Not In My Vampire YA Novels, You Don't
Jun. 12th, 2008 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sadlikeknivesSo, there’s this series! You may have heard of it. Cedric from Harry Potter is starring in the movie.
Yes. I’m going to talk about Twilight. God help us all.
You see, Twilight is vampire emoporn for the new tween generation, and I do owe Twilight (hell, I even liked the first book), because it got the publisher to reprint Night World, the vampire emoporn of my generation, and lean on its author to finally finish the last book in the series. Holla. The first Night World omnibus, containing the first three books in the series (Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Spellbound) came out just recently, with two more to follow before Strange Fate finally sees the light of day after like ten damn years. We hope. I lost my original copies of these books when my house burned, and by then they weren’t readily available any more, so I never got to replace them. So I ate the first omnibus up with a spoon. I love these books like I love cake and pie and ice cream, omg. My tweenhood.
Twilight, in comparison to Night World, does not come off well. Oh, sure, Night World has Ash Redfern of the ridiculous color-changing eyes, but on the other hand, Night World has Ash Redfern of the ridiculous color-changing eyes. Come on, people. Behold the man who inspired a generation of Sues. Also, at least he does not sparkle. Although the soulmate principle was big, but it was the nineties, everyone had soulmates. And they even acknowledged that sometimes people do not stay with their soulmate because whoa intense. It's too much for some people to handle.
Night World also has way stronger women than Twilight. Consider, for example, the scene from Eclipse where Edward breaks Bella’s car to keep her from visiting Jacob. Bella, if I recall correctly, pitched a fit but decided there was nothing she could do about it and hey, Edward was just trying to keep her safe...
So annoying.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
teleute12 and I were talking about how that would have played if one replaced Edward and Bella with certain of the couples from the Night World books.
Secret Vampire: Poppy and James. Poppy would’ve sworn and thrown things at James, then either called her twin brother for a ride (while in the car, they would commiserate about how much James sucks) or run off to Vegas with the guy James was trying to keep her away from. Maybe both.
Daughters of Darkness: Mary-Lynnette and Ash. Assuming Ash managed to actually break the car and not just, I don’t know, make the radio stop working, Mary-Lynnette would kick him in the shins, then walk to her destination while reflecting on how much this soulmate thing sucks.
Enchantress: Thea and Eric. Eric wouldn’t do this, because Eric really does know better, but assuming somehow things reached this point, first Thea would set Eric’s militantly feminist sister on him, then her slightly-scary slightly-dark-witch double first cousin. She would also borrow her double first cousin’s flavor of the week’s fancy car to get to her destination. Then Thea would realize that Eric was just having An Episode and forgive him. Eventually. After he’d learned his lesson.
Dark Angel: Gillian and David. Yeah, I really don’t remember this book. I think there was a ghost. So I askedteleute12!
teleute12: Gillian gets yanked around by a ghost for three-quarters of the book.
teleute12: But the overall message is that this is not okay and her real soulmate would not do that.
vampychick: So she would be deeply unpleased?
teleute12: Yeah, she would.
The Chosen: Rashel and Quinn. Quinn might actually try it, because he can be a little dumb that way sometimes. But Rashel would make Quinn wish he’d never been born in myriad and interesting ways (do not anger your vampire hunter girlfriend if you are in fact a vampire), assuming she didn’t just knock him out cold. Then she would fix her car herself before proceeding to make his life hell for the next, oh, however long it takes for him to promise to never do that again.
Soulmate: Hannah and Thierry. Of all the soulmate sets, I can most see Thierry doing this. Thierry's like thousands and thousands of years old and his ex has been killing his soulmate every time she reincarnated the whole time, so he's kind of twitchy about her safety. I think he ordered Hannah kept in the house For Her Own Good at one point, so, yeah, something he might try. So I figure she’d do what she did then and sneak out to go do her own thing, and he can get bent.
Huntress: Jezebel and Morgead. Jez would beat the hell out of Morgead, fix her motorcycle, and go on her merry way. She and Rashel would get along well that way.
Black Dawn: Maggie and Delos. He’s like the prince of Vampire Medieval Disneyland or something, so he couldn’t break her car anyway. Probably she laughs in the face of his attempts to break her car, hands him a book on feminism so he can get a clue about how we do things in the twenty-first century, and goes on her merry way.
Witchlight: Keller and Galen. Galen wouldn’t do that, either, but like Eric let’s assume things have gotten to that point somehow. Keller would smack sense into him, then borrow someone else’s car (or walk) and call the rest of her special ops crew to laugh at what her guy thought he could do, isn’t that cute in a way that’s not really?
So, yeah. In conclusion, not a one of ‘em would have taken it lying down, and in further conclusion, eat it and grow a spine, Bella Swan.
