Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I don't know your stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I Never told you Protection by Heart Radio, and today
we are bringing back our classic on the first Twilight movie.
Because if you don't know, they're coming out in theaters,
(00:30):
I've gotten some advertisements for them.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I've been saying we need to bring Joey down and
all of us go as a crew.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm just saying I co signed this idea.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
We have the part one in part two of the
last film to watch. We're trying to get it to
work out where we can do it with super producer
Christina and contributor Joey. I think it would be hilarious.
I think we all would come at it from different angles.
I'm really excited. I've heard something and.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I should be.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You should be.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
I'm very excited.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I like how you said that kind of threateningly because
I feel like that's the vibe. I think that's about right.
Uh So we are working in that. We have not
forgotten about it. But while we wait for that to happen,
please enjoy this classic episode.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
To Stephan Never Told You production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
And I am back in full forth ready to entertain everyone,
including you, Anie, because I feel like we have such
different perspectives about what we're about to talk about, and
I just excited that we decided to do this. Yes,
we are doing a feminist movie, and this movie is
(02:04):
a beloved tale that started off as fan fiction, and
I know we've talked about it many times. Yes, we
were talking about the two thousand and eight adaptation of Twilight.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Yes, so it is.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
We didn't have time to do our usual book club
or our usual feminist movie Friday this month, so we're
combining the two kind of kind of. But also I
do have an update on that fan fiction piece that
I need to talk about in the middle.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yes, okay, okay, Well, I know we've talked about it before.
I came in late to the game of Twilight. I
think I came in before. No, no, no, All the
books had been released by the time I had come in,
but I think the last one, which is Breaking Dawn,
because we know all the titles are something to do
(02:55):
with like horizons, but like that was still a hardback
and I had to buy it in hardback. But I
read Twilight and then I got englfed in it. I
was like, oh, and it was so easy to read,
so I went in read it one hundred and twenty
thousand percent. My roommate was making fun of me and
her boyfriend, as I should at that time, because it
(03:19):
was not for my age. I was out of college
at this point, a professional living in Atlanta, and this
was geared towards college high school students. Essentially a young
young adult novel written by an adult that had a
lot of repressed feelings. Sure, Jehany Meyer who blabe is
Mormon and had a lot of pent up emotion and
(03:40):
was kind of like, but I got to make Harry
Potter sexier but not too sexy.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Right, which I guess brings me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Okay, okay, first let me talk about my experience. So
I want to be very very clear while I might
make some fun while we do this. I totally get
why this was so popular. I think that when it
came out, I just really I wasn't into romance, and
(04:16):
I also was like, but I could just read this
fan fiction that I like more, so I never got
into it. I did go see the movie in college,
and I've told you this story, and I just watched
the movie again and I laughed very hard again at
the same part where they're in the class the bioclass
(04:40):
and Bella comes in and the fan catches her hair
and it blows and the scent blows towards Edward, I guess,
and he's.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Like, oh on the paper like.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Blows up and I died laughing in the theater, and
these like fourteen year olds behind me, I am not kidding,
threatened to t take me out to the.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Alley and beat me up.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Are these fourteen year olds don't even know what an
alley is, likes dated.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
They were like, we'll go outside right.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Now, cash outside. Did they say this to you?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I don't think that was a thing yet, but essentially
that was the vibe, and I didn't mean to make
fun and I'm honestly rewatching it. I'm like, I'm not
even sure it wasn't supposed to be kind of funny
because it was very humorous.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Right, So the entire thing, I think it has become
a cult classic into that is now funnier than it
should have been. My cringe scene was a sparkle scene. Yeah,
and then the of course spider Monkey scene, which, by
the way, I realized there was like themed where they
just called each other monkeys for some reason. So he says,
(05:49):
hang on tight, spider monkey, which is which is not
a part of the book. And everybody was like, what
what just happened? And then there's a second where they
put when they played the baseball and she and he
climbs up the tree to get the baseball. Essentially, Rosalie says,
that's my monkey.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Man.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I was like, what the what? So, uh, yeah, we
were providing too quickly into this of course, if you
don't know, I feel like this is because it was
again I was a little older so and he would
have been your generation, I think, more so than my
generation of people who loved it. But don't get me wrong,
(06:28):
we were again if you lived the life like mine,
which was very churchish conservative, this book was amazing because
you could have the things without having the things, and
you understood why these things played out as it did
because this Mormon girl understood sexuality for repressed sexuality for
(06:49):
young girls in the church. So this was absolutely that
and many of us because I got my friends into
it too because they saw the movie, which is hilarious
because I thought if they saw the movie, they wouldn't
want to read the book. Because the movie, even at
that point, was not great to me, but I still
loved it, don't get me wrong, but it was it
(07:11):
would catch on and I have copies of it here
and I cannot find them, so I had to rent
it anyway. But before we start, yes, let's let's talk
about the movie. This is written by Stephanie Meyer, again
fan fiction of Harry Potter, though she doesn't like fan
fiction version of her stories, which is interesting in itself.
