This is not about Nietzsche’s book “Twilight of the Idols,” or Wagner’s opera Götterdämmerung.  It is about the Twilight movies on the eve of the release of the fifth and final episode, “Breaking Dawn, Part 2.”  I’ve seen the first four movies.  I haven’t read any of the books.

I read an article yesterday about “a disturbing trend forming among teenagers who have become obsessed with the ‘Twilight’ movies – they are turning to real occult groups and even participating in bloodletting practices.”¹  In a scene in the fourth movie, “Breaking Dawn, Part 1,” the heroine Bella drank chilled human blood through a straw and found it not bad, kind of good actually.  If that inspired young people to occult practices I am sorry, but I’m also convinced that not-Twilight (the apparent point of the article) would not have saved them.

In that scene Bella did whatever it took to bring her baby to term, even at the cost of her own life, while the sensible money was bet on aborting the fetus.  Even her husband Edward, a vampire, was angry and frustrated with her over it.  But Bella had expressed a willingness to lay down her life for someone she loved from the opening voiceover of the first movie, for her mother, then Edward, then her baby.  I was so caught up in the story at the time I was willing to overlook and even chuckle at the “duh” moment when (in a house full of vampires) the only one who recognized that a half-vampire-half-human baby might be thirsting for human blood was the werewolf Jacob, who, except for a treaty between his tribe and the Cullen vampire clan (or coven) and his own love for Bella, was a mortal enemy and one of the “natural” predators of vampires.

I should probably mention that the Cullens were “vegetarian” vampires, meaning they only drank animal blood, not human.  It was a little like a human being living on tofu alone, according to Edward, but more suited to the ethic of this particular “family” of vampires.  Dr. Cullen, the patriarch of the family, was an MD who served as the town doctor in Forks, Washington.  As he stitched up Bella’s arm after a mishap, she looked down at all her blood and asked him, “How do you do it?”  “Years of practice,” he replied grinning.

What was a subtle undercurrent in Bram Stoker’s novel and more overt in Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation is also true of the Twilight series.  It is about sexual desire and repression, though Edward is the only Victorian in the story (Edwardian more precisely).  What makes Twilight discomforting, frustrating, maybe even offensive, to men is that male sexual desire is not the joystick that makes the world go round.  While female sexual desire personified by Bella is an open-hearted giving and sharing of herself, male sexual desire personified by Edward is a life-threatening blood lust, or a violent rage seething just beneath the skin of the shape-shifting Jacob.

Bella was irresistibly drawn to both of these bad boys, though it was fairly clear that she didn’t really love Jacob “like that.”  And here is another sore spot for boys and men.  How dare a young woman not love “like that.”  What kind of love is that?  And it only gets worse.  Their swordsmanship was not the thing that made these traditional movie monsters the good guys.  Apart from Edward’s cooler than ice and Jacob’s hotter than fire good looks, the only thing that made them good guys is that they restrained, suppressed and sublimated their violent sexual desires.  They found other ways to love and care for Bella.  Edward used a little bit of force and a lot of romantic persuasion to keep her a virgin until their wedding night.

The ἐγκράτεια, erroneously translated self-control, that is an aspect of the fruit of the Holy Spirit² which flows through those who trust in Jesus Christ was not mentioned in the Twilight movies.  Edward and Jacob restrained themselves by their own willpower, their own inner “goodness,” never mind where traditional movie monsters find inner goodness.  But I seriously wonder if we as parents really teach and trust the ἐγκράτεια that comes from God when it comes to our own children.  Or do we put our faith in the gezerot,³ the rules we make up to keep them chaperoned, never alone, never having an opportunity to exercise the ἐγκράτεια, or the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness or gentleness, that are the fruit of their relationship with Christ?

At any rate I took a vacation day next week to see the final episode of the Twilight saga with my daughter.  That may make me a bad parent to some.  But my daughter is twenty-one now.  She will see it whether I take her or not.  Edward moved up a notch in Bella’s father’s estimation when he learned that Edward was “old school,” meaning Bella was still a virgin.  I admit that my daughter’s boyfriend, though he seems like a nice enough guy, has moved down a notch since he doesn’t have the heart to see the movie with her.  My twenty-year-old son will see it with his girlfriend, though I imagine he will find something to complain about afterward.

I expect to be disappointed by the end of the series.  No amount of good works redemption will satisfy me.  And I don’t think Bella, Edward and Jacob will turn to faith in Jesus Christ.  My daughter, who has read the books, has already said she is curious how I will react to the end of the story.  So a few dollars and a couple of hours spent sitting in the dark with her buy me another opportunity to speak my mind to her receptive heart.  I pray that God will grant me the grace, the wisdom and the words to say to a young woman who has been moved so by a story of an eternal love that is more than sexual desire.  And it makes me wonder whether millions of other women have actually been moved by occult bloodletting practices or because God has put eternity⁴ in their hearts.⁵

Oh yeah, and I’m curious what happens next to Bella, Edward and Jacob, too.

Addendum: September 3, 2024
Tables comparing Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and comparing the Greek of Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.