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Monster Rain wrote:

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Not saying anyone has to like it, just trying to quell at least some of the bashing.

I'd be really shocked if those bashing it have even cracked one of the books. I think it's all done mainly out of having a bit of fun, and not nearly as malicious as some would make it out to be.

Is it better to mock something you know nothing about obsessively than to mock something you actually have some level of experience with? This is all less an issue of the mocking being malicious as it is the mocking being tiresome and annoying several years on.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Not saying anyone has to like it, just trying to quell at least some of the bashing.

I'd be really shocked if those bashing it have even cracked one of the books. I think it's all done mainly out of having a bit of fun, and not nearly as malicious as some would make it out to be.

Is it better to mock something you know nothing about obsessively than to mock something you actually have some level of experience with? This is all less an issue of the mocking being malicious as it is the mocking being tiresome and annoying several years on.

Dude, then call the cops and have them take away the man holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read the threads!

Monster Rain wrote:Dude, then call the cops and have them take away the man holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read the threads!

I can't. He said he'll shoot me if I call the cops.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Dude, then call the cops and have them take away the man holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read the threads!

I can't. He said he'll shoot me if I call the cops.

That'll teach you not to have a panic room!

Monster Rain wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Dude, then call the cops and have them take away the man holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read the threads!

I can't. He said he'll shoot me if I call the cops.

That'll teach you not to have a panic room!

I do, but it's full of vampires so I can't really use it.

*sigh*...it seems that the Ordo must once again go into action.

Also, the only reason I would even consider owning this game is if it was Twilight vs Blade. And I get to be Blade.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Dude, then call the cops and have them take away the man holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read the threads!

I can't. He said he'll shoot me if I call the cops.

That'll teach you not to have a panic room!

I do, but it's full of vampires so I can't really use it.

Just tell them what terrible monsters they are and shame them into leaving.

I guess my main stake in this, or the only reason I care, is that I hate repression on the basis of "gender identity." I'm attracted to men and women. I haven't had "the talk" with my family, but I know it won't go well. I won't say a word to them about it until it becomes relevant (i.e. I get serious with a guy, if that happens) and if anyone in my family takes enough interest in me to follow my tracks on the internet and it spoils it, kudos to them for caring more than I thought they did :p I believe that regardless, I can be a very masculine figure. I don't think someone should have to fit a certain mold to like something or that because they like something it automatically makes them a certain way. Being perfectly honest, how many of you would assume a guy was gay for wearing a slim-cut Twilight shirt? He might like his tits as much as the next guy, and you wouldn't know it.

Edit: Accusing nobody hear of "hating" or discriminating, just trying to draw a bit of a parallel.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:I guess my main stake in this, or the only reason I care, is that I hate repression on the basis of "gender identity." I'm attracted to men and women. I haven't had "the talk" with my family, but I know it won't go well. I won't say a word to them about it until it becomes relevant (i.e. I get serious with a guy, if that happens) and if anyone in my family takes enough interest in me to follow my tracks on the internet and it spoils it, kudos to them for caring more than I thought they did :p I believe that regardless, I can be a very masculine figure. I don't think someone should have to fit a certain mold to like something or that because they like something it automatically makes them a certain way. Being perfectly honest, how many of you would assume a guy was gay for wearing a slim-cut Twilight shirt? He might like his tits as much as the next guy, and you wouldn't know it.

Edit: Accusing nobody hear of "hating" or discriminating, just trying to draw a bit of a parallel.

Whoa. Ahem. After declaring that in a forum such as this I'd figure telling your family would be a snap! At least they love you. I assume.

I think it's just indicative that men and women like different things. Just look at the advertisements that run on Spike TV as compared to Oxygen Network. I don't think I'm saying anything particularly profound here.

And to be honest, the idea of romantic vampires isn't new. Bela Lugosi played a pretty charming vampire, and Ann Rice's novels were extremely sexual.

I've mentioned it before. I was just clarifying the situation so it didn't look like I was pouring myself into defending what is, at it's heart, a rather insignificant love story in the grand scheme of things. The advertisements I don't believe mean that men and women are so terribly different as much as the advertisers would love for everyone to fit inside a box and tend to reinforce the images people have about themselves. I just want people to be happy and free, cheesy as it sounds, even if they disagree But making people feel like they can't make their own choices because the "cool club" says otherwise or dismissing things as stupid (and therefore insulting the people that like it) will never sit well with me.