She gives a lot of credit to the music, which
my partner was sitting or like, was around the living
(07:33):
room when I was watching this today and he was like,
wait is that Radiohead? And I was like, the soundtrack
is bombed, like for some reason. He's like, Radiohead never
gets permission, and they gave permission for this movie, and
I was like, I'm pretty sure they all thought this
was like an indie film and they went with it
because the director, Catherine Hardwick, was actually known for a
(07:56):
lot of her indie films. It has Evan ray Wood
as her first movie, as well as Nicky Reid, who
we see play Rosalie in Twilight. So it's about these
two young girls coming of age and really like their
angstiness and growing up and it actually was a really
good film. I think it's a great film, and it
(08:19):
hit a lot of like the rebellion of trying to
grow up too quickly and being cool and what that
could look like and how scary it could be and
how confusing it could be. It also sexualized Evan rachel
Wood at a very early age, and I believe she
was almost she was thirteen fourteen. She was pretty young
at that point. So a lot of things with Catherine
Hardwick made herself a name in that kind of alternative
(08:41):
indie film with that because it won awards, and I
believe Nicky Reid helped write that screenplay at that young age. Yeah,
so NICKI read also had some cred in this point.
So I really think that a lot of the musicians
were like really honored, kind of like thinking this is
going to be an indie film. That's again this is
(09:02):
my theory only because I'm like, how did she get
Lincoln Park? Who? Still get me wrong? They were kind
of kitchy at that point, but still pretty hardcore for
a movie like this, Iron and Wine and all these
different songs and you're like how and again, Radiohead, they
are ridiculously picky about not giving any rights, and there
(09:22):
they are in Twilight for teens. Okay, but yeah, like this,
I'm I'm holding to the fact that, yes, this was
intended as like an indie look into this movie. This
was Catherine Hardwick's big jump into the mainstream. Summit was
not a big studio at that point in time. They
(09:43):
were making a name for themselves, but they were more
indie ish at that point in time, so kind of
the more commercialized a twenty four let's say, for today
or Bloomhouse. The Blumhouse. I guess Blumhouse was more horror,
but you get what I'm saying. They were the smaller
that grew bigger with some street cred. So here we
got this whole idea. And again, Katherine Hardwick, if you've
(10:07):
ever seen her in interviews, she does look punk. She
dresses to the like leans to the side of punk.
Which is also why I think the movie's all in
like the green real like dark mode. Again, very Andy,
Phil and I think this is why you have Kristin
Stewart jumping in, who had just come off of her
big hit Into the Wild, which is that movie about
(10:29):
the dude who gets lost in Alaska. Unfortunately, eats the
wrong things, passes away. But this is how he got
introduced to Kristin Stewart. This kind of guy gave her
a name. Even though she'd been in many, many movies before.
She'd been in the movies with Jodie Foster like she
was a huge child actor that no one really knew. So,
but this really pushed her into the Oh look at
her angsty teen and this is why she got cast.
(10:52):
She was always intended to play Bella or Isabella Swan,
who is our protagonist, who is our pixie manic girl.
She would be exactly what we talk about, who is
clumsy but cute. Everybody wants her, everybody likes her somehow,
good at everything but bad at everything, like all of
these things.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
This is like when I talk about this is this
is what it is.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Maybe she's the beginning.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
No, no, I know what the beginning is.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
It's the beginning.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
It's a fan fiction. It's famous. But but I do
want to I say that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
As you know, I'm very I don't think there's anything
wrong with a good marry Sue. I think there's plenty
of things to enjoy about a good Mary Sue. So
I think it's worth examining the tropes, but also like
I get it's fun yirl.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
She is that girl. So we have Kristin Stewart being
this and always being this. Later we find Robert Pattinson, who, yes,
who hates this role. I think he started started to
(12:05):
come back and embrace it, but hates this role now
And the only reason he did it was because of
Kristin Stewart. If you listened to his interviews, he'd always
talked about how he was about to quit until he
got this role, that their chemistry was too good, and
we saw that in real life and then it just bombed.
And then we're like, yeah, Kristin Stewart's gay, obviously. And
then we again meet Nikki Reid, who has always been
(12:28):
a good friend with Katherine Hardwick has always been a
part of this as well. With the awful dye job
that apparently ruined her hair and they had to do
wigs after that, but it up for her hair real good
that if you know the behind the behind the scenes. Again,
we have Billy Burke, who plays the father of Kristin Stewart,
who I think is the only good actor in this
(12:50):
entire thing to be honest, sorry, y'all. And then we
have Peter Facinelli who plays Carlisle Cullin. Yeah, Elizabeth Reeser
as May Cullen. Ashley Green, we were introduced to her,
Colin Lutz and Jackson Rathbone, and then there's several other
(13:11):
actors that we include. Of course, we also have talked
about Taylor Lautner, who's only in a few scenes so
he's just barely introduced, who is from native lineage. So
I remember that was really important, and I'm glad that
they stuck to it, and they stuck to it throughout
the entire movies. To bring in native actors into this
entire conversation. They did switched out the native actors because
(13:32):
the initial ones were not buff enough to be half naked,
so they had to switch them all out. And then
we are introduced to Anna Kendrick, who, yes, she is
one of the didn't she oscar nominated? At this point,
she's got awards? Still real bad, Still real bad.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I forgot she was in there.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
She's in here, but she's probably one of the better ones.
