12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
A series of young adult Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance novels by Stephenie Meyer, and the title of the first book. It is about a girl named Bella Swan who falls in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire. Bella is a really special girl, and Edward is (a) unable to use his vampire powers to read her mind, (b) totally hot for her blood and (c) madly in love with her. So, Edward wants to form a relationship with Bella while resisting the urge to suck her dry. Things get complicated in the second book when Bella's childhood friend Jacob, who also has the hots for her, reveals himself to be a shirtless werewolf. There's also the occasional wacky wayside tribe, such as the vampire tracker James and the Volturi.Has, perhaps unsurprisingly, its own character page.The series currently consists of four books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn). Stephenie Meyer had plans to make a POVquel called Midnight Sun, which is the plot of Twilight (nearly word-for-word) told through Edward's point of view. Then, leaked copies of the rough draft were released. Meyer has halted the publication until she gets through her reaction over the event, saying "If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die." Depending on whether you're a fan or not, that may either horrify or excite you. She now has written a 200 page "novella" called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, which came out on June 5, 2010. A guide has been announced as well, planning to be released on April 12th (after being pushed back to another date multiple times).The film version of Twilight was released in the US in 2008, with The Twilight Saga: New Moon following in 2009, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in 2010, and Breaking Dawn, Part 1 in 2011. There were also rumors of an anime, but they proved to be false. Manga-style illustrations of the Japanese edition still exist. A graphic novel has been released and while it's not all that bad, it's not entirely... sparkly.Summit Entertainment was recently purchased by Lionsgate, whose CEO has expressed interest in continuing the Twilight saga beyond Breaking Dawn as either a film series or a television series. See here.
Books in this series
"Twilight" (2005)
"New Moon" (2006)
"Eclipse" (2007)
"Breaking Dawn" (2008)
"The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" (2010). Novella, details the last days of a character introduced in "Eclipse".
All Myths Are True: Bella wonders if this is the case after learning about werewolves.
All Women Are Lustful: Especially Bella. Other female characters display this trope, like Tanya and her succubus "sisters", and all the Cullen women seem to spend their nights having sex with their husbands.
Amicably Divorced: Charlie and Renee. They mainly split up because Renee couldn't stand Forks, and Charlie didn't want to leave. They're shown to be in communication regarding Bella, and on the rare occasion that they are together, they are quite friendly with each other.
Analogy Backfire: In Eclipse, Bella compares herself to Cathy of Wuthering Heights and her love for Edward to Cathy's love for Heathcliff... seemingly forgetting there is actually an Isabella in the same novel who does marry Heathcliff... to disastrous effect.
Anticlimax: Happens a few times throughout the series:
In the first novel, James is described as an unstoppable killing machine. Laurent isn't even willing to face him with seven other vampires. But we see none of the fight between him and Edward since Bella is unconscious, and so the scary Big Bad is killed offscreen. The movie is somewhat better about this. We don't see his death in explicit detail, but we do see a roughly 30-second fight between Edward and James, and a few glimpses of the other Cullens tearing James apart after he's been subdued — for example, a shot where it's pretty obvious James' head is torn off.
Doubly Subverted in Eclipse. It looks like Edward and Bella will miss out on the battle against the newborn vampires, but then Victoria shows up... but then ... Bella closes her eyes for a minute, and then Victoria's head's been ripped off. So much for the expected Gory Discretion Shot! This is also fixed in the movie, in which not only do we see Edward, Victoria, and Riley fighting on the mountain, but we get cuts back to the Cullens fighting the newborn army.
The final novel, Breaking Dawnends not with the epic battle which Meyer had been using a third of the book to build up to... but with diplomatic discussion instead.
Anti-Magic: Bella has a pretty minor version of this, but most vampire powers (not counting purely physical ones) don't seem to work well on her, even while she's still human. Edward for instance can read every mind but hers, and she can't be found directly with clairvoyance.
Also when Bella finds out Edward has broken into her house, more than once, even before they were dating, to sit in her bedroom and watch her sleep, Bella is more concerned that he heard her talking in her sleep.
Upon discovering that Edward is a vampire and can read minds, she freaks out...because he says he can't read hers, which makes her think that she's the freakish one.
This is Lampshaded by Edward, who comments on how crazy it is for Bella to be worried she's a freak when he just told her he can read minds.
Artistic License - Biology: Vampires are stated to freak out when they smell human blood. When Bella gets a freaking papercut, it's like throwing a hunk of meat into a shark tank. So, why don't vampires freak out when a girl is menstruating? It's dead blood.
Breaking Dawn. Elaborating would practically be a page unto itself.
Artistic License - Geography: At one point, the book refers to the west coast of Brazil. The west is probably the only cardinal direction of Brazil that DOESN'T have a coastline.
Another Bible quote is used to symbolize Edward and Bella's relationship, namely the "lion and the lamb" one. A quick check of the Bible shows that Meyer got it dramatically wrong.
Attempted Rape: One of the many times Edward saves Bella.
Meyer has actually denied that Bella is her Author Avatar in this interview. She argues that saying while she was sheltered and had an easy life, Bella is forced to be more mature than Meyer was at her age. Even though this doesn't contradict author avatar in the slightest.
Babies Make Everything Better: After being born, Renesmee brought peace between the Quileutes by having Jacob imprint on her, mended Rosalie and Bella's relationship(as well as creating a peaceable relationship between Edward and Jacob), and won a lot of allies for the Cullen coven against the Volturi.
Based on a Dream: A dream of a sparkling vampire lying in a field of flowers, apparently.
Beauty Equals Goodness: Played straight in the first book. James, the first book's evil vampire, is described as being an average-looking vampire because he was ugly as a human. Naturally, all the Cullens were beautiful in life, making them absolutely gorgeous as vampires. The later books avert this with the Volturi. When we first meet them in New Moon, Edward points out, the Volturi aren't technically the bad guys. However, at that point all the Cullens though the Volturi respected the law and controlled their world in a way that was better than what they will have if vampires became an anarchy with poor humans on the way. By the last book they know the Volturi (specially Aro) are ambitious bastards that will go to any length to get their way, including breaking the law and murdering innocents to achieve power.
Really, Your Milage May Vary on this topic. The Volturi really don't break any rules on their own for power (because no one has even learned that they are vampires, minus vampires themselves). And, murdering innocents... well, human wise, count how many of the Cullen allies also kill humans to live. Although Aro can still count, as he is pretty evil.
Beneath the Mask: Rosalie Cullen's attitude towards Bella is revealed to be this.
Berserk Button: In Breaking Dawn, Bella accidentally breaks Seth's shoulder when she learns that Jacob nicknamed Renesmee after the Loch Ness monster.
Jacob when Bella talks about becoming a vampire or when Edward returns.
Edward when Bella is in danger.
Beta Couple: Pretty much the whole cast, except Leah.
Beware the Nice Ones: Manic Pixie Dream Girl Alice displays signs of temper, spite, and a less innocent side in the later books. She also rips off James' head in the movie.
Typical of her clan, she's especially hostile to members of the Quileute tribe. In the New Moon film, Bella asks if she'll be coming back inside and she responds with "As soon as you put the dog out."
Big Bad: By all rights the Volturi should be this.
Instead, we get a Big Bad Ensemble, with the Volturi on the one hand and Victoria on the other hand.
Bishie Sparkle: Vampires do this in the sunlight. In the movie? They glimmer. Imagine them ridiculously sweaty, or using a lot of glitter lotion. The effect was done (at least in the first movie) with glitter glue. Better Than It Sounds, because you don't have to listen to Bella whine about it...and because in the movie, there are sparkle noises. It must be seenand heard to be believed.
The climax of New Moon revolves around this, where Edward tries to step into the sunlight in the Volturi's city, which would get him noticed by the humans and killed by the Volturi.
The Scene It? spinoff of the movie takes the sparkle motif Up to Eleven. Everything, everything sparkles, and Carlisle's voiceover constantly informs you that you "sparkle like a diamond".
Blondes Are Unpleasant: Most of the book's female antagonists are blonde, whereas the brunettes tend to be portrayed more favorably. Word Of God says this wasn't intentional, but Meyer has admitted several unpleasant people in her life were blonde, and it might have unconsciously informed her writing.
Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Rosalie after being turned into a vampire, took revenge on her ex-fiance and his friends after they raped and left her for dead in an alleyway. She wore a wedding dress to do so. However it's subverted since she says she made sure non of them splattered blood on her dress.
Played straight in Breaking Dawn, Part 1. Bella has a nightmare in which Edward eats all the wedding guests. Everyone is wearing white, and they all get splattered with blood, including Bella's wedding dress, of course.
But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Bella's initial reaction to her little nudger. She accepts the fact quickly enough, though.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Edward and Bella. In New Moon, however, gender-flipping this is what kicks off the Jacob/Bella relationship, with him being the gentle guy to Bella's "My boyfriend dumped me so my life is over" brooding.
Jacob:I'm in love with you, Bella. Bella, I love you. And I want you to pick me instead of him. I know you don't feel that way, but I need the truth out there so that you know your options. I wouldn't want a miscommunication to stand in our way. (Eclispe)
But Not Too White: In the movie, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are very pale but no less attractive, and they have been praised for their pale looks with the hope that it will reduce tanning and skin cancer in teenagers.
They also look creepy to some viewers, as many in the hatedom point out.
Can You Hear Me Now?: Who smashes their phone because they get bad news? Who does that?
Well as vampire he is strong enough to smash it. In real life some people throw their phones in anger (or if they are celebrities they throw it to other people) specially if they are inexpensive ones. In the books, he just leave the cell phone conveniently on a trash can that is how they know that he left the country.
Celibate Hero: Edward, as he's afraid that he might hurt Bella.
Childfree Is Not Allowed: Technically, not every woman in the story is capable of reproduction. However, the ones that aren't are universally regarded as having something wrong with them, especially if they don't want to have children.
Meyer even contradicts herself to uphold this (she originally said all vampires couldn't have children and later changed it to female vampires can't have children.)
She was careful to specify that a woman vampire's body couldn't undergo the changes necessary to bear a child. She knew she was going to have Bella get pregnant so she made sure to leave that open.
In a particularly disturbing passage, an infertile young woman is described as a horror who is less than female.
Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Jacob in the third book suffers from derailment: he goes from a friendly, devoted guy to a possessive jerk to better enable the canon couple. Then, in the last book, he imprints on Bella's newborn baby (squick) and conveniently is no longer at all attracted to Bella. In fact, with the notable exception of Leah, basically every major character is wonderfully paired off by the end of the series.
Cock Fight: And the above leads to this between Edward and Jacob over Bella.
Compelling Voice: Alpha werewolves (to other werewolves, at least). The dazzling from vampires to a certain extent.
Color Wash: The Film of the Book desaturates the colors to, according to the director, convey how dreary and rainy Forks is.
Cool Car: All the Cullens have at least one. Even klutzy Bella gets a motorcycle and a sportscar (an S600 Guardian, which is somewhat fitting as it is bulletproof and armored against explosives). Word Of God says the Cullen family likes to drive fast. Meyer's brothers are massive gearheads, so she let them pick cool cars for each of the characters.
Subverted in the New Moon movie with Edward's Volvo XC90. Why such a soccer-mom car? Product Placement, natch. It's also insinuated in Breaking Dawn that the Volvo is one the Cullens keep to drive when they don't particularly want to be noticed, and Bella drives it to Seattle to meet the lawyer who forges Jacob and Renesmee's passports.
Volvo's area in the 2011 LA Auto Show had a raised "building" that resembled the Cullens' house; it just so happened to be the same time as the premier of Breaking Dawn Part I.
Cool Loser: Bella is an inversion. She's socially awkward, clumsy and generally uncool, but everyone warms up to her the minute she gets to town and soon enough she has her own little circle of friends.
Creator Breakdown: Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight books, has announced that she has ceased work on the fifth novel of the series (a retelling of the first from the hero's perspective) after someone she knew leaked the first 13 chapters online: "If I tried to write Midnight Sun now, in my current frame of mind, James would probably win and all the Cullens would die, which wouldn't dovetail too well with the original story. In any case, I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working..."
Creator Cameo: Stephenie Meyer makes an appearance in the first film as one of the women in the diner Bella and Charlie visit.
And again as a guest at Edward and Bella's wedding in the fourth film.
Vampirism in general, especially if one survives on a diet of animal blood. It's described as being less tasty than human blood, which basically implies that one gets an eternity of youth, beauty, strength, and some sort of super power, and the only downside is that one has to eat something they don't like.
Considering some of the things that people actually do in the name of youth, vitality, strength and beauty? In this world The Masquerade probably doesn't exist in order to keep a vampire genocide from happening, but rather to prevent every vampire in the world from being hounded day and night by desperate people wanting to be turned.
Defictionalization: Nordstrom and Torrid have massive tie-ins with New Moon, mainly replicating Bella's clothes (apparently there were a lot of requests after the first movie and they just said "screw it, we're selling it ourselves"), which by happy coincidence are in style.
Deadpan Snarker: In the books, Bella tells a number of dry jokes with such a straight face that the others can't tell if she's trying to be funny. In the movies, when when Jessica feels ignored she can be snarky too.
Deliberate Values Dissonance: Edward is from the early 1900s. Some of what he does was perfectly acceptable in his native time. Other parts of his behavior, like sneaking into a girl's room every night to to "protect" her, would have gotten Victorian/Edwardian fathers to take out the shotgun (or send the footman with a club).
