Twilight (novel)/Series/Sandbox



"Coldly calculated to pander to your shrieking demographic!"

- Michael J. Nelson, Riff Trax

"Kids love sexy vampires!"

- J.D., Scrubs

A series of young adult Paranormal Romance novels by Stephenie Meyer, and the title of the first book. It is about a girl named Bella Swan (cough, Mary Sue, cough) who falls in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire. Bella is - for some reason - a really special girl, and Edward is (a) unable to use his vampire powers to read her mind, (b) totally hot for her blood and (c) madly in love with her. So, Edward wants to form a relationship with Bella while resisting the urge to suck her dry. Things get complicated in the second book when Bella's childhood friend Jacob, who also has the hots for her, reveals himself to be a shirtless werewolf. There's also the occasional Wacky Wayside Tribe, such as the vampire tracker James and the Volturi.

Has, perhaps unsurprisingly, its own character page.

The series currently consists of four books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn). Stephenie Meyer had plans to make a POVquel called Midnight Sun, which is the plot of Twilight (nearly word-for-word) told through Edward's point of view. Then, leaked copies of the rough draft were released. Meyer has halted the publication until she gets through her reaction over the event, saying "If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die." Depending on whether you're a fan or not, that may either horrify or excite you. She now has written a 200 page "novella" called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, which came out on June 5, 2010. A guide has been announced as well, planning to be released on April 12th (after being pushed back to another date multiple times).

The film version of Twilight was released in the US in 2008, with The Twilight Saga: New Moon following in 2009 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in 2010. There were also rumors of an Anime, but they proved to be false. Manga-style illustrations of the Japanese edition still exist. A graphic novel has been released and while it's not all that bad, it's not entirely... sparkly.

Not to be confused with the numerous other works and characters with the name "Twilight".

