Edward Cullen - Abusive Boyfriend (Eclipse SPOILERS)

Your opinion?

I knew it all along.	61.8%	[ 1576 ]
Good points, but I'm not convinced.	15.4%	[ 393 ]
You're wrong, and I will post my rebuttal.	11.5%	[ 293 ]
But it's True Love!	11.4%	[ 290 ]
Total Votes:			[ 2552 ]

[Yeata Zi]

HEE!

[Harry Copperfield Dresden]

Yeata Zi

HEE!

What?

[Harry Copperfield Dresden]

No he needs to be locked up. Pure and simple, for one thing how he talks about himself. "The monster inside me thirsts for her blood" this is VERY VERY VERY common for serial killers. They often talk about how there in someone, or something INSIDE of them that makes them want to kill. Makes them NEED to kill. Edward is obviously a serial killer. Plus, he has found the perfect victim, one that would just fawn over him no matter WHAT he does to her. It has to make him quite happy to have someone so utterly devoted to him. If this was written by Tomas Harris I have no doubt that would be such the case.
That he would torture Bella, but she would still love him completely. It would be Leagues better then anything Meyer can dish out for sure. If only because if you do it in Bella perspective every now and again and have her KNOW that what he is doing to her is bad, but she wants that immortality that he has. ((if you stuck to edward really being a vampire.)) So she refuses to leave him in the hopes he will change her, so she would suffer on and on until Eddykins deigns to change her. Even then he would have control over her, being that Edward would really like someone he could beat again and again and not worry about really killing her as long as he was careful. See that?
I can make Edward an utterly evil being with ONE twist of the hat. I do mean ONE. Taking away all that 'teenager mindset' is basically one thing. Angst. Take all that away and he would be a serial killer.

[Guma-chan]

melladen

I understand this thread, but the fact that you took it all into detail . . . even I haven't done that yet. I recently read the first few chapters of Midnight Sun, Stephanie Meyers's prequal to Twilight written from Edward's Point of View, and durring Bella's little "Meeting" with the "hoolagins (I couldn't resist) Edward contemplates killing them. He tries to think of a way to do it with out Bella noticing. He is murderously enraged, and doesn't realize that even a ballet dancer's grand getay could knock someone out. (Basically, a grand getay is a really high kick, just in a slower motion.) He laughs at the idea that Bella could do any harm, and even though she manages to almost-kill herself everyday, he DOES realize his presence only adds to that. Also, as he is driving Bella home and she is telling him where she found out the truth, he is thinking that he was allowed to slaughter the werewolves' village. I can't help but wonder the sadistic thoughts he's having durring their "Date" in his meadow. He DOES belong in therapy.

Okay, that's just insane.

And it's grand jete. It's french.

[RE04031965]

You know, This throws a lot of light on the pages... good points, now i have to go borrow the books from my friend.. lolz lol

[LunaticLOVEgood7]

Wow I like this post, I know I'm late but I am having a dilemma myself.
I read these books, thankfully when I was over the age of 15 and had some experience with love and relationships.
I have actually been in an abusive relationship and know quite well that though the guy had really bad effects on me he wasn't exactly "planning" it to be that way. My ex was just "stupid" or what ever you want to call it. He wasn't exactly mean and he still has a lot of friends and is generally considered to be a perfectly OK guy.
Except to the people who know what kind of effect he had on my mental state and his next girlfriend after me (who ironically is now one of my close friends). What I am trying to say by this is that Edward himself isn't exactly "a bad guy" he didn't go out to look for a relationship to abuse. But that does not cancel the effects that it has. And for Bella it would be in her best interest to just run away from him.
Apart from the abuse part what struck me as wrong about how the books portray "Love" is how it really does not act like love or a healthy relationship. It's more of an infatuation. Reading it I felt similar feelings as when I was 13 and completely infatuated by a guy in my class. I couldn't think of anything other than him and I was sure I was in love. I was wrong. This powerful sense of longing towards another person is incredibly unhealthy and dangerous. It sets the lines for relationships without communication. And relationships without communication set the lines for abusive relationships. The infatuated person is driven by longing to be with the other person and nothing is more important that that (in the subjects mind "love" wink if it comes to a relationship the two are not equals from the start because the infatuated will be likely to give in to most things their partner asks for so as not to loose that person.
I feel this is how Bella acts in Twilight and she never manages to get out of it. The worst thing is that when she falls in love with Jacob, which is a much healthier relationship where they have healthy communication, she says she cant be with him because she can't live without Edward.

