#anti twilight

[polyamorousmood]

I realized I was okay with my partner having other partners by the time I was 13 (though I didn't have a word for it at the time) and the reason I realized this was because I was so full of seething hatred (the kind only 13 year olds are capable of) for the love triangle in twilight that by the time I got to the third book I was like "who CARES if she has two boyfriends. I wouldn't care if my partner had other partners as long as I knew about it and everyone was okay with it. Anything is better than this nonsense"

I realized this several years before I realized I liked girls. I'm a lesbian. Anyway I just think "realizing you're poly via twilight hate" is objectively hilarious but it does, unfortunately, mean that twilight was a formative experience for me.

Twilight defined a generation. Love it🫶 or hate it🤬, it still shaped you. Very few escaped this fate.

Your fate, specifically, though, is objectively hilarious

Seriously though, at least you got something worthwhile out of the books! I often think it is easier to define ourselves first by what we are NOT than by what we ARE, so I can't say I'm surprised. Hating love triangles seems to be a common theme with us polyams 😂

[circumpolarvampire]

Idk guys I think the woman who wrote an actual tribe to be literal dog monsters might be a racist, and the lady who thought it wasn't that big of a deal is also racist

[ceruleanwhore]

Maybe it’s because of the election, but I’ve been thinking about Twilight recently and, more specifically, how it works as a conservative Christian romance story and how it has to be the way it is in order to be that type of story. What I mean is that, even though any other character could have had a healthier relationship with Bella, Edward had to be the main love interest that she ends up with and their relationship had to be the way it was. This is due to the fact that, the story is really about damnation and salvation and Meyer’s vampires are more of a secular representation of fallen angels than they are true vampires. Thus, Edward’s resistance to temptation has to be at the forefront of the narrative right alongside Bella’s compassion and persistent insistence that the Cullens are not inherently evil.

Along with this is how, for the sake of conservative gender roles and relationship dynamics, Edward has to be the way he is as a character. Since the whole point of Bella’s character is that she’s pure and, along with that, naive, but also draws strength from womanly things like her love and compassion, Edward then has to be in the conservative male role that is her counterpart which makes him her protector. If she’s constantly rushing into danger head first because she just loves everyone so much and cares so much but she’s the weak human who can only ever be a victim of violence and can’t fight back, then he has to protect her not just from these external threats to her safety but also from herself. We have to have this dynamic where she doesn’t know anything, and doesn’t know just how much she doesn’t know, and keeps throwing herself in danger that he either has to deliver her from or prevent her from getting into in the first place. 

She’s desirable to him because she’s so pure and, by extent, naive, and yet, because she is that way, he has to protect her from everyone else and also herself. This is exactly why we also get Meyer romanticizing this very toxic relationship in which he has no respect for Bella and never listens to her or anything, because that is what conservative relationships look like and, moreover, it’s what they’re supposed to look like. When your gender/relationship roles boil down to ‘pure innocent housewife’ and ‘protector’, you get Edward and Bella, and all of the shitty behavior the men do in those relationships gets excused because he’s only being shitty/abusive/traumatizing her because he loves her and is protecting her. With Edward and Bella, this protection and the things he’s protecting her from are readily apparent and easily understood, so it’s easy for the narrative and the audience to excuse his shitty actions because the correlation with her safety is right there. 

This is how we can have the debate around Bella’s pregnancy in the book with Edward insisting she have Carlisle perform an abortion without him being presented as an evil baby killer since his view of himself and his progeny as an inherently evil threat to Bella is noble and justified. In the end, the entire story works because Bella is justified. The Cullens aren’t evil, her baby isn’t a monster, Edward isn’t damned, so it’s okay for her to have this dhampir child and be turned into a vampire herself, regardless of what literal horrors she went through getting there. Then, even though Edward’s misgivings prove to be wrong, we can forgive him for thinking those things because of the literal horror she goes through and how clear it is why he had that perspective. Him wanting her to get an abortion is a take that makes sense, but it’s wrong and Bella proves it wrong by becoming a perfect, supernatural supermodel of a mother to a divine baby and he is happy to be proven wrong and end up with both his wife and child at the end.

