...but definitely not Alan.
- Implied in this xkcd comic (though strictly speaking it could just be a cycle or even a collection of disconnected relationships).
- Perhaps this is a better example?
- Arthur King of Time and Space, or at least the Space Arc where everyone is crammed into the same spaceship, is heading in that direction, mostly using canonical relationships. Arthur loves Guinevere but has a child with Morgan. Guinevere loves Arthur and Lancelot. Lancelot loves Guinevere but has a child with Elaine of Carbonek. Galehaut loves Lancelot. It's still relatively easy to follow, but the comic is meant to last twenty-five years...
- Questionable Content: Marten lives with Faye and is in love with Dora, who's Faye's boss. Faye has a "antagonists-with-benefits" relationship with Sven, who's Dora's brother. And that's just scratching the surface...
Therapist: Hang on, hang on. I'm gonna get some thumbtacks and colored strings so we can diagram this.
- Gunnerkrigg Court has slowly revealed that the prior generation is a surprising tangle of former couples and unrequited love. By contrast, all the pairings among Annie's generation are pretty straightforward (even if the exact nature of their relationship isn't).
- Star Guys has a wonderful one: Jupiter likes Venus, who likes Jupiter back (but neither know), Centauri also likes Venus and wants her back, but Venus is oblivious to him. Meanwhile, Saturn likes Mercury, who likes Neptune, while Earth and Orceus like Ana, who's asexual, and hates Earth. Finally, Pluto likes Mars (who may or may not like him back), whilst Jeeves likes Pluto, despite him stating that he's gay.
Western Animation
- Code Lyoko. Let's see now... Ulrich loves Yumi, Yumi loves Ulrich, and despite their best efforts, they Cannot Spit It Out. In the meanwhile, Sissi loves Ulrich, and William loves Yumi. Ulrich flat-out hates Sissi, while Yumi is friends with William, but not quite that friendly. Johnny loves Yumi, but he's barely a threat. Hervé loves Sissi, but he's ugly. Théo loves Sissi, but he's a one-episode character. It's mentioned several times that "guys flip over" Sissi (though we never actually see many doing so) and it's implied that Ulrich is popular with the ladies in general. Meanwhile, Odd's dated nearly every girl in the school (and several outside, such as Sam and Brynja), and has a few ship-fueling UST moments with Sissi. Jérémie and Aelita emerge surprisingly unscathed, unless you count Odd's platonic flirtation with the latter. Did I miss anything?
- Oh, right, the teachers! Jim liked Yolande after her XANA-created clone kissed him, but it turns out she's engaged. Then Jim and Ms. Hertz have some tense moments, but Hertz is dating some guy named Pedro. And I don't even want to know where Jean-Pierre factors in.
- And let's not forget about Milly, who has a big crush on Ulrich in Season 1, and gains herself a suitor in Season 4 with Hiroki, Yumi's younger brother.
- Danny Phantom himself has been in a love rectangle, or even pentagon, if you consider secret identity separation. Sam and Valerie both love Danny, who has his eye on Paulina for the first couple seasons, who in turn idolizes the ghost boy. And that's not taking into account Kitty's jealousy ploy with him.
- Danny himself at one point even uses the phrase "love rectangle".
- Timmy is also in one of these. He is love with Cindy Vortex and Trixie Tang. Also Tootie, Veronica Star and Vicky (when he wished that he was older) are/were in love with him. There are also hints of him having a relationship with Molly. And let's not forget (like Timmy did) that on one of the days of FLARG he started up a relationship with a girl named Carly that resulted in tattoos (which his was a washable one.)
- On The Spectacular Spider-Man, the dynamics of the Midtown High group are enormously complicated, but succinctly: Gwen Stacy and Liz Allan both like Peter Parker, Peter likes Gwen and Liz and also Mary Jane Watson, MJ flirts with Flash Thompson but also comes to really like Mark Allen, Liz has lingering feelings for ex-boyfriend Flash, who finds MJ attractive but then focusses on Sha-Shan, Gwen dates Harry Osborn, who previously dated Glory Grant, who left him (somewhat inexplicably) for Kenny, and I'm sure there are others in there.
