Is the 'Twilight' Franchise Still Relevant?

*Originally published on 8/5/10



It seems like only yesterday that the Twilight vampire romance series appeared and hit popular culture like a brick to the face. The books sold like crazy and Hollywood didn't hesitate to adapt it into a series of movies as well. There were T-shirts, posters, and all sorts of fan pages devoted to the series and it's three main characters.

Now it seems like the franchise is starting to fade out. Maybe it's just the websites that I frequent, but it seems like the only people still talking about Twilight are the ones who hate it with a fiery passion.

Even the once legendary wrath of the "Twi-hards" seems to have subsided. There was a time where even daring to question the sparkly goodness of Edward Cullen online would result in flames the likes of which even Hell has never seen.

In fact, even the fans themselves have started to turn on the series. Nowadays, if you ask someone who enjoyed it about what the appeal is, they will openly admit that it's more of a guilty pleasure than anything. "Twi-haters" may roll their eyes, but I get it. You're talking to a guy who has Howard the Duck in his movie collection, I'm well aware of the appeal of something even if it is terrible by most standards.

As much as I talk about the series fading into obscurity, it is still putting up a fight. The movies still break records at the box office and they continue to sweep the major categories at the MTV movie awards. If you walk into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, you'll still see the merchandise such as posters related to the franchise, placed front and center.

When the franchise was first introduced, much was made of the characters. Readers connected with Bella and envied her, wishing they could be with guys like Jacob or Edward. The latter confused me as I'm not sure how breaking into a person's house to watch them sleep is romantic, but to each his or her own.

I don't know if the author, Stephanie Meyer, just derailed her characters that drastically, or if people didn't really notice until now, but people are really starting to turn on the characters for being reprehensible people. Bella in particular gets slammed for being a manipulative sociopath. Considering that Bella is supposed to be a character that readers can put themselves in (somewhat justifying the "blank slate" characterization) it's kind of unnerving.

In an odd twist, Breaking Dawn has caused the two camps to switch. From what I can gather, the novel turned a lot of fans away, yet that's the film that most Twilight haters are looking forward to seeing on the big screen. It's very peculiar.

While one gets the impression that Twilight is in the twilight of its popularity (see what I did there?) I don't think fans have to worry for a while. Breaking Dawn is being split into two movies and Meyer may yet get back to the book that had some of its chapters leaked at some point. It may not be as prominent as it was a few months back, but the franchise is still a money maker.