Vampire Diaries is better than Twilight

Thanks for the debate, it is a rare opportunity I get to defend Twilight against the Vampire Diaries. Pro's criticisms can be boiled down to the following: 1) Twilight is one-dimensional, Vampire Diaries is multi-dimensional; 2) Twilight has the same characters in each movie, Vampire Diaries introduces new characters each season; 3) Twilight focuses on one relationship, Vampire Diaries explores multiple relationships; 4) Twilight is not heavy on murder, Vampire Diaries is. I'll address each of these points in turn while bringing out themes and scenes from Twilight that, for me, illuminate why it is the enduring masterpiece it is. While it may be true that the Twilight films focus on Edward and Bella's romance, there are numerous other themes that add to the series' complexity, appeal and cultural significance. Twilight is anything but one-dimensional. Yes, Edward and Bella are the center of the films' narrative, but the series is equally concerned with the contemporary American family, the role of women within that family, and the relation between sexual desire and family stability. Twilight is fundamentally a story about family, gender, sex and power. Furthermore, the Twilight films represent these themes through cinematic techniques that bring out complex layers of irony and comedic relief that serve as a reminder, to more critical viewers, that even if they disagree with the core values of the film, they can still enjoy the films as fun Hollywood-style entertainment. Twilight offers something for everyone. NOTE: I will now go into more detail. Hopefully my readers have seen the Twilight films and can follow my arguments. Bella is denied the experience of a stable family from her parents' divorce. This is the underlying structure that drives the entire narrative and thematic framework of the films. Bella is thrust into the world looking for a sense of stability and family. That is precisely why she desires eternal life with Edward: it offers the promise of both stability and family. What I think makes Twilight so interesting and profound is the way it represents family, and through family, motherhood. Bella becomes the self-sacrificial, selfless mother she never had. She becomes the mother willing to die for the good of her unborn vampire child. Bella is no weakling, however, as she also becomes the mother who successfully guards and protects her family, ensuring its survival. Bella is no ordinary mother, she is a warrior-mother. Twilight suggests that motherhood provides women with a source of power that equals or surpasses the power of men. Twilight's thematic complexity thus far surpasses the complexity of Vampire Diaries. It offers a sustained critique of the contemporary American family, and in doing so, offers solutions. Twilight reflects on the nature of family and motherhood in a way that Vampire Diaries doesn't even scratch the surface of. Part of what makes Twilight so brilliant is Bella and Edward's old-fashioned courtship. The series explicitly values abstinence before marriage, an unusual point of interest that the Vampire Diaries does not share. What other contemporary narrative film or TV show simultaneously places value on abstinence before marriage and sexual desire? Think about it. It is quite interesting in this respect alone: just as Edward exercises self-control over his desire to drink Bella"s blood (clearly analogous to sexual desire, not just in Twilight but in vampire lore generally), he refuses to give in to Bella"s persistent desire for sexual contact. Twilight thus offers bizarre take on male/female romance. The thematic complexity here becomes even more interesting after Bella's transformation into a vampire. It is at this moment, after her desire for her father's blood manifests, that viewers become distinctly aware of the way that her sexual desire for Edward is symbolically the same desire she has for her father, not as a lover but as a father. In other words, Twilight ventures into potentially Freudian territory, speculating on the nature of fatherhood in male/female romance. These are extremely complex themes that don't have clear answers. The idea here is that Twilight offers an exceedingly complex network of motifs relating to family, motherhood, fatherhood, and sexual desire that offer great entertainment value as well as deep interpretive challenges for critics. Another thing I love about the Twilight films which I think sets them apart from Vampire Diaries are the unusual layers of irony that pervade the films. The social interactions in Twilight, for example, are often bizarre and in themselves pose masterful examples of irony. One of the really great scenes in Twilight occurs when Bella calls her mom after the first day of school. If viewers might recall, the students are extremely welcoming, treating Bella almost as if she were a celebrity. Yet when she speaks to her mom later that day, and her mom asks how the first day of school went, Bella replies in a tone of total and utter sarcasm: "they were very welcoming." It is a great moment of ironic genius, as Bella's sarcasm suggests the students weren't welcoming whereas viewers are privy to the knowledge that the students were in fact very welcoming. It turns out that Bella speaks the truth even at the same moment that she is totally oblivious to it. The layers of irony here are performed flawlessly, they remind viewers of the great ironies in Shakespeare's plays. Yes, Twilight is THAT good. What is so impressive about this scene, however, is that the irony doesn't end there: Bella's mother asks if there are any boys Bella liked. This adds another layer of irony because the viewer of the film knows the real reason Bella is upset is not because the students weren't welcoming but because the one person who wasn't welcoming was a boy, Edward. Bella's mother emphasizes this point for viewers through her question, and in doing so, brings out yet another register of meaning and irony. The film is filled with scenes like these that provide both comic relief and critical commentary on the experience/representation of youth and adolescence within the family unit. Returning to Pro's criticisms, Twilight is more thematically complex, multi-dimensional, interesting, and entertaining than Vampire Diaries. Pro claims Vampire Diaries introduces new characters each season but this actually is one of the reasons that Vampire Diaries is worse than Twilight: since Twilight focuses on just a few characters, it is able to develop those characters more fully. Moreover, Twilight's exploration of the thematic complexity involved with family, motherhood, and sexual desire cannot possibly be matched. Vampire Diaries is a superficial show compared to Twilight. Pro's claim that Twilight is not as heavy on murder is irrelevant, as many great films don't have any murder whatsoever. And Pro's claim that Vampire Diaries is better because it focuses on multiple relationships is actually false as well, since none of the relationships in Vampire Diaries are nearly as developed as the single relationship in Twilight. Twilight ventures into themes regarding eternal life, family, sexual desire, and motherhood that Vampire Diaries barely recognizes. Twilight is as such without a doubt the better series.