Justin Choone, which y'all may not know who he is,
but I know who he is because he is a
Korean actor that I was like, what was very glad
to see as part of the cast. And he is
a big writer and does a lot of great movies,
especially about Korean culture in the US. Just you know,
(14:12):
to put that in there. But yeah, so we have
a lot of interesting things, new pair of people coming
into play. Yes, and if you're wondering the book, they
try to close closely stay with the book. So the
writer of the screenplay, writer Melissa Rosenberg, which we've talked
about her before, she talks about how she wanted to,
(14:33):
you know, be as close to the book as possible,
taking some of the lines. And I think this is
where we see how when it's translated to real life
it doesn't go well. It's better when you don't say
it out loud in your head because you're gonna imagine
and you're gonna have to just graze over it. But
then when they actually say that like lines out loud,
they're like, oh, that's bad, Aguess. The idea of a
(14:56):
sparkly man seems interesting until you see it on the
street and you're like, this is that not turn out well?
And again I say that this is the person that
that was a fan and that still has these books.
I shamefully hide them because I'm like, oh god, but
I did love them so and if I remember correctly,
(15:17):
I believe our producer, super producer Christina also loved them.
Who is younger than the both of us. And yeah,
it's I think it's making a replay, like it's coming back.
The kids are coming back and discovering it and loving it.
So if you're a fan, you do you enjoy every
bit of it. Don't listen to me being cringing at it.
I enjoyed it for what it was. It entertained me
(15:38):
for many a times. Love me some. Robert Pattinson, Oh yeah, Annie,
are you team Jacob or team Edward? Oh it's an
important question.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Well, okay, So I am making notes of what we
need to talk about at the end for themes. One
of the ones is we did talk about this in shipping,
our shipping episode. This was a big moment in shipping.
I did not read the books. I saw the first movie,
(16:14):
so I feel that I was just like.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So, I should have made you watch all of the movies.
That's what you're saying, let's coming back now. Not that
I've discovered this.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I do have a note about the later movies though,
because the baby is infamous Baby Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Well, the name alone was a tragedy and I feel
bad for any author because we've talked about having names
as writers and it's difficult, honestly, but the name she
picked out was so bad that we were all like,
I don't think anyone, no fan was on her side
for this. Well, I don't know what it is her
(16:57):
name because Bella wanted to combine the name of her
two parents, the two mothers, oh okay and so Renesme
was the name instead of giving her like a middle
name and a first name of sorts. And then spoiler alert,
this is over like twenty years old of ust, they
(17:18):
call her Essie okay, and she is very angry about
this because Essie is the name of the Lochness monster.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Oh okay, there you go.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Any So let's just go ahead and go into the
plot real quick. We have Edward Collins played by Robert Pattinson,
who is the man, the main lead. Now I'm taking
thinking Korean level, so sorry if I put it this way,
but this is the classic triangle trope. So we have
the main lead, who would be Robert Pattinson, the second lead,
who would be Taylor Latner's character Jacob, who is a
(17:53):
Native American that lives on the reservation quote unquote, and
they are mortal enemies of the colons. So we get
interested to do Stabella, who is leaving Arizona and goes
to live with her father because her mother and her
stepfather are now traveling since her stepfather is a baseball player.
And this does closely go to the book. And she
(18:16):
goes to Forks, Oregon, which exists, and you can visit
and they they love their tourists, so you can go
and hang out with them if you want. They By
the way, I was trying to search this social way
to watch this without paying for it, and instead of
finding the actual movies, I found like side movies, I
guess or documentaries, and one of them was a whole
(18:37):
fan quest. It's what it called. It was Twilight Dot
Dot Fanquest, and it just you just went with people
to go do the tour with them, like this is
how big, Like there's so many, so much love for this,
for this movie, and I think it still exists, to
be honest. So we have her going to Oregon. She
hates the rain, she hates the cold, but you know
(18:59):
Oregon is rainy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Oh no, Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
She comes in, doesn't have much of a relationship with
her father. He is very awkward. She is very shy
and awkward. So this is a whole build up. He's
a sheriff of the town, of course. Uh. She goes
to the school. She meets this bunch of kids who
all the boys are fighting over her now, but then
her eyes are caught by the Cullins, who are the
(19:23):
Who is this mysterious family that got adopted by doctor
Cullen as we talked about Carlisle and as May his wife,
and they are all very pale and beautiful, but they're
all with each other except for Edward. Edward does not
have a partner. We have a kookie one who is
Alice and very like flush. They call her, I guess
(19:46):
the not the fighty one, but like the like essentially
like a fairy the way they describe her, she's like
a pixie fairy, like oh happy, they look pixie cut even. Yes.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
We have Jasper who is the brooding one. That's her partner,
and he just looks angry all the time, which looks
he just looks constipated. These the descriptions is amazing because
they actually say the description is out loud of them
and the way that don't get me wrong, I'm so
sorry actors. I know they're phenomenal and it has a
hard job, but still laughter okay. And then again we
(20:19):
have Rosalie and her love Emmett. They're just a beautiful
couple in general. And then we find Edward who just
smirks all the time and according to Anna Kendrick's character
does is too good for everyone and he just smirks.
