Twilight - Love it, or Hate it?

[mangosta71]

Although Twilight is apparently not actually that well liked by the majority of playgrounders, it is interesting that the series always seems to get such strong reactions. Even the people who don't like it seem to care enough about it that they want to express their opinions on the books. So what is it about Twilight that elicits these strong reactions? Is it the frequently mentioned sparkly vampires, or something else?

I understand that you don't want to read through 21 pages of thread for the answer, so I'll sum up what I can remember.

First and foremost, the portrayal of an abusive stalker as the ideal boyfriend/husband.

Blatant author insert and the most horrific Mary Sue known to man.

Absolutely no character depth or development.

Vampires' only "weakness" being that they get prettier in direct sunlight.

No coherent plot.

Author's insistence that her version of vampires are scientifically viable (this offends me personally as a biologist. YMMV).

Overt religious propaganda.

Did I miss anything?

[Serpentine]

Missed two things:


Insane fangirldom.

Undeserved popularity.

edit: Exhibit A

Vampires Drink Blood, But It’s The Fans That Bite
Bookstore | New York, USA
(A customer in her late teens approaches me in the bookstore.)

Customer: “Hey, do you guys sell the Twilight books?”

Me: “Yes, they’re right over there.”

Customer: “Have you read them?”

Me: “Yes, I have.”

Customer: “Didn’t you just LOVE them?!”

Me: “Well, actually, they aren’t really my type of book, so–”

Customer: *suddenly furious* “Are you f***ing serious?! These are the best books ever written! I’m going to tell Edward to come and bite you and drink all your blood!”

Me: *backing away* “Have a nice day, ma’am…”

[mangosta71]

Looking through the HP vs Twilight thread made me realize that I also missed pedophilia on the list.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

Looking through the HP vs Twilight thread made me realize that I also missed pedophilia on the list.

Nobody should EVER miss pedophilia.

[Renrik]

I hate it. I hate it more than I hate New Age music, and being an Irish trad. musician, I hate New Age music a lot. I can voice my hatred, having been forced by my ex-girlfriend to read this garbage. No, I do not hate it because I associate it with my ex-girlfriend. Her forcing me to read Twilight was one of the factors contributing to our breaking up.

Let's see if I can list the reasons:

1. The entire book just reads like a a bad fanfiction that got published somehow. No literary merit, right off the bat- no actual descriptiveness (Edward is 'perfect', apparently. Nice texture.), no complex wordplay, nothing. Bella is the most obvious Mary Sue I have ever seen.

2. The plot development is awful, predictable, and boring.

3. The characters are so vague that a reader (who seem to be invariably female) can simply project themselves onto Bella and project the object of their juvenile girly-crush onto Edward.

4. I have heard someone compare this series to Shakespeare. To compare anything to Shakespeare is bad enough. To compare this garbage to the Bard? No. It being a love story does not make it anything like Romeo and Juliet (which itself is actually good mostly because of Shakespeare's touches- the piece that turns it from good story to great story. It's all in the telling.). This is worse than teenage girls who carry around a copy of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream" that they will never finish and that they cannot understand.

5. The attempts of the author to add some angst into the characters is just painful to read.

6. The book portrays an abusive relationship with a man who is only interested in you because of an addiction to your scent as idealized love. As if we needed to screw up young girl's heads any more.

7. It's vampires. I just hate vampires. They're such a stupid monster, always given cultish adoption by teenagers (or worse, adults) who desperately want to be 'dark', but are too afraid to just become LeVeyan Satanists (which would be perfectly OK- I love LeVeyan Satanists). They're the subject of so much Mary Sue and Gary Stu fantasies, and I'm sick of being approached by people who want me to read their own (invariably unreadable) vamp-stories. Vampires, unlike werewolves, zombies, or cyborgs, represent no deeper meaning to me. They are just an oversexed, over-glamorized walking corpse.

8. The idea of romance with vampires. I do not find this appealing. They are dead. Do you really want to make sweet love down by the fire with a person who died a few decades ago? That's not cool.

9. These books have made the idea of a non-evil vampire more popular than ever, leading to the Driz'zt effect. I refuse to put vampires in my games anymore.

10. The series got rid of all the vampiric weaknesses. Turning sparkly in the sun does not count as a disadvantage.

11. Why do vampires always have super-human abilities? Dying does not make you fast. Quite the opposite, in fact.

12. One of the vampires is named Emmet. I am not down with people stealing my name, especially to make a sidekick to a fangirl toy.

13. the book perpetuates the image of vampires as, in the words of Heroes of Horror, 'sensual beings for which the thirst for blood is a mere dietary quirk'.

14. I have heard it compared to Harry Potter, and called 'the next Harry Potter' or 'the new Harry Potter". I read Harry Potter. I knew Harry Potter. You, Twilight, are no Harry Potter.

