Twilight - Love it, or Hate it?

[llamamushroom]

I enjoyed Twilight. It's badly written, in a purely literary sense, but it is written addictively. That is a talent which many authors with wonderful literary skills and original ideas lack, unfortunately.

Also, I completely agree that the relationship is... disturbing, but it's not that much worse than the majority of relationships one sees on TV or in movies, is it?

Finally, Bella definitely should have gone with Jacob - they actually had a conversation which wasn't a variation on

"You're so pretty! Why do you love me?"

"Your blood is my own personal heroin."

"But you're a vampire! You're perfect! I wanna be a vampire!"

"Not until you're over the age of consent."

Seriously, that was all they ever talked about. At least Bella/Jacob wasn't too self-destructive. Though the guy is unhealthily protective ("He looked at you? MOTORCYCLE RAGE!").

...

E-hem.

I was trying to be neutral, so I'll finish by saying that I enjoyed it, didn't mind the sparkle, and think Meyer should have left it at book 3.

[HPsauce]

What gave the director of the movies the idea for "diamond" skin, it is so lame and stupid.
They've got super speed and supe strengh and then he goes and spoils it by putting diamon skin.

[The Dark Fiddler]

What gave the director of the movies the idea for "diamond" skin, it is so lame and stupid.
They've got super speed and supe strengh and then he goes and spoils it by putting diamon skin.

I think that'd be the books.

[Ashen Lilies]

The books themselves apparently. One of my best friends (and rabid fangirl) overheard me talking about how bad the sparklies were in the movie. She agreed that the movie effects were cheesy that it was much better in the book. I then assumed that the sparklies in the book must have been more of a glaring reflection off the paleness of his skin, because, really, that's probably the only way to make shiny vampires work. She replied that no, in the book Edward's skin was described as being like diamonds. I gave up all further attempts at injecting logic into the book.

Edit: Oh look, sepulchral-scorpion-fiend-zombie-half-dragon-violin-horned-ninja-monk. Now I've seen everything. *shoots self*

[The Dark Fiddler]

Edit: Oh look, sepulchral-scorpion-fiend-zombie-violin-horned-ninja. Now I've seen everything. *shoots self*

Yay, I give people purpose.

[HPsauce]

The cover on the first book is the only good thing about the book to me because it shows the whiteness of the skin.
The rest of it is just horrible and boring al i did was read the blurb and chuck the book in the recycling it was that bad.

[Lord of Rapture]

The human body is made up of billions of individual atoms. If the word HATE was stamped on every single one of them, it would not express one-billionth of a percentage of the loathing I feel for this series.

(Bonus points for guessing the reference!)

I have no mouth and I must scream

To be honest, I never read the series or watched the movie, so I don't hate it, simply because I prefer hating something I actually have knowledge of besides its existence.

I probably will never hate it, since I got better things to do with my time anyway.

[Nameless]

I

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It's so trruuuueeee.

[Zencao]

I think we've wandered under a bridge here people...

[HPsauce]

I guess we have wondered under the bridge, like you said there are always going to be good points and bad points and some of us may of never even heard of Twilight.

[Zencao]

I guess we have wondered under the bridge, like you said there are always going to be good points and bad points and some of us may of never even heard of Twilight.

Living under one you would probably know :)

[HPsauce]

what do you mean by that?

[Zencao]

what do you mean by that?

I'm accusing you of being a troll.

[HPsauce]

HOW DARE YOU!
Why would you even think that i have never said anything to offend you and i'm new to this website anyway you said it first so your the troll.

[The Dark Fiddler]

You should've linked to the SRD and made a joke about how the encounter'd be easy. That's always funny.

[Zencao]

HOW DARE YOU!
Why would you even think that i have never said anything to offend you and i'm new to this website anyway you said it first so your the troll.

We hold these truths to be self evident...

[HPsauce]

i don't like you.
You have been nothing but rude to me and i haven't insulted you in any way but you had forced me to retaliate

[Zencao]

i don't like you.

Well I love you

[HPsauce]

Yeah you love me, love to annoy me.

[Zeta Kai]

My sentiments are similar to llamamushroom's above: the series is compellingly-written & intriguing, although deeply flawed & repetitive. I liked reading the series with my wife, & I'm glad we did, although I've read much better books. There's much better fantasy novel series, much better vampire books, much better young adult stories, much better novels written by women, much better yadda yadda yadda. But I still enjoyed it, despite its flaws.

The thing is, yes, when you break down the story to its component elements, the whole thing comes off as an insane melodrama, full of schmaltzy love, horribly unbalanced relationship dynamics, & enough squick to veer into nightmare fuel. But all of this actually works (somehow) in context, which is no small feat. Stephanie Meyer pulls off one bizarre plot point after another, mostly through the power of her characters, & the pace & flow of her writing. It's like you're on a roller coaster: you have some fun, it's pretty cool, but when it's over you look back at the tracks & see just how rickety & dangerous the whole thing is.

