About two weeks ago I went on my first ever solo trip. I did a fall foliage road trip of the northeast (opposite side of the country of our beloved Twilight, I know). I was just recently coming off of a heartbreak and decided this was the perfect time to lose myself in the beloved books from my middle school years. It brought me back to a time when love was this beautiful, mysterious feeling I had yet to experience. This trip really healed me in so many ways, and reignited that spark of hope for all that love could be that I had felt for the first time when I read this series almost 20 years ago… I followed the Twilight & Midnight Sun tandem reading guide pretty much to a tee, except for the times when I was just having too much fun reading Twilight and couldn’t put it down. The stops on my trip included: Provincetown, MA (during a nor’easter- perfect rainy vibes- and guess what! I actually saw a coyote wolf hybrid while driving at night!! Hello Jacob 🐺), - Portsmouth, MA, - Portland, ME, - Bar Harbor, ME, and my last destination of Acadia National Park. I know it’s crazy to say but it really did remind of La Push and I read a chapter of Midnight Sun when I made it to the top of the mountain at sunrise. I felt so immersed in the beautiful world of Twilight, the place that was a safe space for me during my awkward preteen years, and found that once again, it still stands to be that familiar haven for me all these years later. I finished this trip by getting a Twilight inspired tattoo. How could I not! Twilight means just as much to me now, as it did to my younger self. Twilight Forever 🤍

I understand that Stephenie Meyer is Mormon, so her beliefs probably influenced Bella getting married at eighteen and becoming a mother so young. But if she always intended for Bella to settle down as a teenager, why give her the backstory she did?

Bella basically had to raise her own mother. Renee was immature and irresponsible, and Bella was the one worrying about bills and making sure she was taken care of. I think spending her childhood parenting Renee played a huge part in why Bella never wanted children of her own. Yes, she thought vampires couldn't procreate, but I also think she didn't want to spend her life raising someone else after already having to raise her mother. Who would?

Bella becoming a mother at eighteen never felt right for her character, and neither did her sudden willingness to get married. I feel like Stephenie ignored the very backstory she gave Bella just to get her to the ending she wanted.

And don't even get me started on Renesmee. I know Stephenie said Bella would choose that name, but I genuinely cannot picture Bella naming her daughter that or naming her son EJ. I could see her choosing something classic like Elizabeth, especially since it would honor Edward's biological mother.

Being a rare supernatural species doesn't mean you need an absurd name. Hope Mikaelson is an actual tribrid, yet her name is simple and meaningful because she represents her family's hope for redemption. Stephenie could've done something similar with Bella and Edward's daughter instead of inventing Renesmee just to make her seem special, especially when the series later establishes that other hybrids exist anyway.

The first movie came out whenever I was in middle school and I remember essentially alllll of the girls in my school were obsessed with Twilight - everybody wore Team Edward or Team Jacob shirts and had heated discussions about it. Idk why I honestly never watched them. My mom was pretty strict about what I watched and what music I listened to so I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to watch it when it came out anyway lol 😅

But here I am in 2026 finally watching them for the first time and I just finished all of the movies. Breaking Dawn part 2 about gave me a damn heart attack 😮‍💨 I loved them though! They get better and better with each one. The first one I though was cheesy and funny lmaoo 🥴 but I’m honestly hooked and now I’m gonna go to the book store and buy the books.

20 years late to the party but hey better late than never.

Just watched the ballet studio scene where they kill James and they really messed that place up. Can’t help but think of people showing up to work or class the next day and seeing everything wrecked.

My answer would be a spin off with James, Victoria and Laurent before they came to Forks. Maybe it could also lead into them finding out about James being killed & planning on getting revenge.

I’m doing my annual rewatch since it’s finally fall! Tell me why it’s so cringey when Edward and Bella are kissing by her truck after the party and they’re making these weird noises like it’s so incredibly painful for them to be slightly intimate (ie kissing).

