I’m busy re-reading Twilight. I’m about halfway through and Edward is hella controlling. Pulling Bella by her jacket when she wants to drive her own car to the point she nearly stumbles? When I was younger, I thought he was “boyfriend goals.” As someone who’s since had the controlling/possessive boyfriend, this now gives me the major ick. I’d be so put off.
by CoffeeKween19
40 Comments
It put me off from day one. It is full of ick.
I think it’s more that you have aged well and can see his behaviour for what it is!
I think the real point is Twilight was never good. It was poorly written and a rip off of so many other things in the genre WHEN IT CAME OUT. But it was a phenomenon. (And that’s not even going in to the undertones of Mormonism in the abstinence heavy plot.) As someone who read it the first time as a 12 year old, I find humor in reading it again because of how BAD it is haha
HAhaha oh god, Twilight didn’t even newborn well. Sorry you had to find out like this.
It was trash when it came out. It wasn’t going to get better with time.
I don’t think this is a case of it not aging well since it was actively criticized at the time for things like this.
There were just significantly fewer options, book wise, at the time in the YA genre.
It was targeted at teenagers that didn’t have any or very little romantic experience and made a lot of them have the same feeling you had about it, saying it was romantic, but then you grew, you lived, and you realized the truth that it’s actually really wrong
Lol it was never well.
[This is the “It always has been” meme ](https://imgflip.com/i/7xr8mk)
Thanks to u/WhatImKnownAs
Pretty sure the same thing you be said of like 99% of YA romance novels. They almost involve a male lead that’s a walking red flag who is somehow redeemed by the totally average girl from bumfuck nowhere.
It was never good.
Those criticisms were there when it came out. You just didn’t see them cuz u were 12
I remember most of these criticisms being made when it was new as well
It is neat to look at just to appreciate just how much societal norms have changed, and your own personal preferences have changed. When you were a highschooler, that might have been the type of guy you wanted. Now that you’re older, you can clearly see the problems with that kind of behavior.
I’m sure there are many high-school aged girls today who want a boyfriend like that. Such is life.
No, it’s always been this terrible. It’s you who has grown and matured from the type of person who believed these were positive traits.
It’s not that it hasnt aged well, it was always a depiction of an unhealthy relationship and creepy controlling behavior. I think you just grew up and understand it better now
I am going to go ahead and guess you were quite young the first time you read it. It was never good.
It was honestly never that good and definitely problematic in a lot of instances.
I think we are just more educated/aware of just *how* problematic it is.
Don’t get me wrong, I bought into the hype and I did mostly enjoy the books but even back then I was taken aback by a few things and the gurther the series progressed, the more cringey it got for. I never read the later stories from Edward’s pov because of that…
It wasn’t good when it was first written.
It was always dumb
The books are absolutely terrible but the first movie is so camp. Love watching it just for the blue filter and baseball scene; the movies alone just highlight how poorly written the characters and plot are.
I went to Forks Wa for a camping trip last weekend (not because of twilight- my friend booked a campsite to see Olympic national park) and the whole town still leans into the Twilight themes. It’s very “camp” and I still enjoy Twilight because of how silly it is- but I prefer the movies since I actually like the actors and Pacific Northwest scenery. There were “no vampires past this point” signs and lots of cardboard cutouts of the actors around town. I know twilight is inherently bad but I like it lol. In no way do I think it’s a positive message but the idea of wherewolves and vampires hashing it out in Olympic national park is hilarious to me
It was just as shitty when it was released, it’s you who has aged well.
Oh honey. Where have you been? Twilight has been getting these criticisms from the day it came out. It got even worse once 50 Shades came out and amplified all those parts. So no, it’s not just you.
On a personal note, I’m glad you have aged well and can see the problems now!
The same points were raised when it was first published. you’re spot on.
It wasn’t born well and the aging is consistent with that.
I thought the general consensus was that it was pretty awful to begin with.
I was in college when the first book came out and remember how big of a deal it was. A lot of the girls on campus were into it and teen girls I knew like friends’ younger sisters were all about it. I read the first two out of curiosity and hated them. I came up on Anne Rice’s vampires, so I never cared for the ones in Meyer’s books.
It is interesting that a lot of women have grown out of them, but books like this still have an audience. 50 Shades, all the “Fall” books, and so on.
Twilight wasn’t born well.
I’m actually reading Midnight Sun right now and oh man. I’ve scrunched my face up so many times and literally have to walk away because it’s so cringey! But it’s also so funny to remember this 13 year old version of myself who was totally infatuated with Edward. These books and movies had such a hold on me when I was young, and it’s so fun to revisit now and just laugh!
Twilight aged just fine, for a book about dating monsters. “But Edward’s behavior is creepy when you think about it”. No shit, he’s literally a monster.
Kind of surprised nobody has brought up the early meme of “[…still a better love story than Twilight](https://amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/still-a-better-love-story-than-twilight)”.
Dman, you mean the poorly written book for teens written by a Mormon woman with a fixation on love triangles and controlling men didn’t age well? You don’t say!
Welcome to romance novels…
Have you ever heard of a channel called “Terrible Writing Advice”? Look up his video on “Alpha Male protagonists”. Ordinarily he exaggerates for the purpose of comedy but here he actually *toned it down*.
Perform a little exercise I call the “Danny DeVito” or “Quasimodo” test. Imagine the man looks like them. If it comes off as creepy? It’s glorifying abuse.
Stephanie Meyer is a Mormon that had no knowledge of vampires and werewolves, hence why they sparkled because she just guessed that’s what they do. She doesn’t understand sexual relationships or dynamics outside of her Mormon teachings. The writing is awful even for a fanfic. Girls just got swept up by the hormones as teens.
Uhhhh…
It’s always been this way. I say Twilight groomed an entire generation of girls. Then 50 Shades groomed a whole generation of women into falling for Problematic Doms…
Twilight aged *great* for what it is. Society has changed in some respects since it came out, but not in terms of the kind of trashy romances girls/women like.
Sorry, but you know it’s true: it’s not like we all thought Twillight was genius and uplifting when first published and now we all know better. From the moment Twillight came out, every other vampire fandom was making fun of it for having sappy, wimpy, “sparkly” vampires , and tons of social media moralists were scolding it for “romanticizing abuse/toxic relationships”, none of which stopped it from being a huge bestseller that spawned some megahit movie adaptations.
Fast forward a few years, the exact same thing is happening: a trashy romance book series comes out, those already in the “scene” of its ostensible subject matter say it’s a gross distortion, social media moralists say it’s romanticizing toxic relationships and abuse, fans buy it in droves and also flock to see the movie version. Only this time the book’s called Fifty Shades of Grey.
Fast forward again, same thing, only this time it’s After by Anna Todd.
Some book or other by Colleen Hoover will probably be next.
Go back to the 19th century, you can find a similar dynamic around popular fiction for women, except the moralists decrying it back then were more overtly religious.
“Harry Potter is about courage overcoming evil. Twilight is about the importance of having a boyfriend.” –apocryphal, attributed to Stephen King
The book aimed at teens hasn’t aged well for an adult reader? Color me surprised.
It’s not that it hasn’t aged well, it’s just that it was always this bad.