©Copyright Arabella K. Federico 2020 All Rights Reserved
My opinion on why Edward Cullen is the REAL Protagonist of The Twilight Saga, and how Stephanie Meyer's new book, "Midnight Sun" will probably be the best novel out of the five.
Let's Go back...back to the days of the twilight "Twihards"
To begin, and please don’t think less of me…I drank the Kool-Aid over the entire Twilight thing. Actually, I found the books decent back then, but that wasn’t the issue, despite the sparkly vampire thing. My issue was Bella Swan’s lack of personality and Kristen Stewart’s terrible acting skills and how Stephanie Meyer made the biggest mistake in writing Bella as the Protagonist for this series. We can practically make the argument that there can be both a “Main Character” and also a “Protagonist” in the same story that happen to be different characters. Though I don’t believe Twilight was ever set up that way. It was setup as Bella Swan’s story from the get-her POV, her story. What’s done is done…and then, the leak happened.
Someone was a naughty sparkly vampire
Firstly, back in 2008, Meyer had written some, if not all, of “Midnight Sun”, which by now we all know is from Edward Cullen’s POV. Unfortunately, it was leaked online. Which, side-note-dafuq??? I couldn’t IMAGINE, as an author, that happening to my book. Meyer talks about it in this article from The Guardian here, where she felt as if she couldn’t emotionally continue writing the story due to how violated she felt. To the dismay of many fans, the book was officially shelved and some was released online. Vaguely, do I remember reading the first chapter back then, and was intrigued, which got me thinking something that was-at the time-Earth shattering.
Been saying this about twilight since...FOREVER!
Now, lets take a step back.
Why The Stupid Shiny Volvo Owner is the true Protagonist of this story
the twilight saga: new moon
an arc is a full circle
We watch Edward agonize over this lie that he believes so deeply about himself for the entirety of the series. Seeing as he’s almost searching for the truths in his Lie. Though not a direct reflection of the purity of his soul, things happen that Edward views as just another stain on his otherwise ruined self-image. His vampire brother Jasper attacking Bella, him fathering what he believes is a literal Devil-Child (they’re all devil-children in my opinion), a psycho vampire Victoria stalking Bella in a revenge fueled obsession-all of these instances Edwards views in a distorted way. All of them seen through the lens of his misbelief. Until finally, at the very end before the final confrontation with the Vulturi, Edward discovers that he’s created life, that he’s capable of true love and being loved; that his soul is redeemed in his mind. And he is set free.
so why bella, then?
Beats me, maybe that’s why Meyer wrote “Midnight Sun”, or perhaps saw the potential in Edward’s character after the fact. Contrarily, I like the story from Bella’s POV, I just don’t like Bella. I don’t like her as a character because there’s no arc. Bella has nothing going on upstairs. No wounds that fester, no distorted thinking other than “good with weird”, maybe? She doesn’t do it for me. Edward, though, always hits the right spots. Robert Pattinson did such a great job in this role, and totally sold it for me from moment one. My God though, such a ripe, juicy character full of all the goodies and Meyer simply put him in 2nd place. Merp. Twilight is Edward’s story, and in my mind, it always will be.
My Conclusions
In conclusion, I’m gonna bet that “Midnight Sun” will be very popular, given all I’ve talked about above. These books are a great piece of writing to study as writers because you get both the good and the bad about writing character arcs all in one story. Please know this isn’t to harp on Stephanie Meyer, or criticize her personally or bash her work. I’m merely giving my enthusiastic opinion on her published work, and like you, I am entitled to my opinion. My point in sharing this is to give you the insight that Meyer missed on this one, so you don’t make the same mistake. I love Twilight, despite myself. It’s currently been the movie I’ve been falling asleep to every single night for weeks now. So don’t come for me, and don’t write a main character like Bella Swan.
I think that Bella’s character is just perfect because of what you’ve described. Because only she could described Edward as the lovable desirable vampire, he couldn’t see. Yes I agree that Edward is the Main Character. But only Bella could change his misbelief. And the “less personality thing” I think it’s perfect because it highlights the contrast between her and Edward. She is the lame and vulnarble human and he is quite the opposite. And of course she is 16 I think? Who had a great personality with 16? Weren’t we all a bit unsure of ourselves at that age? But we had a pure heart and maybe a bit naive. And I think that’s a big part why Edward loves her because she is the opposite of what he had experienced in the last 100 years. And we usually fall in love with someone who has the qualities we think we don’t have.
I also think that it gives the readers hope who thinks he or she is not pretty, smart, funny etc. Enough to be loved by someone like Edward. (Probably her own misbelief like we all have don’t we?) Usually we get the love we think we deserve. And Bella doesn’t think Edward could love her the way she does. And by leaving her he proved her misbelief. And still Bella’s love for Edward gave her strength and a purpose after all. He is the middle of her universe. And that’s exactly why I think Stephanie Meyer did it exactly right the way she did it. We often think of ourselves like Bella does and maybe we are more an Edward but can’t see ourselves like that until hopefully someone can show us otherwise. I think that’s what we can learn from the books that we are probably more lovable than we think we are and we all deserve the truest and deepest love especially from ourselves. Because when you think poor of yourself you can’t believe that someone could really love you. But that’s just my opinion and I really like your blog 😊👍
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