buffy vs edward

Attention Buffy & Twilight fans!!! This is easily the coolest pop culture vampire-related thing I've seen in months:



Beats all the fake New Moon trailers for sure. Must have taken ages to put together.

in honour of the release

...of the New Moon trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXuN8hkQ0sU

I give you Meyer revenge...xkcd-style:

















I wish Stephenie Meyer was actually that cool.

why bella irks me

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I'm always saying that Bella (Twilight series) annoys me. Here's a couple of specific examples of why. (The punctuation isn't right, I'm transcribing from the audio.)

1. If Bella had a theme song, it would be called, 'How can he love such a worthless girl?'

Edward: You weren't going to let go. I could see that. I didn't want to do it. It felt like it would kill me to do it. But I knew that if I couldn't convince that I didn't love you any more, it would just take you that much longer to get on with your life...

But I never imagined that it would be so easy to do. I thought it would be next to impossible; that you would be so sure of the truth that I would have to lie through my teeth for hours to even plant the seed of doubt in your head. I lied and I'm so sorry...

But how could you believe me?! After all the thousand times I've told you I love you, how could you let one word break your faith in me?...I could see it in your eyes, that you honestly believed that I didn't want you any more. The most absurd, ridiculous concept - as if there were any way that I could exist without needing you.

She then starts crying, because his declaration makes her assume that she is, as she thought earlier, just dreaming. He then spouts even more sappy stuff about how he loves her, will always love her, thought about her every second he was away from her, etc. This makes her believe him less, not more.

Edward: You don't believe me, do you? Why can you believe the lie, but not the truth?

Hmmm. Why indeed, Edward? Good question.

Bella: It never made sense for you to love me. I always knew that.

I have real issues with the heroine of this story - a girl who is written up as the epitome of sacrifice for the sake of love - having NO DISCERNABLE SELF ESTEEM. Is that WHY she sacrifices everything for him...because HE deserves everything and SHE deserves nothing?

2. The pot calling the kettle a martyr.

Bella is talking to Edward about him running off to get killed because he thought she was dead.

Bella: This has to stop now. You can't think about things that way. You can't let this...this guilt rule your life. You can't take responsibility for the things that happened to me here. None of it is your fault. It's just part of how life is for me. So if I trip in front of a bus, or whatever it is next time, you have to realise that it's not your job to take the blame. Even if I had jumped off that cliff to die that would have been my choice...

I know it's your nature to shoulder the blame for everything. But you can't let that make you go to such extremes. It's very irresponsible.

W...T...F...??? Bella does this throughout ALL FOUR BOOKS. She takes the blame for everything. Things other people think and feel, things over which she could not possibly have any control, things that happen accidentally, deliberate pre-meditated decisions made by other people. EVERYTHING. I'm surprised she doesn't blame herself for bad weather. Or good weather. Or when the weather doesn't match the forecast.

I cannot count the number of times I have wished she was in front of me while I'm listening, so I could slap her every time she says something stupid or pathetic. (This book is not helping my goal to be more patient.) Of course if she was, she'd be dead by now and Edward would have to kill me. And that would be bad.

twilight revisited

I've been reading Twilight again - well, listening to it actually. Last time I read it really fast, mainly because Bella's constant whiney martyrdom is so irritating. However, my favourite kids are currently obsessed with it, and I missed so many details the first time that it's hard to participate in their conversations about it - the book, the movie, comparing the book and the movie. I decided it wouldn't cost me too much holiday time to just read the thing again.

I've thought several times that the writing is not as bad as I first thought. In fact, wherever Bella isn't rambling about how perfect and beautiful and amazing Edward is, or about how hopeless and ordinary and insignificant she is, some of the writing was downright good. Of course as I'm typing this, Bella is under the impression she's dying and is now talking about an 'angel' saying her name...Edward of course. After I got through rolling my eyes I spent some time controlling my gag reflex - so sickeningly sweet.

The things I do for those kids...

and yet my enthusiasm refuses to wane

The Screenit.com review of Twilight:

"TWILIGHT" (2008) (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson)(PG-13) Drama/Horror: After relocating to a small town to live with her dad, a teenager meets and ends up falling for a teenage vampire who's torn between his love for her and his appetite for her blood. Based on the novel of the same name, this is bad in a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" sort of way. There's purposefully overwrought teen angst, melodrama andsoap opera trappings, a languid pace, mediocre to often bad direction, bland acting, really cheesy special effects, and a story that should have had a stake run through it due to being quite trite. All of which means the film is a chore to sit through, especially in its 120 or so minute incarnation.

Sadly I am so eager for any movie the vampire gods offer that I'll probably still love it. /blush/

twilight movie

Okay, I've been as wicked an anyone else at mocking the Twilight books. Regardless (does anyone else hate it when people write 'irregardless' when they mean 'regardless'?) of the fact that I've read all four of the books and can honestly say I enjoyed them, I did it in spite of Bella being a whiney girl and the author totally wimping out in the fourth (and last) book of the series when it came to giving Bella everything she wanted without any real sacrifice. She was prepared to give certain things up, but was never called upon to do so. She also never had to take responsibility for the selfish side of her choice (Meyer gave her extraordinary control and therefore the fact that she willingly chose to become a vampire knowing it could mean that she killed humans as an out-of-control newborn vamp was conveniently brushed under the carpet). And don't get me started on the huge build-up to the war that never happens. The book was much weaker for her (Meyer's) cowardice.


Having said all that, can I just say that the Twilight trailer rocks and I can't wait to see the movie?!! I admit I was concerned when the first poster I saw (<---this one) made the supposedly beautiful-beyond-comprehension Edward look sick and pasty, but he looks decent in the trailer. I think Bella is perfectly cast. She actually comes across in the trailer as being stronger and more confident than the character is in the book, but I have no issue with that alteration. It will be a better movie that way.


What the heck is up with the Australian cinema release being 11 December...almost a full month after the US (17 November)? Too cruel.