Let’s be very honest: “Twilight” is campy, ridiculous, and even downright problematic at points. Bella Swan — in both the books and movies — is a bit of an empty vessel who could be regarded as a stand-in for audience members who want to start up a relationship with a pale, sparkly weirdo who glares at her before saving her life and declaring his undying love. Edward is over a century old when he meets Bella, who is a teenager, so that age difference could certainly be perceived as, well, bad.
The entire series could very well be perceived as a conservative allegory regarding pre-marital sex since Bella constantly begs Edward to turn her into a vampire, and he refuses, explaining that they can only even consider the possibility once they’re married. They do so as soon as they graduate from high school, and Bella immediately becomes pregnant after having sex for the very first time. After their half-human, half-vampire baby is born, Bella’s best friend Jacob Black, played on-screen by Taylor Lautner, forms a very strange connection with said baby, which is referred to in-universe as “imprinting” (an attachment formed between a werewolf and the object of their affection that cannot be broken).
Putting those things aside, “Twilight” is, at a baseline level, a heightened and campy fantasy directed at young women who, up until that point, didn’t necessarily have a mainstream piece of pop culture that served as fun wish fulfillment. Still, fans and critics have tried to figure out why “Twilight,” a somewhat silly and ultimately harmless franchise, is so despised.
