I would guess the tribe dosnt like what meyer did, to flatout using them, but did th best what they got, and use it to raie awareness, maybe correct some tourists perception an maybe get some proi o it, they need. They really need.O;G is the us governmnt not giving enough funds at all. So good. But i think here can ay meyer bad, but goop on them doing the best being dragged into it, and their culture. Also agree, it might not nbe good but i is enjoyale or peopl, maybe dont drag a real life tribe in, else maybe it did inspire peopl to write and get creative. With all that fairly bland characters.
@@beep1070 That was me, too. I watched the whole Harry Potter one in two sittings and then saw this one and thought "oh, only four hours." The Harry Potter video ruined my life. Ten minutes seems like nothing now.
Taylor Lautner also brought up in a recent podcast that he really struggled with body isses and the consequences of being constantly sexualized at like 17, and how when he grew older it was really difficult for him to not struggle with his body image because he cannot ever reach this absurd level of "abs" he reached for the movies. looking back its really disgusting how many middle-aged women sexualized a minor for his body.
i said this in another comment but i have this memory of being in the theater when new moon came out and hearing every mother in the audience clap and scream things like "yeah" and "woo hoo!" when he first takes his shirt off
stephanie meyers not doing any research on vampires and the common themes and allegories and dynamics that tend to crop up around them before writing twilight makes so much sense cuz it's the only piece of vampire fiction i've ever encountered where the vampires do not at all seem even the slightest bit queer
which is honestly impressive given that "vampires inspired by x-men and mcr" is one of the gayest concepts i can think of. maybe she is just fully ignorant of it all because of the mormonism or maybe she purposefully avoids it cuz of the mormonism
@@xwormbonesx idk bc I’ve been revisiting the movies, at least, lately and they still just seem like good friends and Alice just like a bubbly straight girl
I still can't get over that the actor who played Jacob was UNDERAGE when everyone was thirsting over him. How just okay everyone else was to treat an underage kid as a sexual symbol that is constantly shirtless on the movie, one that was written to be part of an actual tribe for that.
This + the fact that apparently he was explicitly told he needed to bulk up if he wanted to keep the role of Jacob is really creepy to me. Taylor Lautner truly deserved much better.
I think some of your comments about the werewolves are a little… blasé for a lack of a better word. Being a shapeshifter is explained to be a horror story, by those who have shifted. Jacob is horrified about the possibility of changing, and he is scared of what’s happening to him such as the uncontrollable fits of rage and how he’s treating Billy. He also is very low income and keeps ruining clothes due to this. Them shifting ruins so many of the pack’s lives. Sam and Leah were in college, Paul had his own life and friends and they had to give this all away. Some of the the boys who started shifting were 12 years old. They now are stuck in this painful, inhuman shifting cycle until threats around their borders cease. Imprinting is also seen by pack members like Jacob as a curse. Jacob reiterated this point, and calls it’s another way of his choices getting taken away. It strips the pack of their autonomy, even they already have so little left with being forced to shift. Also the way Jacob and pack members are written as savages and villainized when they have every right to be angry and hate vampires. They lost their lives to these creatures coming back, even when they knew what they would do to the tribe. The vampires, you maim, kill, and manipulate are put on a pedestal, admired and glorified while the werewolves are demonized. It also plays into many racist stereotypes of indigenous men, making them aggressors and violent. Or SM sterilizing an indigenous woman and constantly villainizing her. Also, the layers to white people being the ones to ruin the lives of indigenous people and taking their lives and choices. I think when we critique characters and their choices, especially when it’s marginalized groups being written by others, we have to consider things such as authorial bias and why writers might do what they do. But anyways,great analysis and I really enjoyed this video!
I feel like a more competent writer than Meyer could write an actually thought-provoking and terrifying story through this lens. Like, the horrific racism, systemic poverty, and white colonial genocide allegory is already there, its just brushed aside for shitty worldbuilding and romanticizing white rich vamps. There are fanfics written from Leah's pov where we get to really see the horror of shapeshifting, the settler-colonial dynamic, and its effect on her family. Das-Mervin's "The Wedding Crashers" (xover with Supernatural) is a personal favorite, and another I can't remember for the life of me that goes into the Clearwater siblings backstory, specifically the week leading up to their transformations and the effects of food insecurity on a pair of growing werewolves (eating whatever food they can buy to fuel their increased metabolism, fighting over snacks, eating questionable or expired foods out of desperation)
2:55:27 I remember seeing an article where they talked about how Forks became a tourist trap and the Quiluete not seeing any of that money and people thinking they weren’t even real
Yes this is true and the twilight group I'm in does a yearly fundraiser for the tribe and it'll be happening again soon, also people drop the link for donations to their move to higher ground campaign due to flooding constantly threatening their homes/buildings every now and then. They should be getting compensation for the use of their tribe by SM and lionsgate but unfortunately that's still not the case.
After reading “The Host” by Meyer (I never read any of the Twilight series), I realized that she likes cherry-picking neat ideas, and then not extrapolating on them whatsoever, or making them wholly unique to her universe. Which, incidentally is a common thread amongst the Mormon religion. To be honest, she's just another shopper who knows how to put together a decent window display, but that's all it is. Dare I say, the Twilit series is *gasp*, vapid and unoriginal... Furthermore, as an Indigenous Person whose tribe [Dine (Navajo Nation)] borders their mecca, I can say that the icky feeling you get around the Mormon obsession with Indigenous People is very tangible and real. When I lived in Kayenta, AZ, a lot of the Mormon families were mixed-race, with Anglo-Mormon view points taking center stage. It's all part of the plan to “kill the savage and save the man”. In truth, Mormons made Indigenous People a “Lost Tribe of the Israelites”, because it too was part of an anti-Semitic political movement to discredit and bastardize modern Jewish People. That whole faith is wacky. I wish I could also say that America's sexualization and commodification of Indigenous Bodies (perceived, or otherwise) started & ended with Jacob, but that obviously isn't the case. The fact that Lautner was a minor during most of all that makes it all the more disgusting.
I'm an ex-Mormon. The moment that I realized that my entire culture and religion growing up was based on cultural erasure and appropriation, and white supremacy, I was horrified and angry. I'm so sorry that this religion continues to harm not only its adherents, but indigenous Americans and so many other minorities. It's gross.
As an ex-Mormon who was born and raised in Mormon Mecca, I completely agree with this comment! In fact, my own family has a history of pretty nasty treatment of Native Americans from Utah and Arizona - specifically Paiute and Dine people. My great-whatever-grandfather founded Circleville on orders from Brigham Young and was involved with the massacre of 27 Paiutes that occurred there, and my great-grandparents participated in a program that separated Native American children from their parents and communities and placed them in the homes of white Mormons by being a placement home for a Dine girl for several years. She did come to both of their funerals, so apparently she felt like she was treated well enough to travel from Arizona twice to mourn my great-grandparents, but she was still separated from her family, and I'm sure there were plenty of other children who were treated like absolute garbage by their supposed White Saviors.
just to add another tiny, but hilarious, nitpick: london didn't have a sewer system until the 19th century. if carlisle was turned into a vampire in the "sewers" of london, he was turned into a vampire,,, in the thames river,,, or just a street
I would, however, note that the word 'sewer' before then would refer to open ditches of drainage and waste water - these would often just be like shallow channels (sometimes stone/brick or carved into the road) or dug ditches that ran alongside roads/streets and would make their way into existing watercourses/rivers (of which london has quite a few - not just the Thames) So sewers (as channels of drainage of all water including waste) did exist - they were mostly open to the air, and obviously the people would have to cross over them to get around (although some would have been culverted in more rich areas). In most cases they also referred to natural watercourses & rivers also as sewers - because at that time one of their primary functions was seen to be transporting waste water away (and I'm guessing especially around london, rivers would have had very poor water quality and they wouldn't have provided much else at that time). So sewers did exist and there was a sewer system in place (albeit a bad one that was poorly planned, if at all, and obviosuly a massive public health risk!), just not in the form of the underground Victorian bricked sewers that, you're right, weren't constructed until the 1800s after various cholera outbreaks and the big stink finally galvanised the government into paying for rehauling the sewer system. I've been down in some of those original victorian sewers (it was an experience - very stinky, and sewage fungus everywhere, lots of nice brickwork), and it was super cool in a weird way. But I can't imagine anyone one wanting to hang around down there... It's actually super dangerous in there because of the gas build-up. Anyway, I'm guessing then that Carlisle may have been turned while lying in one of these older open channel sewers. But then again I'm assuming that the phrase 'sewers of london' can also refer to those historic parts of London that were so grotty (and perhaps had very poor drainage or didnt benefit from the services of those guys who would come take all the human waste away) that the whole area was like a sewer in terms of cleanliness. So he might have just been lying in a very dirty street somewhere?
I'm a year late, but distinctly remember Carlisle saying something about hiding behind a potatoe sack or something? Did I get that mixed up? I doubt there were sacks potatoes in the Thames back then. 😂
I haven't read the book but my partner has and she thinks twilight should just embrace the fact its basically a fetish thing and not a gunuine love story. Being systematically stalked, manipulated and emotionally abused by a supernaturally attractive person with way more power than you who protects you from a evil supernaturally attractive person with way more power than you then a love triangle with another superpowered emotionally abusive person, then a really graphic baby birth sure sounds like a fetish story and that's not even touching imprinting
No. Twilight shouldve leaned into a lesbian lovestory throughout fleeing from two obsessive stalkers after the relationship gets fucked in the second book. Alice wouldve came back as she is too invested in bella existing, as their relationship forms (jasper can just not exist in this story or be aro idk) And then edward gets omegaobsessed and as bella tried to bond with jacob he also is obsessed, mad that she is attracted to vampires and a fem vampire too Like, throw in a triangle with the antagonist of the third book being obsessed with alice due to her futuresight IT COULDVE BEEN SO GOOD!
@@Killroy007 See, the thing is you're asking for the books to actually be good and OP is asking for the books to stop pretending they're anything but Meyer's personal fetish material.
@@dustrose8101 thats fair But like we already have a purely fetish version of twilight in 50 shades and 365 days (its a fetish fanfic of 50 shades turned book series). And I like alice too much
@@Killroy007 Oh both of those are written by authors who are still high on the "I don't actually acknowledge I'm writing hardcore fetishes beyond basic erotica" (looking at 50 shades specifically and its bungling of BDSM), so we still have yet to have one that actually is aware that its just fetish material. But also yes, alice deserves better. It's good her and leah nearly universally get adopted out of Twilight.
I read these books when they were hot. Honestly my favorite part was when he says "we can't be together I care too much about you" and then abandons her in the middle of the woods lmao Also when he said "it's sparkling time"
As far as I remember, he walked her about thirty feet into the woods and she could still see her way out when he left her. It was Bella stumbling after him and finally falling down that caused her to be lost for so long. Granted he could’ve broken up with her on the front porch or something, but it was actually Bella’s unwillingness to let him go that got her in trouble.
Despite some objectively shitty moments (defending Jacob's assault being a definitive low point), I think Charlie's popularity and coolness factor, him being mostly well liked even by people who hate the rest of Twilight's characters, is all due to the actor's portrayal of him in the movies. He's one of the only people who at least tries to act and make do with the character he's given, and brings humor, warmth and even emotion to Charlie.
The 10 Hour Harry Potter Video was that for me- so this is more of Lily's cool "deconstruct the Pop Culture Osmosis Book Series" videos. I take both as a win.
Same and the fact that there is no explanation on any of the plot makes it all deliciously confusing lol I'm just there nodding along pretend I have the slightest clue what the fuck lily's talking about
How did I not see this until now but at 54:00 when Lily describes what happened to Bella and how Charlie tries to help, all I could imagine is that Charlie probably thought Bella got raped by Edward and abandoned in the woods.
@@nyx_moonwalk What Jacob did was objectively awful but we have to remember that from Charlie's perspective, the woods incident is not the first time Edward has harmed her. Remember the Cullens' excuse as to why she was beat up in Book 1? Fell down the stairs and out the window? Charlie knows his child. She's clumsy but not that stupid. Then there's the running across the country. There's the isolation from her human friends. There's the injuries she came home with after her birthday party. There's the months of depression and constant nightmares in Book 2. Then there's the running off to Italy without a word, returning with the guy who (as far as Charlie is aware) could’ve raped her or was incredibly abusive. Oh, and trashing her car so she couldn't visit her friends on the reservation. Jacob kissing her is FAR FAR more bearable than what Edward did, from Charlie's perspective.
