Twilight: Bella is SUPPOSED to be a flat character.

[TaboriHK]

A flat character, intentional or not, is dull and the sign of a bad writer. I'm not honestly interested in how much a Mormon wants me to love her fake vampire character. She's not supposed to be the one who decides FOR ME how I feel about HER characters. It's poor writing, plain and simple. The days of having the author tell you who to love and who to hate passed over a hundred years ago.

 

[Murais]

Cool. Still doesn't make it good literary work.

 

[zehydra]

I'm actually quite happy you made the comparison between Twilight and Japanese Dating sim games. It made me lol. (Cause you are very correct)

 

[thiosk]

This is a great excuse from a bad writer.

"No you don't understand! Its SUPPOSED To be terrible!"

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Bella is a flat character on purpose.

Well duh. Seriously, you can hardly find critics of the Twilight series online who haven't made this observation, I thought this was common knowledge. But to actually add something to this thread (and since nobody else has posted it yet), here's a video someone produced using The Oatmeal's How Twilight Works [http://theoatmeal.com/story/twilight] article as a source:

Everyone I've shown this to (with the notable exception of my sister, who is completely obsessed with Twilight and therefore willfully in denial of the bit where it is utter shit) has found it hilarious.

That sir is DAMN good Comedy! the morose and bored voice is Perfect..............just like Edward's face......

 

[sir.rutthed]

As a Creative Writer that has both read extensively on the subject and taught on the subject, I can say that is only an excuse and, even if it was intentional, it is simply lazy writing. If Meyer really wanted to have the reader put themselves in the shoes of the main character, she would have had to write the story in 2nd person (and that can be done). However, the problem is (yes, I have read Twilight) that she doesn't really decide on perspective. Sometimes she wants to be in 3rd person omni, sometimes 3rd person limited (camera very close to Bella so we can only see what she is thinking), and sometimes it is 3rd person "fly-on-the-wall" which gives emotional distance and breaks tension.

For more fun information on this, I would like to point out that the ACA/PCA Conference in San Antonio is going to have an entire academic panel on the modern vampire stories (Twilight and Tru Blood), so if you are a college student and really want to look deep into this, shoot them a paper and you might be the academic expert on the matter.

You know, you're one of the first people I've come across who bothers to intellectually deconstruct anything that's wrong with Twilight rather than just flame it away. My hat is off to you sir/madam, for giving me intellectual justification to continue staying away from those books/movies.

A flat character, intentional or not, is dull and the sign of a bad writer. I'm not honestly interested in how much a Mormon wants me to love her fake vampire character. She's not supposed to be the one who decides FOR ME how I feel about HER characters. It's poor writing, plain and simple. The days of having the author tell you who to love and who to hate passed over a hundred years ago.

Not entirely true. Flat characters aren't in their selves a bad thing, they just don't develop over time like we expect a main character to. It could be argued that the Emperor from the original Star Wars trilogy was a flat character, but that didn't change how menacing he was. Rounded characters are all well and good, but if that's all you have you tend to lose focus on the story and just meander around for a long time and lose your viewers (I'm looking at you, George Martin).

 

[drummond13]

So, you think Twilight is successful for the same reason as Japanese Dating Sims?

 

[ZombieGenesis]

So, you think Twilight is successful for the same reason as Japanese Dating Sims?

Somehow I don't think creepy middle aged men and sweaty teenage boys are reading Twilight in a dark room right now... or maybe they are. Either way it's still disturbing.

 

[DanDeFool]

Okay, so I get that the "bland character = your personality here" thing is pretty well universally accepted.

Naturally, that isn't the ONLY reason Twilight is a bad series of novels/series of movies.

Still, I'm finding it interesting that there's a lot more academic interest in Twilight than I'd originally suspected. I've been spending most of my time on the flame threads and not enough time on the intellectual ones.

 

[Kitteh]

shes also supposed to be flat...chested. hehehe

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

I'm pretty sure it's just due to terrible writing and Kristen Stewart as an actress. Go watch another movie she's in. She's the same character every time.

Yes, she is quite vacant of emotion.

I read every book of the series, I never intended to by the way. Some girl told me it was good after I had just finished bashing it and challenged me to read it and then rant again. Well, I read it. I had even more reason to bash it.

 

[Okysho]

See, where your theory fails is that they don't make Japanese dating sims into movies (I hope)(Hentai doesn't count).

But before the films, sure!
Why not!

CLANNAD

but that's not really a dating sim... it's considered a visual novel... and yes, H material doesn't count

 

[Sindaine]

I'm pretty sure she's written that way because Smeyer doesn't know shit about writing.

 

[Cheesus333]

This is a very likely theory, and would explain the popularity of Twilight among love-starved girls/women who need a man, fictitious or otherwise (not that this is the only group in Meyer's fanbase, of course), but I don't think that excuses it. A first-person novel like Twilight is through the eyes of its central protagonist, and since this is the person we'll be spending our time in the book with then the narrator must be an engaging and interesting character. A bland, dull, unlikeable stock character might pass for a momentary extra character in the book, but have one as your protagonist and no-one's going to want to keep reading their thoughts.

Incidentally, I started reading Twilight. I got three chapters in and realised there was no good reason to force that experience upon myself anymore.

 

[Kinokohatake]

Then how about I publish a book consisting of nothing but blank pages?

Then the audience can project as much as they want... It's genius!

As long as I get to write the sequel. The Book 2 : Subtitle Here!

 

[Sindaine]

So you're saying.......that the movies should've been shot in a first person perspective like FPS games? that....would be so ****ing creepy!

Goddamnit, now you're making me want to go to film school to learn how (and if) this can be done.

 

[wickermole]

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