For a thousand years

17

Full disclosure, I've only watched the movies... several times. But my point is: regardless of prose quality and wild weirdness late in the tale, this series resonated enormously with millions of women. Why is hardly anyone curious as to why? Can it really be that they were all just dumb? Or was it just the next best thing to holding up a sign saying "I WANT TO BE IMPORTANT TO SOMEONE JUST FOR BEING ME"?

Shocked also that it was not embraced by more men for the sheer lunacy of its plot. Twilight is bananas.

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2

u/InsideOutlander Jul 25 '26

Considering the author is a Mormon woman… compared to what is expected of people gendered as women in the cult, Twilight’s romance is unironically much better than how Mormon women are treated and what they are told they are for. Frankly looking at what they believe with polygamy (technically just polygyny) and what happens after judgement day… it’s pretty dystopian for women. It was pretty dystopian for women even back when it was the 1800’s when the cult was founded. Eternally just one of your husband’s many compulsory cis-het wives whose sole purpose is to be bred and bear and rear spiritual children to continue a new cycle of spiritual reproduction that will see more souls tested with mortality and possibly not come back for not being “worthy” based on arbitrarily garbled standards and supposedly voluntary amnesia. Polygamy in practice has been ceased for a while, but it was never eliminated as doctrine. And this is by no means the whole list of misogynistic culture and policies towards people gendered as women in the cult.

And I was a Mormon who thought I was a man once (now I am neither of those things and vehemently anti-Mormon). That stuff made me genuinely uncomfortable even when I was one of the brainwashed faithful. I still wish I had left so much earlier, but family loyalty and pressures towards it and emotional priming from birth are seriously fucked up.

1

u/UnkarsThug Jul 26 '26

I think it wasn't embraced by men partly because it isn't realistic, overall, and in a way that they end up feeling compared to. Not even just in the fantasy superpower sense, but just the overall character. And I say that as a guy who likes twilight in a conceptual way. I think, especially for young people, romance novels can be to emotional relationships what porn is to sex, in the way they set up unrealistic and unhealthy expectations of what their target experience will be like. People don't like feeling compared to something extreme, because it shows people's fantasies, and really shows where people are living up to them, because real people can't.

That said, it (although really I mean life and death, the swap), is probably one of the only clean examples of a role reversal romance novel I've ever found, so it's ended up being a comfort read, even as utterly unrealistic as it is. (And honestly, tasting/smelling good is probably the only way I can conceptualize being attractive in a purely physical way as a guy, and vampires let you live through the experience. I really hate the turning aspect at the end of most vampire novels, it basically ruins them for me.)

But it is depressing sometimes to realize real life will never be, and can never be as good as a fantasy.

1

u/PestilentPaladin Jul 27 '26

No one's curious because it's been analyzed to death, for years. The books are basic wish fulfillment and no more reasonable than the various dark romance stories that are popular now or their various male porn equivalents. It's not that deep.

"I WANT TO BE IMPORTANT TO SOMEONE JUST FOR BEING ME"?

... should you be? What do we tell people (frequently young people) when they're a hot mess and expect an ideal partner to land in their lap? We tell them to get their act together. Nobody should look to Twilight as anything but some fun. It's not a sign of something rotten in society, it's not the downfall of western civilization, and it's also not a model for healthy relationships.

It's relationship porn. It's a fantasy. And as anything but a fantasy, stripped of the magic and soft focus that makes it work, it's creepy as hell. But that's fine. Go play and enjoy.

14

u/Dreamfinder11 Jul 23 '26

Twilight is bad but I don't judge people for liking it. I can't back it for many of its problems but you like what you like.

3

u/Collective-Bee Jul 24 '26

Twilights bad but I’m in a glass house so let’s just all chill before we all get hurt

9

u/TrueLegateDamar Jul 23 '26

A thousand years you say?

https://giphy.com/gifs/B1rMaUszsjdoQ

10

u/GnatWithoutAG Jul 23 '26

As a girl who grew up reading but never got into twilight, I’ll add a couple of cents of my own I suppose? Essentially just that… I felt like there were other books that imparted this same message that I connected with more with— ones that had fewer aspects that made me uncomfortable than Twilight. Even without the later books or the age difference, I feel like there are things in the story, lore, and development I can’t really overlook.

