Twilight: Bella is SUPPOSED to be a flat character.
- Thread starter DanDeFool
- Start date
Recommended Videos
that,s NOT a excuse for a bad characther, if the writer wanted the reader to project themselfs INTO Belle, why didnt she make a dating sim in the first place?
Then why does Bella even have a name? You want to create the illusion of reader projection, write your first-person narrative with a protagonist that's never named. But Meyer can't do that, any more than she can regurgitate the same basic story arc through all her books.RebellionXXI said:
No. That's just an excuse for poor writing. It's an asinine statement made by the same sort of writers/readers who believe the connection with the main character can only be achieved by making that main character as close to the 'Average Joe" (or 'Jo') as possible.
When something is well-written in terms of characterization - film, stage play, book, comic - the audience doesn't need to project themselves onto the character. Because they'll actually care about the character. Emotions are universal. When a character is in serious peril, and you're invested in that character based on his/her personality/actions/decision-making quirks (like, you know, the way we're invested in real life FRIENDS or FAMILY), then the emotion is shared.
It takes much, much more skill to get the reader to invest in someone else that it does for the reader to invest in themselves.
Yes, she's supposed to be a flat character with no real drastic personality change, she has a set, rather bland personality.
It still doesn't change the fact that she's a fairly stupid, realtively shallow, and all around unlikable character.
It still doesn't change the fact that she's a fairly stupid, realtively shallow, and all around unlikable character.
I think you are right on the money there. Its a tactic that sounds funny when you reflect on it; you write so bad readers beliave it is good 
To bad that I don't think Smeyer actually intended her to be in the first place.
It was probably pointed out to her though, and she jumped on the train.
It was probably pointed out to her though, and she jumped on the train.
The heretic must be burned! Freeman has a crowbar, it's entirely different.Nigh Invulnerable said:
OT: As others have said, there really isn't an excuse for poor writing. However, a lot of people have jumped down the OP's throat about mentioning the fact that this may have been intentional. Sure it certainly seems that way, but has she ever actually said anything that confirms it. Think of those bad fan-fictions of things you've seen. A lot are trolls, some, the poor souls, are serious. I don't think there's any denying that these stories are her sexual fantasies, which is bad enough, but she might actually believe that they're well written, and Bella to her was a fully-rounded character because she was projecting so much when she wrote it. Honestly, I'd rather the poor characterization be on purpose because the actual publishing of the other side is scary.
That came out a bit longer than I expected. Sorry, I tend to ramble worse in text than in voice...
Yeah, she's supposed to be bland, but that doesn't mean the actress should be portraying her as a bland, monotonous, traitless character. It just gets utterly annoying and stupid as fuck.
Many video game characters, Freeman, Master Chief, Link, etc. are rather blank characters, precisely so that the player can project themselves onto them and experience the adventure for themself. But yes, I am a Half-Life heretic, as I was rather unimpressed with the game when I played it. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and all, but the heaps of hype kinda made it fall flat.Red-Link said:
That's because games have the more important gameplay to pick up the slack.AnythingOutstanding said:
while this may be true, that doesn't serve to excuse Bella's "flat" personality. Its a mediocre love story at the heart of the Twilight series, and let's face it, even if bella is "supposed to be flat," that doesn't make the story any better. that's like removing all of the subplots from the LOTR movies because the audience is supposed to enjoy just the action. If the reader is supposed to fill a character's shoes, read a Choose Your Own Adventure story.
Jane Eyre has an extremely detailed and specific personality yet people can still associate with the character. Saying that the character of Bella is intentionally bland is really just an excuse for underdeveloped writing and can't really be used as a credible literary technique.
i dont buy that bs, it gives meyer too much credit.
she cant write for fuck and its a miracle that shit storm of a book was even made into a movie.
there are so many other books that would make excellent movies, such as the song of ice and fire series, but no we get this shite.
she cant write for fuck and its a miracle that shit storm of a book was even made into a movie.
there are so many other books that would make excellent movies, such as the song of ice and fire series, but no we get this shite.
Congratulations you just discovered the secret of romance novels! Now I haven't read any romance novels for teenage girls so I'm not sure if this is the case, but it would make sense if a lot of books have "bellas".RebellionXXI said:
Romance novels for the older female audience do have decently fleshed out characters, since its meant to be a story between two people and the male as well is a full character.