#twilight analysis

[throesofthorns]

i just realized twilight vampires are just super powered poorly written cat people 💀 This train of thought started with me pondering their eye color, as I remembered some people debating the meaning of ochre/butterscotch and I was reading twilight and it clicked into place like OH like a lion's eye. (Because technically lions and other big cats generally speaking have an eye color that ranges around ochre/butterscotch/honey). And then I continued thinking and I was like oh... super hearing, super sight , super fast, super strong (in terms of relative body size etc) these are just big cats in a human body. Add to that the urge for violence (big cats in captivity are known to suddenly lunge at/try to capture humans who turn their back or move too fast) sensitivity to touch and standoffishness?? And they can canonically purr/roar/rumble? And add to ALL OF THAT, the strange combination of allure and sense of being their predator, which is extremely close to how we feel looking at big cats? They're just kitties 🥺

[throesofthorns]

reading twilight and midnight sun side to side is absolutely diabolical 😭 bella is just sad and depressed and pretty terrified of this random guy who seems to absolutely hate her for no good reason, and edward is in full on murder spiral mode and it's DIABOLICAL like STEPHANIE what were you ON because I need to stay faaarrrr away from it.

About edward, it's strange how his thoughts so closely mirror the "victim made me do it" rhetoric, throughout the book, both when he hates Bella and when he loves her too. He very rarely truly takes full responsibility for his reactions and emotional state in an honest way, even when he realises that the "monster" inside him was just HIM all along, he still mentally shifts the focus and blame subtly to Bella. It's also deeply disturbing that Edward for 104 years has listened to people thirsting over him like younger, older, whatever 😭 i really wanna know what on earth compelled stephanie to write that receptionist thirsting over him in the FIRST CHAPTER of midnight sun. Like I GUESS it's to sorta give him a mild victimhood which is valid, but like idk it's just absolutely wild to me.

It's also funny how vampires being attractive or terrifying REALLY depends on the mood stephanie is in when writing. One moment it's like "we are perfectly designed to draw people in", the next it's like "we are perfectly designed to repel people" like which is it 😭💀 obviously it can be both, scarousal exists but STILL?!

[mariapedia]

I have a headcanon that Jasper joined the Confederate Army to escape an abusive home situation. I saw this originally in a Reddit post, and the person who posted it laid it out better than I ever could (I don’t even remember all their points), but since it was made years ago, I probably won’t be able to find it.

Anyway, the main evidence I have for this is that Jasper says that when he met Alice, it was the first time he had felt hope in a century. Alice and Jasper met in 1948, and Jasper was born in 1844. If 1948 was the first time in a century that he had felt hope, then he hadn’t felt hope since he was 4 years old. That’s extremely concerning, and I think it indicates that something really bad was going on at home.

Secondly, there’s his gift. We know that aspects of Jasper’s gift were still active while he was human and that he was very empathetic as a human. This likely made him more sensitive as a child and could have made him a target for abuse. It also needs to be said that war would be hell on earth for an empath, even one whose gift wasn’t fully developed yet. For him to choose to go somewhere that would’ve been that awful for him to experience with his gift, there must be something far worse he was escaping.

Last but certainly not least, there’s his relationship with Maria. He truly loved her, but even with his gift, he was unable to see that she didn’t love him in the same way. In the movies, he said, “I thought what Maria and I had was love, but I was her puppet.” Many abuse survivors struggle to identify genuine love because the abuse has warped their sense of love, and many end up in abusive relationships as a result. I think we can see that with Jasper.

[mariapedia]

New Moon is supposed to be “inspired by” Romeo and Juliet, and I can definitely see the inspiration there, but I think it’s closer to Hamlet, with Bella in the position of Ophelia.

In Hamlet, Ophelia is led to believe Hamlet loves her, only for Hamlet to completely shatter this by saying he doesn’t love her and telling her to “get thee to a nunnery.” Hamlet later says after Ophelia’s death that he actually did love her, and him saying he doesn’t love her was a lie. Ophelia is then left completely alone. Her father is killed, her brother is off in France, and Hamlet is headed for England (and unknowingly to his death). She goes mad and ends up dying in such a way that it’s debatable whether or not she committed suicide.

In New Moon, Bella was led to believe that Edward loves her, only for Edward to shatter this by saying he doesn’t love her, doesn’t want her, and that she isn’t good for him. Later, after they get back from Volterra, Edward explains that all of that was a lie and that he really does love her. Bella is then left completely alone. The Cullens and Edward leave, and Alice has stopped looking into Bella’s future. Bella also can’t really tell anything to anyone because she can’t reveal that the Cullens are vampires. Bella becomes incredibly depressed and hallucinates Edward’s voice, and she ends up going cliff diving because of these hallucinations, which leads Alice to think that Bella committed suicide.

