Why People Like Twilight: My official take on it

With the Comic-Con panels this week, so officially begins the upcoming season of promotion for the first installment of the Breaking Dawn movie, which will be released in November.  Like birds heralding the news of spring, so internet commenters will rant or rave about Twilight, mostly nonsensically.  In the past, people have certainly taken on academic-style defenses of what draws fans to Twilight, and others take equally intelligent jabs at why it is a terrible influence on girls, a bad piece of writing, etc etc.  I'd like to take my own (decidedly non-academic) approach to why people (including me) like Twilight.

Plain and simple, it comes down to the force of the love between Edward and Bella.  People often get lost in posts like these by trying to explain WHY Bella loves Edward (and this is where the anti-Twilighters can really have a heyday, because Edward IS creepy and abusive and all those other things they claim he is).  Doesn't matter.  For whatever reason, she is desperately in love with him, more or less from the first time she sees him.  And what draws people to Twilight is that he's desperately in love with her too!  How great is that???  How many people find that their teenage crushes--which we all know are the most violent and inescapable crushes of one's life--are returned with equal force?  Edward and Bella's longing is passionate and yet restrained, which is another facet of the attraction to these books: the longer the consummation is dragged out, the more rewarding it is when it eventually happens.  And boy, do we have to suffer through some drawing out.  But that is why the screaming will be deafening when this honeymoon finally comes to pass.  It's a story of all-consuming teenage obsession/love, finally played out to a happy conclusion.  Everyone can relate to wanting that, which is why the series is so popular.  Done.  Yes, there are flaws in the books and the movies (lots! many flaws!  I do not dispute this!), and if you want to go over all the problems with the writing, the pacing, the characters, anything, go for it--but don't say you can't understand why people like Twilight.  For the fans, the love story is grand enough to absorb all these flaws.

The books were enough to sell the early fans on the intensity of the love between Edward and Bella.  The movies have stoked the flames and turned this into a phenomenon.  The casting was brilliant.  Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are both hot and have both mastered the smoldering stares necessary to communicate the intensity of passion that the readers crave.  Take any stills from the movies of the two of them staring at each other, and you can see how any 12 year old would long for more from them.

I'm about to tackle one other issue that gets bandied around on chat threads: Twilight vs. Harry Potter.  HP fans get all riled up on Twilight boards about how much worse Twilight is than HP.  Yes.  You're right, it is worse.  Now get off the Twilight boards.

They're totally different series.  Just because they are both YA phenomenons does not mean that they need to be evaluated against each other.  Rowling is a better author.  Meyer wrote a better love story.  News flash: HP is about wizardry, friendship, and battles between good and evil, not teenage hormones and undying passion.  (While Twilight may purport to be about vampires, this is my point: that's really a subplot to the love story in terms of what motivates the fans.)  When it comes to Twilight and HP, you can like either, neither, or both--they don't need to be in conflict with one another.  Stop hating on each other and find something new to read.

One final point: an alternate motivation to like Twilight.  Some people who are mega Twihards don't like Edward; they are Team Jacob.  Totally fine.  Unrequited love and/or shirtless Taylor Lautner are equally compelling reasons to love the series, and I am not saying you are wrong.  Just in the minority.