TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Bella?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by FalTorPan, Jan 2, 2011.

  1. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I think it's mainly her attitude. She can be very beguiling when she wants to be (cf Adventureland), but that's not what the role ever calls for. Put her in a male-geek genre movie and she'd do just fine.
     
  2. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    Again, I think Kristen Stewart is cute enough certainly no aspects about her that I find unattractive in fact I even think she's not too bad an actress. I just don't think the character of Bella is all-that attractive mostly because she's got less substance on her or in her than an empty white envelope.

    I can deal with her stammering way of speaking, her shyness and even that she's "klutzy." But it's that she's a lemming with that "Mirror Syndrome" a patient on House a few seasons back had. (That caused the POTW to emulate the mannerisms and speech of the person in the room he perceived to be "in charge.")

    She latches on to Edward like a puppy dog to a master, a master who craves her blood and has to restrain himself from slaughtering her, oh, and he's a stalker. She also the most emo person ever. Edward breaks up with her and she goes into fits of night-terrors and dramatic stages of catatonia for several months.

    Bella should be in the psychiatric ward of her local hospital with a team of doctors working around the clock trying to figure out what her deal is.

    Stewart is beautiful and a good actress.

    Bella is some black-lipstick and a fishnet shirt away from becoming the gothiest person ever and she'd probably be an outcast with them too.
     
  3. Lapis Exilis

    Lapis Exilis Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    Now to be fair, Twilight functions on a very old idea of what romantic love is. When the concept of romantic love first came to be in the West it was around 1150. Prior to that there was lust and there was love of your fellow man, but there was no such thing as romantic love. It was invented by the troubadours and it was a very specific concept. Romantic love had to be:

    1) Adulterous - since marriage was an institution that was about the alliances of family, affection had nothing to do with it and the idea of a husband and wife sharing love was ridiculous since chances were neither one of them had any choice in who was chosen to their partner
    2) Wildly and deeply painful since one was forever restricted from the object of one's love who was married to someone else and adultery was a mortal sin

    In the famous romance Tristan and Isolde, Tristan is delivering Isolde to his uncle Mark, King of Ireland, for an arranged marriage when, on the journey, the two young people accidentally drink a love potion that Isolde's mother had sent along for Isolde and King Mark to drink. They fall instantly and deeply in love and Isolde's maid says to Tristan, "You have drunk your death." To which he replies:

    "I do not know what you mean. If you mean the pain of my love for Isolde - tht is my life. If you mean the punishment from society that I shall receive for loving her, I accept that. If you mean eternal damnation in hell - I accept that too."

    Feeling deep pain was a sign of the depth of one's love. If you didn't have it in the gut so that it doubled you over with longing - it wasn't love. This notion survives in most great romance stories of our culture to this day. Something separates the lovers and they suffer unbearable pain until they can reunite.

    Now, granted, Twilight is a shallowly written bit of flotsam that has all the quality of a 12 year old girl's fan fic - but Bella's suffering harkens back to the oldest idea of what romantic love is.
     
  4. Artemis

    Artemis Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    Have to agree.

    I watched once a nice little vid which explains what is the secret of bella's popularity among girls.

    It states that she is an empty shell into which we girls can easily pour our own personalities with little difficulty.

    Okay, she's shy. I can be shy. She's clumsy. Here here. She is self-consciouss. Hell yeah. It just goes on.

    Now, as for Edward and Jacob....erm...they're just desperate. :D
     
  5. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    As long as, in the final book, Edward and Jacob hook up with each other and wander off together, I'm happy. :)
     
  6. Artemis

    Artemis Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    That would be a perfect ending, yes. :D
     
  7. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    And also to be fair, teenagers DO tend to become wildly and irrationally obsessive about relationships at that age. I just see the Twilight series as representing that time of life when the hormones are going crazy and everything that happens to you feels like the Most Important Thing Ever.

    Yeah the writing could obviously be better, but I don't know anyone trying to claim that these are "works of art" to begin with.
     
  8. Artemis

    Artemis Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I've heard people claim them to be works of art just because of the way love and edward as the most perfect guy ever are described.
     
