The two main teen phenomenons of the past decade, the Harry Potter franchise and the ‘Twilight‘ saga, and even the up-and-coming franchise ‘Hunger Games‘ all have something in common. They all have a main trio of protagonists, two boys and one girl. Why is it that this formula leads to success? Not that all novels with this trio formula become phenomenons; however, it’s interesting that the three hugely-popular crazes of my lifetime have always had this same gender group.
I thought about it the other way around and discovered that if there were two girls and one boy, it would be a fatal flaw because male readers don’t (generally) like to read romance novels, nor do they like to read descriptions of gorgeous, yet imaginary women. They are visual creatures, while women have been known to go wild for descriptions of impossibly handsome men. A book where a guy is chasing two girls automatically makes him a ‘player,’ definitley not reading material of choice for an average guy. Then, I realized, girls love the experience of feeling like they are beeing chased by two guys. Also, it boils down to the gender stereotype – a girl hanging out with two guys is much more normal than a guy hanging out with two girls. Unfair!
Then you have to look at the general audience you are trying to pinpoint with your novel. Girls and guys like to read from the perspective of a guy, but guys unfortunately will not normally read books from the perspective of a girl. The girl has to be a strong female lead, since a wimpy girly heroine will not work for male readers. Case and point: Katniss Everdeen. There are not many books with a female lead that have worked for such a widespread audience, and Katniss is why ‘Hunger Games‘ has such a league of male fans. Harry Potter was a character both girls and boys could latch onto, while Bella of ‘Twilight‘ was almost like a blank canvas that girls could view themselves from – Bella is simple, feels average-looking, clumsy, normal, shy in a new place. All qualities that other girls could relate to. However the endless descriptions of ‘rippling muscles,’ as our reporter Zane says, puts off male readers. The ‘Twilight‘ saga is proof that a book series can be wildly popular with a nearly fully female audience. What do you think about the ‘two boys and one girl’ trend in YA novels? Why do you think it just works?
Other Examples:
The Mortal Instruments, Uglies, The Host, and Matched. Twilight, Harry Potter, and Hunger Games are not the only ones!
the Mortal Instruments has the same concept too.
Divergent has a male antagonist, a male love interest and a female lead but it’s not exactly the same formula as the rest.
Gale isn’t even a main character though in the first book……………………..
@Jesse – Yup, realized that after I listed it out. Took it off the list, thanks for the tip.
@Becca – He’s still part of the ‘Hunger Games’ trio, per-say though.
It depends if you mean trio working great together such as in Harry Potter, then it would be katniss peeta haymitch, but if you mean trio or “love triangle” then if would be katniss peeta gale, which is what the movies seem to be advertising it as, even though it is true that gale isn’t in the first novel much
I really can’t understanding comparing Harry Potter and Twilight. Nor Twilight vs The Hunger Games.
Both HP and THG is about courage and love(not boy-girl-love, but FRIENDSHIP) and doing things that are really hard, but worth in the end, because you save the ones you love.
Yeah, it is brave of Bella to sacrifice herself to save her unborn baby. But the rest of the series is mostly about Bella loving Edward, a little bit of Jacob and pretty much ignoring her friends.
The concept of 2 males and 1 female is so different in these three books.
Bella loves Edward for his dashing looks and she loves Jacob for his kindness. She pretty much ignores her friends and family even though they try making her somewhat happy, and who want a friend like that?
Katniss loves Gale for his courage and bravery, but also like a brother and a long time friend. Her love for Peeta is also for courage and bravery, but also much for sacrifice, which he(and she) both showed in the arena at the end of book one. Katniss also showed her love for her family and friends, which is greatly described in Mockingjay.
Harry is a really complex character who, just as Bella, shut himself out from his friends, but not the same as Bella. He puts a great value of friendship, more than the actual love-love. Harry is a very caring person, which is mostly because of what is mother did to save him. Which is showed in DH when he sacrifices himself in order to save the ones he love.
