Twilight (novel)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The following contains Subjective Tropes to the Twilight literature. You better go to the bathroom before you start reading, this will take a while.

Alternative Character Interpretations

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: There have shown to be many different interpretations regarding the many characters and even the books themselves.
    • Most critics of the series (and even a small portion of Twilight fans) see Edward and Bella's relationship as twisted, controlling and abusive due to things like Edward breaking into Bella's home, watching her sleep, stealing her belongings, breaking her truck so she can't see other people, putting her under house arrest, threatening, talking down to and manipulating her. Not to mention when he leaves her in New Moon–he (seemingly) wipes all traces of himself in her house, including photographs she took of him, and–with zero emotion or pain whatsoever–tells Bella he doesn't love her anymore. Did we mention this makes her fall into catatonia?
    • Also the relationship between Jacob and Renesmee, Bella's weird half-human-half-vampire child. Jacob imprints on her before she's even conceived, and they both to fall in love with each other, when she is still a baby. Also, Renesmee will never look older than 18. Unfortunate Implications makes it feel like pedophilia to quite a few readers.
    • It's based in the concept of the soul mate, where in a woman is destined to be with her husband even before she physically exists and after her death. The concept itself my be morally and philosophically flawed in a lot of peoples eyes, but that doesn't change the fact that it is the internal logic by which the story operates. It's the same logic used to explain why Edward and Bella are meant to be together despite not having known each other very long and not seeming to have much of an interpersonal bond or anything in common.
    • The Spoony One suggests that Bella is a selfish, heartless sociopath who has zero empathy for anybody else and is just stringing Edward and Jacob along because she finds the way they bend over backwards to please her amusing. Doug Walker and Brad Jones agree.
      • In fact, this interpretation could be pushed even further with adding that Bella could be seen as a mashup of The Vamp, the Black Widow, the Manipulative Bitch, the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and the Baroness who tries to act all sweet and vulnerable, but whose primary motivation is herself and what she wants, and certainly not love. And what does she want? Gaining power and eternal life by manipulating Edward into believing she truly loves him, so as to have him nail her and bite her. And keeping Jacob as a plan B in case the Edward option fails. She's basically the character that teaches young girls how to manipulate and control men. Except she's not, because both these relationships hinge on the two boys thinking they are in love with her, one because of the vampire mate issue and the other because of some unresolved wolf imprint issue. If girls really wanted to learn how to manipulate men, they should probably start with the original Vampire Diaries or The Wheel of Time books or something.
    • Bella has Borderline Personality Disorder, which means very variable moods, black and white thinking, idealization (like when she describes vampires and especially Edward), unstable interpersonal relationships (Team Edward or Team Jacob), unstable self-image (she describes herself plain but it doesn't seem like it), no identity of her own, very insecure (that's actually what causes the "plot"), she's suicidal etc.
    • Bella has Histrionic Personality Disorder, a condition characterized by unstable emotions and distorted self image. She has most of the symptoms associated with the condition, particularly the desire to be the center of attention. Among other symptoms, she is self-centered, overly concerned with physical appearance, making rash decisions and not thinking before acting, attempting suicide for attention... Really, if you look through a list of symptoms, she easily fits nearly all of them.
    • Some might interpret most of the series as Bella being in a coma from the stress of trying to choose between two seemingly conflicting interests. Edward represents her want to preserve the memory of the dead and Jacob represents her want to make the future a better place. The reason we get hardly any description of her is because she has lost sight of her own self. Forks is named what it is because it represents a fork in a road to two possibilities.
      • Except, Forks is a real place...
    • Cleolinda has stated several times that things make a lot more sense if you think of it like Bella being Too Kinky to Torture and actually being turned on by the stalking and control, instead of it being played as True Love for Her Own Good.
    • Is James a hedonistic monster who wants to eat all humans, or is he a guy with poor impulse control who's labeled evil for remembering a plot point that the Cullens didn't?
    • Jacob - Sweet, well-intentioned best friend in love wronged by the manipulative heroine who is too dumb to notice that he is the better choice and acts reckless a couple of times as a result? Or immature, selfish jerk who shows his True Colors as soon as he knows he can't get into Bella's pants?
    • Carlisle - A kindly doctor who hates what he is and genuinely strives to protect humanity and do good in the world? Or a sadistic man who enjoys playing God, turning people into vampires because he wants companions and doing very little to actually keep humans safe from the vampires he creates?
    • Alice - A perky Manic Pixie Dream Girl who simply has an overzealous love for fashion and dressing people up? Or an empty woman who sees others as dolls for her to play with and who only does things because her visions tell her to and not because she actually understands them?
    • Esme - A sweet Team Mom who has built up a happy life after nothing but tragedy? Or a Stepford Smiler who plays mommy to a number of unrelated people to avoid the pain of an eternity of postpartum depression?
  • In this review of Twilight, the reviewer says that the Vampire-Werewolf Love Triangle of Bella, Edward and Jacob could be interpreted as a racial-class thing, since vampires in the book (and in general) tend to be sort of wealthy European types and werewolves are butch blue collar Native Americans.
  • This Reddit post posits the idea that the series is a tragedy, rather than a romance.


Mary Sue Tropes

  • Her name is Bella Swan ("Beautiful Swan")
  • Anti-Sue: Despite the fact that the author frequently stresses Bella being plain, awkward and outwardly unremarkable, everyone she meets instantly adores her, she gets perfect grades while barely trying, she has a cool vehicle, all the guys want her and anyone who doesn't like her is eventually revealed to be ether jealous or evil...sound familiar?
    • Almost every boy that Bella meets, at least the ones she spends any significant amount of time with, spend at least one conversation (usually more) telling Bella how wonderful and special they think she is, usually when they have not even known her very long and haven't actually heard her say or seen her do anything remarkable or even unexpected.
    • Despite the fact that Bella acts very socially awkward and off putting, all the other characters react to her as though she were the most dazzling, charismatic, gem of a person they've ever met.
      • Also, Edward frequently goes on about how good and pure and kind Bella is (Incorruptible Pure Pureness) despite the fact that the majority of her actions are ether selfishly motivated or panicked reactions to external stimuli (she usually just takes her first impulse and goes with it.)In fact one of the justifications for the vampires being so attracted to her is that she possesses an uncommonly pure "essence."
  • Black Hole Sue: All the other characters, whether they be minor or major, male or female, good or evil, act as though Bella is the most important thing in their lives (even if they barely know her) and all the events of the story (even if they logically should have nothing to do with Bella) wind up centering around her somehow or featuring her as a vital (though passive) linchpin.
  • Canon Sue: See the examples listed under Mary Sue, Jerk Sue, Anti-Sue and Suetiful All Along.
  • Escapist Character: For the women: Bella Swan. For the guys: Jacob Black.
  • God Mode Sue: Bella as of Breaking Dawn: [1].
    • Also Edward. He's considered insanely desirable, even by the standards of other vampires. He's incredibly fast and can read minds, so it's impossible for anyone to sneak up on him or escape him. And he's considered the favorite "child" of his family, to the point where he gets everyone to abandon their jobs and lives in Forks in New Moon and actively (and successfully) orders Alice to not speak to Bella in Midnight Sun and all the Cullen women to kidnap Bella in Eclipse.
  • Jerk Sue (or some variation there of): Bella blatantly mistreats the people around her, at best showing no concern for their needs or feelings and at worst manipulating those feelings to her own ends with no thought to how she may be hurting them in the process, and they rarely seem bothered by it, they're usually just happy to be given the opportunity to be in her presence (despite the fact that she's always ether annoyed, angry, or depressed, which can't make being around her all that enjoyable) and when one of them does object to the way she's treating them (which is extremely rare) it is written in such a way as to make the reader believe that they are in the wrong and just don't understand Bella. She also makes little or no attempt to conceal the fact that she doesn't care about other people and is just using them but, again, they don't seem bothered by it because they just adore her so damn much (for reasons that are never specified.)
    • Basically the only reason Bella is interpreted in a sympathetic light by most of the readers is because the writer works so hard to make her sympathetic (via warped perspective) despite the fact that none of her thoughts or behavior ever indicate that she's a good person by any definition, viewed subjectively, she's a shallow, callous, manipulative, borderline sociopath. The commonly given excuse for the negative aspects of her personality is that she's a teenage girl, but the author lets all the air out of this excuse by making Bella unable to get along with other teenagers because she's (supposedly) more mature, intelligent and down to earth than them.(Not that her behavior ever reflects this.)
    • Edward would apply as well. All of the girls swoon over him, even though he ignores them and is generally anti-social and unfriendly. He constantly forces Bella to do things she tells him she doesn't want to and throws tantrums if he doesn't get his way. Despite all of this, he is the favorite of the Cullen family and everyone constantly talks about how great he is and how they do anything to please him.
  • Mary Sue: Just about every single character in the series. The vampires are an entire SPECIES of Mary-Sues. They are so incredibly fast and strong that no human would stand a chance against them, they are impossibly beautiful, immortal, and they sparkle. Some of them even have special powers.
    • One could argue Bella is this based on how others react to her; everyone who meets her instantly adores her despite the fact that she never really does or says anything to inspire such feelings, she gets perfect grades while barely trying, her flaws (clumsiness and shyness) are the ones typically given to a Mary Sue to make her seem more realistic (and so the author has something to point to as proof that she isn't a Mary Sue), those flaws also only show up under the most ideal circumstances (instances of clumsiness usually lead to Edward "romantically" saving her) and then go away only to return when they are needed again (usually when it will lead to her getting noticed by Edward or Jacob) and everyone who doesn't love Bella is eventually revealed to be either jealous, evil, or only acting as if they didn't like her for her own good.
    • This trope can be renamed to Bella Swan.
      • Or Bella Sue.
    • Bella's Mary Sue status is hilariously lampshaded in the parody film Vampires Suck. Becca (a parody character) states that "every hot guy finds me irresistible", and moments later a guy puts his arm around her.
  • Relationship Sue: Robert Pattinson, or RPattz, noted in an interview that Bella was basically a big wish-fulfillment fantasy of Meyer's. And in the fourth book, Renesmee Carlie "Nessie" Cullen is one for Jacob Black, though thankfully there's a hook that the human-vampire hybrid Nahuel will be making a bid for her in the future, which will hopefully be successful, as it's far less creepy.
    • Almost all of the shapeshifter teens get them also-- Quil gets Claire, Sam gets Emily, Paul gets Jacob's sister, and Jared gets a female classmate who had a crush on him.
  • Suetiful All Along - Bella is described as plain and socially awkward, but everyone she meets begs to differ.
    • The author makes some feeble attempts at Lampshade Hanging this by having Bella wonder why everyone loves her so much at one point in the story and having her be irritated by her popularity instead of enjoying it (Jerk Sue?), but it's so obvious that she's Lampshade Hanging that it renders it ineffective.
      • Plus, complaining about being well liked is a common trait of the Mary Sue (See My Immortal).
        • This trope is barely even concealed in the story since even Bella, who supposedly considers herself to be very plain and is supposed to have low self esteem, describes herself in terms that most would consider extremely flattering ("ivory-skinned", "chocolate brown eyes", "slender but soft.")
  • Sympathetic Sue: Poor, poor Bella! She's so tortured! Poor, poor Edward! He's so tortured!
    • Even characters who have gone through far worse things than Edward and Bella and have concerns not involving Edward or Bella that most people would consider far more pressing act as if Edward and Bella's pain is more important than theirs and are willing to completely forget about their own lives and concerns and focus on Edward and Bella; it seems to be the most commonly excepted fact in the Twilight universe that Edward and Bella are the two most important people in existence so much so that any character who fails to acknowledge that fact is painted as a terrible person.
  • Thirty-Sue Pileup: There's Bella (Purity Sue/Mary Sue/Sympathetic Sue/God Mode Sue), Edward (Straight God Mode Sue/Sympathetic Sue), (Renesmee (Straight Mary Sue)...
    • Bella's also a Black Hole Sue, as this series could have more of an actual story if Bella didn't insist on making things all about her.


Unfortunate Implications

  • Unfortunate Implications: The series has become rather notorious for having these.
    • Whenever Bella does anything that Edward earlier told her not to do, it almost always gets her into trouble, which Edward then shows up and saves her from...and then he tells her what a silly little girl she is, reminds her of how weak, helpless and fragile she is and reiterates to her the importance of doing as he says and letting him take care of her... FEMINISM!!!
      • This all wouldn't have been as bad, if it weren't for the fact that the story seems to support what Edward says, implying (every time that Bella objects to anything he says or does) that she is just too naive and foolish to realize how right he is.
    • Physical attraction, drama, jealousy and co-dependence are the foundations of a good relationship, NOT respect, trust, mutual interests or open communication.
    • If, upon the discovering that you are pregnant, your boyfriend's first reaction is to get angry and tell you that you ARE getting an abortion, you should not only stay with him but go ahead and have the baby, because after it's born everything will just magically fall into place and the three of you will live happily ever after because Babies Make Everything Better.
    • Jacob tries to force himself on Bella, it's just a kiss (to keep things PG-13) but Bella actually refers to it as an "assault" and reacts to it as such and yet she still allows Jacob to MARRY HER DAUGHTER.
      • The fact that Jacobs justification for one of his fellow were wolves having permanently scarred his girlfriend's face in a fit of rage after she rejected him is simply "hanging out with were wolves has it's risks" also makes Bella's judgment seem questionable.
    • If you truly care about someone you'll stick by them no matter what and forgive everything they do...even murder.
    • Men should not be held accountable for things that they do when they are very angry or otherwise emotionally overwhelmed...but women should.
      • Both Edward and Jacob "unintentionally" hurt Bella (or at least come close to it), say things to her that basically amount to threats and do various other questionable things throughout the series, but this is usually excused away by the fact that they're men and, therefore, not as in control of their emotions as women.
      • Most of the other men in the series also do things that could be interpreted in a negative light but usually aren't because they did them in "the heat of" rage/passion/jealousy/lust/etc. But any time a woman steps even the slightest bit out of line she is swiftly and harshly reprimanded for it, usually by the men around her some of whom exhibit the exact same behavior at some point.
      • Bella herself also judges women far more harshly than men, attributing most reprehensible male behavior as something that must go along with having a Y chromosome and shrugging it off, but developing an instant dislike of any girl who displays any flaws or weaknesses no matter how minor. She is extremely judgmental of other women but seems to be boundlessly forgiving of men.
    • If you feel that you're superior to everyone else, it's because you are!
    • You know that instant attraction that you feel for that guy you don't even know that's based in nothing other than the physical? Well, that's true love, and you should be willing to sacrifice anything and anyone that you have to in order to be with that guy you don't even know because he is your destiny and if he acts like a possessive nut job, controls your entire life, treats you like a helpless child, frequently says things to you that basically amount to physical threats and even "accidentally" does you real bodily harm on more than one occasion, you had just better steadfastly endure it all or you're not worthy of true love.
      • Oh, and when even he himself warns you to stay away because he WILL hurt you, don't listen. That's just a test...a TRUE LOVE test.
      • Of course all of this only applies if he's hot (see "A running theme in the series..." further down the list.)
      • That's right! Even though all the girls in school have a shallow physical attraction to that particular guy, YOUR shallow physical attraction is special!
    • Bella rarely thinks before she acts and usually just lets her emotions and selfish impulses guide her actions...and this ultimately leads her to an eternity of happiness with the man of her dreams and a perfect, adoring family, all of whom seem to care about nothing more than taking care of Bella and making her happy.
      • So, there you go girls, being rational, mature, and considerate of others is just for ugly chicks who can't get hot, rich boyfriends.
      • On the rare occasion that she does make her own decisions (as opposed to just reacting to stimuli and letting Edward think for her) it ends in disaster...from which Edward usually saves her. In fact, generally just going against Edward's will usually doesn't end well for Bella.
