Twilight: The greatest love story of Someone’s time…

I saw this movie when I was about thirteen, and during the viewing I didn't think it was terrible…but in a few months I outgrew it. I get the feeling it’s the same for most Twilight fans only their phase is like between 15 to 17. I don’t dislike it for the same reasons that I do most romance books (general smuttiness and the male being borderline abusive), but eventually I was able to break down why I had such an antipathy for the series. However, every movie is a bag of worms in and of itself but I’ll try to stay focused on the first one. Also disclaimer, I know this is one of the few books where the couple waits until they get married to be intimate and while I applaud a couple waiting till marriage–it doesn't make the couple good. Clean movies aren't necessarily better. 24 has way more violence and iniquity than Gilmore Girls but it’s a better show. Anyway, let’s dive in.                   

 The failed attempt at Pride and Prejudice: Stephanie Meyer has said that every book had an inspiration and the primary one for Twilight was Pride and Prejudice. Now I can see this in some aspects of the work: Edward is wealthy, slightly proud (even though he wouldn’t describe himself as such), and in the book written from his perspective later on we find out he perceived Bella similarly to the way Darcy is initially attracted to Elizabeth. Materialistically, Bella is completely average, awkward, clumsy,  and there’s no reason Edward should be particularly impressed with her but for some reason he is drawn to her. Edward continuously refers to Bella as “so human” in the book, and the way he treats her in the film reaffirms this demeaning title. Bella’s normalcy and inability to be read by Edward is supposed to challenge his superiority and detachment from normal human beings. This doesn't work.

•  In a Pride and Prejudice style, enemies to lovers or hate to love trope characters should be equals. This isn’t to say Bella has to be as strong or powerful as Edward. It’s to say she should have agency as a character and therefore compliment him. Characters can’t compliment each other if one is iron and the other is jello. The jello gets squished and the iron doesn't change, it doesn't get sharper or duller, it remains exactly the same. Bella can’t complement Edward as a character, a person, or help him grow if the extent of her vocabulary is “yes Edward,” “I want you,” and “kiss me.”

• Bella disagrees with Edward more in the book than she does in the film, but even so she never makes decisions of her own if they’re contrary to what he tells her to do. Bella never refuses to see Edward or ask that he alter his behavior in the slightest way when he’s controlling, demeaning, or hot and cold. She simply accepts everything he does because she wants him. Edward is never humbled or made to realize he needs to treat Bella with more agency or freedom. He never seems to allow her to make decisions for herself and never realizes it’s wrong of him to make choices for her. He never admits to her that it's her choice if she wants to be with Jacob or him. He doesn't allow her to explain the truth to her father Charlie and instead actually manipulates to get Bella away from him a couple times and never faces consequences for it. This leads to the root of the issue (one of the issues with this couple), Bella and Edward as people/characters.

• The Character of Edward (or lack thereof):Edward Cullen (according to the book) is physically seventeen, un-Godly wealthy (he did nothing to earn this he just is), impossibly good looking (and fit but he never exercised and wouldn't have a models body since he’s over a hundred years old), and his entire character arc is…he’s going to High school forever. He has the strength of superman and speed of the Flash but the best thing he can think of to do with his time is go to school over and over. I have issues with that alone but these details are first to say he’s not a real person. He doesn't even have qualities that reflect traits of a real person. All good fiction should have reality sprinkled in. Nothing about Edward is relatable or real and if we were to take him as he is, all of his qualities are pretentious. Nobody likes a character who has a lot of materialism and did nothing for it.

• Edwards' maturity level is a problem as well. He might be physically over a hundred years old but he acts like a hot and cold temperamental spoiled teenager. If Edward has been alive for over a hundred years having him be so indecisive with Bella, jealous and on and off. Edward doesn't act like someone who’s lived that long because if he had (we hope) he’d have gained some maturity. Things like understanding Bella is only 17 when he meets her, and therefore should be given time and space to make life changing decisions (like who she wants to marry and if she’s really in love with him because it looks a lot like infatuation).