Ha ha ha. That's the end. They are in their corner,
and of course Bella is quickly smitten by Edward and
(20:42):
he is completely confused. We get an introduction to him
when she walks into the classroom and stands in front
of a fan and he looks like he's going to
throw up as she goes and sits next to him,
and then he runs away and we find out he's
trying to exchange and she's so upset and by the again,
(21:03):
I know Kristin Stewart's a good actress. I've seen her
on some amazing things. She's been nominated for many awards.
It's so bad the over hyped lip binding when she
gets her feelings hurt. I was like, wow. And then
the where she gets frustrated or excited. Yeah, this is
(21:24):
what makes me go I don't understand what is it anyway,
and we moving on. Later we go back to her
coming to the school. Oh no, this dude's car goes
out of guests, slips on the ice, is coming after her.
All of a sudden, Edward appears and pushes the car
away from her so she doesn't get crushed. And she's like,
(21:46):
what the hell he was across from the parking lot.
How did he get over here so quick? So many
mysteries unfold, and soon she discovers that he is a vampire.
She goes down the route of googling things. I don't
think ever, says vampire until she starts googling, like you
never really see that. And then she confronts him in
(22:06):
the woods where she's supposed to be really clumsy and
tripping everywhere, and he's like throwing trees yep, and jumping
from place to place, and then he's trying to get angry,
and then he shows her her his skin color and
his skin is sparkly, and turns out vampires sparkle in
the sun, and that's why they love forks because it's
(22:28):
always cloudy and they don't have to hide as much
unless they go quote unquote camping because you know, if
it's sunny, they can't be a school. So that like
that's when all the whole family goes camping, is what
they say. During all this time, we find out that
Rosalie is very unhappy because if he ruins everything and
kills her, they'll have to run away and hide again
until the next generation of people come back, because they
(22:49):
come back every few years. We find over every several
like decades or centuries to replay put in like they're
still young kids because they never age. Obviously. He tells
her the whole story about being saved in nineteen eighteen
Carlisle saves him and then as May and everybody else
(23:09):
and they become one big, happy family. She goes to
visit the family. There's a whole joke about the hats,
and in the book it's something else. There is a joke,
but it's not the hats, and I can't remember what
it is. It's not graduation hats. I want to say,
it might be diplomas that they have. If any of
you listeners remember tell me, I just remember that one
(23:31):
distinct details like that's not what it was, but they
try to keep it. We also know that Robert Pattinson
in real life is very musically inclined, so he actually
wrote a piano piece to play Bella and it's like
a theme throughout. I think it's called Bella's Theme or
something like that. And then they're all very cute. The
family's excited to meet her, except for Rosalie and except
(23:54):
for Jasper, because it turns out Jasper hasn't been a
vampire for as long as everybody else and still wants
to eat her because she's smells so delicious. And that's
the whole thing about him looking like he's gonna vomit
is she smells so good compared to like nothing he's
ever smelled, that he's tempted to kill her all the time,
to eat her all the time. And then in the
(24:14):
book they actually have a conversation with Emmett and Edward
about he's like, just give in. It's okay, Like I've
done it once and yeah, I felt bad, but it's
hard man, so go for it, essentially trying to get
him to kill Bella and telling his own stories about
how he did that, and I was like, what the okay?
But yes, So he is always tempted to eat her
(24:36):
because she smells amazing, and so everybody's just waiting for
that to happen. Half of them are trying to tell
him to turn her so he can be with her forever,
and half of them are like, no, we got to
just leave her alone. She's going to ruin our lives.
And in all of these vampires have special abilities, whether
it's strength or like making people calm, and for Edward's
(24:58):
reading minds, except he can't read her mind. Oh no,
of course, because she's that one different girl. And for Alice,
she can read the future oftentimes, and she knows that
eventually Bella is going to be a part of the family,
so she's very happy, excited for her to be a
part of the family, so delightful. Moving on, they decide
to be together. We have a whole baseball game happening
(25:19):
with the loud thunder again, one of the funniest things
I think I've ever seen in my life. As well
as the fact that we get introduced to the villains
of the crew. The three vampires have been coming in
eating people left and right and making people missing. And
then there's one dude that's a tracker quote unquote, so
he loves hunting for fun, and the harder the prey,
(25:39):
the better for him. And because he catches Bella's scent,
he's like, oh. And then because all of the vampires
are proud to protect her, he's like, this is the
ultimate game. So Bella is now in danger, which is
what Edward was afraid of. And Edward doesn't want to
change her humanity, and he doesn't take away from her
because he thinks he's a monster all these things, and
he's old fashioned, so he's to protect her because you know,
(26:01):
of course gotta protect her, she's a weak human woman.
Then we go on this whole goose chase about her
trying to run away. They go back to Phoenix, which
is where she's originally from. She gets tricked into thinking,
oh no, my mother's in danger. Oldest trick in that book.
Golds and tries to rescue her at a ballet center.
