azu

[he/she] vampire thinker

[azurara]

posted this a while ago to my tiktok but it ate shit rip. remembered theres a more fruitful mcml fandom over here though so :-)

love this film sooo much

[azurara]

thinking about the similarities between iwtv and twilight is my full-time job atp and it feels like a carnal sin but by god do i enjoy it

anyways, it is fascinating how similar Edward and Bella are to Armand and Daniel..... there's such a reluctance to turn their partner from Armand and Edward because immortality isn't the gift Bella and Daniel think it to be. for Edward, it was easier to imagine Bella growing old and living a life, than to curse her with immortality--and the same went for Armand with Daniel ("[...] I'd rather die than see you die, Daniel").

Edward and Armand both had their life stripped from them before they even reached adulthood (like, they were both SEVENTEEN!!!!), so there must be such a profound sense of loss and grief for their respective could-have-been's. then, they find Bella and Daniel; two people so full of vibrant life--something Armand and Edward haven't experienced in years upon years. they're fascinating to these creatures, and ever-so captivating. but these two humans want to throw their mortality away--something Edward and Armand both crave--so utterly willingly, simply out of love.

though, love didn't come first--i think curiosity was a driving force. why was this mortal so different to the rest? and what is it that drew them in? there was also certainly an air of contempt at the start of both of these companionships, with Armand and Edward both learning how to be more palatable to humans after being so reclusive and withdrawn. but, what hung over all four of them was loneliness. and, when it came down to it, these creatures, as awful and evil as they claim to be, couldn't bear to be alone for one more second of their eternal un-lives.

death is worse than undeath. they are selfish monsters, just as they thought themselves to be. but now dazzling, young vampires who think of immortality as a gift, light the candle that never even got to flicker and dance their ways into the savage garden with such wonder, winding and guiding them down a path they never knew existed.

these four are my blorbos and i think about them all the time. my freak4freaks.

[azurara]

i think Bella falling pregnant with Renesmee was a narrative on abstinence-until-marriage.

though, whilst it was during her and Edward's honeymoon, within vampirism i see transfiguration is often something akin to a marriage. so, whilst on a legality they were married but, on a more personal level, i don't think they were married. and a common theme within vampirism is feminine sexuality being a cardinal sin due to religious subtext, be it intentional or unintentional, because of course the world will fall into hellfire if a girl experiences sexual pleasure. and, taking Stephanie Meyer's mormanism into consideration, i don't think it's a far-fetched concept.

we all know Bella was eager and, dare i say desperate to sleep with Edward as a human, and, she only married him because it was part of his agreement; i'm certain she would've been content to not marry him until a little later into their relationship. but, again, with vampire transfiguration being a symbolic marriage/communion and, with that considered, their "marriage" being a display for everyone else and, perhaps, a last attempt to cling onto humanity for Edward, of course Bella would fall pregnant. of course she'd nearly die in the process of giving birth to Renesmee, because she just couldn't wait. and not to mention the pro-life air surrounding her pregnancy just makes it so much more........ hm.

just spitballin tho. and this is 100% a ramble, so so sorry if it doesnt make sense

[azurara]

i never ever ever post but something's been on my mind for a little while. i am a MASSIVE fan of vampires, in every way shape and form. they absolutely fascinate me. i recently watched Robert Eggers' Nosferatu and fell in love with that and its profound adaptation of the story, genuinely 10/10 i am obsessed. but within my gandering across the fandom, i've noticed a vitriol toward Twilight and it's always irked me a little. i find that a lot of the vitriol toward Twilight to be really fruitless--just hating for hating and, at times, borderline misogynistic.

i always see "Twilight RUINED vampires" which is just. it's an incredibly bold statement and rooted in, usually, nothing. and i DO think it's because a lot of the fandom, when it first came out and even now, are predominantly women and girls. and god forbid girls ever enjoy anything. because everything "different" i see about smeyer vampires i see in..... other adaptations of vampires.

Whitley Streiber vampires have human-esque teeth, just like Twilight vampires; Anne Rice's vampires are preternaturally beautiful, just like Twilight vampires, AND they can calcify; and powers aren't exclusive to Twilight vampires either--there are far too many examples to provide of vampires having powers. the only stark difference i find within Twilight vampires is that they sparkle. and i really struggle to see the outrage of it all. even story-wise, it isn't completely and totally out there (but that's something else for another time if i can ever be bothered).

the problem i have with all of this vitriol is it just genuinely seems so baseless because nothing meaningful is ever pointed out. it's always just "Twilight ruined vampires because of [insert something generic here that another vampire media has done]."

what i think SHOULD be pointed out instead, is how racist the books can be. how Stephanie Meyer applied racist archetypes onto the Quileutes AND especially onto Jacob, effectively butchering his character beyond repair. how the bipoc vampires get washed of their colour upon transformation. how the vampires call the Quileutes 'dogs' and the racial implications of that.

but this is something that is constantly ignored within the discussion of vampires online. i see it in the Twilight fandom and the fandom for The Vampire Chronicles (and the IWTV AMC fandom), and i know for a fact it exists in other spaces, but these are the only two i can really speak on because i am constantly neck deep in these two fandoms. hardly anyone actually wants to talk about the racism prevalent within vampire media, and instead favours spewing borderline misogyny over an actual meaningful and IMPORTANT discussion.

anyways. that was really long and i hope you stayed to ponder. i would love to see more thoughts on this because this really is just surface level and it could be developed on so much more. i just needed to get this ramble out before i went insane.

[rustmarty]