These books (and movies) contain examples of:
""Oh, no, you're bleeding!" (tears shirt off)"
 * Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Why doesn't Bella go back into the bookstore in the movie?
 * Aerith and Bob : No risk of One Steve Limit with
 * Maybe not in Meyer's world. Try typing "Renesmee baby name" into Google.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Bella doesn't care that Edward is "dangerous," despite Edward's constant warnings.
 * All Myths Are True: Bella wonders if this is the case after learning about werewolves.
 * All Women Are Lustful: Especially Bella. Other female characters display this trope, like Tanya and her succubus "sisters", and all the Cullen women seem to spend their nights having sex with their husbands.
 * Analogy Backfire: In Eclipse, Bella compares herself to Cathy of Wuthering Heights and her love for Edward to Cathy's love for Heathcliff... seemingly forgetting there is actually an Isabella in the same novel who does marry Heathcliff... to disastrous results.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love: Edward in the meadow scene.
 * Anticlimax: Happens a few times throughout the series:
 * In the first novel, James is described as an unstoppable killing machine. Laurent isn't even willing to face him with seven other vampires. . The movie is somewhat better about this. We don't
 * Doubly Subverted in Eclipse. but then  This is also fixed in the movie, in which
 * The final novel, Breaking Dawn.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Bella is disturbed to find out that  At which point she attacks.
 * Also when Bella finds out Edward has broken into her house, more than once, even before they were dating, to sit in her bedroom and watch her sleep, Bella is more concerned that he heard her talking in her sleep.
 * Upon discovering that Edward is a vampire and can read minds, she freaks out...because he says he can't read hers, which makes her think that she's the freakish one.
 * As the Good Book Says...: A completely out-of-context Bible quote at the beginning of one novel.
 * Another Bible quote is used to symbolize Edward and Bella's relationship, namely the "lion and the lamb" one. A quick check of the Bible shows that Meyer got it dramatically wrong.
 * Attempted Rape: One of the many times Edward saves Bella.
 * Audible Gleam: In The Movie, Edward's sparkles come with their own sound effects.
 * Author Avatar: Bella. When asked to describe what she looks like, Stephenie Meyer basically described herself.
 * Meyer has actually denied that Bella is her Author Avatar in this interview. She argues that saying while she was sheltered and had an easy life, Bella is forced to be more mature than Meyer was at her age. Even though this doesn't contradict author avatar in the slightest.
 * Ax Crazy: Just stay far, far away from Victoria.
 * Badass Adorable: Alice.
 * Babies Make Everything Better:
 * Baseball Episode
 * Based on a Dream: A dream of a sparkling vampire lying in a field of flowers, apparently.
 * The Beautiful Elite: All the vampires (except James), but especially the Cullens.
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: Played straight in the first book. James, the first book's evil vampire, is described as being an average-looking vampire because he was ugly as a human. Naturally, all the Cullens were beautiful in life, making them absolutely gorgeous as vampires. The later books avert this with the Volturi. When we first meet them in New Moon, Edward points out, the Volturi aren't technically the bad guys. However, at that point all the Cullens though the Volturi respected the law and controlled their world in a way that was better than what they will have if vampires became an anarchy with poor humans on the way. By the last book they know the Volturi (specially Aro) are ambitious bastards that will go to any length to get their way, including breaking the law and murdering innocents to achieve power.
 * The Volturi really don't break any rules on their own for power (because no one has even learned that they are vampires, minus vampires themselves). And, murdering innocents... well, human wise, count how many of the Cullen allies also kill humans to live. Although Aro can still count, as he is pretty evil.
 * Beneath the Mask: Rosalie Cullen's attitude towards Bella is revealed to be this.
 * Berserk Button: In Breaking Dawn, Bella accidentally breaks Seth's shoulder when she learns that Jacob.
 * Jacob when Bella talks about becoming a vampire or when Edward returns.
 * Edward when Bella is in danger.
 * Beta Couple: Pretty much the whole cast, except Leah.
 * Better as Friends: Canon's opinion on Jacob/Bella.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Manic Pixie Dream Girl - Alice displays signs of temper, spite, and a less innocent side in the later books. She also  in the movie.
 * Big Bad: By all rights the Volturi should be this.
 * Bishie Sparkle: Vampires do this in the sunlight. In the movie? . Better Than It Sounds, because you don't have to listen to Bella whine about it...and because in the movie, there are  It must be seen   to be believed.
 * The climax of New Moon revolves around this, where
 * The Scene It? spinoff of the movie takes the sparkle motif Up to Eleven. Everything, everything sparkles, and Carlisle's voiceover constantly informs you that you "sparkle like a diamond".
 * Blondes Are Unpleasant: Most of the book's female antagonists are blonde, whereas the brunettes tend to be portrayed more favorably. Word of God says this wasn't intentional, but Meyer has admitted several unpleasant people in her life were blonde, and it might have unconsciously informed her writing.
 * Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Rosalie after being turned into a vampire, took revenge on her ex-fiance and his friends after they raped and left her for dead in an alleyway. She wore a wedding dress to do so. However it's subverted since she says she made sure non of them splattered blood on her dress.
 * The Board Game: Believe it or not.
 * But I Can't Be Pregnant: 's initial reaction to her little nudger. She accepts the fact quickly enough, though.
 * Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Edward and Bella. In New Moon, however, gender-flipping this is what kicks off the Jacob/Bella relationship, with him being the gentle guy to Bella's "My boyfriend dumped me so my life is over" brooding.
 * Brownface: Jacob in the film.
 * But Not Too White: In the movie, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are very pale but no less attractive, and they have been praised for their pale looks with the hope that it will reduce tanning and skin cancer in teenagers.
 * They also look creepy to some viewers, as many in the hatedom point out.
 * But Your Wings Are Beautiful: Bella's reaction to Edward's sparkly skin and odd eyes.
 * Byronic Hero: Edward, according to some interpretations.
 * Can't Have Sex Ever: Edward and Bella for the first three books.
 * Can You Hear Me Now: Who smashes their phone because they get bad news? Who does that?
 * Harry Waters. He hates the fuckin' inanimate objects.
 * Well as vampire he is strong enough to smash it. In real life some people throw their phones in anger (or if they are celebrities they throw it to other people) specially if they are inexpensive ones. In the books he just leave the cell phone conveniently on a trash can that is how they know that he left the country.
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Most of the vampires are male and hot.
 * The Cast Showoff: In the movie Robert Pattinson plays the (very plot related) song.
 * Celibate Hero: Edward, as he's afraid that he might hurt Bella.
 * Clark Kenting: The Cullens.
 * Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Jacob in the third book suffers from derailment: he goes from a friendly, devoted guy to a possessive jerk to better enable the canon couple. Then, in the last book, he imprints on Bella's newborn baby and conveniently is no longer at all attracted to Bella. In fact, with the notable exception of Leah, basically every major character is wonderfully paired off by the end of the series.
