Two Guys and a Girl



"''"Jessie is a friend, you know he's always been a good friend of mine

But lately something's changed, it ain't hard to define,

Jessie's got himself a girl and I want to make her mine"''"

- Rick Springfield, "Jessie's Girl"

They grew up together, they've always been best friends, they're going to be happy forever, right?

Suuuure. Then the plot happens.

Inevitably, the main character, often The Messiah, gets pitted against the other guy, who is the Rival Turned Evil. Usually Because Destiny Says So. The girl, who usually owns the Amulet Of Extreme Plot Significance, gets kidnapped a lot or maybe the two guys fight over her, usually via their own clashing ideas on how to protect her, or just romantically, (especially if they're hitting puberty). The Hero, The Lancer, and The Chick with the other stuff pruned off.

Whether romance is in the equation varies; sometimes the girl is the sister of one of the guys, though usually not by blood. Expect a lot of Boys Love Fanfic based on tenuous Ho Yay/Foe Yay between the two males, most of which applies Die for Our Ship to the girl.

Highly prone to feature a Cock Fight, especially if the girl is not related to either of the boys. Also prone to the With a Friend And A Stranger dynamic.

The setup of Two Girls and A Guy isn't unheard of, but is less common, probably due to a tendency to make the Main Character of a story male.

Compare to Three Amigos. A kind of Love Triangle. See also Cast Calculus. Contrast Friend Versus Lover.

If a Five-Man Band gets formed see Three Plus Two. It'll often be a spare Love Interest and a fifth wheel, especially if there's emphasis on the romance.

Oh... if you're looking for the show originally called Two Guys a Girl And A Pizza Place, then uh... click that link.

