Hello and welcome to In Too Deep, where I over-analyse a certain section of pop culture.
Alright, I admit it: I can’t hate Twilight. That doesn’t mean I like it (God know, there are some things even I can’t defend), but I don’t hate it. Which is odd, since I object to a lot of the content and morals. So perhaps it should read “Why I Can’t Hate Twilight Fansâ€. For I can’t hate Twilight without appearing hypocritical.
Now I suppose I should preface this with a few simple facts: I am a Brony. I read My Little Dashie. And I cried manly tears. Now My Little Dashie is the story of a Brony my age (aka early 20s) who has nothing going for him in life, who finds the pegasus Rainbow Dash in a box. As in the actual filly. Well, pegafilly. Baby horse. He finds it, takes her home, grows to love her like the daughter he never had. Ends up moving away into the countryside and raises her, before Twilight Sparkle and the gang come and pick Rainbow Dash back up. However the man has the scrapbook and goodbye letter to remember her by. And by this point I’m bawling my eyes out. So what does this have to do with Twilight?
Despite the evidence raised by my opposition, I am not in fact a teenage girl. I’m an early twenties man. As such, Twilight wasn’t written for me. It just wasn’t. It was written for teenage girls looking out for the perfect man. And while Edward Cullen is anything but, on the surface he’s a pretty decent guy (sort of. This is a surface reading after all). He’s dependant, loving, always looking out for Bella’s safety. At first glance he’s exactly what a girl would want from a guy (and honestly, who reading it was gonna give it more than a glance). Plus it has emotional moments that would interest the fairer sex. But you all know what Twilight is (and if you don’t, welcome to the internet, try to avoid tripping up over all the porn). So what do these two have in common?
Quite simply, I can’t claim that one is bad whilst simultaneously praising the other. Both are self-insert fiction, designed so that the reader can easily slip themselves into the role of the main character. Hell the lead of My Little Dashie doesn’t even have a name, he’s just a nameless Brony. He is in a situation exactly what I’m in. So is it all that ridiculous that I find the story so effective? Of course the story moves me so much. It is about me, or at least a version so close to me that it doesn’t matter. Of course I’ll tell people that this story is brilliant and wonderful and all that stuff. Of course I’ll tell people that don’t like or think they’re crap that they’re ‘wrong’ and ‘don’t get it’.
Which is exactly what fans of Twilight do. They defend the books because they can relate to Bella in way more then any other character. They feel that they can be Bella. Now does that mean I should hate Stephanie Myrer for managing to write some brilliantly specific escapist fiction? Do you know how hard that is to write? Every attempt I’ve made to write My Little Fluttershy is either a dead end (since I’m either just rewriting My Little Dashie, or I’m not capable of writing the voice of a female teenager in the first perspective). It’s really, really hard to write escapist fiction. Hence why I really do admire her. To make something that’s so easy to slip your personality into takes a lot of work. Now some see this as a criticism about her writing style. I think it’s one of her greatest strengths. Writing in the third person is, in my mind, far easier then writing in the first person. At least over the terms of a full novel, since you have to keep the character really consistent. So writing something that is both existent and non-existent is a skill worth applauding.
So there you have it. Perhaps the only defence for Twilight you’ll ever see on the internet. I can’t hate it and love My Little Dashie since they are so similar it would be pretty disingenuous. If you disagree with anything, or have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment. Till next time.
