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The first assumption in a relationship described as a Love Triangle is that someone has got to go. Lots of good drama/comedy in that little conundrum.
Even if the writer chooses to challenge that assumption, there will be some pretty tricky footwork required to make it all come out to a resolution.
Here are the possible triangles. Put one to work.
Note: These are all point-in-time snapshots. Could be the situation at the beginning or it could be after some story has gone by.
1. Alice must choose between Bob and Charlie.
2. Alice wants Bob, Bob wants Claire, and Claire wants Alice. This is the smallest interesting situation where All Love Is Unrequited.
- See Twelfth Night: Orsino in the 'a' spot, Olivia at 'b', and Cesario/Viola on third.
- Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit is a classic example.
- The 1994 movie Threesome uses this setup with two men and a woman.
- The manga Girl X Girl X Boy has one of these triangles most of the way through.
- Natalia aka Belarus, Ivan aka Russia and Toris aka Lithuania from Axis Powers Hetalia. With a twist: Belarus and Russia are siblings.
3. Bob and Charlie want Alice. Alice is neutral toward, or not initially thinking in romantic terms of Bob and Charlie, or thinking about them at all. Not a bad situation to be in, if you are Alice, though obviously a bit less so for Bob and Charlie. Some Alices will be tempted to see if there is any Type 7 (below) potential in the situation.
- See Sabu
 : Osue is at 'a', in the sights of both Sabu and Eiji, two friends from childhood.
- Ren (A) and his two best friends (a guy and a girl) in Kaze No Stigma, who are quite jealous of each other.
- Both versions of Mai-HiME contain type 3 triangles involving the main character(s). For the anime, place Mai at 'a', and Yuuichi and Reito at 'b' and 'c' (which eventually becomes either a type 4 or 5, depending on your views; this is just one triangle in a more complicated Love Dodecahedron). In the manga, Yuuichi is the 'a', while Mai and Natsuki are the ones vying for his affection, since he is the "Key" to both of their HiME powers.
- Naruto has Ino and Sakura pine after Sasuke's affections, but he is not in love with either. Similarly, Naruto and Lee have feelings for Sakura, but she rejects them both in favor of Sasuke.
4. Alice wants Bob, who is already in a relationship with Claire. Bob is unaware/neutral, or is aware of the interest and can't/won't reciprocate. As the most complicated set of relations which is compatible with both monogamy and heterosexuality, this is very common.
- Saki longing for Kurumi who is devoted to Nakahito in Steel Angel Kurumi.
- Severus Snape, Lily Evans, and James Potter ended up this way, as revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
- Aragorn, Arwen, and Eowyn in Lord Of The Rings
- Sheridan, Delenn, and Lennier in Babylon 5.
- Justin, Elliot, and Sarah in El Goonish Shive. Justin's gay, Elliot's not. Earlier in El Goonish Shive, Nanase was in Sarah's place, with Sarah being in Justin's, and Elliot being clueless about Sarah's attraction to him. What kind of cologne does Elliot wear, and where can I buy some? Eau de Author Avatar, available at your local Mary Supermarket.
- Arrested Development: Michael is A, Marta is B, GOB is C. Later became type 7 (and briefly type 5) when Marta returned Michael's feelings, but not long afterwards she dumped both of them when they got in a fight over her.
- The movies Unlawful Entry and Indecent Proposal.
- Frasier, for much of its run, with Niles at A, Daphne at B, and a series of Cs.
- Eponine, Marius and Cosette in Les Miserables.
- Ryo Katsuragi, Yukari Fujimaru, and Yuzuru Narazaki in Penguin Revolution, first professionally (Yukari is Ryo's manager, and Yuzuru stages a very determined campaign to convince her to become his manager instead) and then romantically, with the added twist that as far as Yuzuru knows, Yukari is a man.
- Pushing Daisies, with Olive at A, Ned at B and Chuck at C.
- Mega Man Battle Network has Dex at A, with Maylu at B and Lan at C. Their NetNavis (GutsMan.EXE, Roll.EXE and MegaMan.EXE) are in the same positions.
- Mega Man Star Force Luna Platz (A) is a very big Mega Man (B) fangirl. Mega's regular-ego, Geo Stelar, has a close friendship with Idol Singer Sonia Strumm.
- Most of the plot of Sartre's No Exit is this triangle.
- Disney's Beauty And The Beast: Gaston is A, Belle is B and the Beast is C.