      • Picture this conversation:

Mom: I am not going to let you ride a motorcycle with that boy!
Daughter: But MOM! Bella Swan gets to ride a motorcycle!
Mom: If Bella Swan jumped off a cliff, would you do it?
Daughter: Mom, she did!

    • A running theme in the series seems to be that being physically attractive makes up for being a bad person or automatically makes you a good person regardless of your actions.
      • A lot of things that the Cullens (The Beautiful Elite) do are considered horrible when anyone else does them.
      • The only thing keeping Bella from realizing that Edward is controlling and possessive to an unhealthy extreme seems to be the fact that every time she sees him she is struck a-new by how "OMG GORGEOUS!!!" he is; no matter what kind of situation they're in Bella spends at least some small portion of every scene in which they are together reminding the audience of how mindbogglingly physically perfect he is and seems to be distracted and disarmed by his physical attractiveness even when he's done something that she admittedly does not approve of. It's not even as if she forgives his flaws or has rationalized them in her own mind, it's more like she's just so distracted by how pretty he is that she can't be bothered to notice anything else about him for more then a few seconds and then it's back to drooling over his perfect hair, skin, eyes, teeth, voice, breath, etc. (One can't help but wonder how differently she would have felt about him had he been ugly or even just average looking.)
    • If you fail to win the love of a man you're doomed to a life of solitary misery and will never know true happiness.
      • Most of the single characters in the story are miserable and stricken with jealousy towards Edward and Bella.
      • There's also heavy implications that any woman who isn't in a relationship will be bitter and jealous towards women who are, and that these feelings can only be pacified by the bitter woman in question finding a "true love" of her own. (Meyer seems to think it's just a given that all women are jealous, self-centered bitches.)
      • Not to mention that good women are never angry or blame a guy. (Leah is considered a bitch for daring to blame Sam for the break-up, and everyone assumes she holds a grudge against Emily, even though there's no evidence of that).
    • If you can't (or don't) have a baby, you are of less value as a human being than people who can.
      • The main reason the whole Cullen family winds up loving Bella so much and basically building their lives around her is because she has the glorious gift of being able to make babies.
      • Not to mention Leah, who is incapable of having children, has a fiance who leaves her for her cousin (who presumably can) and this is never depicted as a bad thing. In fact no one, even her own family, seems to feel the least bit sorry for Leah, she is seen as a bitch for daring to be angry at her fiance for leaving her and everyone in the pack hates her despite the fact that she's never really done anything wrong and devotes her life to protecting them despite their disdain for her, and this is written in such a way as to suggest that they're all justified in disliking her and the reader should dislike her too.
    • It seems like, in this series, every time a woman is either independent or capable of keeping up and holding her own alongside the men she winds up either being evil or being a complete bitch. The implication seems to be that only a crazy bitch who is incapable of "true love" would even want to be self-sufficient or that a woman should only bother becoming self-sufficient if she is incapable of winning the love of a man (which in this story is depicted as the ultimate shortcoming.)
      • Especially evident when Jacob got hurt in Eclipse. Leah was being stupid for taking on a newborn vampire on her own- despite her little brother just doing the same successfully, and it's her fault that Jacob had to save her, despite her not being in any direct danger as such. Except she was untouched by the vampire, has killed vampires one on one before, and is faster than Jacob, who got hurt because he was too slow. But instead of blaming Jacob for butting in on Leah's fight and getting himself hurt, it's obviously Leah's fault, because how dare she fight a vampire without her male peers approval. No, poor Jacob who shoved Leah out of the way is innocent!
    • Werewolf "imprinting" is introduced as not necessarily sexual... but when Quil imprints on little girl Claire, becoming a super-duper father figure, it's implied that they will have disturbing lycanthropic sex when she's of age. Won't that be an awkward conversation.

"You never saw a real parent so jazzed to play whatever stupid kiddie sport their rugrat could think up. I'd seen Quil play peekaboo for an hour straight without getting bored. [...] Though I did think it sucked that he had a good fourteen years of monk-i-tude ahead of him until Claire was his age."

    • And then there's Jacob's imprinting on Renesmee in Breaking Dawn. Yes, everyone insists that he doesn't see her "like that", but it's kind of hard to believe when Bella specifically notes that he's shaking at the thought of only seven years passing before Renesmee is physically seventeen...
    • To the point where the director for the Breaking Dawn movies is specifically coaching Taylor on how not to make the scenes creepy in any way whatsoever. He said he's trying to make it as spiritual and non-physical as possible.
    • Edward's behavior is basically that of an emotionally abusive boyfriend, and he has all the personality of a cardboard box. Bella uses excuses that real life abused women use to justify his behavior, such as that Edward acts this way because he really loves her.
      • And at the end of Twilight it's very easy to see parallels to this, with Bella breaking up with Edward while screaming that she never wants to see him again and demanding that her father let her leave ASAP, Edward chasing her to Arizona to convince her to return, and her deciding to come back after being badly hurt and staying in the hospital...with the excuse being that she fell down a flight of stairs.
      • Bella's behavior is arguably just as vile. This review takes Dr. Hare's twenty traits of sociopathy and applies every single one to something Bella has done or thought in New Moon.
    • Emily and Sam's relationship -- She agrees to date him after he (accidentally) hurts her enough to leave scars. There is also no mention of Emily doing anything besides cooking, cleaning, weaving, or other household tasks.
      • Bella also admits to loving Jacob after he emotionally blackmailed her to kiss her and is not even mad he was lying.
    • Leah is the only female werewolf ever, can keep up with the menfolk, and lost her ability to have children after she began to transform. She also lost the man she truly loved and was considered a shrewish harpy by virtually everyone.
    • In Stephenie Meyer's novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, Diego--a vampire who seems to be a combination of stereotypical black and stereotypical Hispanic, based on his description ("pretty, with dark, dense, curly hair, big, wide eyes, and really full lips"), his talk about "junkie hos" and "gang-bangs", and his random bursts of Spanish--tells the title character about hunting down the gang that killed his brother, killing the leader, and then getting cornered by the rest of the gang. Does the streetwise Diego get himself out of this? No. He's rescued by Riley, a vampire (and therefore, in Meyer's world, pale and prismatic), who jumps down between Diego and the gang.
    • This article examines some of Twilight's unfortunate implications: specifically, how interracial relationships never work out, how Bella is essentially marrying an old man who doesn't want sex but always wants to boss her around, how Bella, who wants sex, goes after the painfully prudish Edward instead of the man who wants it as much as she does, and how in the end, Bella essentially chooses not to choose.
    • In the official guide to Twilight, Meyer outright says that turning into a vampire causes the person to turn white, no matter what their ethnicity is. This is not so bad, except that in a previous section, Meyer also states that it is the sparkly, pale appearance of the vampires that make them universally beautiful.
      • This article (second part is here) outlines many other unfortunate racial implications as well. And also here.
    • There have been more than one instances where dozens of other people would die as a consequence of Bella's actions. This is either ignored or even outright condoned by Bella and the other main characters, including Jacob, who is supposed to be the True Alpha and has the specific job of protecting humans from the vampires, but willingly chooses not to in order to not put his future child-bride at risk.
      • In fact the over arching message of the story seems to be that if you're in true love, then the laws of morality and basic human decency don't apply to you.
  • Throughout the books, the characters act as if being capable of doing something means that it's alright for them to do it. For example, Bree initially finds the idea of vampires having laws to be laughable, as she can't imagine there being any power sufficient to enforce them. Inversely, attempts to restrict such behavior is seen as oppressive. For example, the idea of asking non-vegetarian vampires to not eat people is treated like infringing on a lifestyle choice, and while the Volturi are treated as dictators, the Illustrated Guide implies that the Romanians (who had an even bloodier reign than the Volturi) are to be seen as fallen heroes awaiting the downfall of their rivals. The main difference is that the Volturi order the vampires to not behave in ways that will draw human attention.
  • One review notes a great many in the chapter of Eclipse where Jacob tricks Bella into kissing him. Among them is the fact that even though the entire thing is meant to be romantic, most of the tropes invoked (Ain't Too Proud to Beg, Please, I Will Do Anything!, and Scarpia Ultimum) are usually seen employed between a villain and their victim.
