Basic Trope: Polyamory as a romantic resolution.
- Straight: Alfred is in love with Bethany, Catherine and Danielle at the same time. Not wanting to disappoint any one girl, and given they're all amenable, he marries all three of them.
- Exaggerated:
- Unlucky Everydude Alfred has an Unwanted Harem consisting of Bethany, Catherine, Danielle, Elizabeth, Francesca, Georgina, Helen, Irene and Jane.note note The only way out of his predicament is to marry all of them, and some of them are... only... too... enthusiastic about the prospect.
- A veritable Love Dodecahedron with multiple love interests of varying genders ends in a huge multi-way marriage.
- The entire love rivalry was a facade, as Alfred, Bethany, Catherine and Danielle were a group marriage from day one.
- Downplayed: Alfred is in a Love Triangle with Bethany and Catherine, and chooses both.
- Justified:
- Polyamory is perfectly legitimate in their culture, and all parties are consenting.
- More so if there are underlying reasons for this, such as a society with a shortage of available men.
- They're all royalty, and the only way of avoiding a major war is a multiple Arranged Marriage.note .
- There was considerable Threesome Subtext throughout the series, and some of the girls appeared to be developing crushes on each other as well as Alfred.
- "Guaranteed sex with three different women? What man wouldn't?"
- Throughout the course of the story, Alfred has grown to romantically love each of them (either through fighting to the ends of the earth with them or the love and support that they shared), yet can't decide between either of them. They ultimately agree to a polyamorous relationship.
- Inverted: Dump Them All
- Subverted:
- Alfred proposes to all three, but Catherine squicks out and Danielle refuses to share her bed and life with Bethany. Alfred goes ahead and marries Bethany.
- They all say "yes", but bigamy laws mean they can't.
- Turns out that who Bethany and Catherine really like is each other; they decide to dump Alfred leaving him with Danielle.
- Double Subverted:
- Except he happened to get Catherine and Danielle pregnant, and their families are having none of it.
- Until the law changes, what with society emerging into a Free-Love Future.
- Bethany and Catherine regret it later and marry Alfred and Danielle at long last after all.
- Parodied:
- Married life still looks like an Unwanted Harem comedy series. (This marriage was somewhat reluctant on Alfred's part.)
- Take all the usual Dom Com cliches about married life. Multiply by three.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alfred tries to propose to the three girls, but initially Cannot Spit It Out. February 29th rolls around, and each of the three girls end up proposing to him separately. He reluctantly accepts all three, but in trying to explain it to each of them, all hell breaks loose between the three as each refuses to share a marriage with one of the other two... that is, except for Bethany and Danielle who finally decide to end their Belligerent Sexual Tension and admit they had feelings for each other as well. Catherine walks away in disgust and refuses to have anything to do with the other three. Then along comes Elizabeth... long story short, they marry until it all degenerates into The Masochism Group Dance and ends in divorce. Except Bethany and Danielle who remain Happily Married.
- The marriages are all annulled by the courts due to anti-bigamy laws. Each of the four pair up legally and see each other on the side, or Alfred marries one of the girls and sees the other two on the side, as part of an amicable arrangement.
- Averted:
- Alfred marries one of the three and leaves the others disappointed.
- No Romantic Resolution
- Enforced:
- The producers needed to end the series without disappointing the rival factions of shippers, and give something to excite the fans of the OT3 (or 4, or 5...)
- The producers wanted something unusual and perhaps controversial to up the ratings.
- The work is basically Porn with Plot, and they needed an excuse for the climactic group sex scene.
- Lampshaded: "Three wives, Alfred old boy? You know what that means, eh? Three mothers-in-law, heh heh!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: The love interests are all of noble birth and Alfred uses his harem to build a vast political alliance.
- Defied:
- Alfred proposes to all three women. They all turn him down.
- All three women gang up and propose to Alfred together. He turns them all down, or suggests Let's Just Be Friends.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Heavy Threesome Subtext or equivalent suggesting it might head this way eventually, which eventually turns into Alfred and the ladies all living together and acting Like an Old Married Couple to each other. Nobody mentions a wedding.
- Deconstructed: The girls aren't all happy (or are a bit weirded out) at Alfred's proposal, and only agree reluctantly due to I Want My Beloved to Be Happy or as a Marriage of Convenience. Jealousy and infighting over the affections of the husband are common as well as normal relationship problems only being worse when you have to please three partners, not just one. They manage to get busy and produce a fair few kids, giving rise to one heck of a Big, Screwed-Up Family.
- Reconstructed: Sure, all relationships have their problems, but the four are able to work through them and remain Happily Married.
- Played For Laughs:
- Lots of humorous embarassment over the strangeness of a multiple proposal.
- The same old harem comedy tropes don't die down just because they all got married.
- Imagine the situation when Alfred has to remember three birthdays, deal with 20 kids running around, and all the usual comic implications of married and family life turned up to eleven.
You don't want to keep all those brides waiting at the altar do you? Go back to Marry Them All!