Dhampyr: Renesmee. A few other Dhampyr are mentioned briefly in this series.
Did Not Do the Research: Quite a few examples of research errors appear throughout the series.
Meyer never visited the town of Forks or any of the environs mentioned in the book until after they were all finished. The wildlife and plant life described in the book do not match up with the real life Olympic Peninsula.
The mythology of the Quileutes.
Rosalie's family was well off during the Great Depression because her father was a banker.
Brazil's west coast. Enough said.
In Breaking Dawn, a Brazilian cleaning woman recognizes Edward as a "libishomen".*
She could have meant "a bishonen" and we just misheard...
Ignoring the fact that it's Lobisomem, that particular Portuguese myth is a werewolf and not a vampire. To make matters worse, the lobisomem looks like a man-ape, so it should have been impossible for Edward Cullen to be recognized as one.
A lobishomen is also a Brazilian vampire legend, likely imported from the original Portuguese werewolf legend. However, the vampire is around two inches tall, ugly and apelike, and while it does drink women's blood, it turns the women into nymphomaniacs instead of killing them. Even accepting that she meant that he was a vampire, there's no reason the cleaning woman would think him a lobishomen.
A driftwood fire is not blue. It's yellow.
At one point in New Moon, Bella is thinking about Romeo and Juliet, and what would have happened "if Rosalind had given [Romeo] the time of day". However, the play doesn't feature Rosalind, since she is from As You Like It. Bella is thinking of Rosaline. This is somewhat understandable, as the names are very similar - exactly the kind of mistake a teenager who didn't pay close attention in class would make, in fact.
Somewhat understandable until you remember that Bella is supposed to be incredibly smart and well read compared to 'normal' teenagers, and most definitely shouldn't have made a mistake like that.
Carlisle Cullen discovers a coven of vampires in the sewers of 17th century London. Such sewers did not exist in London until two centuries later, when the stench of the open sewers grew unbearable.
Carlisle's story in general is a little cringe-worthy to anyone who's done much reading on the 17th century. Quite a bit of general history fail there.
When telling Alice's backstory, Edward remarks that had she been born a century earlier (therefore the early 19th century), she would have been burned as a witch. One: they were not still trying people for witchcraft at that time period. Two: No witches were actually burned in the United States.
The whole concept of the blood typing. First there is the teacher who is randomly sticking students with pins to draw blood without asking either their or their parents permission. Keep in mind that US law leaves it at the parents' discretion whether or not they inform their children's schools that they have any diseases communicable by blood, such as HIV or Hepatitis C. And then we have the notion that they are doing this experiment on one another because the Red Cross will be having a blood drive and they need to know their blood type if they want to donate blood. Because the Red Cross will totally accept a seventeen year old's word for it when they tell them they are O neg, especially if the testing was done by a high school junior.
The first part about not asking parental permission is particularly egregious as Meyer is a mother of three. You think she'd know the type of shit storm that would be raised should a teacher start poking their kids with needles.
You'd think the teacher would at the very least have mentioned at some point this would be happening.
Possibly this goes more under Science Marches On or some Trope where the writer's experience at the characters' age is used, as high school biology classes used to do type matching and rH testing without reams of permission slips all the time. To the point "student doing blood type in school realizes their parents can't be their blood relatives" is practically a trope itself.
Possible, but it still doesn't explain why the Red Cross needed to know the kids blood types. This troper is a very regular blood donor and has given at numerous school blood drives—not only do they not ask for your blood type, they do not care. They type the blood themselves and they will take any blood type—some are more in demand than others, such as O neg and the more common blood types such as A because they're in higher demand, but they need some of every blood type.
A lunar Eclipse (Earth gets between Sun and Moon) can only occur on nights when there is a full moon. If the books' titles are supposed to be on a single night, having one with a New Moon is impossible. New moons are required for solar eclipses, however.
It is a solar eclipse: in the very beginning of Eclipse you see the shadow of the moon over the sun.
Word of God says Lauren fell prey to a modeling scam that cost her over a thousand dollars and a good chunk of her hair. What made her deserving of this? She made one relatively minor sarcastic comment about Bella.
In Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Aro orders the death of the secretary because she misspelled "Carlisle" in a note.
"Carlisle? With a Y?"
Distressed Damsel: Bella. So. Much. Immediately upon arriving in small town USA, she's beset with life-threatening dangers so that Edward can capture her attention by saving her over and over. Odd, since she's the viewpoint character and female lead.
Door Stopper: The first three books float around 600 pages. The fourth book is over 700 pages.
Double Entendre: Emmett spends a whole chapter and a half of Breaking Dawn making progressively less veiled comments about Edward and Bella's sex life. While her father is around!
Double Standard: Bella once criticizes another girl in her school as shallow for only liking Edward because he is good looking and comes from a wealthy family, yet the things about him that she most often expresses appreciation for are (in order of prevalance) his physical appearance, his equally attractive well-to-do family, his nice house and his expensive car.
Dreaming of Things to Come: In the first book of Breaking Dawn, Bella has a dream about the Volturi coming to kill her and the Cullens. Bella narrates the exact same thing happening in the preface of the third book—literally: Meyer just copy-pasted Bella's dream into the preface.
Drives Like Crazy: The only thing about Edward that frightens Bella.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Bree Tanner. Bad enough she dies for no real reason, but nobody does much to stop it or even really seems to care afterwards.
Irena Denali Her death being a pointless gesture of cruelty was lampshaded in-story, but they had also made a big deal about the fact that they had an ally able to manipulate the elements. Even if the Volturi tore her apart, they could have re-assembled her afterward if he'd kept them from burning the pieces.
Dull Surprise: Kristen Stewart as Bella in the movies. Her facial expressions are very minimal.
E - F
Eccentric Mentor: Aro, one of the most cheerful vampires you've ever seen in the entire series, is also the strongly implied leader of the Volturi, and according to Edward, "You don't irritate the Volturi, not unless you want to die." And this is before SMeyer revealed that Aro killed his sister. Among that, it's because he wants to take over the world — or not the world, but he has some sort of domination plans, it being the reason he killed his sister, because didn't want her to run off with Marcus. Puts the guy in a new light, doesn't it?
Esme: Attempted suicide after the death of her son (he was only a few days old).
Rosalie: Gang-raped, beaten, and left for dead by her fiance and his friends.
Edward: Just another victim of the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic.
Emmett: Mauled by a bear.
Alice: Was transformed in order to prevent James from hunting and killing her.
Bella: Childbirth complications. Pulverized pelvis, shattered spine, the hole her husband bit in her uterus... y'know, the usual.
Emo Teen: Bella becomes one for a while after Edward leaves her in New Moon. Also, despite his actual age, Edward.
