Hey Anhdara,
Totally agree with your post!
My main problem with Twilight is not because it's message about true love, but because the main characters, by their actions, do not support true love. I was actually angry at Twilight because it totally killed the whole theme of true love and its beauty.
I'm a very romantic person, and I do enjoy romance books if written well, but I practically detested Twilight. Some can't comprehend this, because they think every romantic person = Twilight fan. So not true.
My belief in true love: Yes, when you find your true love, you do live for them, because that person lives for you. Two people who are in love are really one soul in two bodies, and no life and death can separate them, but true love is sooooo insulted in Twilight by Edward and Bella's so not true love that many people who don't like the series have gotten the idea that living for someone else is wrong. But it's not, because when someone truly loves someone else, existence without them is more painful than ever. Words cannot describe that pain.
2nd: True love does not happen over mere days. The only time someone feels like they fell in love soon after seeeing someone else is when they are soulmates. I'm a strong believer in reincarnation, so I believe that if two souls were together in every life together, they will immediately recognize that love in their new life and nothing else can come between their union.
Bella and Edward (even if SM claims they were reincarnated from past love) are not soulmates. One proof of this: If Bella had indeed been Edward's soulmate in a past life, she'd never have felt even an iota of interest in Jacob Black, because her love would belong only to Edward. But throughout New Moon, we see her attraction for Jacob and in Eclipse, she even claims to not being able to choose between them. I mean...what the heck? How is that true love?
So. Since Bella and Edward are not soulmates, their love would have to be developed over the entire lenght of the 1st book, but it isn't. After a mere few days after seeing him, Bella is in love with Edward and Edward is in love with Bella.
Also, their "love" was never love, it was obsession. There are great examples in real history where true lovers were separated because of tragic reasons, but they never wallowed in self pity and gave up their life. They kept faith in their love, and lived their life as always, with a purpose to it, with the belief that one day, their love would be reunited. Bella practically gives up her life in New Moon. That's not love. That's obsession. Edward watches Bella while she sleeps, and he gets over-protective of her to the point that it's scary. that's not love, that's obsession.
So I'll stop my rant here. My problem basically with Twilight is that it's not because of its poor writing quality, its one-sided characters, or its boring storyline, but because of its butchery of the true meaning of love. It just made me angrier beyond anything to see SM write true love like it was any other feeling she could play with.😡 Love is one of the purest feelings in the world, one of the most powerful, as portrayed in Harry Potter and other great epics written in the past, it is not an erotic obsession like SM made it out to be.
So I'm basically one of those anti-twihards who is romantic, but hated the series because of its wrong message of true love.
-Lalitha
Ufff Yeh Love Hai Mushkil
