what would attract someone to Edward?

One subplot in one of my stories is a deconstruction of Twilight, where a normal human girl (best friend of the protagonist), falls in love with a vampire, and the vampire ends up killing her. The vampire is intended to be similar to Edward - he genuinely loves her, but is possessive and obsessed and prone to violence if provoked.

The problem is, I keep making him too nice, because I can't imagine anyone falling for him if he's as much of a jerk as the original. But yet I know many fangirls swoon over Edward. What is it that they like about him?

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

His suave appearance, his inner depth of feeling - and the feeling somewhere inside his cold chest there is a warm and tender heart for fangirls to reach out to.

Try looking up Twilight message boards on what they've to say of Edwardo Cullenaire.

edited 23rd Jun '11 12:49:16 PM by QQQQQ

He's good looking, protective, smart, musical, rich, interesting and dangerous. He's got a family who are mostly willing to completely embrace Bella, and a dark past. He's a cool loner, and he loves Bella entirely, even though she's just an ordinary girl. He even promises to stay with her when she gets old.

I'm not saying I agree with any of those points, but he's presented like that in the book, so it might be a help.

And Bella doesn't have much a personality beyond entitlement and a Nazi-esque attraction to a master race of physically superior white people, so there's that.

Maybe she thinks she can change him.

His hair.

I'm really not sure. If anything, Edward Cullen was created one night by Stephanie Meyer, after she wrote down, in great detail, a rather exciting dream she had that night.

edited 23rd Jun '11 3:53:29 PM by Newfable

I'm guessing she's probably completely starved for attention and doesn't understand that what he's doing is abusive — the girl probably had a bad homelife. I mean, seeing your boyfriend breaks into your house and watches you sleep as declaration of love? Seriously?

What would attract someone to Edward Cullen? A severe blow to the head perhaps?

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

^ Let's no be mean. Even though I found their romance a bit trite, and the writing melodramatic at times - I greatly enjoyed reading the novels, for what it is worth.

As I was reading through Meyer's companion, I remember her saying that the idea of Edward and his sparkly kin sprang from a seductive meadow dream. The most handsome person you can have, in the world, and in him you always face his danger at the same time. This danger - whether this lover will eventually kill you one day, but you persist anyways in eating the forbidden fruit - I can feel the fascination out of this.

A secret desire of some women (and mengs!), mayhaps?

edited 23rd Jun '11 5:14:36 PM by QQQQQ

Y'know, real people do get into (and stay in) unhealthy, abusive relationships, and I'm sure there are sources out there that discuss the reasons why this happens and the justifications these people give. I don't know much about the subject myself, but I'd imagine that looking up some real-world information on that might make your story ring a little truer and help with the deconstruction aspect.

Of course, a frequent subject for deconstruction would be Edward and Bella's (mostly) one-sided relationship.

Because danger feels a lot like sexual attraction, especially if you already see said person in that light. A sexy man who's also dangerous is suddenly five times sexier. Even if it sounds really illogical, it still gets your heart pumping ether way.

Another big thing, especially in abusive relationships where the abuser has anger issues, is that you really love them when they're in a good mood and acting all sweet. Then you cross them and suddenly you're on your back with your head cracked open, and they're standing there with a rock. And, hey, if they're sincerely sorry for hurting you, you should forgive them, right? That was totally a one time thing, he won't end up really hurting you some day, right?

Yeah. Warning signs in an abusive relationship are like the warning signs in any relationship. You notice them, but then you write them off as nothing and just keep doing what you're doing because they seem nice and you're enjoying yourself. It's only when you're with them for a while and living together that the fact that they fidget finally starts to drive you mad, or the abuse seems to really be overstepping boundaries.

EDIT: It's probably good to note that I've never actually read Twilight, so all of this is just my current understanding of sexual attraction and abusive relationships. It might be better to just dissect the book, if you want some really concrete reasons for why Bella likes him.

edited 23rd Jun '11 10:36:23 PM by Dec

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A lot of it is the mystery. A guy can be as big of an ass as he'd like, if he's pretty and has an air of mystery about him, it will turn heads. Early on, he was a jerk because he wanted nothing to do with her, for her sake. In that light, his act of being a jerk is a form of romantic protection.

If I remember correctly, his constant rudeness actually turned her off at first (I haven't read it in a long time, though). It was all about the perfection and mystery and, well, the obvious things like that.

But I think that his being a jerk is itself what the girls liked. Fangirls enjoy the constant struggle he's always moaning about. When he's acting like an ass, which is most of the time, he's either giving in far too wholeheartedly into liking her (the stalking, for example), or too extreme in the other direction of trying to have nothing to do with her (going back to the whole jerk-to-protect thing).

