Twilight Came Back and I Love It

It is 2019, and my Twilight obsession has come back with a vengeance. The obsession began in 2008 for me. I read all four books in the month of December, I distinctly remember finishing New Moon the day before Christmas Eve and asking my mom to please take me to the bookstore I need to read the next book. This when she turned around, went into her room, and came out with an early Christmas gift, Eclipse. I spent the remainder of Christmas break that year reading the next two books in the series. In the following months my older sister would borrow the books without telling me, and I almost had a panic attack because I thought my books went missing.

Cringe culture was at its height when Twilight was popular. If you told people you liked Twilight they would cringe at you and say that you were an idiot for liking something so stupid. The big Twilight meme has always been "Still a better love story than Twilight," and slowly those of us who liked Twilight would grow out of it or just shut up about it. I was a part of the latter.

Last year there was a 10 year anniversary panel for the very first Twilight movie. I think this contributed to what is widely being recognized as the Twilight Renaissance. Memes and fics and blogs were making their appearance all over the internet, and it almost felt like people could start talking about Twilight again. Twilight, which was just wish fullfillment for teen girls. For most of us reading we weren't old enough to understand real relationships; we were preteens who thought the height of romance was an overbearing, overprotective boyfriend who would do anything for you. Edward was rich, handsome, drove a cool car (sort of, but what did we know), and would love you forever, who didn't want that?

I am never going to say the Twilight Saga was this amazing, incredible series that deserves awards and was a literary masterpiece, because it wasn't. However, what Twilight was, for me at least, was my entrance into fandom, cemented my love of fantasy, increased my love of reading, and was incredibly fun to read. The level of hate it got and still gets is kind of unthinkable.

Twilight is a relatively harmless series about a human falling in love with a vampire. To think that thousands of people actively hated the series and people who read it is wild. They never read the books; they just thought that it's a dumb teen girl romance and that was enough for them to hate it. In reality this is just further proof that people just inherently hate things that teen girls love regardless of quality (*ahem* The Beatles were wildly disregarded during their time for being a boyband that young girls loved. *ahem*).

The Renaissance of Twilight has been really fun. There's a new attitude to Twilight. Characters like Alice, Rosalie, and Leah Clearwater are all having their spotlight. Just look at The New Storytellers of Twilight short films that came out a few years ago. They told stories about characters that were outside of Bella, Edward, and Jacob and they were amazing! (I highly recommend watching those short films on YouTube.) People are having honest discussions about the problematic aspects of the series without hatred being the main motivator for the discussion.

The books are unfortunately filled with racist and sexist bits that, as a white preteen girl, I didn't always realize at the time. It's definitely problematic to say that pale skin is the most beautiful skin, that Native Americans are basically mythical creatures, that a woman needs a husband and a child to be happy, and the name Renesmee is incredibly problematic. I really do believe naming the baby Renesmee is the worst thing Bella did in the entire series.

In a way, the Renaissance is a type of closure for those of us who loved Twilight but were never able to talk about it because of the shame and embarrassment that came with liking it. I still have never seen something that is hated so widely by almost every single person outside of the fandom. Fans like myself can go back to a world we loved in our preteen days and imagine our favorite characters in maybe a bit more of an emotionally stable place, so they're cracking jokes and enjoying their immortality.

I'm all for Twilight. It's hugely just some harmless teen fun. I never hated Twilight and I never will and if anyone has a problem with that then keep it to yourself. It requires no effort to do absolutely nothing and keep your mouth shut and let people enjoy things that you do not.