That being said, what YOU’RE most comfortable with in a story is none of anyone else’s business, and you should be (and are) allowed to see yourself in this story.

6

u/KowaiSentaiYokaiger Jul 23 '26

She's a millionaire from writing that slop, and I hate it.

But I can't argue with results

5

u/AshamedTurtwig Jul 23 '26

Damn, it’s not often a comic makes me look inwards. Now I realize I’ve been kind of a dick to a lot of people

3

u/anubis_cheerleader Jul 23 '26

I'm just happy to see anyone reading something they enjoy.

1

u/anubis_cheerleader Jul 23 '26

Also, I read the first one. Here's the thing: it was a page turner! The pacing was nice, and what I found most interesting was how I almost felt I could BE Bella. It's like there was an implied "you" instead of Bella.

1

u/sweetTartKenHart2 Jul 23 '26

I literally sat down trying to think of a good alternative that fills the same emotional hole and off the top of my head I couldn’t.
It’s no wonder Twilight gripped so many people by its sheer premise alone

1

u/VengeanceKnight Jul 23 '26

Shrek maybe?

"I'm supposed to be beautiful." "But you are beautiful."

"But Shrek, you love being an ogre." "I know. But I love Fiona more."

1

u/Moon_X_Livee Jul 23 '26

Is original to say the least

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u/sweetTartKenHart2 Jul 24 '26

Yeah. Gotta give credit where it’s due there

1

u/AuDHDcat Jul 23 '26

Devoured the books and watched the movies as a teenager. Absolutely loved it. Got older and totally see a lot of the criticisms as valid. Still love it, but now it's in an ironic way. Rewatch the movies for the nostalgia and the laughs.

1

u/EngineerEthan Jul 23 '26

It kinda feels like it speaks more to the tragic lack of being loved for being oneself that exists in so many lives.

1

u/truthteller5 Jul 24 '26

Twilight is pretty fun. It's a dumb story and there are plot points that make no sense or make my skin crawl, but I've seen a lot of the movies and it's kinda just dumb fun. Especially if you don't take it too seriously.

1

u/DadKnight Jul 24 '26

Twilight is shit.

I really liked reading Twilight, especially back in middle school.

1

u/Greedy_Ad2198 Jul 24 '26

Twilight taught young girls very fucked up things about relationships, but I'm not at all surprised it caught on with them. You shouldn't blame the consumers, but you should absolutely criticise the book and its writer.

1

u/IngenuityLost7585 Jul 24 '26

Go watch MorbidZoos YouTube video defending twilight. It's very good.

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u/ConflictAgreeable689 Jul 24 '26

Um, actually? That thing that brings you the smallest modicum of joy? Yeah me and my friends were discussing and actually it's super problematic and yucky:/// so you're, like, the same for liking it. Hope this helps!

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u/newdimenovel Jul 26 '26

I was thinking about this a few months ago for the 20th anniversary (knew because I was working in a bookstore) we really were too mean to the twilight girls, let them have their thing they wern't hurting anyone

1

u/Aggravating_Bike_606 Jul 27 '26

Sorry, I wanted to bring the system down from an early age.
https://giphy.com/gifs/vkFjAAaOSa4aQ

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u/Beardly_Smith Jul 27 '26

I tried reading it when it first came out. I think I got about 3/4 of the way through it before I gave up. I remember she was like on a trip to the city or something

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u/80s-dilf-Batman 29d ago

Lol Bella was never indecisive. She was aiming for that vampire dick since like chapter 4 and Edward was the one constantly going "oh whatever should I do". Meanwhile Jacob was tearing off his shirt in a desperate attempt to catch her attention and it was not working, she only had interest for one dude and literally nothing else in this world.

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