Bella’s pregnancy is also crucial to this story because her making that perfect child with Edward is exactly what Meyer needed to do in order to justify Bella’s perspective that vampires aren’t actually monsters or inherently evil or anything. They needed to get married, have sex, and specifically have that sex lead to this pregnancy in order for their relationship to work in the story. Without it, the argument over Bella wanting to be turned never would’ve ended and, if she were turned, it wouldn’t have been as irrefutably good for her and the Cullens and everyone else, but, rather, we the audience would still have doubts around whether or not this is a good idea. By making vampirism her salvation without any of the messiness we saw with other characters like Rosalie, it solidly proves her point, shuts down Edward’s resistance, and elevates the whole Cullen family, solidifying the fantasy.

It was equally important that she be gifted and, specifically, that she have exactly the gift she did. Beyond the gender roles of it all and how a conervative fantasy benefits from giving the female lead (who’s also a new mother) these superpowers of self control and protection, it’s also important for the same reasons as what I was just talking about with the birth of her child. If she produced this perfect, divine child with Edward and in the process was turned into a vampire, and if that process empowered her to care for and protect her child as well as giving her the necessary restraint to protect the sanctity of human life, then vampirism can’t possibly be evil. This is also why I think it’s important that the various characters in this series have the superpowers they do. It’s no accident that, among the Cullens, Alice can see the future (helps her protect others), Jasper can feel and influence others emotions (makes him more empathetic and helps protect others), and Edward can read minds (helps him protect others, also explains his controlling behavior since he can’t read Bella’s mind). 

On the other hand, Jane and Alec have abilities that literally just torture people and can serve no other purpose while other members of the Volturi have abilities that are less inherently harmful and it really all depends on what the characters’ roles are in the story. Aro can go either way because he isn’t really supposed to just be a villain, but Jane and Alec are supposed to be viewed as more purely antagonistic so their powers reflect that, and the Cullens use their powers just to protect people. Edward’s mind reading ability is fucking terrifying, especially when combined with his shitty personality, but we the audience are supposed to view it as a good thing, a tool he uses to protect the people he loves that we, the readers, also care about. 

Bella being his one blind spot in addition to being such a temptation for him and also being so dangerously rash and naive is very important for this story because that’s such a huge part of what excuses his terrible behavior in the narrative. If he’s being a controlling asshole, it’s because he cares so much about her, but also because he has to overcompensate for her being the one singular blind spot his supernatural, superhuman self has. As always, it comes down to protecting her, but when he is this overpowered superhuman, the narrative then needs a way to handicap him specifically when it comes to her for the sole purpose of making him act the way he does and justifying it.

So yeah, that’s really the whole point of Twilight, is turning a cishet relationship with a shitty conservative man into an alluring fantasy, which is exactly why Edward has to be the way he is and Bella has to end up with him. The white supremacy of this conservative Christian lens is also why Jacob had to not be white, be angry and violent, literally turn into an animal sometimes, and never actually had a chance of ending up with Bella. He did need to be there, though, just to serve as a juxtaposition to Edward and then to revere their divine child, serving somewhat of a Mary Magdalene role with Renesmee as Jesus, which solidifies Bella’s Mary role as the teen mom of some divine miracle baby that wasn’t supposed to be physically possible and Edwards role as Joseph, in which he has his doubts but, in the end, supports and protects his wife and child. What you end up with is a story about conservative values and relationships in which our main character, Bella Swan, is continually disrespected and mistreated by her partner, who btw is far more powerful than her until they get married and she has his child, and all of this is romanticized. Bella's happiness and wellbeing don't really matter, what matters is that they ended up with that picture perfect Utah family like we are all supposed to have.