Another strength of Meyer's writing is her ability to handle supernatural abilities. Many writers have difficulty handling mental powers like telepathy & precognition. Writers tend to forget that their characters have some powers sometimes, or deliberately switch them off when the plot kicks in, lest the powers ruin the storyline. You see it all the time: why didn't Dumbledore or Gandalf or Raistlin or whoever use their power to do X? Because it would've ruined the plot & the story would've stopped then & there, sans climax. But Meyer tackles both in more depth & scope than I think I've ever seen, & nails them both well. Edward's mind-reading & Alice future-sight are explored over & over again, & the implications & limitations of both tie into the plot very well. If there's anything the Meyer is really good at (besides plowing ahead with stories that other writers wouldn't touch, for good reason), it would be her masterful grasp of how superpowers affect a plotline.

Like I said, I read all the books, & I can't say they were a waste of time. It's sometimes funny to look back, & poke fun at some of the weaknesses of the series. But I believe that overall, the flaws of the novels are outweighed by their strange strengths. Meyer's ability to polish garbage is admirable; it's not a path that I would take as a writer, but you have to give her credit where it's due.

[DamnedIrishman]

I agree on pretty much all the negative stuff about Eragon... But I seriously prefer it to Twilight. It might only be because I am a male, but still....

The Eragon novels have one real bonus though: the insanely obsessive fans will end up learning an actual language (old Norse) which although extremely limited in use, has some advantage.
Better than Harry Potter fans spouting rubbish pseudolatin, and Twilight fangirls becoming Mormons and wanting their future boyfriends to stay awake all night watching them sleep (because that's not creepy at all).

[Robert_Frazer]

I find Twilight... reassuring.

Tossed about rudderless in this strange and topsy-turvy, brave new modern world in which we live, Twilight is a rock of stability to cling to - its reception shows that girls can still be, well... girly.

[Starscream]

(Bonus points for guessing the reference!)

I actually considered using the full version of that quote in my little rant, then remarking that the reason for AM's emotions was that he had clearly been uploaded with the complete text of the Twilight novels.

Yeah, I need to stop posting at 2 am when I'm under a lot of stress.

[HPsauce]

Twilight is nothing but someones ideas of what he thinks vampires are like when they are not the good guys they are the blood sucking evil villains and should always remain.
And at the end of the film Bella is biten on the wrist instead of the usaul place the neck which was a mistake to make for him.

[DamnedIrishman]

Twilight is nothing but someones ideas of what he thinks vampires are like when they are not the good guys they are the blood sucking evil villains and should always remain.
And at the end of the film Bella is biten on the wrist instead of the usaul place the neck which was a mistake to make for him.

No, Twilight is one woman's idealised sexual fantasies. Don't take it too seriously.

[Seraph]

But the only thing worse... is the FanFiction. Sweet Jesus the horror. THE HORROR. Pray that you never know a pain so exquisite and overwhelming as the things I have seen. Lord Arioch protect us from the things beyond our mortal ken...

the only good thing to come of twilight is crossover fanfiction where Alucard gets to roam free in the twilightverse.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Best shirt seen at A-Kon:

"...and then Buffy staked Edward. The end."

[Narmoth]

No, Twilight is one woman's idealised sexual fantasies. Don't take it too seriously.

The disturbing part being to print your personal fantasies and hand them out for all to read

the only good thing to come of twilight is crossover fanfiction where Alucard gets to roam free in the twilightverse.

Link please?
Not that Alucard, especially in the remake, isn't a pathetic Marty Stue in his own right.

Then again, being overpowered is the main problem with vampire protagonists, especially since their vampiric drawbacks often are removed (sunlight, blood supply, running water, inability to enter without invitation and so on)

[Prime32]

First of all, I haven't read Twilight. Even if I heard nothing but glowing praise, I probably wouldn't read a romance.

I have a (female) friend who believes that Stephanie Meyer read Wuthering Heights... and missed the point. (WH was a deconstruction of romance cliches, where the "bad boy" really is a Complete Monster who cannot be redeemed, and Catherine's love for him ruins her life, Oh, and Heathcliff is subtly implied to be some kind of supernatural entity.)

Oh, and I object to comparisons between it and the Inheritance Trilogy. Inheritance is slammed for being unoriginal. Twilight is slammed for being too original, taking old story elements in bizarre new directions.

[DamnedIrishman]

Twilight is slammed for being too original, taking old story elements in bizarre new directions.

No, no, Twilight is slammed for a lot more than that...



On the subject of obvious Mary-Sue:

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"In my head, Bella is very fair-skinned, with long, straight, dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Her face is heart-shaped—a wide forehead with a widow's peak, large, wide-spaced eyes, prominent cheekbones, and then a thin nose and a narrow jaw with a pointed chin. Her lips are a little out of proportion, a bit too full for her jaw line. Her eyebrows are darker than her hair and more straight than they are arched. She's five foot four inches tall, slender but not at all muscular, and weighs about 115 pounds. She has stubby fingernails because she has a nervous habit of biting them. And there's your very detailed description."

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_faq.html#bella


I lol'd