Anime & Manga

 * Shin's jealousy towards Kenshiro (his best friend) for marrying Yuria (the love of both their lives) resulted in a bloodbath that shattered their friendships and kicked off the post-apocalyptic tragedy that is Fist of the North Star.
 * Excuse me. Did no one mention the Trio of Kenshiro, Mamiya, and Rei? Rei is in love with Mamiya but she nurses a soft spot to Ken.
 * Because they were hired around the same time, the three servants Finnian, Bardroy, and Mey-Rin of fit this once they begin to adjust to normal life and each other at the Phantomhive Manor. Tanaka arguably doesn't change anything because he doesn't interact or do much in general compared to these three and was already working for the Phantomhives before the three were hired.   was hired by Ciel in the current storyline, but he prefers to be in the company of , thus still leaving the dynamic of the original three Phantomhive servants unchanged.
 * Ranma, Ryoga, and Akane from Ranma One Half.
 * Guts, Griffith and Casca from Berserk. Things got ugly between the three of them.
 * Kamui, Fuuma and Kotori from X 1999.
 * Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke from Naruto, of course. In fact, all the genin teams in Naruto follow the same gender configuration, though only Team 7 really follows this trope's thematic elements to T.
 * Triangle Heart 3 plays with it: the brooding, angsty one is the hero, and the cheery, determined one is another girl. (Probably for the sake of filling the cast with cute girls despite logic; it is a Bishoujo Game, after all.) Interesting in that, taking Word of God and the OVA over Multiple Endings, the guy ends up with a third girl, making both of them Unlucky Childhood Friends.
 * Reversed in Tekkaman Blade 2. The main team of new Tekkamen are Two Girls (Yumi and Natasha) and One Guy (David).
 * And... double reversed, I guess, with the pilots of their support craft. They even line up on opposite-gender pairs - Goliate with Natasha, Hayato with Yumi, and Anita with David.
 * Incidentally, the trope is played essentially straight in Tekkaman Blade, with D-Boy, Noal and Aki, and with the subordinate Tekkamen Axe, Lance and Sword (the woman).
 * Tatsuya, Kazuya, and Minami in Touch, twin brothers and the girl next door who played together since they were born, until "we noticed one of us was a girl" (as Tatsuya puts it). Except only one of the boys is competing against the other, the stakes are the high school baseball championship of Japan, and Minami is a strong athlete in her own right.
 * Spike, Vicious and Julia from Cowboy Bebop.
 * And, in the show proper, Spike, Jet and Faye form the core trio of the Bebop's crew.
 * Tohru, Kyo, and Yuki from Fruits Basket.
 * Haji, Saya, and Solomon from Blood Plus fit this one well, even though only two of them grew up together. They pack the vast majority of the romantic tension this creates into one episode, which actually seems to work out pretty well.
 * Momo Hinamori, Renji Abarai and Izuru Kira in Bleach, though without the romance elements. Unusually for this trope,.
 * Penguin Revolution gleefully monkeywrenches the trope around after Yukari moves in with Ryo and his adoptive brother Ayaori. The three of them quickly become close and develop a standard Two Guys and A Girl dynamic... but thanks to the combination of Yukari's Recursive Crossdressing and his own Selective Obliviousness, Ayaori spends most of the series believing that Yukari is a boy.
 * Isamu, Myung and Guld from Macross Plus: we learn during the flashbacks that
 * Chiaki, Kousuke, and Makoto from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Both boys show interest in Makoto, Makoto tries to understand what she feels for both boys especially when other girls start making their move, and things become even more complicated due to Makoto's time-leaping habits.
 * Several scenes in Gankutsuou hint that Edmond, Mercedes and Fernand had this kind of relationship before.
 * Cordelia, Curio and Francisco in Romeo X Juliet.
 * Gundam 00 have four versions; An adult version (Hank Hercules, Sergei Smirnov and Sergei's wife Holly), a familial one (the Trinity siblings), The Aces of the three world powers (Graham Aker, Patrick Colasour and Soma Peries), and a more traditional one (Setsuna F. Seiei, Saji Crossroad and Saji's girlfriend Louise Halevy).
 * Used sorta at the beginning of Project ARMS, when it's Ryo, Hayato, and Katsumi. Except that . And then not too long after,.
 * Mikado Ryugamine, Masaomi Kida, and Anri Sonohara in Durarara of course.
 * Akiyuki, Furuichi, and Haru in Xamd Lost Memories.
 * Ed, Al and Winry. Granted, they're not together all the time, but anyway...
 * The Australian movie BMX Bandits with a 15 year old Nicole Kidman as the girl.
 * Mugen, Jin, and Fuu from Samurai Champloo. Mugen and Jin are always at each other's throats, and Fuu is pretty much at the center of the whole plot. She frequently gets kidnapped, and one of the guys always saves her. Because of this, many shippers see them as an excellent example of OT 3.
 * Pokémon usually has Ash traveling with another guy and girl.
 * (Arguably) Luffy, Zoro, and Nami from One Piece.
 * Daisule/Davis, Miyako/Yolei, and Iori/Cody from Digimon season 2 are a subversion. They're part of a Five-Man Band that included Takeru/T.K. and Hikari/Kari from the first season.
 * In the relationships of the characters, Daisuke/Davis, Takeru/T.K. and Hikari/Kari fit even more.
 * In Digimon Tamers Takato, Jianliang/Henry and Ruki/Rika are better examples. Note that Kazu, Kenta and Juri/Jeri were first just Takato's friends and Ryo doesn't appear until later.

Comic Books

 * In the Legion of Super-Heroes, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad/Live Wire, and Saturn Girl often fit the trope, depending on who's writing them. Particularly evident in the post-Zero Hour reboot continuity, with Cosmic Boy as the Standardized Leader, Live Wire as The Lancer, and Saturn Girl as, naturally, The Chick.
 * James Howlett/, Dog Logan, and Rose from the comic book miniseries Origin.
 * In the regular X Men canon: Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Wolverine.
 * In the DCU's Big Three, we have Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Bats and Supes often disagree on the proper course of action during crises, especially if hostages are involved. Wonder Woman, meanwhile, has spent time in love with both of them (first Superman, recently Batman). While the rivalry between Batman and Superman has only ever boiled over when one of them is mind-controlled into evil-ness (as in Batman: Hush, when Superman ), they rarely spend much time actively plotting against one another, and are stable enough to form the cornerstone of the Justice League of America.
 * The classic Doom Patrol: Robotman, Negative Man, and Elasti-Girl.

