Logic's Insight: Twilight Part 3

Reason #3 for hating Twilight, the story and lore

At this point, I'm pretty much beating a dead horse.  We don't protagonists that we actually care about, We have a mismatched relationship that we don't care about and it has a dynamic that is completely removed from common sense, so there's really no reason to keep going right?

But what about everyone else?

Ha!  My friend, it really doesn't matter what's going on with everyone else because none of it is ever going to inconvenience the nice little love affair that's going on.  Mainly because the main characters never care about what's happening around them, the surrounding events of a vampire-werewolf war never complicates matters for Bella's upcoming wedding...hell!  The two clans even put up a truce just to keep Bella alive!  Nobody even questions what makes this human woman so special.

Jacob loves her.  So what?  She doesn't really love him!  Why should the other werewolves care that this guy can't take a hint?  If anything, they should be encouraging him to fight the werewolves so they can claim Bella for themselves.  I can see why the Cullens would defend Bella because she's a potential future member and all, but why would they be so willing to form a truce with these werewolves after the other vampires are dealt with?  So that Bella and Edward can have a nice and peaceful wedding where nothing else matters but them.

That's really just touching the surface because you'd think a werewolf-vampire-newblood vampire war would be epic and would be a central point of conflict and tension in this tale.  But nope, everything revolves around the growing love between Bella and Edward.  I'm not just saying that because the love story is a central point in the story, I'm fine with that.  What I don't like is when a love story becomes so obstructive with the rest of the story that readers can have a hard time keeping up with the actual story that is supposed to affect the love story.

Remember the relationships that I had mentioned in part 1?  Most of those pairings weren't even in actual love stories.  They were character subplots that were a part of a larger plot and story.  They influenced character motivations and decisions, but they didn't take away from the overarching story.  Even with stories where the love story is the central plot, you can't have the characters not interact with or react to situations outside of their love relationship.  It makes them seem hallow, as though they don't have any other purpose than to fall in love and if that's all you're going to do then it cheapens the character.  What are you going to do with the character after the love story/subplot is resolved?  Well since you've never added any thought to the story, there's really nothing else.

I don't like pointless drama either, but something has to happen to show that the characters are invested in their relationship.  I'm going to bring up two examples that demonstrates this point.  One is from an anime called Gundam 8th MS Team and the other is the outline for a story that I made up in my head while I was writing this essay.  The latter of the two is probably garbage, but at least it has more meat than Twilight ever could.  I'm no JK Rowling, but I've written fanfics that made more sense and better character relationships than Twilight and again, they're fanfics!

Gundam 8th MS Team takes place during a war between the earth federation and people who live in space colonies who formed a group called Zeon.  They fly around fighting inside giant robots, engaging in ship to ship combat, and even drop asteroids, nukes, and colonies on top of each other.  During this conflict, a robot (mobile suit) commander encounters a Zeon pilot.  At first they were trying to kill each other, but get stranded in the middle of a wrecked colony.  So they have to work together and through that experience, they form a bond that grows into an infatuation and even love.  The next time they meet, they get stranded out in the middle of a desert and during that time, they're bond grows into love as they discuss the war and how it's a stupid war.  They reveal their motivations for fighting and struggle through their newly formed ideas.  When they go back to their respective groups, the experience influences their decisions and they decide to fight for peace.  But their colleagues outright laugh at them and even attempt to kill them for their beliefs.  By the end of the show, they drop out of knowledge and are declared dead.  This allows them to go off by themselves and have a happy ending, but they still bare the scars of the war that their story was set in.  The Zeon pilot was forced to kill her insane brother when he went rogue with their project.  The earth pilot was labeled a deserter and lost his leg saving the lives of the comrades who had labeled him a traitor...it's a bitter but sweet ending where nothing came without a price.

The second is the outline for an interacial love story set during the Depression Era and World War 2.  During the depression era, a white and a black family are forced to work together to survive due to the depression situation and two children from those families bond and become friends.  Years later when America's entering the war, the two of them are teenagers learning about love and...the truth behind the stork.  They grow infatuated with each other, but as you all know, white people really didn't like black people back then and black people were more than happy to return the distrust.  So their infatuation grows into love despite pressure from both their families and the society around them telling them that they should stay in their place.  Two years later, the black boy, we'll call him Terrell, enlists in the army when they start letting blacks fight and marries the white girl, we'll call her Jane, in secret by a priest from their childhood.  The rest of the story is them dealing with the consequences of their actions.  Jane becomes pregnant while Terrell is on the European or Pacific Theater and she has to deal with both her family and Terrell's family who may or may not pressure her into "getting rid of the child" or putting the child up for adoption and forgetting about Terrell.  She'll suffer mental and even physical torment for her decision, but she'll choose to wait and raise her child with Terrell.  When he comes back, if he comes back, Terrell will be scared and bitter with a country that still hates him.  He'll also have to deal with becoming a father while handling post traumatic stress from what he went through in the war.  The story will end on a cliffhanger where the couple ponder leaving for Europe or Asia to raise their child without facing the prejudice that they've had to deal with all of their life.

And I'll admit, the second paragraph story pitch needs work.  The Gundam love story even has a Disney love time line issue since those two only meet twice before their declaration of love.  But you know what, those two are a lot better than Twilight because their stories don't ignore the outside world.  Even if the love story is in it's own little box, the outside story should still knock it around and even intrude.  It introduces conflict and a chance for character development and an opportunity to deepen the bond in that love dynamic.