It could be argued that Bella is this through the whole series (until she becomes a vampire) she's constantly miserable (in Edwards absence) despite the fact that she gets straight A's with little effort, her father makes little or no effort to control her and everyone loves her. Any other teenager would be thrilled to have her life.
Emotional Maturity Is Physical Maturity: it doesn't matter if a character is a hundred years old or one, their maturity level will correspond to their physical appearance.
Somewhat justified when you consider that their brains would only have developed up to that certain point.
Subverted hard by Renesmee.
The Empath: Jasper, who has the ability to control other people's emotions. Which might explain a good portion of the plot...
Enemy Mine: The climax of Eclipse has the Quileutes and Cullens working together to defeat a vampire army headed by Victoria.
Enforced Method Acting: When Carlisle bites Edward, he whispers in Edward's ear. The in-character "I'm sorry" failed to get the right terrified reaction, as did the equally in-character "My son", so he whispered "You're sexy".
The Everyman: Bella Swan, often lampshaded by Edward.
Express Delivery: Oh boy. After Edward and Bella get pregnant the first time they have sex, they realize that the baby is growing too fast. In fact, the baby quickly tries to "eat" its way out of Bella, so Edward has no choice but to perform a caesarean on Bella. With his teeth, because they are the only thing sharp enough to cut through the protective barrier around the foetus. The damage the baby and the caesarean causes force Edward to turn Bella into a vampire.
Eyes of Gold: When the vampires have fed off of non-human blood. When thirsty, they go black, and if they've had human recently, they turn red.
Fainting: Bad news usually causes Bella to collapse. As does Edward kissing her, once. And a teeny tiny drop of blood. And a few other things.
Fanservice: Reaches epidemic levels in the second movie, where most of the male cast wanders around shirtless (or else remove their shirts at the drop of a hat) the entire time.
It got to a point where it became a running gag for the actors portraying them - Jacob's actor has joked, several times, on The Tonight Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, about ripping his shirt off for every little thing.
"Oh, no, you're bleeding!" (tears shirt off)
This actually reached somewhat disturbing levels when you consider that lifesize (or larger) shirtless photos of (then seventeen year-old) Taylor Lautner were on display all around the world. It was actually something of a double standard, as such extremely flagrant sexualization of an underage female actress would probably have triggered more outrage from the Moral Guardians.
Female Gaze: In a book, no less. Cut out any sentence paying tribute to Edward's godly, wondrous, Adonis-esque physique, and you'll lose maybe more than a third of each book. Even New Moon, which he was only in half of.
Fetus Terrible: The only people who seem convinced that Bella's child is a good thing are Bella and Rosalie. Everyone else just wants her to abort it.
To be fair, it was pretty clear the thing was growing unnaturally rapidly and would very likely kill her. At which point antis were cheering with hope. Unless they saw the spoilers.
Fiction 500: the Cullens took second place the 2011 Forbes Fictional 15 list with an estimated wealth of $36.2 billion. Apparently, Carlisle has a controlling interest in the blood product company Immuncor.
According to the list, Carlisle has more money than both Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne combined.
First Girl Wins: In the books, Edward is the first supernatural male Bella meets and she falls for and keeps him in the end. In the movie Edward becomes Last Girl Wins being Jacob the first one she meets.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: At least in the first film, Victoria wears a white feather cape while attending the prom.
Follow the Leader: Like the Harry Potter films, the final film is going to be in two parts. The comparison has not gone unnoticed in newspapers and blogs, who think it's just trying to feed off the fandom-fued by doing so.
Forgot I Could Change The Rules: Jacob has to submit to the will of Sam, the Alpha Wolf. When Sam orders him to help destroy the Cullens (and Bella), he remembers that he was born to be the Alpha but he had voluntarily given up the birthright. Choosing to become the Alpha frees Jacob from obeying Sam's orders.
From a Certain Point of View: Meyer (in)famously claimed that vampires are unable to reproduce. When Bella later got knocked up, she went back and used Weasel Words to try and claim she actually meant that only female vampires can't have kids all along(evidently by claiming an obscure definition of "have").
Fur Against Fang: Vampires and werewolves really, really hate each other.
Although Edward and Jacob make friends pretty quickly as soon as Jacob finds out he imprinted on Edward's infant child, despite the decades of hate. Which doesn't upset anyone except Bella, and only enough for her to try and kill him.
Add Seth to the budding liking of werewolves to Edward and the Cullens.
Genre Popularizer: Say what you will about the quality, but it triggered an explosion of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Sturgeon's Law is in full effect, but some of them are actually quite good. Though a more accurate statement would be that it brought such a genre into the public consequence as there are/were a number of similar series well before Twilight, most of these considerably better than this series.
Get A Load Of That Square: The films seem to be going for this with some of Charlie and Billy's dialogue, but it would take an extremely... picky teenager to hold it against them.
Getting Smilies Painted On Your Soul: Jasper can control the emotions of those around him, and according to Bella, it's impossible to feel anything but what he wants you to feel. It's also not a matter of discussion or consent.
Jacob: Bloody anoying, that's what it is, only you can't be anoyed until after.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: "Better than Freaky Fred's backside" from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (hinting at anal sex there, are we, Meyer?).
Grandpa, What Massive Hotness You Have: Technically, all of the vampires would fall under this banner. Of the film actors you have Billy Burke, who is aged up by make-up for his role as Charlie Swan, and Gil Burmingham, who plays Jacob's wheelchair-ridden father Billy, and is a former bodybuilder.
Happily Married: The entire merry Cullen bunch, sans Edward (at least, until Breaking Dawn).
Also Renee and Phil, and it's implied that Charlie and Sue will end up this way too.
Happily Ever After: Bella gets everything she wanted and then some. She marries Edward, becomes a beautiful and powerful vampire, doesn't lose contact with Charlie, the Cullens are all happy and together, she lives in a beautiful cottage, her best friend Jacob finds his own soulmate in her daughter so he can be family now, the Volturi go without a fight, and she gets a beautiful baby girl who requires no raising outside of advice and love, since the kid is well out of diapers and spoon-feeding and screaming by the time she's a year old. However, Bella is an unreliable narrator and it might be Happily till the Volturi come with a plan to destroy the Ever After.
Held Gaze: In the film version of Twilight, Edward and Bella basically do this for two straight hours. Not surprisingly, the novel has them doing the same in a nonvisual form.
Heroic BSOD: Bella has one for a good part of New Moon. Edward also has one when Bella becomes pregnant
Heroic Willpower: Edward's resistance of Bella's blood makes him poster boy for this trope. Of course, both Edward and Bella have to resist their regular sexual lust too, for reasons of safety and morality.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: Most of them, but Bella and Edward especially, since they mostly think of absolutely nothing but one another, in New Moon especially to the exclusion of common sense. Jacob too, since he spends a lot of time thinking about getting into Bella's pants, as do seemingly all the other boys in the book. Bella's Heroic BSOD in New Moon has particularly unfortunate connotations in this trope, since how it's handled implies that her life is literally nothing without her boyfriend.
