by Alice Knöpfle. Last updated 14 May 2025.

Content Warning: This post contains (mostly abstract) discussions of depression, domestic violence, rape, sexual assault and suicide attempts.
Twilight hasn’t aged well. In my opinion, contributing factors are the shifting social consciousness, the rise of feminism since the #MeToo movement and the neverending toxic masculinity and sexism the books are infused with.
In this blog post, I’d like to talk about a few controversial scenarios which occurred in The Twilight Saga; how women are subdued, as seen in the female Cullen’s traumatic back stories that have been glossed over and reflected in Bella’s bland personality, and how fanfics have the power to eliminate problematic behavior and plots, expand storylines that can be empowering and improve the original story by rewriting it while staying canon – twenty years after the first book has been released.
1. Toxic men in The Twilight Saga
Let’s start with some of the toxic men. Edward Cullen, born in 1901 and turned into a vampire while dying of the Spanish Influenza in 1918, stalks, controls and manipulates seventeen-year-old Bella. He stalks her by watching her sleep without her knowledge, controls her by anticipating her actions through his sister Alice’s visions and his own mind-reading abilities, though he can’t read Bella’s mind. He manipulates her when breaking up with her ‘for her own good’ by using all of her insecurities against her. Regardless, Bella falls in love with him and becomes obsessed with the idea of a future with him and his immortality. This fixation persists even after both she and Edward attempt to take their own lives in New Moon following their breakup, in a manner reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet.
Jacob Black, a sixteen-year-old werewolf, develops feelings for Bella after Edward leaves her in New Moon, while she basically only uses him as a means to hallucinate Edward, especially when engaging in dangerous activities, like riding the motorcycles with Jacob. Meanwhile, he is persistent, aggressive, and manipulative in his pursuit of Bella’s affection.
In Eclipse, Jacob disregards consent and even uses force to kiss her against her will. To cite from the book, he kisses her “angrily, roughly, his other hand gripping tight around the back of [Bella’s] neck, making escape impossible.”, which constitutes sexual assault. The reaction of Bella’s father, Charlie Swan, to this is puzzling to me, because – instead of being concerned for his daughter, especially considering he’s the chief of police and he supposedly cares about her – Charlie’s bias makes him cheer Jacob on because he’d prefer to see his best friend’s son with his daughter rather than Edward, who left and broke her in the past, resulting in Bella’s depression, which Charlie experienced firsthand. But his failure to prioritize his daughter’s well-being in this situation is extremely ridiculous because this situation escalates to physical harm, leaving not only her emotions shattered but her hand as well.
In another scene from Eclipse, Jacob overhears that Bella and Edward are engaged. He proceeds to manipulate her into kissing him before the battle against the newborn vampires by making her believe he’ll let himself be killed in the upcoming fight if there’s no chance of a romantic future with her.
The behavior of all three men shows how toxic masculinity manifests in different ways. Through control and possessiveness (Edward), entitlement, aggression and manipulation (Jacob) and dismissal of female autonomy as well as sexism, as some men instinctively side with other men rather than thinking rationally (Charlie). This reinforces harmful gender norms and contributes to the unhealthy relationships throughout the series.Both of Bella Swan’s love interests, Edward Cullen’s and Jacob Black’s creepy behavior, as well as Charlie’s misogyny, lead to the normalization of rape culture in Twilight.
After Bella finally makes her choice clear by marrying Edward and bearing his child, which ultimately leads to her transformation into a vampire in the fourth and final book of the saga, Breaking Dawn, Jacob’s storyline takes an even more disturbing turn. As if it weren’t unsettling enough that he harbored ‘romantic’ feelings for both the mother and later the daughter, the most nauseating part of his arc follows pedophilia and grooming. Jacob ‘imprints’ on Bella’s newborn daughter, who is only minutes old.
Stephenie Meyer always tries to use the supernatural elements of the series as an excuse for toxic masculinity and inexcusable behavior. She has defended the concept of imprinting by arguing that it is not inherently romantic and begins as a protective, brotherly bond. Taylor Lautner, the actor who portrays Jacob in the movies, was a little concerned with the imprint storyline himself and she tried to reassure him when “she said that it’s a lifelong bond between two people, and that’s it. At this point, it’s more of a brother-sister protective thing. That’s really all it is.” 1.