For your reading pleasure, http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/stephanie-meyer-letter.php.

Personally, I recognize it as a weak story and one that is poorly written. Its transparent attempts to compare itself to Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, and basically any high school love story does not make it great literature. That's ok! It is a teen phenomenon that happens to attract a smattering of older women. I very much enjoy the equally pretentious 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies', but I am not going to tell you that it is remotely comparable to any sort of classic.

To see good writing, pick up one of the later Harry Potter novels. JK Rowling knows how to sling words, net together subplots, and maintain character integrity. Stephenie Meyer has her arch-rivals go from murderous rage to best-buds as soon as their goals match up. As a high school teacher, I keep myself abreast of writing for this age group.

You can see more internal consistency in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels- but you don't find the fantastical romance, or the idea of love without sex in anything that's popular with the kids these days.

Mrs. Meyers is peddling the same thing that made us all love the Princess Bride- true love. With better casting, these movies would also have defined a generation. Instead, I predict they will enjoy the same popularity that the Matrix had in the 90s and the same fall.

I find it interesting that people feel the need to clarify that Stephenie Meyer isn't a legendary author. She never claims to be one I seem to remember her saying something to the effect of "I'm just a housewife who writes books." The only reason I remember that is because my girl went on and on about how it pissed off some of the fans.

Monster Rain wrote:I plan to show up to the local premier of the Ultramarines movie dressed as Marneus Calgar and shouting anti-Xeno epithets at passersby.

Angrily.

You mean at the Walmart? Seriously, if you show up to the premiere of a direct to DVD movie dressed up...

Platuan4th wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:I plan to show up to the local premier of the Ultramarines movie dressed as Marneus Calgar and shouting anti-Xeno epithets at passersby.

Angrily.

You mean at the Walmart? Seriously, if you show up to the premiere of a direct to DVD movie dressed up...

Hell no, not Walmart.

Target.

Monster Rain wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:I plan to show up to the local premier of the Ultramarines movie dressed as Marneus Calgar and shouting anti-Xeno epithets at passersby.

Angrily.

You mean at the Walmart? Seriously, if you show up to the premiere of a direct to DVD movie dressed up...

Hell no, not Walmart.

Target.

But Target doesn't do Midnight releases! How am i going to get it at 12:01 AM from Target?!

Marneus Calgar cares not for your feeble hours of operation or the paltry pane of glass in your pathetic front door, Target.

I will claim the first copy in the Emperor's name!

I only came into this thread hoping to see some ruffled panties. I am wayyyyyyyy disappointed.

Twilight's target audience are tween girls. I mean, that's like saying your target demographic are people with multiple personalities. I figure if something is aimed at tween girls, I won't understand it, have no interest in it, and am best served by staying away.

Interestingly, my 47 year old sister-in-law is a huge fan of the series and has read all the book(s). I make fun of her for it. She makes fun of me for playing with toy soldiers. It's pretty bad when you can respond to something with, "Hey, I only play with toy soldiers, you _______."

dietrich wrote:I only came into this thread hoping to see some ruffled panties. I am wayyyyyyyy disappointed.

"Ruffled panties" and Kristen Stewart need to stay far, far away from each other. Ashley Greene on the other hand...

dietrich wrote: Interestingly, my 47 year old sister-in-law is a huge fan of the series and has read all the book(s). I make fun of her for it. She makes fun of me for playing with toy soldiers. It's pretty bad when you can respond to something with, "Hey, I only play with toy soldiers, you _______."

That's why I don't give the wife too much crap. I know she'll turn it back on me and tell me to go paint some silver pants blue.

Now that I think about it I will most likely squeel like a little girl (at some point) during the Ultramarine movie. That or we'll have a game of 40k in the theatre lobby.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:"Ruffled panties" and Kristen Stewart need to stay far, far away from each other. Ashley Greene on the other hand...

I think that Ms. Stewart is a lesbian. Ms. Greene is okay, but she's no Gwen Stefani or Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Gitzbitah wrote:Mrs. Meyers is not peddling the same thing that made us all love the Princess Bride- Andre the Giant.

Fix'd

I think that listing all the reasons "Why you love Andre The Giant" would require it's own thread. I can think of 6 or 7 off the top of my head.

Sorry, I had to...

In all honesty, putting my bad joke aside I do really agree with Shuma. Its pointless to make fun of other nerds while being nerds. Although to be fair I think I live under a rock I didn't know what the hell Twilight was until I started seeing all the mockery about it on the net. And I have yet to see any rabid fangirls yet.


