Cinders Hi! Great article. Except I think you misrepresented the people you called "haters." First of all, you gave several possible reasons for what they dislike about Twilight and why, and then conclude with "why people feel the need to express such negativity toward the Twilight series is unknown." Maybe you came to this conclusion because you did not dig deep enough in your research. People who don't like Twilight will gladly explain (not yell) about why over in the CAT spot. First of all, I don't know if you were speaking of sincere "haters" and/or people who just don't like or criticize the series. Critics have serious reasons for disliking the series (books and movies alike). I don't know many who will argue with the genre of the series. As you pointed out, romance has played its role in several vampire series, including Buffy and the Sookie Stackhouse series. People have been playing with the "monster movie" genre for... well, a long time. Discounting B-movies, which are funny because they're so poorly made, there are also vampire comedies ("Dracula: Dead and Loving It," and "Once Bitten), tragedies, horror (of course) and even musicals ("Dance of the Vampires" failed on Broadway, but it was successful in its hometown of Austria). The problem that I see that critics have of this particular interpretation of the vampire genre involves the central couple. Critics see these two characters as two-dimensional, and see the relationship as verging on abusive and unhealthy. That's their major qualm with the romance. You touched on the second reason that critics take issue with Twilight - it's popularity. The more intense the fans become (just count how many times they use the phrase "OMG Edward is sooooooooo hawt!" or some variation on that theme), the more insane it tends to drive others. Also, Twilight fans CAN BE (but aren't always) highly and frighteningly inflammatory. If someone mentions that they don't like Twilight, or have never read/seen it, then an inflamed Twilight fan will jump on them, say that they're wrong, or insist that they read the books at that very moment. Ironically, the more the fans get worked up about the series, the more they work up the critics until they become "haters" and become just as irrational is their Twilight fan counterparts. Once again, there is always a spectrum. There are fans who like, even love Twilight, but who are rational and very level-headed people. And then, there are fans who love Twilight who cannot tolerate anyone with a different opinion. These kind of fans even turn on each other and the verbal brawl gets downright dirty when they find out a fellow Twilight fan thinks Jacob is better for Bella than Edward. Critics find this trend frightening, almost cult-like behavior. And, like I said, if a critic interacts with an irrational twilight fan, they're often so aggravated by the experience that they declare their own irrational hate of Twilight and its fans. You mentioned that Twilight critics take issue with the fact that Edward sparkles. This is true, but honestly, a secondary concern. They don't see the use of a sparkling vampire, a creature that tends to hunt at night, and stealthily. If they hunted during the day (which I think they do in Twilight anyway), their sparkling would give them away in the sunlight. There is the argument that they act as the flame and their prey acts as the moth, and it's decent, but then the vampire doesn't need to use all his other badass skills like super strength and super speed to catch his prey. There are other superficial reasons that people take issue with this quality, but as I mentioned, it's a secondary concern. If there wasn't already frustration with the series, then no one would probably complain about the sparkling. I think I covered all your points. If you have any more questions about why people dislike the series, just ask. :o)