Friday, March 8, 2013

Finally figured what's wrong with Twilight

So as I was casually enjoying a happy little browsing on Facebook, I saw this and it hit me what was wrong with the whole Twilight Saga.


Notice how the question is asking about Eddy-kins or Jakey-poo. What happened to Bella?

Oh that's right...she's not really there. She's just a placeholder for the random girl (or guy, if that kind of thing floats your boat). There were several studies done that, when asked about Bella's physical appearance, girls would put their own instead of Bella's canonical appearance.

Which is why Bella is such a horribly flat character. There's nothing to her. Though I do have to give Stephenie Meyer props for utilizing first person so effectively.

But the problem is this: Twilight is about Bella. The whole saga is about her, yet even the movies don't even think she's an important enough character to include in their advertisements.

Nope, it's all about Team Jacob or Team Edward. The ad above is even saying, "Watch them both."

So what happened to our protaganist Bella? You know, the person the story is supposed to be about?

Simple. Bella's such a bland person that they don't even bother advertising using her because no one will care. No one cares about Bella. Everyone cares about the love triangle that miracously get resolved, yet they're ignoring the female leg of that triangle.

It infuriates me that the character the movie is supposed to be about doesn't even get top billing in her own story. What's the point of her being there then?

Let's look at Hunger Games, another story told in first person. Unlike Bella, Katniss has a personality, and isn't just a stand in for the reader to fulfill her romantic desires. Katniss is stubborn, a bit of a numbskull, and she is willing to make sacrifices for everyone, even if she wants something herself.

Even the way her love triangle (gag. really don't think they needed that in Hunger Games, but whatever.) is written is much better than Bella's. Through the whole series, you're wondering who Katniss will pick (if either Gale or Peeta). Twilight? Edward all the way. Even when she's with Jacob, she's still stuck on Edward. Even in Eclipse when the drama was supposed to be heightened, Jacob turned me off because he was being a huge jerk-wad towards Bella, then would switch to a whinny teenage boy begging for attention. Really, Jacob's character was more secure pre-werewolf transformation. So i don't get why there's still team Jacob campers out there. I mean...it's pretty obvious she's going to be picking Edward no matter what.

Katniss's romance was a bit rushed (Mockingjay on a whole was rushed), but the resolution made some sense, given her personality and what occurs between the guy she chooses. (Trying so hard not to give away spoilers.)

And it really doesn't help Kristen Stewart isn't acting at her best here. I will give her props that she can pull of fake dying very well. But that's about the only part of her performance that I enjoyed. The rest of the time, she was bland and blank, just like her character in the book.

She's so bland, they have to advertise the other characters just to make it seem like a decent book/movie.

And this is why, children, you write good strong characters that people like, and they don't always get a happy ending.


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