@@grandempressvicky6387 @Grand Empress Vicky yeah. let her stay with the boy who possibly beats her and did something horrible to her, or cheer on the boy who she punched for kissing her without consent. neither are a good choice. not even "team alice", because she'd still have to be around edward to be with alice
@@nyx_moonwalk Everyone in this book is abusive in some way to Bella, I'm just pointing out why Charlie wouldn't be as hostile to Jake. It's gross but understandable. Going further tho, I also think that Alice is a bad option because she keeps explicitly going against what Bella asks of her. Bella said she didn't want a birthday party. Alice did it anyway. Bella repeatedly said she doesn't want gifts. Alice did it anyway. These choices and explicit ignoring of her simple requests is what almost got Bella killed and she should've had the foresight to know that. I've seen multiple comments how Alice treats Bella like a human doll to play dress up with and only cares about her because she brings her brother happiness. Her aim at the end of the day is not to be friends but make sure Edward gets his mate. Everyone just sucks. Save Rosalie and Emmett. If anything, these books can be an interesting way to see how Stephanie Meyer sees the world.
@@grandempressvicky6387I was honestly a little surprised that Lily wrote Rosalie off as a bitch (her word, not mine). Another writer might have given Rosalie a better “redemption” than what she got. One could even argue that Rosalie’s dislike was entirely justified: at first Bella was a childish human (and an actual child) who didn’t belong in their world, and the more she learned things that should make her run away the more addicted to Edward she became. It was unhealthy, and it would have been interesting to let that toxicity be another layer to Rosalie’s resentment. But no, it had to boil down to petty jealousy that went away once Rose got the last piece of the ending she wanted as a human.
I can’t imagine going through a horrific trauma and then dying from it and then BEING BROUGHT BACK SO YOU CAN LIVE WITH THOSE MEMORIES FOREVER Like ????? That sounds like TORTURE
In my fanfic of this video essay, Lily is doing this entire thing extemporaneously and in one take. She just sits down and has all this ready to go off the top of her head.
@@resstie I hope someday people forget about it considering she's had some great roles since. So has Pattinson but people seem to be more ready to "forgive" him for the series that Stewart. And on one level I don't know why but then maybe I also have a sneaking feeling why :/
@@queerqueenstan same. That movie and Personal Shopper (surprisingly creepy ghosty goodness!) are two of my faves that she did after the twilight mess. 👌🏽
I would argue the point of Katniss from The Hunger Games being a blank slate/empty character! She has such specific motivations and personality that I actually found it hard to relate to her as a teen! I didn't see a ton of myself in her, which is part of what made the books so intriguing. She's in a dangerous situation bc poverty/fascism is inherently dangerous, and isn't really a "magic teen who saves everything" so much as "is debilitatingly traumatized and doesn't actually lead much because of course she doesn't, she's seventeen, ppl in power are just using her and taking advantage of her love for her family" and then "main character who (spoiler) spends most of the last chapter of the last book contemplating her suicide." The plot only revolves around her because her sister is randomly selected to be abused by the government, and so much of the war/political stuff happens without her, because of course it does, she's a kid. THG is interesting bc it gets looped in with all the other fantasy/dystopia 2000s YA but it really is set apart for me, and I feel like it's judged by ppl who don't realize that it originated or at least popularized a lot of the tropes it's criticized for falling into. (No one come for the love triangle. It's not a priority of the plot but it does happen as a tragic choice between two distinct futures. The movies are the ones who made that a huge thing, and other books thought the appeal was two sexy boys to pick between rather than an ethics and trust dilemma.) (Also I know you just included the book cover with a bunch of other YA books, not to like make a THG-specific argument, but I just thought I'd point this out lol. Love the video!)
i thought the same, honestly. Katniss has a very strong personality, she's a very well written character, and imo the only reason people think she's a blank slate is because of her portrayal in the movies, where we don't hear her inner monologue.
@@igtut1 could you site where the author said this? also, you think allistic people can't be emotionally stunted and introverted?? she has ptsd for god's sake. i understand that as a headcannon and i like to hc characters as neurodivergent myself, but don't say she's 'coded' just because it's your hc. katniss just has low emotional intelligence due to her ptsd.
if you zoom out from the love triangle a little bit, I feel like the werewolves have lots of legitimate reasons to be mad at the Cullens that the book never considers? Like sure Jacob is doing it because he didn't get the girl, but like turning Bella means 1) people die (sure Bella has supernatural control over her bloodthirst but the werewolves had no way of knowing that before she turned) 2)more people from the tribe get conscripted as werewolves which is a miserable experience that means the death of privacy and like its bold of Meyer's to write a book in the 21st century where the powerful white family breaks their treaty with a native american tribe and are the good guys and protagonists of the series lmao
The funny thing is that while this is so obviously anti abortion, it certainly made 13/14 year old me very pro abortion and maybe made me realize for the first time that I don’t really want children. like that pregnancy was just horrifying, who would want that and all this for ending up with rememberance culpable? No thank you lol
I remember feeling relief when Edward said “We’ll get it out of you” and utter bewilderment when Bella was shocked by his reaction. I was like, she’s supposed to turn into a vampire and do a bunch of cool sh!t, not have a damn baby! Now I’m 30 and child free (probably forever), like anyone is surprised 😂 Edit: I didn’t understand “remembrance culpable” until after I typed my comment but it’s such a genius name I had to come back and tell you lol
Bella, who showed no interest in children or motherhood before becoming pregnant. Now suddenly she is ready to sacrifice her life for the fetus, which is unknown whether will survive, how they will live, etc. Whatever you say Stephanie
Hahaha yh that whole Part is so Horror movie-esque that i really couldnt Wrap my head around Bellas actions. I was 16/17 at the time and Had picked Up on the christian and anti abortion stuff by that Point, so i Had this weird Double Vision of SEEING that SM wanted to say "See? She protects the child, how heroic! A true martyr!" But i also saw a Woman throwing her life away and surviving by the skin of her teeth, basically through sheer luck. And the Horror and pain in Edward, as Hes unable to do anything. So... Yh, i was never Christian or anti-abortion, so you can guess what left a bigger Impression 😂
I think the key to understanding Charlie is the parentification dynamic Bella has with both her parents. Because of Renee's irresponsibility and Charlie's absence, Bella sees them both less as parents and more as people she has to manage, take care of and make decisions for. She had a well-established dynamic of that with Renee. Then Bella moves in with Charlie--*as part of making decisions for Renee*. Bella starts to set up that same dynamic again, and Charlie, who's barely spent any time around her and has no clue how to be a father, just sort of rolls with it for a bit. Then sometimes jerks himself out of it and goes "wait, I have to father". And this to Bella is threatening/scary, she doesn't know how to /be/ actually treated as a child and he's really not established himself as a father figure, so she leans on his difficulty separating her as a person from her mother to regain that control. By the time she turns into a vampire, the entire dynamic is well beyond his ability to comprehend or find his footing. Meanwhile the sexual stuff (his differing reactions by if he thinks Edward's slept with her, his assault apologia for his fave) is just... I don't know the words for the concepts, but I went through a very similar pair of experiences. It is a(n awful, messed-up) way some parents be, and there's a whole cultural aspect to it, and I bet you're going to get into some of that later in this video, but I wanted to get these thoughts down.
I really thank you for bringing that up. I’ve always found Bella and Renee’s relationship quite interesting but disturbing. How Bella describes Renee as her best friend, but also seems to see herself as a caretaker for her. And how odd her moving to Forks so her mom could be happy was in the first place. She definitely loved and cared for her parents, but it seems she felt obligated to do so, especially with how she left them behind relatively quickly. I feel like you explained a lot about their dynamic quite well, I’ve never even fully realized the part about Charlie.
Her “parental” relationship with Renee honestly feels like abuse/neglect and it’s a shame that isn’t explored or even acknowledged about her character. Renee couldn’t even remember she left a blouse at the dry cleaners, she had absolutely NO business raising a child 😖
@@xRaiofSunshineit's parentification. It's form of abuse and neglect... It's like Rowling. We never really touched on this topic and we won't go into the damage it did to our character because no
Honestly, I think the only reason Bella didn't turn into a vampire from James' bite is because Stephanie Meyer initially intended the book to be a standalone and felt that her staying human was a better ending for that, and then just never got another good chance once it became a series lmao
I agree with almost everything you said, but I’d like to counter the very last bit: everyone I asked when I read the book agreed with me that Renesmee’s initial bite should have turned Bella. It would have circumvented the need for Edward to change her himself, which he was absolutely loath to do for most of the series, with the bonus of adding a little more justification for Renesmee to exist in the first place. I never understood why (narratively/thematically) she bit Bella or why the only vampire/human hybrid with a venomous bite was Nahuel. The female hybrids just don’t have venom? The only one that can create a vampire is the male? I must be missing some obscure Mormon doctrine here 😅
I've always thought that Carlisle was very intresting character not because of good writing as we established but because of things that are accidentaly implied in text. Like the way he is described as good compasionate one but he selfishly changed all those people against their will beacuse he was feeling alone? Man I would love that to be explored in books, living with a guilt how that influence your relationships and more. That is such a missed oportunity. Honestyl I think that most of backstories of those vampires have intresting... seeds?
So much yes, she has a thing where she introduced great concepts and never goes anywhere with them. I was drawn into these books cuz the worldbuilding seemed interesting, and yet we never got to explore them more.
Also since he's a doctor, how did he get through medical school and thereafter while being around blood? He'd have to have some excellent self-control there. His story would have been more interesting then a trio of boring teenagers.
@@franknbeans8904that’s actually explained in the books. can’t remember the exact reason but i think it’s cuz his vampire “super power” is basically having extreme restraint and level-headedness, like able to control his vamp urges? which is what makes him a great father figure in part. like that’s the reason he’s able to turn people and stop feeding (which it is apparently very difficult for any vampire to stop feeding before the person is dead) and why he is able to be around blood all day as a doctor. but like if my kids could read thoughts or tell the future i’d kinda be disappointed that my super power was being chill lol. though, it is kind of a gift bc a lot of the downsides of being a vampire are about not being able to control certain parts of your nature, so having that control must be a bit of a relief. again, steph meyer writing side characters that are much more interesting than the main ones, and are implied to have far more complex interior lives.
There are fan fictions of Twilight I read (and re-read) while I no longer have the urge to re-read the original. I think Twilight is both under and over criticized, but at the end of the day it clearly strikes a chord of escapism. I wish that SM actually learned better writing skills (and was less Mormon/patriarchal white) as she has moments of great ideas (I stan Rosalie's backstory and revenge, pure icon behaviour that isn't so... goody two shoes). Thanks for a new video to push me through a Friday at work!
It's funny but I always imagine rosalies back story as another verse of the cell block tango from the musical Chicago. He had it coming, but she took it to another level and those security guys should have survived.
It's funny but I always imagine rosalies back story as another verse of the cell block tango from the musical Chicago. He had it coming, but she took it to another level and those security guys should have survived.
The single biggest flaw with Twilight is that the male love interest is into the main character because he can't read her thoughts, but the reader is privy to how banal her thoughts are because the book is in first person... 🤦
My favorite part of the whole series was when Jacob ran up to Bella with a big, toothy grin and asked, "where you been, loca?" Do Stephenie Meyer werewolves all speak Spanish or something?
I got into twilight when I was 10 when a fellow Mormon girl I liked told me that I HAD to read this book and all she said was"She's one of us" referring to the author being Mormon. I didn't know what it was about. Back then I loved reading and didn't think much about this book she forced me to borrow. But I soon got hooked. Also I live in Washington and the weather and landscape is very close to the book so I felt like I was living in the book 😅
I would honestly argue that Kristen Stuart did a FANTASTIC job at portraying Bella as she was written. Bella's just a boring ass character with no personality and the teen girls could no longer self insert around it when they had Kristen's face to put to the character instead of their own where they could fill in all the gaps with their own personality. Not to mention how many people raised as girls were in a "not like other girls" phase during that time (yes calling myself out here, doesn't hurt I was also already a fan of vampire fiction and REALLY did not like the way Meyer wrote them, this was right around the time I got into Vampire Chronicles which is it's own can of worms that i'd be fascinated to see someone cover the whole mess of) and were overly mean to Kristen when our displeasure was with the books and not the actress, but she was the face we could direct our feelings towards. It's something I still deeply regret and work really hard as an adult to do better and help those who might be going through that same phase get out of it faster.
Literally, the only thing she could have maybe changed is a script ''issue'' than a Kirsten issue because there weren't that many lines written between the two where they were straight up dragging each other for filth
The Charlie moment that told me that he was not a well-conceived character was when he tried to make dinner for himself and Bella. The point of the scene was that he was useless in the kitchen, and Bella needed to take over those kinds of domestic responsibilities. In that scene, he a metal can on the microwave. He's been living alone for years. He lives in a small town, probably with very few places to eat. He should know how to cook. And even if he has no idea how to cook, he should absolutely know the basics of how to operate a microwave. But, you know, Mormons gonna Morm. Men can't cook or clean. Children have to be parentified. Women keep house.