Ok now lets set ourselves outside the picture of psychoanalyzing fictional characters and try to see the wider picture for a moment. These are very popular books and many preteens are reading these books. The books promote infatuation as love and take unhealthy relationships over healthy ones. I am afraid of the effect this can have on the readers of these books. It's not as if Hollywood isn't already making everything bad enough (a large number of divorces have been noted because people suddenly believe they might not have found "true love" which I do not believe in).

Now I have a problem. My sister is 12 years old and she has read the first book of the series and wants to keep going. What can I tell her to make her realize how bad of an influence this series can be?
Or are my fears un-rational and un-nessisary?

[Harry Copperfield Dresden]

LunaticLOVEgood7

I have actually been in an abusive relationship and know quite well that though the guy had really bad effects on me he wasn't exactly "planning" it to be that way. My ex was just "stupid" or what ever you want to call it. He wasn't exactly mean and he still has a lot of friends and is generally considered to be a perfectly OK guy.

You mean like how sometimes my sister tells me that I am retarded, or how a few times my father has yelled at me for asking a somewhat dumb question and saying "Shut up, you do not need to state/ask the obvious all the time." Just because he is not a bad father, he is a good dad, does not mean that it hurts. I shrug the pain away and just ignore it.
Also even if he was not PLANNING on having it hurt, it STILL hurts. And it still damages, what changes the fact is that I KNOW that he does not mean to be hurtful. Bella does not know that what is happening is hurtful and because of that she is stuck in a abusive relationship. It is because of that Bella can not change, and Edward can not either. It is knowing that what this person does to you is harmful that allows the both of you to change.
Do you get what I am saying? Edward may not 'plan' on being abusive, maybe...maybe he does not know that sometimes he takes things too far. And also that he demeans her far to much. It is because that he does not know and that Bella does not know, which means that she is stuck in bad place. If Bella knew that the things he says are abusive, and also the things he does are abusive we would not be really having so many things about how abusive he is. Because Bella KNOWS that he is, and therefore. All the little girls that read the books know it, and know actually what to look for.
It could make a great book that way. A sort of 'warning' or... that kind of book that are about things like that. ((Like the book about a girl getting her period and such.))

[LunaticLOVEgood7]

Lieriel Moon-Shade

Do you get what I am saying? Edward may not 'plan' on being abusive, maybe...maybe he does not know that sometimes he takes things too far. And also that he demeans her far to much. It is because that he does not know and that Bella does not know, which means that she is stuck in bad place. If Bella knew that the things he says are abusive, and also the things he does are abusive we would not be really having so many things about how abusive he is. Because Bella KNOWS that he is, and therefore. All the little girls that read the books know it, and know actually what to look for.
It could make a great book that way. A sort of 'warning' or... that kind of book that are about things like that. ((Like the book about a girl getting her period and such.))

I agree!
But Stephanie Meyer doesn't seem to understand that she is writing about such a poisonous environment! Teaching young girls (and boys for that matter) that this is alright and "normal". It frightens me..

[Aldorel]

Good point. Abusive people aren't always teh evuls. Sometimes they really don't understand what they're doing - especially with the sort of jealous, overprotective behavior that is often glamourized.

LunaticLOVEgood7

Now I have a problem. My sister is 12 years old and she has read the first book of the series and wants to keep going. What can I tell her to make her realize how bad of an influence this series can be?
Or are my fears un-rational and un-nessisary?

Do you think you and your sister would be able to talk about the parts of the books that are unhealthy? I wouldn't say you shouldn't be concerned about the kinds of messages she's picking up, or I wouldn't have written this essay. At the same time, it's not like you can forbid her from reading them (I assume...).

As for what, exactly to say to a 12-year old girl about safe relationships... I'll get back to you on that.