Two-Person Love Triangle: Difference between revisions

[[File:Clois_3589.jpg|link=Lois and Clark|frame|It's the classic: Clark loves Lois, who loves Superman and doesn't think much of Clark, but Clark really ''is'' Superman, only Lois doesn't know that.]]

 

 

See [[Loves My Alter Ego]]. Compare [[Imaginary Love Triangle]], which involves three people but is likewise built on false assumptions.

== Anime and Manga ==

 

** And then Saki does much the same thing, and a new student falls for Saya's disguised alter ego, making it a Four Person Love Hexagon. It is ''exactly'' as confusing as it sounds.

* In one of the stories in Senno Knife's ''Sepia'', there are also four roles and two people. He's a young man; she's a prostitute who is nearly out of debt. As it happens, she's been writing him anonymous love letters, and he's been seeing her while wearing a mask to be with her. So, to recap, young man, prostitute, letter writer, man in mask. At the end of the story, he says next time he'll go without the mask.

* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' uses this a lot. {{spoiler|Usagi is love with Tuxedo Kamen and, depending on the version, Chiba Mamoru. Mamoru, on the other hand, is in love with Princess Serenity, [[Sailor Moon]], and (once again depending on the version) Usagi}}.

* ''[[MAR]]'' has an odd example of this. Ginta is clearly in love with his childhood friend, Koyuki. He even protects her when he gets a chance to go to his dream world. He's not entirely clueless about her liking him as well. While in MAR Heaven, he meets Snow, who looks exactly like Koyuki and has much the same personality. There is much [[UST]] between them as the story progresses. The twist comes during the occasional times we see what's going on in the real world, and find that Koyuki is seeing the 'show' through Snow's eyes. Eventually we find that Snow is also able to learn about Ginta's world through Koyuki's eyes. {{spoiler|In the end of the anime, Snow and Koyuki merge, thus saving Ginta from having to choose between them}}. It's implied that both girls are in fact the same person, just alternate world versions. And none of the characters are aware of this.

* In [[Code Geass]], Kallen admires and has fallen for Zero, but does not know that he is Lelouch, who she's [[Tsundere]] to.

* The titular character of [[Nurarihyon no Mago]] is in such a situation. His [[Bishounen|night side]] is a lot more popular than his [[Cute Shotaro Boy|day side]], and his [[Muggle]] friends don't know it is the same person.

* In ''[[Dengeki Daisy]]'', Teru has strong feelings for Daisy, her faceless protector she only has contact through email, and falls in love with Kurosaki, who she secretly wishes were Daisy. Luckily, he is.

* ''[[Superman]]'' has the classic version of this. While it's varied over the years, the traditional triangle is Clark loves Lois, while Lois loves Superman and won't see Clark as more than a Co-Worker/Rival. As of the last decade or so, they've ''finally'' gotten over this in the comics. The DCAU played it straight.

* In the ''[[Spider-Man]]'' comics, [[Dating Catwoman|Black Cat]] barely tolerated Peter Parker's presence, but was hot to trot for Spider-Man any time. The catch is that Black Cat knows that they are one and the same person.

** This goes back a long way with him; at the end of a very early adventure, Peter Parker calls Liz Allen on the phone to ask for a date only to have her tell him she's already told off his rival Flash Thompson and wants him off the line as well, since she's anticipating a call from Spider-man. As she slams down the receiver, he laments that "Only a guy with ''my'' nutty luck could end up being his own competition!"

* In early ''[[Daredevil]]'' comics, Matt covered up his secret identity with his partner Foggy and their secretary Karen by pretending that Daredevil was his twin brother Mike. For a while there was a love triangle where Karen couldn't decide if she loved Matt or Mike.

== Fanfiction ==

 

 

== Film -- Animated ==

 

* Subverted in ''[[The Incredibles]]'', when Mr. Incredible flirts with Elastigirl when briefly distracted by some unfortunate events on the way to his wedding. The subversion being that when he gets to the wedding, he turns out to be marrying her "mild-mannered alter ego", and the two of them already clearly know the other's superhero identity. Apparently they just flirt like they don't know each other in costume because they like it.

* Happens in ''[[Megamind]]'' - Roxanne hates Megamind, the alien villain who conquered her city, but starts falling for "Bernard," the guy she's drafted into helping her overthrow him. Guess what he's keeping from her.

== Film -- Live Action ==

 

* The [[Arranged Marriage]] plot shows up in the short 1926 silent film ''Crazy Like a Fox'' and its "talkie" 1937 remake ''The Wrong Miss Wright''.

* Any of the many movies based on ''The Parfumerie'' (see the theater section below). These include:

* This is a common plot device in romance novels. ''From This Moment On'' by Lynn Kurland, ''The Imposter'' by Celeste Bradley, ''The Forest Lord'' by Susan Krinard...

