30 Day Shipping Meme - Day 16: A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out great/badly?

[brendala]

Day 23 - A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out great?
Katchoo/David/Francine/lotsa other people (Strangers in Paradise)

Comments

[earthstar_moon]

Looking back at it, there are two questions for me? Why Jerrica didn't just tell Rio from the beginning. If he was the man she loved, he would understand and help her. Also, was there any real reason for him to be in the show? If you think about it, the only purpose for him was to save Jem/Jerrica when she needed help.

If you go by that logic, why not just have him as a friend in the beginning? If he was just a friend who still figuring out if he has feelings for either Jem or Jerrica it wouldn't have looked as crummy as the original version did of having Jerrica's boyfriend thinking he has feelings for another "girl." You would have still have the same amount of drama without Rio looking like a jerk (even if Riot was the better choice in the original)

Oh the 80s, how messed up you were. (I'm not sure you could pull this off as much in a modern kids show.)

[brendala]

If I recall correctly, the initial reason she didn't tell him was that she never expected Jem to be a permanent part of their lives (Jerrica only created her so she could perform in the band contest). Once Jem became a mega-popular celebrity, Jerrica had already gone a few weeks without telling Rio and was all like, "Damn. If I tell him NOW he's gonna call me a liar and kick my plants. I better keep the ruse up".
As for why he's in the show: Basically he was there to set up for their shows and lift heavy things for the girls (I assume he also opened jars and squished spiders for them, too). He was basically their roadie.

If Jem ever gets a reboot, I hope they make Rio Jerrica's FRIEND in the beginning instead of her long-term boyfriend. Like you said, it would maintain the romantic drama without making Rio come across as an unsympathetic, cheating jerk.

I'm not sure you could pull this off as much in a modern kids show.

I dunno. Archie is still going on and they recently pulled this messed up stunt:

[earthstar_moon]

Yeah, that's a fair point. To be fair, it's bee awhile since I watch the show, so my memory isn't 100% If they do a reboot, I really hope Rio starts as a friend because then the plot would make more sense.

I saw that. @_@ I don't know about you but I'm getting really tired of seeing Obama in comics. Can we keep politics out of my comic book stories please?

[brendala]

Another problem with love triangles/polygons is the fact that it's very hard to make the person at the center of it NOT come across as a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. With most harem/love-triangle based series, I just end up wondering "Why are all these desirable people fighting for the love of this jerk/loser/dork?"