  • Suicide is treated by virtually every character as the most heroic way to make amends for doing something bad.
  • 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.


All The Rest

  • Acceptable Target
  • Accidental Aesop: Many opponents of the series cite examples of Jacob and Edward's dominance of Bella as anything from undermining feminism to propagating Mormon beliefs (just look at the Alternate Character Interpretation section).
  • Actor Shipping: Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have repeatedly denied they are in a relationship. This does not stop fans from insisting that they are lying. Of course, a few fans have seen multiple videos and pictures of Kristen Stewart and Nikki Reed kissing and are pairing them as well.
    • Probably not helping is the fact that Pattinson admitted/joked that he auditioned for the part of Edward pretty much entirely for the opportunity to hit on Stewart.
    • they actually dated in real life.
  • Always Second Best: The best any of the other characters can ever hope to be when being compared to Edward or Bella
  • Anvilicious: The first book in particular is made of anvil. Giving into those base desires will kill you! Sex before marriage will kill you!! Blood equals sex equals death equals don't do it!!!
    • Every woman has the desire to get married and be a mother ingrained in her DNA, even if she doesn't realize it; if she says she doesn't want these things, it's just a silly little rebellious phase that she will get over.
      • In the books Bella originally doesn't want to get married and admits to never wanting a child, but after Edward gives her an ultimatum (he won't even discuss having sex with her unless they get married) and she unintentionally becomes pregnant, everything clicks into place and she realizes that marriage and motherhood were the keys to happiness all along.
      • Similarly, every women in the books is ether married and has children, wants to get married and have children, or regrets that she can't get married and have children unless she is one of the villains or is meant to serve as an example of someone selfish and irresponsible (i.e. the sort of person YOU shouldn't want to be.)
    • Don't even think naughty thoughts. Vampires will hear you. And... and... judge you!
    • Your boyfriend should be the most important thing in your life, he should come before your family, your friends, your future, and even your own personal safety.
    • If you can't get a boyfriend you're doomed to a life of solitary misery... and there's probably something wrong with you (especially if you don't even want a boyfriend).
  • Award Snub: Inverted. For the past two years (and without a doubt the next two) the movies have been nominated in nearly every category at the MTV Movie Awards, and winning every one of them. Because MTV doesn't monitor IP addresses and allows people to vote multiple times, New Moon beat out Alice in Wonderland and Avatar (both of which grossed over a billion dollars), The Hangover (the highest grossing comedy ever which, like Avatar, won Best Picture at the Golden Globes), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
    • Got even worse in 2010, when Eclipse beat Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1, Black Swan and The Social Network in categories like Best Film, Best Male Performance, Best Female Performance, and Best Fight (Yes, the films with wizards blowing up a restaurant with spells and two guys fighting in a rotating hall got beaten by vampires).
    • On the other hand has been nominated to about every category of Razzie Awards and won none, (except for Jackson Rathbone, but then again, that was mainly because he had the misfortune to turn in two bad performances in the same year, the other being in The Last Airbender)
  • Awesome Music: In an inversion to the quality of the films, many of the songs on the soundtracks are fantastic (as well as original to the soundtrack, no doubt for one reason), featuring work by the likes of Muse, Paramore, Thom Yorke, Bat For Lashes, Beck, Metric, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Black Ghosts, Lykke Li, Death Cab For Cutie, The Joy Formidable, and many others.
  • Base Breaker: Breaking Dawn. Some considered it so bad that it converted a chunk of fans into antis.
  • Bile Fascination: Like a bizarrely-enjoyable train-wreck, some readers can't pull away.
    • Also, those who hate it seem to be just as obsessed with it as those who love it; as though they're perpetually trying to figure out how anything so purely terrible could exist, let alone get published and make money. In pursuit of the answer to this riddle, many of them spend even more time thinking about it (analyzing it and picking apart it's every intricacy) than fans do.
      • Although some of those antis would argue that the only way someone could enjoy this series is not to think about the contents.
  • Broken Aesop: Far too much to be included on one page. If determined, you can start looking at all the unfortunate implications.
  • Broken Base: Leading up to the release of the film version of New Moon, the war between the "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" factions became so intense that Burger King was able to base an ad campaign around it.
    • And the base promptly exploded when Breaking Dawn came out.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Like: Lots of distaste even on this wiki, though ideally tropers are providing examples showing why the negative tropes qualify.
  • Complete Monster: Royce King II was an exceptionally cruel man who had no regard or value to human life. He cared for nothing but his own entertainment. He was engaged to Rosalie Hale for a short period of time, but gang-raped and beat her almost to death with a group of his friends.
  • Contested Sequel: Even the fans became a Broken Base with Breaking Dawn. The Amazon page gives it an average 3-star rating -- because most of the reviews are either 5 stars or 1 star.
  • Creator's Pet: Renesmee from Breaking Dawn. EVERYONE who meets her loves her, despite the fact that she hasn't done anything other than be Edward and Bella's half human/half vampire daughter with psychic powers. Many fans loathe her for hijacking the story away from the Official Couple. Others hate her because her very existence is Artistic License: Biology AND a direct contradiction to previous Word of God. And of course, Team Jacob fans hate her for other reasons.
  • Damsel Scrappy: Bella.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Even many fans of the series don't seem to care for Bella and find just about all of the supporting characters (even the villains) to be more interesting and likable than her.
  • Double Standard: Mainly when it comes to Twilight's Fandom in the saying that: "If these were 40-year old men screaming for 17-year old girls, they'd be on To Catch A Predator so fast it would make your head spin."
    • The series also repeatedly implies that men should not be held accountable for things that they do when they are very angry or otherwise emotionally over whelmed.
      • Both Edward and Jacob "accidentally" hurt Bella (or come really close to doing so) on at least a few occasions and this is usually excused by the fact that they are male and therefore unable to control certain impulses.
      • Most of the other men in the series also do things that could be interpreted in a negative light but usually aren't because they did them in "the heat of" rage/passion/jealousy/lust/etc. But any time a woman steps even the slightest bit out of line she is swiftly and harshly reprimanded for it, usually by the men around her some of whom exhibit the exact same behavior at some point.
    • A lot of things the Cullens (The Beautiful Elite) do are considered horrible when anyone else does them.
      • Bella also judges all the non-vampires around her very harshly (even when their only crime is having the sort of flaws that any normal human being would) but is endlessly forgiving of the vampires in the Cullen family pretty much no matter what they do.
    • When Leah is heartbroken over Sam and is moody about it, everyone considers her a bitch who should get over it. When Jacob is heartbroken over Bella, everyone holds his hand and doesn't say a cross word to him.
    • Bella at one point criticizes another girl for only liking Edward for his looks and the fact that he comes from a wealthy family, even while she herself constantly gushes over his physical appearance and hardly ever mentions anything else about him aside from his nice house, cool car, and equally attractive well-to-do family.
    • She's also always rolling her eyes at the few human girls she occasionally hangs out with for being shallow and silly and frivolous, but adores Alice who is, arguably, the embodiment of those qualities. Implying that it's bad to be that way, unless you're a beautiful, wealthy vampire.
    • The age difference between Bella and Jacob arguably invokes this, considering that the older one is a male.
    • Bella often manipulates the feelings of those around her to get what she wants with no regard to rather or not she is hurting them, any other woman in the series who acts in this way is framed as a heartless bitch.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: "Team James" has quite a following.
    • Aro has become something of this after New Moon's movie came out and Michael Sheen turned in his Large Ham performance.
    • Tyler's van. At least it tried.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Carlisle. Some of his fans are among those who otherwise loathe the books. Ditto Alice, who counts Moviebob and Cleolinda Jones among her fans. Being played by Ashley Greene helps just a tad.
    • Jasper, redeemed Blood Knight. On the villains' side, you have Aro, though the Volturi in general probably count.
    • And Rosalie for some, particularly people who dislike Bella.