* In [[Hans Christian Andersen]]'s ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', the prince, suffering an [[Arranged Marriage]], insists he only ever wishes to marry the temple-pledged girl who found him washed up on the beach. Turns out his fiancee is her. Of course, the eponymous [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]] makes this a ''Three'' Person Love Quadrangle.

* The book version of ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'', when Ella attends [[Masquerade Ball|the ball in disguise]]. This is lampshaded when Ella uses her magic book to read one of the prince's diary entries. He writes about how he enjoyed dancing with the mysterious girl at the ball, and accidentally writes the girl's name as "Ella", having no idea why he did so.

* L. M. Montgomery did this in ''The Pot and the Kettle''. Subverted in that the man ''knew the whole time'' that the woman was his fiancee, and set up an elaborate charade to make it seem as if they had fallen in love without realizing each other's identities.

* In the oldest known version of ''[[Beauty and The Beast]]'', Beauty's attraction to the Beast is conflicted because she keeps on [[Talking in Your Dreams|dreaming of a handsome young man who pleads with her to rescue him]]. It was, surprise surprise, the beast.

* Kobo Abe's novel ''The Face of Another''. A scientist's face is disfigured by liquid nitrogen, and his relationship with his wife becomes strained. In secret he creates an artifical face, assumes the identity of a stranger -- and seduces his wife.

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' which provides the top photo on this involves this. Eventually Lois falls in love with Clark, learns that Superman is him, and they even get married. This allows for the creation of accusations of adultry and a love triangle, when in fact the man Lois is claimed to have been cheating with is actually her husband.

* A situation very similar to the above-mentioned ''Sleeping Beauty'' example is used in Jim Henson's ''Hey, Cinderella!''. In it, Cinderella meets Prince Charming while he's gardening, and they fall for each other immediately. He promptly tells her that he's the castle gardener, just because he's afraid that Cinderella will turn into a snob if she knows who he really is ("nothing makes a girl a snob more than saying she personally knows a prince"). They plan to meet at the masked ball, wearing geraniums to recognize each other. This plan fails and the result is that they meet at the ball and dance, but Cinderella doesn't realize that Arthur the gardener and Prince Charming are the same, and he doesn't realize that Cinderella is the mysterious "princess" he met. In a bit of a subversion, while the two hit it off very well at the ball, both are quite determined to hold out for the "original" identities.

* In the fourth season of ''[[Eureka]]'', Henry accidentally hops timelines, discovers that in the alternate timeline he's married to a woman he barely knows, and falls in love with "his" wife. At first she naturally resents him for displacing her real husband, but she seems to be falling in love with him as well.

* In ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'', Spike first develops a crush on the Pink Samurai Ranger, and later develops one on Mia, making him a little conflicted on which to pursue. That said, not only is Spike something of a [[Hopeless Suitor]], Mia herself has no clue Spike lusts after ''either'' of her identities.

 

* The webcomic ''[[Red String]]''.

* Doubled in ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', twice: first with the eponymous married couple falling in love with each other again in a chatroom without knowing, and later with Fiona helping her mom hook up with Ralph, who is also getting help from his nephew and Fiona's boyfriend.

* ''[[Dumbing of Age]]'', Amber is in love with Danny - unfortunately Danny is in love with Amazi-girl. [http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/03-the-first-step-towards-recovery/who-2/ seriously.]

 

* On one episode of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' Isabella gets annoyed that her usual crush, Phineas, keeps disappearing whenever she needs him, though she seems quite enamored with the town's new triangle-headed superhero who keeps showing up right after Phineas leaves. (Yeah, [[Genre Blindness|we don't get how she missed it either]], [[Plot Induced Stupidity|she's usually smarter than that]].) Fits this trope even better because it's [[Alternate Character Interpretation|arguably]] the first episode where [[Oblivious to Love|Phineas]] is shown ''returning'' Isabella's affections, as he clearly is more distressed about lying to her than he is to his family.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' did the good ol' fashioned [[Loves My Alter Ego]], but in two different ways. The first is a pretty straightforward example: Danny likes [[Alpha Bitch|Paulina]], but she likes his superhero form, Danny Phantom. The second is a [[Dating Catwoman]]-style [[Inverted Trope|inversion]]: Danny and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Valerie]] like each other, but Valerie ''despises'' Phantom and wants nothing more than to [[The Hunter|destroy him in numerous painful ways]]. She nips their romance in the bud, ironically [[It's Not You, It's My Enemies|to protect Danny from his own alter ego]].

* ''[[Futurama]]'': In "Bender's Big Score," Leela falls for {{spoiler|Lars}}, to {{spoiler|the ever-snubbed Fry's}} frustration. It turns out that {{spoiler|"Lars"}} is an older version of {{spoiler|Fry}} after some complicated time-traveling.

** In a somewhat more straight-forward example, Bender seduces his own girlfriend by pretending to be her ex-boyfriend Flexo.