And at this ballet center we have the ultimate showdown
(26:23):
between this tracker and everybody. She almost dies, she doesn't.
Edward almost sets her. He doesn't. He is up saving
the day they had this really hilarious ripping up the
villain scene. They rip him apart and Burnham and I
noticed in this scene you see Alice just dancing at
(26:43):
the bonfire for no reason. You do you, Alice, you
do you? And then she goes to the hospital where
she wakes up and they've made up the story about
how clumsy she was and she fell out the window, normal,
completely normal. He's so excited and that she's awake, and
she decides she just wants to stay at Forks. She
(27:04):
doesn't want to go with her parents, her mother to Jacksonville,
and then cut two prom where she didn't want to
go because she's so clumsy and she's so like hate
public and dancing and all that stuff. But anyway, he
takes her in a footcast, very cute, sees everybody. Everybody
else's paired off, the school friends have all paired off,
and everybody's very happy. The final dance scene is where
(27:27):
they go to a gazebo where these two couples are
dancing to no music because he's not playing the new
song yet, but they're dancing happily next to Bella and
Edward to Iron and Wine Flightless bird the worst. I
can't imagine it being like at what prom? At what prom?
(27:48):
But anyway, so that's what we see them, and she's
trying to convince him that he eventually she wants to
return and be with him forever at the age of seventeen.
That's all I know. We know Alice has seen it,
do it. And then that's how it kind of ends.
And oh yeah. In between all this, Jacob does pop
up and does tell a little bit of a story saying, oh,
there's a thing between us and the Cullens. They're not
(28:09):
allowed on the reservation. And then he doesn't know what's
going on, but doesn't believe in any of the legends.
He comes to the prom to Warren Bella and say
break up with him. Cool, and that's the backstory, and
then cut too Radioheads.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
And then what two more books?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Three more it's three more movies, I know, five movies.
So it is Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn's part
one and two. So they split the last one much
like every other anything finale, So they broke it up
into two pieces. Stephanie Myers does make some like cameos.
(29:09):
She's actually in the diner scene. Who is the writer.
She's in the diner scene where we see Charlie and
Bella eating and the waitress being like, it's been so long,
you're so beautiful, You're so grown up. That whole scene,
Stephanie Myers is out the counter eating. Stephanie and Myers
was very hands on for this as well as like
the soundtrack. It's her soundtrack. So what she said was
(29:32):
that these all the songs, most of the songs that
you hear are from artists that she was listening to
the entire time she was writing these books. And BT Dubbs,
I've talked about this before she did write, and I
think she just she released a few years ago the
Perspective from Edward and I had gotten I ha, I
(29:53):
saw that copy of you long, long, long, long time ago.
I'm sure I have it around here somewhere. And I
don't actually really liked that perspect the better. By the way,
I think I forgot to add. He likes to stalk
her and would just stand in the bedroom and watch her.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Oh yeah, that's a theme. I have to talk about it. Yes,
So we have all that.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
So there are a lot of themes. But I think
one thing I do even though I'm joking and laughing
throughout because to me it's so cringe today, and that
because I know the caliber of actors that are in there.
That's just like wow, wow that most of those actors really,
I think looking back out of this film, but it was,
(30:31):
it was, It is very entertaining. It is a huge
It was a huge hit. It is a huge hit.
They definitely got a lot of Prestigian awards, a lot
of actors really got a lot of opportunities because of
this movie. So no, like real talk, if you love this,
if you like this, if you're discovering this again, there's
(30:51):
no shame. There's millions of people that are with you
and love, love, love this book, loved everything about these character.
I think a few of the characters were disappointing, but
like people love Robert Pattinson being Edward. People loved Taylor
Latner being Jacob. Like it is a cult favorite. Bella
(31:12):
will always be Kristin Stewart like all these things. So
there's no shame. Like the love for this The fandom
for this specific genre and specific book is legit. So
even though like I'm making jokes, I was a fan,
Like I have to admit, like, I think it's kind
of outgrown now and now it's coming back for some
of the younger generations once again. But it is so
(31:34):
we're not try to like make it seem like it's
not legitimate. We're not trying to say any of that
because I think it's interesting to the level of like
love this can have and the way that it grew
that no one knew that it would grow to this level.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, And I think that it speaks to how often,
which is the point I like to make all the time,
we feel very comfortable making fun of what women and
girls like, like, oh, this is really silly and it's
not worth it, but it does speak to a bunch
of people. It is hugely, hugely popular. And I think
(32:11):
it doesn't have to be the best thing ever to
be enjoyable and to be fun, Like I don't think
that means we do that all the time for movies
that are led by men. I think, like, if it
doesn't have to be that, it can be fun and
something you just like and it doesn't have to be
the best thing.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Right And honestly, like for that time I was nannying
very like I didn't do anything. I just nannied and
hang out with people sometimes this I didn't have a relationship.