- Final Fantasy IV: Kain (A) is fond of Rosa (B), but she and Cecil (C) are in love with each other.
- Cyrano de Bergerac is a classic (and tragic) example: Cyrano (A) is in love with Roxane (B), who in turn loves and is loved by Christian (C). The ugly Cyrano wants Roxane to be happy above all else, so he agrees to protect Christian as they go to war, while lending his poetry and wit to Christian to ensure he'll win Roxane's heart. It gets a bit more complicated by the end, but this arrangement is the basic premise.
- Digimon Adventure 02. We named a trope after this.
- May or may not have been the case in Metal Gear Solid 4, with Snake at point A and Otacon and Naomi in B and C.
- College Roomies From Hell: April is A, Mike and Marsha are B and C. Hilarity and bloodshed ensue.
- Strawberry Panic centers on two of these triangles. The first consists of Tamao, Nagisa, and Shizuma as A, B, and C respectively; the second is Yaya, Hikari, and Amane.
5. Alice loves Bob, but Bob loves Claire. If Alice comes to realize it, it could end up as I Want My Beloved To Be Happy. Or attempted murder. Depends on the author.
- In Slam Dunk, Sakuragi is in love with Haruko, who is in love with Rukawa (who doesn't seems to be interested in anything alive but the basketball ball)
- Commonly seen in situations where A helps B to seduce C whilst either harbouring a crush all the time or developing one as the plot unfolds, ala School Days or American Pie 2.
- Stingray: Atlanta wants Troy who wants Marina (in spite of which Atlanta likes Marina).
- All's Well That Ends Well: Helena loves Bertram, who's attracted to Diana.
- Some Kind of Wonderful has this sort of triangle with Watts as A, Keith as B, and Amanda as C.
- Peanuts: Lucy is (terribly) infatuated with Schroeder, who's only interested in playing his piano.
- In Naruto Hinata has feelings for Naruto, Naruto and Lee have feelings for Sakura, and Sakura and Ino have feelings for Sasuke, who cares more about revenge rather than romance.
- Quite a few Miyuki Nakajima songs. Most well-known example is "Akujo," where the singer is A, the man she's singing to B, and Mariko C.
6. Alice wants Bob and Claire, who are already in a relationship. In this one, the "want" may not be sexual in nature, or some or all of the players could be gay/bisexual.
- Tatewaki Kuno in Ranma 1/2 is the "a" in this scenario (although he doesn't know/won't admit it), with Ranma (as a girl) and Akane as "b" and "c". Arguably, "a" could be any of the others involved in this Love Dodecahedron.
- Sailor Moon Fanon theorizes that Rei Hino (a), Mamoru Chiba (b), and Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon (c) are in this stage. In canon, their relationship was more of a type 4 triangle.
- Played for (very uneasy or extraordinarily guilty) laughs in Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which Dr. Frank-N-Furter (a) seduces both Brad and Janet (b, c) with practically the same dialogue in back-to-back scenes. Yes, it's that kind of movie.
- In the webcomic Boy Meets Boy, Tybalt (a) tries to seduce Harley (b) away from Mikhael (c), who used to be his boyfriend. It's implied that Tybalt still has residual feelings for Mikhael, so his fixation on Harley probably has to do with jealousy as much as with desire.
- It's very easy (and entertaining) to read the Sid (a)/Michelle/Tony triangle in Skins this way.
7. The classic "affair" set up. Alice is in a relationship with Bob, but she's also in a relationship with Charlie. Both Bob and Charlie don't know each other or suspect the other connection. Much of the drama/comedy comes from all the work needed to make sure that the space between B and C stays free from any sort of information flow. A lot of geography between the two helps, or maybe a good social divide.
- Casablanca falls into this category, with A=Ilse, B=Rick, C=Laszlo.
- The Arthurian Love Triangle is generally portrayed as being either of this type, or of type #5.
- An interesting take on this appears in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) wherein B (Marty) is dead. Normally this would leave A (Jeannie) and C (Jeff) to get on with things, but B has come back as a ghost only C can see, constantly haranguing him about it, leaving poor A oblivious to this.
- Clint Eastwood, Sam Elliot, and the female lead in Paint Your Wagon. Not necessarily an affair, so much as both Clint and Sam are married to the female lead.