    • For the werewolves there's sweet kid Seth and fierce Leah, who has a particularly memorable moment involving a Narrative Profanity Filter. Jacob too, ignoring his Jerkass moments in Eclipse and anything after the imprinting.
    • A lot of the moviegoers loved how Charlie was done. Like Leah and Carlisle, even the Hatedom tend to like him. The Spoony One (referring to him as "moustache dad") even says he's the most sympathetic character throughout all the movies.
      • Even the Rifftrax team like him!
      • The Distressed Watcher says he wishes the movie were centered on Charlie, a silent but resourceful lawman investigating a string of mysterious murders and struggling with single fatherhood while his daughter keeps secrets from him
      • Leah Clearwater in particular has become very popular amongst those who don't like the series.
    • Tyler, aka "the guy who almost hit Bella with his van." The van itself too, really.
    • Bree made people pity her to the point that they wrote a alternate take on her encounter with the Volturi and even went as far as have her be adopted by the Cullens..
    • Jane (the movie version, at least) is also a popular character even amongst Antis, particularly those who are fans of Dakota Fanning.
  • Everyone Is Satan in Hell: Okay, some conservative objections against the book make sense, but there are a lot of people who take the most bizarre potshots against it. According to this video, Stephenie Meyer must have intentionally hidden Satanic messages into her series because, among other things, a kid with the last name "Cullen" once escaped a Satanic cult, and the chessboard on the Breaking Dawn cover has a check pattern just like the floor in a Masonic lodge.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Victoria in the films, Laurent in the book.
    • James in the film as well.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Most likely unintentional; arguably the whole series.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: If the Amazon.com reviews are any indication, a good portion of the fanbase has excommunicated Breaking Dawn.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Jacob/Bella, though the Official Couple has its own vast devoted fanbase.
    • Not to mention Alice/Bella.
    • Jacob/Leah.
    • Among Jacob/Leah shippers. Nessie/Seth sounds like a better imprinted couple, given that Seth has a pure mind and already likes vampires and is at least younger, so him waiting for Nessie to grow up is easier to buy as a relationship. Or, alterinatively, Nessie/Nahuel, which is even hinted at in the freaking book at the end, despite the whole business with Jacob being Nessie's "soul mate".
    • Bella/Tyler's Van.
    • A lot of people feel the books and movies would be half-way decent if it were Jacob/Edward. Given that Bella is arguably the most boring female character in literature, they're not wrong.
  • Foe Yay: Fanfiction like you wouldn't believe. To be fair, it's more or less I-don't-like-you yay than actual Foe Yay. Some of the better ones out there, plot wise, are actually Victoria/Bella, Rosalie/Bella, Rosalie/Jacob, Alice/Jacob and Edward/Jacob.
  • Ham and Cheese: Robert Pattinson.
    • In the film of New Moon, Dakota Fanning managed to rival him despite having a grand total of five lines.
    • You can really see Pattinson giving up at trying at all in Eclipse and deciding to just have fun, making his scenes FAR more enjoyable than the book counterpart. (Probably helped since in an interview he mentioned being super tired and busy from other projects while filming and barely remembers filming the movie.)
    • Michael Sheen, too, promptly stealing the show.
  • Happiness in Slavery: Of the second kind. Jacob is content to let Bella use him and manipulate him into doing things for her while getting nothing in return because he's nursing the vain hope that Bella will eventually forget Edward and fall in love with him.
    • Heck, as soon as Bella shows up on the first day of school every male she meets practically begs to do things for her.
    • In general, Bella seems to invoke these feelings in people (especially men), from the moment most of the male characters meet her she becomes the focal point of their entire existence and they want nothing more then to do things for her even when she openly objects to them doing so. You'd be hard pressed to find any point in the story when Bella expresses some dissatisfaction or desire without the nearest male jumping at the opportunity to fix it for her, wanting nothing in return then to get into her good graces so that they can spend more time around her so that they can do more things for her.
    • In The Short, Second Life of Bree Tanner, Bree knows full well that something suspicious is going on and that Victoria and Riley hardly have her best interests in mind, yet still seriously considers going along with them and fighting for their cause. Towards the end of the novella, she starts to think of the other newborns as a team briefly, even though she knows they're being groomed as a disposable army.
  • Hollywood Homely: Alice looks exotic next to Bella.
    • Though, in the eyes of Edward (and apparently the entire male population of Forks), Bella is exceedingly beautiful.
    • Kristen Stewart is a quite good-looking woman, not "plain" like Bella is supposed to be. Although, it could simply be that Bella suffers from low self-esteem.
      • Stephenie Meyer originally wanted Emily Browning to play Bella. Either the author is vain or she wants Bella to appear beautiful.
      • Bella also averts plain in the graphic novel.
      • Given that Bella seems at least moderately attractive from her description and has at least six guys who want to get in her pants and think she's hot, this seems to take place in canon as well.
      • Bella describes what she's apparently supposed to see as negative attributes in terms of glowing beauty, like "ivory-skinned", "chocolate brown eyes", "slender but soft". This could be purple prose, or her "plainness" could be like a size 2 complaining how fat she is so everyone will tell her how she's really thin and beautiful.
  • Ho Yay: Loads of this, usually unintentional, between Edward and most other males such as Jacob. One assumes that Stephenie Meyer was unaware of the implications of biting pillows, breaking headboards, and Carlisle selecting a handsome teenage boy as his "companion" in vampirism (rather than say, a pretty woman).
    • The Romanian vampires, Vladmir and Stefan. Not only do they live and travel together, but they finish each others sentences.
    • Believe it or not, Stephenie Meyer's joke story "Breaking Down" included Mike leaving Bella for Eric.
    • The Volturi.
    • Or all the Riley/Diego subtext as seen in Life Packs A Punch.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Jacob has a sister named Rebecca.
  • Hype Backlash: Inevitable when one of the world's biggest little romantic Guilty Pleasures gets hyped by a good half of the people you know as some sort of epic good-versus-evil story with vampires and werewolves, and oh, there's some romance... and they fail to warn you about the sparkling thing to boot.
    • This got about a billion times worse when Breaking Dawn came out.
    • Many in the Hatedom have professed that they wouldn't have hated it so much if the fans hadn't gotten so overzealous about Edward being the perfect guy or the insanity of the Edward vs. Jacob war when it was clear Jacob never had a chance. And since the haters started hated it they found out, as one stamp proclaims "I love hating Twilight more than you love loving it." Now it's a cycle of who can be louder and there have been many lols and much bawling.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Any time someone else in the story criticizes Edward and Bella defends him, or when Bella criticizes someone else (minus the humor). From the first book alone, Bella is outraged that her police officer father still checks up on her at night when she's sleeping. This is a mere five pages after finding out that total stranger Edward breaks into her room to watch her sleep and thinking it's the romantic thing ever.
    • Bella mentally goes on about how Jessica only thinks that Edward is hot, "as if that excused any flaws".
  • Idiot Plot: Almost every plot point in the first book is brought about by one or more characters being stupid. Hasn't Carlisle ever heard of homeschooling?
    • In Eclipse, the Cullens, Bella, and the wolves wonder who could be behind the strange vampire activity in Seattle. While they also know full well that Victoria is in the area and trying to kill Bella.
    • A large chunk of the conflict in the latter half of New Moon could have been averted, had anyone thought to use a telephone--or had Jacob not decided to answer Bella's phone for her (which was a Jerkass thing to do anyway, since she was sitting right there). They also could have been sensible enough to go on more than just Alice's vision, since she herself had admitted her powers weren't always precise or accurate. (One can't really accuse any of the Cullen "kids" of much sense, but Carlisle was a practical person who probably should have thought of that.)
      • Or why Edward didn't call Alice's cellphone, seeing as he knew she had one and knew that she was in Forks and could definitely say if Bella was dead or not. He even comments later that he should have done that!