I wasn't dating people. I was still trying to discover myself, honestly,
and this type of entertainment was exciting. It was something
exciting and waiting for the next one and trying to
(32:50):
get to the next one and in the fandom, and
I know you understand this waiting and guessing about who
it could be. So before I did get to the books,
before it got to be movies, I had whole pictures
of who was who, and who's going to be wet
and how it's going to be done. I think I
even read out loud belliest parts to see if I
could pull off the line. I could not. Yes, love,
(33:15):
I could not. I wanted to be the protagonist as
well the leading lady, but I did not. Am I
that clumsy? Yes? Do people find that endaring? No, let's
be very honest. Am I cutey? Is sweet? And awkward? No,
I'm awkward all of those things. But yeah, I think,
(33:40):
like that's definitely something we need to talk about. But like, yeah,
one of the themes to this, of course, is that
the fantasy, the fantasy of it all, whether it's vampires,
and again, we haven't introduced werewolves to this. She makes
sure to bounce it out the stories behind each Each
of the vampires are different and they don't get released
till later either. So Jasper ends up being a Confederate soldier,
(34:03):
which is kind of like, oh, okay, but you know
that's how we get introduced to him. Oh that's his backstory.
Emma ends up being I think he was a hunter
who got killed by a bear if I remember correctly.
Rosalie her child her. I was like, why did y'all
have to do this to her? Like she ended up
being murdered and raped by her fiance, Like it's pretty
(34:26):
horrific that. I was, like what And she comes back
with a vengeance and kills all of them, but like,
it's like a damn And I don't know Alice's story. Alice,
you don't actually know her backstory. You just know she
discovers and finds Jasper. So I don't know much of
Alice's story. She's just very like different. And then we
find Carlisle story was he is a part of a
(34:48):
big coven that's very powerful in the vampire world, but
he wanted peace, so he left that and Esme was
dying I think from childbirth, I can't quite remember, and
he discovered her. So he's always been a doctor because
he tried to give back for taking away from humanity
by healing humanity. That's his whole thing. So you have
(35:10):
all these stories and then later we find all these
other vampires coming through, and there's some famous, famous people
in this list of vampires. Remi Mellick, who got his
big like he starred in the show called Mister Robot,
which was like a huge show for a while, and
then he was in the Queen movie like he's one
(35:31):
oscars now like he was in there for a second.
And then we have Michael Sheen, who everybody loves in
there for a second. Like you have some big names
that came out of nowhere, are like, what is happening?
How didn't these people get to be? Like it just
got bigger and bigger and bigger. Bryce Stallas Howard, isn't it?
(35:52):
And originally she said no, So she was a recast
because she was such a bigger name that they wanted her.
Originally she said she turned out down, realized how big
it was, came back to it. So we have her
coming back into it as well. We have I believe
it's Dakota Fanning as as well, who plays one of
the characters. So like you have some bigger names that
(36:13):
come onto this. They're like, yes, is this going to
be the new Harry Potter and first franchise. It was huge,
But again I think it because it because people were sexist.
I'm like, this is only for women. That's why I
didn't get the same acclaim as Harry Potter. Necessarily is
it as good writing? I would differ and say no,
(36:35):
because it's not necessarily as inventive. But again, all these things,
it got all different awards from like the very like
MTV Awards and all these things. So in this level
of fantasy, it really did bring in a lot of
new people, a lot of interest, and a lot of
(36:57):
more love for vampires. Again, you know that's kind of sickle. Well,
sometimes it's witches, sometimes it's werewolves. And now and this
brought back vampires.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Yes, And I remember it brought about a bunch of
like why waitmen attracted to vampires?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Now, what's going on?
Speaker 3 (37:14):
We talked about this before, about whoror like you have
people a lot of people have one specific thing that
they love the most, and for me it was vampires too.
I'm like, I don't know why. I don't know if
it was like an interview with a vampire or Lost Boys.
I watched that as a kid and loves That's probably
one of my favorite horror movies and probably one of
the I think, one of the best made vampire movies
(37:37):
ever to date. But I have always loved vampires.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, it's interesting because well, like I remembered when this
came out, and uh, like when you get kind of
the parodies that came out later, like what we do
in the Shadows, and they were making fun of like
the the glitter and the glitter, the shines skin, the
creepy paper. But one of my biggest things about vampires
(38:04):
has always been the age difference. Oh yeah, okay, if
you're seventeen when you're bitten, you're one hundred years older
than her.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
That's so. But it gets weirder later on when we
have the whole imprinting thing that they place on the rails,
and then like several of them are have imprinted on
toddlers and new worms, and they're all like supposed to
be in their late teens or early twenties and they're
like what the what the what? Like there's like we
(38:33):
there's this level of like I feel like this could
be an underlying pedophilic ideal, Like I don't know, I
don't know what you're doing or if that's purposeful because
all of these people are being matched at such a
young age. And then like eventually like when the minute
they turn like oh, we're married, and you're like what
the hell?
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yeah, And it's sort of those weird like when you
like stretch it out over hundreds of years, like sure,
if you're two hundred and he's four hundred, what do
I know?
