Critical Analysis of Twilight Article: I Like Twilight -prepares to be mauled-

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posted by DizzyDaydream

It seems that nowadays when people mention the words ‘Twilight’, ‘Edward’ or ‘Stephenie Meyer’ a huge debate is formed. People are split completely down the middle with their love or hate of the twilight saga, everything seen as either black or white. So here is an opinion from one of the few stuck within the grey area (like, dislike and don’t care either way). Rip this opinion to shreds, love it or hate it. Tell the world how much twilight rocks, sucks or takes the complete piss out of teenage romance. But please remember this is my opinion and seeing as this place is all about that, please have some respect for it.

I, personally, like the Twilight Saga. Yes, I said it, something which many will now be violently vomiting over or cheering about. I am only talking about the books in this case; I could not care less for the movies or Robert Pattinson. I am an original supporter of the novels, something which seems rare these days. However, that of course is another argument entirely. So, let’s discuss some of the negative comments about the books. Hang on to your seat kids... this may take a while.

1.    Vampires don’t sparkle.
This is one of my favourite arguments to why the books are complete rubbish. In a world where vegetarian vampire ducks and puppet Draculas that love to count numbers are widely accepted, the little quirk of sparkling in the sunlight has caused so much uproar. Yet, if Stephenie had stuck solely to the way most vampires are viewed (fangs, burn in sunlight, allergic to garlic etc) she would have been accused of unoriginality and copying the master of horror, Bram Stoker. I admit, sparkling vampires is hardly menacing, but remember this novel is not within the ‘horror’ genre. It is teenage romance. How many (young) teenagers truly would want a boyfriend with fangs and who could burn in the sunlight? Watering down this version of vampires made Edward and the Cullens more accessible, and allowed Bella the setting of meeting Edward at her school. It helped Stephenie set the scene for the perfect high school romance, something most teenage girls dream of. After all, at seventeen, where do you meet most of your boyfriends? Certainly not at night in a dark alley way.

2.    The characters are too Mary-Sue
A lot of people comment on the characters of the Twilight Saga being too perfect to be believable. My first answer to this is: this book is complete fantasy. It was completely dreamed up (literally) by an author for the enjoyment of not just herself, but now others. Here’s the thing about imagination, anything can happen. Pigs can fly, dogs can talk, and people have superpowers. Vampires are immortal. Immortality means you cannot die, so guess what? None of the Cullens are killed off. Anyway, who honestly would enjoy having the main characters killed off? Even in Harry Potter (which I will get to later) the main character dies then is ‘magically’ brought to life again. They all have their personality flaws, even if you have to read closely to spot them. Edward is overprotective and a complete control freak. Bella is insecure and moody. Alice is so positive it can get annoying.

3.    The fans are crazy
I can’t argue with that statement. Some ‘Twi-Hards’ can go overboard. But, don’t stereotype all of the Twilight fans because of a small majority. With something so popular and cult, it is bound to have fans who take it too far and blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Just look at Star Trek and Star Wars. Yet, you wouldn’t say you hate Star Trek because a few fans are fluent in Cling-On. I am against any Twilight fans that are abusive to get their own way with people who don’t like Twilight, or push Twilight onto haters. My advice to people who don’t like fans like that? Don’t talk to them, don’t respond and you wouldn’t have to care what they think. A lot of fans just love the world that Stephenie has provided for them, an escape from everyday life and a chance to be ‘Bella’. What’s the harm in that?

4.    Stephenie has no original ideas
Granted, even Stephenie admits to getting most of her ideas and plot for Twilight from other novels and songs. For one second however, think about the billions of novels written today, all with their own twist on the world. Think of the thousands of novels set in high school, and the hundreds that also include supernatural creatures. What can honestly be classed as original, when people write novels with exactly the same settings with a slight difference? With what seems to be every avenue of the human imagination explored, old ideas will get recycled and changed. Any novel you read will probably have a sister with just a few differences that turn it into a completely different plot. You can’t judge a book on how original the idea, but more on how the author makes that idea their own.

