THE BELLA QUESTION

[Maureen Johnson]

One of the crazy things about the Twilight phenom is that if anyone criticizes the book, they run the risk of getting slammed six ways til Sunday. (Believe me. This is true. And viciously. With incredibly filthy language and occasionally threats! NO I AM NOT JOKING. I have seen it happen!)

I'm not saying everyone does that. Nerdfighters probably wouldn't. I am just kind of dying to know where that kind of strength of emotion comes from. Twilight produces an extremely strong reaction in a lot of people. Even hardcore Harry Potter fans are unlikely to smack you down for not liking Ron or something. (Even though not liking Ron is BONKERS.)

What is it about Twilight and/or Bella that people like so much? Specifically. I mean, as specific as you can possibly get. Tedious detail is fine. I'm particularly curious about Bella as a character. How does she work for you? Does she? Can you be a Twilight fan and not like Bella?

(Please note that I am not actually saying anything about the book. This is purely a discussion question.)

[ashaberry]

The more I think critically about Bella, the less I like her but on my initial reading I really enjoyed the characters. (Team Jacob all the way though - I like Edward but still).

I think Bella works because she is very nearly a blank slate: she has issues that many teenage girls share (worries that she's ugly, clumsiness, feeling like she doesn't fit in) and so you can project yourself onto Bella without a lot of effort. (potentially that sentence could read: I could project myself....) I love small towns and greenery but don't need to focus on those details of her to find things to relate to - like volleyball failure.

And Bella suddenly realizes that she's special: awesome guy likes her, she has quasi-special abilities, all the kids in town want to be her friend. And though she rationalizes most of it it's still a total teenage girl fantasy. Oh you thought you were normal and boring? Well actually you are beautiful and unique! (While still being bookish and insecure and kind of dorky. For all the stalkery weirdness of Edward, he never does expect her to change those aspects of herself and become someone new.)

I think it's the wishful fulfillment nature of the Bella character that strikes such a chord with her defenders - attacking her is attacking them. Especially since the most common attack against Bella is that she is weak and her boyfriend's a creep. But if you commit to those books you are going to spend over 2000 pages hanging out in Bella's brain as she tells you about herself. If she is weak than the story means less - because the idea is that she is actually strong - making the hard decision to follow true love rather than the easy decision to live like a normal person and give up on love.

Though obviously many fans are a bit anti-Bella I think that is the major reason her defenders can be so fervent because they see themselves in her and take it a touch personal.

[Kaiti]

I second this!

[Kaiti]

I don't think people actually like Bella as much as they think they do. There's not much to her as a character. She's mediocre, vaguely written, and doesn't do much except experience external stimuli. I mean, do we even know what she likes (aside from bad boys and, possibly, her mother)? There was a passing appreciation for her truck, and one time she was in the mood for Linkin Park, but otherwise...?

Despite that, I think she's a really good character with whom readers can substitute themselves. She doesn't has many clear characteristics, and the books are all in 1st person, so it's easy to fill in Bella's blanks with yourself. That's more why I think people like her, rather than her being in any way a likable character in her own right.

[Rena]

She's clingy, she is not a character designed for readers to like at all. She's accident prone and klutzy and has no redeeming qualities other than that SHE GETS EDWARD. I mean, it's perfectly fine to have an "everygirl thrust into magical world of sparkly vampires" plot, but other than that she's the "normal" one who gets caught between werwolves and vampires, nothing is interesting about her. I guess some girls can relate to her; this is assuming they like the book enough to be familiar with her personality. So, criticizing her is like criticizing all of them. Thousands of Twi-hards who want to (at least see their avatar in the series) GET WITH EDWARD. You daren't mock them. See their fury.

So, that answers why people like her. But I personally think she's annoying. I'm not a huge Twilight fan, and I wouldn't like it much more without her either. She's just part of its inherent suck.

[Sam Barkawitz]

"BONKERS" Maureen? I'm really ashamed with your potty mouth. Honestly, would you want a young new Nerdfighter to get the impression that we all curse like sailors? At least use something 'G' rated like SILLY!

[Rawie was a Hobo]

I personally don't find anything wrong with the character Bella, I actually kind of like that she's super clumsy, it makes me feel better about my own lack of co-ordination. And while it is true that she's not a particularly strong female character, and she doesn't do anything to really help feminism along, that really doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the way Kristen stewart plays the character. She makes Bella seem really slow and irritatingly indecisive and unable to articulate any sentence without pulling a confused face and taking several seconds longer than needed to consider what she's about to say.

If you want to read a vampire book with a strong, capable, ass-kicking human female lead then you should read the Sookie Stackhouse collection by Charlaine Harris. They're awesome. (:

[Terry]

I'm a Twilight fan but I'm not obsessed. I dunno, I think it's just the crowd it attracts, a lot of the people who read it are teenage girls (The bad kind) and I was actually surprised to discover this. I read Twilight along with some friends and family and thought it was just a pretty cool book and I rarely really noticed the Mormonism in it. Some people just love it a little to much and then they get all touchy and defensive....

[Tardis Tasha]

A lot of girls at my school like Twilight and really don't like Bella. But then again these are the ones who are pretty much only in it for the hot guys.
Personally I would have preferred the books if Bella had fallen in love with Squidward. :)

[Ado]

My whole being wants to simply reply "challenge accepted" and come to you later with a word document of the edited book. I do not, however, have that kind of time. Know that if I get around to this you'll be the first to know.

[Lulu Sinner]

I love Twilight but the characters are lame and I don't like them at all or at least the mains. I love Emmet however. he is so funny pluss he is like the protective big brother.

The way you know I hate Bella is when people ask I tell them I'm team Tyler's van

[Annie May]

The reason why people may like Bella is because she is a blank character, girls who read twilight saga books can put themselves into bellas position instead imagining themselves as someone else. But Bella...shes just a normal. 

^^

thats probably made NO sense what so ever :L anyways

they may like her because in most books its all happy characters etc but with Bella shes sort of depressed and that can bring people to be interested in her because they may experience a sad moment in life and think "oh wow im not the only one, even if shes made up" but like i said before she comes across as being normal. we can relate to her.  

[Sarah Katona]

I Don't Like Bella very much, But I think her, Edward and Jacob all have flaws that make me what to chuck the books across the room. MOSTLY during Breaking Dawn. I hate the fact that Bella gets everything she wants and doesn't have to give up anything. I Love the Twilight Series, but Breaking Dawn was rough. But that book was the main reason I don't really like Bella.