Speaker 1 (39:05):
But like you're getting bitten if you're seventy, what do
I That's an age difference I can't comprehend.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Again, not to be too realistic, but like I didn't
know who I was at seventeen. I've fought I think
I started liking myself at late thirties. So what would
you want? This as a choice. There's so much of this,
but yes, there the themes are there. Obviously, we have
the theme of eternity, we have the themes for love,
(39:37):
we have the theme for uh hating yourself, self hate,
and then also again like this whole protection is there
like so many interesting themes, so many interesting tropes. Again,
we don't have the triangle yet. That comes in New
(39:57):
Moon when we find out the backstory of the reservation
of the of the native peoples of the First People's
and then but we will have the protective father who
is over the top like the character for him. Of course,
the person who played this character again, I'm like, probably
one of the best actors in this entire thing, Billy Burke.
(40:18):
He does a phenomenal job in making it funny, like
he is kind of the foil without being a foil here.
And the mom's supposed to be much like her flighty, forgetful.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
And clumsy, which is I guess I think right right,
But for sure there is the stalking that came up
in our stalking episode. This is a big like watching
her sleep. There's also kind of the and I haven't
read that so you can correct me, but from one
(40:52):
understand there's like a suicidality that comes in, yes, or
she's like if I can't be with him, then this
is but.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
That comes in later, but it's not necessarily because she
wants to die. It's because those moments of excitement. He
comes to her as like a consciousness, and so she
wants that so badly. She's willing to risk her life
because she's so sad, like this is in book two,
because he leaves her right, but he tries to. He
(41:19):
wants to die because he hates he hates himself a
bar being a monster.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Mm hmmm, which brings me to my next point. Yes,
there's this whole idea of like he keeps saying things
like you make me want you so bad. I can't
resist you. It like I'm a monster, which I feel
is very much our kind of like kind of rip culture,
and like I can't resist you.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
You're the one making me do this.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I will give you one thing. Though he resists, he
is able to resist. So if he can do it, yeah,
why can't men?
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Right? I, Like I said, I've read this like this
is like this is so big and fair, all of this,
So I'm not judging.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
I just think it's good to be like.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Yeah, well, when you look at the reality of it,
for sure, you're like this is not cute, Like none
of none of this is cute. Like again, the stalking,
the protecting, the almost dying all the time, the sneaking
in the bedroom without permission, like it's there's there's so much,
there's so much, and then the lying to the parents
and then running away, and then like you're like, again,
(42:28):
she's only seventeen. You forget how old they are because
you're reading from her perspective, and so therefore you place
your own agent to that. And I think when I
was reading in I was twenty six. Maybe remember, there's
so much of this, and yes, and then we get
into the like when we go back to the rest
(42:48):
of the book, and the back and forth was she
doesn't get to choose. It's a fight between the dudes,
and she doesn't get a say hardly the way of jealousy,
so much physical touch, these things.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
So I wanted to bring back the final point about
the baby. But I haven't seen this obviously, But I
do know about this because I love watching YouTube videos
about like the top ten scariest things. This regularly comes
up on the top ten scariest movie props. It was
the baby in that movie, and they were like quotes
from the actors, like I couldn't look into the eye,
(43:34):
like the poor.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Girl who was supposed to be like and stuff, who
is a super beautiful girl, which is why they picked her,
Like she's supposed to be super pretty, all these things
they used to image for this doll. And it's so
bad because what they do is pretty much overlay her
actual face onto a bad doll prop and it's not good.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
It's not good.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
Oh, it's so not good. Like you really get excited
for when she turns the age that she's supposed to
be because it's so creepy and they're all like so
enamored by her, and I'm like, don't touch that baby.
And by the way, she's literally eating her inside, like
(44:28):
and the way it describes it is there's a scene
where Bella, who is still human at this point, gets
impregnated by Edward after they're married. Of course, y'all, they
get married. She's on her at eighteen. Right after they graduate,
she gets pregnant, which is supposed to be impossible because
she is a sucubist at this point, but whatever, and
(44:51):
because also he's dead and has no bodily fluids, but
yet she gets pregnant.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
Like freezing they said, hands Okay, anyway, they create this baby,
and in this like she's getting you can tell she's
getting worn and like she's getting haggard and it is
eating away a hair interior.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
There's a point where she gets some blood because that's
the only thing that's actually really satisfying her and making
her feel kind of healthy. So they give her like
bag of blood. She has it in a cup. She
drops the cup. The baby lunges inside of the stomach
for this blood and like brace every bone in her
body and it's like almost coming out of the uterine sack,
(45:36):
like the way it describes it. And then it's almost
eating at the uterine sack, is what it's saying. And
she does die essentially, and that's why she gets turned
because at the point of death is when Edward tries
to like bring her back to life because there's no way.
So the whole thing back and forth is everybody hates
this baby except for Bella and Rosalie, who wanted who's
(45:58):
wanted a baby her life. So because she died before
she could, all she wanted to be was a mother.
This is a big trip to but died before she could.
So she feel bitter towards Bella now because she's giving
up her humanity and the ability to have children, which
is again what but in this they are the only
(46:19):
two who are willing to allow this baby to thrive,
while everybody else is trying to say abort it. Which
I'm like, if it's that strong, can you And by
the way, this is a very like pro life stance
on this on this movie, on this show, you might
which again she's Mormon, so I think, like it makes
(46:40):
sense it never says it, but then they never really
she never really if I remember correctly. Again, I read
it during a time where I was still very conservative,
so maybe she never really says anything about abortion as
being bad, but like it definitely looks at the but
other people want this baby, that whole adoption thing type
of thing is. So it's kind of like and for
(47:02):
the sake of in the sake of like, yes, sacrifice
some other So it's like we can talk about that
level like two, but that's that big trope of like
trying to be a mother and like what what are
you what are you willing to risk to be a mother?
You know, it wasn't important Tabla until she had the baby.
(47:23):
She could feel it, and she could feel it at
like week one, by the way, week one, because the
baby like grows so quickly, because she is a vampire
half vampire. Oh she's half vampire.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh my gosh. Okay, I guess that's sure how it works.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
You do it. But yes, I do want to now
make you watch all four or five of the movies.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Oh dear, I mean we could?
Speaker 3 (47:53):
I do.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
I do want to come.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
I've been meaning to talk about this specific trope of
the relationship in this between because I feel like that
is everywhere. Like I was even thinking of True Blood
when I was watching this, because you sort of have
like your old vampire then you're like kind of innocence.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yes, she's all of them are.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Virgins, right, So I kind of want to come back
and talk to about that. But I also I wanted
to I have my fan fiction update, so I wanted
to go back and find the fan fiction that this
is basicalry. But it turns out there's a conspiracy theory.
So the author says it came to her in a dream. Yes,
(48:35):
I've heard that, and a lot of people were like,
but I've read this fan fiction, and so there was
this big theory, like because if you're like me, you
download the fan fiction, then you have it. And so
a lot of times when people publish books based off
their fan fiction, they delete it. But she's always said,
like it came to me in a dream, and people
(48:56):
have always been like that, it's this fan fiction.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
And not only that, there was a theory that it
was a my.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Chemical Romance fan fiction, but she said, like that influenced it,
but was not what it was. And then there was
a theory that it was a Buffy the Vampire fan fiction,
which it definitely wasn't. But then there was a really
funny theory that Harry Potter was a Twilight fan fiction,
which is impossible.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
But I went on this whole thing.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
I guess the I think a lot of people do
confuse Mortal Bones Immortal Bones that is definitely a Harry
Potter fan fiction. I feel that I have read this
fan fiction. But also fan fiction can be very trophy,
so it's possible that it was just the fan fiction
that was very similar. She will she has not said, right,
but awesome. This led me to a whole other thing
(49:49):
where I found books that you don't know are based
on fan fiction, and a lot of them are Star Wars,
have surprised, but a lot of them are Twilight, so
not just fifty s. It's great but there's a bunch
of Twilight fan fiction books.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Of this list of ten, I think it's four.
Speaker 3 (50:08):
So anyone that web outside of the.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Fifty probably some people would. I think they're outside of
I don't really read a lot of romance, Gabriel's Inferno,
Simpire Simpre.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
Which I love supernatural rips on Twilight.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Than You're twy hard, Live for your twy hard.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Between the Gavin and Rosdelle episode and then that one
like that, it's the literal like bringing in Young Girls episode, Yeah,
where Jensen turns into a vampire twy hardy one two.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Uh huh yeah, yeah, so it's so, I mean it
is interesting.
Speaker 3 (50:57):
Oh no, wait, Gavin Rusdillon was a Criminal Minds episode.
I'm so sorry, Wow, Dairy, that was a moment.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
But yeah, I just think that that's you know, I
can't prove either way, but I do think it's going
back to what you said and what I say all
the time.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
I think that.
Speaker 2 (51:18):
The fact that that shouldn't be looked down upon you
either way. Fan fiction is great, and this is even
though it was more coded towards women, it shouldn't be
like that's useless. So that's not something we should talk
about it clearly resonated. It spawned all of this other world.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
Right, she made money so well jokes on us. Yes,
you know.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
I went home this weekend and my mom was like,
she heard some piece on NPR and was like, you know,
you can make money off your fan fiction. And I
was like yeah, and she's like, are you going to
try to make money off your fan fiction?
Speaker 6 (51:56):
And I laughed out loud. For Soul, It's like, that's cute.
Was trying to help you? No, just to make some money.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
But thank you for I guess the assumption that I could.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
That's amazing. But yeah, this was fun. I'm sure you'll
probably wrote me into watching now.
Speaker 3 (52:20):
I'm determined.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
This baby and you have to see the baby.
Speaker 3 (52:26):
You have to see the romance scene.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
I'm getting anxious.
Speaker 3 (52:34):
I will say they had the best twist of fight,
like one of the fight scenes that I think I've
seen on TikTok recently. People were like, oh wow, okay, wow,
that was actually genius.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Okay, well, well we'll be back.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yes, but in the meantime, we would love to hear
out your thoughts on those listeners.
Speaker 3 (53:02):
Uh, I know people know have thoughts.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yes, you can emails at Stepan your mom Stuff at
iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
I've Never Told You. We have a tea public store
you can find it. We also have a book that
you can get at stuff you Should Read Books dot com.
Thanks as always to our super producer Christina, our executive
producer Maya, and our contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks
(53:26):
to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You Us,
production of iHeartRadio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio,
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