Poll: Could Edward Cullen be considered a pedophile or a creep?

[TheFinalFantasyWolf]

Maybe, I suppose.

My favorite Anime blows it out of the water with a 134-year old female raping a 13-year old boy. Compared to that, 118 to 17/18 doesn't seem so bad.

Which anime contains such a situation. 0_o

It's your "favorite anime"?, is this a mainstream title or more for an acquired taste, cause that description is freaky. Perhaps out of context, but none the less disturbing to hear.

OT: He's creepy alright, and for all the weird "romantic appeal" he's actually quite a despicable character. Not as despicable as Bella though, she's on an entirely new level.

 

[wrightguy0]

both, i mean the guy was born in like what, 1900? not to mention the way he's written comes off as creepy as fuck, and girls are supposed to be turned on by that?

Bella is also partially responsible too, she comes across as a needy, incompetent, manipulative *****, the only likeable characters were jacob (they totally fucked him up at the end though) and Bella's dad.

 

[Seracen]

another point to bring up about Edward, he gets Bella pregnant right? how is that possible if his body is frozen in time? He should be well past the point of sterility and with the obvious lack of blood flow he shouldn't even be able to get it up much less get her pregnant.

Not completely sure, but I think in Anne Rice's novels, it was established that a vamp can send blood to any part of the body and KEEP it there for however long. Also, according to certain editions of Vampire (I think "The Masquerade") doing so could temporarily reanimate those processes.

While I'm on my geeky soapbox, I shouldn't be the first person to explain the "sparkling" as their regeneration not QUITE keeping up with their burning in the sun. But the truly sad thing is that: people like us have given the reasoning more thought than Meyer herself, who has been quoted as doing it "because it looked pretty."

Personally, I am of the opinion that any vampire able to live in sunlight should approach living in the "normal" world like the Highlanders did in the old movies and TV series (create new fake ID's every 50 years or so). Also, go less pedo by starting a "new life" in college, rather than HS.

Damn...now I need to go watch the Highlander Anime by the dude who did Vampire Hunter D. Man, that was a good movie (and ironically, probably the best, barring the 1st).

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Yes, because apparently other people have already considered him that, therefore rendering any opinion of mine unneeded.

Honestly though, I don't consider it paedophilia because he's physically the same age as he was when he became a vampire. No sense in acting old when you're eternally young. Besides, it's not like the girl's under 16 or something.

Although I am put off by the sense that Edward's dead and Jacob's a wolf. There's really no conventional option here.

 

[Ldude893]

Yes, but to be fair, Bella is secretly a selfish manipulating mastermind who managed to cause an entire vampire/werewolf war by having two different boyfriends fight over her.

 

[Scarim Coral]

While I want to say creepy old dude but I think pedo is more appropriate. While I refuse to watch or read the Twilight series I assume while he is age over 100 but his brain doesn't act like an over 100 old man (he's not senile)? Maybe he has gotten senile as he had forgotten that the age 17 is not the legal age.
Let called it midway and I will say both! He's a creepy old pedo!

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

The thing that makes it dumb is why would someone that old date a 17 year old girl? You would think that at over a hundred the amount of knowledge etc you would have picked up that a 17 year old girl would just be annoying you with how dumb she is.

 

[Sirtety]

Yes. To both. I don't feel like there needs to be a justification in this post because so much of the Twilight saga was so creepy when it came to establishing relationships. So instead I'll just finish this post by saying, Batman. Because everything is better with Batman.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

...You're just realizing this now? I personally think he's both... but that's just me.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Paedophilia is the attraction to pre-pubescent children. Bella is not one, therfore Edward is not a paedophile.

A similar discussion like this happened with the film Let The Right One In when some argued that Eli was a paedophile since Eli is a 200 year old vampire with a 12 year boy (Oskar), however I argued that Eli is still a child in both body and mind but has just been frozen in time and not developed at all.

 

[Agayek]

Is he a pedo? No.

Is he creepy as all get out? Yes.

The age gap itself is not a terribly big concern, simply by virtue of the fact that if he really is over 100, it's not physically possible for him to find someone his own age.

The fact that he's a grown man dating a high school is all different kinds of creepy though.

 

[DarthSka]

A pedophile is technically applied to humans and since he's a vampire, you can't really hold him to that definition. Now Aang on the other hand.....

 

[maninahat]

I'm going to say hot. And not just to be contrarian, I did take the time to think it through.