As someone who read the books, Meyer had a habit of introducing amazing worldbuilding concepts and just never elaborating on them. Hell, even many side characters sound so much cooler to explore than our forbidden lovers.
Absolutely! I firmly believe that's why there are some fantastic in-canon fan fiction that's stronger than the original. SM just offered insanely fantastic writing prompts. Also Rosalie being theatrical getting her revenge in a wedding dress, slowly increasing Royce's paranoia is absolutely icon behaviour.
i think there are a lot of similarities between meyer and rowling’s writing in this respect. most of the twilight and hp fandoms are based on background worldbuilding, rather than the actual story
@@tylerrslaysTrue, through in twilight its also the characters motly, but so many characters are so vague and nor deeper explored, that yeah i can see why the fanfic, good blank slates. And whil rowling probably is better worldbuilding, if incoonsistent,. yeah both are weird.
Honestly I think this is part of what makes it such fertile ground for fanfic. It's kind of the perfect garden for fic, as there's nothing sacred and there are so many interesting but unexplored ideas.
In all my twilight drawings, I made everyone except Carlisle, Edward and Jasper poc. The only reasons I keep those three white, is that I feel race is pretty important for Jasper and Carlisle, and I just wanted to make Ed a ginger, as he has red hair in the books. For the others, I made Alice Burmese, Emmet Indian, Esme Somalian, Rosalie mixed African, annd Bella Mexican. I think it just fits so much better for the found family to be more diverse.
With or without angel? Like its technically a stin off but way more mature personally, yeah even how carpenter got,but i am aldo angry,because the series made cordy so great, that it made me more mad. In the parts whedon was not involved. Also them and adult problems, i like buffy,but mostly season 6, that is great, really explored that this consequent.
It's interesting how I've seen that same point be brought about the scene where Edward slams Bella into the glass to proect her from jasper, and how he just makes it worse. I always interpreted it a different way. Edward, in the book, as you stated has to always be on guard and particularly careful about how he touches Bella. He can accidentally hurt her just because he is so much naturally stronger than her. It takes intentional effort. So I saw that scene as him panicking in that moment and pushing her away from the danger without thinking. He's working on his instinct at this moment, and he forgets in that split second to be extra careful as he usually is. He didn't mean to push her that hard, just get her out of the way. It's still goofy in how its executed though lol
Started watching the video without looking at the timer and got confused when I realised it's been an hour and you haven't stopped talking in a "Brief history..." video. Btw you're brilliant, I love the way you explain things.
The way I didn’t realize your mentions of fanfic were 50 shades references and not just you subtly admitting you’d written twilight fanfic until the end…how have I survived this long while having the intelligence of a squirrel that was thrown at a rock immediately after being born
i'm only half an hour in but i want to write this before i forget, so i don't know if you mention it later or not, but.... one thing pretty much everyone seems to forget, when talking about bella and edward, is that he is luring her in his voice, his sparkling skin, his scent, all of that draws her in like a moth to a lamp i truly don't think she is fully in control of how she feels about him or acts around him because by nature of his condition being a vampire, he is drawing people in he's attractive in ways that aren't just visual and in a supernatural way he IS a predator and everything about him, even though it's not done intentionally, is pulling her towards him so her wanting to be around him all the time and stuff really, really isnt her fault in any way and the thing is, he KNOWS this he knows this and chooses to go after her anyway, despite the age gap and the fact she's basically somewhat drugged just by his existence near her so when he left, you can think of it like withdrawl from an addictive substance and it suddenly makes a LOT more sense why she acts the way she does he loves her or whatever and has a hard time being away, but it's nowhere near the same because she is in actual pain and her body doesn't know how to cope i feel like if edward stayed away for a long time, it would've eventually completely left her system and she could've had a normal life and been fine, who knows? i remember reading the books (when they came out, i borrowed them from a cousin while i was on a road trip with my family for the drive home and sent them back to her once i got home lol) and hoping that she would leave him once she turned because it wouldn't be affecting her anymore, or at least have a moment where she realizes it's not really the same relationship because he's not pulling her in like that anymore..... but sadly that's not how that turned out :/
i did only read the books once, years ago, and while i own the first movie and it's by far my favorite (so i've seen that a few times), i saw the others maybe twice, so i may be misremembering ... i do feel like the bite mark left on her skin was always cold, because just that tiny section of her had already turned which could have some really interesting effects if it did actually happen, but i could be making it up idk lol
it would make SO MUCH SENSE if, after the end of the first book/movie, she felt a NEED to become a vampire because she had been bitten by james and had started turning before edward stopped it like some small part of her feels really wrong and that's the only way to fix it
i just read ur entire thread and ur brilliant! ur literally like the only person ive seen who brought this up! it definitely would've been an interesting plot if it were in the movies and books. plus it would've helped putting bella with jacob more (even though jacob also has his problems😒)
so the other part of this is, her blood "sings" to him, he compared her blood to a drug to him and it makes him want to eat her, right? so once she turns, his effect on her (drawing her in like prey) should stop AND her effect on him (her blood smells too good and he wants to be near her all the time) so really, their relationship should have ended once she turned or at least changed, because their whole little toxic relationship (due to him being a vampire) should have stopped having that dynamic it would have been really cool, honestly, for them to break up or at least try to get to know each other without those things affecting them because OBVIOUSLY they were both obsessed, basically addicted (he himself says she's like a drug to him...), because of him being a vampire and her being a human if they were both vampires (or both humans..) that would not be happening and they could've either broken up because they realized how toxic that relationship was and how they weren't together because they actually liked each other OR they could've become an actually healthy relationship where neither of them is addicted to or wants to kill the other
You're so right and you should say it holy crap, that would be such a more fascinating take than what Meyer wrote. Doesn't Jacob say something like that too? "He's like a drug to you, it's not healthy"
As a former Mormon, I just really appreciate your nuance discussing how that is reflected in the writing process, the audience, and all the rest of it. I laughed at all the jokes sprinkled throughout, but also felt weirdly validated by that part of the Stephanie Meyer chapter. So honestly, thanks 😊
Everyone here should read A Discovery of Witches. If you ever even vaguely enjoyed Twilight I feel like it takes the general vibe and then makes an interesting and compelling story and world with it. And if you don’t like or have never read Twilight (like me), it’s a genuinely enjoyable urban fantasy/romance. Hope you enjoy if you do decide to read it :)
I love that series, while it also has some issues, the main love plot isn't one of them, and they aren't boring. I am no longer a vampire fan and yet devoured those books!
Loved the first season of the show, haven't finished the second season. Ended up reading the first book recently and really hated Matthew, had a really hard time finishing the book because of how sexist and controlling he was, and Diana wasn't particularly likeable either, it was so infuriating that she put up with his behaviour just because she loved him
@@kilian-one-l I read around 150 pages of the first book and DNF it, it felt really meh but the show was really good (save for Diana being a Mary Sue in the last season)
Is Bella a good character? No. Is she relatable? Unfortunately, yes. Having been a depressed bland teenager myself who obsessed over her abusive boyfriend and did not receive any help or therapy on that, I have to admit that I really related to her. I wasn't a teen when listening to the books, so I wasn't into them, but I listened to them as a guilty pleasure. They were like chewing on bland toast. Boring, but somehow I could not stop until I consumed all.
Oh Lily! I've been having such a bad few days... When I clicked my notifications and saw you had uploaded "A Brief Look at Twilight," I knew I'd be okay for a few more hours. I obviously just started, but I'm SOOOOO in! Not to mention that it's always a treat to look at your poster - "Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism" fuck yeah! Thank you, Lily 💙💙
Would the Hunger Games be a series you’d be interested in covering? I’d love to hear your commentary on another wildly popular young adult series we all were obsessed with lol
3:57:46 we were all very surprised midnight sun got published. I remember in middle school hearing about it cuz someone stole the manuscript and we were all like “guess we’ll never get to reas that”
Werewolves in western culture carry a connection with primal rage and intense emotion, a bestial nature which is out of control- aka, savage. While this concept isn’t in and of itself problematic, I think it’s fucked up and racist that that idea is applied to native Americans in Twilight. I am not Quileute, I’m Chickasaw, but in our shifter stories the shapeshifter still has human intelligence in their animal form. That’s where some of the horror comes from in certain stories - a dog which looks at you with human eyes. (It’s worth mentioning that shifters are not always presented as scary or enemies!) In none of the stories I’ve heard has shifting been connected with emotion or loss of control.
Agree, I honestly think that the element of intense emotions is such a good one to involve in werewolves and other involuntary shapeshifters as I call them. I do something similar as my characters who suffer from my setting's lycanthropy are sapient when they transport even when they transport into non-sapient creatures because every critter is sentient in their own way. however it isn't limited to one of my fantasy races or groups, it can affect anyone and isn't specifically interlink with anyone unless societies deem it so by their lens. I do like the whole disease aspect of it cause it can seen as fantasy STD/acts like HIV (Is like HIV in my setting) so how does this affect certain behaviours, your lifestyle and other things that come from being able to spread this disease by bodily fluids.
(just 46mins in, still in Bella section) I know everyone says how boring Bella is as a main character and that she doesn't have any personality etc... BUT I will forever defend her because she is not only the main character, she is the narrator, who is highly critical of herself, doesn´t see herself as something special, thinks she is too bland for Edward, doesn´t know why people are interested in her.... it's not that she is any of that (and maybe she is all of that) but it´s the way she sees herself and that´s what we are handed. I don't remember much from reading midnight sun, but when Edward describes her, he never describes her as boring or not interesting. Yes, she is naive and borderline stupid, but she is very loving and protective of the people she loves, not afraid to sacrifice herself on multiple occasions, in school she is rather smart and (even though this is not a personality trait) rather attractive. I haven´t read the book for a long time so I don´t want to claim things like "she is funny" when I don't really know, but when the books were published I was also a teenage girl who never thought of herself as much or as "that girl" and my life was kinda boring so escaping into this fantastical world through Bella was something I liked. Yes, most of the things happen TO her, but still, I feel like this characterisation we have of her is just because we don´t take into account we are looking at her through her eyes.
Seconded. I still worry I'm a badically personality-free blank slate, tbh. Bella was very relatable to me just as she was because that's basically how I was as a teenager. I liked my books more than people, was quiet and a wallflower, etc.
The predator/prey thing can be so much better if its handled as purposefully horrific and also leans more in the fetish nature of it all. By which I mean to say if you're interested in it you should watch and/or read beastars because it is So much better and So much less mormon about it (it even has a multiple hour video essay about it if that's more your style!)
This is also really interesting as a creative writing major. So Meyer had interesting world building, characters, villains, etc but she did not think or elaborate on them at all which is one of the first very basic things that they teach in any writing/storytelling class or video. ...This also encourages me on the fact that if things like Twilight and 50 shades got published then I will also get published eventually.
my roommate askin what im doing and i dont know how to tell him ive been listening to some girl explain every aspect of twilight shes fixated on for the past 3 hours
As someone deep into vampire fiction, but not into twilight at all, I kiiiiind of like older vampires getting a human love interest, since that person could be a symbolic tether to humanity for the vampire, rather than the vampire being the corrupting force for the human. I also am working on a novel with a friend that follows a clan of vampires from their perspective, with one of them having a human partner at the time where the novel starts, which has given me cause to examine the human-vampire relationship a bit more closely. From this perspective, I'd like to address the age gap issue that you brought up for both Buffy and Bella: An age gap that would be way beyond what can be considered "normal" is honestly inevitable when the vampire is supposed to be older and distanced from their human past. However, there are some ways to mitigate how gross it can feel, like making the human love interest a grownup with some life experience of their own, rather than a barely legal teenager, as well as giving the human agency, like was done with Buffy. Also, there should be an acknowledgement that relationships between vampires and humans are inherently problematic, even if they are closer in age. Vampires themselves are inherently problematic, since the existence of a vampire is selfish by design. And in my opinion, if that is something that gets examined to some extent by the author, that is okay. It is *okay* for relationships in fiction to be unhealthy and imperfect. It just should be examined a little more critically than the human being so deeply in love with the vampire that they are willing to look past all the red flags.
So I consumed the books quite quickly and uncritically as a kid, that fake out at the end of the last book is what shattered the glass for me, like it made me reevaluate the whole series with that ending and it didn't hold up well. A little more context, I read the books before everyone got their hands on them in Portugal and my school, so while some girls in the know found it weird I was reading them, most people didn't, and the person who lent me the first one was a dude. So that was a fun liminal space to be in, not really knowing the public reception or view on it, and consuming uncritically before the glass shattered.