- There's a version where everybody knows what's going on in If I Pay Thee Not In Gold (by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey): Ware is some sort of magical entity (called a "demon" for want of a better term) who changes genders when he/she has sex; he/she also must have both partners be completely faithful to him/her, or he/she will cease to be. So he/she "marries" both the Protagonist (woman) and a man, and pretty much has to have sex with one right after the other in order to maintain his (prefered) masculine form. At one point, Ware must go somewhere without his mates, and they are seriously tempted to make out... but the thought of Ware vanishing brings them to their senses, and when he returns, he joyfully explains that he expected them to be tempted but the fact that he's still here means they were strong enough not to give in.
- While this situation might be squicky enough for most of us from the get-go, it's even a little more complex in the book: the Heroine comes from a society where women rule and all men are servants or slaves, so while she warms to the idea of Ware being her equal in a relationship, it's a little harder for her when she has to adjust to the other man, who's from a society where men are not inferior, and isn't about to kowtow to her like every other man she's ever met.
8. Straight-up threesome. Not necessarily sexual in nature.
- Vyse, Aika, and Fina in Skies Of Arcadia. Whether "a" is Vyse or Fina is open to interpretation.
- Marina, Ursula, and Vlad from Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars Trilogy seem to fall into this category, though we never see them closely enough to be entirely certain.
- Eric, Beth, and Kory, the main characters of the first two books of the Bedlam's Bard series by Mercedes Lackey, are in one of these. Definitely sexual in this case; Kory is bi, Beth is attracted to both guys, and Eric spends the first book struggling with the idea that he is bi (although he doesn't struggle very hard). Results in a happy, magical (literally) threesome, at least for a while.
- Cabaret, although it's never really harmonious.
- Seen in Paul Kidd's Talking Animal novel The Fangs Of Kaath when one of the three main protagonists, Raschid, marries BOTH of the others, Sandhri and Yariim, who have also been feeling a growing attraction towards each other.
9. Bob and Charlie are attracted/loyal to each other but are also attracted/loyal to Alice.
- Pick a Mary Sue fic, a Relationship Sue fic. Mary Sue is at 'a', of course, and B and C are occupied by lesser mortals who have been enchanted away from their sexual identities, loyalties, duties, and all other responsibilities by the mesmerizing beauty of her violet eyes. Naturally, Mary Sue is too noble to allow them to depart the Righteous Path.
- My Father The Hero, where a girl tells the boy she likes that her father, who has taken her on a holiday, is actually her lover. Wackiness ensues.
- In Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione are a case of Opposites Attract. But one thing they do have in common is their shared loyalty/affection toward Harry.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, Seifer's henchmen, Fujin and Raijin, are utterly loyal to him. As he grows more distant, they start to depend more and more on each other, eventually parting ways with their leader.
10. Alice and Bob are in a relationship, but Bob is attracted to Claire. How sympathetically Bob is played depends on their gender. Similar to Type 4, but with a different point of view.
- Simon's attraction to Jenny despite being in a relationship with Maggie in Teachers
- Early Niles and Daphne again, this time with Maris at A, Niles at B and Daphne at C.
11. The classic affair set up with a twist. Alice is in a relationship with Bob and Charlie, but Bob becomes attracted/loyal to Charlie. Bob and Charlie may or may not know about the other's involvement with Alice. This situation is clearly the fault of Alice, who failed to control the information flow properly. Bad philanderer! No biscuit!
- The interpretation of the Arthurian triangle that Marion Zimmer Bradley gives in The Mists of Avalon.
- Incredibly, this is the resolution of the love triangle in Fans (at least where the original ending left things).
12. Alice and Charlie are in a relationship, often married, but Alice likes Bob and Bob likes/is loyal to Charlie. Depending on genders this can be a hilarious or very tragic set up.
13. Alice must choose between Bob and Charlie, but Bob is also attracted to Charlie. Could arise in a gay/bisexual situation, or could be non-sexual in nature. The non-sexual setup might be something like a boy (A) wants to please his dear old Mum (B) and wants to do naked things with his girl (C). Dear old Mum likes the girl, and monopolizes her attention with shopping trips and general girl-to-girl socializing stuffs that greatly reduce C's naked-fun time.
- Penny And Aggie: Put Michelle at A, Stan at B, and Rich at C.
- Candi: Bisexual Trevor is at A, having to choose between Laura at B and Matt at C. Laura is attracted to Matt, though she won't admit it.
- Eric in That70s Show was in the second situation for an episode. He was dating Donna and loyal to his mother, Kitty. Kitty and Donna then start going out shopping and lunching, cutting down on Eric's happy naked fun time with Donna.
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