The unfortunate implications are at least equally portrayed with Edward. He left his family (that loved him and were his only company for decades) to go live in a rat infested place, curl into a ball, and let misery take over right after the break up and then went all suicidal over the possibility of Bella dying, so he was also nothing without his girlfriend.
Arguably all the movies have had a representation of their respective covers. In New Moon there was a white flower like cotton cloth spilled with blood that looked a bit like the flower on the cover. In Eclipse Bella's thick red line of blood could had represented the red ribbon of Eclipse's one.
And on the leaked images of filming the honeymoon on Breaking Dawn they are playing chess in a red and white pieces board...so full circle with the covers of the books.
The Hunter: Edward preying on criminals during his "rebellious years".
Hypocrite: Jake accuses Bella of being this when she is under the impression he and the other wolves have killed people, referring to them being what they are as "wrong". As if Edward didn't tell Bella straight away that he's killed people before, and she doesn't seem to have any problems forgiving Jasper, who also nearly killed her.
I - K
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Edward has to ask the Volturi for help committing suicide in New Moon. It doesn't work.
Heck, she continues to go on about it at her damned wedding, wondering why Edward would have picked her over the more attractive Tanya or Rosalie.
I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Inverted. Not one of the main characters is ever angry at the vampire who turned them. They get plenty angry at their current state but never think to blame Carlisle. Hell, Bella is ecstatic to be turned by Edward.
In the case of the Volturi Jane and Alec adore Aro (he saved them from burning at the stake after all). Riley loved Victoria till, sadly, too late for him, he realized that she didn't loved him.
In the novella, Bree seems quite loyal to Riley, despite the fact that she remembers him turning her into a vampire by kidnapping her and breaking her arm.
Incredibly Lame Pun: Almost definitely unintentional, but...when the Cullens play baseball, you could refer to their sports equipment as "vampire bats."
Insecure Love Interest: In New Moon, Edward leaves Bella because of this, resulting in much Wangst from both of them.
Inter-Class Romance: Bella's strictly working class. The Cullens are wealthy (its easy to make money if you're immortal and a smart investor).
Interrupted Suicide: Edward attempts this on New Moon when he thinks his beloved Bella is dead. He is saved by Bella herself.
Invincible Hero: Pretty much every protagonist in the series, but especially Edward Cullen.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Jacob's chapters in Breaking Dawn have chapter titles like You Know You've Got Problems When You Feel Bad For Being Rude To Vampires, Good Thing I've Got A Strong Stomach, andWaiting For The Damn Fight To Start Already. This is opposed to the one-word titles Meyer usually uses.
Don't forget What Do I Look Like? The Wizard Of Oz? You Need A Brain? You Need A Heart? Go Ahead. Take Mine. Take Everything I Have.
The title of the birth chapter: There Are No Words For This.
It could also be a way to show the differences between Bella and Jacob given that the 12 leaked chapters of Midnight Sun are titled on the same style that Bella's titles are.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Rosalie hates being a vampire, and has admitted she'd give up her beauty and immortality just to have the opportunity to have a child of her own. Edward also wishes he could relate to Bella the way a normal guy would, without the bloodlust and super strength getting in the way.
Informed Flaw: Edward makes much of his dangerous nature but anyone who has read past the first book knows there's no chance in hell he'll hurt Bella.
In Medias Res: Each book (and the three sections of Breaking Dawn) opens with a preface that describes a scene that happens at the climax of that story.
Interspecies Romance: Humans and vampires! Humans and werewolves! Half-humans/half-vampires and werewolves!
Intimate Healing: Clothed version between Bella and Jacob, not that he doesn't try for the naked version.
Invisible to Normals: Edward's stopping of the van about to crush Bella with his bare hands with no one but Bella realizing could fall under this, and it is even mocked in Mark Reads Twilight, where he says this is part of an overused idea he calls "The 'I Am Going To Do Something Spectacular And Clearly Attention-Grabbing In Front Of Plenty Of People, Yet No One Is Going To Notice Except (Conveniently) The Main Character' Phenomenon."
Jail Bait Wait: A rather extreme form, with werewolves falling in love with toddlers, then having to wait for them to hit their mid-late teens before they can do anything physical.
Kill It With Fire: The only known way to get rid of vampires for good. But just fire isn't enough: first you have to rip them up into pieces (which is kind of difficult, considering that their flesh is as hard a stone) and then scatter the ashes. However, since their bodily fluids are flammable, once you have them in little pieces setting them on fire is pretty easy (according to the movie, just ripping off the head is enough before setting the body on fire).
Kiss of the Vampire: Edward and Bella's make-out sessions in early books are decidedly tame for this reason.
Lampshade Hanging: At least in the movie of Eclipse. "Do you own a shirt?"
In New Moon too. Alice to Bella: "I've never met anyone so prone to life-threatening idiocy!"
Law of Inverse Fertility: Bella wasn't even trying to get pregnant. Then suddenly she did! Rosalie and Esme, on the other hand, will never be able to have children of their own (although Esme seems perfectly happy with her big family of big immortal adopted children).
Living Forever Is Awesome: Even though the Cullens are not totally convinced they seem to have achieve happiness with their condition (except for Edward and Rosalie, at least at the beginning). Bella has no doubt it is.
Loads and Loads of Characters: Meyer seems to just throw names at the reader sometimes, and then expect them to remember who she's talking about when and if one does something relevant to the plot several hundred pages later.
Lost In Imitation: The comparison of Bella/Edward to Romeo and Juliet takes a very interesting road if you recall that Romeo and Juliet were a pair of shallow (barely) teens who want to fuck in hormone driven lust and Romeo instantly stopped caring about Rosaline when he meets Juliet...
Jacob: It's not like love at first sight, really. It's more like ... gravity moves. When you see her, suddenly it's not the earth holding you here anymore. She does. And nothing matters more than her. (Eclipse)
Variant: Edward falls in Love At First Smell, effectively.
Some would say Bella.
Well, considering the first chapter of the first book is entitled "First Sight"...
Magical Native American: The werewolves can be counted as part of this trend, given their common ethnicity.
Malaproper: Meyer doesn't know what all of the words she uses mean. At one point in the first chapter, Bella's schedule is accidentally implied to be covered in fish semen due to the magic of this trope.
Another memorable instance suggests that Bella's skin is see-through, like Saran Wrap.
In still another Bella watches wide trenches filled with water protecting a fortified building swirl in the air.