I love listening to video essays that challenge Twilight as a series becuase I'm absolutely obsessed with it. Its such a dumb series and I love it for that. I own and read Every single twilight book aside from the New Moon graphic novel volume 1. Its a weird obsession because I understand all of the weird shit in it, but somewhere in my little autistic brain I'm always thinking about it.
I was rewatching the Harry Potter one today and hopped over to this immediately! Two of my favorite franchises (only one of which I’ve actually read) that I love to hear overanalyzed! You spoil me!
@@alim.9801 The worst part was that I was a firm believer in She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named being a better writer than Meyer, and now I'm like, "Eh, a very big pass on both, though Meyer seems to be more naïve and sheltered than an actively terrible person compared to the former."
Gotta say I disagree with your argument against immortality. So long as the immortality is the variety that can be ended its not the terrible thing you make it out to be, it just means that your end will most likely come about at a time and manner of your choosing. Far better than our current situation IMHO.
1:27:44 i love the “he’s a great guy, you’d get a drink with him” followed immediately by “…although” at the thought of getting a drink with a vampire fjdjnfnf
The "one detail" that I can't help but laughing at about Twilight is the whole thing in Port Angeles, where it's painted as the big dangerous city. In reality it's a town who's main claim to fame is that it's the place with the multiplex. It's one of those rural places that has more services than its population suggests because people travel from the surrounding areas to visit it.
2:11:28 Victoria got baited to her death. Her power was telling her to GTFO. She got baited into staying with Edward bragging about murdering James. Her emotions got the better of her. It's honestly one of the cruelest things Edward does on screen. Like imagine your (girlfriend/boyfriend/enbyfriend)'s killer walks up to and starts laughing about how he bashed their head in with a rock and watched the life drain from their pathetic eyes. Actual serial killer behavior from Edward. Her power didn't fail her, she was too emotionally distraught to heed the warning. WITH GOOD REASON!
pls don't do Katniss dirty by putting her into the blank slate bag 😭, I swear she is anything but. she is a realized character with actual personality and many people don't like her because of that.
I get the feeling I’m going to rewatch this video multiple times! I cannot describe the joy I get out of brutally dissecting every awful aspect of Twilight or anyone who will listen. I read it in middle school hoping it would somehow get better (naturally it never did) and it’s actually inspire me to write my own vampire/werewolf/supernatural story in my free time because I want to create a better world and lore behind my vampires and Weres out of spite for this series wasting my middle school free-time. I cannot begin to describe how many hours I spent ripping this story to shreds with a fellow writer buddy of mine who is also writing vampire based stories in their free time. It’s a funny little pastime we have. I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to like Twilight, I’m just saying I personally want to take a bat to each of these characters knees for grinding my gears.
I will write a rewrite of both harry potter and twilight when I am somewhat better at writing. Itll be so much fun to just lean in so many themes these two never explored.
About worldbuilding being introduced then dropped: my dad, who is not into sports AT ALL, wished that the movies would have become about baseball playing vampires because he thought it was a cool workaround introduced in the first book/movie.
Alice can only see the future of creatures she's been. She can see human futures and vampire futures. In theory, if she'd fully developed the powers as a human, she wouldn't be able to see vampires in her visions. She can't see werewolf futures because she's never been one and same for Renesme and the other vampire-human hybrid we encounter.
new headcanon: benjamin got his elemental powers because in his human life, he was a blacksmith. he worked with fire, earth, water, and air to create, and this was amplified into full elemental control when he was turned (probably following a smithing accident or, depending on when he lived, even just an infected burn)
I love including The Lost Hero as an example of the blank slate protagonist trope because while the rest of the Percy Jackson Universe franchise doesn't follow that type of trope, Jason is such a himbo (especially before he regains his memories) that the trope kinda fits him for that book (obviously the same could be said for Percy in Son of Neptune)
Thank you for another quick look at an interestingly flawed popular franchise! Came to the comments because there *is* a fancy word for third-to-last: antepenultimate. I love this word and use it whenever possible.
I've never read or watched any of the Twilight books or movies. But, I might after I've watched this detailed breakdown and critique of the series. I can't wait to have a better and more impactful viewing experience of the series after watching your brief look at Twilight. ...this is going to be wild.
You should definetly check out the book Lost Girls: A Vampire Revenge Story. It's a sort of Twilight parody that addresses a lot of what you brought up here. The main character is our Bella equivalent, after she's broken up with the Edward equivalent. She meets some of his other ex-girlfriends, and finds out that the "romantic moves" (manipulation tactics) he used on her were also used on his other ex's. They find out that he's now trying to seduce another high school girl, and team up to kill him before he convinces her to turn. It really leans into the horror of it all. The 'never being able to change physically' thing is really built on. One of the vampires got injured just before she turned, and that injury now never heals. The reality of being stuck as a teenager forever is also a big topic. The whole grotesqueness of it all is a big thing too. Like, when vampires fight eachother, they're fully ripling off eachothers limbs with their superstrength. The thing you mention about being shoved in a hole to starve and scream for eternity is literally one of the punishments used in the book. If that wasn't enough to convince you, the lead character also ends up in a lesbien relationship with one of the ex-girlfriends
Having grown up in the height of Twilight fever and then using 50SoG video essays to combat my insomnia all through college, this is kind of a perfect video essay for me. That Twilight got as popular as it did is absolutely a reflection of hidden (or not so hidden) biases in our society - racism and sexism thrive in representations that the affected groups are supposed to live with if not actively support and consume, purity culture and at the very least a vaguely Christian theology are deeply entrenched in cultures the world over that have been colonized by Christian European nations and ESPECIALLY in the US, and often times literature for teen girls is subjected to far less rigorous thematic/content scrutiny prior to publication than is necessary to protect that demographic because it is, in fact, that demographic! That we can grow up and look back on our childhood books and shows and movies with adult eyes and recognize the messed up messages in those properties as well as what we may have internalized from or had reinforced by them is an important part of growing up and growing as a person. I'm so glad I got to see this before any copyright claims hid it away and I'm really grateful you put this video out!!
Here to comment again to say im rewatching to get you that sweet sweet ad rev. Loved it the first time. Excited to rewatch an think about some different stuff this time around.
are you going to make a riverdale video because that series drives me insane and i love it it literally made me start writing again for better or for worse because man if these writers can keep going, surely i can
@@LilySimpson thank you for your service. people need to know. the show's morality is so batshit it needs a break down because "weirdly catholic" only scratches the surface
After watching almost every single video in your channel… I love how you reflect on concepts and I would LOVE you to check out Revolutionary Girl Utena. That’d be amazing.
49:06 Sorry!!!!! But I do feel like Bella’s recklessness and disregard of her own life isn’t just about Edward but also some form of suicidal ideation due to her depression. Like you know that thing where you don’t actively try or even want to kill your self, but you still engage in behaviors that could lead you to dying. Also extreme sports can lead to adrenaline and dopamine I think. So I feel that it’s more because of passive suicidal ideation and adrenaline rushes then Edward. Though her auditory and visual hallucinations of Edward are definitely something that should be talked about more.
I think ir would have been really interesting if Meyer (as she is religious), would have written vampires like Andersen's Mermaids. They live a longer life, but they cannot enter heaven. It would have been really interesting. And would have given Edward really not wanting Bella to be vampire more nuance. And alsothere would not be the thing of there really being no negatives to being a vampire. But that's just kinda an idea that popped into my head. And I'm pretty sure Meyers never read the little mermaid.
omg I never went through a twilight phase while I was a kid but I did get a little invested in the movies during the twilight “renaissance” so this is bound to be fun
I just wanted to add, in terms of Charlie, and his sudden change of character and easy acceptance of everything - religiously, the responsibility for a woman (taking care of her, worrying about her) is transferred from father to husband, so it makes sense with the whole Mormon thing (I was raised Catholic so I’m assuming those people are the same). Basically the idea is that daddy needs to care for her until the day a husband can replace him, which is when the father no longer gives a shit, or should give a shit, as the responsibility of caring has been transferred to her new patriarch.
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Reebrace fanfic!
I would guess the tribe dosnt like what meyer did, to flatout using them, but did th best what they got, and use it to raie awareness, maybe correct some tourists perception
an maybe get some proi o it, they need. They really need.O;G is the us governmnt not giving enough funds at all. So good. But i think here can ay meyer bad, but goop on them doing the best being dragged into it, and their culture.
Also agree, it might not nbe good but i is enjoyale or peopl, maybe dont drag a real life tribe in, else maybe it did inspire peopl to write and get creative. With all that fairly bland characters.
I’ve lived in Jacksonville it is basically hell.
after watching the harry potter one this really feels like just a brief look at twilight
I've seen it so many times that now, looking at this one I'm like "wow, that's not so long"
Yeah my thought was "should've been called a reasonably long look at twilight"
Same. I was like "brief?" Then I remembered the Harry Potter one and was like "yeah, definitely brief".
Im here taking a break from the hp one 😅
@@beep1070 That was me, too. I watched the whole Harry Potter one in two sittings and then saw this one and thought "oh, only four hours." The Harry Potter video ruined my life. Ten minutes seems like nothing now.
Taylor Lautner also brought up in a recent podcast that he really struggled with body isses and the consequences of being constantly sexualized at like 17, and how when he grew older it was really difficult for him to not struggle with his body image because he cannot ever reach this absurd level of "abs" he reached for the movies. looking back its really disgusting how many middle-aged women sexualized a minor for his body.
Wait he was 17?? I did Not know that
Hope he can recover, and yes its even more absurd than themcu and cw redocilous workouts.
i said this in another comment but i have this memory of being in the theater when new moon came out and hearing every mother in the audience clap and scream things like "yeah" and "woo hoo!" when he first takes his shirt off
@@nautil_us yeahhhh he was only 12 in sharkboy & lavagirl and twilight was filmed not too long after that
Oh yes I remember hearing of the grown women fighting over his life-size cardboard cutouts
stephanie meyers not doing any research on vampires and the common themes and allegories and dynamics that tend to crop up around them before writing twilight makes so much sense cuz it's the only piece of vampire fiction i've ever encountered where the vampires do not at all seem even the slightest bit queer
which is honestly impressive given that "vampires inspired by x-men and mcr" is one of the gayest concepts i can think of. maybe she is just fully ignorant of it all because of the mormonism or maybe she purposefully avoids it cuz of the mormonism
@@hsmoscoutoh that explains eds and jacobs chemestry in the third movie 😂
And of course alice and bella the best couple?!
Girl have u met Alice ?? She and Bella r so much better together than Bella is with either of the dudes
You’re so right, and that’s impressive considering that they glitter in sunlight
@@xwormbonesx idk bc I’ve been revisiting the movies, at least, lately and they still just seem like good friends and Alice just like a bubbly straight girl
I still can't get over that the actor who played Jacob was UNDERAGE when everyone was thirsting over him. How just okay everyone else was to treat an underage kid as a sexual symbol that is constantly shirtless on the movie, one that was written to be part of an actual tribe for that.
This + the fact that apparently he was explicitly told he needed to bulk up if he wanted to keep the role of Jacob is really creepy to me. Taylor Lautner truly deserved much better.
Colorism and double-standards with objectification.
And all the 40-something moms thirsting over him. 🤢
Weren't teenagers the ones doing that though? Teenagers being attracted to other teenagers is normal.
@@dreye3215 Were you mercifully spared the forbidden knowledge of Twilight Moms?
I think some of your comments about the werewolves are a little… blasé for a lack of a better word. Being a shapeshifter is explained to be a horror story, by those who have shifted. Jacob is horrified about the possibility of changing, and he is scared of what’s happening to him such as the uncontrollable fits of rage and how he’s treating Billy. He also is very low income and keeps ruining clothes due to this.
Them shifting ruins so many of the pack’s lives. Sam and Leah were in college, Paul had his own life and friends and they had to give this all away. Some of the the boys who started shifting were 12 years old. They now are stuck in this painful, inhuman shifting cycle until threats around their borders cease.
Imprinting is also seen by pack members like Jacob as a curse. Jacob reiterated this point, and calls it’s another way of his choices getting taken away. It strips the pack of their autonomy, even they already have so little left with being forced to shift.
Also the way Jacob and pack members are written as savages and villainized when they have every right to be angry and hate vampires. They lost their lives to these creatures coming back, even when they knew what they would do to the tribe. The vampires, you maim, kill, and manipulate are put on a pedestal, admired and glorified while the werewolves are demonized.