  • I Just Want to Be Special/ I Just Want to Be Beautiful (?): The story implies that the source of all Bella's unhappiness was the fact that deep down she was in some way inherently superior to everyone around her and that just being forced to live as though she were a normal person when she was meant to be one of The Beautiful Elite was reason enough for her to be miserable, so she could only be truly happy after she became a vampire (making her as superior outside as she was inside) and was allowed to spend the rest of eternity in the company of other beings as superior as herself (i.e. the Cullen family.)
    • In fact the main reason she has trouble connecting with other mortals seems to be just because she feels that she deserves to be surrounded by more exceptional (and attractive, don't forget attractive!) people; she often seems disgusted with or irritated by her "friends" at school for no other reason than that they are not as super-humanly flawless as the Cullens, whom she seems to regard as the only people in the world who are truly worth her time.
  • Informed Ability: Bella is supposedly very intelligent, other characters talk about how smart she is a lot and the story frequently mentions her getting strait A's, but she never actually does anything that demonstrates above average intelligence and often does things that suggest the opposite is true about her. In fact in dangerous or stressful situations, when a high intellect might prove beneficial, she usually just grabs her first emotional impulse and goes with it without stopping for an instant to think about the potential consequences, things only turn out o.k. through sheer luck/coincidence or through the interference of ether Edward or Jacob.
    • Edward also talks a lot about how good and kind and pure and virtuous Bella is (Incorruptible Pure Pureness), but most of her actions are ether completely selfish, or impulsive reactions to external stimuli; the majority of the things she does that would conventionally be considered indicators of virtue or selflessness are things that Edward forces her to do or things that she's doing out of her selfish desire to be with Edward (usually only with regard to how they affect Edward and herself, with no consideration for anyone else.) Left to her own devices, Bella is childishly selfish and reckless.
  • Jail Bait Wait: Jacob and Renesmee (in a BIG way.)
    • Bella at one point notes that Jacob is literally QUIVERING at the thought of Renesmee someday being old enough for him to have sex with her. The fact that Bella is Renesmees mother (and Jacobs former object of infatuation) makes this little detail extra creepy.
  • Les Yay:
    • The Amazon vampire coven. Also, Alice and Bella. And in Eclipse, Leah and Bella when Leah tells Jacob that she had a dream about kissing Bella. We are supposed to see this as a natural result of the werewolf telepathy but...not everybody does.
    • Even with Esme and Bella. Anyone remember her calling Bella "Dearest Bella', like, right against her skin?
  • Light Is Not Good: Let's see... The vampires have sparkly skin, religious dogmatism (which the author sanctions), a smug sense of superiority towards other races, the predominant colors white and gold and solar associations. Hoo boy, Stephanie Meyer went WAY past averting Dark Is Not Evil and Crossed The Line Twice instead. Way to go.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: The supposed justification for Edward's Stalker with a Crush behavior and (in the second book) for Bella's extremely reckless behavior.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: The supposed justification for Bella's seeming lack of common sense and survival instincts throughout the entire story.
    • YMMV on whether Bella was already idiot before she meet Edward or not.
      • Though quite frankly, she did willingly give up her right to be smart. In the cafeteria date in the chapter with the blood typing, she first claims hypothetical stupidity ("Let's say for argument's sake that I'm not smart.") She goes on to do the thing she herself agreed was a stupid thing to do, i.e. stay with Edward.
      • The above example just further proves that the trope is present, in that scene (and many others) Bella directly acknowledges that she's making bad decisions and doing stupid things but goes along with them any way because she believes that "love is irrational" meaning that if you're in love you never have to use common sense and you never have to justify or explain your actions (it's basically just really blunt Lampshade Hanging.) The fact that a character willingly chose to not act intelligently does not negate the existence of this trope.
  • Love Makes You Evil: The supposed justification for any behavior exhibited by Bella, Edward or Jacob that could be interpreted in a negative way.
    • Really, most of the things Bella does.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Aro. Mainly in the films due to Michael Sheen's camptastic "does not give a fuck" performance.
  • Memetic Mutation: CHAGRIN CHAGRIN CHAGRIN CHAGRIN CHAGRIN CHAGRIN CHAGRIN
    • Also, it's nearly mandatory to Photoshop any picture of Edward Cullen to include sparkles (see pic). On forums and boards that allow it (such as LiveJournal), sometimes even just his name is formatted to sparkle.
    • Edward seeing Bella for the first time is sometimes interpreted... differently.
    • "This is the skin of a killer, Bella!" *sparkles*
    • Pattinson's "greasy" real-world hair seems to be approaching meme status. If a picture of him is posted somewhere, someone will mention his hair.
    • And then there's the habit haters have of coming up with alternate shipping teams (i.e., "team Tyler's van", "team Mike Newton", etc.)
      • "Team Nyu! Because even she can kick Edward's ass!"
      • Team Edward Elric is common.
      • Team Blade, anyone?
      • Team Buffy!
      • Team Rocket, Bitch!
      • Don't forget about Team Harry Potter!
      • Team Alucard is popular amongst fans of Hellsing. Because real vampires don't sparkle!
      • Deviant ART, for their 2010 April Fool's Prank, sorted everyone into teams, including Team Edward and Team Jacob ("cos REAL men don't sparkle"). Then again, there were also avatars for Team Gaga and Team Seeker.
      • Not sure how far this extends, but some people are "Team Volturi: Because everyone else needs to die."
      • Team Belmont. Using the dialog from the prologue of Symphony of Night and edited to reflect Edward Cullen and/or the Twilight series as a whole is popular.
    • Still a better love story than Twilight (used often in Youtube videos about, well, everything)
  • Moral Event Horizon: Royce crossed it at lightning speed by gang-raping Rosalie to near death.
  • Narm Charm: All of team Jacob and team Edward should be able to agree that what makes the whole Twilight Saga so good is its cheesiness.
  • Never Live It Down: *sparkles* Also, the movie was enough of a hit that the actors are now tied to their characters.
    • To clarify on the sparkling, Das Mervin points out [dead link] that the sparkling only comes up at a few points throughout the series, and the Hatedom actually makes a bigger deal out of it than the fans and Meyer herself do.
  • Nice Guys Finish Last: Team Jacob's take on Bella's ultimate choice of romantic partners.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • Renesmee's birth. If they would make a movie of that, the numbers of teen pregnancy would go down. Scratch that, all pregnancy. Not to mention that Edward, Bella's sweetheart, Jacob, Bella's friend, Carlisle, Bella's doctor, etc., consider and try to force her to have an abortion.
    • Everything about Renesmee.
    • When the Volturi ripped a vampire apart at the beginning of the New Moon film.
    • The Volturi's feeding methods. They have tourists visit the "beautiful abandoned castle" that they live in. The last room is the throne. There is no leaving. Cranked way up in the film when you hear the tourists screaming, but don't see anything. Spoiler'd because it will keep you from sleeping.
      • Even worse in the film is watching the tourists casually and happily walking in before it happens. As Heidi whispers to another vampire she passes about how she'll save some for him. Oh, and there are some kids in the group too.
      • Nightmare Retardant when you realize how incredibly unlikely it is that this business model would last for very long. People would quickly figure out that all these disappearances are linked to this castle. Plus, there's no one out there writing about it or reviewing it.
      • The whole book series reads like a cry for help. Twilight manifests Stockholm Syndrome and what looks a lot like domestic violence. New Moon has suicidal depression and plenty of blaming the victim. Eclipse has forced intimacy and controlling behavior. And finally, Breaking Dawn has a very traumatic pregnancy and death by childbirth.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Rosalie's brief summary of how she went Kill Bill on the people who gang-raped her could have made a very interesting book or movie, but sadly all the best and bloodiest parts are left out when she recounts it - in all of three paragraphs - to Bella. For those who haven't read it, she puts on a wedding dress and kills all of the men one by one, saving her former fiancé, who is behind a barricaded door and protected by two guards, for last. It's easily one of the most interesting parts of Eclipse, and it's not even described.
    • In Twilight, we don't see James getting killed because Bella passes out just as it starts to happen!
    • In both Eclipse and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, we miss the entire battle between the Cullens and wolves and the newborn army. This is especially silly in Bree Tanner's novella, given that she is a newborn and thus should have been at the battle herself.
