Nov 2015
39 / 57
Nov 2015
Dec 2015
AnnaLandin
Nov '15

If we're going down this route of "did a single work of fiction ruin vampires?", I'm going to say no, Twilight didn't ruin vampires. Every single popular modern vampire novel has ruined vampires. Bram Stoker romanticised vampires. Folkloric vampires were either monsters that preyed on the living, genuine threats in the dark - some traditions had them being barely human, and closer to a slobbering beast, while others had them look human but be monsters - and the horror lay in the fact that someone you loved and was close to could suddenly turn into a monster and need to be killed; it was a betrayal, and an invasion of your safe home.

Folkloric beliefs in vampires was in some cases a way to deal with loss and the fear of death, and in some cases a way to explain the progress of a disease we didn't yet understand - like when an outbreak of tuberculosis triggered the New England vampire panic.

My main problem with Twilight (mind you, I've only watched the first two movies - which are great, if you view them as unintentional comedies) is the way it romanticises an abusive and frankly creepy relationship. I mean, Bella wakes up at one point in the middle of the night, to find and uninvited Edward standing in her bedroom watching her in her sleep. And we're told that she thinks that's cute and romantic instead of incredibly creepy and invasive. Bella literally hurts herself in an effort to be closer to Edward - and we're told to think that's romantic, instead of very worrying and a cause for alarm.

Bella, abandoned by Edward for "her own good", sits motionless in a chair for months, because she simply cannot function without him, and we're told that's romantic - instead of a clear sign of a very unhealthy relationship.

The fact that Twilight vampires sparkle isn't even the start of what's troubling about those books. I mean, I haven't even gotten to the bit where the werewolf dude basically falls in love with a newborn infant. :T

scythe
Nov '15

Anyone who's lost their faith in vampire stories needs to stop what they're doing, go out and get a copy of The Passage and shut themselves in a hole for the next 4 months (seriously, it's as big as a brick)

Either that, or watch this. SERIOUSLY, WATCH THIS:

youtube.com/watch?v=W2w3H_oLSIU
niinasalmelin
Nov '15

Nah, It's just a fad. Give it time to be forgotten. On the other hand you should maybe be even excited since the audience for vampire-stories is now wider than ever. smile Same is happening with zombies.

Vikiro_Hop
Nov '15

I always thought twilight was pretty innocuous, even at its worse. Vampires are sorta timeless and will be reinvented till oblivion. People are gonna humanize them or cast them in weird situations or whatever it's not a big deal as far as I am concerned. The Witchers take on vampires is pretty interesting (I've only read the novels, not played the games.) So that's modern right?

As far as the modern look is concerned eh.

eh is all I have to say.

AffectedMind
Nov '15

Not to mention she was even throwing herself to danger just to see him because she had hallucinations from all this depression :/

Because of that there's so many pedo jokes around Jacob lol.

KSlinger
Nov '15
1

No way, vampires are still very interesting. Can't say I actively seek them out but when I come across them I don't roll my eyes. Twilight and what it has/hasn't done for the vampires doesn't really come into it, it's about the creators all the different spins they put on them.

Here's a comic on this site containing vampires that I'm enjoying immensely : Sweet Talk1

And another I cannot stop reading: Thicker Than Blood2

Luie
Nov '15

If the characters and the story were well-written, it wouldn't have ruined vampires. Regardless of the concept and the author's take on vampires, what ruined it was that the story sucked and a lot of people liked it. That is what ruined vampires on romantic stories, not the stupid sparklyness.

AffectedMind
Nov '15

I guess you didn't liked this sparky sparks idea XD

Luie
Nov '15

It's like giving werewolves glow-in-the-dark nails. Suddenly, it's just a bad OC in some terrible fanfic.