It also plays into many racist stereotypes of indigenous men, making them aggressors and violent. Or SM sterilizing an indigenous woman and constantly villainizing her. Also, the layers to white people being the ones to ruin the lives of indigenous people and taking their lives and choices.
I think when we critique characters and their choices, especially when it’s marginalized groups being written by others, we have to consider things such as authorial bias and why writers might do what they do.
But anyways,great analysis and I really enjoyed this video!
This comment is so beautifully written and articulated dude, thank you for giving me extra things to think about 💜
I feel like a more competent writer than Meyer could write an actually thought-provoking and terrifying story through this lens. Like, the horrific racism, systemic poverty, and white colonial genocide allegory is already there, its just brushed aside for shitty worldbuilding and romanticizing white rich vamps.
There are fanfics written from Leah's pov where we get to really see the horror of shapeshifting, the settler-colonial dynamic, and its effect on her family. Das-Mervin's "The Wedding Crashers" (xover with Supernatural) is a personal favorite, and another I can't remember for the life of me that goes into the Clearwater siblings backstory, specifically the week leading up to their transformations and the effects of food insecurity on a pair of growing werewolves (eating whatever food they can buy to fuel their increased metabolism, fighting over snacks, eating questionable or expired foods out of desperation)
> The vampires, you maim, kill, and manipulate are put on a pedestal, admired and glorified
Did we watch the same video?
@@ChrissieBearI think this was a typo and was supposed to say “who” maim, kill, and manipulate
2:55:27 I remember seeing an article where they talked about how Forks became a tourist trap and the Quiluete not seeing any of that money and people thinking they weren’t even real
Yes this is true and the twilight group I'm in does a yearly fundraiser for the tribe and it'll be happening again soon, also people drop the link for donations to their move to higher ground campaign due to flooding constantly threatening their homes/buildings every now and then. They should be getting compensation for the use of their tribe by SM and lionsgate but unfortunately that's still not the case.
@@KittyO7878 🐀 I donated this year!! ✨
After reading “The Host” by Meyer (I never read any of the Twilight series), I realized that she likes cherry-picking neat ideas, and then not extrapolating on them whatsoever, or making them wholly unique to her universe. Which, incidentally is a common thread amongst the Mormon religion. To be honest, she's just another shopper who knows how to put together a decent window display, but that's all it is. Dare I say, the Twilit series is *gasp*, vapid and unoriginal...
Furthermore, as an Indigenous Person whose tribe [Dine (Navajo Nation)] borders their mecca, I can say that the icky feeling you get around the Mormon obsession with Indigenous People is very tangible and real. When I lived in Kayenta, AZ, a lot of the Mormon families were mixed-race, with Anglo-Mormon view points taking center stage. It's all part of the plan to “kill the savage and save the man”. In truth, Mormons made Indigenous People a “Lost Tribe of the Israelites”, because it too was part of an anti-Semitic political movement to discredit and bastardize modern Jewish People. That whole faith is wacky. I wish I could also say that America's sexualization and commodification of Indigenous Bodies (perceived, or otherwise) started & ended with Jacob, but that obviously isn't the case. The fact that Lautner was a minor during most of all that makes it all the more disgusting.
Lautner is white but yes everything else
@@stephaniewilliams6756 Thus why "perceived" is in brackets. I edited it, for clarity. I forgot an "or".
indigenous people 🤝 Jews
> “Mormons should stop equating us, it’s weird and fetishistic”
I'm an ex-Mormon. The moment that I realized that my entire culture and religion growing up was based on cultural erasure and appropriation, and white supremacy, I was horrified and angry.
I'm so sorry that this religion continues to harm not only its adherents, but indigenous Americans and so many other minorities. It's gross.
As an ex-Mormon who was born and raised in Mormon Mecca, I completely agree with this comment!
In fact, my own family has a history of pretty nasty treatment of Native Americans from Utah and Arizona - specifically Paiute and Dine people. My great-whatever-grandfather founded Circleville on orders from Brigham Young and was involved with the massacre of 27 Paiutes that occurred there, and my great-grandparents participated in a program that separated Native American children from their parents and communities and placed them in the homes of white Mormons by being a placement home for a Dine girl for several years. She did come to both of their funerals, so apparently she felt like she was treated well enough to travel from Arizona twice to mourn my great-grandparents, but she was still separated from her family, and I'm sure there were plenty of other children who were treated like absolute garbage by their supposed White Saviors.
just to add another tiny, but hilarious, nitpick: london didn't have a sewer system until the 19th century. if carlisle was turned into a vampire in the "sewers" of london, he was turned into a vampire,,, in the thames river,,, or just a street
I would, however, note that the word 'sewer' before then would refer to open ditches of drainage and waste water - these would often just be like shallow channels (sometimes stone/brick or carved into the road) or dug ditches that ran alongside roads/streets and would make their way into existing watercourses/rivers (of which london has quite a few - not just the Thames) So sewers (as channels of drainage of all water including waste) did exist - they were mostly open to the air, and obviously the people would have to cross over them to get around (although some would have been culverted in more rich areas). In most cases they also referred to natural watercourses & rivers also as sewers - because at that time one of their primary functions was seen to be transporting waste water away (and I'm guessing especially around london, rivers would have had very poor water quality and they wouldn't have provided much else at that time).
So sewers did exist and there was a sewer system in place (albeit a bad one that was poorly planned, if at all, and obviosuly a massive public health risk!), just not in the form of the underground Victorian bricked sewers that, you're right, weren't constructed until the 1800s after various cholera outbreaks and the big stink finally galvanised the government into paying for rehauling the sewer system. I've been down in some of those original victorian sewers (it was an experience - very stinky, and sewage fungus everywhere, lots of nice brickwork), and it was super cool in a weird way. But I can't imagine anyone one wanting to hang around down there... It's actually super dangerous in there because of the gas build-up.
Anyway, I'm guessing then that Carlisle may have been turned while lying in one of these older open channel sewers. But then again I'm assuming that the phrase 'sewers of london' can also refer to those historic parts of London that were so grotty (and perhaps had very poor drainage or didnt benefit from the services of those guys who would come take all the human waste away) that the whole area was like a sewer in terms of cleanliness. So he might have just been lying in a very dirty street somewhere?
@@nomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomno matter how you slice it, Carlisle ends up lying face down in a ditch and I find that funny.
I'm a year late, but distinctly remember Carlisle saying something about hiding behind a potatoe sack or something? Did I get that mixed up? I doubt there were sacks potatoes in the Thames back then. 😂
I haven't read the book but my partner has and she thinks twilight should just embrace the fact its basically a fetish thing and not a gunuine love story. Being systematically stalked, manipulated and emotionally abused by a supernaturally attractive person with way more power than you who protects you from a evil supernaturally attractive person with way more power than you then a love triangle with another superpowered emotionally abusive person, then a really graphic baby birth sure sounds like a fetish story and that's not even touching imprinting
No. Twilight shouldve leaned into a lesbian lovestory throughout fleeing from two obsessive stalkers after the relationship gets fucked in the second book.
Alice wouldve came back as she is too invested in bella existing, as their relationship forms (jasper can just not exist in this story or be aro idk)
And then edward gets omegaobsessed and as bella tried to bond with jacob he also is obsessed, mad that she is attracted to vampires and a fem vampire too
Like, throw in a triangle with the antagonist of the third book being obsessed with alice due to her futuresight
IT COULDVE BEEN SO GOOD!
@@Killroy007 See, the thing is you're asking for the books to actually be good and OP is asking for the books to stop pretending they're anything but Meyer's personal fetish material.
@@dustrose8101 thats fair
But like we already have a purely fetish version of twilight in 50 shades and 365 days (its a fetish fanfic of 50 shades turned book series). And I like alice too much
@@Killroy007 Oh both of those are written by authors who are still high on the "I don't actually acknowledge I'm writing hardcore fetishes beyond basic erotica" (looking at 50 shades specifically and its bungling of BDSM), so we still have yet to have one that actually is aware that its just fetish material.
But also yes, alice deserves better. It's good her and leah nearly universally get adopted out of Twilight.
@@Killroy007And at least the movies through the books seem too, ed and jacob, are endgame, and bella and alice. But i would ship edward and jacob.
I read these books when they were hot. Honestly my favorite part was when he says "we can't be together I care too much about you" and then abandons her in the middle of the woods lmao
Also when he said "it's sparkling time"
I loved it when bella said "ita bodyhorror time" and pregnancied all over the fourth book.
As far as I remember, he walked her about thirty feet into the woods and she could still see her way out when he left her. It was Bella stumbling after him and finally falling down that caused her to be lost for so long. Granted he could’ve broken up with her on the front porch or something, but it was actually Bella’s unwillingness to let him go that got her in trouble.
Despite some objectively shitty moments (defending Jacob's assault being a definitive low point), I think Charlie's popularity and coolness factor, him being mostly well liked even by people who hate the rest of Twilight's characters, is all due to the actor's portrayal of him in the movies. He's one of the only people who at least tries to act and make do with the character he's given, and brings humor, warmth and even emotion to Charlie.
Take a drink every time Lily saves something for another chapter.
🥂
Can I had another rule and say take a drink every time Lily intentionally butchers the name Mary Sue?
At 25:38 I'm getting tipsy. I might be dead by the end of the video.
With those odds it'd probably be safer to play Russian Roulette lol
Am I about to watch a 4 hour long video about a series I’ve never interacted with outside of pop culture references? Yes.
The 10 Hour Harry Potter Video was that for me- so this is more of Lily's cool "deconstruct the Pop Culture Osmosis Book Series" videos. I take both as a win.
Same and the fact that there is no explanation on any of the plot makes it all deliciously confusing lol I'm just there nodding along pretend I have the slightest clue what the fuck lily's talking about
It be that way sometimes
Same here my guy and I'm so pumped hehe
me fr
How did I not see this until now but at 54:00 when Lily describes what happened to Bella and how Charlie tries to help, all I could imagine is that Charlie probably thought Bella got raped by Edward and abandoned in the woods.
honestly that makes charlie's reaction to jacob forcing a kiss on bella even worse. like, it's ok if his friend's kid does it.
@@nyx_moonwalk What Jacob did was objectively awful but we have to remember that from Charlie's perspective, the woods incident is not the first time Edward has harmed her.
Remember the Cullens' excuse as to why she was beat up in Book 1? Fell down the stairs and out the window? Charlie knows his child. She's clumsy but not that stupid. Then there's the running across the country. There's the isolation from her human friends. There's the injuries she came home with after her birthday party. There's the months of depression and constant nightmares in Book 2. Then there's the running off to Italy without a word, returning with the guy who (as far as Charlie is aware) could’ve raped her or was incredibly abusive. Oh, and trashing her car so she couldn't visit her friends on the reservation.
Jacob kissing her is FAR FAR more bearable than what Edward did, from Charlie's perspective.
@@grandempressvicky6387 @Grand Empress Vicky yeah. let her stay with the boy who possibly beats her and did something horrible to her, or cheer on the boy who she punched for kissing her without consent. neither are a good choice. not even "team alice", because she'd still have to be around edward to be with alice
@@nyx_moonwalk Everyone in this book is abusive in some way to Bella, I'm just pointing out why Charlie wouldn't be as hostile to Jake. It's gross but understandable. Going further tho, I also think that Alice is a bad option because she keeps explicitly going against what Bella asks of her.
Bella said she didn't want a birthday party. Alice did it anyway. Bella repeatedly said she doesn't want gifts. Alice did it anyway. These choices and explicit ignoring of her simple requests is what almost got Bella killed and she should've had the foresight to know that. I've seen multiple comments how Alice treats Bella like a human doll to play dress up with and only cares about her because she brings her brother happiness. Her aim at the end of the day is not to be friends but make sure Edward gets his mate.
Everyone just sucks.
Save Rosalie and Emmett.
If anything, these books can be an interesting way to see how Stephanie Meyer sees the world.
@@grandempressvicky6387I was honestly a little surprised that Lily wrote Rosalie off as a bitch (her word, not mine). Another writer might have given Rosalie a better “redemption” than what she got. One could even argue that Rosalie’s dislike was entirely justified: at first Bella was a childish human (and an actual child) who didn’t belong in their world, and the more she learned things that should make her run away the more addicted to Edward she became. It was unhealthy, and it would have been interesting to let that toxicity be another layer to Rosalie’s resentment. But no, it had to boil down to petty jealousy that went away once Rose got the last piece of the ending she wanted as a human.
I can’t imagine going through a horrific trauma and then dying from it and then BEING BROUGHT BACK SO YOU CAN LIVE WITH THOSE MEMORIES FOREVER
Like ????? That sounds like TORTURE
In my fanfic of this video essay, Lily is doing this entire thing extemporaneously and in one take. She just sits down and has all this ready to go off the top of her head.