The thing I think why this 2male-1female-thingie works is how much you can play around with it. You can have a love triangle(which is huuuugely popular in these teen-books written now), but you don’t necessarily need that to have a good book. Yeah, I do love love-triangles, they are fun to read about, because that is how the teenage world looks like.
Uh, this was probably very confusing, but in short answer; it works so well because you can play around with it so much and also, that you can really base that to your own life.
Though the headline reads very innocent, i think you are mostly talking about heroines and their love-triangle. If so, I would exclude Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.
I never fell in love with two guys at a time, but I saw this happening. As much as I can’t get into the spirit of love triangles, I can understand that a girl/woman enjoys the attention of two boys/men- so I would say it has mostly to do with the female fantasy, starting with the author’s one. This formula, including a friend and the boyfriend (female perspective of course), could have something to do with a much more uncomplicated friendship (also the female fantasy). As for why not two girls and a boy- emancipation movement had caused a lot of very good things, still not perfect.
But I think also it works, because readers no longer have much of a choice. It’s no wonder publishers react to slogans like “Team Edward” & “Team Jacob”, when fans are screaming so loud. It’s so common that publishers advertise the synopses with this formula, even if it’s hardly worth mentioning in the actual story (this discourages me as a reader), and it seems to turn into a trademark. I wish they would name it a new genre, like Trimantic, so I could ignore the shelf completely. The formula worked for Twilight, unfortunately turns a lot of books into cheesiness.
The Percy Jackson Series and the Lost Hero series does too!!! Aahh!!! I love all of these series… Well, Im not that bi of a Twilight fan though,… Anyways; I love these series but Hunger Games has to be by farmyard most favorite. I LOVE HARRY POTTER TOO!!! hahaha
It’s true! It’s definitely the most popular formula, but most of the books are written with a female lead and point of view, and so the female has a guy friend and a crush. But with more male oriented writing, there is a second guy for a different reason. A male isn’t usually written with a crush and a female friend; they all have a guy friend. I don’t see why it couldn’t be two girls and a guy, but it isn’t a common style.
In The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner Sequel) a love triangle between two guys and a girl kinda happens. I think it is usually two guys and a girl because if there was a guy in love with two girls it seems pig-headed and wrong. Somehow it’s okay for girls.
I realized that was the case w/these three franchises a while ago. I’m not really sure why it works.
I hated how much Summit pushed the love triangle & “Team Edward” & “Team Jacob” for the Twilight movies. I’m glad that at least w/the first trailer Lionsgate is realizing that’s not what The Hunger Games is about. It’s about war.
I think the best way to describe it would be this. (Hopefully no one takes offense.) The female in this one female two males combo is usually a stronger character as in real life. Females are typically viewed as loud, whiny, and feisty. There is so much more emotion in female characters than in male. In that case you need the two male characters to balance out the female. I’m not saying that male characters aren’t stronger characters they just are in different ways. They are generally viewed as the strong, silent, oh I am so macho type. This is nomally from the female characters view in the book. When viewed from by a male more emotion shows through because otherwise the book would be extremely boring. The females are usually “toned down” too.
I completely agree. EXCEPT that as Kimberly said, the Scorch Trials (and its sequel the Death Cure) play off of a 1 male 2 females structure. It actually works pretty well. I think that’s mostly because the romance is kind of a side thing in that series, and not the focus at all.
It’s in other media, too. Comics and animated cartoons as well. Whenever there’s a team of three youngsters, there are always two boys and one girl. Funny how so many fictional worlds suffer from female deficient.
Though not every power trio (3 members of a squad teamed together and going to adventures) is a love triangle. That’s the difference between HP and HG. In HP the three were actually working and spent time together but in Hunger games there are scenes either with Katniss/Peeta or Katniss/Gale, except for the training session in 2nd book. I didn’t read the 3rd one yet so I don’t know but I still think these two ‘concepts’ are different tropes at all.