- The 90s series also had one — For a while, Mary-Jane and Felicia were both chasing Peter, Felicia doing so despite the fact that she was dating Flash at the time and also dated Jason Macandale (AKA Hobgoblin) for a while. Also, Harry had an unrequited crush on MJ, which later drove him to become the Green Goblin. Eventually, however, it worked itself out — Felicia ended up with Morbius, Flash somehow ended up with Debra, and Peter got MJ.
- Gargoyles example: Goliath and Elisa are the main couple. However, Goliath had a previous relationship with Demona, a coupling which produced a daughter, Angela. Demona later had a relationship with Thailog, Goliath's clone, but she was dumped by him after he created a replacement in Delilah, a "clone" made using genetic material from both Elisa and Demona. Delilah, who has spurned Thailog, has at different times been pursued by both Goliath (as a rebound deal), and Brooklyn, but has apparently chosen Brooklyn's clone Malibu. Brooklyn, on the other hand, has also unsuccessfully pursued Maggie the Cat, who is in a relationship with fellow mutate Talon (Elisa's brother); and Angela, who was also pursued by Lexington and Broadway before beginning a relationship with the latter. Elisa has also dated Jason Canmore and (as a rebound deal) Morgan Morgan.
- Avatar the Last Airbender has this in spades. Where to start...
- Aang. He's both The Hero, and alphabetically the first character. Aang early on develops affections for one of the other core three characters, Katara. Katara later develops feelings for Aang as well and eventually chooses him. Aang is also the target of a strong crush by Meng, the assistant to the fortune teller Aunt Wu. Also, nearly all of the young girls on Kyoshi island are Aang fangirls, attempting to win his affections.
- Katara has strong feelings for Aang, but it takes her time to sort out exactly how she feels about him. She also develops an off again on again, sometimes hostile feelings with the freedom fighter Jet. She also, at one point, opens up her heart to angsty Zuko, and considers using the Plot Coupon magic water on him. Some interpretations of the show also hold that her feelings towards Haru the earthbender are romantic.
- Sokka first becomes romantically attached to Suki, one of the warriors of Kyoshi island, who opens his eyes to the fact that a person can be both a girl, and a warrior. Later on, after they have separated for a time, Sokka develops a strong attachment to Princess Yue, the princess of the Northern Water Tribe. They go on several dates before, as Sokka puts it "My first girlfriend turned into the moon." After leaving the north pole, they pick up the fourth member of their four kid band, the earth bending master Toph Bei Fong. She eventually develops a one-sided affection for Sokka. Acrobatics and pressure points master Ty Lee definitely thinks that Sokka is cute, and is quite flirtatious with him, even in the middle of combat. At several points in the serries Sokka returns at least some measure of the flirting. Suki later joins the group on a more permanent basis, and the two get together. Then there's the way he treats his boomerang...
- Prince Zuko is in love with with Mai, the daughter of a beaurocratic noble family, and member of Azula's three girl band. In one episode Zuko also becomes involved with Jin, a girl from the earth kingdom city of Bah Sing Sei.
- Jimmy from The Adventuresof Jimmy Neutron has his original love interest, Betty Quinlin, who seemed to have a "aw he's cute, but it'll never happen" attitude towards him. Of course there's Cindy. He falls for a pretty girl at the rodeo (along with Sheen and Carl, who battle with him for her affections). In "Win Lose Kaboom", he gets in a brief relationship with a Green Skinned Space Babe named April, much to his main love interest's dismay.
- How have we gone this far without mention of Hey Arnold? Let's see, Brainy likes Helga, who likes Arnold, who likes Ruth. Later, Arnold likes Lila, who doesn't like like him back but does like like his cousin Arnie, who has a girlfriend Lulu who likes Arnold who likes Hilda who likes Arnie and... ugh, my head!
- Iron Man Armored Adventures is a complicated case of this. Pepper has a crush on Gene and Tony with hints that she may feel something for Rhodey. Whitney has feelings for both Tony and Rhodey. Tony has an almost romantic life long friendship with Rhodey, clearly cares about both Whitney and Pepper very much, fanboys Gene Khan almost constantly until the end of season one, and yet Tony will also flirt with anything that moves. Gene is obsessed with Tony and may or may not have feelings for Pepper. Rhodey is Tony's most trusted and reliable friend (who he lives with) and has a crush on Whitney, though his feelings towards Pepper are mostly platonic. Mostly.
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