The god of video essays comes down and beams all this straight to her head
I’m not sure a person exists who hates twilight more than Robert Pattinson
@@k-veeaudiojack probably, considering the amount of shit she's still getting to this day about it.
@@resstie I hope someday people forget about it considering she's had some great roles since. So has Pattinson but people seem to be more ready to "forgive" him for the series that Stewart. And on one level I don't know why but then maybe I also have a sneaking feeling why :/
@@alim.9801 my favourite role of hers is definitely in the runaways movie, as a really big runaways fan
@@queerqueenstan same. That movie and Personal Shopper (surprisingly creepy ghosty goodness!) are two of my faves that she did after the twilight mess. 👌🏽
I would argue the point of Katniss from The Hunger Games being a blank slate/empty character! She has such specific motivations and personality that I actually found it hard to relate to her as a teen! I didn't see a ton of myself in her, which is part of what made the books so intriguing. She's in a dangerous situation bc poverty/fascism is inherently dangerous, and isn't really a "magic teen who saves everything" so much as "is debilitatingly traumatized and doesn't actually lead much because of course she doesn't, she's seventeen, ppl in power are just using her and taking advantage of her love for her family" and then "main character who (spoiler) spends most of the last chapter of the last book contemplating her suicide." The plot only revolves around her because her sister is randomly selected to be abused by the government, and so much of the war/political stuff happens without her, because of course it does, she's a kid. THG is interesting bc it gets looped in with all the other fantasy/dystopia 2000s YA but it really is set apart for me, and I feel like it's judged by ppl who don't realize that it originated or at least popularized a lot of the tropes it's criticized for falling into. (No one come for the love triangle. It's not a priority of the plot but it does happen as a tragic choice between two distinct futures. The movies are the ones who made that a huge thing, and other books thought the appeal was two sexy boys to pick between rather than an ethics and trust dilemma.) (Also I know you just included the book cover with a bunch of other YA books, not to like make a THG-specific argument, but I just thought I'd point this out lol. Love the video!)
i thought the same, honestly. Katniss has a very strong personality, she's a very well written character, and imo the only reason people think she's a blank slate is because of her portrayal in the movies, where we don't hear her inner monologue.
@Pasha Righton It's because she's autistic coded.
@@igtut1 could you site where the author said this? also, you think allistic people can't be emotionally stunted and introverted?? she has ptsd for god's sake. i understand that as a headcannon and i like to hc characters as neurodivergent myself, but don't say she's 'coded' just because it's your hc. katniss just has low emotional intelligence due to her ptsd.
@@pasharightoncoding by its nature and origin isn't something that has to be confirmed by the author
This!!!
if you zoom out from the love triangle a little bit, I feel like the werewolves have lots of legitimate reasons to be mad at the Cullens that the book never considers? Like sure Jacob is doing it because he didn't get the girl, but like turning Bella means 1) people die (sure Bella has supernatural control over her bloodthirst but the werewolves had no way of knowing that before she turned) 2)more people from the tribe get conscripted as werewolves which is a miserable experience that means the death of privacy and like its bold of Meyer's to write a book in the 21st century where the powerful white family breaks their treaty with a native american tribe and are the good guys and protagonists of the series lmao
are you talking about the movies? because the books do consider this a lot
The funny thing is that while this is so obviously anti abortion, it certainly made 13/14 year old me very pro abortion and maybe made me realize for the first time that I don’t really want children. like that pregnancy was just horrifying, who would want that and all this for ending up with rememberance culpable? No thank you lol
I remember feeling relief when Edward said “We’ll get it out of you” and utter bewilderment when Bella was shocked by his reaction. I was like, she’s supposed to turn into a vampire and do a bunch of cool sh!t, not have a damn baby! Now I’m 30 and child free (probably forever), like anyone is surprised 😂
Edit: I didn’t understand “remembrance culpable” until after I typed my comment but it’s such a genius name I had to come back and tell you lol
Bella, who showed no interest in children or motherhood before becoming pregnant. Now suddenly she is ready to sacrifice her life for the fetus, which is unknown whether will survive, how they will live, etc. Whatever you say Stephanie
Hahaha yh that whole Part is so Horror movie-esque that i really couldnt Wrap my head around Bellas actions. I was 16/17 at the time and Had picked Up on the christian and anti abortion stuff by that Point, so i Had this weird Double Vision of SEEING that SM wanted to say "See? She protects the child, how heroic! A true martyr!" But i also saw a Woman throwing her life away and surviving by the skin of her teeth, basically through sheer luck. And the Horror and pain in Edward, as Hes unable to do anything.
So... Yh, i was never Christian or anti-abortion, so you can guess what left a bigger Impression 😂
It’s not anti-abortion, it’s pro-choice. Edward and Carlisle wanted Bella to get an abortion but she chose not to.
@@olakeska7908it’s almost like pro choice includes supporting someone’s choice to have a baby even when the people around her want her to abort?
I think the key to understanding Charlie is the parentification dynamic Bella has with both her parents. Because of Renee's irresponsibility and Charlie's absence, Bella sees them both less as parents and more as people she has to manage, take care of and make decisions for. She had a well-established dynamic of that with Renee. Then Bella moves in with Charlie--*as part of making decisions for Renee*. Bella starts to set up that same dynamic again, and Charlie, who's barely spent any time around her and has no clue how to be a father, just sort of rolls with it for a bit. Then sometimes jerks himself out of it and goes "wait, I have to father". And this to Bella is threatening/scary, she doesn't know how to /be/ actually treated as a child and he's really not established himself as a father figure, so she leans on his difficulty separating her as a person from her mother to regain that control. By the time she turns into a vampire, the entire dynamic is well beyond his ability to comprehend or find his footing.
Meanwhile the sexual stuff (his differing reactions by if he thinks Edward's slept with her, his assault apologia for his fave) is just... I don't know the words for the concepts, but I went through a very similar pair of experiences. It is a(n awful, messed-up) way some parents be, and there's a whole cultural aspect to it, and I bet you're going to get into some of that later in this video, but I wanted to get these thoughts down.
I really thank you for bringing that up. I’ve always found Bella and Renee’s relationship quite interesting but disturbing. How Bella describes Renee as her best friend, but also seems to see herself as a caretaker for her. And how odd her moving to Forks so her mom could be happy was in the first place. She definitely loved and cared for her parents, but it seems she felt obligated to do so, especially with how she left them behind relatively quickly. I feel like you explained a lot about their dynamic quite well, I’ve never even fully realized the part about Charlie.
Her “parental” relationship with Renee honestly feels like abuse/neglect and it’s a shame that isn’t explored or even acknowledged about her character. Renee couldn’t even remember she left a blouse at the dry cleaners, she had absolutely NO business raising a child 😖
@@xRaiofSunshineit's parentification. It's form of abuse and neglect...
It's like Rowling. We never really touched on this topic and we won't go into the damage it did to our character because no
Honestly, I think the only reason Bella didn't turn into a vampire from James' bite is because Stephanie Meyer initially intended the book to be a standalone and felt that her staying human was a better ending for that, and then just never got another good chance once it became a series lmao
I agree with almost everything you said, but I’d like to counter the very last bit: everyone I asked when I read the book agreed with me that Renesmee’s initial bite should have turned Bella. It would have circumvented the need for Edward to change her himself, which he was absolutely loath to do for most of the series, with the bonus of adding a little more justification for Renesmee to exist in the first place. I never understood why (narratively/thematically) she bit Bella or why the only vampire/human hybrid with a venomous bite was Nahuel. The female hybrids just don’t have venom? The only one that can create a vampire is the male? I must be missing some obscure Mormon doctrine here 😅
I've always thought that Carlisle was very intresting character not because of good writing as we established but because of things that are accidentaly implied in text. Like the way he is described as good compasionate one but he selfishly changed all those people against their will beacuse he was feeling alone? Man I would love that to be explored in books, living with a guilt how that influence your relationships and more. That is such a missed oportunity. Honestyl I think that most of backstories of those vampires have intresting... seeds?
Meyer has a 2000’s Shonen problem where all the side characters and tiny arcs are a thousand times more interesting than the main plot and protagonist
So much yes, she has a thing where she introduced great concepts and never goes anywhere with them. I was drawn into these books cuz the worldbuilding seemed interesting, and yet we never got to explore them more.
Also since he's a doctor, how did he get through medical school and thereafter while being around blood? He'd have to have some excellent self-control there. His story would have been more interesting then a trio of boring teenagers.
Same I find Carlisle really fascinating, he’s actually my favourite Cullen bc he’s more interesting than the others in almost every way
@@franknbeans8904that’s actually explained in the books. can’t remember the exact reason but i think it’s cuz his vampire “super power” is basically having extreme restraint and level-headedness, like able to control his vamp urges? which is what makes him a great father figure in part. like that’s the reason he’s able to turn people and stop feeding (which it is apparently very difficult for any vampire to stop feeding before the person is dead) and why he is able to be around blood all day as a doctor.
but like if my kids could read thoughts or tell the future i’d kinda be disappointed that my super power was being chill lol. though, it is kind of a gift bc a lot of the downsides of being a vampire are about not being able to control certain parts of your nature, so having that control must be a bit of a relief.
again, steph meyer writing side characters that are much more interesting than the main ones, and are implied to have far more complex interior lives.
There are fan fictions of Twilight I read (and re-read) while I no longer have the urge to re-read the original. I think Twilight is both under and over criticized, but at the end of the day it clearly strikes a chord of escapism. I wish that SM actually learned better writing skills (and was less Mormon/patriarchal white) as she has moments of great ideas (I stan Rosalie's backstory and revenge, pure icon behaviour that isn't so... goody two shoes).
Thanks for a new video to push me through a Friday at work!
where's the fic recs op
It's funny but I always imagine rosalies back story as another verse of the cell block tango from the musical Chicago. He had it coming, but she took it to another level and those security guys should have survived.
It's funny but I always imagine rosalies back story as another verse of the cell block tango from the musical Chicago. He had it coming, but she took it to another level and those security guys should have survived.
The single biggest flaw with Twilight is that the male love interest is into the main character because he can't read her thoughts, but the reader is privy to how banal her thoughts are because the book is in first person... 🤦
My favorite part of the whole series was when Jacob ran up to Bella with a big, toothy grin and asked, "where you been, loca?"
Do Stephenie Meyer werewolves all speak Spanish or something?
I got into twilight when I was 10 when a fellow Mormon girl I liked told me that I HAD to read this book and all she said was"She's one of us" referring to the author being Mormon. I didn't know what it was about. Back then I loved reading and didn't think much about this book she forced me to borrow. But I soon got hooked. Also I live in Washington and the weather and landscape is very close to the book so I felt like I was living in the book 😅
I would honestly argue that Kristen Stuart did a FANTASTIC job at portraying Bella as she was written. Bella's just a boring ass character with no personality and the teen girls could no longer self insert around it when they had Kristen's face to put to the character instead of their own where they could fill in all the gaps with their own personality. Not to mention how many people raised as girls were in a "not like other girls" phase during that time (yes calling myself out here, doesn't hurt I was also already a fan of vampire fiction and REALLY did not like the way Meyer wrote them, this was right around the time I got into Vampire Chronicles which is it's own can of worms that i'd be fascinated to see someone cover the whole mess of) and were overly mean to Kristen when our displeasure was with the books and not the actress, but she was the face we could direct our feelings towards. It's something I still deeply regret and work really hard as an adult to do better and help those who might be going through that same phase get out of it faster.
Literally, the only thing she could have maybe changed is a script ''issue'' than a Kirsten issue because there weren't that many lines written between the two where they were straight up dragging each other for filth
The Charlie moment that told me that he was not a well-conceived character was when he tried to make dinner for himself and Bella. The point of the scene was that he was useless in the kitchen, and Bella needed to take over those kinds of domestic responsibilities.
In that scene, he a metal can on the microwave.
He's been living alone for years. He lives in a small town, probably with very few places to eat. He should know how to cook. And even if he has no idea how to cook, he should absolutely know the basics of how to operate a microwave.
But, you know, Mormons gonna Morm. Men can't cook or clean. Children have to be parentified. Women keep house.
As someone who read the books, Meyer had a habit of introducing amazing worldbuilding concepts and just never elaborating on them. Hell, even many side characters sound so much cooler to explore than our forbidden lovers.
Absolutely! I firmly believe that's why there are some fantastic in-canon fan fiction that's stronger than the original. SM just offered insanely fantastic writing prompts.
