Apollo's Rebellion

The comparison came about when the first Twilight movie blew up. Everyone was comparing Twilight to Harry Potter. Was it maybe that Edward Cullen looked suspiciously like Cedric Diggory? Or was it because they both created a huge hype? But they’re two completely different types of books and genres with completely different themes and subplots.

First of all the storyline, Harry Potter is all about a young wizard who is trying to grow up and learning to control his powers. Twilight is all about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. That’s all there is; Bella falls in love with Edward and the rest of the series is all about how Edward doesn’t want to hurt he,r but ends up hurting her anyway and halfway through the series you begin to predict the ending. Harry Potter, on the other hand, is completely different. Throughout the entire series there have been twists in the story. We find out the reason why Voldemort is such an evil guy. We find out more about Harry’s past. Everything in the story is meant for a reason for example Harry’s unexplained parseltongue is because a piece of Voldemort is “within him”. Harry’s story is so full of history and meaning. Twilight rushed through the whole story of how wolves (or shape shifters) and vampires came about.

The next thing is the characters. The characters in Twilight are very stereotypical and 2 dimensional. Edward is the same broody vampire in the fourth book as he was in the first. Bella is still a desperate angst-y teenager (although now she’s a desperate angst-y vampire). The characters in Harry Potter grow and evolve as the series goes on. You feel the emotions of the characters as the book goes on, you feel their hardships and you feel their joy. In Twilight I didn't feel that, when Edward left Bella I never, not once, felt sorry for her. Other than emotion Edward is kind of stalker-ish. It’s shown more in the movie. He’s obsessive to the point of over protection. Some people may think it sweet but I think it’s creepy. Frankly, I don’t want an over protective boyfriend. What girl wants to be dependent on their boyfriend? I’d much rather be like Hermione: an intelligent, independent girl. Yes, she may be bossy at times, but everybody has their flaws. That’s what the characters in Harry Potter are; they have flaws just like normal human beings. But in Twilight’s “world” everybody is perfect and nobody has their flaws because they’re vampires! In Harry Potter, Harry is a very brave young man and although he may not have confidence in himself he still stands strong. Whereas Bella is always looking to someone for support, whether it is Edward or Jacob, she can’t stand on her own.

The next topic is imagination. Everyone knows that a good fiction story grows from a good imagination. JK Rowling created a whole new world within our world. The wizarding world exists within our world (the muggle world). Even words are made to describe the different people. Muggles for normal human being, half-bloods (or mud-bloods) for wizards that have  one muggle parent and one wizard parent. The spells that they use come from Latin and even some of the names. In Twilight a normal girl moves to a boring town of Forks. There aren't any interesting names that they call vampires or humans. Maybe if you count “Cold ones” and “Pale faces” as some. The setting of Twilight is a boring rainy mess of things. Bella hates it there and the only reason she stays is because of a “vegetarian” vampire. Hogwarts, on the other hand is a magical maze of wonder and excitement and you could get lost at every turn. When reading Harry Potter I see myself walking down the endless hallways of Hogwarts, maybe even sneaking my way around the Forbidden Forrest. In Twilight, I find it hard to see the meadow where she and Edward sit and talk. I find it hard to visualise the street where Bella lives. I sometimes even rely on the movies to see how everything looks. This could be because I was bored while reading the description. I found myself bored while reading the whole series. As I was reading felt like I was reading recycled plots of other stories – the most prominent one, as you would agree, is of Romeo and Juliet. Shown a lot in New Moon (near the end when Edward thinks Bella is dead). The plot is clichéd. Yes, Harry Potter may seem predictable at times but as a whole it is much more…what’s the word? Ah, yes! Imaginative. With every word I read, I know that Harry is a wizard. I don’t feel that with Edward. Yes, we may know that Edward is a vampire but we've never seen him do anything that suggests that he is. He may jump from tree to tree or run really fast, but we don’t see that mysteriousness about vampires. I regret ever calling them vampires because they aren't  They don’t drink human blood, they live in forest in a house made mainly of glass and (worst of all) they sparkle. Have you ever seen Count Dracula sparkle? I thought not. There is no history in Twilight. I feel as if the author took the concept of vampires and turned it around completely. In Harry Potter we can see that the author took time to research every creature and she also took time to create new creatures. In Harry Potter she never rushed over the description and the story as a whole – she wanted her readers to enjoy the story. JK Rowling was never afraid to kill off her main characters; she knew the story would be more realistic to the readers. Stephanie Meyer, on the other hand, kept all her main characters alive in their perfect little world of flawlessness.

My last point is parodies. This goes well with fan bases. Most of the Twilight parodies poke fun at the entire series (ie Vampires Suck). The same goes for Harry Potter with the Barry Trotter. There are plenty of parodies on YouTube – all you have to do is look. I have found that there aren’t any fan-made parodies of Twilight but there have been many fan-made parodies of Harry Potter like Potter Puppet Pals and Starkid’s A Very Potter Musical. These are comedies made by the fans for the fans.

Hope this report has enlightened you a bit more. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I decided to voice mine. If you disagree with anything that I said please feel free to leave a comment, I’m always open to criticism.

They say it’s always the darkest before dawn. I’ve been awake early too many times to know that it is true. Sleep is still calling me, but I sit on my patio and taste the waking dawn on my lips. The birds and the neighbours’ dogs can taste it too. Their voices can be heard from a million miles away.

There’s a blue tinge in the sky and the smell of a thousand flowers caress my nose. Sunflowers, daisies, tulips…all bright like the sun. A small, red and black bird atop my giant tree sings me a song. He stops. Then asks, “What song would you like today?” His was head moving from side to side.
“Something welcoming,” I whispered back, too afraid that my voice may scare the sun away. The dew drops on the grass are under cold under my touch. Yet, I still slip off my slippers and walk slowly across the garden. It’s as if they are diamonds, left by a bandit whose pockets had holes in them now they are scattered all over my grass. A worm makes its way past my bare foot as if to get away from something or someone. A bullet of black comes into my vision and the worm is picked up by a myna. I shoo it away but it just screeches at me. I run back to the safety of my chair, too afraid to find out if mynas also like human flesh.

There’s a taste of anticipation in the air as if the world is waiting. There’s a bright glow on the horizon. Inch by inch I can see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, feel it coming. One more moment…and in that moment the entire world held its breath.