Film

 * In Carny, a member of the road crew of a circus or amusement park (which is what the term Carny refers to) strikes up a romance with one of the customers. She decides she also likes his brother, and has sex with him, too. Apparently this doesn't bother or affect any of them, it's as if they have no jealousy at all, and have simply decided that both of them are going to share her with each other.
 * Reversed in 28 Days Later. The surviving trio are a woman, a girl and... uh... Cillian Murphy. The initial group of survivors is more conventional- chilly action girl Selena, a boorish male survivor and Cillian as Jim, but, well... let's just say that the jerk doesn't last.
 * Mark was hardly the jerk. Selena fits that more than he does.
 * Across the Universe has a two-guys-and-a-girl layout at times, but it helps that two of them are siblings. Among certain fen, though... If it's not Max hating Jude for laying a hand on his virginal little sister, Jude pining after Max and settling for the nearest female to hand, Max harboring some very un-brotherly affections, or a really Squick-y threesome... it's got a resident Mary Sue taking up the space in the middle.
 * Slumdog Millionaire is made out of this trope (well, this and Flashbacks). Salim and Jamal are brothers. Otherwise, this trope is played dead straight, with Latika in the remaining role.
 * In the original Star Wars trilogy, Luke, Han and Leia. In the prequels, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padmé fill exactly the same roles.
 * Brian, Jacob, and Anna in Keeping the Faith.
 * The Green Hornet sets up Britt Reid, Kato and Lenore Case as this instead of the Power Trio you'd expect in most hero movies. Not only do the Ho Yay and Cock Fight take place, but Lenore has been unwittingly planning the Green Hornet's every move by handing Britt her analyses of his modus operandi.
 * In The Return of Hanuman, Minku only had two friend: Munni and Daddu, until Maruti joins in...

Literature

 * The original example of this trope is probably Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.
 * Or Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere...
 * Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther is another influential work based on this trope. Werther grows up with Charlotte and is a close friend of Albert. Albert marries Charlotte; Werther Wangsts himself into suicide.
 * Harry, Ron, and Hermione in Harry Potter. Although.
 * Also works with Harry, Ron, and Ginny.
 * James, Lily, and play the trope a bit more straight, although the two men were never friends.
 * Edward, Bella and Jacob in Twilight. Although Edward and Jacob become friends only at the end of the books.
 * Scathatch and are this over an Irish guy in the The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.
 * The novel Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman uses a slight veriation: evil villain Dr Impossible had a crush on Erica Lowenstein, before accidentally creating the superhero Core Fire whom she fell in love with. Dr Impossible's frequent kidnappings of Erica in his early career result from this (although "they grew apart" later and he stopped).
 * Mortal Instruments has Jace Wayland, Clary Fray, and Simon Lewis.
 * Lampshaded in The Belgariad, as the-guy-who-is-not-the-hero assumes this will happen the moment the hero returns to his village. The hero, for his part, is not even remotely interested.
 * Danny, Joe, and Irene from the Danny Dunn novels. No romance however, as the books were written a few decades ago for kids. There has to be fanfic where someone gets Irene, though. She's too awesome.
 * The 1967 book "The Owl Service" is all about this trope, as three present day teens find themselves re-enacting an old Welsh legend.
 * Older Than Print: The central relationship of the Icelandic saga Laxdaela Saga is one, with foster-brothers Kjartan and Bolli eventually becoming competitors for the hand of Gudrun. It doesn't end well: in the final chapter, she eventually tells her grandson "He I loved most, I treated the worst."
 * Edmond, Fernand, and Mercedes in The Count of Monte Cristo
 * Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
 * Biff, Joshua and Maggie in Lamb the Gospel According To Biff.