 * Cock Fight: And the above leads to this between Edward and Jacob over Bella.
 * Compelling Voice: Alpha werewolves (to other werewolves, at least). The dazzling from vampires to a certain extent.
 * Compulsory School Age: Quite a few times over the years.
 * Color Wash: The Film of the Book desaturates the colors to, according to the director, convey how dreary and rainy Forks is. One might wonder though why the colors are still desaturated in the scenes in sunny Phoenix.
 * Cool Car: All the Cullens have at least one. Even klutzy Bella gets a motorcycle and a sportscar (an S600 Guardian, which is somewhat fitting as it is bulletproof and armored against explosives). Word of God says the Cullen family likes to drive fast.
 * Subverted in the New Moon movie with Edward's Volvo XC90. Why such a soccer-mom car? Product Placement, natch.
 * Edward: Volvo S60R, Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.
 * Rosalie: BMW M3
 * Bella: vintage Chevy pickup, S600 Guard, Ferrari F430
 * Alice: more Porsches than you can probably name.
 * Tyler: Van.
 * Cool Loser: YMMV, but Bella could be seen as an inversion. She's socially awkward, clumsy and generally uncool, but everyone warms up to her the minute she gets to town and soon enough she has her own little circle of friends.
 * Creator Breakdown: Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight books, has announced that she has ceased work on the fifth novel of the series (a retelling of the first from the hero's perspective) after someone she knew leaked the first 13 chapters online: "If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working..."
 * Creator Cameo: Stephenie Meyer makes an appearance in the first film as one of the women in the diner Bella and Charlie visit.
 * Creepy Child: Jane, Alec, and Renesmee.
 * Cursed with Awesome: "This is the skin of a killer, Bella!" *sparkles*
 * Vampirism in general, especially if one survives on a diet of animal blood. It's described as being less tasty than human blood, which basically implies that one gets an eternity of youth, beauty, strength, and some sort of super power, and the only downside is that one has to eat something they don't like.
 * Defictionalization: Nordstrom and Torrid have massive tie-ins with New Moon, mainly replicating Bella's clothes (apparently there were a lot of requests after the first movie and they just said "screw it, we're selling it ourselves"), which by happy coincidence are in style.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: Rosalie and Leah.
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance: Edward is from the early 1900s. Some of what he does was perfectly acceptable in his native time. Other parts of his behavior, like sneaking into a girl's room every night to to "protect" her, would have gotten Victorian/Edwardian fathers to take out the shotgun (or send the footman with a club).
 * Dhampyr: Renesmee. A few other Dhampyr are mentioned briefly in this series.
 * Did Not Do the Research: Quite a few examples of research errors appear throughout the series.
 * Meyer never visited the town of Forks or any of the environs mentioned in the book until after they were all finished. The wildlife and plant life described in the book do not match up with the real life Olympic Peninsula.
 * The mythology of the Quileutes.
 * Rosalie's family was well off during the Great Depression because her father was a banker.
 * Brazil's west coast. Enough said.
 * In Breaking Dawn, a Brazilian cleaning woman recognizes Edward as a "libishomen". Ignoring the fact that it's Lobisomem, that particular Portuguese myth is a werewolf and not a vampire. To make matters worse, the lobisomem looks like a man-ape, so it should have been impossible for Edward Cullen to be recognized as one.
 * A driftwood fire is not blue. It's yellow.
 * Carlisle Cullen discovers a coven of vampires in the sewers of 17th century London. Such sewers did not exist in London until two centuries later, when the stench of the open sewers grew unbearable.
 * Carlisle's story in general is a little cringe-worthy to anyone who's done much reading on the 17th century. Quite a bit of general history fail there.
 * Distressed Damsel: Bella. So. Much. Immediately upon arriving in small town USA, she's beset with life-threatening dangers so that Edward can capture her attention by saving her over and over. Odd, since she's the viewpoint character and female lead.
 * Dojikko: Bella, with lots of Lampshade Hanging from Edward.
 * Doorstopper: The first three books float around 600 pages. The fourth book is over 700 pages.
 * Double Entendre: Emmett spends a whole chapter and a half of Breaking Dawn making progressively less veiled comments about Edward and Bella's sex life.
 * Dreaming of Things to Come: In the first book of Breaking Dawn, Bella has a dream about the Volturi coming to kill her and the Cullens. Bella narrates the exact same thing happening in the preface of the third book--literally: Meyer just copy-pasted Bella's dream into the preface.
 * Dreaming the Truth: Used in Twilight, New Moon, and Breaking Dawn.
 * Drives Like Crazy: The only thing about Edward that frightens Bella.
 * Dull Surprise: Kristen Stewart as Bella in the movies. Her facial expressions are very minimal.
 * Eccentric Mentor: Aro, one of the most cheerful vampires you've ever seen in the entire series, is Puts the guy in a new light, doesn't it?
 * Emergency Transformation: Several times. Actually, most of the Cullens.
 * Esme:
 * Rosalie:
 * Edward:
 * Emmett:
 * Alice:
 * Bella:
 * Emo Teen: Bella becomes one for a while after Edward leaves her in New Moon. Also, despite his actual age, Edward.
 * Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: it doesn't matter if a character is a hundred years old or one, their maturity level will correspond to their physical appearance.
 * The Empath: Jasper, who has the ability to control other people's emotions. Which might explain a good portion of the plot...
 * Enemy Mine: The climax of Eclipse has the Quileutes and Cullens working together to
 * Enfant Terrible: Babies who turn into vampires. Although they're never seen in the series, the description of one is enough to provide horror for Bella.
 * Enforced Method Acting: When Carlisle bites Edward, he whispers in Edward's ear. The in-character "I'm sorry" failed to get the right terrified reaction, as did the equally in-character "My son", so he whispered "You're sexy".
 * Epigraph: The Bible, Romeo and Juliet, Robert Frost's Fire and Ice
 * Erotic Dream: Thanks to one of these, !
 * Escapist Character: For the women: Bella Swan for the guys: Jacob Black.
 * Eternal Love: Seems to be treated as the best part of being a vampire: you can be with your true love for all eternity.
 * Everything's Better with Sparkles: For a given definition of better.
 * Everybody Hates Mathematics: Bella hates math; it's her worst subject.
 * The Everyman: Bella Swan, often lampshaded by Edward.
 * Express Delivery: Oh boy.
 * Eyes of Gold: When the vampires have fed off of non-human blood. When thirsty, they go black, and if they've had human recently, they turn red.
 * Fainting: Bad news usually causes Bella to collapse. As does Edward kissing her, once. And a teeny tiny drop of blood. And a few other things.
 * Fan Art: Much of this is pretty snarky. However, there is some serious work out there that's worth taking a look at, as with most fandoms.
 * Fan Service: Reaches epidemic levels in the second movie, where most of the male cast wanders around shirtless (or else remove their shirts at the drop of a hat) the entire time.
 * The lupine shape-shifters, at least.
 * It got to a point where it became a running gag for the actors portraying them - Jacob's actor has joked, several times, on The Tonight Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, about ripping his shirt off for every little thing.