•  If Edward were mentally an older man, he’d be able to see Bella cutting herself off from friends and her father isn't healthy. And that her having no other reason to live than him is toxic. But he doesn't seem to be thinking like a mature person who wants what's best for her. He thinks like a hormonal teenager who wants her as a girlfriend and only breaks up with her because it’s “dangerous.” He doesn’t talk to her about all the other problems in their romance.  The trope of having a guy hundreds of years old (who's physically young) with a teenage girl is a very common but difficult one to sell in my mind. If you ask a person in their 30s it’s difficult to have conversations with people 10 years their junior. Someone from 1860 would have nothing in common with a girl who's barely out of high school and has no idea what she wants to do with her life. A successful way to do this (because it’s fiction and we know someone that old shouldn't really be with someone that young) is you have to make it look like characters compliment each other. 

• An example would be Buffy and Angel–an ultimately tragic romance but I’m still able to enjoy the couple because it addresses all of the pitfalls and difficulties. Even though Angel is supposed to be 243 years old we’re able to believe Buffy is the first woman he’s loved because she is such a strong, virtuous character. She has far more responsibility on her shoulders than other girls her age.

• Buffy is able to handle tough decisions, she’s killing monsters and saving lives, she clearly has her own individuality and agency apart from Angel and therefore isn’t just someone he desires romantically but a person he respects. This is balanced well with the fact Buffy is still a teenage girl. Whenever she shows innocent childlike tendencies Angel feels guilty for being with her and questions if he really is selfish for loving her. Everyone around him like Buffy’s mother, Giles, and her friends sees the problems in their relationship and it’s talked about. From the beginning, Angel acknowledges there’s something wrong with wanting to be with her and he breaks it off in season 3. 

• Edward isn’t accountable like Angel has to be. Buffy has Willow (her best friend), Giles (her father figure), her mother, and Xander who all have eyes on Angel and have expressed concern or disapproval at one point or another. Angel receives concerns from Buffy's mom that he’s too old, from her friends and Giles that he won’t be able to control himself. No one keeps Edward honest. Edward lies to Bella’s father and goes to her room to see her frequently in the books when he’s not supposed to. He watches her bedroom for months (without telling her). He decides when and for how long they’re physical and has no one to ensure he doesn’t go too far. It gives the impression he doesn't care what people in her life think of him or how he and Bella look to other people. Angel and Buffy sleep together but it is treated as a brash mistake in the series and both of them face consequences. Edward never faces any consequences for lying to Bella’s father or manipulating her. It’s like he keeps her all to himself.

• In addition to being immature Edward shows zero desire to grow as a man or become better. The sign of a man ready to begin a relationship (or one of them ) is that he constantly strives to be the man the woman he loves deserves. Angel acknowledges he was a monster and after having received his soul and in affect being made a new man, he wants to atone for sin and help Buffy fight evil. Edward shows zero ambition or purpose beyond dating Bella permanently or marrying her and retiring on his own private island. Even wanting to marry her I can’t give him credit for because the character has everything so easily: youth, wealth, power etc. Angel represents a degenerate who got redeemed and now lives for a new purpose. So….Edward represents a magically wealthy teenager who’s growth ends in high school when he meets the girl he likes? And then he goes to an island forever young and lives problem free?….No.

  The Character of Bella (and there's really a lacking element here):

  Bella Swan is simultaneously the most relatable protagonist in the world and the most inhuman. She’s a blank slate. Bella has no wants, desires, opinions, outside of her desire for Edward. Bella is described as being not extremely beautiful, but not excessively plain. She isn’t funny, quirky, tomboyish, or overly feminine. She’s written to be the basic insecure teenage girl that every young lady can relate to.

  The problem with that is, while every girl may have at one point been insecure, quiet and unable to form or speak her own opinions–we don’t want to stay that way. It’s a phase same as being 12, 13, or 22. No one enjoyed being an introverted insecure girl who was afraid to speak her mind. It would be fine to have Bella start that way, but as a character she should grow from point A to point B. And she never does.

