The Twilight Series; An Honest Review

Alright fans of mine (and, perhaps, of the Twilight series), I have to be completely honest with you. I ABSOLUTELY love the Twilight series. I was reading on TV Tropes that most people who don’t like the series ask those that do WHY they like the series. And that most fans that get asked that question don’t have a straight answer for non-fans. I have to be honest, I’ve been thinking about this question a lot recently. Especially with Eclipse having been released into theaters recently. Why do I love reading the series? I hope I can answer this to the non-fan’s liking…

As much as I liked reading the books, I have to admit that I only read it that once before Twilight came out in theaters a few years ago. So before I went to see Eclipse, I made sure to read the series again. I have to admit, I got the same thrill I did the first time I read them through. I’m not a teen-y bopper, by any means. Nor am I one that reads or watches movies because they’re the popular thing to do. But I have to admit that I was first attracted to Eclipse because of the concept of vampires.

I’ve been obsessed with the romance of the vampire world. Both in what I read, watch, and what I’ve been writing lately. I’ll be the first to admit that I wouldn’t want to live forever as I am now. Yes, I wouldn’t get any older than I am now, but I’ve always been unhappy about my body type. Empty knows about this first hand…

But there’s something seductive about the concept of wanting to live forever in the prime of your youth. There’s no sickness, no death. No Alzheimer’s, no forgetting people’s names and faces. As a vampire, the only thing you would have to really worry about, is where you would get your next meal without attracting people’s attention. You would have it made as a vampire, really. You could compel unsuspecting men (or women, if you like women) into your bed when you got lonely. Money would never be an option for you, for this same reason, either. You could fly around like a bat to avoid all the people you don’t want to talk to. You could wear awesome capes that swirled about your feet. {Well, this is all providing that you take the old stereotype about vampires to heart like Hollywood apparently has.} I’d be in heaven if I was a vampire, minus the whole having the same body I have now. I think I’ll ask Edward to change me after I loose a few pounds…

In her series, Stephenie Meyer does a good job of bringing many different themes into her books, and I want to discuss them all here. If at any time you can’t bear to read my entire analysis of these themes (because there’s quite a bit!), I’m sorry. I’ve included a section on differences between the movies and the books. The first of which, has already been put up.

The best novels of all time have ALWAYS been full of love triangles. That’s the first theme I’m going to be discussing about these novels. There are actually three love triangles going on. The first we meet, is the one between Sam, Leah, and Emily. We hear about this first because Jacob mentions the pain that Leah’s going through as a wolf (and the pack happens to hear all about it in her thoughts).
But this takes a back seat to the one between Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Most of New Moon and Eclipse is full of the drama that happens between the three of them. Bella is torn between her love of both these men (creatures, what-have-you) and doesn’t want to have to choose. It’s almost like a mini soap opera. This seems to be the second and most important love triangle in the series. Well, at least, until the entrance of the third triangle.
A third love triangle forms between Jacob, Bella and Edward (in this instance, they’re seen as a single entity, the parents), and her daughter Renesmee (affectionally nicknamed Nessy). Both Jacob and Bella fight for Renesmee’s attention and love. Edward seems to understand that Jacob has imprinted with Renesmee, and what that entails, yet we see him wanting to be the over-protective dad.

The second theme I was able to pick out from the series, is the concept of Self-confidence issues that are seen throughout. Every teenager can relate to this. Bella’s constantly questioning what the hell Edward sees in her, and Edward’s asking himself the same of her. So, even though Edward’s a few centuries old, he still thinks like his teen-age self. This fact is popular in many stories today. I believe that most teens who read this start to realize that we all feel this way at some point in our lives. It’s good for their self-esteem if they believe that some people deal with this every day of their lives. This is where Edward’s doubt comes into play.

The third theme has to be centered around the concept of First Loves, Love At First Sight and High School sweethearts. A lot of Bella and Edward’s relationship deals with issues that most teenagers go through in their own relationships. Like these two characters, they find themselves asking the following questions of themselves… “When is it alright in our relationship for to hold hands? When is it alright to kiss or to make out? When do we decide to have sex for the first time? Do we HAVE to get married first? Can I see myself being with this one person forever (or even for the rest of my life)?”

Adults who read and delight in the series enjoy this theme in it too. They can look back with nostalgia at the times where their first loves happened. How it felt to fall in love for the first time. How it fell to fall so in love with a person when they first met them that they forget to spend time with their childhood friends. Even those that have been with their better halves since high school can look back and smile at the easier times where the darker parts of life and stress of money didn’t get in the way of the better parts of their relationship.

The fourth and final theme has to be one that happens to touch me a bit more than the others. The concept of Bella feeling like she’s an older soul in a teenage body. She acts like she should be the mother, not HER mother. This makes her feel out of place with the people she meets in Forks. A lot of teenagers feel like they should be older than they are, and fight against their parents to be considered more of an adult in their eyes. People like me feel like we’re freaks. With this series, Stephenie Meyer has proven to us that we are not alone. This is precisely what we (and most teenagers) needed to hear from an adult. That they understand…

Anyway, hope I didn’t bore you too much. Enjoy the differences between the Twilight Books and the Movies I’m including in separate blog posts. To come, a review of the Harry Potter series…

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