""Did Edward tell you how many houses Rose and I smashed?" - Emmett Cullen"
 * Does no one remember Jamie Campbell Bower (Caius)'s insistence that there would be a naked Volturi scene in New Moon??
 * Fatal Attractor: Edward would like to believe he is this.
 * Female Gaze: In a book, no less. Cut out any sentence paying tribute to Edward's godly, wondrous, Adonis-esque physique, and you'll lose maybe more than a third of each book. Even New Moon, which he was only in half of.
 * Fetus Terrible:
 * The Film of the Book
 * First Girl Wins: In the books, Edward is the first supernatural male Bella meets and she falls for and keeps him in the end. In the movie Edward becomes Last Girl Wins being Jacob the first one she meets.
 * Fluffy Fashion Feathers: At least in the first film, Victoria wears a white feather cape while attending the prom.
 * Foregone Conclusion: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampires: The Cullens, not very social but not intentionally harmful.
 * Friendless Background: Bella.
 * From a Single Cell
 * From a Certain Point of View: Meyer (in)famously claimed that vampires are unable to reproduce. When Bella later got knocked up, she went back and used Weasel Words to try and claim she actually meant that only female vampires can't have kids all along(evidently by claiming an obscure definition of "have").
 * Fur Against Fang: Vampires and werewolves really, really hate each other.
 * Although Edward and Jacob make friends pretty quickly as soon as Jacob finds out, despite the decades of hate. Which doesn't upset anyone except Bella, and only a little enough for her to try and kill him.
 * Add Seth to the budding liking of werewolves to Edward and the Cullens.
 * Genki Girl: Alice.
 * Genre Popularizer: Say what you will about the quality, but it triggered an explosion of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Sturgeon's Law is in full effect, but some of them are actually quite good.
 * Get a Load of That Square: The films seem to be going for this with some of Charlie and Billy's dialogue, but it would take an extremely... picky teenager to hold it against them.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: "Better than Freaky Fred's backside" from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (hinting at there, are we, Meyer?).
 * Glamour Failure: see the much-reviled/-loved *sparkles*
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Edward and Bella as newlyweds. Edward even has to warn Bella that she can't just have sex 24/7.
 * The whole Happily Married Cullen family: Bella even marvels, once she realizes how great vampire sex is, why they aren't having sex all the time.

"Bella: Hasn't anyone ever told you? Life isn't fair."
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: "HOLY CROW!"
 * Happily Adopted: The Cullen kids.
 * Happily Married: The entire merry Cullen bunch, sans Edward.
 * Happily Ever After: Bella gets everything she wanted and then some. She marries Edward, becomes a beautiful and powerful vampire, doesn't lose contact with Charlie, the Cullens are all happy and together, she lives in a beautiful cottage, her best friend Jacob finds his own soulmate in her daughter so he can be family now, the Volturi go without a fight, and she gets a beautiful baby girl who requires no raising outside of advice and love, since the kid is well out of diapers and spoon-feeding and screaming by the time she's a year old. However, Bella is an unreliable narrator and it might be Happily till the Volturi come with a plan to destroy the Ever After.
 * Held Gaze: In the film version of Twilight, Edward and Bella basically do this for two straight hours. Not surprisingly, the novel has them doing the same in a nonvisual form.
 * Heroic BSOD: Bella has one for a good part of New Moon. Edward also has one when
 * Heroic Willpower: Edward's resistance of Bella's blood makes him poster boy for this trope. Of course, both Edward and Bella have to resist their regular sexual lust too, for reasons of safety and morality.
 * Hormone-Addled Teenager: Most of them, but Bella and Edward especially, since they mostly think of absolutely nothing but one another, in New Moon especially to the exclusion of common sense. Jacob too, since he spends a lot of time thinking about getting into Bella's pants, as do seemingly all the other boys in the book. Bella's Heroic BSOD in New Moon has particularly unfortunate connotations in this trope, since how it's handled implies that her life is literally nothing without her boyfriend.
 * The Unfortunate Implications are at least equally portrayed with Edward. He left his family (that loved him and were his only company for decades) to go live in a rat infested place, curl into a ball, and let misery take over right after the break up and then went all suicidal over the possibility of Bella dying, so he was also nothing without his girlfriend.
 * How Do You Like Them Apples?: The front cover of the first book has someone holding an apple, representing that Edward and Bella are each other's Forbidden Fruit. It was represented on a scene of the film, with the Hacky-Sack Apple of I-See-What-You-Did-There.
 * Arguably all the movies have had a representation of their respective covers. In New Moon there was a white flower like cotton cloth spilled with blood that looked a bit like the flower on the cover. In Eclipse Bella's thick red line of blood could had represented the red ribbon of Eclipse's one.
 * And on the leaked images of filming the honeymoon on Breaking Dawn they are playing chess in a red and white pieces board...so full circle with the covers of the books.
 * Horror Hunger
 * Hot Amazon: How about three hot Amazons?
 * Hot Dad: Carlisle.
 * The Hunter: Edward preying on criminals during his "rebellious years"
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate: Edward has to ask the Volturi for help committing suicide in New Moon. It doesn't work.
 * I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: It takes Bella three books to stop talking like this.
 * Heck, she continues to go on about it at her damned wedding, wondering why Edward would have picked her over the more attractive Tanya or Rosalie.
 * I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Inverted. Not one of the main characters is ever angry at the vampire who turned them. They get plenty angry at their current state but never think to blame Carlisle.
 * In the case of the Volturi Jane and Alec adore Aro (he saved them from burning at the stake after all). Riley loved Victoria till, sadly, too late for him, he realized that she didn't loved him.
 * In the novella, Bree seems quite loyal to Riley, despite the fact that she remembers him turning her into a vampire by kidnapping her and breaking her arm.
 * I Love You, Vampire Son: This sums up relationship in Breaking Dawn. See I Hate You, Vampire Dad above.
 * Interrupted Suicide: Edward attempts this on New Moon when he thinks his beloved Bella is dead. He is saved by Bella herself.
 * Invincible Hero: Pretty much every protagonist in the series, but especially Edward Cullen.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Jacob's chapters in Breaking Dawn have chapter titles like You Know You've Got Problems When You Feel Bad For Being Rude To Vampires, Good Thing I've Got A Strong Stomach, and Waiting For The Damn Fight To Start Already. This is opposed to the one-word titles Meyer usually uses.
 * The title of the chapter: There Are No Words For This.
 * It could also be a way to show the differences between Bella and Jacob given that the 12 leaked chapters of Midnight Sun are titled on the same style that Bella's titles are.
 * I Just Want to Be Loved: The whole point of the series.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Rosalie hates being a vampire, and has admitted she'd give up her beauty and immortality just to have the opportunity to have a child of her own. Edward also wishes he could relate to Bella the way a normal guy would, without the bloodlust and super strength getting in the way.
 * I Just Want to Be Special: Bella just wants to be special.
 * I Just Want to Have Friends: Bella is a very good example of type A
 * I Love You Because I Can't Control You
 * I'm Not a Hero, I'm X "What if I'm not a superhero? What if I'm the bad guy?"
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: the reason Edward leaves in New Moon.
 * Informed Flaw: Edward makes much of his dangerous nature but anyone who has read past the first book knows there's no chance in hell he'll hurt Bella.
 * In Medias Res: Each book (and the three sections of Breaking Dawn) opens with a preface that describes a scene that happens at the climax of that story.
 * Interplay of Sex and Violence
 * Interspecies Romance: Humans and vampires! Humans and werewolves!
 * Intimate Healing: Clothed version between, not that he doesn't try for the naked version.
 * Invisible to Normals: Edward's stopping of the van about to crush Bella with his bare hands with no one but Bella realizing could fall under this, and it is even mocked in Mark Reads Twilight, where he says this is part of an overused idea he calls "The 'I Am Going To Do Something Spectacular And Clearly Attention-Grabbing In Front Of Plenty Of People, Yet No One Is Going To Notice Except (Conveniently) The Main Character' Phenomenon."
 * Ivy League for Everyone
 * Jail Bait Wait: A rather extreme form, with werewolves falling in love with toddlers, then having to wait for them to hit their mid-late teens before they can do anything physical.
 * Kill It with Fire: The only known way to get rid of vampires for good. But just fire isn't enough: first you have to rip them up into pieces (which is kind of difficult, considering that their flesh is as hard a stone) and then scatter the ashes. However, since their bodily fluids are flammable, once you have them in little pieces setting them on fire is pretty easy (according to the movie, just ripping off the head is enough before setting the body on fire).
 * Kiss of the Vampire: Edward and Bella's make-out sessions in early books are decidedly tame for this reason.
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Edward is more like Bella's knight in sparkling armor.
 * Lampshade Hanging: At least in the movie of Eclipse. "Do you own a shirt?"
 * In New Moon too. Alice to Bella: "I've never met anyone so prone to life-threatening idiocy!"
 * Law of Inverse Fertility: Rosalie and Esme, on the other hand, will never be able to have children of their own (although Esme seems perfectly happy with her big family of big immortal adopted children).
 * Let's Meet the Meat: Well, technically.
 * Life Isn't Fair:
 * Life Isn't Fair:

""You. Got. Food. In. My. Hair.""
 * Like Brother and Sister: Edward and Rosalie, although some fans would disagree.
 * Living Emotional Crutch: Jacob to Bella.
 * Living Forever Is Awesome: Even though the Cullens are not totally convinced they seem to have achieve happiness with their condition (except for Edward and Rosalie, at least at the beginning). Bella has no doubt it is.
 * Longing Look
 * Lost in Imitation: The comparison of Bella/Edward to Romeo and Juliet takes a very interesting road if you recall that Romeo and Juliet were a pair of shallow (barely) teens who want to fuck in hormone driven lust and Romeo instantly stopped caring about Rosaline when he meets Juliet...
 * Love At First Sight: Imprinting for werewolves, sometimes to a squicky level.
 * Variant: Edward falls in Love At First Smell, effectively.
 * Some would say Bella.
 * Love Martyr
 * Living Lie Detector: Maggie, an Irish vampire, can tell when one is lying. If at any consolation, Charles can tell when you are being truthful.
 * Lying Creator:, our collective ass. Meyer apparently narrowly construes the word as meaning.
 * And her "genuine" Quileute folklore that isn't so genuine.
 * Magical Native American: The werewolves can be counted as part of this trend, given their common ethnicity.
 * Malaproper: Meyer doesn't know what all of the words she uses mean. At one point in the first chapter, Bella's schedule is accidentally implied to be covered in fish semen due to the magic of this trope.
 * Another memorable instance suggests that Bella's skin is see-through, like Serran Wrap.
 * In still another Bella watches wide trenches filled with water protecting a fortified building swirl in the air.
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Alice. Subverted in that she does start irritating Bella and others after a while, although no one outright hates her.
 * Martyr Without a Cause: Bella is a variant. It's not that she wants to be a hero, it's that, as other characters sometimes lampshade, she blames herself for anything and everything that goes wrong. This leads to the same type of self-hatred (if not the same quantity) as The Atoner, and while she doesn't often have the opportunity to risk her life, she clearly considers herself more expendable than those around her, particularly Edward, but also her mother, father, unborn baby... (this also seems to be responsible for a good deal of reader hatred, particularly from those who think she's merely Too Dumb to Live, but that's neither here nor there).
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: Notably averted with Edward. Oh so averted.
 * Manly Men Can Hunt: The male Cullens.
 * Mars Needs Women: The imprinting business with the werewolves looks suspiciously like this, especially if all female werewolves are as infertile as Leah. According to Meyer, there were no female werewolves before Leah and it is never said if a female werewolf could imprint.
 * Master of the Mixed Message: Edward. Oh, god, Edward.
 * May-December Romance
 * Manhwa
 * Meaningful Name: Probably unintentional, but it is still interesting to note that Bella's last name, Swan, has a meaning in the real-life vampire subculture. Swan is used to refer to people involved in the vampire community, but who are not vampires themselves.
 * And let us not forget how appropriate Cullen ("culling") is for a family of predators.
 * Mills and Boon Prose
 * Mind Rape: specifically Jane and Alec, although most of the Volturi can fall under this category.
 * Especially disturbing when you think of what she could do once she grows up and gains a better understanding of Nightmare Fuel.
 * Misaimed Fandom: In-universe; Bella's Romeo and Juliet comparisons, which indicate that she has not actually understood the play.
 * Mockbuster: Called Blood Red Moon. Reviewed by Obscurus Lupa.
 * Money, Dear Boy: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, the stars of The Film of the Book, are only in it for the money (and Pattinson claims that he was interested in working with Stewart, an actress he respected). They claim to hate the story and the fans.
 * But really, what's not to love about a fanbase who, despite your utter contempt for them, still loves you enough to do this?
 * Moral Dissonance: Holy HELL is there Moral Dissonance. It starts with the idea that Edward once resented Carlisle for years for trying to stop him from eating people (which Bella finds reasonable).
 * The Musical: See it here!
 * Name's the Same: There's an Isabella in Wuthering Heights. Oh, sweet Irony!
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands: Alice being able to see the future.
 * Marcus's power was pretty much drudged up to show yet again just how soul-bonded Bella and Edward are. Also, Victoria's power to always know where to hide was basically a way for the author to Hand Wave how a pack of werewolves and the entire Cullen family together couldn't catch her sooner.
 * Nice Girl: Angela Weber, a background character.
 * No Periods, Period: Breaking Dawn reveals that And she thinks this is a bad thing. Though, given how human anatomy and tropes work, she's probably right.
 * And of course, vampires don't have periods, because their bodies are unchanging (this ties into the whole "can't bear children" thing).
 * Played straight with Bella, who, despite having yummy blood, does not trigger a vampire feeding frenzy once a month. Handwaved by saying that menstrual blood is 'dead blood.'
 * No Sell: Edward can read every human, vampire or spirit wolf's mind but not his beloved Bella's. This fascinates him.
 * Nor Charlie's, for the most part, as was revealed in Midnight Sun.
 * James' reaction to getting maced.
 * Not Blood Siblings: ...bad puns about their dietary habits aside.
 * Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Volturi enforce laws that all other vampires must follow: any humans who learn of vampires must be turned into vampires or killed, do not turn babies or toddlers into vampires, do not make alliances with werewolves, do not hunt in Volterra, do not lie to or defy The Volturi. The punishment is death, but The Volturi often bends the rules and invites vampires with special talents to join them.
 * One Last Fling: Jacob and Bella's kiss at the end of Eclipse, which heavily borders on sexual assault for Bella.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Movie only, obviously. Robert Pattinson actually puts on a decently convincing American accent (even if it's hard to tell just what part of America), but especially in the first movie, he slips up quite noticeably a few times.
 * Ordinary High School Student: Bella, the main character.
 * The Other Rainforest: set in Forks, Washington.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: The Quileute (also referred to as shape-shifters) are purely hereditary, and they have higher body temperatures, for one.
 * Though the more stereotypical werewolves are mentioned -- the Volturi have hunted them to near-extinction.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: And how! they're sparkly Golem-like creatures made of diamonds that run on explosive oil strained from human blood, without fangs (even cute little ones) and have no problem with the sun, holy symbols or garlic. Hell, Twilight is practically the embodiment of this trope!
 * The Other Darrin: Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria in the third movie
 * Pair the Spares: Everyone. Except Leah.
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Almost everyone in the book but the Quileute, Rosalie, Jasper and Caius.
 * Paranormal Romance
 * Plot-Relevant Age-Up:.
 * Product Placement: the New Moon movie carries ad frames for Volvo, Proshe, Virgin America (who does not even do the flights shown on the movie), Burger King, Nikon (digital camera with included photo printer BTW), the only product that made any sort of sense was Rainier Beer, a brand that you'd actually expect a small town working-class police chief to drink.
 * Protagonist-Centered Morality: You can eat humans, and we'll even lend you our cars to broaden your range, as long as you don't try to eat Bella Swan.