In the fourth book a little girl plays with one of the werewolves hair like it's periods of rulership.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Alice. Subverted in that she does start irritating Bella and others after a while, although no one outright hates her.
Martyr Without a Cause: Bella is a variant. It's not that she wants to be a hero, it's that, as other characters sometimes lampshade, she blames herself for anything and everything that goes wrong. This leads to the same type of self-hatred (if not the same quantity) as The Atoner, and while she doesn't often have the opportunity to risk her life, she clearly considers herself more expendable than those around her, particularly Edward, but also her mother, father, unborn baby... (this also seems to be responsible for a good deal of reader hatred, particularly from those who think she's merely Too Dumb to Live, but that's neither here nor there).
Mars Needs Women: The imprinting business with the werewolves looks suspiciously like this, especially if all female werewolves are as infertile as Leah. According to Meyer, there were no female werewolves before Leah and it is never said if a female werewolf could imprint.
May Fly December Romance: One of Bella's main reasons for wanting to become a vampire is her concern that, when she grows old, Edward will no longer find her physically appealing.
Meaningful Name: Probably unintentional, but it is still interesting to note that Bella's last name, Swan, has a meaning in the real-life vampire subculture. Swan is used to refer to people involved in the vampire community, but who are not vampires themselves.
And let us not forget how appropriate Cullen ("culling") is for a family of predators.
Bella is a form of bellum, meaning war in Latin.
"Beautiful Ugly Duckling", anyone?
The Blockbuster Buster pointed out other possible references in Bella's name in his review of Twilight:
"The main character's name is Bella Swan?! Bella as in Bela Lugosi? Swan as in Swan Lake, the opening song from Dracula?"
Actually, pretty much the entire cast. Bella: beautiful. Edward: rich guardian. Jacob: the supplanter. Carlisle: stronghold of light. Esme: loved. Leah: weary. ...it goes on.
Mindlink Mates: A non-romantic version with the werewolves. Those in the same pack can hear each other's thoughts when they're in wolf form.
Mind Rape: specifically Jane and Alec, although most of the Volturi can fall under this category.
Renesmee. Especially disturbing when you think of what she could do once she grows up and gains a better understanding of nightmare fuel. Doubly so since it's heavily implied that anyone seeing her visions can't help but believe them to be true.
Moral Dissonance: Holy HELL is there Moral Dissonance. It starts with the idea that Edward once resented Carlisle for years for trying to stop him from eating people (which Bella finds reasonable).
Marcus's power was pretty much drudged up to show yet again just how soul-bonded Bella and Edward are. Also, Victoria's power to always know where to hide was basically a way for the author to Hand Wave how a pack of werewolves and the entire Cullen family together couldn't catch her sooner.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In New Moon, when Bella gets a small paper-cut, Edward punts Bella away to prevent Jasper attacking her in a blood-frenzy. This however causes her to lacerate her arm...
And of course, vampires don't have periods, because their bodies are unchanging (this ties into the whole "can't bear children" thing).
Played straight with Bella, who, despite having yummy blood, does not trigger a vampire feeding frenzy once a month. Handwaved by saying that menstrual blood is 'dead blood'.
Possibly an Anatomy Fail on Meyer's part when you realize that menstrual blood has been proven to be cleaner/newer/FRESHER/more alive than normal blood.
No Sell: Edward can read every human, vampire or spirit wolf's mind but not his beloved Bella's. This fascinates him.
Nor Charlie's, for the most part, as was revealed in Midnight Sun.
Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Volturi enforce laws that all other vampires must follow: any humans who learn of vampires must be turned into vampires or killed, do not turn babies or toddlers into vampires, do not make alliances with werewolves, do not hunt in Volterra, do not lie to or defy The Volturi. The punishment is death, but The Volturi often bends the rules and invites vampires with special talents to join them.
One Last Fling: Jacob and Bella's kiss at the end of Eclipse, which heavily borders on sexual assault for Bella.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Movie only, obviously. Robert Pattinson actually puts on a decently convincing American accent (even if it's hard to tell just what part of America), but especially in the first movie, he slips up quite noticeably a few times.
Our Werewolves Are Different: The Quileute (also referred to as shape-shifters) are purely hereditary, and they have higher body temperatures, for one.
Though the more stereotypical werewolves are mentioned — the Volturi have hunted them to near-extinction.
Our Vampires Are Different: And how! they're sparkly golem-like creatures made of diamonds that run on explosive oil strained from human blood, without fangs (even cute little ones) and have no problem with the sun, holy symbols or garlic. Hell, Twilight is practically the embodiment of this trope!
The Other Darrin: Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria in the third movie
Plot-Relevant Age-Up: One-month gestation results in a September birth date. By December, Renesmee is walking, talking, and reading Tennyson. Another half-vampire reveals that maturity is reached at the age of seven.
Poor Communication Kills: In New Moon, one of Charlie's friends dies, and when Edward gets wind of the funeral he is mistakenly led to believe that it was Bella who died, driving him to go to Italy and attempt suicide by sparkling. Why he never thought to call someone to verify this or look in the local paper for her obituary instead of automatically assuming she was really dead is anyone's guess.
P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: Gender Inverted, but otherwise played straight. Bella is the generic POV character. Edward and Jacob are both exotic love interests and the focus of all advertising.
Product Placement: The New Moon movie carries ad frames for Volvo, Porshe, Virgin America (who doesn't even do the flights shown in the movie), Burger King, and Nikon (digital camera with included photo printer). The only product that made any sort of sense was Rainier Beer, a brand that you'd actually expect a small town, working class police chief to drink.
Oddly enough, the New Moon book features product placement as well, mentioning ESPN, Rotten Tomatoes, Ragu, McDonald's and Comet.
Protagonist-Centered Morality: You can eat humans, and we'll even lend you our cars to broaden your range, as long as you don't try to eat Bella Swan.
Also - the wolves won't do a thing to stop said human nomming if it's being done in the name of Jake's sweetie, Renesmee.
Puny Earthlings: Humans can't possibly compete with or stand up to vampires or werewolves, and it's implied that before the Cullens only werewolves could protect normal people from vampires.
Purple Prose: buckets. Especially when it comes to Edward's appearance.
Rape Is The New Dead Parents: Rosalie. Though, considering the Cullens are all vampires, they also all have dead parents.
Rapid Aging: Renesmee (and all half-human vampires) reach adulthood after seven years of life.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: To the books instead of in them is the not-quite-blog Reasoning With Vampires, which picks apart word choice, sentence structure, logistical issues, and just about everything else wrong with the series in little infographics that deal with specific, stand-out segments of the book. It's surprisingly respectful, for all that.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: For the vampires that drink human blood, as well as newborn ones.
Reluctant Warrior: Carlisle to the point that the werewolves designated him a non-priority target; he had the most experience and a lot of potential to do harm, but his hesitation made him less dangerous.
