Both“Twilight” and “Harry Potter,” two very talked-about and popular cultural phenomena, have captured the attention and imagination of a wide audience of different ages, but while “Harry Potter” has established an avid following among all ages and genders, “Twilight” has created an exclusive audience of devoted females while alienating the befuddled males. So I thought, what better way to bring them together other than setting them side-by-side and delving into exactly what makes these stories so alluring for their respective audiences?
Here is a very biased comparison of the driving forces behind “Twilight” and “Harry Potter.” Screw Team Jacob and Team Edward. GRYFFINDOR 4 LYFE!
Romance
There are many budding romances in the “Harry Potter” series, even though they don’t bloom until the last few books. Although Hermione and Ron’s relationship is expressed realistically and convincingly, she drops hints, he doesn’t pick them up, and the main relationship with Harry and Ginny just felt incomplete. We never get to see Ginny fully grow up and, to me, she always felt like Ron’s little sister and her character never developed passed that. It felt like her and Harry’s relationship was just pushed together like a last-minute hook up.
Whereas in “Twilight,” the author perfectly captures the awkward and insecure feelings of a teenager in Bella as she falls in love with the best-looking guy in school, personified by Edward, while avoiding the bad boy that is Jacob the werewolf. The author even goes as far as to paint Edward as a creepy manipulating stalker, that some of these too good to be true popular boys end up being. I don’t think that was intentional, but a spade’s a spade and a future sex offender is a future sex offender.
WINNER: Twilight. (Sigh.)
Re-inventing the myths
Most fantasy stories usually just throw wizards into situations to mix things up, their myths and back stories aren’t usually explored. Everyone sees a wizard and assumes he knows how to do some really awesome stuff, but Harry Potter provides us with that and then some. Author J. K. Rowling used the prep school formula with magic to bring wizarding close to the high school and collegiate experience. Soon-to-be wizards in “Harry Potter” have the same problems with studying, strict teachers, sports and girls that we all experience sometime in our lives. There is even a wizarding body, a banking system and the list goes on and on. Rowling takes full advantage of this uncharted territory and pushes it to the limits.
The reinvention of vampires in “Twighlight” is best described, as, pubescent female soft-core pornography and I’m not talking about sensitive vampires (actually a nice touch), but other things. The vampires are not just seen as sex gods — which is the norm — but extremely boring; there’s nothing exciting about them and definitely no sense of danger as we’re use to seeing. All they do is look pretty, chase you and if they are up to it, nibble you a little. Oh yeah, when in direct sunlight, their muscular bodies glitter like toned disco balls that 12-to-70-year-old women can oogle at. This is so over the top that even Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust phase would think it’s a little too much.
Yeah, “Twilight” has the ancient vampire sect, The Volturi, that basically controls other vampires and the books also have werewolves that have a shaky truce with vampires, but who cares. Netflix “Underworld.” Next!
WINNER: Harry Potter
The main characters
The problem I and numerous other people have with Bella Swan is that she, like the vampires, is extremely boring. I get that looking at sexy vampires is nice. In high school, one can feel insecure and intimidated among peers, and having divorced parents is really heartbreaking, but doesn’t she have any other feelings? Stephanie Meyer, the author, doesn’t even give us a good description of Bella, she just focuses on describing Edward as a “Super Saiyan Jesus,” that would do anything for Bella. Cute, but I want to know about Bella. Give me more Bella!
Harry Potter is his own man, or boy. Fans might see a little bit of themselves in Harry, but they never are Harry just peering at the world of Hogwarts and pining over Cho Chang. We not only feel Harry’s sense of longing for a father figure in Sirius Black and Dumbledore, but the sense of urgency and courage as he protects his friends or fights Dementors. Harry has his own demons to deal with, but none close to Harry’s.
WINNER: P-O-T-T-E-R! POTTER!
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greggypetty 1 year, 10 months ago
"...she just focuses on describing Edward as a “Super Saiyan Jesus,” that would do anything for Bella." Haha! I love that part, I'm a pretty big fan of DBZ. As horrible as it is that they are referencing DBZ in relation to Twilight, its still dang funny :P
And I agree with every point up there, except for Twilight winning the "Romance" part. I don't find it convincing at all. Just incredibly over-descriptive and boring. It's all "too good to be true" and stuff like that. Harry Potter, as mentioned with Hermoine and Ron, is realistic, and the character development of the two independently and their relationship over the course of 7 books is amazing. And on a side not, I can't wait to see the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie