Twilight

:For other uses, see Twilight (disambiguation). 
Twilight is a series of four vampire-themed YA fantasy romance novels, two companion novels, and one novella by Stephenie Meyer focusing on the relationship between Bella Swan, a sixteen-year-old human girl, and Edward Cullen, a centenarian vampire who appears to be a teenager. 
The book series gained five film adaptations named The Twilight Saga, with the first title being a milestone and the kick-off for several other YA adaptations in the 2010s.
==Canon==
Sixteen-year-old teenager Isabella Swan moves to the cloudy and rainy city of Forks after her mother remarries, going to live with her father Sheriff Charlie Swan. Reconnecting with her past, Bella, as she prefers to be called, approaches her childhood friend Jacob Black, a young Quileute Indian. Bella also comes across news like the mysterious and distance seventeen-year-old Edward with his strange adoptive family The Cullens. Bella then finds herself between two worlds, when she discovers certain truths about those around her. Vampires and Werewolves prove to be real and her life as a human is in jeopardy.
===Main Characters===
*Edward Cullen | Edythe Cullen genderbender counterpart
*Bella Swan | Beau Swan genderbender counterpart
*Jacob Black | Julie Black genderbender counterpart
*Charlie Swan
*Renée Dwyer née Higginbotham
*Carlisle Cullen | Carine Cullen genderbender counterpart
*Esme Cullen | Earnest Cullen genderbender counterpart
*Alice Cullen | Archie Cullen genderbender counterpart
*Jasper Hale | Jessamine Halle genderbender counterpart
*Rosalie Hale | Royal Hale genderbender counterpart
*Emmett Cullen | Eleanor Cullen genderbender counterpart
==The Books and other media==
===Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined===
In 2015, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the publication of the first Twilight novel, Stephenie Meyer released Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined: a rewritten version of Twilight with the gender roles reversed. Bella Swan was reborn as Beaufort "Beau" Swan, while Edward Cullen became Edythe Cullen.
Meyer stated that she wrote the book in order to address criticisms made of the original series that Bella Swan was portrayed as too weak and in need of constant rescuing, adding that:
Fan and critical reaction to the book was mixed, with Mashable's Aliza Weinberger writing that Life and Death "achieved something I never thought possible ... I was finally able to enjoy Twilight again." and Bustle's Emma Oulton writing that "The release of Life and Death has started a massive conversation about gender roles in our culture — and this kind of discussion can only ever be a good thing." 
However, other publications slammed the rewrite, including Jezebel, in an article entitled Stephenie Meyer Is Not Your Friend and You Shouldn't Buy Her Dumb New Gender-Swapped Twilight. Many fans also expressed disappointment over the lack of new writing in the book (which was largely word-for-word the same as the original Twilight, with name, pronoun and minor wording changes) and commented that the gender swap made the novel lose a lot of what made the original romance work. As one reviewer wrote on Amazon.com, before completing the reading of the book:
Due to the prevalence of gender swapping as a fanfiction trope and the derivative nature of the new Twilight novel, many fans and commentators referred to Life and Death as Stephenie Meyer "writing fanfiction of her own novel". Others theorised that this may have been Stephenie Meyer taking aim at E.L. James, an author whose Twilight fanfiction, 'Master of the Universe', became the phenomenally successful novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
Regardless of conflicting opinions, Life and Death has been for many slash fans the chance to write more variations of male slash and femme slash based on the work, now that there were canon versions of the characters in genderbender versions. After the book's release, the number of new fanfics and fanartworks grew, showing that even seen as bad by some the new book was welcomed by the fandom.
===Midnight Sun===
In 2020, Meyer released “Midnight Sun”, another rewritten “Twilight”, this time written from Edward’s perspective instead of Bella’s. The book had been originally drafted in 2008, but Meyer had postponed publishing it indefinitely after a draft had been leaked online. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight retelling Midnight Sun comes out after 12 years, The Guardian, published August 4, 2020 (Accessed March 18, 2021). Briefly, Meyer put the leaked chapter up for free on her website so that "readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest."Stephenie Meyer. Midnight Sun: Edward's Version of Twilight (Accessed 24 November 2008) It was only after 12 years that she finished writing and published the novel in full.
Meyer describes it as a writing exercise that developed into a full project, and notes that she found being constrained to a prewritten script of events to be harder to write as the project continued, which contributed to the book’s delayed release.
==Twilight Fandom==
Twilight fandom is notable for having attracted many first time (and feral) fans. The outside perception, e.g. in the media — dichomite and often prejudiced —, is that its demographic consists solely of teen fangirls and middle aged women called by themselves and others as "Twimoms." However this is not the reality of fandom, with diverse fans of all types, ethnicities/races, genders and ages. 
Due to this, such a term is seen by many twilighters as an insult to fandom, which is made up of a wide and diverse range of fans, who connected with the work in different degrees, whether through the film, through books, comics, fanworks or all the above alternatives.
The fandom was also highly harassed, largely because it was content primarily aimed almost exclusively at young women, — clearly a proof of how chauvinism and misogyny always extol the fan of the sex/male gender, but it radically punishes females, imposing that when fandom is aimed at men it is good, but that geared towards women he's insane and wrong. 
Twilight has become quite popular around the world, having a large number of fans mainly in Brazil -- which, by the way, is an important part of the plot in some titles, since the Esme Island of the Bedward's honeymoon is close to Rio de Janeiro. 
The fandom just after the last books and movies were released had its big hibernation period. But in 2018 the fandom resurged during the so-called Twilight Renaissance. The new twilighters differs from the aforementioned twifans in the fact that the majority of the returning fans had grown out of their strong behaviour.
While Twilight and its fans are the focus of a lot of mockery, thefourthvine talks about her happiness at seeing young women being openly and publicly fannish:
===Twilight: The Movie===
 
Soon after its opening, the movie adaptation of Twilight was seen as a step forward for female fans and moviegoers, in terms of being recognized as a valuable, desirable demographic by TPTB.
The success of the Twilight film was seen as an astonishing breakthrough for a movie based on a book by a female author, with a female main character, aimed primarily at an audience of teenage girls, with a female director (Catherine Hardwicke) and screenwriter (Melissa Rosenberg).
Although some fans were pleased by this, seeing it as a step forward, Claudiagray, Teen girls rule the earth Posted November 23, 2008. Accessed November 23, 2008. others wished that this success could have been achieved by a movie where the female protagonist has goals besides making a guy fall in love with her. 
==Twilight Anti-Fandom==
The Twilight series seems to have generated almost as much mockery or hate as it has enthusiasm. 
In Brazil, ripping — a kind of sporking or MSTing, only deeper and more menacing — was widely used by antis as a way to mitigate content creation and fandom expansion. Many male fans were victims of chauvinism and homophobia - even those who were not LGBT - as some anti saw men who read such books as fa-word. And women fans of twilight in Brazil were widely viewed by antis as brainless children, dumb fanaticals, suffering all kinds of prejudice. The fandom in this country suffered a type of anti quite different from that of other regions, largely because the habit of reading is not so widespread, and by the massive wave of fans that filled bookstores and cinemas, as well as malls and parks for events and premieres, as well as the Harry Potter's fandom did, but almost exclusively by young people and women. This led to a significant shift in the way fannish was viewed in the country.
For example, Cleolinda's humorous reviews of the booksCleolinda's First Twilight Review have become very popular, as have the sparkleful accounts of Stoney321.Stoney321's review
Some of the actors in the film have also expressed scepticism, over both the quality of the books, and the enthusiasm of their fans Cleolinda's gathered interviews. One example was Robert Pattison who often tired of fan questions and general entertainment would give evasive or sarcastic answers about his performance in the movies.
===Anti-Fandom LJ Communities===
*Twatlight
*Twi_fandumb
*Why So Fail SMeyer
==Controversy & Criticism==
There is a split in fandom between those who follow the book and those who follow the film, as there are differences between both media and sometimes fans prefer to follow one strand over the other. There are also those who follow both or choose not to label themselves in either. 
Because of this, there are slight disputes between them, which slightly antagonize. In addition to the "for the lulz" brand of anti-fandom, there has also been quite a bit of critical discussion by genuine fans of the books. For example, the LJ community twilight_ndnz was created as "a place for native fans -- urban or rez, full- or part-blood, Traditional or not -- to talk about what we like about Meyer's handling of her native characters, but also what we don't like." twlight_ndnz community info, (Accessed 24 November 2008)
Also below are the criticisms of the content as a whole, such as the characterization and background of several characters taken as secondary of the Cullen family -- Jasper Hale, Rosalie Hale, Alice Cullen -- that have in their stories addressing topics of great discussion, but that are used only as a means of shaping the characters. Like Jasper being an ex-Confederate in the middle of the American Civil War, or the gang rape and objectification suffered by Rosalie and finally Alice, victim of an insane asylum that possibly used torture to keep its inmates in her first life as a human. 
Some fans complain that the superficial use of such themes in the characters' plot without further elaboration is a problem since the author only uses them without thinking about the consequences. Especially after the Twilight Renaissance.
===Racism and Sexism===
When Catherine Hardwick decided to produce the film adaptation of Twilight, misogyny and sexism ran rampant around her, with budget cuts and lack of support because many saw productions created by women for a female audience as useless, so when the film became a hit and a sequel was confirmed, instead of rehiring her work, she and her team were let go in favor of an almost exclusively masculine team.
Years later, in interviews about what happened, Catherine confided that, in addition, the film was also a victim of possible racist attitudes by author Stephenie Meyer, who barred several of his proposals for the film, such as Alice Cullen being of Asian origin or a greater number of black actors, such as the casting of the actor to play Laurent.
According to Catherine, Meyer insisted on wanting exclusively white vampires, even though she had written in her POC books, such as the American Indians – Quileute – or the female vampire warriors that came from South America, indigenous to the Amazon rainforest, and of course the Arab characters who came from Egypt.
Several fans, upon learning of these allegations, began to look at the work with different eyes and also its author, with many corroborating Meyer's prejudiced bias.
== Shipping ==
The main canonical ship Edward/Bella is the most popular pairing in fandom as well, e.g. the LJ community Lion & Lamb has over 10,700 members as of November 2008Lion & Lamb Community Info (Accessed 24 November 2008) and over 17,800 as of June 2010. The Jacob/Bella pairing was also highly popular, and there is fan activity for a wide variety of pairings and characters, both major and minor, canonical and not.For a metafic parody account of shipwars and high-running passions in Twilight fandom, see Supernatural RPF/Twilight crossover slash crackfic Live Free or Twihard by poor_choices. Some of the minor or rarer het pairings were Jacob/Leah, Paul/Bella, and Paul/Rebecca. 
VampSlash is the term used to identify slash fic. Edward/Jasper is the most common slash pairing, followed by Edward/Jacob.
The most popular femslash pairing is Alice/Bella, followed by Rosalie/Bella.
==Fanworks==
===Fanfic===
Fanfiction.net is a popular archive choice for twifans. In November 2008 there were over 45,600 stories archived.Twilight category on ff.net (Accessed 24 November 2008). By January 2010 there were over 125,000, making it the third largest fandom on the site (after Harry Potter and Naruto) Twilight category on ff.net (Accessed 6 January 2010). By June 2010 there were over 150,000 Twilight stories on ff.net. However there are a couple of archives using eFiction as well.
Twilight authors almost exclusively ignored Fanfiction.net's TOS regarding explicit, or MA rated fiction. Bouts of explicit stories reported and pulled from the website was often met with confusion and wank. Some authors began archiving their explicit fic on private websites, blogs, or livejournal, but a mass exodus never occurred.
Some twific authors archived on livejournal from the very beginning. These fans tended to be those who had experience in other fandoms prior to Twilight.
The majority of Twilight fanfiction is written in first person point of view, likely because the source is also first person. Many fics alternate the POV, changing character chapter by chapter or even scene by scene. Sometimes entire chapters or stories are rewritten in another characters POV.
In Twilight fandom, fan writers pulling their fanfiction off the Internet, lightly filing off the serial numbers and then making it available for sale to their fans through micropresses is apparently quite common, which can lead to antagonistic attitudes around sharing deleted fanworks: 
At least one fan writer has been able to garner mainstream entertainment business interest in a work that started out as Twilight fanfiction.British Erotica Series Catches Hollywood's Eye, Publishers Weekly.com, 9 Jan 2012. (Accessed 10 Jan 2012)More information and fans' reactions in Twilight Fanfiction "Master of the Universe" to become a movie thread at Fail-Fandomanon (Accessed 10 Jan 2012) See Fifty Shades of Grey.
===Fanart===
Twilight fandom produces a variety of fanart. Traditional drawings in both realistic and comic/manga styles are popular, and the movie release added sources for photomanips and icons. Many Twilight artists archive their works on deviantART, and founded groups there.Twilighters-Forever deviantART group (Accessed 24 November 2008)Twilight-fan-club deviantART group (Accessed 24 November 2008)
Outside of deviantART the most visible form of fanart is photomanipulated banners that serve as cover art for fic. On some forums and blogs 'blinkies' (animated gifs) advertising fics and websites are popular. Many fans find blinkies annoying.
twificpics.com (domain no longer registered), run by ms. ambrosia, was a popular forum for photomanip artists until 2012 when many fans began drifting into other fandoms. The forum is now multi-fandom and located at ficpics.com.