Rescue Romance: Edward and Bella were already secretly interested in each other, but it was Edward saving Bella from Tyler's out of control van that laid the groundwork for their relationship.
Revenge by Proxy: Victoria's search to harm Bella after The Cullens kill her mate James
Although it was pretty obviously a "I will take from you what you have taken from me"
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Jacob in Breaking Dawn decides Bella's baby must die, because Bella apparently died giving birth to her. At least, that was until he looked into the baby's eyes.
Romantic Runner Up: Mike Newton, Tyler Crowley, and Eric Yorkie. Either humans just aren't good enough for Bella, or she's really socially messed-up if Edward's the only one for her. Tyler could also qualify as Casanova Wannabe.
Jacob Black fits this trope better since he actually was around long enough to let his romantic advances to reach to a point that Bella had to made a choice.
S - T
Sadly Mythtaken: Granted, vampires actually didn't sparkle in sunlight; vampires hating the sun is actually Newer Than They Think, the idea having been invented and popularized by Nosferatu. While the vampires in twilight have long been called MarySues because they exhibit the more modern levels of Super Strength and durability and still retaining human minds. Their have always been monsters with even more ridiculous levels of Super Strength and Invulnerability like the Draugr of Norse mythology who were absolutely invulnerable to weapons and tore non hero's apart like they were not even there in addition to having intelligence.
On the negative side the myths used to have ugly, short, smelly peasant vampires with reddish not pale skin. They almost always had some sort of shape shifting and definitely did sleep(During the day at least). Fangs were also common because of the lips of posthumously exhumed corpses being peeled back after death. Telekinetic and other creepy poltergeist abilities were common because if something bad happened in your home it's easier to just blame a dead guy.
On the positive side for werewolves while several myths of werewolves were a little more anthropomorphic the most of the original myths of werewolves actually were just men changing into wolves without anthropomorphic features. Twilight also explicitly mentions the more modern werewolves with there changing on the full moon and bites transferring the infection.
Scenery Porn: The movie has a LOT of it, and a good thing too. The atmosphere was the sole thing many people liked about the movie. Haunting and somber, thick with misty moutains, fertile greenery, and soft Jazz-sounding in the background.
Your Mileage May Vary - some people felt they spent too much time needlessly panning across the various beautiful scenery.
Serial-Killer Killer: When Edward was younger, he rebelled against Carlisle's animal blood philosophy, so he used his mind reading powers to only feed on rapists and murderers. But even that proved to be too much for his conscience.
Sexy Discretion Shot: Breaking Dawn. Edward and Bella arrive at their honeymoon destination. She takes a shower and goes out on the beach where Edward is. She takes her towel off, he pulls her into his arms and... Oh look, it's the next morning.
Shaking Her Hair Loose: At the end of the first movie, we see Victoria watching Edward and Bella through a window, all dressed up. As she walks away, she pulls a pin out of her hair and lets it fall to her waist.
Shot to the Heart: Variant: Edward injects vampire venom directly into Bella's heart in an attempt to save her life after a difficult childbirth.
Shout Out: Bella compares her love affair with Edward to Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet. New Moon parallels the latter when Bella and Edward almost commit Tag Team Suicide due to a communication error. Even funnier when considered that Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of falling in love too fast, which is exactly what Bella and Edward did! On the more squicky end, one couple is Claire and Quil. Claire is two, Quil is Jacob's age.
Depending on whether Twilight or Full Metal Panic! came out first, the Japanese title of the first book (The Boy I Like Is Kinda a Vampire) can be a Shout Out to the title of the first episode of Full Metal Panic (The Guy I Like Is Kinda a Sergeant)
The fact that the Cullen family likes to drive fast could be a Shout Out to the line "the dead travel fast" from Bram Stoker's Dracula. (Which was itself a quote from a famous German poem.)
Tell, Don't Show: Stephanie Meyers's Modus Operandi. She strongly dislikes the word "said" and almost always provides at the very least an adverb for the verb she decides to use, rather than letting the dialogue speak for itself. She is also a big fan of saying how people feel, which can be jarring, since the books are told from a first-person perspective and (with the exception of Midnight Sun) do not have a narrator who can read minds.
One could also argue this for Edward and Bella, he is fascinated by even the most mundane things about her and she gushes about how gorgeous he is every time he enters her field of vision and once even swoons over how good his breath smells.
Stalking Is Love: Edward. Following Bella to keep her safe. Sneaking into her room to watch her sleep. Even before he was involved with her. And he gets her in the end, too.
Stuffed into the Fridge: James attempted this trope, video taping him torturing and killing Bella to make Edward seek revenge and start a "game" with him. Lucky for Bella, Edward was fast enough to avert it.
The Stoic: Sam Uley. Forced to deal with his lycanthropy on his own, he cultivated a kind of zen calm to cope, and help the others who came later.
Static Character: All the vampires, literally. Word Of God is that they are forever frozen at the same level of emotional maturity they were at when they were turned. Hence why Edward manages to become an Emo Teen while being over a hundred years old.
Bella does not change or grow as a person at all throughout the course of the story.
Suck Out the Poison: In Twilight, vampires have no body fluids except for venom, which is used to change people into vampires via biting. When James bites Bella at the climax of the first novel, Edward has to suck out the poison to prevent it from spreading. A very heroic thing, except that A) this technique rarely works in the real world (due to the circulation system almost instantly carrying the poison away from the wound) and B) Edward himself has venom in his mouth. By all rights, Bella should have been a vampire by the end of the first book.
Supporting Protagonist: While Bella is no doubt the protagonist of the series, Edward is The Hero and does all the heroic stuff up until the end of Breaking Dawn.
Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Edward Cullen confesses to murdering a whole bunch of people shortly after he was turned, and Bella narrates that it is perfectly reasonable.
Tag Team Suicide: Edward tries this in New Moon when he thinks Bella's dead.
Talking the Monster to Death: At the end of the last book of the series, a great battle pitting vampire against vampire is waived in favor of a lengthy discussion. Everyone goes home without a single punch thrown.
This comes after reading through a lengthy training montage that *
if I recall, please clarify which and remove this
is said to take weeks if not months of book time.
Team Mom: Esme, to the vampires; Emily, to the wolves.
Theme Naming: Many of the Quileutes have Old Testament Biblical names. (Jacob, Leah, Seth, Samuel, Paul...)
That's because five of them (Jacob, Leah, Seth, Emily, and Paul) were named after Meyer's siblings.
Can also be attributed to the Mormon belief that many if not all Native Americans are descendants of a Hebrew tribe known as the Lamanites.
Those Two Guys: Bella's human friends, as well as the members of the pack (who aren't Jacob, Sam, Leah, or Seth) fill this role. Quil and Embry fill it especially well.
