Twilight Marmite?

[LittleMissGeorgia]

Personally, I didn't dislike Twilight at such. I read the books and I've seen the films. They were alright. I mean, sure, they were annoying. There was so many things that had you almost wanting to scream at the characters. But if you just sat back and enjoyed them for what they were then they were okay. As long as you don't go to them expecting them to be amazing with intriguing, meaningful storylines and deep, relatable characters, then you could enjoy them.
But there are two things that I particularly didn't like about the whole series. Firstly, the fans. I mean, this was never the author's fault but god, they're annoying. They spend their who time talking about Twilight and if you even mention that there might be something wrong with the series they simply leap to it's defence. They don't even have a good argument why I'm wrong, they just stand and scream that it's amazing.
The second thing is the worst though. It feels that Twilight has sort of destroyed the Vampire genre. There are some really really great vampire books, films and TV shows out there that deserve to be recognised. For instance (in my opinion) True Blood and the UK version of Being Human are some of the best television series ever created. But, because of Twilight, the minute you mention that they're about Vampires and Werewolves people go "Ewwww, Twilight!" Which I find really irritating... People refuse to watch these fantastic programs simply because they expect sparkling vampires and enamoured girlfriends with no personality of their own and for that we only have Twilight to blame.

[viper45]

Agreed, LMG. I read the first book about six years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school, waaaayyy before the movies came out. One of my friends gave it to me and said it was the best book she'd ever read, so I thought 'Eh, why not?'. Big mistake.

I am a good critic, and I can't even begin to count the arguments I've gotten into with 'twihards' (or 'twitards' as I've also heard them called. Don't get mad at me for that, I thought it was pretty clever). I've won several awards for my writing, written several professional movie scripts, and I am attending college to become a film director (with all the attendant classes: script writing, composition, plot, etc.), so I consider myself rather qualified to give an informed opinion on S.M.'s books and subsequent movies.

My opinion, in short, is that they are terrible, for all the reasons mentioned earlier. Absolutely terrible.

I won't reiterate everything that's already been said, but to those of you who say that I'm jealous and secretly love watching sappy romances, I say that you're right. Which is why I watch The Lion King whenever I'm in the mood for a sappy romance. I prefer singing meerkats over sparkling vampires any day.

[Emmery]

I used to like it, until I realized that Stephanie Meyer didn't really develop her characters in a realistic way. Unlike other authors, I couldn't put down the book and expect to see Edward or Bella in the supermarket. Other authors, like Kelly Armstrong, who wrote The Summoning, or Stephen King, most amazing contemporary horror writer.
With the Twilight series, I grew extremely bored with it by the third book, and I was bored to tears in Breaking Dawn.
Not only did the books leave something to be desired, but the movies were absolutely terrible. Kristen Stewart blinked more than she spoke and barely showed any emotion. Plus, Edward was supposed to be beautiful! An Adonis! Rober Patterson is NOT an Adonis. Since when has a receding hairline and creepy, not alluring, eyes been considered hot?

[Edwinfirefox]

I liked twilight, it changed the world, opened up new Rp worlds, without it all we'll have to fanfic about is "Harry Potter" :3

[Lost Soul]

Personally I think the characters in Twilight are kind of stale and flat. I loved the Harry Potter books there was so much depth to the characters, and it was easy to get drawn into the world that JK Rowling created. The Twilight series was just boring to me I couldn't even get through the first few chapters of the books, so I tried watching the movies. This didn't help either I couldn't get through the first movie, it was slow and just so boring. Despite this the book series that I am behind right now is The Hunger Games series, the characters are alive and vibrant and the book just draw me in. The movies I have found to be beautiful and colorful, I guess in the end I enjoy books that make pretty mental pictures in my head.

[LawOfTheLand]

Personally, I didn't dislike Twilight at such. I read the books and I've seen the films. They were alright. I mean, sure, they were annoying. There was so many things that had you almost wanting to scream at the characters. But if you just sat back and enjoyed them for what they were then they were okay. As long as you don't go to them expecting them to be amazing with intriguing, meaningful storylines and deep, relatable characters, then you could enjoy them.
But there are two things that I particularly didn't like about the whole series. Firstly, the fans. I mean, this was never the author's fault but god, they're annoying. They spend their who time talking about Twilight and if you even mention that there might be something wrong with the series they simply leap to it's defence. They don't even have a good argument why I'm wrong, they just stand and scream that it's amazing.
The second thing is the worst though. It feels that Twilight has sort of destroyed the Vampire genre. There are some really really great vampire books, films and TV shows out there that deserve to be recognised. For instance (in my opinion) True Blood and the UK version of Being Human are some of the best television series ever created. But, because of Twilight, the minute you mention that they're about Vampires and Werewolves people go "Ewwww, Twilight!" Which I find really irritating... People refuse to watch these fantastic programs simply because they expect sparkling vampires and enamoured girlfriends with no personality of their own and for that we only have Twilight to blame.

tl;dr: It's really not that bad if you turn your brain off, the fans are insufferable, and the series has given other series a bad rap.