When everything works out perfectly well, then there's really not much to root for.  I'm not talking about a love story having a happy ending despite impossible odds.  I'm talking about never challenging the characters to really work for that happy ending.  That's the biggest problem with Twilight's story, from day one, no one ever has to work for squat because it's going to be guaranteed.  We all know that Bella's going to become a vampire, it just took longer than it should have, we all know that her and Edward are going to have a happily ever after, Jacob's just there to screw with the mindset of teenage girls who taught that Edward was shallow.

That's another problem with Twilight's story.  There's so little even in the love story, that everything feels draining and drawn out.  The main plot points of the saga could easily be condensed into a single book or maybe even two.  But four books and five movies?  That's pushing it!  Matilda had more substance than this entire saga and that's only one book.  Then again, Matilda is a million times better written and it's titular character is a much better role model than Bella, so I probably shouldn't be surprised.

Remember what I said about the story working out to Bella and Edward's convenience?  Breaking Dawn is the exemplary example of how this occurs.  The biggest reason that even a lot Twilight fans don't like it is because it breaks it's own rules without explanation or reason.  Edward is a vampire, vampires don't have blood in their system and therefore...can't sow their royal oats.  But despite that, Edward still impregnates human Bella and the child is growing at an incredibly fast rate.  How did Edward impregnate Bella despite it being impossible by the author's own words and writing?  Why is it growing so damn fast?  How was Edward able to turn Bella into a vampire even though she had already died in childbirth?

Hell, even the final conflict in the story is handled insultingly well, especially given all of the build up.  There has never been a human-vampire hybrid in a long time, so a secret vampire group could possibly threaten to kill the child who grows way too fast...but that conflict is easily resolved through diplomacy and showing that Renesmaia...whatever, is no threat to vampire society.  No one even bats an eyelash at how she's barely a year old and already imprinted onto a werewolf whose already in his twenties.  No, no, happily ever after...

What?

I could also go on about the physiology of vampires and how it's all wrong as well.  But that's more of an artistic complaint, it's not the first time that vampires have been written as being able to walk in sunlight.  Some vampires can walk in daylight under certain circumstances.  The main woman from Underworld was able to find a way to walk in daylight and Blade is half-vampire, so he can also go out in daylight.  I think there's even a story with Dracula doing that.  What ticks me off about the vampires and werewolves in Twilight is that they have no weaknesses.  They're the paragons and strength and beauty with no flaws or any apparent mortality.

With the vampires, sunlight doesn't work, it just makes them sparkle...driving a stake through them won't work, they're too strong and swift to get close enough or even to get the stake to penetrate...Holy water or holy ground doesn't work, some of these vampires are Christians!  With werewolves...they can transform whenever they want so there's not point in waiting for them to become vulnerable, they're really fast, strong and have a healing factor so I don't think silver bullets or silver weapons will do the trick...assuming that you can even hit them...

Plus, there's no real antagonist.  Sure, rogue vampires show up once in a while, but they're motivation is either weak or something that isn't necessarily evil or unexpected of vampires.  There's nothing that drives Bella or Edward...it's just...dull...

Here's why a believable antagonist is necessary for a series like Twilight. I don't mean a villain or a bully, but a believable obstacle.  Something creates real tension and drama in the story that forces the characters to make some sort of decision and then act on that decision and face the consequences of that action for the rest of the series.

In Nolan's batman trilogy, Bruce Wayne's biggest obstacle isn't the various villains even though they're not helping the situation, but the burden of being the Dark Knight. The burden of being the watchman means that he'll have to stay on the wall and never find true happiness in life due to constantly sacrificing everything for the sake of Gotham. He even chose to take the fall for Harvey Dent and become "the villain" in the eyes of the city he was protecting to save it from the Joker's last trick.  But even that action has a consequence once the truth is revealed in the third movie.

Remember the phrase, "Art from Adversity?" It means that something becomes stronger through some sort of conflict. Something that forces them to grow stronger, to adapt, to learn from a mistake. Without adversity or failure, no one would ever become a master at their craft because they're never challenged to become better.  That's why heroes need villains, rivals, shadow archetypes, lancers, trials and dilemnas; because the hero isn't perfect.  When a character isn't perfect, it's easier for us to relate to them and want them to strive forward.

Twilight...not so much. Bella's biggest concern is a question between beastiality and necrophilia. You'd think that she'd be worried about leaving behind her family and friends...but we've already established that this little girl is a selfish little bitch, so no...no conflict there.  Edward? He's honestly all over the place...either he's so fixated on "being with her" that it's outright stalker-territory or he's too distant and non-emotive to seem invested in what's going on.  Not to mention that Edward is basically invincible which means that Bella and him will never be challenged by an outside force.

Some will ask, what about Bella's choice between beastiality and necrophilia?  The story had potential there honestly.  But despite evidence and proof that he would be the much better choice between the two, Bella dumps and manipulates Jacob so that she could be with Edward.  So all of that potential for some real drama goes down the drain as a victim to Meyer's dull stupidity.

That's the best way to describe any semblance of story that this saga has...dull...how could anyone follow such a dull story?

You'd think that this is it, right?  That with all of these essential points covered that Twilight couldn't possibly get off the ground right?

Then how is this series doing so DAMN WELL?  I think I can clarify that in my next installment.