Why Does It Bother Us That Twilight is So Popular?

[Andonagio]

The Twilight saga is in all the news these days due to the popularity of the books and the recent release of New Moon. Nevertheless, I've talked to quite a few people both inside and outside the sci-fi/fantasy community who not only dislike the series but seem to detest its popularity.

My response, of course, is "So what?" If we find the series to be mediocre, poorly written and flat, we don't have to read or watch it. I personally don't care for the franchise, but I have no problem with people who do. Everybody has their own tastes, after all.

Still, the fact that Twilight is so popular seems to have left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. So, why does it bother us--heck, why does it even phase us--that Twilight is so popular?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's called Hype Backlash. Pretty much anything that's insanely popular with experience it.

 

[auntiehill]

It doesn't bother me; I am definitely not the target audience. It's the emo teenagers they're after.

Yes, I think it's stupid as hell, but there are far worse, more insipidly moronic things out there that are popular: American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, etc. Now THAT bothers me.

 

[Christopher]

It's not just that it's bad, it's that it promotes a dangerously unhealthy view of women and relationships. It's basically teaching teenaged girls that love means subjugating themselves completely to emotionally abusive and dangerous men.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's not just that it's bad, it's that it promotes a dangerously unhealthy view of women and relationships. It's basically teaching teenaged girls that love means subjugating themselves completely to emotionally abusive and dangerous men.

I have a friend who refers to it as "Mormon abstinence porn."

 

[Rii]

It irks me because "twilight" was a delectable word, now lost.

 

[Trekker4747]

It doesn't bother me. I couldn't care less.

It just makes me roll my eyes at how shallow, vapid and mindless teenage girls can be.

 

[Nardpuncher]

It's the quality of it too. if something is high quality, even if I don't like it, I can see how others do.
ex: I don't like the band Radiohead, and many of the people that like it to me seem like they like it because that's what intelligent, young,forward-thinking people should like. Yet I can still recognize the inherent quality of the music without really liking it.

Anyway, the thing I'm saying is is that Twilight seems to be hack teen roamntic crap so it makes me shake my head at people being overly-enthusiastic about it.

 

[23skidoo]

It's called Hype Backlash. Pretty much anything that's insanely popular with experience it.

I agree there. A textbook example is James Cameron's Titanic which is hated as much because it's the most popular film of all time as for any other reason.

SF/F fandom in particular also trends towards "delayed Hype Backlash", in which they go all gaga over something, and then after things die down people start experiencing a form of "buyer's remorse" and, in the more extreme cases, go from being fans to being bashers. We're seeing this play out with the Ronald Moore/Eick version of Battlestar Galactica by those who want that franchise and its Caprica spinoff buried in favor of Glen Larson's do-over. And there's also signs of this building in the UK regarding Doctor Who and also over here with regards to the Star Trek movie.

As for Twilight, I couldn't care less about it. My favorite part of it was the SNL spoof with Taylor Swift the other week. I was interested for a bit as I'm a fan of Rachelle Lefevre, but the way the filmmakers screwed her over removed my interested.

That said, the films' popularity doesn't bug me. For one thing, just as with Harry Potter, the books themselves are insanely popular and anything that gets teens and tweens reading something other than tweets (try saying that fast five times) is a good thing. The only thing that annoys me is that it's spawned so many rip-offs it's clogging the bookstores.

Alex

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Doesn't bother me at all. Don't really care at all.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I haven't really kept up with anything about Twilight, but any annoyance I have comes from thinking of it as the next 15 second fad. I give it the same eye roll I would give to parachute pants.

I just don't see Twilight having legs. It looks to me like one of those things where people will wake up in 15 years and say, "I liked *that*???"

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It bothers us because vampires aren't supposed to act this way. They're supposed to be genuinely SCARY.

I mean, what's next, a Zombie Twilight where the zombies are just misunderstood romantic heroes?

 

[Daneel]

It bothers me because this was supposed to be Star Trek's big year, dammit!



But in all seriousness, even though I try to live by a "different strokes for different folks" philosophy, I can't help but be a little irked when something of such low quality becomes so popular (I had the same reaction to this summer's Transformers sequel). In fairness, I haven't seen the Twilight films, or read the novels on which they're based, but everything I've heard suggests that it's vapid, poorly-crafted garbage -- and, as Christopher said, it sends a terrible message to young women about love and relationships. But hey, as long as Robert Pattinson is so dreamy, then who cares, right?

 

[Thestral]

It's not just that it's bad, it's that it promotes a dangerously unhealthy view of women and relationships. It's basically teaching teenaged girls that love means subjugating themselves completely to emotionally abusive and dangerous men.

QFT. Seriously.

It bothers us because vampires aren't supposed to act this way. They're supposed to be genuinely SCARY.

I mean, what's next, a Zombie Twilight where the zombies are just misunderstood romantic heroes?

Part of my squickiness about vampire stories in general is the romanticism that's been built up around them. It's also part of what makes them effective villains traditionally - they have weaknesses, but they're predatory and seductive; or predatory and mesmerizing perhaps. Even Buffy and Angel emphasized the dangerous nature of vampires and didn't treat it's vampires as misunderstood and potentially well-adjusted.

But my understanding of the Twilight vamps? Totally undermines the "these are monsters of folklore" in exchange for a poorly developed teen romance plot. Maybe Anita Blake is partly responsible, I don't know much of her mythos...

 

[Small White Car]

It bothers me because I pretty much agree with Cracked.com.

(Scroll down to entry #6)

There are people here who aren't bothered by that?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Part of my squickiness about vampire stories in general is the romanticism that's been built up around them. It's also part of what makes them effective villains traditionally - they have weaknesses, but they're predatory and seductive; or predatory and mesmerizing perhaps.

That is exactly the point. Vampires are supposed to be predatory, but not seductive. Vamps bite people on the neck, drink their blood, and are damn scary while doing it. Vampires are not supposed to be romantic. And what is really scary about having vampires in a book or film is that they don't *kill* their opponents, but turn them into vampires as well.

That's why the Borg are so effective as Trek villains, or zombies in a zombie film. To actually be forced to become one of your enemy is worse than death. The "Twilight" wussification of vampires goes against all of that, and not in a good way.

I mean, I used to think that Super Friends' portrayal of vampires (in the two episodes that dealt with them) was laughingly bad; in both instances, vamps didn't BITE people, they - I am seriously not making this up - shot laser beams at them. (To be fair, I understand why they did that, since there's no way a children's cartoon series would actually show a vampire biting someone and sucking out their blood. Although if the show's going to change things so much, why show vampires at all? ) In some ways, Twilight is even worse. At least the vamps on Super Friends were still scary villains.

 

[Daneel]

Vampires are supposed to be predatory, but not seductive.

Eh, I wouldn't necessarily say that. There have been many literary and cinematic vampires outside of Twilight that one could describe as seductive. It doesn't have to result in them being less dangerous -- in fact, their seductive nature can often be an effective tool for ensnaring prey.

 

[Thestral]

Vampires are supposed to be predatory, but not seductive.

Eh, I wouldn't necessarily say that. There have been many literary and cinematic vampires outside of Twilight that one could describe as seductive. It doesn't have to result in them being less dangerous -- in fact, their seductive nature can often be an effective tool for ensnaring prey.

Indeed. Vampires have often been portrayed as using seduction as a tool, as a way of getting their victims in for a kill. But it's still a predatory thing. And it's that turn, from seduction to predation/devouring, that has a lot of the fear.

Not too unlike an incubus/succubus, except for the whole "drink your blood and/or turn you into one" bit.

But when it becomes a romantic ideal, an "Ooh, I would LUUV to be a vampire"...

 

[Aragorn]

That is exactly the point. Vampires are supposed to be predatory, but not seductive. Vamps bite people on the neck, drink their blood, and are damn scary while doing it. Vampires are not supposed to be romantic. And what is really scary about having vampires in a book or film is that they don't *kill* their opponents, but turn them into vampires as well.

"Well first of all, they're not romatic. Its not like they're a bunch of fuckin' fags hoppin' around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody in sight with cheesy Euro-trash accents, all right? Forget whatever you've seen in the movies: they don't turn into bats, crosses don't work. Garlic? You wanna try garlic? You could stand there with garlic around your neck and one of these buggers will bend you fucking over and take a walk up your strada-chocolata WHILE he's suckin' the blood outta your neck, all right? And they don't sleep in coffins lined in taffata. You wanna kill one, you drive a wooden stake right through his fuckin' heart. Sunlight turns 'em into crispy critters." -- Jack Crow

 

[sidious618]

It's not just that it's bad, it's that it promotes a dangerously unhealthy view of women and relationships. It's basically teaching teenaged girls that love means subjugating themselves completely to emotionally abusive and dangerous men.

This.