[Aniihya]

The movies were horrible. They even did a beavis and butthead parody on it. I cracked up when they said: "Uhuhuhuh, is Bella a zombie or what?"

[Colonel_Masters]

Well I first heard about it when my father was looking on Amazon for books and asked me if i was interested... i was 15 so i just told him that it sounded like one of those books designed for girls and let it slide after hearing the summery.

When i was 16 i was in England and due to the amazing prices for books there decided to raid the shops for as many as i could get (didn't get many actually) In London things where too expensive but there was one huge book shop there i simply could not pass. At first i saw the German history section which only had WW2 books on it which pissed me off... after that i saw the vampire section but i was too busy with the Anime section reading Hellsing manga's.

Later on that trip i went into another book shop and noticed that even a small one had a vampire section which made me think along the lines of "hmm i wonder what is that about... are they selling Christopher Lee Dracula books? i didn't know they where so popular... i didn't know there are any Christopher Lee Dracula books" (are there any Christopher Lee Dracula books? i grew up with his Dracula films hehe)

I then saw that it was the same book my dad had asked about when i was 15 and wondered what it was all about... i read the first few pages in the shop and decided that i was more interested in my aircraft during WW1 book i got the day before and put it down.

When i got back to Israel i discovered that what i had seen was Twilight and the Intellectual society i belonged to had moved it to "the most hated" list above Justine Biber for a few weeks until someone nominated the Eragon movie again. Many in my Intellectual society have been very close to discussing methods by which to kill the author (joke) and our long standing vampire members say that their positions in society have been compromised due to the books and that they are treated badly because people think they are Twilight fans. I am yet to encounter a twilight fan due to my very selective circle of friends but I certainly do not like the books for what they have done even if i never read them or saw the movies. I am more focused at hating the Code Geass fanbase to worry about it so i don't really care and besides if i wanted to read those books i would have to do so in secret of risk being hanged... too busy reading the wave again anyway.

Well n the subject of my writing I have been since 13 almost fanatically against fanfiction and i have sometimes even questioned being inspired by something fearing i was stealing his ideas instead of coming up with my own. Recently when a friend of mine proved you can actually write decent fanfiction i have been more open to the thought but i still have my set in stone thoughts about it which means i never write anything based on the Tolkien fantasy and i am uncomfortable with with writing SF even if i actually want to do it. In one of my 13 year old written stories i was to have a vampire character who was based on an RL friend of mine and was to be the main antagonist for at least the first story but eventually would ally himself with the protagonist and develop an understanding with him. while i do not plan to work on this story and i barley have any of it actually written i rethought that vampire character into an all together different creature due to the twilight craze XD

[Aniihya]

Colonel Masters: Twilight fans are often squeely teenager girls who have no experience of love and they would fanatically defend a book that is about a 120 year old virgin vampire who falls in love with a girl whos emotions are not very well described (hence the emotionless appearance of the actor of Bella in the film) and reacts sometime in unrealistic ways. Additional it turned the who vampire genre into a joke. Before the series, vampires were dark and often brutal, manipulative or cruel while nowadays people think vampires are the pretty boys who sparkle in the sun like metal objects because of Twilight.

[Colonel_Masters]

I understood as much... its why i avoid it like the plague XD

[jazzicaljamie]

I read them in high school. I felt ambivalent about them - they were kind of like candy or a sweet, quick read. Not a lot of substance or character development, but something to read to burn time. That's just my personal opinion though. My step-mom absolutely loves Twilight. Still feeling ambivalent, but I have to say, not a fan of the movies...

[Chicka]

In Twilight, we are met with creatures called vampires. In my mind, here's a breakdown of the traits a vampire should have:

Drinks HUMAN blood. To LIVE.
Hates sunlight. At the very least, suffers a disadvantage in the daylight. Even on cloudy days.
Has some sort of herb that wards it off.
Dislikes symbols of faith THAT THE OWNER BELIEVES IN. An atheist with a crucifix isn't going to do much.
Prefers the dark. Would not be caught dead in Washington in the summer.
Is turned using venom because the vampire that bit them couldn't be bothered to finish their snack. Alternatively, is turned from the sharing of blood because the vampire who turned them has been keeping an eye on them for quite sometime and has been carefully orchestrating this.

Traits Edward Cullen has:

Drinks animal blood. Angsts about it.
Doesn't mind sunlight. Sparkles in the day light.
Is unaffected by any sort of plant. Often seen in meadows.
Isn't even mildly affected by religious symbols.
Doesn't mind the light. Doesn't understand that the sun shines pretty nicely in the summer in that part of the country.
Was turned to "save him".

Is he a vampire? Nope. He's a little woodland pixie.

[Fawn-Of-Arc]

It is truly terrible, and is liked by tweens and teens that have hardly read a book in their lives, and therefore wouldn't know good literature if it hit them in the face, and take solace in corny, yet messed up, romance.

