i love twilight, even if it's stupid
In this post, I want to rant about Stephenie Meyer and her very bad decisions in the writing of the Twilight story. I love Twilight. I love the book series, I love the movies, I love the edits people make of it, I love the characters, and overall, I love the vibes these movies give. But... there are some questionable things and choices made in the creation of this masterpiece, so I wanted to point some of these out. The obvious religious aspect of the books, even if they were intentional or not, still impacted the book and the characters a lot, making them do or say such weird things. But I won’t talk about the religious connotations of some scenes, only about their stupidity, if there is the case.
I hate, hate, HATE that she made Jacob fall in love with a newborn. This might be one of the most popular opinions in the Twilight fandom (even if the people saying this are Team Jacob or not). I don’t care about the imprint, nor about the fact that she grows faster than normal humans, or that she is mentally older than him... it’s horrifying. When I first heard about this, I was so visibly disgusted; I cannot express my first ever thoughts about this plotline.
Not only is the pedophilic connotation of this whole relationship disgusting, but I also hate the idea of Jacob—the boy who was so against the idea of imprinting, and made it very clear that he doesn’t want to let this one thing dictate his and his partner’s life—got trapped not only with a child, the daughter of his first love, but also the daughter of his natural enemy.
Or, for short, Stephenie hated her own character and gave him the worst ending ever.
I hate the whole “the wolves are dangerous, and they cannot control themselves” trope. The people in the pack are all teens and young adults that were forced to transform and live their lives taking care of people and getting rid of vampires.
Their wolf transformation is triggered by the appearance of the Cullens in Forks, a thing that made young native people get turned into giant monsters. They are expected to know how to control themselves, but vampires are somehow not?
We are given the example of Sam Uley, the leader of the pack, that by being triggered to transform into a wolf, snaps and hurts his imprint, Emily. After that incident, his lover remains with a big scar around her face that shows the consequences of dating a monster.
On the other hand, we are also given the examples of: Bella being chased by a group of vampires for four movies, being almost devoured by Jasper on her birthday, being explicitly told that vampires kill people (“I’ve killed people before,” says Edward in the first 53 minutes of the movie), being pushed into a wall and getting hurt—also on her birthday—, being left alone by the Cullens, when they knew that vampires were after her... and I can probably go on giving examples, but the idea is that the Cullens are also easily triggered and dangerous at the end of the day.
I hate that Bella had to get married. She didn’t want that, or at least at that moment. She was convinced by Edward and his family. Not only that, but she didn’t care about the wedding plans, nor about the rings, or the dress... she was basically forced into all this by the vampires, that really wanted to organize her wedding day.
I hate that Edward doesn’t really seem to like Bella for who she is. There is this idea in which, the vampire seems to be more attracted by Bella because he can’t read her thoughts, which might have made her more appealing, making her seem different from the other girls he encountered before, even though... she is exactly like the other girls the majority of the time, and this is perfectly fine. It’s just the idealized version of Bella that makes her seem more interesting than she is, for Edward.
When Edward met Bella, he was shocked to discover that she somehow was able to mentally shield herself from his special gift. This made Edward incredibly curious about Bella. Her thoughts were the only ones he couldn’t access on his own, and it’s entirely possible that his obsession with Bella initially started as him wanting something he couldn’t have.1
I hate their height. This one is not so serious, but please tell me why is Jacob described as being 6’7” (2 meters tall); how does this make any sense? I cannot picture any scenes in which him and Bella are together, and they need to break their necks to look at each other. Also, if I were Edward, I would have been genuinely scared by the wolf pack if this was the case
He is supposed to tower over Edward… this scene would make no sense at all.
I hate that we are supposed to just forget New Moon. Bella went through a really hard time for four months during this movie/book, and the only people that really helped her get better were her friends and family. Spending time in the rez with Jacob and the other boys from the pack, reuniting with her school friends and going out with them, her father that really tried his best during all of this, being permissive with her and waking up in the middle of the night to comfort her. But not once, the Cullens. Not Edward, that left her alone in the woods after a harsh breakup, nor Alice (“I already consider you my sister,” says her in the second movie, right before leaving her alone and suffering). And after all this... they are getting back together like nothing happened because love wins all.
I hate that Jacob and Bella have better chemistry. Stephenie built all those scenes, and the whole connection, Bella’s realization that Jacob wasn’t just a little brother to her, that she loves him (‘‘The worst part is that I saw the whole thing—our whole life. And I want it bad, Jake. I want it all. I want to stay right here and never move. I want to love you and make you happy2) just for him to end up with her daughter while she marries the “love of her live”.
https://screenrant.com/twilight-bella-edward-relationship-no-sense/ by Steven Dicarlo
Eclipse, Stephenie Meyers- 532 p.
I understand all your points logically, and have seen all these arguments in the biggest Facebook fan group hashed out a thousand times, but I just can't see the books negatively 🥹 I love them so much! I have always been Team Edward and cannot see any of his flaws as bad.
And I might be in a very small minority who thinks Stephanie's writing is actually quite beautiful, and love the way she wove the story with such intricate detail. And an even smaller minority who still loves the name Renesmee, except I'm sure everyone did when the books first came out and then they all decided to jump on the "omg it's all so terrible, let's hate on Twilight but secretly love it" bandwagon.
I really wish they'd done a series instead of movies because they cut out so much of the moments that make us love Bella and Edward.
I also love that she didn't do a third act break-up, which is so typical of romance and YA, usually for no reason at all, but I'm so sick of it. I also HATE love triangles, especially in a paranormal/fantasy/dystopian setting where everyone is always about to die and there are such high stakes. It's ridiculously unrealistic and unecessary to throw a second love interest in the mix when there are already 100 things keeping the main characters apart.
In the case of the series, the break-up happens quite soon into the story and she does an amazing job of capturing the devastation a teenage girl feels after their first love crushes them. I don't know why she put so much effort into Jacob and Bella's relationship when she was going to end it with the weird excuse that "it was Reneesme's egg pulling us together" 😳.
I do see that Edward was a bit coercive making her marry him but his arguments for it make perfect sense to me. She wants him to turn her into a vampire really bad, which is a pretty big deal but even more for Edward who believes he will damn her to an eternity of suffering because of it. I mean, anyone who believed that would also not want to do this to someone they love, so she's asking a lot of him. And this is the main point of the whole saga, will he or won't he turn her? Will she become a vampire or not? And since he's made it very clear how he feels on the topic, I think it's only fair that they reach an agreement. (Compromise is my favourite chapter of the saga, and Eclipse my favourite book, in case the below rant doesn't make that clear 😅).
Being married is very important to him, as much as being a vampire is to Bella. And who cares about an official certificate and some rings if you're willing and wanting to sacrifice life as you know it for eternal life to be with the one you love? What she wants is much more permanent and traumatizing than him wanting them to be married first. Like seriously Bella, you want to suffer days of burning from the inside but not get married? Pull your big girl pants on, since she always felt she was very mature for her age anyway, and go put a bloody ring on it!
Anyway, I do think Stephanie could have made Jasper a Yankee soldier and still be able to give him the same background story, and she could have made Jacob and Leah be together instead of with Renesmee, but other than a few weird choices, I will love the Twilight saga til' I'm old and wrinkly ♥️