• Everything about Bella is a snapshot of an insecure girl at the most weak and vulnerable part of her life: the one where she thinks the guy is everything. This isn't to say she can’t love him, but Bella makes Edward into a crutch she can’t live without. In family comedies the adult characters have to keep from laughing when young girls always say of their boyfriend, “he was my everything!” “if we’re not together I’ll die!” Because we know those are feelings from a young person experiencing feelings for the first time very strongly and they don’t have the maturity to sort through them yet. When you're a certain age everything is the end of the world and what that says is, the person (boy or girl) hasn't yet lived enough or taken enough responsibilities, built relationships, found purpose etc. to be able to realize it’s not. Bella is a depressed girl with divorced parents who doesn’t fit in–welcome to the life of nearly every teenager. It just means you haven't grown up.

• The key issue here being, Edward has this girl before she’s grown up and she’s completely dependent on him. If Bella and him dated till she was 20, and she had an existence outside of him and still decided she wanted him as a life partner that’s different. But Bella and Edward are simply two teens “in love” (I’m not sure what that means because all they do is lie in meadows, run through the woods, and kiss in her room in secret) who decide to get married later so they can be intimate. I have a slew of problems with that as well but we’ll get into it later.

• The first film concludes Edward and Bella’s relationship with her saying she wants to be like him: an immortal vampire so she can be with him forever. She acts like she knows what she wants and he can’t talk her out of it. Again, she knows that in the moment she wants him and so she’ll say or do anything (as proven later when she agrees to marry him) to be with him. It’s a decision made from a lovesick seventeen year old. Do you know how many brilliant decisions are made by insecure teenagers in their first relationship who have no life attachments or goals besides their boyfriend? Not many.

• There is nothing about Edward as a person that gives Bella reason to love him. All we hear from her in the book is how beautiful he is, and in the film we just see how much she wants him. Edward even tells her that he’s designed to be a predator who would “invite her in.” When are we ever given evidence she loves him for anything besides his physical appearance and her desire for him? He saves her life once, but she never reflects on it or thinks about what it says about him as a person. She simply thinks how much she wants him. All of that could be chalked up to him being a vampire.

  A time, audience and place for everything: I acknowledge the book and the film series were widely successful and Stephanie Meyer is laughing all the way to the bank (as she should be ) whenever people pick apart this saga. More power to her. But everyone I’ve spoken to now, even people who loved Twilight, acknowledge they loved it for a time and now they look back and realize all the issues with it. They still know why they used to like it, but they can’t really defend it as being good. For an audience of insecure, confused and vulnerable teenage girls (of which there are millions) the idea of having an immortal beautiful rich boyfriend who wants only you  is something of a fantasy. Young girls don’t yet have the maturity (like Bella) to see why they wouldn't want a life partner like Edward so they enjoyed the series at a certain point in life. 

• In other words, they didn’t have very high standards beyond a guy being handsome, edgy, dangerous and complicated. I fail to see how any of these recommend a young man as a husband. But to a teenage girl with little experience or expectations I suppose it’s desirable.

  What would have made it better: I’m not impossible to please, there are just many spots for improvement.

• If Edward really were older in his mind he should be humble with Bella and pose the idea “you think you love me now but you're young, you haven't made up your mind yet about a lot of things.” It would make it look like he really does want to be with her but he knows he’s much older and she’s  barely started her life. 

• Edward should make an effort to have a relationship with Charlie and Bella’s friends as opposed to keeping her entirely to himself and therefore disrespecting other people in her life. Bella should stand up to Edward (or just plain run) when he says things like he’s been “watching her room for months.” She doesn't complain or get embarrassed, she just doesn't care. He shouldn't have a right to do that but no one tells him. 

• Bella should grow as a person who can correct, and compliment Edward and not just bend to his every whim.

  • Bella needs a reason why she should choose Edward as a life partner other than he’s sparkly and good looking. There’s a lot, but you get the idea. I have a lot of issues regarding love triangles with the other films and the marriage, but I need a breather before then. There’s only so much of this a girl can take.

-Jubilee