Twilight vs. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This is an blog post I wrote for my Writing and Rhetoric II class. I was about the differences between Buffy and Twilight. I don't really like it, as I barely scratched the suface of the topic and its written strangely. I don't what about it, but something really bothers me..... It's almost like I was trying to write an essay and failed miserably. I don't even know.

Here it is:

There are huge differences between these two works about vampires. They start with the main character and go all the way to the way that the lore is used. There is also a huge discrepancy between the quality of the writing.

I think that the biggest difference is the two main female characters. First, you have Buffy Summers who is a strong female character. She is the Slayer, the latest in a line of female warriors who fight demons, vampires and the forces of evil. She is a teenage girl, yes but she is the hero of the story. She makes sacrifices again and again to fight evil and in the end of season five she even gives her life to save the world. Although she fights it sometimes, saving the world and the safety of others always comes first. She is not a perfect character and she makes mistakes, but she always does her best to correct them. She has a sense of duty to the world that she cannot help, but fulfill. She has preternatural strength and speed and she is a talented fighter. She is small and blonde and gorgeous. She has a very tight knit group of friends, who are more like family than friends. Buffy is a witty character and has some issues with her destiny and becomes exponentially more complex as the series goes on.

Bella Swan is totally different. In fact, Bella and Buffy are complete opposites except for the fact that they both fall in love with broody vampires, more on that later. Bella Swan is never really physically described. She has dark hair and is pale. She feels out of place at Forks High School and is very clumsy. All of her life, she has been the responsible one in the relationship between her and her mom. She comes to Forks and takes care of her father doing all of the cooking. She is very good at school and for some reason all of the boys she meets seem to be attracted to her. Bella has very few defining traits. She is in fact, what is known in fanfiction circles as a Mary Sue. This means she is perfect character. Often, Mary Sues are the author inserting herself into the story with only shallow flaws, such as being clumsy. They are also used as a way for the readers to put themselves directly into the story. Bella has few friends and even fewer close ones. In fact, she spends the majority of her time with the family of her boyfriend.

As far as the vampiric counterparts to our females, we have Angel and Edward. Angel is around 245 years old and was originally from Ireland and his name was Liam. A vampire named Darla transformed him and together they terrorized the world for a hundred years. Around 100 years before the show, he was killed a Romani gypsy girl and was punished by her clan. As punishment, they restored his soul. He had done all of these unspeakable things and now he had a conscience. He left Darla and struck out on his own. He started to fight for good, against the other vampires. He first appears in the pilot of Buffy and gives Buffy some vague help. He comes back several times with the vague warnings. Buffy has feelings for him and he tries to avoid that for a while by showing up as little as possible. Angel is a noble character trying to make up for his past sins. He fights against his relationship with Buffy, because he knows that it is bad for her. At one point, he actually looses his soul, reverting back to his evil self (Angelus) and Buffy actually has to kill him. Her duty is more powerful than her love. He comes back and they actually continue their relationship, until he leaves for good. He leaves, because it will be better for Buffy that way. He wants her to move on and live her life. He cares enough about her to leave and she is strong enough to move on, as is he. They continue on with their lives and date others and Angel even has a kid. Yet they are still in love the entire time.

Edward Cullen is 109 years old. He was born Edward Masen. He was in the hospital dying of Spanish Influenza, when Carlisle changed him into a vampire. He lived with the Cullen family for most of his existence. He was a “vegetarian” from the moment he was created, with that exception of a decade where he ate only the evil people. He doesn’t eat humans, because he chooses not to. He is a very old fashioned person and he doesn’t believe that he has a soul. He actually exhibits some stalker and controlling behavior, although Bella is the only human who knows she never comments. He watches her sleep and doesn’t like it when she is away from him. He thinks that he is the only person who can keep her safe. Edward can hear people’s thoughts, everyone but Bella’s. The Bella/Edward relationship is not one of equals. He is older and has more knowledge. He is also stronger and faster. He controls her a lot. It is actually a traditional relationship with a subservient woman. When Edward leaves Bella, she falls apart to the point where she stops functioning and he also has difficulty functioning normally. Their relationship is not a healthy one, but after a token effort from Edward in the first book, neither makes any effort to leave. Although Edward leaves entirely in New Moon, neither really moves on. Bella spends the entire time trying to remember him using adrenaline and Edward tries to pretend no one exists, but when he thinks that Bella is dead, he tries to kill himself.

These two works have completely different messages and themes at the core. Buffy has so much depth to it, but one of its many facets is the power of the feminine. Buffy is a strong woman, as are most of the other female characters. Strong in mystical ways, but strong nonetheless. Buffy, Willow, Tara, Joyce, Jenny, etc. also possess an incredible inner strength and moral compass. Their moral compasses don’t always point true north, but they fight the good fight to their death (and Buffy dies several times). Twilight is very much a product of Stephenie Meyer’s Latter Day Saint background. Twilight is very much about abstaining until marriage and a woman’s place in a relationship. It certainly isn’t the healthiest relationship example to be giving kids. Bella is the protected and Edward the protector.

I have definitely boiled this down to the simplest it can be and I have barely scratched the surface of this issue. There are so many more components and even more things that differ. I am sure that this will offend someone and for that I apologize. I do know that both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Twilight Saga are about more than I mentioned here. Although it may not seem like it I did read and enjoy the Twilight Saga. I just think that there are also a lot of issues with it both thematically and in the way it’s written.

I do believe Buffy is the better creative endeavor.