5.    Harry Potter is better
I don’t even know why I am bothering to write about this, probably the most pointless argument against Twilight that I’ve ever heard. First off, comparing a novel about wizards to one about vampires is probably as useful as comparing water with coke. Both novels are good in their own way, with completely different settings and plots. So why the hell does people feel the need to put them up against each other? The authors are completely different, with contrasting writing styles and no affiliation with each other whatsoever. Apart from their books being made into movies, which seems a stupid reason to compare them, so this argument in my opinion is completely useless.

So, those are a couple of arguements against Twilight, and what I think about them. I could go on all day about Twilight arguements for and against, but that would be boring and an awful lot to type up. I am not saying Twilight is for everyone, after all, what makes us unique is our ability to have a choice over what we like and dislike. I'm just giving you my opinion without biting your head off or acting crazy. I personally enjoy Twilight, in moderation. Like any book, you should be able to put down the book and carry on with life as usual, even if you don't want to. I understand that some Twilight fans are alot to handle, especially when you do not agree with thier veiws, but we aren't all like that.

_savannah_, Phoebe_Gabriel and 11 others like this

Bookaholics I don't agree with all your arguments, but good article anyway.

fanfly Very good article. I actually agree on several points. In fact, although I find sparkling vampires ridiculous, it's by far not the reason I dislike the books. In fact, you only touched very briefly on my main reason for disliking them. You mention that Bella is insecure and Edward is a control freak. Which is why I find their relationship extremely unhealthy. Which, truthfully, would not be a reason in and of itself to dislike the books. What I dislike is how that unhealthy relationship is glorified until it's made out to be an ideal. And yes, I know that it's just fiction about vampires and isn't real. But the aspects that I dislike [Edward's controlling and abusive behaviour towards Bella] are examples of behaviour that can occur in real life. A boyfriend breaking his girlfriend's car so that she can't go see someone he disapproves of? That's, frankly, scary. And the excuse that he's doing it to protect her is even scarier. Every abuser will say the same thing. Anyway, I'd like to hear your opinion on that aspect of the books. Do you think their relationship is healthy? Do you think that the way it's been idealized is a good thing?

Mermaid-Tail Can I ask if anyone here has been rude to you about liking Twilight? Because the opening seemed a bit defensive, like you were expecting to be insulted just for liking the books, and I'd hope nobody here has had that attitude with you (or anyone). Once or twice I have noticed a user with a bad attitude to a fan, but every time I've seen it happen other users, both anti and pro, have come to their defence, and I perceive the general feel of the spot to be that people will debate their opinion, but don't mean to offend beyond either debating or jokes. I hope you haven't had a bad experience here, and if you have or do in the future I hope you know it isn't a representation of most of our anti C.A.Ts. I can't say I agree with all your points, for example the Mary-Sue one, as a big fan of fantasy I don't feel setting a book in that genre excuses not making the characters realistic and giving them depth, and I think the characters not being killed off is a separate issue to the too perfect thing. At least for me it is, them not being killed wasn't related to my opinion they were Mary-Sueish. I get not everyone sees that the same way though. But even on the points I don't personally agree with, good, well written article. There were also points I completely agree with, like I've never understood the competitiveness and constant comparisons with Harry Potter. I also agree on what you say about comments on Stephenie Meyer's originality. I actually wrote an article about how I don't think accusations about her copying and being unoriginal are fair, so I totally agree with that. So thumbs up for this. Oh, and I agree with Fanfly on the sparkles thing. Not to my taste, but not something that would make me dislike the books, my main problem was the same as Fanfly's.

fanfly Yes, Mermaid-tail reminded me - I forgot to mention that the comparisons to Harry Potter are just weird. They are completely different. It's like apples and oranges so I don't get why they're compared at all. And I also agree about originality. There's no such thing as a completely original story. All stories deal with basic themes that are repeated over and over with just the details changed.

nuxi Stephenie Meyer loves the "it's fantasy so I can do anything I want" defense, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine. No one's trying to prevent her from writing whatever she wants, but the Mary-Sueness and one-dimensional quality of all of her characters is still a valid reason to dislike the series. You didn't really address that.

DizzyDaydream @bookaholics- Thank you, I admire your honesty without being rude about my opinions. @fanfly- I do agree with you fanfly, give me a second, and I will write up a decently written opinion on the Bella/Edward relationship. @Mermaidtail- Thank you for commenting without the need to be rude. Yes, I have had alot of negative and harsh responses to my opinions about twilight, which has led me to always putting warnings like that at the beginning of articles. I enjoy good critisism, but it can make you defensive when all you ever get back is comments like 'this is sh*t' and 'you are stupid', simply because they disagreed with what I had written. It wasn't on here, it was on a teenage writers site, sorry if that led to you worrying about it ^.^

nuxi If you want to look at some organized anti- arguments, I recommend Arzim's Rebuttals: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/critical-analysis-of-twilight/links/9333541/title/arzims-rebuttals-twifans #2 is fantasy does not excuse a lack of realism. I based my own article on the series' anti-feminism off of #11.

DizzyDaydream @Nuxi- Thanks, I'll have a read of those articles. Fanfly’s questions: 1. Do you think their relationship is healthy? First off, every relationship within the human (or inhuman world in this case) is different. I know that does not answer your question on it being healthy, but it does put some things into perspective. Everyone has their own view on relationships, and what they want out of them. Some people, even in the real world, will act the way that Bella does about Edward, and even enjoy acting that way. I’m not saying I condole being obsessed with your boyfriend, in fact, the way Bella acts about Edward (and vice versa) especially in New Moon is ridiculous. The whole debate about their relationship being wrong and unhealthy has me stuck in the middle. On one side, it just proves how devoted Bella and Edward are to each other, sort of in a Romeo and Juliet way. On the other, it is not a good way to present two favourite characters to impressionable teenagers. Which brings me on to question two. 2. Do you think that the way it's been idealized is a good thing? Personally, I think that you have to take Twilight at face value that its characters and relationships are completely fictional and would never truly happen in the real world. It does scare me to think that the unusual relationship Bella and Edward have is something that a lot of teenage girls would aspire to. Twilight should never be used as an example of how love should be, simply because in any other circumstances, Edward would be (and is in some people’s opinions) seen as an abusive boyfriend. He is way over protective over Bella, and very controlling. Which in turn leads to Bella being very insecure. No one in the real world should live their lives like this, so I personally do not think Bella and Edward should ever be idealized. I hope that kinda answers those questions, I do tend to ramble on for a while about other stuff without realising it XD

fanfly Those are excellent answers to my questions. And if these books were about adults and read primarily by adults I wouldn't have as much issue with Edward and Bella's relationship. But they are being read/obsessed over by primarily teenagers, who are still formulating their ideas on what a relationship should be. That's really what disturbs me. I've seen too many fans who claim that this is the perfect relationship and that they hope one day to have a man like Edward. And I've seen too many teenage girls[and adults too] get involved with a guy who seems to be the 'ideal'; protective and attentive. But protective turns into controlling and attentive turns into stalking. And a lot of times it leads to violence. It's hard enough to recognize potential abusers without having those characteristics idealized in an extremely popular series of books and movies. So any book/movie aimed at teenagers that promotes that kind of behaviour as romantic, whether it's fantasy or not, is not something that I can condone. I also just wanted to post a link to an article about domestic abuse that lists several warning signs that are depicted in the Twilight books. http://www.helpguide.org/mental/domestic_violence_abuse_types_signs_causes_effects.htm

katiecain 'And if these books were about adults and read primarily by adults I wouldn't have as much issue with Edward and Bella's relationship.' fanfly, completely agree with you! I've been asked many a time how I can like Bill from True Blood when I don't really like Edward but that is exactly the reason why. Bill and Sookie are both adults and the books and show are aimed at adults who will be able to recognise some of his behaviour is not okay. DizzyDaydream, I loved your article and being a Twilight fan myself I know exactly what you mean by being called stupid etc for liking Twilight. I really hope you do not experience that here. :]

sophialover This was brilliant, that`s all i have to say. I absolutely agree with every single point you`re making. Congrats on puting those arguments together. [i]But, don’t stereotype all of the Twilight fans because of a small majority. With something so popular and cult, it is bound to have fans who take it too far and blur the lines between reality and fantasy.[/i] Couldn`t have said it better.