Furthermore, on her own website, stepheniemeyer.com, in the ‘New Moon Q and A with Stephenie’ section, Meyer states that “Imprinting was inspired by two different sources […] In her [Anne McCaffrey’s] mythology, humans and dragons bond so tightly that if one of them dies, the other either suicides or goes mad.”, which clearly shows that she tries to use mythology to justify her characters being extremely codependent (Bella and Edward) and predatory (Jacob).
Meyer also makes her own characters defend the concept of imprinting, as seen in Breaking Dawn. Edward, the mind reader, says “Not once today did he think about the fact that […] Nessie will be fully matured in just six and a half years” and Bella answers with “He doesn’t see her that way. He’s not in a hurry for her to grow up. He just wants her to be happy”, because Meyer thought that readers would excuse Jacob “imprinting” on the baby when her own parents condone it and act like everything’s fine because it’s supposed to be a natural phenomenon, justified in the name of some romanticized notion of fate and destiny.
Personally, I still prefer Edward, especially when comparing him to Jacob, because, unlike Jacob, he shows that he’s capable of recognizing and changing his toxic behavior and he actually puts Bella before himself, while Jacob first pursues Bella and then her daughter instead of just distancing himself from his perceived ‘one that got away’ and moving on. Moreover, in their so-called friendship, Jacob disregards consent and sexually abuses her. Bella, in turn, mainly uses him as a means to get over or hallucinate Edward.
Edward’s toxic behavior stems from his obsession with Bella’s well-being, though that by no means excuses his actions. Jacob, on the other hand, holds onto an idealized version of Bella, and when she doesn’t conform to that image he gets frustrated, thinks he knows what’s best for her and acts like his actions are in her best interest, when in reality, they tend to reflect what’s best for him.
If Bella chose Jacob as her romantic partner, it would be the ‘safe’ choice because he can mostly remain human, but it would make everyone (especially Charlie) but herself truly happy. Apart from being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t understand the meaning of consent, she would stay human and constantly be around werewolves, living with the danger their presence can bring, live an incomplete life, risk losing herself, and more or less be gaslit into believing Jacob was her first choice. One can only imagine what might occur if they conceived a child.
The consequences of Bella choosing Edward include fulfilling her dream of turning into a vampire, thereby easing Edward’s constant worry for her well-being, joining the big family she always longed for, and being with her perceived soulmate. However, this comes at the cost of losing her human connections and potentially succumbing to bloodlust.
2. Minimizing women’s voices in The Twilight Saga
Apart from Twilight’s problematic portrayal of men, it seems like Stephenie Meyer tends to either minimize or torture her female characters. Bella Swan’s most noticeable character trait is her blandness. She rarely stands up for herself, especially in Eclipse. She’s even aware of the lack of control over the situation, acknowledging that it’s usual for her “I thought I was holding my own tonight — for once —”.
Charlie jokes about Bella being sexually assaulted and she lets it slide. Edward literally removes her car’s engine to prevent her from visiting Jacob, supposedly for her safety, since being around a werewolf is dangerous, though his actions are clearly driven by jealousy and she just accepts it.
In another instance, Edward’s jealousy leads him to indirectly kidnap Bella to prevent her from seeing Jacob. His sister, Alice, tricks Bella into visiting her under the pretense of a surprise sleepover. When Bella realizes Alice’s ruse after unsuccessfully trying to leave, she jokingly states “You’re kidnapping me, aren’t you?”. However, in Bella’s defense, this also shows how Bella doesn’t have much control over her own life as a human, when the supernatural world surrounds her and dictates her choices, although this isn’t sufficiently criticized in the books and rather taken for granted.
The stark contrast in how the Cullens’ backstories are handled also reveals a gender bias. The male Cullens’ transformations into vampires are less dramatic yet more fleshed out, whereas the female Cullens endure significantly more traumatic experiences, suggesting that Meyer places greater importance on her male characters than on her female ones.
Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper and Edward’s backstories are only slightly shocking or gruesome. They pale in comparison to the horrendously traumatic experiences of Esme, Rosalie and Alice, and that isn‘t talked about enough. This imbalance reinforces the idea that male characters are given more depth and importance, while female characters are often defined by their suffering and/or relationships.