If only I could say the same about Final Fantasy...

Monster Rain wrote:And the funny thing about myth is that it can evolve. The wampyr from Eastern European myth has gone from a hideous bloodsucking beast to a urbane, sophisticated gentleman and is now a brooding teenager of ambiguous sexual preference. Who knows what it will be in another 400 years?

There was a strong sexual element to the original vampire stories. The fear of eastern europeans coming and taking our women was transformed into fear of an eastern european vampire coming and taking our women, and contrasting that with proper Victorian attitudes to sex was basically the core of the story. Vampires as a way to look at sexuality is actually very true to the source material, a lot more true than vampires fighting werewolves.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Gitzbitah wrote:Personally, I recognize it as a weak story and one that is poorly written. Its transparent attempts to compare itself to Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, and basically any high school love story does not make it great literature. That's ok!

Funnily enough Wuthering Heights is also schlock that's managed to end up being hailed as a classic for reasons I've never understood.

But then, literature is full of classics that really aren't all that good. Does anyone think Dickens is really all that? Last of the Mohicans is hailed as a classic, but if it was written today it'd be seen as the teleplay of a b-movie (the film cut the goofiest parts and the overt classism, and still ended up as a beautifully shot Mills & Boon story).

sebster wrote:Vampires as a way to look at sexuality is actually very true to the source material, a lot more true than vampires fighting werewolves.

Once you read some of the vampire fiction that came out of the Romantic period (Polidori's The Vampyre immediately comes to mind) the thematic balance of Twilight makes a lot more sense. Take the mystique of Byronic fiction, and then remove the vice which makes it believable; thereby enhancing the fantasy.

sebster wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:And the funny thing about myth is that it can evolve. The wampyr from Eastern European myth has gone from a hideous bloodsucking beast to a urbane, sophisticated gentleman and is now a brooding teenager of ambiguous sexual preference. Who knows what it will be in another 400 years?

There was a strong sexual element to the original vampire stories. The fear of eastern europeans coming and taking our women was transformed into fear of an eastern european vampire coming and taking our women, and contrasting that with proper Victorian attitudes to sex was basically the core of the story. Vampires as a way to look at sexuality is actually very true to the source material, a lot more true than vampires fighting werewolves.

Actually the original European Vampire stories had Vampires as bloated, stinking corpses, not as sexual figures at all.

Platuan4th wrote:Actually the original European Vampire stories had Vampires as bloated, stinking corpses, not as sexual figures at all.

Fair point, I should have said the original Victorian vampire stories. The East European folklore they draw from is a whole other thing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

dogma wrote:Once you read some of the vampire fiction that came out of the Romantic period (Polidori's The Vampyre immediately comes to mind) the thematic balance of Twilight makes a lot more sense. Take the mystique of Byronic fiction, and then remove the vice which makes it believable; thereby enhancing the fantasy.

True. There's probably at least a thousand english lit essays out there comparing Twilight and the original vampire stories.

sebster wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:And the funny thing about myth is that it can evolve. The wampyr from Eastern European myth has gone from a hideous bloodsucking beast to a urbane, sophisticated gentleman and is now a brooding teenager of ambiguous sexual preference. Who knows what it will be in another 400 years?

There was a strong sexual element to the original vampire stories. The fear of eastern europeans coming and taking our women was transformed into fear of an eastern european vampire coming and taking our women, and contrasting that with proper Victorian attitudes to sex was basically the core of the story. Vampires as a way to look at sexuality is actually very true to the source material, a lot more true than vampires fighting werewolves.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Gitzbitah wrote:Personally, I recognize it as a weak story and one that is poorly written. Its transparent attempts to compare itself to Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, and basically any high school love story does not make it great literature. That's ok!

Funnily enough Wuthering Heights is also schlock that's managed to end up being hailed as a classic for reasons I've never understood.

But then, literature is full of classics that really aren't all that good. Does anyone think Dickens is really all that? Last of the Mohicans is hailed as a classic, but if it was written today it'd be seen as the teleplay of a b-movie (the film cut the goofiest parts and the overt classism, and still ended up as a beautifully shot Mills & Boon story).

Loads of people thing Dickens is great, including many professors of English literature.

welcome to twilight war one nerds and reall vampire/ warewolf fans vs. 10 year old to 22 year old girl and pansys go. lol