Yes, I got hooked on Twilight. I was suckered into reading the whole bloody series by someone who said "Hey you like books? You'll love this one!" I too was drawn into the series as a vampire fanatic & Buffy devotee (hence why I have found the Buffy vs Edward clip so therapeutic) which is my explanation for my devotion for this series.
Was Twilight a good book? Yes. Were New Moon & Eclipse good follow ups? Yes. Did Breaking Dawn jump the shark? Oh dear lord, absolutely! I watched the Twilight movie about two dozen times and debated with my co-workers as to who was cooler, Edward or Jacob. I even got other people to read the series like a good drug dealer. (C'mon, try it. You'll like it and you can quit anytime!)
Then, I inoculated myself with REAL vampires. I watched every episode of Buffy and Angel (that's another obsession but one I am not ready to let go of) and fawned over Spike and Angel...OK, mostly Spike...and began to see Twilight for what it really is. Bella is the weakest female heroine I have run across in a long time, Edward is an obsessive stalker and Jacob is an egotistical prick. And for some reason, there is this whole sub-plot involving no sex outside of marriage...
Of course, Spike and Angel were both with stalker tendencies and not entirely stable (Angel got all nasty when he did the nasty; Spike had sex with a robot he had built to look like Buffy) but Buffy didn't immediately fawn over either of them. She also didn't surrender all of her life and power to them. She was, in her words, cookie dough and both Spike and Angel would have to wait until she was done baking. Bella immediately turned over everything to Edward. She was prepared to give up her humanity, her life, her friends and family to be with this guy who was very dangerous, wanted to kill her and snuck into her room every night to watch her sleep.
If this is how young girls are seeing relationships, this is dangerous ground. Edward may have had some romantic qualities and who wouldn't want to spend all of eternity with their one true love but overall, he's creepy and dangerous. Girls shouldn't look to him as the epitome of a real man, they should see him as what they don't want in a boyfriend and life long companion.
In the meantime, I may watch New Moon if only for the effects. I will probably watch Eclipse and Breaking Dawn as well. Then I will head home and pop in a Buffy episode and see how a strong woman really behaves.
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