[RichterGotz]

Dracula, Nosferatu, that is all.

[Blackbird26]

I have friends who love Twilight, they annoy the shit out of me claiming that I just don't get it, and we have long lasting arguments on the subject of me hating the damn thing. I've watched with them every movie as soon as they came out on DVD and could be smuggled into my home without warning. And I've read the first book only so that I could finally be considered knowledgeable enough to express my hatred of the whole thing.

With that said... I think people whine/discuss a little bit too much about Edward not being a real vampire. "Vampires in this universe don't fit the characteristic of vampires in other universes... Oh noes!" >.>

Maybe I'm not bothered by this because I was never much into the whole vampire thing. Even though I am able to enjoy some things with vampires in it (Being Human, Hellsing, to name a few) I don't care very much if someone portrays vampires in a different way. Maybe I could sympathize more if I haven't heard people literally scream that at Twilight fans as if that fact alone proves the book is shit, and I don't believe it does.

Personally, I think sparkly vampires could work in a well written story... I believe anything can work in a well written story.

Twilight is NOT, NOT a well written story. I could write my own book listing all the things that made me cringe uncontrollably when reading Twilight. The fact that Edward sparkles in the sun and doesn't sleep in a coffin won't be in the list. The fact that he is a ridiculous whiny excuse for a character is more of a problem. Along with the fact that the narrative just cannot stress enough how incredibly dreamy he is made me hate him with a passion even before he was introduced. A better writer could have made Edward seem more like the menace he kept claiming to be, sparkles or not, if at any moment he'd shown he actually wanted to kill Bella instead of just saying "Oh, I kinda have the urge to kill you. I'm very dangerous, like... For real. You should stay away from even though I'm going to follow you around everywhere and stuff..." (<Not an actual quote, but almost =_=).

And now I'm going to leave this thread before I even get started on why the thought of Bella Swan makes me nearly homicidal. *twitch*

[TheVizzerdrix]

All i feel i need to say is that they are not actual vampires they are Fairies, because they sparkle, also it relies to heavily on a weak and over done plot, which ultimately makes it a weak story. It's not literature, it is extra paper to use when going to the bathroom.

[Broken Alice]

Hmm, I liked the books when I read it but then I watched the movies and now my imaginations of when I read the book are replaced with horrid movie clips. I've only watched the first movie and the last movie. The first movie to see the beat down Bella (Kristen Stewart) deserved and the last movie to see the war and the computer generated (As my family calls it) baby, both scenes I ended up rofl. Does that make me a bad person? o.O

You can decide whether I hate or love Twilight.

[3times]

In Twilight, we are met with creatures called vampires. In my mind, here's a breakdown of the traits a vampire should have:

Drinks HUMAN blood. To LIVE.
Hates sunlight. At the very least, suffers a disadvantage in the daylight. Even on cloudy days.
Has some sort of herb that wards it off.
Dislikes symbols of faith THAT THE OWNER BELIEVES IN. An atheist with a crucifix isn't going to do much.
Prefers the dark. Would not be caught dead in Washington in the summer.
Is turned using venom because the vampire that bit them couldn't be bothered to finish their snack. Alternatively, is turned from the sharing of blood because the vampire who turned them has been keeping an eye on them for quite sometime and has been carefully orchestrating this.

Traits Edward Cullen has:

Drinks animal blood. Angsts about it.
Doesn't mind sunlight. Sparkles in the day light.
Is unaffected by any sort of plant. Often seen in meadows.
Isn't even mildly affected by religious symbols.
Doesn't mind the light. Doesn't understand that the sun shines pretty nicely in the summer in that part of the country.
Was turned to "save him".

Is he a vampire? Nope. He's a little woodland pixie.

Wow! Could not agree more! This made me laugh. I don't know how someone could come up with such a pitiful vampire. Or should I say pixie?

[cucumbersome]

I tried Marmite once. Based on threads like this one, I believe that trying Twilight would be a worse idea.

Anyway, I’m reminded of something. About two(?) years ago I felt I was too bashful about sexuality in my writing, so I decided to write some porn (or “erotic stories” if you prefer) and submit that to a certain famous site that collects that stuff. One of those I made as weird as was possible without it turning me off. I’m not sure if I want to describe it here, but I’ll tell you that it involves a shapeshifting dragonlike creature, and a curse to serve that ends and is replaced by twue wuv the first time the protagonists “do it”.

This story, which I’m a bit ashamed of, is only a few pages long and has no significant plot (in the parts that are safe for work, the characters chat about mythology and argue about whether magical creatures exist - even after it is revealed that one of them is a magical creature). And it still appears to be better than Twilight, by having a better plot and a creature more interesting than a sparkly vegetarian vampire. Also, shapeshifting does hurt.

When I recently asked someone what was good about Twilight, she told me she fell in love with Edward... and that was the whole argument for Twilight being a good story.

[Psychopizzino]

Well in my opinion the movies were surprisingly okay. It isnt something I would watch over and over again, but it was not something I was completely crazy about.