Friday, December 5, 2008

My Thoughts on the Twilight Saga

So I just finished my obsessive week of Twilight. I started listening to the books on Monday, the 24th and have now finished listening to all 3. Like the Harry Potter's I prefered to listen to them rather than read them. Although Jim Dale is a large part of my desire to listen to HP and Ilyana Kadushin is no Jim Dale. I do spend a lot of time in traffic and Books on Tape are helpful. I did cheat and listen to them outside of the car if I got to a particularly interesting part. Oh, and I listened at work, although lots of people asked me what I was thinking about while listening because of the absorbed look on my face.

I've come to the conclusion that I really like them. I liked the first well enough, mehed through the emo Bella in the second. Yelled at Bella repeatedly in the third with many admonishments for her to just shut up. I think the last one will be my fav. It's definitely the one I've hated most have to take off the earphones for. The honeymoon is sweet and Bella's calling the baby her 'little nudger' made me want to cry with happiness as just about the first truly simpathetic moment for Bella. Most of the time she's just to overly emotionally teen and annoying, but she won me over with her love of her unborn child. I heard complaints later about Renesme being so Mary Sue and I get teh complaints. Everyone loves her, even Jacob who goes from killing the monster to being willing to die for her in the space of a breath. I did appreciate her most whenever she wasn't acting like an adult.

Team Jacob: I was kinda leaning toward Team Jacob even though I obviously knew before reading the books that she'd end up with Edward. This book definitely took a lot of the joy of Jacob away. I loved the part in the middle from his perspective and despite clothes shopping and dinner on Wednesday, I continued to listen to it. Leah is awesome and Jake as a pack leader was a welcome addition to the story. I wish we could find out more about the origins of the shapechangers and if the wolf form is simply because that's what they think they should change into. Also, I want Leah to have a happy ending. :(

Also, Bella and Edward's relationship seemed to be A LOT more healthy in this book. N one of the stalker controlling behavior, they seemed like equals, albeit with him still being protective. I also missed seeing Alice. One thing I appreciated about the second one was the stories about the other characters. I loved finding out where Jasper came from the the purported origins of the 'werewolves'.

On the slightly negative side, Bella didn't have nearly enough problems with being a vampire. After all that waiting and hemming and hawing by Edward and she takes to it like a duck to water. She even gets to maintain a relationship with her Dad. I did love Bella's stronger shield power, very in keeping with what had gone before and a great way for her to show her strength to everyone.

Big Negative I hated the final battle scene. All that build up and planning and nothing really happens. There's one death. I guess SM was probably trying to avoid too many comparisons to HP since its like the antithesis of the final battle in that series, but than that battle was inevitable and if it hadn't happened, the books would be ruined. The Twilight series is all about relationships, battles, but it would have been much more emotionally satisfying for the battle to have ocurred. :( I can see what SM was thinking. I mean, the Volturi are essential to keeping the vampires in check, but I really wanted a battle and some death and carnage.

So the whole living here in Dallas means that I may be going to Twicon. What is Twicon? It's a convention for Twilighters in Dallas and costs $255. They already have healiners from the movie who will be there. None of the top 3, but there's still alomost 8 months and many more people to announce in the meantime. I know that SM won't be there since she wants to spend some time with her family (what a crazy thought). www.twicon.com Kat seriously wants to go, the only problem in the time of year. I'm already needing to ask off for the first week in July, can I ask for a couple of days at the end as well. And what about the $255 ticket price. We'll see how my job goes. I reckon I'll look into buying a ticket in March or something. After I've done the whole moving into the apartment thing. I wonder if any other Twilighters I know are going to want to go and able to pay the $255 for tickets. Ugh, so much.