Live Action TV

 * Later Smallville seasons with Clark, Lana, and Lex.
 * Early seasons had Clark, Pete, & Chloe.
 * Cory, Shawn and Topanga in Boy Meets World. However Shawn not only had no romantic interest in Topanga, but at times seemed to be more romantically interested in Cory than her, though the latter was played for laughs.
 * Chase, Cameron and Foreman from House. Chase and Foreman often butt heads on differences of opinion and a drugged up Cameron sleep with Chase.
 * Done with extreme subtley in Robin Hood between Allan-a-Dale, Will Scarlett and Djaq; in which both men use their feelings for Djaq as a way to galvanise Robin into action after she's been captured, and which afterwards was barely ever dwelt on again except in body language and passing comments.
 * Used again, far less successfully in Season Three between Much, Allan and Kate. Failed because Much and Allan had to suddenly become BFF after spending the first two seasons all but hating each other, Much completely forget about his previous Love Interest, the actors had more chemistry with each other than either of them did with the actress, and Kate was a rather pathetic Shallow Love Interest anyway. And then she hooked up with Robin, and the entire Love Triangle was forgotten entirely.
 * In Two Guys a Girl And A Pizza Place, this is...well...very oddly averted when ALL THREE (Ryan Reynolds, Richard Ruccolo, and Traylor Howard) end up being paired off with OTHER people (Ryan with co-worker, Richard with Tiffany Thiesen, and Traylor with Nathan Fillion). Very...interesting to say the least.
 * On the Nickelodeon series The Troop, with Jake, Felix, and Hayley.
 * Henrik, Glenn and Mira from Vintergatan. Henrik and Glenn always thought the other was the object of Mira's affections, and thus tried harder themselves -- she just didn't care.
 * Dawson, Joey and Pacey in Dawsons Creek.
 * In the third season of Merlin a lot more emphasis is placed on Gwen joining what was previously the Heterosexual Life Partnership of Arthur and Merlin to form a Power Trio destined to rule Camelot together as King, Queen and Advisor.
 * Beautifully subverted in Community, when best friends Abed and Troy find themselves both pining over the same librarian. Rather than risk their friendship over rivalry, their response is to approach the girl at the same time, politely explain the situation to her, and then ask her out on a mutual date so that she can decide.
 * Kevin, Paul and Winnie in The Wonder Years.
 * Some seasons of Power Rangers/Super Sentai use this trope for the core team.
 * The second half of series 5 and almost all of series 6 (except for River Song episodes) of Doctor Who featured the Doctor, Amy and Rory. Naturally, this trope gets even more complicated when time travel is involved: the Doctor first met Amy when she was a kid, then went straight to meeting Amy and Rory as adults thanks to landing twelve years off his target. He doesn't find out they're engaged until after Amy has already had a few adventures with him and tried to have Glad to Be Alive Sex, at which point he basically abducts Rory and starts shipping them. It works.

Theater

 * Mickey, Eddie, and Linda from Blood Brothers, the Dramatic Irony being that it's actually a Sibling Triangle but none of them know it.

Video Games

 * In recent years, Bio Ware has taken to giving you two starting party members, both human, one man, one woman. So, with a male player character...
 * Though the social dynamic in Dragon Age is rather different, as Alistair and Morrigan hate each other. Mass Effect 2 fits best, as that is the only one in which there is an explicit attraction between your two starting squadmates.
 * Also in Dragon Age 2, one of the starting companions is your sibling, the other becomes a widow within minutes of meeting her, and is not a romance option.
 * Sora, Riku and Kairi from the video game Kingdom Hearts. They even have Theme Naming all to themselves.
 * Ven, Terra, and Aqua in Birth by Sleep are a parallel to the above trio, they even have the exact same Theme Naming.
 * Roxas, Axel and Xion in 358/2 Days follows suit.
 * The two groups from Twilight Town with Hayner, Olette and Pence against Seifer, Fuu and Rai.
 * Maxi, Kilik, and Xianghua from the Soul Series. They're companions for the most part, but in the fourth game, Maxi diverges from Kilik and Xianghua for his own story. Kilik and Xianghua, meanwhile, are Star-Crossed Lovers...
 * Subverted in Tales of Symphonia, where Lloyd, Colette and Genis are all childhood friends, but Genis prefers Presea. Mostly because they're around the same age
 * Arc Rise Fantasia has L'Arc, Alf and Adele falling pretty neatly into this trope.
 * Cecil, Kain, and Rosa from Final Fantasy IV.
 * Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII effectively play out the trope in spite of the fact that Rinoa doesn't enter the picture until all of them are teenagers and Seifer is already on his way from The Rival to Rival Turned Evil.
 * Although, to be fair, there was Selphie, and Quistis, and... you know what, I think it was a case of everybody wanting everybody else.
 * Quistis subverts it since although she's known Squall the longest, by the time Rinoa shows up she's long given up on being his lover and instead tries to be a replacement big sister. Fanfic writers are apt to ignore this character trait and play the trope straight.
 * Hero (Ryou), Jowy, and Nanami from Suikoden II. Literally Because Destiny Says So.
 * Suikoden III has Melville, Alanis and Elliot. Suikoden V has Roy, Faylen, and Faylon.
 * Denim, Vice, and Kachua from Tactics Ogre. In a way, Vice is two people. Depending on whether the player as Denim chooses to do an evil act or not at the end of the first chapter, Vice chooses to do the opposite and opposes Denim. Villain Vice and Hero Vice do not resemble each other in the slightest.
 * Chaos Legion had Sieg Warheit (Victory of Honesty), Victor Delacroix (Victory of the Cross), and Seila Riviere - but the big split happened before the game started.
 * Shiki's backstory fits this perfectly in Tsukihime, with as the other guy and Big Bad.
 * Final Fantasy V messes with this trope a bit. When the team first comes together, it's two guys and a girl. But then Faris joins, and it's three guys and a girl. But then it turns out that Faris is a girl, and it's two guys and two girls. And then, after a spoileriffic event, it becomes three girls and the token guy.
 * Caim, Inuart, and Furiae in Drakengard. The tension is initially over the fact that Caim is much better at protecting Furiae than Inuart, her betrothed, is, but it evolves as the game progresses into a squicky Love Triangle long after Inuart becomes the Rival Turned Evil.
 * In the War Craft backstory, the brothers Malfurion and Illidan Stormrage and Tyrande. Played more or less straight, even to the point where Tyrande is kidnapped and the feuding brothers have to work together to save her.
 * Some depictions of Mario, Luigi and Peach from Super Mario Bros put them like this.
 * Marche, Mewt, and Ritz from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (not including Doned nor Montblanc, since they don't meet each other at the same time).
 * Grandia II fits this trope to a T with Ryudo, Melfice and Reena. Ryudo and Melfice are brothers, Reena is Melfice's fiancée.
 * Asbel, Sophie and Richard in Tales of Graces. When they were children, the three carved their names in a tree as a vow of friendship.
 * Also.
 * In the post-Generation II main Pokémon games, no matter how you look at it there will always be the protagonist, their rival and their...Friend/psuedo-rival. One female and two males.
 * Except in the Gen V games, where if you play as a girl, it's two girls, one guy.
 * Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis from Golden Sun Dark Dawn.
 * Stocke, Marco and Raynie from Radiant Historia could be this, except Marco seems more brotherly to Raynie than anything.
 * Alternately, Stocke, Rosch and Sonja. In one Sidequest,
 * Alternately, Stocke, Rosch and Sonja. In one Sidequest,

