Twilight: Bella is SUPPOSED to be a flat character.

[BonsaiK]

I heard an interesting theory regarding Twilight and the character of Bella Swan the other day.

The reason she's such a bland, uninteresting, burlap sack of a character is because the target audience is intended to project themselves into her shoes. If she were a REAL character (i.e., someone with a personality and other defining traits), she would just be some dumb ***** getting in-between the reader and Edward Cullen (or Jacob, if you're into that sort of thing). Probably also why the Twilight novels are written as a first-person narrative.

This rings true for me, because I'm already aware of another type of entertainment that does this: Japanese dating sim games. In these types of games, where the player is intended to project themselves into the role of the main character and decide which of the lovely ladies they'd like to woo, the character is frequently not even given a face, let alone a personality.

Discuss.

This is correct. It's the same reason why Gordon Freeman doesn't talk.

Not a criticism, more a sign of an author who knows how to reach her target audience.

 

[AcacianLeaves]

Well yes, that's true. But what's Edward's excuse? Or Jacob's? Or any of the other bland, flat, and boring characters in the series?

Besides, a good writer can make a reader sympathize with any character no matter how unrelatable they are.

 

[CheesusCrust]

 

[w-Jinksy]

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.

While I agree with your love for GRRM's masterpiece series, I disagree on the fact that it would make a good movie. Those books contain so many simultaneous subplots that much would have to be cut out in order to make the movie of an acceptable length. I think they went the proper route with the HBO TV series. IMO, it gives them a much better opportunity to examine the depth of the series in a way that I doubt a movie/movie series could.

OT: *insert obligatory Twilight hate statement here, as well as snarky comment about how all Twitards should be forced to watch the entire Hellsing Ultimate series then reevaluate their perspective on vampires.*

yeah i suppose it would be hard to fit it in and they'd probably have to go and split into parts like their doing with the hobbit.

also wait a second there's a tv series? when the fuck did that happen? though its on HBO so wouldn't have heard anything of it being as i'm in the UK and HBO is an American channel

 

[Durgiun]

OR, and this is the more likely scenario, Meyer was just trying to cover her poor writing skills by bullshitting her way out. Sounds a hell of a lot more convincing to me.

I was going to say exactly this, verbatim, even down to the capitalized "OR..." In other words, QFT

Forgive my ignorance, but what does QFT stand for?

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Well duh. You'd think that was obvious from how well it worked, with thousands of screaming bimbos wetting themselves with lust over "their" beloved Edward because of how their personality-deficient female lead isn't enough of a character to threaten their personal fantasies. This doesn't excuse the fact that this is a horrible way to write a character and the Twilight books suck IMMENSE amounts of balls.

 

[MajorDooshbag]

I don't want to be buzzkill (to which Yatzhee would respond "Yes, you do") but maybe you guys are reading way too much into what is essentially a trashy romance novel (which is what most Japanese dating sims try to be) with a crapload of angst and the author wrote it that way because she knew it would sell a crapload of copies and make her a crapload of money.

On the other hand you guys are bashing a really awful book with complicated analysis, like using a nuke to swat a fly, and that's fun enough to justify itself.

 

[k-ossuburb]

Oh, I read this as "Bella was supposed to be a FAT character." Which was the only reason I clicked on it in the first place. It would make things a little more interesting since nothing about Bella makes her worthwhile as a character anyway, which was your point.

However my theory about it is that the only reason she's a flat character is because Steph Meyer wrote a crappy Mary Sue story and her religion prevented her from putting any real imagination into the piece because because the superseding morals of her religion made the character severely outdated.

 

[DevilSShadoW]

I came to this thread expecting some inflammatory comments regarding twi... bah, I won't say its name. Please don't disappoint me.

 

[KnowYourOnion]

You know, that thought is neither particularly new nor profound.

You know, this comment isn't particularly helpful..................

OT: I've read the first book, I didn't like it and this theory doesn't make me like it any more

Complaining about it, however, is completely helpful. Go you.

OT: Unless you're a tween girl, I don't think you're supposed to like it.

Not complaining, just pointing out my good man

OT: I wanted to see what it is was like rather than just have to rely on hearsay

 

[CommanderKirov]

And that fact absolves Twilight from predictable plots, retarded characters, cliche's and repeating itself in what way?

 

[Gigano]

Probably true that's part of the reason for any consciously bland protagonist, though from what I've heard on it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/7779-The-Problem-With-Twilight] the situation the (female) readers are supposed to project themselves into - the passive purity of an existence consisting of being bickered over by omnipotent men - is promoting norms which are at best quite backwards.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

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.

And if you look to the right, you can see a person blowing the OP's excuse out of the water.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

B.E.L.A.

Bio
Engineered
Lifeless
Android

 

[manic_depressive13]

OR, and this is the more likely scenario, Meyer was just trying to cover her poor writing skills by bullshitting her way out. Sounds a hell of a lot more convincing to me.

I was going to say exactly this, verbatim, even down to the capitalized "OR..." In other words, QFT

Forgive my ignorance, but what does QFT stand for?

Means "Quoted For Truth"

OT: My issue with Bella isn't that she's "bland"; It's that she's stupid. Also, the books (and films) she appears in are poorly written and the messages they convey are beyond disturbing.

 

[Faladorian]

OR, and this is the more likely scenario, Meyer was just trying to cover her poor writing skills by bullshitting her way out. Sounds a hell of a lot more convincing to me.

I was going to say exactly this, verbatim, even down to the capitalized "OR..." In other words, QFT

Forgive my ignorance, but what does QFT stand for?

Quoted for truth. And dont worry about it, I used to think it was Quit fucking talking lol XD

 

[Durgiun]

OR, and this is the more likely scenario, Meyer was just trying to cover her poor writing skills by bullshitting her way out. Sounds a hell of a lot more convincing to me.

I was going to say exactly this, verbatim, even down to the capitalized "OR..." In other words, QFT

Forgive my ignorance, but what does QFT stand for?

Quoted for truth. And dont worry about it, I used to think it was Quit fucking talking lol XD

You gotta love fun with acronyms.
Cunts
In
Authority

 

[Not Matt]

the audience (little girls who were too stupid for the hunger games) project themselves in to HER!!
*tares shirt of and walks out in the rain*
strike me down, shoot me, kill me, pull my plug, end my time, execute me on the spot, stop me once and for all. i do not wish to live in a world where women are influenced by twilight Bella.

seriously. she is the worst role model ever. i'd rather my children idolize charlie sheen than her. he's a selfharm, male dependent, irresponsible, cruel bi*ch

 

[Nerexor]

Deliberately writing a lifeless character in the hopes that all teen girls everywhere would project into it seems like a bad plan. A lot of book series that do well allow you to empathize and somewhat project yourself on to the main character while still featuring interesting characters. You can have first person narrative characters who are interactive, witty, entertaining, and emotional.

The reason Bella appears to be a flat character is because Twilight is wish fulfillment pablum about girl meeting absurdly handsome and rich magical boy who will then make all her decisions for her and she will never have to do anything ever again. And because of this idea, Bella is entirely dependent on other people for everything. She can't be happy unless she's with sparkle-ass the vampire. She apparently does risky motorcycle racing not because she likes to, but because it reminds her of how fast sparkle-ass can magically run. She treats everyone around her poorly not because of anything they've done or not done to her, but because they aren't sparkle-ass. She has no will, no agency, in the story whatsoever, but everything mysteriously revolves around her for no reason.

And that's why we get the real problem with the writing. It's not that you can't ever have flat characters in a novel, even in major roles. Asimov pulled it off multiple times in Foundation, but you didn't notice the characters were flat unless you took a hard look at the book. But in Twilight, there's nothing to hide that Bella is a flat character. There's no shading, no effort to make her even a tiny bit of a person. Everything she likes is either obviously supposed to parallel her "great love story" or is incredibly cliche stuff that everyone likes, or is never given an explanation of what about a thing she likes or dislikes. She doesn't get along with her parents, why? She didn't like arizona, why? She refuses to even consider going out with the ab-tacular werewolf, why? She likes sparkle-ass, for the love of god, WHY?! Oh right, because he's pretty. Ugh...

TL;DR: The problem with Bella isn't that she's a flat character, but that she's a very badly written one that is devoid of ANYTHING to even qualify her as a character.