The Cullen family’s father figure, Carlisle Cullen, was a catholic priest’s son. He became a vampire by hunting them in his fathers’ name, after one of them bit him. His story reflects the significance of religion in Meyer’s writing. Edward was bitten by Carlisle after almost dying of the Spanish Influenza. Jasper, Edward’s brother, joined the Confederate Army during the American Civil War before being turned into a vampire. Emmett, the other brother, was mauled by a bear before Carlisle saved him.
The mother figure of the Cullens, Esme Cullen, survived domestic violence, the loss of a child and a suicide attempt, the latter being how Carlisle found and bit her. Rosalie Cullen, one of Edward‘s two sisters, was dying after being raped by her fiancé and his friends before Carlisle found and turned her.
Even after all of that, Alice Cullen’s backstory is the most interesting to me. She’s Edward’s other sister. She could already see the future when she was human. That’s how she discovered that her own father was responsible for her mother’s death and was committed to an asylum when he learned of her knowledge. There’s a history of women being sent to asylums when they made people (men) uncomfortable.
Alice finally became a vampire after an unknown vampire saved her from being drained by James, a vampire with the ability to track down anyone and also hunts Bella in Twilight.
There’s a really enlightening academic text that delves deeper into Twilight’s problematic themes called The Courtship Between the Lion and the Lamb: An Analysis of Rape Culture Romanticised in The Twilight Saga by Amalendhu P. Ramesh2.
3. How fanfiction examines The Twilight Saga
Meyer’s portrayal of female and male characters reinforces rape culture and other problematic themes throughout The Twilight Saga, which might be why Twilight has one of the most prominent fanfiction communities. If it weren’t such a flawed story, the demand for fanfics probably wouldn’t be as high, although a story doesn’t have to be flawed to justify the demand of fanfics.
Harry Potter, for example, is generally seen as a less problematic story and notably has more fanfics than Twilight, because it’s not restricted to a single theme. The variety of characters and creatures, the detailed and carefully planned world building and the concept of magic itself bring endless possibilities, while Twilight is almost exclusively restricted to its romantic storyline, a theme often associated with girls romanticizing love and therefore being frowned upon and labeled as cringey, mostly by men, thus making it seem unrelatable to them and as a result, Twilight readership lacks a notable portion of the male demographic.
Add to that some silly elements (sparkling vampires, 100-something-year-old virgins), debatable tropes (a stereotypical love triangle and a bland main character who somehow captures everyone’s affection), dark plot points (stalking, sexual abuse, pedophilia) and leaving it up to interpretation how taboo it is to romanticize such themes, and it’s clear why Twilight has a very different reputation from Harry Potter, which in turn also explains the differing amounts of fanfics produced by their respective fandoms.
Some fans of The Twilight Saga have recognized these issues and sought to address them through fanfiction; offering more empowering interpretations of the story, completely rewriting it, or expanding on storylines that were cut short or even swept under the rug. A good example are Bella’s depression and hallucinations of Edward in New Moon, which suddenly vanish in Eclipse as Meyer took the saying ‘forgive and forget’ a little too literally.
When discussing Twilight and fanfiction in the same context, one of the first things that comes to mind is Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, the most famous fanfic-turned-book. The fic it is based on, Master of the Universe, written under James’ fanfic username Snowqueens Icedragon, has been pulled to be published and focused on the sexual tension between Bella and Edward that exists but isn’t explored, in Eclipse. It also amplifies Twilight’s darker themes, like Edward’s need for control, which is portrayed through a BDSM relationship. In this context, he ignores one of its core concepts, consent, while being toxic and using emotional abuse and manipulation to exert power over Bella, illustrating how important it is to delve deeper into Twilight’s darker themes with Master of the Universe as a cautionary example to help de-romanticize rape culture, although other fanfictions are more aware of the problems in the Twilight canon.
The fanfic Bella’s Broken Hand AU Eclipse by Fakin’it is a good example of a band-aid story. The author tries to give Bella a stronger voice to actually speak up when Jacob sexually assaults and harms her instead of being passively angry on the inside. This allows Charlie to fully grasp the gravity of the situation instead of joking about it. While some scenes may seem a little exaggerated, the fanfic demonstrates an awareness of The Twilight Saga’s problematic elements and addresses them.
