justfornow | Because they sparkle. (Reply)

I must confess that the more I get back into the Harry Potter fandom, the more I really, really dislike Twilight. It's not even the whole choosing sides thing. I just don't understand its popularity.

“Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strengths, and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.” –Andrew Futral

“Both [J.K.] Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people … The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good." –Stephen King

I know that several people on my flist are Twilight fans, so, because I still love all of you, I'll put this all behind a cut. You should know, though, that it's not at all comparing Harry Potter to Twilight. It's just what I feel are Twilight's downfalls. I don't mean to disrespect. If you would like to read it, though, I'd love to have an actual discussion about it.

Danny's Twilight background: I read Twilight before it became popular, when most people were still like "What's that?" I continued onto New Moon and then attempted to read Eclipse. I got halfway through before I couldn't read it anymore. Trust me when I say that I rarely put down a book in the middle. I never attempted Breaking Dawn. I do not know anything about the movies as I have vowed to never see any of them.

Top ten reasons why I hate Twilight:

1. Hardly any of the characters have personality and the ones that do get screwed over (i.e. Jacob).

2. The writing is terrible. It’s obvious she had a thesaurus open next to her so she could use words like “ocher” and vacillating.”

2. Bella is the biggest Mary Sue I’ve ever read – and that includes fanfiction. She cannot do anything, she follows and does whatever her boy wants, she has absolutely no personality, and yet everyone loves her. She has boys falling head over heels for her. How does any of this make sense?

3. Is there anything her vampires can’t do? Reading the books, it was like every time she needed them to do something, she just said, “Well, I’M the author. Let’s give them more superpowers.”

4. Vampires cannot make babies. Let me save the biological rant and just say: They. Are. Dead.
“Fluids closely related to seminal fluids still exist in male vampires, which carry genetic information and are capable of bonding with a human ovum. This was not a known fact in the vampire world (outside of Joham's personal experimenting) before Nessie, because it's nearly impossible for a vampire to be that near a human and not kill her.” – Stephenie Meyer
I think it’s an awful lot more like it didn’t even occur to her that HER vampires couldn’t have babies and then when people started asking her about it, she had to make something up. She also says that they don’t have blood. No blood, no erection, no sperm, no baby.

5. Edward is unrealistic. No one, dead or alive, can be as sexy as Meyer makes him.

6. I don't know how to say this without being offensive, so: SM just looks like a douche. She does not look like a nice person. I know that's shallow, but it's true. I feel as though she had this dream where she had sex with a vampire and said, “Let’s run with that. Only I’ll make it so exaggerated that it’s unrealistic even for a fantasy novel.” It’s like self-insert fanfiction. I don't think I know a single person who likes to read those.

6. I know I've mentioned this before, but I see Twilight-esque book covers EVERYWHERE now. On Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, etc. You’re ruining classics! Stop trying to make money. Jesus.

7. SM does not understand teenagers unless she went to high school in an alternate universe where all 17-year-olds talk like they’re from the 15th century. Teenagers do not carry out dialogue like that, I’m sorry, but no.

8. I think Bella is a terrible role model. If I had a young daughter, I don’t know if I’d let her read this series because it teaches all the wrong things about what girls should be like. This book sets feminism back about half a century.

9. She is afraid of killing ANYONE off. Thus making it even more unrealistic. Ugh. I did not read the last book, but I’ve heard that there’s a HUGE build-up to an enormous battle. On Meyer’s website, she even says that she didn’t want to kill any of them off because that would just be sad. Puh-leaze.

10. Why do the vampires go to high school forever? That seems like a terrible way to spend the afterlife.

Can someone please explain the popularity of these books to me? I absolutely do not understand.

She also has a bit of Twilight from Edward’s point-of view over here. I feel as though it is one of the worst things I have ever read in my entire life.

I’m going to stick with Harry Potter, thank you very much.

Oh. There is this really funny thing here. This guy reads through Twilight and makes commentary over the entire thing.

Again, I mean no disrespect. Everyone has their ideas and fandoms and whatnot. I just felt like getting it out there and maybe prompting some discussions or something.