Firstly - when I was 17, I fancied 17 year old girls. I often worried whether that meant I'd still fancy them by the time I was 25, but luckily, age changes your perspective on younger people, and now I see teenagers as annoying, ugly children. Cullen, on the other hand, whilst being 100 years old, hasn't physically matured beyond 17 and might not have aged mentally either. It's more like he's frozen at that age, rather than actually getting any older, so I rule out the paedophile factor fairly quickly. Besides - if we go by the logic that the age gap makes him a paedo, every vampire would be too; Dracula has centuries on all the women he dates, and I certainly don't see him chasing down septuagenarians. I do think Cullen is an idiot for doing nothing but going to school for 100 years, or for not have sex at any point throughout that time period (which feels bad enough when you're 17), but I don't think it is inherently creepy.

As for the stalking and watching people whilst they sleep...all right, that is creepy, but he's a fucking vampire! If that's the worst he does with his spare time, we're getting off lightly. I don't think it is something a woman should typically find romantic, but romantic fiction logic always has a bizarre perspective in general: lots of things are treated as sexy which would normally be considered horrific, unpleasant or illegal. How many romantic bodice ripper stories are there? Mills and Boon practically run off of the philosophy that you can't have a romantic relationship without some hunk date raping the protagonist. Even Jane Eyre had bigamy, stalking and a highly romantic blinding-after-saving-pyromaniac-first-wife-from-a-burning-mansion scene (oh yeah, spoiler warning). I think we can accept that a lot of people like to reinvent sex crimes as a romantic fantasy, so I'm willing to let the stalking thing go.

 

[crimson sickle2]

Can't there be a "both" option? What if he's an incredibly old and creepy pedo?

Captcha says he's a creepy old dude, phrase: old shoe.

 

[game-lover]

If Edward is a creepy pedo, then so was Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sure, she was badass. But she was still in high school when the show began and when she met Angel. Know how many years older that guy is compared to her?

There's probably a bunch of other vampire romances where a vampire gets involved with someone who's basically a teenager too. I suppose we consider them just as creepy? Hm?

 

[Lionsfan]

I guess I'll defer to you on this. I don't really know too much about the series, and I'm not going to pretend to

His response to the news that his first girlfriend died was to immediately attempt suicide. Which does that sound like to you?

[] Wizened, cosmopolitan centenarian.
[] Teenage boy.

I choose.......another Option

[X] Bad Writing

Yeah it is pretty creepy. I mean physically he may be a 17/18 year old, but mentally he's still 100-something years old, and still going to HS to find girls

I don't have to like Twilight (quite the contrary in fact) to cringe at this, because it misses the point. He isn't technically his temporal age. Having more experience isn't physical age, physical age is. He's attracted to someone physically his age, which is typical of just about any male.

To the OP, pedophilia is specifically the sexual attraction towards prepubescents. Bella is 17, still a minor but physically adult.

Seriously, guys? With all that's really wrong with Twilight, you have to pick on the one thing that's not even a problem? Pick on something relevant, like Bella being an obsessive, suicidal spoiled brat. Or something like that. Hell even the sparkles are a better target.

I dunno, it's just weird to me having a 100+ year old chase a 17 year old. Maybe physically, he's 17, but mentally....I dunno.

But even then, [user]Dags90[/user] pointed out that his brain never really aged, or something like that. I'll defer to you guys on Twilight knowledge

 

[Cry Wolf]

Paedophile seems to me to be an overstatement. However, he is definitely a creepy old man despite any hand waving from the author a the sadest part is, as far as I can tell from reviews, that the age dynamic is hardly the creepiest part of their relationship.

Is Bella a small girl? As in, not even a teenager or in puberty?

he starts dating Bella when she is 17

So, no - that's not pedophilia. But it's good that people still don't know the definition of the word and are willing to throw it around. We really do need everybody to coin meanings for each word they've heard - it makes communication so much simpler when we're not held down by common rules and such. By which I mean, that I find the practice annoying, unconstructive and should really stop being done.

pe?do?phil?i?a
Sexual feelings directed toward children.

child
A young human being below the age of full physical development or below the legal age of majority.

The age of majority in many places is greater than seventeen. The age at which physical development completes is also greater than seventeen in many cases. This would, in fact, make him a paedophile if only on technicality. If you spent less time writing condescending posts and more time learning the definitions of the words you're using you might actually be pleasant to communicate with!

 

[Jadak]

Who cares? Yes, he's a creep but what else is he going to do? Being 100 years old doesn't make 70 year old women more attractive, he goes for what feels physically appropriate for himself, good enough.