Friday, April 5, 2013

E is for Edward

For the A to Z Challenge, I'm writing mini-mini character analyses on some of my favorite YA characters. If you're a first time visitor or a new follower, please let me know in the comments section.



E is for Edward.

Whether you liked, hated, or deliberately avoided the Twilight series, - I don't know if you heard - they did pretty well. Stephenie Meyer tapped into a fan base that passionately LOVED these books. While I sometimes don't outwardly admit it in public, I also loved them. Hated the movies - terrible, terrible, terrible. Meyer had a great, tension-filled concept: beautiful boy likes awkward girl....and also must fight his urge to kill her. Tension - fabulous. But she also created great characters (until the movie came along and ruined them). There are a few things about Edward that made him a great character. Edward seems to say the right thing at the right time. Instead of sounding cheesy and over the top (like he does in the movies), he is able to pull it off because he's 100+ years old and knows a thing or two about how to speak to women. But I also think so many people fell in love with Edward Cullen because EC falls in love with a self-professed awkward, plain-but-attractive girl and finds her to be beautiful, special, and strong. I think that many YA girls (and women way too old to be swooning over Edward Cullen - myself included) want someone to feel that way about them. He isn't the Prince Charming helping the can't-do-anything-for-herself princess. While he wants to take care of her, he also sees Bella as a strong person. He takes care of Bella without treating her like she needs to be taken care of.

Many YA authors have tapped into this same type of love interest character or relationship. Have you noticed? Tomorrow's character follows a similar pattern. Tomorrow's character happens to be my favorite YA contemporary love interest. He's no Mr. Darcy or Henry from Time Traveler's Wife (and he's err....18), but he keeps me turning pages. Any guesses?

21 comments:

  1. I think your mini character analysis is a cool idea for A - Z. I did not watch the Twilight series, but I did see Time Traveler's Wife. Hope to see you over at MROP, where I'm talking about Expression today. -Belinda.

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  2. I kind of have a love/laugh relationship with Twilight. Firstly, I read all 4 books in 4 days - WAY fast for my usual reading pace!! But I also thought they made a fairly cringeworthy story in parts. I don't like that he is basically a stalker and she loves him for it. :P But yeah, I was addicted to the read & finished it very quickly. And the books do have pridoe of place in one of my bookcases :)

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  3. Hi, Kim,

    I didn't know you were doing the A-Z too! How fun! Your theme of characters is such fun....

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  4. Twilight Books > Twilight Movies

    I was so in love with Edward when I read the books. Le sigh.

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  5. Hahahahahahahaa... Oh man, Edward. Yep, fellow swooner here too. (And I'm 40.) You're right--the movies ruined it all, forevermore, but the stage when we didn't have those two now-classic-to-the-point-of-puking faces to put to the characters, when Bella and Edward were still uniquely within our imagination... Yep, he was one hell of a leading man. Very nice analysis!

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  6. I never read the series but my daughter did and, at the time, loved them. I think she liked the movie versions too but that may have been because of the choice of male leads. :)

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  7. I LOVE Edward! Totally fell in love with him when I read the series! He's such a gentleman.....something you don't find nowadays! The best thing about Edward is that he falls in love with Bella for who she is.....doesn't want her to change in any way.....now that's true love!

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  8. I fall into the avoided camp. We did watch the first movie, but I think it scarred my wife.

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  9. I loved the books...I'm not a fan of romance books but the Twilight saga was a series that held me spell bound. I remember stalling to read Breaking Dawn because I was scared I would have no interesting book to read after that :)

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  10. Oops, not a fan and I did try reading them, sorry! I'll say no more. :)

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  11. I was surprised that I enjoyed them so much when I first read them. I could not put them down andI inhaled every word. Funny thing is though, I tried going back to read them again and it just wasn't the same. Kind of like that first taste of rich, decadent chocolate cake or that first smooch. There's no recreating that experience. So I blessed someone else with the books.

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  12. I'm split on the Twilight characters. I didn't mind Edward that much, but Bella was the worst character in any book. Ever. And while I agree with your sentiments about the movies, I think they only served to emphasize just how bad her character was. I'm off topic (since this post is about Edward, not Bella), but I couldn't help myself :D

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  13. Great idea for the blog challenge! My husband read the books and saw the movies. I saw all but the last one. I couldn't stand to throw away money on another bad movie. I realized I really didn't care what happened. I think with better actors the movies could have been so much better. MM

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  14. Great challenge theme. Avoided the books, but did see a couple of the movies which were pretty bad, so I think I ruined it for myself.

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  15. The movies were so terrible, although my teenager loved them, that they made me not want to read the books. Have avoided the books ever since

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  16. I am an unapologetic Edward fan... maybe because I read the books first. :) Nice tribute to this great character!!

    Dana
    Waiter, drink please!



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  17. I loved Edward's good manners and total loyalty to family and Bella. Who doesn't want that?

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  18. Avoided the books, but watched the first movie because a coworker said we just had to. She was a big fan. I'll just sum it up with: the movie was not for me either.

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  19. I agree that the movies did NOT do the books justice. Oh well... Still love the Edward who once visited my head.

    (Wanted to say live, but my male MCs refused to let me.)

    ;-)

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  20. I liked the first three Twilight books, and Edward mostly in the first book. I've refused to see the last 2 movies because the final book was so obnoxious. But I liked where the series started, and Meyer definitely knew how to capture what it's like as a teen girl in the masses who just wants to be noticed by the most mysterious and hot guy ever. No wonder that series took off. She just tapped into millions of women's 14-year-old selves. :)

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  21. Just catching up. Love the A to Z characters. Hope that since you've already done Edward and Bella you do Jacob when you get to J; totally on team Jacob from the moment I read the book, which were of course better than the movies. Cheers :) http://zennjennc.blogspot.com/

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