Anyway, that's probably why they liked that. It might help to try to look at it from the perspective of someone who's had to endure high school for a hundred years (that has to do something horrible to your psyche). Actually, that's probably it. Maybe it's a matter of relating not to the girl but to the guy.

[shrugs] That's my take on it anyway.

That's a good suggestion. I vote in favor of researching the reasons behind why people stay in abusive relationships.

edited 24th Jun '11 12:48:51 AM by Psychobabble6

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.

The real question is what attracts Edward to Bella. If you've got a reason for him to be dangerously obsessive, you've given him a trait a lot of people take interest in.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Pussy.

Having read only a few pages from the first book and then quickly switching to the part where Bella describes how is it to bear a Hell Spa—I mean, Renesmee. The only thing I can recall about Edward's attraction to our purple pros-y narrator is that she cannot have her mind read by Edward's power.

About Twilight: Does the author ever explain in the story why Bella is immune to Edward's mind reading.

Maybe "Edward" likes "Bella's" clingy behavior.

There have been some good analyses of Edward's appeal here, but I think it's worth also considering Bella's perspective, because she is the viewpoint character and she is, after all, the person who falls in love with him in-universe. I know it's often claimed that she has no personality and is basically a blank slate that the reader can project onto, but that's not exactly the case; she has a defined personality, and it's one that can be quite difficult to relate to if you aren't the target audience - or at least, I found her very difficult to sympathise with, much more so than a number of more developed characters from other books.

In any case, initially, she has kind of a You Suck thing going on. She is woefully clumsy, has dreadful self-esteem and is generally incompetant. She is also living in an unfamiliar and unwanted environment. She doesn't like the scenery or the weather. She doesn't appear to relate very closely to anybody outside her family; even her supposed friends are treated with disdain in her narration.

Edward behaves differently from every other character she encounters in Forks. He is mysterious, as has been said already, and of course, he's attractive, as is normal for vampires in that series. But also, after initially compounding her self-esteem problems by appearing to greatly dislike her, he then proceeds to show her that she's a more beautiful person than she thought she was, and by being so devoted to her and going to great lengths to protect her, he increases her sense of self worth.

I may be missing the mark completely here, but I would hazard that all that has a lot to do with what makes him attractive. He might not be a conventionally loving or caring character on first glance, but he heals Bella, in a way.

Regarding Yandere, I don't think Edward qualifies, and I think that's a bit of a false lead. Edward is not insane. He is dangerous, certainly, but not in the sense that a stab-happy bunny-boiler might be considered dangerous. It's been mentioned that his behaviour resembles an abusive spouse, and this is entirely true, but I think it's important to note that he is not one, not from the perspective of Bella or the reader. At least in the first book, every action of his that seems controlling or cruel is in some way justified in-universe, either by his vampire instincts or because he's only acting out of concern for Bella.

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Judging from the much I recall, it seems the reason why is genetic; Bella's father us also immune to the mind reading powers.

His mustache protects him.

@Bobby G: He might not be, but it sounds like the character in the OP is supposed to be one. (I've long since given up trying to give my own interpretation of Twilight.)

edited 24th Jun '11 9:11:26 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Whenever I start thinking of Twilight characters, I jump by default to Luminosity, which doesn't suck.*

In that context (which may or may not be canonical to Twilight) Edward 'mated' with Bella on first sight, which basically means 1) Bella is his top priority, from now on; he loves her entirely, goes into paroxysms of despair when she is not around, et cetera; and 2) this behavior is guaranteed to be replicated in Bella when she turns. So there it's an explicitly supernatural motive.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

^^ But the point is, neither Bella nor the fans consider Edward abusive, and while it's debatable how right they are, they are correct inasmuch as his intentions are entirely good, and he genuinely cares deeply about Bella.

And actually, who falls in love with an abusive person knowing that they're abusive? Some people might, I suppose, but I believe it's quite common to rationalise their behaviour as benevolent. So the girl in the OP probably shouldn't recognise her vampire boyfriend's behaviour as abusive, even if it canonically is.

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^ Contrary to stereotypes, most abusive spouses actually have good intentions.

I'm not quite sure what would attract my vampire to Bridget (the Bella expy), actually. Unlike Bella, Bridget's not supernatural in any way (and vampires in my verse don't read minds). She is extremely clumsy, though. Maybe he likes feeling protective, and her clumsiness gives him plenty of opportunities to protect her?

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

Well, maybe he's dated vampires before, and after being burned a few times too many wants to try something different? Maybe the fact that she's normal and bumbling instead of supernaturally graceful is the reason he likes her, because to him that's kinda unusual.

That also could give his situation an interesting twist, if he's acted this way before in his other relationships. I imagine it would be a bit easier to accidentally injure and kill a human woman without even realizing it, if he's used to his dates being a bit tougher.

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