Oh wait that's exactly what it is :U

Caelestie
Nov '15

I would love to see a werewolf with glow in the dark nails! It would be wonderful! Honestly people make to much of a big deal about vampires and werewolves. They don't always need to be serious stories. You can write them with humor. Honestly there should be more of a diversity in stories with vampires in it. It is kinda always the same thing I rarely read anything that has vampires and werewolves in it because it is kinda bland. Twilight doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

Luie
Nov '15
Caelestie

If the story about the werewolf with the glowing nails was written with humor then it would work. But sparkling vampires didn't work because Twilight took itself way too seriously. It's difficult to find stories about werewolves and vampires that don't take themselves too seriously and honestly I think the concept has been so overdone it would be better to choose a different concept instead. The same thing has happened with zombies and viruses. The only good option we have left is ghosts but the scary aspect is so overdone we don't even have that anymore.

Caelestie
Nov '15

or create new monsters! well I personally think sparkling vampire can work with humor also! I do know that twilight took itself to seriously and it is one of the part of it. The other horrible part of it is ( and the worst) is the Romanization of abusive relationship otherwise I would be fine with twilight if it was only poorly written. but yeah people should just write thing they like not thing that are popular right now.

mattcleaver
Nov '15

Twilight didn't ruin vampires for me because I will never watch it, read it or care about it. ^__^

zjwestbrook
Nov '15
Kura

Yeah, I think the popularity of 'Twilight' was more a sign that vampires had been ruined than the thing that ruined them. As Anne Rice put it, vampires are a symbol of exclusion. When vampires are part of an inclusive story, they've lost what makes them them.

MannyMelancholy
Nov '15

it depends. There are 2 types of vampires, the gritty scary "why is this happening to me" character vampires. Then there are the vampires that I feel ruined it, the "lets have an orgy because we're vampires and sex maniacs". Seriously the level of sexual energy injected into vampire story lines are so out played and boring to me. It's really just an opinion and I understand that it still does well among readers, more power to you.

efdvorsky
Nov '15

I think a lot of reason behind that is because back in the Victorian era where the fad became a literary thing, vampires' appeal was how they were released of the prude constraints of the society at the time. (sex = bad) so it became a metaphor as the release of such a conservative upbringing.

Now days, everything is about sex. Sex is hyped up in certain aspects (as long as it fits the heteropatriarchal eye candy but that's another topic altogether) the only way a vampire can be SHOCKING now is just...orgies, yeah.

I think some writers have handled it well, there's a character in What We Do In The Shadows who falls under that trope and it's handled brilliantly, but most of the time, yes, I agree with you. It's played out, cliche, and boring when poorly done.

shaylafarley5
Nov '15

YES! But you also have to realize that twilight was meant for teen but it ended up for kids no older than 12, and some grown women (which is sad to me) because of the romance.
My friend loved the books until the movies came and ruined it for her. I hated twilight from the start because it made vamps look weak. I loved the blade and underworld series which had little romance good plot and action.
Now every time someone creates a show or movie about vamps it's all about sex, lust, and relationships. Which is why I still avoid them now, which is bad because alot of comics and Manga I skip because of that, without giving it a chance.

zjwestbrook
Dec '15
efdvorsky

That's actually a misconception about Victorian Britain. People still boned like mad, back then, it just wasn't spoken of, openly. There were also much higher stakes to sex (read: pregnancy), so sex-for-fun was less common among the kind of women that couldn't dispose of an unwanted pregnancy without raising eyebrows.

The stiff upper lip was a reaction against the Georgians who really were into drunken, orgiastic behavior. The Georgian era was a magnification of the Restoration period, which reveled in the freedoms denied by the Protectorate period (see: Oliver Cromwell).

The popularity of vampires in gothic literature (from the Victorian era) had a lot more to do with xenophobia than sexual repression. There was a relatively large influx of Eastern Europeans into Great Britain, at the time, many of whom still followed folk religions or synchronized Catholicism. They had lower standards of hygiene and little regard for social hierarchy. All of which translated into "rude, filthy pagans" to the British. Mind, the British were finding "rude, filthy pagans" all over the place (see: British Empire), but the Eastern Europeans weren't coming into the country as servants, the way many Africans or Indians were; they were the "rude, filthy pagans" that couldn't be controlled. And, of course, the great fear was that these people would corrupt impressionable young women, hence the sexual angle.