Also Rosalie being theatrical getting her revenge in a wedding dress, slowly increasing Royce's paranoia is absolutely icon behaviour.
What is it with poisonous vampire sperm.
i think there are a lot of similarities between meyer and rowling’s writing in this respect. most of the twilight and hp fandoms are based on background worldbuilding, rather than the actual story
@@tylerrslaysTrue, through in twilight its also the characters motly, but so many characters are so vague and nor deeper explored, that yeah i can see why the fanfic, good blank slates.
And whil rowling probably is better worldbuilding, if incoonsistent,. yeah both are weird.
Honestly I think this is part of what makes it such fertile ground for fanfic. It's kind of the perfect garden for fic, as there's nothing sacred and there are so many interesting but unexplored ideas.
If "The Good Place" is to be believed, then the idea of sending someone back to Jacksonville as a punishment is apt
Oh dip
💀
In all my twilight drawings, I made everyone except Carlisle, Edward and Jasper poc. The only reasons I keep those three white, is that I feel race is pretty important for Jasper and Carlisle, and I just wanted to make Ed a ginger, as he has red hair in the books. For the others, I made Alice Burmese, Emmet Indian, Esme Somalian, Rosalie mixed African, annd Bella Mexican.
I think it just fits so much better for the found family to be more diverse.
?? Edward isn't ginger in the books. His hair is described as bronze, which is brown with red notes, not ginger.
28:44 so Lily when are we getting a Brief Look at Buffy? 👀
Omg yes please 👀
With or without angel? Like its technically a stin off but way more mature personally, yeah even how carpenter got,but i am aldo angry,because the series made cordy so great, that it made me more mad.
In the parts whedon was not involved.
Also them and adult problems, i like buffy,but mostly season 6, that is great, really explored that this consequent.
It's interesting how I've seen that same point be brought about the scene where Edward slams Bella into the glass to proect her from jasper, and how he just makes it worse. I always interpreted it a different way. Edward, in the book, as you stated has to always be on guard and particularly careful about how he touches Bella. He can accidentally hurt her just because he is so much naturally stronger than her. It takes intentional effort. So I saw that scene as him panicking in that moment and pushing her away from the danger without thinking. He's working on his instinct at this moment, and he forgets in that split second to be extra careful as he usually is. He didn't mean to push her that hard, just get her out of the way. It's still goofy in how its executed though lol
Yeah, for me it was very clear that he simply panicked and wanted to push her out of Jasper`s reach.
Started watching the video without looking at the timer and got confused when I realised it's been an hour and you haven't stopped talking in a "Brief history..." video.
Btw you're brilliant, I love the way you explain things.
The way I didn’t realize your mentions of fanfic were 50 shades references and not just you subtly admitting you’d written twilight fanfic until the end…how have I survived this long while having the intelligence of a squirrel that was thrown at a rock immediately after being born
I really feel you buddy, I miss every damn cue 😭
i'm only half an hour in but i want to write this before i forget, so i don't know if you mention it later or not, but....
one thing pretty much everyone seems to forget, when talking about bella and edward, is that he is luring her in
his voice, his sparkling skin, his scent, all of that draws her in like a moth to a lamp
i truly don't think she is fully in control of how she feels about him or acts around him because by nature of his condition being a vampire, he is drawing people in
he's attractive in ways that aren't just visual and in a supernatural way
he IS a predator and everything about him, even though it's not done intentionally, is pulling her towards him
so her wanting to be around him all the time and stuff really, really isnt her fault in any way
and the thing is, he KNOWS this
he knows this and chooses to go after her anyway, despite the age gap and the fact she's basically somewhat drugged just by his existence near her
so when he left, you can think of it like withdrawl from an addictive substance and it suddenly makes a LOT more sense why she acts the way she does
he loves her or whatever and has a hard time being away, but it's nowhere near the same because she is in actual pain and her body doesn't know how to cope
i feel like if edward stayed away for a long time, it would've eventually completely left her system and she could've had a normal life and been fine, who knows?
i remember reading the books (when they came out, i borrowed them from a cousin while i was on a road trip with my family for the drive home and sent them back to her once i got home lol) and hoping that she would leave him once she turned because it wouldn't be affecting her anymore, or at least have a moment where she realizes it's not really the same relationship because he's not pulling her in like that anymore..... but sadly that's not how that turned out :/
i did only read the books once, years ago, and while i own the first movie and it's by far my favorite (so i've seen that a few times), i saw the others maybe twice, so i may be misremembering ... i do feel like the bite mark left on her skin was always cold, because just that tiny section of her had already turned
which could have some really interesting effects if it did actually happen, but i could be making it up idk lol
it would make SO MUCH SENSE if, after the end of the first book/movie, she felt a NEED to become a vampire because she had been bitten by james and had started turning before edward stopped it
like some small part of her feels really wrong and that's the only way to fix it
i just read ur entire thread and ur brilliant! ur literally like the only person ive seen who brought this up! it definitely would've been an interesting plot if it were in the movies and books. plus it would've helped putting bella with jacob more (even though jacob also has his problems😒)
so the other part of this is, her blood "sings" to him, he compared her blood to a drug to him and it makes him want to eat her, right?
so once she turns, his effect on her (drawing her in like prey) should stop AND her effect on him (her blood smells too good and he wants to be near her all the time) so really, their relationship should have ended once she turned
or at least changed, because their whole little toxic relationship (due to him being a vampire) should have stopped having that dynamic
it would have been really cool, honestly, for them to break up or at least try to get to know each other without those things affecting them
because OBVIOUSLY they were both obsessed, basically addicted (he himself says she's like a drug to him...), because of him being a vampire and her being a human
if they were both vampires (or both humans..) that would not be happening and they could've either broken up because they realized how toxic that relationship was and how they weren't together because they actually liked each other OR they could've become an actually healthy relationship where neither of them is addicted to or wants to kill the other
You're so right and you should say it holy crap, that would be such a more fascinating take than what Meyer wrote. Doesn't Jacob say something like that too? "He's like a drug to you, it's not healthy"
I love people who will just make a really long video instead of splitting the videos up into 100 parts.
As a former Mormon, I just really appreciate your nuance discussing how that is reflected in the writing process, the audience, and all the rest of it. I laughed at all the jokes sprinkled throughout, but also felt weirdly validated by that part of the Stephanie Meyer chapter. So honestly, thanks 😊
Everyone here should read A Discovery of Witches. If you ever even vaguely enjoyed Twilight I feel like it takes the general vibe and then makes an interesting and compelling story and world with it. And if you don’t like or have never read Twilight (like me), it’s a genuinely enjoyable urban fantasy/romance. Hope you enjoy if you do decide to read it :)
I love that series, while it also has some issues, the main love plot isn't one of them, and they aren't boring. I am no longer a vampire fan and yet devoured those books!
Loved the first season of the show, haven't finished the second season. Ended up reading the first book recently and really hated Matthew, had a really hard time finishing the book because of how sexist and controlling he was, and Diana wasn't particularly likeable either, it was so infuriating that she put up with his behaviour just because she loved him
@@kilian-one-l I read around 150 pages of the first book and DNF it, it felt really meh but the show was really good (save for Diana being a Mary Sue in the last season)
Is Bella a good character? No. Is she relatable? Unfortunately, yes. Having been a depressed bland teenager myself who obsessed over her abusive boyfriend and did not receive any help or therapy on that, I have to admit that I really related to her. I wasn't a teen when listening to the books, so I wasn't into them, but I listened to them as a guilty pleasure. They were like chewing on bland toast. Boring, but somehow I could not stop until I consumed all.
Oh Lily! I've been having such a bad few days... When I clicked my notifications and saw you had uploaded "A Brief Look at Twilight," I knew I'd be okay for a few more hours. I obviously just started, but I'm SOOOOO in! Not to mention that it's always a treat to look at your poster - "Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism" fuck yeah! Thank you, Lily 💙💙
Would the Hunger Games be a series you’d be interested in covering? I’d love to hear your commentary on another wildly popular young adult series we all were obsessed with lol
Hunger Games is something ive considered, the only issue is that i have never actually read or watched it
@@LilySimpson That's. how you could admit something?? like that?? "You have been arrested for crimes against skyrim and her people"
@@LilySimpson 1st book is worth a read but the 2nd and 3rd are easily passed on
@@LilySimpson then it's about time! lol
@@stephaniewilliams6756 oh dang I actually thought the 2nd book was the best
i am on MY HANDS AND KNEES absolutely BEGGING for the misfits video, PLEASE, PLEASE MISS LILY
I haven't seen the Twilight movies so when you put up a picture of Esme I was like "Oh my god, that's Shirley Crane."
3:57:46 we were all very surprised midnight sun got published. I remember in middle school hearing about it cuz someone stole the manuscript and we were all like “guess we’ll never get to reas that”
Werewolves in western culture carry a connection with primal rage and intense emotion, a bestial nature which is out of control- aka, savage. While this concept isn’t in and of itself problematic, I think it’s fucked up and racist that that idea is applied to native Americans in Twilight.
I am not Quileute, I’m Chickasaw, but in our shifter stories the shapeshifter still has human intelligence in their animal form. That’s where some of the horror comes from in certain stories - a dog which looks at you with human eyes. (It’s worth mentioning that shifters are not always presented as scary or enemies!) In none of the stories I’ve heard has shifting been connected with emotion or loss of control.
Agree, I honestly think that the element of intense emotions is such a good one to involve in werewolves and other involuntary shapeshifters as I call them. I do something similar as my characters who suffer from my setting's lycanthropy are sapient when they transport even when they transport into non-sapient creatures because every critter is sentient in their own way. however it isn't limited to one of my fantasy races or groups, it can affect anyone and isn't specifically interlink with anyone unless societies deem it so by their lens. I do like the whole disease aspect of it cause it can seen as fantasy STD/acts like HIV (Is like HIV in my setting) so how does this affect certain behaviours, your lifestyle and other things that come from being able to spread this disease by bodily fluids.
(just 46mins in, still in Bella section) I know everyone says how boring Bella is as a main character and that she doesn't have any personality etc... BUT I will forever defend her because she is not only the main character, she is the narrator, who is highly critical of herself, doesn´t see herself as something special, thinks she is too bland for Edward, doesn´t know why people are interested in her.... it's not that she is any of that (and maybe she is all of that) but it´s the way she sees herself and that´s what we are handed. I don't remember much from reading midnight sun, but when Edward describes her, he never describes her as boring or not interesting. Yes, she is naive and borderline stupid, but she is very loving and protective of the people she loves, not afraid to sacrifice herself on multiple occasions, in school she is rather smart and (even though this is not a personality trait) rather attractive. I haven´t read the book for a long time so I don´t want to claim things like "she is funny" when I don't really know, but when the books were published I was also a teenage girl who never thought of herself as much or as "that girl" and my life was kinda boring so escaping into this fantastical world through Bella was something I liked. Yes, most of the things happen TO her, but still, I feel like this characterisation we have of her is just because we don´t take into account we are looking at her through her eyes.
Seconded. I still worry I'm a badically personality-free blank slate, tbh. Bella was very relatable to me just as she was because that's basically how I was as a teenager. I liked my books more than people, was quiet and a wallflower, etc.
I’ll say she’s funny, maybe not to the reader but she and Edward joke around a lot in the first book, which is pretty sweet.
The predator/prey thing can be so much better if its handled as purposefully horrific and also leans more in the fetish nature of it all. By which I mean to say if you're interested in it you should watch and/or read beastars because it is So much better and So much less mormon about it (it even has a multiple hour video essay about it if that's more your style!)
This is also really interesting as a creative writing major. So Meyer had interesting world building, characters, villains, etc but she did not think or elaborate on them at all which is one of the first very basic things that they teach in any writing/storytelling class or video.
...This also encourages me on the fact that if things like Twilight and 50 shades got published then I will also get published eventually.
Only a non-American would not understand how being sent Jacksonville is a doomsday level threat 😂
my roommate askin what im doing and i dont know how to tell him ive been listening to some girl explain every aspect of twilight shes fixated on for the past 3 hours
As someone deep into vampire fiction, but not into twilight at all, I kiiiiind of like older vampires getting a human love interest, since that person could be a symbolic tether to humanity for the vampire, rather than the vampire being the corrupting force for the human. I also am working on a novel with a friend that follows a clan of vampires from their perspective, with one of them having a human partner at the time where the novel starts, which has given me cause to examine the human-vampire relationship a bit more closely.
From this perspective, I'd like to address the age gap issue that you brought up for both Buffy and Bella: An age gap that would be way beyond what can be considered "normal" is honestly inevitable when the vampire is supposed to be older and distanced from their human past. However, there are some ways to mitigate how gross it can feel, like making the human love interest a grownup with some life experience of their own, rather than a barely legal teenager, as well as giving the human agency, like was done with Buffy.