  • Older Than They Think: Let's just say that the series is not as original as some of the more zealous fans say it is.
    • Most fans of the series seem to be under the impression that Vegetarian Vampire is a new innovation that Meyer introduced to the vampire genre when, in reality, the concept was used by Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, Vampire: The Masquerade and many others long before the Twilight series came out. This also goes for vampires walking in daylight, having luminous skin and developing emotional attachments to humans.
    • On the flip side, a lot of haters blame it for making vampires sexy and glamorous instead of monstrous.
      • Though to be fair with the whole Dracula thing, even though the sunlight didn't burn him, it still rendered him incapable of using his supernatural powers. The thing that bugs most haters is that Meyer didn't give them ANY weaknesses at all.
  • Periphery Demographic: The TwiMoms, as well as the aforementioned gay following.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Jakeward. It's not too hard to guess who they are. Alice/Bella goes by the name of Bellice, while Rosalie/Bella is called Rosella. And some people actually refer to Bella/Edward as Bedward.
    • There's always what the slash shippers come up with. Some examples being: Jaspard, Jaspeth, and Mareth. The former two of which have rather impressive followings, with Jaspard being one of the more popular slash pairings.
  • Protection From Editors: Quality of the writing aside, the sheer amount of basic research fail in the books suggests this. Not just the biology fail, or the Misplaced Wildlife, but the west coast of Brazil? Whatever else any editors might or might not have done, fact-checking and Real Life research they did not. Given how Meyer goes on and on about how much she hated to cut the few scenes she did (and how she put said scenes on her website, spelling errors and all), that seems rather likely.
    • This also happens with the graphic novel, even though Meyer didn't even do that one. Young Kim, the artist, wrote about how her editor would have her cut out a scene for pacing reasons, only for Meyer to convince her to put the scene back in.
  • Purple Prose: Though Stephenie Meyer writes at a regular teen-reading level, she suddenly becomes very poetic when describing Edward's appearance. Also, Edward Cullen whenever he attempts to say something romantic.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Ironically, many critics of the series complain that the story would have been far more interesting had the author only devoted more time to the secondary characters and less to the Edward/Jacob/Bella love triangle and Edward and Bella's relationship drama, which seemed stale and boring compared to the far more origional, provocative personalities and backstories of the secondary characters.
    • There have even been people on Deiviantart and LiveJournal who post "edited" plots that actually aren't hate-oriented. A memorable one suggested that there should have been hints of James' coven's existence earlier and that Bella should have thought Edward was the reason for those hints, making her wonder about the relationship instead of just diving right in without complications. Another pointed out that the books are a good example of when romance should really be a subplot.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Except in visual form...The scene where Jacob and Bella are dancing in pt 1 of Breaking Dawn has more intimacy and romance and pure connection then the original dance with Edward at the actual wedding.
    • This is consistent with the books. One of the biggest complaints Team Jacob have with the eventual outcome is that Bella and Jacob actually have some level of chemistry together.
    • A bigger example is Jacob and Leah in Breaking Dawn. Many, many readers/viewers consider them just right for each other due to their interactions. But nope, according to Stephanie Meyer, they're "just friends", thus Leah ends up with no-one and Jacob ends up with a vampire baby.
  • The Scrappy: Renesmee is probably hated by fans and haters more than Bella, Edward, or Jacob combined!
  • Selective Squick
  • Shout-Out/To Shakespeare: Whilst butchering Shakespeare.
  • Show, Don't Tell: Advice that someone should have given Meyer at some point in her writing career.
    • Instead of showing some sort of natural progression of Edward and Bella's relationship, having it develop in a plausible way at a plausible pace and having them go through actual experiences together that would make the audience understand why their feelings for each other are so strong, Meyer just has them talk prematuraly and incessantly about how in love they are, it's literally the second conversation they have (after they've only known each other for about two weeks mind you) and almost every conversation after that. The expectation on the authors part seems to be that just their repeated insistence that they're truly and deeply in love will be enough to get the audience emotionally invested in the fate of their relaitonship.
      • They do have one generic "getting to know you" type conversation, but that's orchestrated by Edward after he's already decided that he's in love with her and is rushed through and written in such sparse detail that it feels like an after thought.
    • It also seems as though the only reason the author gave certain characters psychic abilities or enabled them to read minds is so that they would be able to know what it was necessary for them to know in order to move the plot forward (without her having to explain how they knew it) and so they could give exposition when necessary, usually to fill in plot holes or to save the author from having to indicate how a character is feeling through their actions (because it's far easier to simply have Edward instantly know how they're feeling.)
      • This is very obvious when you note that those psychic abilities only work when it facilitates the plot, for example: Alice has psychic visions with perfect clarity when it will lead to the main characters knowing something that they need to know in order for the plot to move forward (the newborn army) but when her knowing something would hinder the plot or make a big moment less dramatic (Edwards suicide attempt in response to falsely being told that Bella is dead) her visions suddenly become ambiguous and hazy for some reason. All her "blind spots" just happen to be really plot convenient.
      • Also Edwards mind reading ability seems to exist solely so that he can explain the actions of other characters when they don't make sense, for example: in the first film, Bella (like much of the audience) wonders what motivation James has for chasing after her and Edward is conveniently able to explain it because he had read James' mind. Though the reason winds up not making much sense any way.
      • Also the members of the Volturi whose power is to see the strength of relationships. It's explained briefly that this does have a strategic function, but it's first seen being used to remind us how true and pure and enduring Bella and Edward's love is, so that's the usage that sticks with the reader.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: Edward is completely Bella-sexual. The werewolves also become this after they imprint.
    • Jacob seemed Bella-sexual as well, before imprinting on Renesmee.
    • All the boys at the school seem Bella-sexual as well, that is until Bella tells them that they should go out with someone else.
      • Mike remains Bella-sexual even while dating someone else. Hell, he's still holding out for her during her wedding.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: A common complaint is that most of the secondary characters were far more interesting than Edward, Bella or Jacob and that the story would have been far better had it only centered around one of them.
  • Sidekick: Everyone who isn't Edward or Bella
  • Static Character: Bella. She goes from being a socially awkward, world weary, somewhat stuck up teenager with what most psychiatrists would see as an unhealthy obsession for Edward to being Edward's socially awkward, world weary, somewhat stuck up vampire wife with what most psychiatrists would see as an unhealthy obsession for Edward. Bella never learns any lessons or grows as a person or even changes at all (for better or worse), by the end of the series she's basically the same person she was in the begining except that she's a vampire and all her dreams have come true.
    • Whether you see this as a good or a bad thing depends on whether or not you were a fan of her character to begin with.
      • Or if you believe in Character Development. There are authors, both here at TV Tropes and out in the wider world, who despair over the lowering of literary standards Twilight either caused or revealed.
  • Smug Snake: Some have noted that for all the squealing about how awesome Edward is, his most astonishing trait is the extent to which he is stuck up his own ass when not Wangsting.
  • Smitten Teenage Girl: Bella
  • Snark Bait: For a sizable fraction of those following it.
  • Special Effects Failure: Many in The Film of the Book, including a sparkling vampire who looks a lot more like he's covered in sweat, and way too much pale makeup on the Cullens. Said pale makeup also would stop at the neck or fail to cover the ears, particularly with Bella in the hospital scene.
    • Most distracting was the indescribably abysmal wire-works for the jumping bits that can be easily spotted.
    • The special effects in the second film were significantly better in most aspects. Just so long as you ignore the werewolf transformations...
  • Strangled by the Red String- Bella and Edward. What do they talk about? What draws them together? What hobbies do they share?
    • This is arguably furthered in the films, when in their "romantic" scenes, they both just look bored and uncomfortable.
    • To an even greater extent, Jacob and Renesmee. She was Jacob's soul mate, even before she was born.
