Note – A break from what I'm doing with the essays.

~They Hate on Us~

One of the things I enjoy doing fanfiction wise besides reading, writing and critiquing is learning about pop trends in various fandoms. One of the fandoms I follow is Twilight so I've read the recent articles that occurred during the month of August 2013 for both Meyer and Pattinson. For Meyer Twilight isn't a happy place for her anymore while Pattinson has yet again voiced that Twilight fans pretty much creep him out. And what happens?

The Twilight fans get there noses into a bunch and feel that they're the reason for the success of these two. I found this quote on The Hollywood Gossip's biography for him. "Robert Pattinson wasn't a household name... until he starred in Twilight. […] Now, the British actor is well on his way to the A-list." I don't know who wrote this particular sentence but I find it rather conceited of them to say something like this.

I know I've said recently to someone I would try my best at bringing up Harry Potter when talking about Twilight... however... I have to reference Harry Potter here. Robert Pattinson became a household name when he stared in Harry Potter. Perhaps one of the reasons... and I could be wrong about this... that Twilight did do as well as it did was because Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart brought their fan base to the series which helped to drum up the attention for the series.

It's an honest question here about whether or not Twilight would have done well had they not picked an actor and actress who were actually unknown? From what I understand about the Twilight Saga was that its fan base was small prior to the movies coming out. This is something I've heard from some of the Twilighters mind you. The other thing I've heard from them is that the rabid fans came with the movie and that's when the series began to lose its charm for them. It wasn't so much that people were critiquing it as many enjoyed critiquing the work themselves, but the Twihards who felt that the world revolved around them.

Meyer's a bit questionable though as she did start with Twilight. I would have to say a good deal of her fanbase is from Twilight. However, the problem I have with the Twihards is that they think they're what is making her other work sell. This includes the Host as well as Austenland. I have a problem believing that the Twilight fans are the main reason for her fans as I've heard a lot of people have picked up the Host without having picked up the Twilight series. While her having written Twilight may have helped them hear about the book, many of these people found the book without having heard of Twilight. Let us not forget that this is also an adult novel, not a novel aimed at the younger fans. This didn't stop the Host from not doing well in the movie theaters.

Then there is Austenland. A lot of the comments I saw in reaction to Meyer saying Twilight wasn't a happy place for her anymore commented about how they weren't going to support the project and thus it would fail because the Twilight fans weren't giving their support. However, many of these comments also made something clear to me. They didn't know squat about Austenland despite claiming to be fans of Meyer thus revealing their true colors as simply fans of Twilight. I say this because I know more then these alleged fans about what what she's doing! The other thing I have to say is if these fans really don't know about her other work then it honestly doesn't matter if they continue following her. Because gasp they aren't really following her now unless it has something to do with Twilgiht.

Things got even more disturbing. One of the people I saw commenting pretty much began to bawl her head off about how Stephenie Meyer had to be a liar. Said fan showed up at the Breaking Dawn fan camp and asked if Meyer was lying about being happy about the last movie then proceeded to call her fake before she ranted about how Meyer was a bunch of things including evil. To me this was a really stupid thing to say, particularly since there was an article on Meyer's blog about the Breaking Dawn movie and how she was excited about the extra scene that was added to the movie. This particular fans comments made it feel like it was all about her. And ironically Meyer simply mentioned the series, not the fans.

Later on Meyer went and clarified what she meant. Maybe she doesn't realize her series is bad like I hope, or she's hiding that she's willing to admit it to her fans. I might just be a bit hopeful that she will realize that the work was bad simply because in order to become a better writer she needs to accept that she needs to improve. However, it did clarify that Meyer wasn't personally attacking her fans among other allegations they made. What happened after that was some of her fans started mouthing off abut how it was just a PR stunt and that she didn't mean what she said. Really? Because I got what she clarified when I first read it. One writer called her out for using a word that means hate, but that makes me shake my head even more as Meyer is known for using words incorrectly.

The point of me bringing this up though? Some of the fans made the comment that they can't blame Meyer for being tired of Twilight when everyone is making fun of the fans and her. No, they're not. I don't care how much they want to act like a victim in this but in the long run they're not victims. Mind you, there are people out there who call Twilight fans stupid, but there are also Twilight fans who've gone far more overboard then the anti's have. Many act like there series still shouldn't be criticized and that it getting the negative attention it is isn't fair to them. It's just a book.

Now, some people will try to argue here that it is just a book so that is good enough reason for me not to critique the work or other people for that matter. The answer is, no... it isn't. Because it is just a book I can discuss the up and downs of the book, though I'm hard pressed to find them. I think the one thing is the abstinence until after marriage bit but that is rather ruined in my opinion by the fact Bella doesn't choose it herself, Edward does. But that's another story all together.

I'm actually going to say here that I don't think Twihards are necessarily stupid or idiots. I think they're just delusional in their thought process which in itself gets in the way of their ability to think. Yes... there is a difference between the two. Some of the fans... yeah, they aren't very bright. Some though... and these are the ones that make me shudder more then the ones that are idiots, are the ones who act stupid because they don't want their precious little bubble burst. Delusions... they're never a good thing to have. You just end up getting hurt in some manner in the end.

But back to their excuse. They are saying they're the victims and that they just want everyone to stop talking about Twilight. First, they're not the victims. Second, it is rather hard not to talk about bad fan behavior when I see the fans disrespecting the people they're supposed to be a fan of and not understanding that the guy who played Edward has good reason to find his fan base creepy. Considering some of these same fans got butt hurt and started ranting about how he owned them? Yeah... or how about how Meyer's fans don't know squat about Austenland?

A bit more on that part. I've seen fans not understand that this wasn't a major release. I've seen one fan think that this film is a Hollywood release when in reality it was created for Sundance. Another didn't realize that the movie already bombed at Sundance and got horrible criticism. However, some of the people who reviewed said while it wasn't a good movie and that it wasn't Sundance material it was really something they'd expect for release during the summer movie run in the theaters. And the filmography was pretty good too. If you're really a fan of Meyer why don't you know this stuff?

Yeah... I'm not sure what else to say on this one.