I do see the parallels between New Moon and Romeo and Juliet. There’s the forbidden love, and the end of the book where Edward wants to end his life because he thinks Bella is dead, which is the tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet. However, I think it somewhat fails as a parallel of Romeo and Juliet because the star-crossed lovers aren’t together for most of the book, and the main connection is the miscommunication about Bella dying. I think there are more parallels between Hamlet and New Moon if you look at Bella as a parallel of Ophelia. Also, Edward matches Prince Hamlet’s level of angst.

[xo-xox-oxo-xo]

A few ideas around the theme of twilight but if it was slightly darker.

Edward should have been the one to nearly attack bella in new moon.

Jasper attacking her does make sense, as he has not only had the least amount of time as a vegetarian vampire but I personally think because of his gift he's also feeling all the other vampires desire to drink human blood on top of his own.

But, Edward has such good self control around Bella, you say. He even managed to stop drinking her blood, why would he attack her? you cry.

Well, in this au, in the weeks leading up to Bellas birthday, something nearly happens to her, like a near death experience. She isn't hurt, as naturally edward is there to save her, but Overthinker Edward, convinces himself had he not been around she would have died and decides he must stay with her even more closely than usual. But this means skipping hunting and he thinks this will be tolerable... but on the day of her party, he hasn't fed in weeks so when she cuts herself....

Suddenly there is no careful, protective edward (was there ever?) , there is only a starving inhuman creature ready to slaughter a defenseless terrified girl.

(At least that's how emo eddy thinks of the incident.)

And of course it's doubly dangerous because jasper still loses control so there are TWO vampires trying to snack on her and two are much harder to restrain.

Edward now has the final proof he needs to decide he is truly a soulless monster that should stay away from Bella at any cost, and Bella is still heartbroken by his leaving but at the same time, it's like her bubble has popped. Because she was genuinely so convinced edward would never lose control, or hurt her. Her nightmares are now about edward hurting her. And even if she forgives him, it would always be a thought lurking in the back of her mind wondering if he might snap again. Later on it causes her deep anxiety about being a vampire and meeting charlie again - what if she attacks him the same way?

Bella SHOULD have attacked that hiker as a new vamp. She kills him, Edward is unable to stop her, and by the time he catches up her satin dress is saturated in the blood of an innocent man. I get Meyer wanted Bella to be Not Like Other Vampire Girls so thats why she wrote her with perfect control, but it just makes no sense. Bella with brilliant self control could work but only after that, because she is so traumatised by that murder that from then on she finds the strength to resist human blood from fear of being a monster, like Carlisle.

I'm really just obsessed with the idea of twilight as a darker story that has slight a more horror type undertone. Edward met bella and immediately started plotting all the different ways to eat her. That is SO dark. Like eddy bro thats your future wife she is NOT a sandwich.

[sugarrushproductions]

Stephanie Meyer fumbled hard.

Bella, throughout the series, had these weird dreams that were like premonitions. What if Bella's special vampire talent was that of being the only vampire to be able to to sleep? And she'd have visions like Alice everytime, but they'd be more metaphorical but more accurate when interpreted correctly.

[iwanthehawktuahcookie]

I feel like Carlisle has to have some extreme guilt and anxiety about practicing medicine for so long. He's over 300 years old. Medical practice has changed a ton in those years. I feel like he would have constant guilt about his treatment of his patients which he later found out was harming them. In addition to that, I think he would have a lot of anxiety about what he's doing now, and if he'll find out it was harmful later.

For example, how much cocaine did he prescribe? How many patients smoked and died from lung cancer before he found out smoking was harmful? How many lobotomies did he recommend? How many blood transfusions were for the wrong blood type? How much harm did he cause in 300 years because he didn't know and trusted what was supposedly the cutting edge of medicine?

I don't know if this concept is explored in the books but I think it's interesting. I don't think Carlisle is some all-knowing doctor who knew what practices would be found harmful and if he did he didn't spread the word to prevent more harm. Carlisle lived through Victorian era medicine, arguably one of the most bat shit insane and harmful eras of medicine. Carlisle is also practicing in the US and Europe, aka Western countries. Western countries have historically been behind the curve when it comes to medicine. The most well-known example being c sections, something practiced safely and successfully in Africa for hundreds of years and only beginning to see success and introduction in the mid to late 1700s. Western doctors also only started regularly washing their hands in the late 1800s and 1900s 😐

[shattered-twilight]

Just rereading twilight rn (this is an old post that's been sitting in my drafts since december). Bella’s really fond of word association. She constantly forgets people’s names if they don’t make an impression on her. She remembers Eric’s name because he’s the boy with oily hair and skin problems, but only remembers Jessica’s name when she realises that it’s a common one, unlike the old-fashioned ‘grandparent’ names of the Cullen’s. She recognises Edward because of his unusual hair color. She only remembers people for how unique (or not) certain features of them are, how attractive they are, or what she can categorise them as.