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Author: helterskelter

Apr 10th 2013 at 5:43:56 PM

''I do wonder if this is too similar to Rich Suitor Poor Suitor with the lifestyles part.''

Good point, but it does tend to factor pretty largely into what the overall themes behind works that feature a love triangle like this are actually purporting. Films like TheGraduate or {{Pocahontas}}, for instance, which are expressly about lifestyle choices with this sort of love triangle in play. Perhaps I should simply reduce the paragraph, so the emphasis doesn't seem so strongly focused on that aspect of this trope.

''but I think it is still a valid point that this brings up Unfortunate Implications if the personalities don't matter.''

Not so much--I do clarify what kind of guys follow what sort of patterns in this case. It's not that his personality doesn't matter, but that his personality is defined on what he represents for her. He has a personality, but it's actually deliberately invoking this trope: either he is safe and preferable or he is dangerous and preferable.

''EDIT: Does dangerous mean the guy...''

Well, I don't see why it can't mean all of those. In fact, that's why I left it kind of vague. Dangerous is relative to the story in question. I hate to bring up {{Twilight}}, but both guys in the picture are relatively "dangerous". One is a werewolf, the other is a vampire. The vampire, however, is trying to resist the urge to bloodily murder the girl whenever they meet, and is constantly linking her to danger. He is technically more old school and polite than the other guy, but he ''definitely'' represents danger, where the other guy is a childhood friend whom her family approves of and she could lead a relatively normal life with.

''mean was why does the man being more feminine make this trope more likely.''

Ahh, I see the issue. The logic was that a more feminine guy meant the trope would have more masculine love interests, but it'd probably be better not to complicate the issue.

''Also, Wrong Guy First may be useful as shorthand in there somewhere''

Maybe the trope is being needlessly specific, but it reads that it's about two love interests where the first one wins because he, on the surface, seems to be superior to the other guy in looks, money, etc. The other guy seems like a 'lesser' version because she's not looking closely enough. It's related as a love triangle trope, but I don't think it really has much relation in general.