By Rose Cohen ’22 & Emma Watkins ’23
A&E Editor | Copy Chief & A&E Editor
When the creators of the “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” posters wrote the tagline, “The Epic Finale That Will Live Forever,” it seems as if they were anticipating the thriving fan culture that the franchise would retain almost a decade after its final installment first premiered in movie theaters.
The Twilight Saga refers to a series of five vampire romance films, all of which are based on American novelist Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling books of the same name. Although “Breaking Dawn,” the last installment of the Saga, first premiered in theaters in 2012, in the past couple of years, fans have flocked back to the series with the excitement reminiscent of seeing an eagerly anticipated midnight premiere. Book Riot defined this cultural phenomenon, often called “The Twilight Renaissance,” as a period where people are “once again making fan art, sharing memes and discussing the series’ impact after a dip in popularity during the mid-2010s.”
The movies revolve around the romantic relationship between the demure, socially awkward Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a 17-year-old girl living in the mysterious and cloudy town of Forks, Washington, and her boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a suave vampire from a large, strange family. The series’ love triangle emerges when Bella reconnects with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a childhood friend from when she lived in Forks before her parents’ divorce — and a werewolf. Throughout the series, the love triangle serves as a major plot line, inspiring fans to don “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” merchandise. Throughout the country, it was often unsurprising to hear debates regarding the trio; so much so, that, in 2010, Psychology Today published a blog post about the discourse regarding “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob.”
Due to its presumed audience of teenage girls, the Twilight Saga was not expected to be a high-earning franchise when it hit theaters. As reported by Variety in 2018, when speaking at a special 10th anniversary New York Comic Con panel for the Saga, Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first movie, stated, “It was a modest budget because everybody thought, hey, a movie for women is only going to make like what ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ made — $29 million.” As of Jan. 2018, “Twilight” had reached a box office gross of $393.6 million worldwide, according to Statista. Following that trend, the films are still successful today; after the Saga was made available to stream on Netflix this past July, Collider reported that the films constituted half of Netflix’s Top 10 list, less than a week after they appeared on the streaming platform.
Toward the beginning of Sept. 2020, when the fall semester first started, Laura Dutilloy ’22 was searching for comfort as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, so they turned to the Twilight Saga, a series they previously had not cared much about. After 48 hours, they had watched all five of the “Twilight” movies. “They are very much the definition of consumable media,” Dutilloy said. “Kind of like a Marvel movie or a lot of Disney movies … it’s not difficult to understand, but there’s still heart and there’s still joy that you get from it,” they explained. As a new fan, Dutilloy belongs to the Twilight Renaissance, but grew up in what they called the “anti-Twilight crowd.” They explained that everyone in their life, namely their older brother, thought of the novel as a “scandal to literature” and “the worst thing to come out of media.” But they said the pandemic provided a unique setting for consuming so-called “cringe” media, allowing viewers to simply enjoy the franchise without worrying about others’ opinions.
Unlike Dutilloy, Nicolette McGrath FP ’24 first watched and became a fan of the Saga long before the Twilight Renaissance began. “My stepmother loved them, and she kept pushing and pushing like ‘let’s watch it’; I’d be like ‘no’ and she’d be like ‘let’s watch it’ and I’d be like ‘go away…’” McGrath said. Eventually, she gave in, watched the first film, and then decided to see the rest of the Saga. She enjoyed seeing herself in Bella, who she described as “normal … but eventually finds her superpower.” McGrath compared Bella’s journey into selfhood to her experience as a Frances Perkins Scholar, stating, “I kind of feel like that’s me being you know, an FP and doing what I do every day.”
Like McGrath, Anna Sophie Tinneny ’23, who considers herself a “pop culture fiend,” had been a longtime fan of the Saga. “I first read ‘Twilight’ when I was in fourth or fifth grade,” Tinneny said. “I got a Kindle for Christmas, and I texted my mom, ‘It’s time for me to download ‘Twilight’ and read it,’ so I did.” Tinneny, who saw the last two films of the series at the movie theater with her family, recalled viewers screaming when Jacob took off his shirt for the first time to bare his sculpted six pack.
Though several Mount Holyoke students found the movies comforting, those same individuals also recognized the films are not without fault, citing the appropriative and exploitative treatment of the Quileute tribe, located in La Push, Washington, and Jasper Hale’s (Jackson Rathbone) role as a former Confederate soldier.
Jacob and his family are written as members of the Quileute tribe, but the stories Meyer wrote for them, and passed off as tribal legends, would be virtually unrecognizable to actual Quileute people. In one scene from “Eclipse,” the third installment of the series, Jacob invites Bella to, what he calls, a “council meeting.” At the council meeting, Jacob’s dad describes the tribe’s history to Bella and says, “The Quileutes have been a small tribe from the beginning. But we have always had magic in our blood. We were great spirit warriors, shapeshifters that transformed into the powerful wolf.” Without researching the actual origin story of the Quileute tribe, a newer fan could watch this scene and believe it as fact.
Discussing these problems with the franchise, Dutilloy said, “[It comes down to] who can look at ‘Twilight’ and vampire media as an escape, when [the movies] are dealing with people who are racist and commit acts of racism.”
As someone who had been a long-term fan, Tinneny explained that she came to understand some of the problems with the stories when she was a senior in high school.
“I read that the Quileute tribe is actually really struggling financially, and they didn’t really get compensation from the movies, or, I don’t think [Meyer] even got permission to use their names,” Tinneny said. “Nothing has been done retroactively to really address it, it didn’t sit right,” she elaborated.
Now, within the new context of the Twilight Renaissance, Dutilloy addressed a fear they’ve seen around the internet that some of the genuine critiques of the films would go unnoticed by new fans.
“People are being genuine about ‘Twilight’ again, but still not highlighting some of the criticisms,” Dutilloy said. “I think that has been the shift [with] ‘Twilight;’ people are no longer defending it as good media, but are like ‘this is bad, but … I’m enjoying having it.’ But some of the genuine critiques can get lost in the weeds,” they added.
Despite concerns that fans from the Twilight Renaissance may gloss over the more problematic aspects of the series, there is not universal ignorance. For a few years, the Quileute tribe has been trying to raise funds to move to higher ground due to the concern regarding tsunamis and floods in the region. In February 2021, a group of “Twilight” fans created and compiled art and information for “Higher Ground: A ‘Twilight’ Charity Zine.” According to the official Tumblr blog for the zine, it is full of paintings, fanfiction and other artwork from “Twilight” fans. The creators of the zine explained that all profits will be donated to the tribe’s effort to move to higher ground. This instance provides support for the idea that the new generation of “Twilight” fans will hold these stories to a higher standard, while still finding comfort within them.