  9. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be


    And, of course, that sort of obsessive longing is basically encoded into the DNA of gothic fiction anyway. Look at Barnabas Collins or the Mummy or the Phantom of the Opera or the Hunchback of Notre Dame, all pining for their lost loves for all eternity, etc. And Poe and the Brontes, etc.

    Mix Gothic melodrama with adolescent angst and hormones, and you've practically got a perfect storm of over-the-top emotion . . . . .
     
  10. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    Jacob deserves better! :klingon: :p
     
  11. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    Uh oh...(ducks, then sneakily grabs popcorn!)

    Are there any sections of the books where Edward and Jacob actually have to work together and have a (by Twilight standards) meaningful conversation?

    I admit I read the Wikipedia plot summaries of the books and can only hope the later entries had been vandalized. Conversely, I read some Twilight slash which may be, based on my uninformed opinions, better than the source text...of course, some would argue that that wouldn't take much.
     
  12. Mooch

    Mooch Commodore Commodore

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I like Anna Kendrick better, but Kristen Stewart is pretty cute. "Werefolf Guy" and "Vampire Guy" could probably do better, though.
     
  13. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I couldn't finish the first book, but there's a bit in the third movie, when they're all stuck in a tent in the woods overnight, where the two guys do finally bond a little bit.

    "If you weren't my mortal enemy and trying to steal my reason for living, I think we might be friends."

    Or words to that effect . . . .
     
  14. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I think Cracked sums the movies up nicely.

    ;)
     
  15. Brent

    Brent Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I think its cause the books are written for immature emo teenagers who think their life is crap or something, but there is hope out there, an escape. Its just written for teenagers who are questioning their own path and have no idea about life and what to do with their lives. It really does appeal to teenage girls for some reason, I guess cause they are all messed up in the head as much as Bella is.
     
  16. I am not Spock

    I am not Spock Commodore Commodore

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    I'm a guy, and I think Kristen Stewart is pretty. I think people that are saying she's ugly have too high standards. She may not be a supermodel, but she's more representative of your average girl-next-door. As said, this is precisely why she got the part. It tells teen girls 'look, you too can win an Edward Cullen'.

    I am by no means a Twilight fan (Buffy/Angel is my vamp romance of choice :P ) but the films do tend to be cast on a looks basis. Is there anyone in these films who is not 'hot'? (BTW, Rachelle Lefevre is the hottest Twilight gal, IMO)
     
  17. Lapis Exilis

    Lapis Exilis Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    A perfectly intelligent 38 year old friend of mine read them and admitted they were trite, then added, "but the hero is completely dreamy!" I tried to read the first book and found that he's not shown to be dreamy, but we are repeatedly told he's dreamy. Otherwise his defining characteristics are being handsome (what romantic hero isn't?), a young girl's idea of romantic (enjoys staring goo-goo eyed at the object of his affection), and shows up for every unlikely time that Bella is in danger (obvious plot contrivances to bring our two young lovers together). It was when he saves Bella in town and says, "If there's danger in a twelve mile radius, I'll find you in the middle of it" that I closed the book. Like I said - that's bad fan fic writing right there. But, interestingly, chicks love fan fic, and that's often because plot is just an excuse to write scenes of angst and romance which is the fantasy they want to spend their time on - much like guys love comic books because plot is just an excuse to write scenes of courage and action.
     
  18. Brent

    Brent Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    It's the classic girl goes for rebel kinda thing, the cool/bad guy so to speak.
     
  19. Sephiroth

    Sephiroth Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    it's emopires and douchewolves
     
  20. indranee

    indranee Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re: TWILIGHT -- What Do the Vampire Guy and the Werewolf Guy See in Be

    Would those people by any chance be teenagers? ;)

    I can understand Edward's attraction to Bella. She intrigues him by being a closed book. She smells hellishly delicious. And she keeps his secret.

    On top of which, he's a hundred plus year old virgin.

    1 + 1 = 2.

    As for Jacob, he hates Edward and wants what he wants.