Just so silly to me haha

What are your conspiracy theories

i am rereading twilight for the first time since I wAS 13/14. I am 27 now. I just came across this and I was wondering if this is a hint to her “shield”

I have an opinion about the first film, (never read the book fully so please don’t crucify me lol) but that scene where The Cullens + Bella were playing football and get interrupted by Laurent, Victoria & James, James obviously sensed something was off about Bella as we can see through his attention and body language, yet he was willing to back off before the gust of window gave Bella’s scent away. HOWEVER, and this may not even be unpopular or untrue, I believe James was going to still hunt Bella even before he got her scent, she was prey from the beginning when exposed to him. While when he got a whiff of her, he completely freaked out and tried to attack so that done debunk my theory about him knowing she’s a human all along and still going through,

BUT, what if after they all left & let the Cullens continue their game, he stalked them because of his suspicion and then followed Bella home after that? I could totally see that happening. Him getting away from Victoria or Laurent with whatever excuse, then secretly watching the Cullens play from the woods or somewhere in the distant until it’s time to go. I do wonder if he’d wait & stalk her for a bit because of the thrill or just go all in? Idk, just a run theory!

Let me preface this post by saying that I don't believe that Stephenie Meyer wrote the saga with the intention of writing feminist horror. However, I believe that is what she's created, and reading the books through a feminist Gothic horror lens is a rich literary experience.

The books take every aspect of the female experience and reflect them through a monstrous lens. Heterosexual dating, marriage and motherhood are depicted as literally horrific. Let's go book by book and look at some examples. (Trigger warning for abuse and violence)

Twilight

1. Equivalence of lust and violence. Women are taught that male sexual attention comes with the danger of becoming a target of male violence. In Twilight this is represented as literal bloodlust - Edward's attraction to Bella comes with a barely-controlled desire to literally kill her.

2. Female responsibility for male sexual appetite. There's a belief that men "struggle to control" themselves sexually, and women are trained to moderate their behaviour to avoid triggering this "loss of control" and getting hurt. In Bella's case, the risk is that Edward will literally kill her if she triggers him sexually. He almost kills her when she first tries to kiss him, and she's told that he would definitely kill her if she tries to have sex with him.

3. Stalking. James's behaviour follows classic stalking patterns, but made even more monstrous and terrifying because of his tracking powers. Once he becomes obsessed with Bella, he can track her to the ends of the earth and there is no way for her to escape him.

4. Male strength. Most women are very conscious of the physical strength differential between men and women, especially in dating and sexual situations. This is amplified a hundredfold in Twilight - Edward could literally snap Bella like a twig without the slightest effort, and is considerably faster too. It's highlighted when he asks "do you think you could outrun me? Do you think you could fight me off?"

New Moon

1. Horror of aging. Bella develops a horror of becoming even one year older. There is a nightmare sequence that consists solely of her developing wrinkles and white hair. She wants nothing more than to stay eternally young and beautiful as a vampire.

2. Male rage. The shifters can be triggered into extreme uncontrollable violence if they experience anger. I see this as an alternative version of the vampires' bloodlust. Instead of playing on the idea of men "losing control" of sexual desire triggering violence, instead this plays on the idea of men "losing control" of their temper and being unable to resist violence.

3. Domestic violence. Related to the previous point... Victims of domestic violence are often made to feel guilty and pressured to forgive their abuser because "he couldn't help it". This is exactly what happens to Emily - her whole community tells her that the incident which scarred her isn't Sam's fault and he "couldn't help" his temper. The wolf mythology means that rejecting this explanation means rejecting her culture.

4. Monogamy. This book takes monogamy to an extreme that becomes horrific. On the vampire side, we learn that they can only fall in love once and there is no moving on afterwards... to the point that Edward becomes suicidal when he thinks Bella is gone. On the shifter side, monogamy takes a different horrific form, imprinting. This goes even further than vampire monogamy - imprints undergo a complete personality change and basically become a willing slave to their imprintee.