Yes. I’m going to talk about Twilight. God help us all.
You see, Twilight is vampire emoporn for the new tween generation, and I do owe Twilight (hell, I even liked the first book), because it got the publisher to reprint Night World, the vampire emoporn of my generation, and lean on its author to finally finish the last book in the series. Holla. The first Night World omnibus, containing the first three books in the series (Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Spellbound) came out just recently, with two more to follow before Strange Fate finally sees the light of day after like ten damn years. We hope. I lost my original copies of these books when my house burned, and by then they weren’t readily available any more, so I never got to replace them. So I ate the first omnibus up with a spoon. I love these books like I love cake and pie and ice cream, omg. My tweenhood.
Twilight, in comparison to Night World, does not come off well. Oh, sure, Night World has Ash Redfern of the ridiculous color-changing eyes, but on the other hand, Night World has Ash Redfern of the ridiculous color-changing eyes. Come on, people. Behold the man who inspired a generation of Sues. Also, at least he does not sparkle. Although the soulmate principle was big, but it was the nineties, everyone had soulmates. And they even acknowledged that sometimes people do not stay with their soulmate because whoa intense. It's too much for some people to handle.
Night World also has way stronger women than Twilight. Consider, for example, the scene from Eclipse where Edward breaks Bella’s car to keep her from visiting Jacob. Bella, if I recall correctly, pitched a fit but decided there was nothing she could do about it and hey, Edward was just trying to keep her safe...
So annoying.
teleute12 and I were talking about how that would have played if one replaced Edward and Bella with certain of the couples from the Night World books.Secret Vampire: Poppy and James. Poppy would’ve sworn and thrown things at James, then either called her twin brother for a ride (while in the car, they would commiserate about how much James sucks) or run off to Vegas with the guy James was trying to keep her away from. Maybe both.
Daughters of Darkness: Mary-Lynnette and Ash. Assuming Ash managed to actually break the car and not just, I don’t know, make the radio stop working, Mary-Lynnette would kick him in the shins, then walk to her destination while reflecting on how much this soulmate thing sucks.
Enchantress: Thea and Eric. Eric wouldn’t do this, because Eric really does know better, but assuming somehow things reached this point, first Thea would set Eric’s militantly feminist sister on him, then her slightly-scary slightly-dark-witch double first cousin. She would also borrow her double first cousin’s flavor of the week’s fancy car to get to her destination. Then Thea would realize that Eric was just having An Episode and forgive him. Eventually. After he’d learned his lesson.
Dark Angel: Gillian and David. Yeah, I really don’t remember this book. I think there was a ghost. So I asked
teleute12!teleute12: Gillian gets yanked around by a ghost for three-quarters of the book.teleute12: But the overall message is that this is not okay and her real soulmate would not do that.vampychick: So she would be deeply unpleased?teleute12: Yeah, she would.The Chosen: Rashel and Quinn. Quinn might actually try it, because he can be a little dumb that way sometimes. But Rashel would make Quinn wish he’d never been born in myriad and interesting ways (do not anger your vampire hunter girlfriend if you are in fact a vampire), assuming she didn’t just knock him out cold. Then she would fix her car herself before proceeding to make his life hell for the next, oh, however long it takes for him to promise to never do that again.
Soulmate: Hannah and Thierry. Of all the soulmate sets, I can most see Thierry doing this. Thierry's like thousands and thousands of years old and his ex has been killing his soulmate every time she reincarnated the whole time, so he's kind of twitchy about her safety. I think he ordered Hannah kept in the house For Her Own Good at one point, so, yeah, something he might try. So I figure she’d do what she did then and sneak out to go do her own thing, and he can get bent.
Huntress: Jezebel and Morgead. Jez would beat the hell out of Morgead, fix her motorcycle, and go on her merry way. She and Rashel would get along well that way.
Black Dawn: Maggie and Delos. He’s like the prince of Vampire Medieval Disneyland or something, so he couldn’t break her car anyway. Probably she laughs in the face of his attempts to break her car, hands him a book on feminism so he can get a clue about how we do things in the twenty-first century, and goes on her merry way.
Witchlight: Keller and Galen. Galen wouldn’t do that, either, but like Eric let’s assume things have gotten to that point somehow. Keller would smack sense into him, then borrow someone else’s car (or walk) and call the rest of her special ops crew to laugh at what her guy thought he could do, isn’t that cute in a way that’s not really?
So, yeah. In conclusion, not a one of ‘em would have taken it lying down, and in further conclusion, eat it and grow a spine, Bella Swan.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-06-12 12:37 pm (UTC)*cheers*
WORD.
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Date: 2008-06-12 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-13 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-13 02:06 am (UTC)And fire? Damn. Sorry to hear it even if this is a zillion years afterward.