 * Also - the wolves won't do a thing to stop said human nomming if it's being done in the name of, Renesmee.
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Bella has prophetic dreams for no apparent reason.
 * Puny Earthlings: Humans can't possibly compete with or stand up to vampires or werewolves, and it's implied that before the Cullens only werewolves could protect normal people from vampires.
 * Rape as Backstory:
 * Rapid Aging: Renesmee (and all half-human vampires) reach adulthood after seven years of life.
 * Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted in the movie.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: For the vampires that drink human blood, as well as newborn ones.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Burning-hot Jacob and ice-cold Edward.
 * Reluctant Warrior: Carlisle to the point that the werewolves designated him a non-priority target; he had the most experience and a lot of potential to do harm, but his hesitation made him less dangerous.
 * Rescue Romance
 * Revenge by Proxy: Victoria's search to harm Bella after
 * Riff Trax: The movie of the book has this.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Jacob in Breaking Dawn decides Bella's baby must die, because Bella apparently died giving birth to her. At least, that was until he looked into the baby's eyes.
 * Romance Novel
 * Romantic Runner-Up: Mike Newton, Tyler Crowley, and Eric Yorkie. Either humans just aren't good enough for Bella, or she's really socially messed-up if Edward's the only one for her. Tyler could also qualify as Casanova Wannabe.
 * Jacob Black fits this trope better since he actually was around long enough to let his romantic advances to reach to a point that Bella had to made a choice.
 * Sadly Mythtaken: Granted; vampires actually didn't sparkle in sunlight, and several myths of werewolves were a little more anthropomorphic; except that most cries of this actually were people who didn't really do enough reading themselves - Edward is actually a little more like a strigoi (Strigoi were not fond of sunlight but nowhere said they shriveled up and died when they went out into sunlight), vampires hating the sun is actually Newer Than They Think thanks to Nosferatu and the most of the original myths of werewolves actually were just men changing into wolves without anthropomorphic features.
 * Satellite Character: Bella, despite being the protagonist.
 * Scenery Porn: The movie has a LOT of it, and a good thing too. The atmosphere was the sole thing many people liked about the movie. Haunting and somber, thick with misty moutains, fertile greenery, and soft Jazz-sounding in the background.
 * Some people felt they spent too much time needlessly panning across the various beautiful scenery.
 * Second Act Breakup: Pretty much the only point of New Moon.
 * Shallow Love Interest: Bella and Edward, for each other.
 * Shirtless Scene: Actually, does Jacob know what a shirt is?
 * Shout-Out: Bella compares her love affair with Edward to Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet. New Moon parallels the latter when Bella and Edward almost commit Tag-Team Suicide due to a communication error. Even funnier when considered that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of falling in love too fast, which is exactly what Bella and Edward did! On the more squicky end, one couple is Claire and Quil. Claire is two, Quil is Jacob's age.
 * How about Kill Bill?
 * Depending on whether Twilight or the japanese series Full Metal Panik came out first, the Japanese title of the first book (The Boy I like is kinda a Vampire) can be a Shout-Out to the title of the first episode of Full Metal Panik (The Guy I like is kinda a Sergeant)
 * The fact that the Cullen family likes to drive fast could be a Shout-Out to the line "the dead travel fast" from Bram Stoker's Dracula. (Which was itself a quote from a famous German poem.)
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: Bella's opinion of Sam and Emily.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Edward.
 * Stalking Is Love: Edward. Following Bella to keep her safe. Sneaking into her room to watch her sleep. Even before he was involved with her. And he gets her in the end, too.
 * Stuffed Into the Fridge: James attempted this trope, video taping him torturing and killing Bella to make Edward seek revenge and start a "game" with him. Lucky for Bella, Edward was fast enough to avert it.
 * The Stoic: Sam Uley. Forced to deal with his lycanthropy on his own, he cultivated a kind of zen calm to cope, and help the others who came later.
 * The Dulcinea Effect: Edward more explained in Midnight Sun. Bella also is a female version of this.
 * Stupid Sacrifice: Bella attempts this several times.
 * Stupid Sexy Flanders: Leah reveals that ever since she, she's been having dreams about kissing Bella.
 * Suck Out the Poison: In Twilight, vampires have no body fluids except for venom, which is used to change people into vampires via biting. When James bites Bella at the climax of the first novel, Edward has to suck out the poison to prevent it from spreading. A very heroic thing, except that A) this technique rarely works in the real world (due to the circulation system almost instantly carrying the poison away from the wound) and B) Edward himself has venom in his mouth. By all rights, Bella should have been a vampire by the end of the first book.
 * Supporting Protagonist: While Bella is no doubt the protagonist of the series, Edward is The Hero and does all the heroic stuff.
 * Tag-Team Suicide: Edward tries this in New Moon when he thinks Bella's dead.
 * Take That: Stephen King has been quoted as saying Meyer has no talent.
 * Also, many, many from Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson regarding their respective characters. Pattison, especially, reviles Edward and Stephenie Meyer, and will not hesitate to say so at least once every interview.
 * And now Twilight may officially be the first ever Acceptable Target of Seltzer and Friedberg.
 * Even Persona 4 worked in a take that.
 * Emma Watson remarked "Harry Potter, it's not Twilight, you know, we're not selling sex."
 * The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic book has the Big Bad going by the name of Twilight, which is fair enough since he was introduced & named before Twilight became as well-known as it now is, but when Buffy came face-to-face with him for the first time since then, she remarked on the character's name, saying she "did it first" and her vampire was so much better.
 * Lost Boys: The Thirst gets some shots in at the Twilight series - It even features a character serving as a stand-in for Stephenie Meyer.
 * The Vampire Diaries had a character make a joke about sparkly vampires.
 * A sixth season episode of Supernatural is called Live Free or Twi-Hard, which is said to take shots at Twilight, True Blood & The Vampire Diaries.
 * In The Hunger Games, the heroine is rescued by her love interest, who is glimmering "like dew" all over his skin. It's this fact that causes her to disregard everything that happened the next day, because sparkling's just absurd.
 * Talking the Monster to Death: At the end of the last book of the series, a great battle pitting vampire against vampire is waived in favor of a lengthy discussion. Everyone goes home without a single punch thrown.
 * This comes after reading through a lengthy training montage that is said to take weeks if not months of book time.
 * Team Mom: Esme, to the vampires; Emily, to the wolves.
 * Tell, Don't Show Stephanie Meyers's Modus Operandi. She strongly dislikes the word "said" and almost always provides at the very least an adverb for the verb she decides to use, rather than letting the dialogue speak for itself. She is also a big fan of saying how people feel, which can be jarring, since the books are told from a first-person perspective and (with the exception of Midnight Sun) do not have a narrator who can read minds.
 * The Clan: Of the Cullens.
 * The Film of the Book
 * Their First Time: Played straight, except when Edward and Bella kept switching positions on who was the "ready" one.
 * This Is Sparta: Rosalie in Breaking Dawn:


 * And if you watch the movie version of Twilight with the Rifftrax, you'll hear Mike Nelson yell, "THIS! IS! Forks High School: Home of the SPARTANS!
 * Theme Naming: Many of the Quileutes have Old Testament Biblical names. (Jacob, Leah, Seth, Samuel, Paul...)
 * That's because five of them (Jacob, Leah, Seth, Emily, and Paul) were named after Meyer's siblings.
 * Can also be attributed to the Mormon belief that many if not all Native Americans are descendants of a Hebrew tribe known as the Lamanites.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: To the books instead of in them is the not-quite-blog Reasoning With Vampires, which picks apart word choice, sentence structure, logistical issues, and just about everything else wrong with the series in little infographics that deal with specific, stand-out segments of the book. It's surprisingly respectful, for all that.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Bella unquestionably, because of her lack of reaction to the fact that Edward's a vampire - which he often comments on. It gets worse in the movie.
 * Not to mention that she constantly get in trouble, walking alone in a dangerous forest, dark alleys, unstable werewolves, evil vampires. How she made it to seventeen before Edward met her is a mystery.
 * New Moon's movie lampshaded it as well, with a comment from Alice:
 * There's a part in the first book where Bella thinks of deliberately putting herself in danger if it means Edward will come to her rescue. It's on page 211.
 * Trend Covers: Practically every other YA novel getting released/re-released since Twilight has a "one symbolic object on dark background" cover.
 * Troubled but Cute: Edward Cullen, described as a fatalist by the author and self loathing by the actor that plays him. Not to mention that he spents half of the time calling himself a soulless monster.
 * Two-Person Pool Party: The Honeymoon, but in ocean instead of a pool. Good thing it's a private island!
 * Undeathly Pallor
 * Unfortunate Names
 * Unwanted Harem
 * Urban Fantasy
 * Unreliable Narrator: Bella is supposed to have low self-esteem about her looks, but the events of the series suggest that she's gorgeous. There are also plenty of probably unintentional examples - for example, Bella becomes convinced that her friend Jessica is using her for popularity and doesn't actually like her, on the basis of absolutely no evidence.
 * In Bree's novella, the protagonist sees Edward as a good-looking red-headed guy, rather than the marble-perfect tousled, bronze-haired Adonis of Bella's descriptions, suggesting that Bella's viewpoint might be skewed.
 * Vampire Bites Suck: Extremely painful venom and one of the few things that can actually leave a mark on vampire skin.
 * Vampires Are Rich: The Cullens own their own island.
 * Mmm neither James, Laurent or Victoria were rich. The nomads vampires in general are not wealthy just the ones that establish big covens and are old enough to accumulate money.
 * In the case of the Cullens, it's handwaved with the explanation that Alice uses her psychic powers to predict the stock market. And the fact that Edward is the only survivor of his rich family and Carlisle earns a lot of money as a doctor without the expenses a human might have and he also collects ancient art from the time he was turned which is probably enough to afford their lifestyle (Imagine if Carlisle was one of the few people that bought a Van Gogh when the artist was alive for example)
 * Vaporware: Midnight Sun, due to the leakage of the rough draft, is to be classified as such until further notice.
 * Vegetarian Vampire: The Cullen clan of vampires, who hunt, kill and drink the blood of animals for sustenance, call themselves "vegetarians". They make a point to say they are careful not to impact the environment. Considering how fast they move on foot and the excess of money they have, they can travel pretty much wherever is needed in order to be responsible vampires.
 * Vehicular Sabotage: In one of the Twilight books, Edward sabotages Bella's truck to stop her from visiting Jacob.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: Jacob and the wolfpack.
 * "They might as well have called the movie Native American in Blue Jeans, And That's It, and that might have sold it."
 * Rather amusingly lampshaded by Edward in the third film. "Doesn't he own a shirt?
 * Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: It happens a lot in the books.
 * Warm Bloodbags Are Everywhere: This series runs on this trope.
 * Weirdness Magnet: Or "danger magnet" as Bella calls herself.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: And yet Burger King just made Twilight-themed Happy Meals.
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Carlisle's power is "compassion", Esme's power is love. But Rosalie's main power, according to Meyer, is beauty. The alternative suggested by Edward, tenacity, isn't much better.
 * Why Would Anyone Take Him Back??
 * Wife Husbandry: Quil and Claire.
 * Wrench Wench: Rosalie.
 * You Fail Geography Forever: An island off the western coast of Brazil, you say? Someone hasn't looked at a globe in a long time...
 * You Need to Get Laid: Edward's broodiness and fatalism has been linked to the fact that he has never had sex in almost a century. Once he gets married and does the deed he certainly becomes less stressed. Also, Bella had a history of night terrors and talking in her sleep which ceased after her honeymoon.
 * You Keep Using That Word: CHAGRIN.
 * Bella's skin is "translucent". Apparently the fact that her veins and arteries all show is why vampires are so fond of her.
 * You Must Be Cold: because Edward is convinced Bella's going to go into shock and let's face it, it's not like the cold bothers him.
 * Younger Than They Look:
 * Your Vampires Suck: This series has been on both the giving and receiving end of this trope (receiving more often than not, though).
 * You Sexy Beast: The entire basis of the series.
 * You Sexy Beast: The entire basis of the series.

*SPARKLE*