[littlequietguy]

The thing I liked about vampires was there weaknesses listed here:
http://vampires.monstrous.com/weaknesses_vampire.htm

Those pretty much cover it.

But anyways now most modern books have taken those weaknesses away and ruined them. Blade didn't and for that i am thankful.

Books that changed vampires to much:
Twilight
Runaways Comic (minor case)
Probably some others

Speaking of which has anyone seen this video?
Cracked.com so not totally age appropriate for many I guess.
http://www.cracked.com/video_17567_s...ended-cut.html (video)

[Parlity]

I hate it. I hate it more than I hate New Age music, and being an Irish trad. musician, I hate New Age music a lot. I can voice my hatred, having been forced by my ex-girlfriend to read this garbage. No, I do not hate it because I associate it with my ex-girlfriend. Her forcing me to read Twilight was one of the factors contributing to our breaking up.

Let's see if I can list the reasons:
...
3. The characters are so vague that a reader (who seem to be invariably female) can simply project themselves onto Bella and project the object of their juvenile girly-crush onto Edward.

4. I have heard someone compare this series to Shakespeare. To compare anything to Shakespeare is bad enough. To compare this garbage to the Bard? No. It being a love story does not make it anything like Romeo and Juliet (which itself is actually good mostly because of Shakespeare's touches- the piece that turns it from good story to great story. It's all in the telling.). This is worse than teenage girls who carry around a copy of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream" that they will never finish and that they cannot understand.
...
6. The book portrays an abusive relationship with a man who is only interested in you because of an addiction to your scent as idealized love. As if we needed to screw up young girl's heads any more.
...
14. I have heard it compared to Harry Potter, and called 'the next Harry Potter' or 'the new Harry Potter". I read Harry Potter. I knew Harry Potter. You, Twilight, are no Harry Potter.

Nice list and funnily written. It's a sad story about your ex-girlfriend, are you exaggerating about it to make your list more funny?

[Renrik]

Nice list and funnily written. It's a sad story about your ex-girlfriend, are you exaggerating about it to make your list more funny?

Not sad at all. We had irreconcilable personality differences. Mainly, she didn't like politics, and I didn't like Twilight.

[Lord Seth]

Blatant author insert and the most horrific Mary Sue known to man.

Really? Even worse than Eragon?

Overt religious propaganda.

I keep seeing this. Can someone clarify how it's so overt or propaganda? I've seen things that argue that, but honestly the most I've seen is some connections between the series and Mormonism, and "some connections" is hardly propaganda. I haven't read the series, so I can't comment on it first-hand, but I'm not sure from what I've read about it how it could possibly be "overt religious propaganda." Is Mormonism even mentioned in the series? (no, seriously, is it? I don't know)

[Lady Tialait]

Twilight Books = Couldn't read it beyond halfway. Eyes were bleeding.

Twilight Movie = Was forced to see it in theaters, drank a lot of soda so I could get a break from it when I went to the bathroom.

Twilight DVD = Got it for my birthday, makes a good disc for the bottom of a pile of disks on a spool, it's yet to get scratched or break.


Concultion = I love Twilight, I have never had a disk on the bottom of a spool last so long.

[Nameless]

I love Twilight because making fun of it will never become tired.

[mangosta71]

I keep seeing this. Can someone clarify how it's so overt or propaganda? I've seen things that argue that, but honestly the most I've seen is some connections between the series and Mormonism, and "some connections" is hardly propaganda. I haven't read the series, so I can't comment on it first-hand, but I'm not sure from what I've read about it how it could possibly be "overt religious propaganda." Is Mormonism even mentioned in the series? (no, seriously, is it? I don't know)

I haven't been able to bring myself to pick one of those books up either. But it's an accusation made against the series. As far as I know, no, Mormonism is not mentioned in the book. But, according to the reviews I've read, several of the key doctrines of that religion appear, albeit in a severely warped fashion. I wouldn't consider it propaganda either, but a lot of people apparently do, so I added it to the list.

[Jayngfet]

Well, I saw the cover of some magazine and noticed that the lead actors of the movies are in relationship hell. Meaning combined with meyers unwilllingness to complete the book the franchise is dead on it's feet. And what with the haters and the lack of exec meddling that means odds are it won't be martyred. This is about the best end we coulld hope for.

[Lord of Syntax]

First and foremost, the portrayal of an abusive stalker as the ideal boyfriend/husband.

Blatant author insert and the most horrific Mary Sue known to man.

Absolutely no character depth or development.

Vampires' only "weakness" being that they get prettier in direct sunlight.

No coherent plot.

Author's insistence that her version of vampires are scientifically viable (this offends me personally as a biologist. YMMV).

Overt religious propaganda.

Did I miss anything?

^ +1 QFT

\/-Real-Post-Below-\/
------------------------
Ok, i think that you are right 'bout all of it, and i agree very strongly it is just a horrrible thing to say that a abusive stalker is the ideal boyfriend/husband.