Too Dumb to Live: Bella unquestionably, because of her lack of reaction to the fact that Edward's a vampire - which he often comments on. It gets worse in the movie. After researching vampires, Bella realizes what Edward is. Several people have turned up dead in the area, apparently mauled by animals - which she doesn't believe. So naturally, she goes off into the woods with Edward to tell him she knows his secret... without telling anyone where she's going or with whom.
Not to mention that she constantly get in trouble, walking alone in a dangerous forest, dark alleys, unstable werewolves, evil vampires. How she made it to seventeen before Edward met her is a mystery.
New Moon's movie lampshaded it as well, with a comment from Alice: "I've never met anyone so prone to life-threatening idiocy!"
There's a part in the first book where Bella thinks of deliberately putting herself in danger if it means Edward will come to her rescue. It's on page 211.
Traumatic C-Section: The scene wherein Edward rips Bella's unborn child out from her body with his teeth. Probably not intended to be as worrying as it is. Though considering that when they tried to do it the normal way, the scalpel broke.
Trans Equals Gay: In Eclipse, the Quilleute shapeshifters' discomfort with opposite genders sharing sexual memories through their telepathy is characterized as gender confusion.
Trend Covers: Practically every other YA novel getting released/re-released since Twilight has a "one symbolic object on dark background" cover. Though Newer Than They Think since this sort of symbolism has popped up in many genres such as mystery due to the pretty basic symbolism/eye catching picture it provides.
Troubled But Cute: Edward Cullen, described as a fatalist by the author and self loathing by the actor that plays him. Not to mention that he spents half of the time calling himself a soulless monster.
Two-Person Pool Party: The Honeymoon, but in ocean instead of a pool. Good thing it's a private island!
Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Cullens attempt to be this to throw off suspicion, though its debatable how effective they are at this.
To clarify, despite being Genre Blind to their true nature, the rest of the school have noticed that both pairs of adopted siblings are romantically involved, why they always buy lunch but never eat any of it, and why they are absent on sunny days.
Unreliable Narrator: Bella is supposed to have low self-esteem about her looks, but the events of the series suggest that she's gorgeous. There are also plenty of probably unintentional examples - for example, Bella becomes convinced that her friend Jessica is using her for popularity and doesn't actually like her, on the basis of absolutely no evidence.
In Bree's novella, the protagonist sees Edward as a good-looking red-headed guy, rather than the marble-perfect tousled, bronze-haired Adonis of Bella's descriptions, suggesting that Bella's viewpoint might be skewed.
Vampire Bites Suck: Extremely painful venom and one of the few things that can actually leave a mark on vampire skin.
Neither James, Laurent or Victoria were rich. The nomads vampires in general are not wealthy just the ones that establish big covens and are old enough to accumulate money.
In the case of the Cullens, it's handwaved with the explanation that Alice uses her psychic powers to predict the stock market. And the fact that Edward is the only survivor of his rich family and Carlisle earns a lot of money as a doctor without the expenses a human might have and he also collects ancient art from the time he was turned which is probably enough to afford their lifestyle (Imagine if Carlisle was one of the few people that bought a Van Gogh when the artist was alive for example)
Not to mention the fact that since they are vampires, they rarely, if ever eat food, which probably saves a good chunk of money over the years.
Though it is mostly defused by the fact that no one ever really doubts that Bella is going to wind up with Edward. (See Red String of Fate)
Vaporware: Midnight Sun, due to the leakage of the rough draft, is to be classified as such until further notice.
Vegetarian Vampire: The Cullen clan of vampires, who hunt, kill and drink the blood of animals for sustenance, call themselves "vegetarians". They make a point to say they are careful not to impact the environment. Considering how fast they move on foot and the excess of money they have, they can travel pretty much wherever is needed in order to be responsible vampires.
An easier way of not impacting the enviroment would have been to just go to any butcher shop and outright buy a few litres of pig's blood.
In this context this trope is Older than They Think; most fans of the series believe that this is a new concept that Meyer introduced to the vampire genre, when in reality it was used by Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, Vampire The Masquerade and many others long before the Twilight series came out.
Vehicular Sabotage: In one of the Twilight books, Edward sabotages Bella's truck to stop her from visiting Jacob.
What Could Have Been: Twilight was originally only going to have one sequel called Forever Dawn. The basic storyline is the same as what would become the fourth book, Breaking Dawn. Edward and Bella get married, she gets pregnant on the honeymoon, and Bella has to be turned into a vampire to survive the birth of their daughter Renesmee. Jacob isn't present at the birth, but he imprints on Renesmee a few weeks later. The biggest change is that the love triangle of Bella, Edward, and Jacob never develops because the events of New Moon and Eclipse never happen. In short, Edward never leaves and Bella and Jacob don't become close. The lack of the two middle books also leaves Victoria and Laurent alive. Laurent does a Heel Face Turn and Victoria gets one of her minions to tell the Volturi about Renesmee. Victoria is later the only one killed at the final standoff, courtesy of the mostly-unnamed werewolves. The ending is still pretty much the same Happily Ever After as it is in the final version.
Originally, the book was going to be called Forks until Meyer’s agent told her to come up with something more atmospheric.
Also, there was gonna be a book telling the story from Edward's viewpoint, but it was scrapped after the first twelve chapters of the manuscript were leaked on the internet.
The movie adaptation of the first book (by a major studio) was going to be a more action-packed story, with a Korean vampire going after the Cullens, Bella as an Action Girl, and Charlie getting turned, until Meyer pulled the plug on it.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Carlisle's power is "compassion", Esme's power is love. But Rosalie's main power, according to Meyer, is beauty. The alternative suggested by Edward, tenacity, isn't much better.
Again, a case of Too Dumb to Live, since Edward explicitly warns her that because of his super-strength, the experience will quite likely be extremely traumatic or even fatal.
You Need to Get Laid: Edward's broodiness and fatalism has been linked to the fact that he has never had sex in almost a century. Once he gets married and does the deed he certainly becomes less stressed. Also, Bella had a history of night terrors and talking in her sleep which ceased after her honeymoon.
You Keep Using That Word: Bella's skin is "translucent". Apparently the fact that her veins and arteries all show is why vampires are so fond of her.
Actually, it's one of the few long words she uses correctly. Translucent means "Allowing light, but not detailed images, to pass through; semitransparent." according to google. Skin is slightly translucent, which is why, if you stick a flashlight in your mouth, your skin glows red. In order to draw a realistic human skin, you need to factor in that skin is translucent and thus won't have as dramatic shadows as something opaque. Why this is so noticeable and unique, however, is beyond me, considering it's a pretty normal human thing.
The words "murmer", "mutter" and "glower" pop up so often that this blogger starts counting the number of uses in his later posts.
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