In Origins: Living in my Future, MarieCarro expands Alice’s backstory through a series of diary entries, giving us a better understanding of what might have exactly happened in her past.
As I mentioned before, Bella’s depression and suicide attempt were glossed over after New Moon. The fanfic The Untitled Series by WhisperingWolf deals with the emotional consequences of Bella basically being abandoned by Edward and his entire family. The Cullens notice that Bella needs help and support her, portraying them as a family that actually cares for her well-being. By doing so, WhisperingWolf creates a canon divergent fanfic that fills the gap of a realistic portrayal of Bella’s mental state and familial support missing from its source material.
Another fanfic author is rewriting the entire Twilight Saga, calling it the In the Afterlight Series. The latest installment is constantly being updated. Garbanzosoprese is currently working on book three, Eclipse, reimagined as By Starlight: An Eclipse Reimagining. While staying true to canon, garbanzosoprese adds new elements that, in my opinion, enhance the story.
Jacob never becomes more than a friend, therefore eliminating both the forced and clichéd love triangle and his abusive behavior toward Bella, which results in Jacob never becoming the volatile, temperamental, predatory figure he is in the original series.
Edward has more justified reasons for leaving Bella and does not manipulate her. Meanwhile, Bella finds a healthier way to cope with his absence instead of becoming a shell of herself and simply taking him back. When Edward returns, garbanzosoprese actually manages to portray Bella as still grappling with the repercussions of the severe depression his departure caused, making her recovery feel more realistic.
Charlie actually acts like a cop, linking mysterious elements to the Cullens and worrying for Bella.
There’s no stalker Edward and no abusive Jacob but a caring Charlie and this version of Bella actually has a backbone, showing us what Twilight could have been if it hadn’t been written with such a repressive perspective. I’m looking forward to read what else the author chooses to improve upon compared to the original material.
These fanfics demonstrate that when authors take the time to address the books’ flaws while staying true to canon, the text becomes more developed and impactful. These fanfics also show how fanfiction gives readers a platform to expand on elements that the original author may have overlooked or underdeveloped. Fanfiction allows readers to engage with and appreciate the improved storylines, regardless if they recognized the same problematic plots and behaviors in the original books or just noticed them thanks to the fanfic, thereby often making fanfiction feel superior to the source material.
4. Conclusion: The original source vs. fanfiction
Now, 20 years after the release of the first book and more than a decade since the final installment and movie, The Twilight Saga’s legacy remains undeniable, but so does its harmful messaging. The seriesunintentionally accentuates how men can, but shouldn’t, behave in real life, exposes the consequences of sexism and toxic masculinity, including control, entitlement, and a lack of respect for boundaries in relationships, and reveals how Meyer’s work prioritizes the depth and development of male characters while reducing female characters to supporting roles.
At the same time, fanfiction proves that we don’t have to settle for a story that normalizes abuse, control, coercion, and predatory behavior. Twilight fanfiction provides readers with a space to critically engage with these issues, reimagine character arcs, improve problematic scenarios and explore them in greater depth. Academically, fanfiction can act as form of literary resistance and a means of expanding representation. Furthermore, the chosen fanfics demonstrate how writers and readers can actively critique, challenge and reshape media and pop culture when consuming it. With a new animated Twilight series in development at Netflix, this time from Edward’s point of view, similar to Midnight Sun (the 2020 book retelling of Twilight from Edward’s perspective instead of Bella’s), it will be interesting to see the direction this adaptation takes and the fanfiction it will inspire. Because, in the end, the best thing about Twilight might just be the fanfiction that fixes it.
1. Tinubu, Abeni. “‘Twilight’: Stephenie Meyer on What Inspired Imprinting.” https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/twilight-stephenie-meyer-inspired-imprinting.html/
2. Ramesh, Amalendhu P. “The Courtship Between the Lion and the Lamb: An Analysis of Rape Culture Romanticised in The Twilight Saga.” https://dcac.du.ac.in/assets/pdf/Journal/Vol-6/4.pdf