Eclipse

1. Marriage. This book is intensely concerned with the commitment of marriage, and in the saga this is amplified due to vampirism. Heterosexual marriage for women is typically associated with an identity shift: changing her name, going from Miss to Mrs, and in many cultures becoming the "property" of a husband instead of a father. It's also often marked out by cosmetic signifiers like different clothing or accessories. For Bella, marrying Edward goes along with the biggest possible identity shift of literally changing species and becoming a vampire. She will become physically unrecognizable. And not only will she leave her family on a conceptual level, she will literally become "dead" to her parents and never see them again.

2. Male jealousy. Another major theme of this book is male sexual jealousy, possessiveness, and protection. Again, Stephenie Meyer delivers this in a more heightened and monstrous form by making Bella a physically helpless pawn caught between these two monsterised forms of male violence: Jacob wants to protect her from Edward and Edward wants to protect her from Jacob, and she's in danger from both (as well as Victoria, the ultimate crazy wronged woman). She becomes an artefact of the Quileute-Cullen treaty, literally treated like a piece of property to be argued over.

Breaking Dawn

1. Pregnancy. Bella's pregnancy with Renesmee is such a horrific twist on many of the realities of pregnancy... the fetus literally drains her to the point of death. Instead of normal cravings she craves human blood.

2. Childbirth. The way Renesmee is delivered is a more horrific version of the most traumatic C-section... her spine is broken and her uterus literally gets ripped open with hands and teeth. She then experiences paralysis during anaesthesia when Carlisle gives her morphine, being unable to speak or move but fully able to feel the pain of vampire transformation.

3. Mommy makeover/bounce back/cosmetic enhancement. Bella is able to immediately "bounce back" after her pregnancy (and actually becomes more beautiful), but at the price of a horrific ordeal which feels like literally being burned alive for three days. When she wakes up, she experiences an"uncanny valley" experience looking in the mirror, where she is barely able to recognize herself.

4. Motherhood as martyrdom. The ideal of motherhood is that women are expected to sacrifice everything for their children without complaining, up to and including their life and health. When Bella becomes pregnant it almost seems like she undergoes a form of mind control where she has no care for her own life and is happy about the prospect of dying for her child. She becomes a perfect smiling mother-martyr. I think it's meaningful that we see this part of the book through Jacob's perspective and to him it really seems like Bella has been lobotomized.

All the violent and coercive aspects of patriarchy are represented in the books, but made even more violent and horrific through the use of supernatural metaphor. And all of this is underpinned by the extreme forms of gendered violence and trauma that pretty much all the female side characters experience. From Alice's institutionalisation and stalking, to Esme's domestic violence and postpartum depression, to Rosalie's violent sexual assault, to Emily's physical abuse, to the gender dysphoria Leah experiences as a shifter, to the Quileute third wife whose only form of agency is suicide.

Does this take on the books resonate with anyone else, and does anyone else enjoy reading the saga through this lens?

I bought this Alex & Ani Twilight charm bracelet. I love it! I like how it's subtle. 🥰

How would the Cullens survive in today's world?

Almost everyone has an online presence in this day and age so wouldn't it be harder for vampires to stay hidden? The Cullens can't exactly post pictures or have social media without risking exposure, especially with facial recognition and digital records.

I've been thinking that maybe at some point in the last 20 years the Volturi or some other vampires have established an underground world to help vampires live undetected. And hiring humans to handle things during the day.

Charlie should have joined the Quileute on the cliff party.

I'm rereading the bonfire chapters in Eclipse and I feel like Charlie should've been there. It's his best friends and his daughter, and he's the only one completely out of the loop. If Billy had invited him and let him hear the stories then Charlie could've started putting the pieces together himself, and Bella wouldn't have had to explain everything to him.

Oh well, maybe when Renaissance is older they'll finally let Grandpa Charlie in on the fun.

How do the Quileute afford food? How do they afford food in today's economy?

I hope this doesn't come across as offensive but, how do the Quileutes afford to feed the pack? Those boys eat SO MUCH and groceries are expensive enough already. (My family struggles with grocery costs too, so I'm genuinely curious!)

Imprinting can't just be about romantic love. There had to be some bi people in forks. On the reservation.

I don't even know where to start with this, but I feel like imprinting can't just be about romantic love. The book says the wolf becomes whatever the person needs BUT, how could someone resist that level of devotion??

What if the person they're imprinted on is queer or ace? Then what? They'll become platonic besties? If it's for reproduction reasons then is imprinting only for straight couples??

I'm sorry if any of these has been asked before. I'm doing a reread of Eclipse and these are just some thoughts that popped into my head. Also wasn't sure what flair to use so, hope this is the right one!

Hi so I was recently planning on buying my wife the Twilight Arc and the only one I could find was on eBay but it sold out:( does anyone know of a reliable seller I could possibly find one?

I know her blood “sings” to him, so maybe he would still like her. But putting that aside, would Edward have been interested in Bella if he had access to her thoughts all along?

I think they have some shared interests and he’d still be physically attracted to her.

But, without access to her thoughts, Edward can project whatever he wants to on to her. He can imagine her thoughts to be anything. He can more easily create a fantasy of her, whereas he sees other people for exactly who they are.

He thinks other girls are annoying and/or have shallow thoughts, but Bella has many of the same thoughts as them. How would he feel if he knew how similar Bella was to other girls around her?

Basically, do you think her being the only “mysterious” person in his life attracts him to her or do you think he would genuinely care to get to know her regardless?

How old is Edward? He’s 109 in movie but google says he’s 104. I’m just so confused then like are they counting from how long he’s been a vampire or birth?

The Cullens move from town to town but do they always pick smaller cities or less populated areas? It seems to me that being in a bigger city would attract less attention.

I finally managed to put movies on my iPod 7th gen and I just love watching twilight on this device. Like a really good throwback…

I know it's been said on the sub and on a lot of other fan sites that I've seen, but I don't think that charlie, and bella, could stop Renee from finding out that Bella was okay and/or about having a granddaughter in Renesmee. I can see a picture of Bella and Charlie together, or even Bella, Charlie, and Renesmee made together, leaking somewhere on social media in an AC unit and somehow getting brought into the circle. I think that would be rather disastrous if that happened because her name is not the kind to keep her mouth shut if she sees something odd. However, I think if she wanted to keep her daughter safe, she would make a great effort to. What do you guys think?

After finishing midnight sun, I have to say it was more interesting than the Twilight book. Edward's mind reading gave more depth to characters than the previous books.

Bella is actually portrayed as more interesting. Her personality and kindress shines better in this book Jessica's character however got completely assassinated, which seemed to be a theme for the women in this book.

The insights of the Cullen family is fascinating. They dont seem to me as...close as we previously thought. It seemed less like a 'family' and more as mates staying in a coven of their creators making. Most do obviously care about one another such as Edward with Alice, Emmett, Carlilse & Esme.

The Rosalie & Edward like/hatred dynamic was interesting everytime it came up.

Rosalie's vanity and cruelty got written to ridiculous levels and part of me wonders if it was Edwards old fashioned and self important bias or Stephanies anti blonde bias that portrayed her this way. Either way I was completely team Rosalie 100% of the way and agree with her that bella should have either died, turned or be left alone as per the volturi rules.

Esme is just pure boy mom. Her favouritism towards Edward was uncomfortable at times. I always assumed it was Carlisle who favoured him, but I believe Esme would sell out all the other of her "children" out for Edward if made to choose.

Carlisle seemed...almost the most seperate from humanity for me for some reason.

His virtue and kindness was preached for many however there just seemed something...off about him. (Him drugging a woman and leaving her on the side of the road is a whole other story)

The explanation of Alice and Jasper's gifts were brilliant. It really shows how valuable and dangerous Jasper's gift could be.

As for Eddie....hes just a moody 17 year old boy that happs to have lived for centuries without really growing up any and has no care of people's mental or physical boundaries.

Just finished learning the whole song, I hope you enjoy!

Wanted to share this here! Currently firing a couple Jacob mugs. 🙈