[thebellekeys]

Exhibit A: here

Exhibit B: here

[icedsodapop]

Something something... the difference between how Stephanie Meyer depicts women in relation to the fantastical creature they are associated with.... something something... for White women, being associated with vampires is empowering for them, protects them... something something... but for Native American women, being associated with werewolves brings them nothing but pain and suffering judging by how the most prominent Ndn female characters, Leah and Emily, are treated within the narrative.... hmm, interesting...

[mccall-fam-on-crack]

I just realized that the largest residential boarding school was named Carlisle. So not only does SM have a confederate soldier as a main character but named another after a school that has brought nothing but pain in every way to thousands of people, ranging from the students that attend, to their parents and their children, and to every one of their bloodlines later generations. And to have a real tribe in her books that she used to her advantage. She didn't ask, she didn't respect them in any way, all for money and fame.

[fandomlife-confessions]

[ebster777]

I don't think I've ever gotten into the depths of Leah Clear waters disrespect but now that I have.... I feel a way about it.

The racism in Twilight is crazy

[darkcrowprincess]

Controversial Opinion:

there are zero benefits to being a twilight Vampire. You can't sleep or eat anymore. Not even to mix blood with anything because food automatically tastes like ash. The only way to avoid killing humans is to eat animals. And it still sucks because it will never fully satisfy you. Your always a hair trigger away from killing someone because the blood thirst is that bad. You can't fly or turn into a bat. Which is one of my favorite things about vampires the flying and the turning into cute bats.

The only things that can kill you is this tribe in Forks that can turn into big wolves or the vampire mafia ripping you to pieces and burning the remains. If you live near said tribe in Forks you end up ruining their lives because your very presence activates their wolf defense mechanism. You look like an idiot in the sunlight and sparkle like a disco ball. You have to constantly be careful of your strength because you can easily kill something with a flick of your finger. When your not hunting for blood your constantly either bored or having to pretend to be a high school kid forever? And you can only have sex with other vampires because you can easily kill humans. Like what benefits do you get from being a vampire forever? Being an immortal cold mannequin were your family dies in front of you, and your stuck with the most boring toxic person forever? No thank you.

Stephanie Meyer just sucked out all the gothic emo tim burton fun things about being a vampire and I won't have it. Thank you Smeyer for forever adding your sucky ideas to Vampire lore. 🧛‍♂️

(Don't like don't read. Post hate and I'll block you)

[saccharinerose]

SJM fae are to fae what Twilight vampires are to vampires

[starlight-bread-blog]

"I've stalked you to protect you against your consent".

[devotedgossamerreader]

i was today years old when i learned that the twilight movies effectively erased the true history of victims of nazi fascism by REPURPOSING a celebration of their liberation at the end of WWII into a vampire thing for Edward to try and romeo and juliet himself

what?@?!×<$(+

[averinna]

If you want to know why any romance novels with an abusive love interest ever become popular just look in what character the self insert shipper change their fave

[macgyvertape]

My roommate and I got super trashed last night and watched Twilight Breaking Dawn part 1, really just to snark on the wedding and other twilight style weddings on youtube.

Anyway In the midst of a lot of cringey wedding toasts Bella's dad gets up and says "Edward will be a good husband. I know this because I'm a cop and I know things" to which I burst out laughing because of how unintentionally ironic it is.

Like Edward's a shitty romantic partner so of course a cop would think he'd be a good husband (look up 40% cops to learn more)!

[gameguy20100]

You know I joked that Feligami is Kagami’s twilight phase. But the parallels are ridiculous. 

Edward stalks Bella and watches her sleep. Felix stalks Kagami and kidnaps her.

Edward is constantly saying how much he wants to kill her. Felix only lets Kagami live because she’s a senti.

Edward has a very unhealthy advantage in power over Bella because he’s a vampire. Because he has the peacock, Felix can snap Kagami away whenever he likes and Kagami is powerless to protect herself.

Edward badmouths and abuses Jacob because he’s Bella’s friend. Felix does the same to Marinette and Adrien. 

Yet we’re supposed to see their actions as romantic, not deeply creepy and misogynistic. 

Did they hire Stephanie Myer?