Also, there should be an acknowledgement that relationships between vampires and humans are inherently problematic, even if they are closer in age. Vampires themselves are inherently problematic, since the existence of a vampire is selfish by design. And in my opinion, if that is something that gets examined to some extent by the author, that is okay.
It is *okay* for relationships in fiction to be unhealthy and imperfect. It just should be examined a little more critically than the human being so deeply in love with the vampire that they are willing to look past all the red flags.
So I consumed the books quite quickly and uncritically as a kid, that fake out at the end of the last book is what shattered the glass for me, like it made me reevaluate the whole series with that ending and it didn't hold up well. A little more context, I read the books before everyone got their hands on them in Portugal and my school, so while some girls in the know found it weird I was reading them, most people didn't, and the person who lent me the first one was a dude. So that was a fun liminal space to be in, not really knowing the public reception or view on it, and consuming uncritically before the glass shattered.
I love listening to video essays that challenge Twilight as a series becuase I'm absolutely obsessed with it. Its such a dumb series and I love it for that. I own and read Every single twilight book aside from the New Moon graphic novel volume 1. Its a weird obsession because I understand all of the weird shit in it, but somewhere in my little autistic brain I'm always thinking about it.
I'm totally on a binge. There's a lot to appreciate about the worldbuildibg, even though there are issues. There's a lot of potential, imo
also, "nothing explains the sperm" is such a suberb phrase
Commenting before I watched: I just finished watching the "Brief look at Harry Potter" a couple of hours ago. I am very excited for this one.
I was rewatching the Harry Potter one today and hopped over to this immediately! Two of my favorite franchises (only one of which I’ve actually read) that I love to hear overanalyzed! You spoil me!
How funny would it be if you had only read Twilight
@@Blindinglights25 As a transman, at this point I kind of wish that were the case, LOL.
Did it feel weird for you during that whole weird era of the HP and Twilight fans fighting?? 😂
@@karmaplace oof. Yeah man I'm sorry. I know some people can compartmentalize but it just isn't the same atp. Also please stay safe my friend 💜
@@alim.9801 The worst part was that I was a firm believer in She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named being a better writer than Meyer, and now I'm like, "Eh, a very big pass on both, though Meyer seems to be more naïve and sheltered than an actively terrible person compared to the former."
Gotta say I disagree with your argument against immortality. So long as the immortality is the variety that can be ended its not the terrible thing you make it out to be, it just means that your end will most likely come about at a time and manner of your choosing. Far better than our current situation IMHO.
Honestly I agree but ‘live long enough to become suicidal’ is an interesting take
1:27:44 i love the “he’s a great guy, you’d get a drink with him” followed immediately by “…although” at the thought of getting a drink with a vampire fjdjnfnf
Wake up babe, new Lily Simpson video just dropped
Having lived in Jacksonville, can confirm that's a pretty effective threat.
After watching the Harry Potter vid front-to-back four times I'm happy to have a new addiction
Finished, and yeah, gonna be watching this one a bunch again too.
😱😱 I’m SO excited for this! I’ve watched the HP one so many times, it’s become a comfort video for me. You’re such a fantastic creator.
Here to watch it again now that it's out of copyright hell!
The "one detail" that I can't help but laughing at about Twilight is the whole thing in Port Angeles, where it's painted as the big dangerous city. In reality it's a town who's main claim to fame is that it's the place with the multiplex. It's one of those rural places that has more services than its population suggests because people travel from the surrounding areas to visit it.
2:11:28 Victoria got baited to her death. Her power was telling her to GTFO. She got baited into staying with Edward bragging about murdering James. Her emotions got the better of her. It's honestly one of the cruelest things Edward does on screen. Like imagine your (girlfriend/boyfriend/enbyfriend)'s killer walks up to and starts laughing about how he bashed their head in with a rock and watched the life drain from their pathetic eyes. Actual serial killer behavior from Edward. Her power didn't fail her, she was too emotionally distraught to heed the warning. WITH GOOD REASON!
had bella treated her borderline personality disorder none of this wouldve happen
Take of the eon
*undiagnosed autism + ctpsd
More like Dependent Personality Disorder. I used to suffer from BPD and what Bella has ain't BPD lol.
@@infinitecurlie i do suffer from bpd and i can relate a lot to her lol
@@infinitecurlie but it was just a joke
Absolutely love the brief look videos can’t wait to watch this and whatever future videos you make
YASSS! Evening, MADE. Thanks Lily!
Though I was in the "watching ironically" camp, Twilight has become a guilty(ish) pleasure after the renaissance.
pls don't do Katniss dirty by putting her into the blank slate bag 😭, I swear she is anything but. she is a realized character with actual personality and many people don't like her because of that.
When she hung the seneca crane dummy that was bold af
Katniss had an actual character arc. A true girlboss
I get the feeling I’m going to rewatch this video multiple times!
I cannot describe the joy I get out of brutally dissecting every awful aspect of Twilight or anyone who will listen. I read it in middle school hoping it would somehow get better (naturally it never did) and it’s actually inspire me to write my own vampire/werewolf/supernatural story in my free time because I want to create a better world and lore behind my vampires and Weres out of spite for this series wasting my middle school free-time. I cannot begin to describe how many hours I spent ripping this story to shreds with a fellow writer buddy of mine who is also writing vampire based stories in their free time. It’s a funny little pastime we have. I’m not saying people aren’t allowed to like Twilight, I’m just saying I personally want to take a bat to each of these characters knees for grinding my gears.
I will write a rewrite of both harry potter and twilight when I am somewhat better at writing.
Itll be so much fun to just lean in so many themes these two never explored.
@@Killroy007 good for you!! if you do have something you're willing to share regarding that someday, I'd be willing to read it haha
About worldbuilding being introduced then dropped: my dad, who is not into sports AT ALL, wished that the movies would have become about baseball playing vampires because he thought it was a cool workaround introduced in the first book/movie.
Alice can only see the future of creatures she's been. She can see human futures and vampire futures. In theory, if she'd fully developed the powers as a human, she wouldn't be able to see vampires in her visions. She can't see werewolf futures because she's never been one and same for Renesme and the other vampire-human hybrid we encounter.
new headcanon: benjamin got his elemental powers because in his human life, he was a blacksmith. he worked with fire, earth, water, and air to create, and this was amplified into full elemental control when he was turned (probably following a smithing accident or, depending on when he lived, even just an infected burn)
I love including The Lost Hero as an example of the blank slate protagonist trope because while the rest of the Percy Jackson Universe franchise doesn't follow that type of trope, Jason is such a himbo (especially before he regains his memories) that the trope kinda fits him for that book (obviously the same could be said for Percy in Son of Neptune)
Why did I cackle out loud at "Who the hella is Bella?" I don't know, but I sure needed the laugh.
I'm amazed you managed to release another massive (and excellent) episode so quickly! Great work!
Thank you for another quick look at an interestingly flawed popular franchise! Came to the comments because there *is* a fancy word for third-to-last: antepenultimate. I love this word and use it whenever possible.
OMG IVE NEVER HEARD THIS WORD AND IM ABSOLUTELY IMMEDIATELY ADDING THIS TO MY LIST OF COOL WORDS I HAVE THANK YOU
I've never read or watched any of the Twilight books or movies. But, I might after I've watched this detailed breakdown and critique of the series. I can't wait to have a better and more impactful viewing experience of the series after watching your brief look at Twilight. ...this is going to be wild.
You should definetly check out the book Lost Girls: A Vampire Revenge Story. It's a sort of Twilight parody that addresses a lot of what you brought up here. The main character is our Bella equivalent, after she's broken up with the Edward equivalent. She meets some of his other ex-girlfriends, and finds out that the "romantic moves" (manipulation tactics) he used on her were also used on his other ex's. They find out that he's now trying to seduce another high school girl, and team up to kill him before he convinces her to turn.
It really leans into the horror of it all. The 'never being able to change physically' thing is really built on. One of the vampires got injured just before she turned, and that injury now never heals. The reality of being stuck as a teenager forever is also a big topic. The whole grotesqueness of it all is a big thing too. Like, when vampires fight eachother, they're fully ripling off eachothers limbs with their superstrength. The thing you mention about being shoved in a hole to starve and scream for eternity is literally one of the punishments used in the book.
If that wasn't enough to convince you, the lead character also ends up in a lesbien relationship with one of the ex-girlfriends
Having grown up in the height of Twilight fever and then using 50SoG video essays to combat my insomnia all through college, this is kind of a perfect video essay for me. That Twilight got as popular as it did is absolutely a reflection of hidden (or not so hidden) biases in our society - racism and sexism thrive in representations that the affected groups are supposed to live with if not actively support and consume, purity culture and at the very least a vaguely Christian theology are deeply entrenched in cultures the world over that have been colonized by Christian European nations and ESPECIALLY in the US, and often times literature for teen girls is subjected to far less rigorous thematic/content scrutiny prior to publication than is necessary to protect that demographic because it is, in fact, that demographic! That we can grow up and look back on our childhood books and shows and movies with adult eyes and recognize the messed up messages in those properties as well as what we may have internalized from or had reinforced by them is an important part of growing up and growing as a person. I'm so glad I got to see this before any copyright claims hid it away and I'm really grateful you put this video out!!
I can’t believe it took me till now to realise you’re from New Zealand
these brief looks are some of my favorite long form content. thank you for spending your time doing these!
Here to comment again to say im rewatching to get you that sweet sweet ad rev.
Loved it the first time. Excited to rewatch an think about some different stuff this time around.
Same! I've been putting this on for all of my background noise today
I came for the renewed monetization, and stayed for the analysis and reanalysis
are you going to make a riverdale video because that series drives me insane and i love it
it literally made me start writing again for better or for worse because man if these writers can keep going, surely i can
i am currently watching the series slowly with a watch party but am considering it when im done
@@LilySimpson thank you for your service. people need to know. the show's morality is so batshit it needs a break down because "weirdly catholic" only scratches the surface
@@LilySimpson PLEASE!!! OMG lily I would kill to watch you tackle that mess 🥺
@@annoyance4135wait is it weirdly catholic?? Are there vibes I missed beyond like Veronica getting confirmed??
@@alim.9801 the biblical devil shows up along with one of the angels.
After watching almost every single video in your channel… I love how you reflect on concepts and I would LOVE you to check out Revolutionary Girl Utena. That’d be amazing.
i have never watched or read twilight yet i am still going to watch this 4 hour video
49:06 Sorry!!!!! But I do feel like Bella’s recklessness and disregard of her own life isn’t just about Edward but also some form of suicidal ideation due to her depression. Like you know that thing where you don’t actively try or even want to kill your self, but you still engage in behaviors that could lead you to dying. Also extreme sports can lead to adrenaline and dopamine I think. So I feel that it’s more because of passive suicidal ideation and adrenaline rushes then Edward. Though her auditory and visual hallucinations of Edward are definitely something that should be talked about more.
I think ir would have been really interesting if Meyer (as she is religious), would have written vampires like Andersen's Mermaids. They live a longer life, but they cannot enter heaven. It would have been really interesting. And would have given Edward really not wanting Bella to be vampire more nuance. And alsothere would not be the thing of there really being no negatives to being a vampire.
But that's just kinda an idea that popped into my head. And I'm pretty sure Meyers never read the little mermaid.
I thought Emily was like "now I'm maimed no one's gonna want me but the guy who did it still does so might as well settle" which is also disturbing
I LOVE YOU AND YOUR RIDICULOUSLY LONG VIDEOS
omg I never went through a twilight phase while I was a kid but I did get a little invested in the movies during the twilight “renaissance” so this is bound to be fun
trying to get people to watch this with the door-in-the-face technique by telling them that compared to ten hours, four is pretty short
I just wanted to add, in terms of Charlie, and his sudden change of character and easy acceptance of everything - religiously, the responsibility for a woman (taking care of her, worrying about her) is transferred from father to husband, so it makes sense with the whole Mormon thing (I was raised Catholic so I’m assuming those people are the same). Basically the idea is that daddy needs to care for her until the day a husband can replace him, which is when the father no longer gives a shit, or should give a shit, as the responsibility of caring has been transferred to her new patriarch.
I also recommend CJ the X's video on Twilight which features a really interesting take on the fake fight :)
Ok, the line "sometimes the spoiled meat has the most fascinating patterns (1:35:36)" goes hard tho
so...
we already have what other videos to do?
Buffy, X-Men, Misfits
Yes misfits. Buffy is good too, but misfits deserves love.
we love a quick little video