skinchangers versus bloodsuckers

[coraa]

This came up in someone else's LJ a few weeks back, but alas, I cannot remember who or where. Nonetheless....

To those of you who read such things (or watch them, TV or movies are fine too): can you think of any books where there's a love triangle involving a vampire, a werewolf and the protagonist where the protagonist ultimately chooses the werewolf? I can think of several examples offhand of such a triangle where the protagonist chooses the vampire, but not the werewolf. (I deliberately don't specify what species is the protagonist, because I don't really care whether it's a human or a fairy or a were-elephant doing the choosing... though if the protagonist isn't human, it'd be interesting to know that too.)

Hell, even if the love triangle is in the background -- can you think of any? Or even any books that include both humanlike vampires and werewolves where the protagonist ends up with a werewolf, regardless of whether there's a love triangle involved? (Obviously if it's a choice between werewolves and nonsentient sluglike beings that happen to suck blood, that's not much of a choice.)

(If the protagonist winds up on her own, with no love interest at all, that'd be interesting to know too, but since the werewolves vs. vampires thing tends to come up in supernatural romance, I'm not expecting as much of that.)

I'm curious. I'm a werwolf fan myself, but it seems like main characters really like the bloodsuckers.

EDIT: Comments have spoilers for various things, including but not limited to the Mercy Thompson series, the Discworld novels, and Harry Potter.

Comments

[maggiedacatt.livejournal.com]

I don't tend to read that sort of thing, but off the top of my head, Tonks and Lupin come to mind. No love triangle, though... just the resistance on the part of Lupin to condemn Tonks to such a lifestyle.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes. And Tonks'n'Lupin is an interesting one compared to a lot of more, er, standard werewolf romance -- because he doesn't act like a wolf except when the moon is full (and then he acts like a drugged wolf, or else a crazy wolf monster).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I prefer werewolves myself, if forced to choose one. Never understood that big deal about vampires. I don't think the werewolves ever win if they're up against a vampire, though.

Werewolves in terms of romantic figures have just always struck me as more...honest, I guess. Their wrongness is visible and undeniable, whereas vampires bury it under the angst and seduction bit.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I think realistically I'd prefer a lover who wasn't any kind of monster, but if I had to pick I'd far and away pick werewolves. I just don't find vampires terribly appealing, I think because the decadence-and-corruption thing doesn't do it for me, and so often vampires in stories are so bloody superior, or at least they think so.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think it's the illusion. The werewolf mythology allows for no illusions that, hey, this is a monster. Vampires, OTOH, give the illusion of humanity, and that all that's needed to heal them is love, hiding all the "OMG NO!" factors.

Personally, if I have to choose, I choose honesty.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Patricia Briggs's Mercy series would fit here: "any books that include both humanlike vampires and werewolves where the protagonist ends up with a werewolf, regardless of whether there's a love triangle involved". There are vampires and one of them has a sort of crush on the narrator, but she never seriously considers it and does end up with a wolf.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I'd forgotten those. I've been warned off the third book, and still haven't decided whether it's worth reading the first two and stopping...

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I may have been the one who did the warning. I totally cannot recommend the third book, and I was lukewarm on the second. First is a pretty good example of its type, though!

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

Huh, i really liked Mercy's character and liked the world, but was kind of lukewarm on the plot of the first book. I really liked the second and third books though.

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

Darn! I should have thought of that one! I got overly focused on the "love triangle with a vampire" bit though. It probably also helps that she's a shapechanger herself.

[ceph.livejournal.com]

Well, no love triangle as such, but how about Carrot and Angua?

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Ooh.

And there's the vampire woman recruit in, what was it, Thud!, who was at least nominally interested in Carrot? But I didn't see any sign that she was at any risk of breaking them up. Anyway, I think the sexual tension between Angua and Sally was way more interesting.

(Although actually, Pratchett's an interesting case. Despite the fact that vampires make me go 'eh' usually, and despite the fact that it's definitely not one of my favorites of his, I ship Polly/Maledict from Monstrous Regiment like whoa. Either, um, version of Maledict [I say as I tread carefully around spoilers...].)

[istgut.livejournal.com]

Um, spoiler much? (not for me, but still!)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

You have a point, but given that the premise of the question was 'tell me what happens at the end of these supernatural romances,' it didn't occur to me that people should be careful of spoilers. :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I've added a spoiler warning.

[istgut.livejournal.com]

Thank you, you're awesome :)

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

Whatever. That's like a spoiler only in the first book she show's up in that was released 15 years ago or so. Not like some of the other stuff on this page ;->

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any real counterexamples. I wonder--does this have something to do with power? Vampires always seem to have the edge on the lycanthropes. Are the heroines thus choosing the alpha males?

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wonder. It does seem that vampires wind up dominant over shapeshifters, and that might have something to do with it. Also the fact that it seems much more frequent (to me) that vampires are coded sexy: it's really not infrequent in my experience that people become more attractive when they get vampired in books (explicitly so - pores closing up, skin tone smoothing out, losing weight, etc), but not so much so when they get werewolfed; the bite of a vampire is often coded in sensual or pleasurable terms, whereas the bite of a werewolf is much more often pursued-by-ravening-hellbeast and not very pleasant even when the werewolf is a good person.

Of course, it's sort of chicken-and-egg. Do vampires win out because they're sexier (or more dominant), or are they allowed to be sexier (or more dominant) because they're going to wind up with the protagonist?

[artemis-lizzie.livejournal.com]

The first one I thought of was Willow and Oz from Buffy. Willow never really had a vampire love interest (Angel and Spike were with Buffy), but she certainly chose Oz, even after she knew he was a werewolf.

[bellwethr.livejournal.com]

Without delving too deeply into spoilers, in the Stephanie Miller books said love triangle is the crux of the conflict in the third book. I just picked up the fourth, but have not read it yet...