DizzyDaydream @katiecain thanks, I've read True Blood too and I understand your point. @sophialover thanks, I'm glad you like them. I have loads more, the article got to about four pages long, but it would have taken forever for people to read it, so I cut it down drastically XD Thank you everyone for commenting and getting a healthy debate started. I love debating, in case you haven't noticed XD

kwlski4ever I love this. Everything is PERFECTLY said. Wow.

XDRoseLuvsHP I totally agree with the Vampires Don't Sparkle argument. If there's one positive thing I can say about her writing, it's that she was creative. Who else would honestly think of making vampires sparkle? I don't like the reason she did it, and I argue about the vampires sparkling only because it takes away their obstacles, even further dulling down the nonexistant plotline, but I don't think we should bash her for her originality. The problem is, a lot of their personality flaws are ones that are not really flaws. Insecurity is a flaw, but Bella's insecurity isn't so significant to make it a real flaw (except in New Moon). Edward is controlling, but SMeyer sees this as romantic. Being too positive isn't really a flaw, even if it does get a tad annoying. Also, Bella truly is a self insert of SMeyer, and SMeyer does treat her as a super special snowflake. Besides, Mary Sue characters don't work, except for very rare occasions. I'll use Harry Potter since you did. Even some of the biggest fans claim Ginny Weasley to be a Mary Sue, and they don't say it as a good thing. Mary Sue's are a big no-no in writing (I'm hoping to be an author one day, so I've researched it). One of the EXTREMELY rare occasions of a Mary Sue being a good thing (don't try it; most likely you will end up killing the character), this case would be Lily Evans. She truly is a Mary Sue if you think about it, but in this case, because she's such a minor character with her own extreme importance, and because it's done so well (anybody else having tried it would have killed the character), the Mary Sueness is actually beneficial. This is extremely rare, however. Other Mary Sues from other novels include: -Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew) *shudder* -Chloe Saunders (The Darkest Powers) -Many, many FanFiction OC's (original characters) Correction: SOME of the fans are crazy. I've met quite a few (in real life and on this site) who still have their minds. It's the ones who are completely and utterly blinded by the books that are the crazies. (This isn't so much a criticism of the book as it is of the entire fandom... ah well.) Stephenie does have original ideas. Sparkling vampires? Come on! Harry Potter, in my opinion, is better. But his isn't the place to compare them. Compare them at the Twilight vs. Harry Potter board. That's just fun to do :)

Confuzzle Really good article. But what do you think about how Meyer puts down women to the level they were in the 1800's?

KeshaFan1 Edward was/is my first love. I will always leap to his defence if he is dissed. I call myslef a reformed Twitard, but with the release of Eclipse coming out, I may not be so reformed any more.

MadamOcta13 First of all: I'd just like to say that I love how a Twilighter actually wrote an intelligant and organized article like this; I've been dying to know some of their views on arguments like this, so thanks for posting this! I would like to say a few comments to your points: 1. The part that bugs me is the part about her being criticized if she kept her vampires like Stoker's. Most of the vampires after Stoker's novel (up until recently, anyway) have been based on Dracula, because he was the ORIGINAL VAMPIRE. Okay, so you could tweek the vampire powers and what-not, but sparkling? That completely takes away from the vampire's true nature: blood-thirsty, savage, and murderous. 2. Just because a book is "fantasy" or "fiction" doesn't mean that it SHOULDN'T MAKE SENSE. I can't express that enough. 3. I completely agree with you on this one. I have heard of fans that pour acid on anti's faces when they insult Twilight, but I've also met other fans on this spot that want intellectual debate, such as yourself. 4. I have alot of critism toward Stephenie Meyer, but I don't think her having original ideas is one that I would agree with. The only thing I could think of that relates to this is that her inspiration for Twilight came from a dream she had. The only problem I have of this is that dreams are notorious for being crazy and unrealistic, but I think the only part Twilight that came from her dream was Edward, so... 5. I thought the same thing for a while, but then I realized something: it has nothing to do with the books, but with the FANS. I mean, think about it. Both sides of fans are passionate about their book series and think that their book is the greatest thing since sliced bread, so when BOTH sides are saying that, arguments form and they haven't stopped.