      • Really, any of the imprinted couples, due to the very nature of imprinting. Their relationship seems to not be developed beyond the wolf madly falling in love and the girl being flattered by the ceaseless attention.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: Leah is this multiple times in Breaking Dawn. When the pack is trying to figure out how to kill the unborn hybrid baby without harming Bella, she points out that Bella is already dying. Leah is chastised for being cruel and bringing up this very relevant fact because it's upsetting Jacob. And again later when she outright confronts Bella on her selfish manipulation of Jacob despite having clearly chosen Edward. Leah is criticized for this by several people, including the very guy she was trying to stand up for, even though Bella admits she is being selfish. No real argument is made against either of her arguments except that Leah is mean, and both points are ignored.
    • To be fair to Jacob, he was actually impressed with Leah when Edward initially tells him she yelled at Bella on his behalf. It's only after seeing how distraught poor Bella is over it that he suddenly goes against Leah's actions.
    • Also, the part where Aro says that humans now have technology that could be used to hurt or kill vampires, so since there's no way of knowing that Renesmee will always be able to keep vampires a secret she's a vulnerability. The response to this is something along the lines of "Aro is a big mean jerk who just wants to destroy the Cullen family for loving each other" and nobody bothers to refute his point until Alice conveniently shows up with another half-vampire. Aro is actually kind of right, though, especially since Renesmee's superpower involves sharing her thoughts with people--that could easily develop into something that'd make it hard for her to keep secrets if she gets more powerful as she grows older (if she ever experiences any Power Incontinence she could end up accidentally sharing random things with random humans).
  • Tear Jerker: Leah's backstory. Dumped by her first love for her best friend/cousin and having to face him everyday, and knowing full well it wasn't his fault or choice. And now there's a possibility she can't have children.
    • Only made worse by the fact that no one seems to sympathize with her (except Jacob after he himself goes through heartbreak) and whenever she expresses resentment towards Sam and Emily, she's suddenly the bad guy.
  • Television Geography: In Eclipse, Bella has a 10:30 curfew. Edward shows up at 7:00 and offers to take her to Portland, promising to get her back before curfew. Portland is 250 miles away - it takes five hours to get there and back. Though, this could be explained by that fact that vampires have a super speed ability(though Edward's established speed [102 MPH] means it would still take two and a half hours for him to run 250 miles). Or he's lying to convince her to go. Or he Drives Like Crazy.
    • Not to mention that apparently you can get from Forks to Alaska in sixteen hours. On (apparently) one tank of gas. That's almost two and a half thousand miles--Edward would have had to be traveling at a fraction of the speed of light to manage that. The Al-Can highway is so long and so remote that they have (or used to have) checkpoints; when you leave one, they radio ahead to the next to tell them you're coming. If you don't show up in a certain amount of time, they go looking for you to make sure you're not dead. This simply cannot be done in sixteen hours.
  • This Loser Is You: The author attempts to write Bella as this, but winds up unintentionally writing a Canon Sue (with a dash of Anti-Sue) instead.
    • Oddly enough most of the fans still say they like the books because of how much they identify with Bella/ wish they were Bella.
      • That's because this trope DID work, but probably not for a reason the author intended. One criticism of the book is that Bella has few to no personality traits of her own. She isn't shown with many hobbies, and they don't talk about many of her likes or dislikes. Bella is practically a blank slate, which makes it incredibly easy for the reader to envision themselves as Bella. It's kind of like a "choose your own adventure" book with an undefined hero.
        • Oddly enough, the author has gone on record saying this was intentional.
  • They Just Didn't Care: The manhwa. The art's actually decent, but the lettering is absolutely terrible. Half the word bubbles have to be transparent because they're covering people's faces. That's an amateur webcomic mistake!
    • Imprinted werewolf couple Quil and Claire. Does Stephenie Meyer know who Clare Quilty is?! (And if she does, talk about Unfortunate Implications...)
      • Considering this is S Meyer, she's probably both aware of it and thinks it's the most romantic thing ever.
  • Uncanny Valley: Robert Pattinson's heavily made-up face combined with massive Photoshopping on covers, posters, and promotional art.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Leah, oh dear God, Leah. Through most of the Twilight series, Leah is meant to be seen as a heartless bitch who didn't bow graciously out for Sam hooking up with Emily, uses the pack mind to think of various scandals, and tell Jacob he's being overly angsty about Bella. The problem with that is, with all the stuff she's been through (She has been dumped by her boyfriend because he imprinted on her cousin, she's hated by her wolf pack for being upset about it (while Jacob is coddled for doing the same thing), might have caused her dad's heart attack when she transformed in front of him, is not able to have children, she's the only female to not be paired up romantically with someone at the end of Breaking Dawn, also in the same book she mentally admits that her ex-fiance wants her to disappear, and, to top it all off, her own brother, who she spends all of her time protecting, tells her "you ruin everything!") she comes across as an Iron Woobie. She comes across as this even more so when one considers that the same people who call her selfish and whiny all coddle Jacob for being even more self-centered and whiny over Bella, who he was involved with far less than Leah was with Sam.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Bella, whose helplessness and other attributes cause many to regard her as an Anti-Sue.
    • Also her lack of problems but constant "need" to whine about basically everything and even when there are genuine problems and threats she still tends to focus the narrative back on her.
  • Wangst: Both Bella and Edward. Full stop, reaching the absolute peak in New Moon.
  • Vocal Minority: Twilight has spawned a fantastically trollish Fan Dumb, which doesn't really pan out great for the 90% who just want to read the books. A lot of fans will actually acknowledge all of Twilight's flaws and parody it shamelessly themselves.
    • Also, the majority simply don't like things in the books, and are considered to be a rabid Hate Dumb just because of the small but loud percentage of them who are like that.
  • Voodoo Shark: Meyer's attempt at explaining why male vampires could breed.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?: Possibly one of the most major criticisms leveled at the film, especially by the British education system and by British parents.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: And yet Burger King just made Twilight-themed Happy Meals.
  • The Woobie: Bree Tanner. That is all.
    • Robert Pattinson. He didn't even like his role and non-fans and fans alike pity him for it.
    • Kristen Stewart, she was a critic favorite, praised for her previous performances, but this movie, who made her worldwide famous, will probably cause her to forever be remembered as "That Twilight Chick That Can't Act".
    • Depending on your "team", most characters can be perceived as Woobies:
      • Bella when Edward, her true soulmate and only love, leaves her and takes the loving family she thought she would spent eternity being part of with him on New Moon.
      • Jacob when Bella, the girl he has been helping to heal in hopes of winning her love, leaves him, risking her life, to save the man he was healing her from in New Moon.
      • Edward when you realize that while everyone had someone to love in the Cullen Coven he was all alone, didn't even have a date to prom (all of the them), and was so depressed that he couldn't even play music anymore before Bella.
      • Rosalie being on edge to have the family she always wanted and being gangraped and left for dead by the man she loved.
      • Carlisle was turned into a vampire against his will and had to leave his father knowing that he would never accept him and probably tried to kill him, spent centuries trying to kill himself to avoid feeding on people and was almost mad out of loneliness till he managed to get a companion on Edward and then a whole family.
      • Jasper feeling the agony of the thousands of people he killed till he found Alice and peace with the Cullens and his "vegetarian" lifestyle.
      • Leah for being dumped by her fiance for her cousin (who he scarred when she rejected him), might have caused her dad's heart attack when she transformed in front of him, is not able to have children, is hated by the rest of the pack, protects a clan she hates, and is the only females not to be paired up at the end. In Breaking Dawn, she mentally admits that her ex-fiance wants her to disappear and her own brother, who she spends all of her time protecting, tells her "you ruin everything!"
        • It's also implied that she's infertile. She says something about being either "not female enough", and she's stopped having her period as a result of being a werew- I mean, loups- dammit, shape shifter.
      • Charlie, whose only daughter routinely comes home beaten and bruised, refuses to tell him anything, runs off on a regular basis without EVER giving him an explaination (sometimes to foreign countries), goes on a four month crying spree over her abusive boyfriend during which she becomes nearly suicidally depressed (and still refuses to tell her father anything) and can't stand him despite the fact that he is endlessly indulgent with her and makes almost no attempt to control her.
  1. ↑ are you even surprised !?
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