=== Twi-rock ===
In 2008, Twilight fans began forming musical groups inspired by The Twilight Saga and the wizard rock phenomenon of the Harry Potter fandom.
First-wave Twi-rockers included The Bella Cullen Project,LookingForAwesome. (2011). Twi-rock, the best kind of rock. YouTube video. (Accessed 27 October 2022). Forks High School, Bella Rocks, The Twilight Music Girls, The CullensThe Cullens. (2012). Lunar Crescent Part II. Album.The Cullens. (2009). Twilight. Album, Twilight EmpireTwilight Empire. (2008). Music Inspired By Twilight. Album., Mandala at Twilight,Mandala at Twilight. (2010). The Soundtrack to Your Demise. Album. https://vampirerock.bandcamp.com/album/the-soundtrack-to-your-demise and Glitter and Vamp. Twi-rock artists performed at Twilight events like Twi-Con and Forks Prom.Dickerson, Paige. (2009, Jun 22). Bands offer tribute book through "Twi-Rock". Peninsula Daily News. (Accessed 22 Oct 2022).Martens, Todd. (2008, Nov 12). 'Twilight' countdown: Ready for Twi-rock? Meet the Twilight Girls. Los Angeles Times. (Accessed 22 Oct 2022). They also saw news coverage on MTV and attention from Twilight actor Kellan Lutz.Carroll, Larry. (2008, Jul 8). 'Twilight' tribute band The Bella Cullen Project: From 'Sexy Vampire' to debut album. MTV News. (Accessed 22 Oct 2022).Vineyard, Jennifer. (2008, Oct 16). Kellan Lutz on the book rock of 'Twilight' and 'Harry Potter'. MTV News. (Accessed on 22 Oct 2022).
Twi-rock is seeing a small resurgence during the Twilight Renaissance.
==Archives & Community==
* My Own Twilight (now defunct)
* Twilight @ ff.net
* Twilight Archives (Fanfic and Fanart)
* Twilighted
* Twilight Fan Fiction: exclusive archive
* Everglow (Edward/Bella Fanfic Archive)
* A World Beyond: Twilight AU fanfiction, invite only.
* Twilight fanworks @ AO3
* Twilight podfic @ Audiofic Archive
* STARS Library
* Stmívání-FF - Czech fanfiction archive established in 2010
* Stmívání.eu - Czech fanfiction archive also established in 2006
Much of the interaction among readers and writers of Twilight fanfiction occurred on Twitter, or forums such as Twilighted and A Different Forest. Contests were popular (usually run directly on fanfiction.net), also award websites, and rec blogs.
Fests, fic exchanges, and prompt memes were unusual until fans began drifting into other fandoms and bringing those traditions back with them.
LiveJournal communities were plentiful, however many fans stuck to one or the other. Attitudes toward pairings, and AU or AH fic, differed greatly between those who hung out on LiveJournal and those who hung out on Twitter and posted on FFN. With the Twilight Renaissance, these activities now also take place in Tumblr and TikTok, more specifically in the latter with vids with dubbing, cosplaying or self-insert in movie scenes. 
See also: List of Twilight Communities.
==Resources==
*Twilight Source (News)
*Twilight Saga Wiki
*Newbieguide for Twilight on LJ
==Meta/Further Reading==
===2009===
* , Hortense Smith (2009)
* That Girl: Bella, Buffy, and the FeministEthics of Choice in Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Catherine Coker, for Slayage (2009?)
===2012===
* Fanfiction: A Tale of Fandom and Morality by Has (March 2012)
===2013===
* by 100indecisions (2013)
===2014===
* Fifty Shades of Grey: The Reddit Origins Essay (2014)
* (2014)
===2016===
* Fan Phenomena: The Twilight Saga, edited by Laurena Aker (2016)
===2018===
* Aujourd'hui, la fanfiction: nouveau mode d'expression littéraire, réinterprétation et exploration d'une sexualité alternative, a French academic paper by Marie Demers
=== 2020 ===
* Twilight is a Psychological Thriller, Not a Love Story by Shanspeare (YouTube, 2020)
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Twilight
Category:Werewolf Fandoms