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Date: 2008-06-13 02:29 am (UTC)I was in high school when it happened, so, well before I met you. I don't think I even had an LJ then. It still sucked though.
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Date: 2008-06-13 02:32 am (UTC)*nods* I feel the need to give you a belated roll of caution tape as if it were imbued with protective powers to keep such things away.
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Date: 2008-08-07 09:10 am (UTC)I love your description of Delos as the prince of Vampire Medieval Disneyland, by the way.
Anyways, so like, when did the whole mood ring eyes come about anyways? I wasn't really old enough to understand about fanfiction when I was that young, but were Ash's magical color-changing eyes (which were like, a random throwback through the Redfern line, IIRC, so they're rare but not ONLY ONE EVER) before the Sues with color eyes came about?
It's not really bad unless you do it after it becomes cliche. :3
Though, I have to point out, I think Elena might sit down and take it if Stefan fucked with her car. He's just stupid enough to do it, though it probably wouldn't actually keep her safe from Damon. Then again, I didn't like Elena much in the VD series, and I think it's the one most like the Twilight series.
I still really like the idea of the soulmate principle, too. I think that's because it's been fleshed out a lot in fanfiction, but even then...
At the end of the book, Mary-Lynnette basically tells Ash to fuck off after they fall in love, and not to come back until he's made up for all the dumbassed things he's done.
Oh oh oh, and don't forget, uh... Jade and someone, I think. Ash's sister and Mary-Lynnette's brother (yeah, that's weird). Except that Jade's the vampire and would probably just laugh if her soulmate did something that stupid, and borrow someone else's car or mind whammy a ride from a human.
Well, she's actually pretty nice; if she didn't do that, she'd probably just have a long talk with him about why he's upset, and convince him to fix the car and drive her where she wants to go.
I really don't understand why SMeyer had to make Bella (THE NARRATOR) such an unlikable character. :( (Also, I love talking about the NW series. :3)
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Date: 2008-08-07 09:25 am (UTC)But now they're reprinted and a new generation is reading them--I saw tons of girls sitting around with Vampire Diaries and the first Night World rerelease at the Breaking Dawn release party I lurked at--but they're not new. There are people out there who already know what happens, so there's not going to be a big whipped-up frenzy. In fact a lot of girls are probably realizing, "Wait, this was released ten years ago and the last book never came out? WTF?" Also the episodic nature of the Night World books might contribute there; we don't stick with the Epic Love of Poppy and James for forever like in Twilight. The story moves on.
I don't know when Sues with color changing eyes came about, honestly. I didn't really get online until at least a few years after I read the Night World books, and by that point it was already happening. I really want to say it rose to prominence with Harry Potter fandom, where so many of the Sues there have ~*~special magical features~*~. I can, however, state with certainty that the Redferns of Night World are the only time I have seen the concept in published fiction.
VD is, I think, quite like Twilight in some respects--at least, Elena has the least agency of any of Smith's heroines. But VD, as I said in one of my comments over at FW, is not afraid to bring the creepy, and that really sets it apart from Twilight.
I left Jade off because she's not the main focus of the book. Also because Mark isn't actually her soulmate. :D He's just the guy she's in love with. Which I think is pretty awesome, that not everybody in the series is fated.
I, too, love discussing Night World, and am currently in the middle of trying to write a final paper for a summer class, so I welcome any and all distractions!
PS it was totally Vampire Medieval Disneyland.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-07 07:49 pm (UTC)Seriously, I was like, in 4th grade when it came out/was new (the popular 6th graders like it, so I read it, which is how I got into it), and it was hands-down the first book series I fell in love with. Because when you're a tween or whatever, it's just all so new and fresh and cool. It was supernatural romance before supernatural romance became a genre (for tweens, at least).
I really liked the episodic nature of the NW series--after the girl gets the guy, there's very little left to do in a romance novel; other plots are mostly secondary (even that badass "blowing up an enclave or whatever it was" thing Rashel did or whatever). And then the universe stuck around, and the previous main characters made cameos in the other books, and all that cool stuff.
I haven't been to a bookstore in a while, but I'm seriously so very happy that girls are getting back into the republished LJS books; and they're even going to be peeping into an established fandom, too! That's got to be cool.
PS: It totally was. It's hilarious and kinda awesome. Does this make the enclaves like, vampire Six Flagses?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-07 05:08 pm (UTC)ANYWAY
IAWTP
Having reread all these not long since (Mid-twenties and I still like them!), then seeing all the twilight drama, you captured it all perfectly!
Have to say, I like Ash and Mary-Lynette's relationship even more now. (And again after I saw the short story of them on the site.)
Anyway, this post is win and I shall memory it! :D