Webcomics

 * Project 0 seems to be starting off this way
 * Ben Winchester, Jodie Beretta and Eric Remington in Loserz, though there is no attraction between them.
 * Juathuur has at least three examples of this trope. However, it is somewhat unusual as one of the girls is the main character, and there is no rivalry at all between her squad-mates.
 * The formula of this webcomic only with added Ho Yay
 * In Prophecy of the Circle it's a part of the backstory of Jacind, Yaren and Calterra, a first thing out of many that would over time erode the three's friendship.
 * 'Two guys and a girl' appears to be the fundamental adventuring unit of the RPG-influenced setting of Dominic Deegan; apparently a sort of unofficial custom or cosmic thing. Greg, Dominic, and Luna did it at the very beginning, but there are three plot-significant triads whose Love Triangle problems cause big drama.
 * In the backstory, Donovan, Miranda, and  were an adventuring party of a dual-classed bard and swordsman, an outrageously powerful female wizard, and a barbarian warrior. Miranda and Donovan were a couple.   liked Miranda.   chose a very bad time and method to declare for her, then thought better of it and sacrificed himself to save Miranda and the world with little actual harm done, but it appears to have been a significant factor in his damnation anyway.  has recurred as various types of antagonist and problem for the entire run of the comic.
 * During the second major storyline, 'Visions of Doom,' we are introduced to the trio of Siegfried, Jayden, and Milov; Siegfried was the third recurring character to appear in the strip, but here he got friends and a more fleshed-out character, including his first real moral victory at the end. They reappear regularly and their story eventually becomes very tragic.
 * And at the end of the 'Battle For Barthis' sotryline, Mookie introduced Grench, Stonewater, and Bulgak. As in the other two cases, the group is split up when the un-chosen man winds up, but it happens earlier and a little less tragically this time. Both parties reappear during 'The March Across Maltak' and 'The Court of Karnak,' although Grench becomes much less significant after the Love Triangle is resolved, not having a prophesied destiny or an exposition-heavy Redemption Arc.
 * Miranda escapes this post-triangle sidelining only because she's the main character's mother and one of the most powerful magic-users in the kingdom. Also she and Donovan are possibly the most prominent Beta Couple, and definitely the one with the least issues.
 * Two Guys and Guy, which lampshades the trope by naming the girl "Guy".
 * Elliot, Tedd (despite what he looks like and his tendency to transform into a female), and Sarah in the beginning of El Goonish Shive before the plot kicks off.

Web Original

 * That Guy With the Glasses has three main music reviewers that frequently collaborate with each other: Paw Dugan, Todd in The Shadows and Pushing Up Roses. These three frequently collaborate with each other and did a collaborative review of The Monkees' Head. Naturally, no Love Triangle has formed. (if you don't count the fact that Paw and Roses used to date but are now Platonic Life Partners)
 * Video game music podcast Nitro Game Injection has a hosting crew made up of two guys and a girl.

Western Animation

 * Transformers examples:
 * Averted in Transformers Generation 1 with Spike, Carly and Chip. Spike shared episodes with either of his two friends, but there notably never was an episode in which both of them appeared. The only exception of sorts is the Japanese Scramble City OVA, in which there was one screen featuring them both with their backs turned towards each other. Starting season 3, Spike was the only human to keep the regular spot. Carly got one appearance, but the plan to feature Chip in one episode got cancelled. Carly appeared more regularly in the Japanese "season 4" Transformers Headmasters, but only in the role of wife & mother.
 * In the Transformers Generation 1 Marvel comics, the human trio consisted of Buster, Jessie and "O". It all lasted until the seventh issue, wherein "O" was written out of the series.
 * Transformers Generation 1 Dion, Orion Pax and Ariel. Ariel and Orion were in a relationship at the time of a Decepticon attack that left all three "dead". Orion was rebuilt into Optimus Prime and Ariel into Elita One, the two continuing their relationship. Dion's fate has been murky since: popular fanon suggested he had been rebuilt into Ultra Magnus or otherwise Ironhide, which later canon implied to be true for Ultra Magnus. Then an interview revealed Dion was supposed to be dead (which also was Ariel's original fate - she wasn't originally conceived to be Elita One). Then another comic stated Dion had survived and went on by that identity. Then Hasbro stated Dion was dead. Either way, the old friendship seems gone.
 * In the IDW comics, it's Jimmy Pink, Hunter O'Nion and Verity Carlo.
 * Alexis, Carlos and Rad in Transformers Armada. In the comics, Rad and Alexis were heading for a relationship when it got cancelled.
 * Sentinel, Optimus and Elita-1 used to be one of these in Transformers Animated. Then Elita, Optimus became an Elite Guard washout and was put on a space bridge repair crew, and Sentinel became a Jerkass. Well, bigger Jerkass.
 * Vlad, Jack, and Maddie in Danny Phantom.
 * And of course, Danny, Sam, and Tucker.
 * Like Harry Potter above, Verne, Gus and Cassie from Ultimate Book of Spells are this to a T.
 * This is present, to some degree, in The Spectacular Spider Man: Peter, Gwen, and Harry have apparently been best buddies since at least the seventh grade. However, this trope goes into effect when Harry and Gwen begin dating, despite Gwen's greater interest in Peter, who at the time was dating Liz Allan.
 * In Spider Man and His Amazing Friends, with Spidey(Peter Parker), Iceman(Bobby Drake) and Firestar(Angelica Jones).
 * Willy, Quincy, and Alyssa from My Dad the Rock Star. While Quincy did not have any feelings for Alyssa, his fears of becoming an unwanted third wheel when Alyssa and Willy hooked-up lead him to attempting to sabotage their relationship. The three all work it out within the span of the episode, though.
 * The furlings from Once Upon a Forest comprise of this. Interestingly romance never gets between the trio, but that may be because they're children and they're separate species. Abigail, the girl of the group, develops feelings for a field mouse who isn't part of the trio.
 * Ben, Gwen and Kevin in Ben 10 Alien Force; the romantic element is missing from part of the triangle, in that Ben and Gwen are first cousins and grew up almost like brother and sister. Still, Ben and Kevin have something of a rivalry, since Kevin was formerly an enemy of theirs, and Kevin and Gwen's mutual attraction factors into the boys' antagonism.
 * It is usually played straight in fanfiction, however.
 * In the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "The Tale of Master Yoshi", we discover that Splinter's owner/father figure, Hamato Yoshi, grew up forming part of this configuration, with the other guy being Yukio Mashimi (his best friend/adoptive brother) and with the girl being Tang Shen, (their adoptive sister/mutual love interest). While things were initially fine, everything goes south once Tang Shen chooses Yoshi, resulting in a quick and tragic end to the friendship.
 * Jimmy, Beezy, and Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes, though the Love Triangle is replaced by a Friend Versus Lover plot instead..
 * Daniel, Vince and Larmina on Voltron Force.