Twilight Graphic Novel: Part 7
ZeldaQueen: This is it, ladies and gentlemen! The last home stretch! The end of the graphic novel!
Also, a very Happy Birthday to mogseltof!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Part 7
ZeldaQueen: Going off of where we left off, we get some "cutesy" school stuff, including the part where Edward says that he doesn't like Mike's thoughts. Bella asks if he was spying on her in class and when he teases her about her physics fail in badminton, she gets all flustered and storms off. Given how it's drawn, I'm pretty sure Young Kim was aiming for it to be some lighthearted teasing. Except...again, we know how Midnight Sun went. We know how Edward laughed at stuff Bella was humiliated over. We know that he never lets her out of his sight. And we know what he wants to do to Mike for thinking unapproved thoughts.
Yeah.
Also, the "Oh you!" routine doesn't exactly come across as appropriate when one person has just confessed to mentally spying on the other!!!
They have lunch with the canon conversation and demonstration of Edward eating pizza, and both do look a like happier. I'm honestly not sure if I'm reading too much into it, but it looks like Young Kim was going for the idea that Edward was a bastard at the beginning of the book, but Bella changed him, Mama. This wouldn't be so bad except for two things. The first is that we know from the books that Edward wasn't just a jerk, he also used to be a murderer, and one who clearly is unrepentant. The second is that Edward continues to look smug and creepy. I think I've figured out why that is, incidentally. All of these characters have very almond-shaped eyes, which might explain why most of the shots look like they have their eyes narrowed and look spiteful or jerkish.
Anyway, we do get that stupid conversation about how Edward really loves Bella more than she loves him, damn it all! And then SON OF A BITCH, we get that stupid thing where Edward asks Bella her favorite color and gemstone and so on. And Young Kim is trying to make it interesting, with Bella and Edward holding hands and so on, but it's just painful how boring it is. Thank the lord, we only get one panel of it before we get to that stupid bit where Edward waxes poetry about how it's twilight. Oh, and there's a short bit where Billy Black and Jacob show up. It serves even less point than in the book, so let's just skip over it
ZeldaQueen: Wait, Bella actually wears her jeans to bed? Seriously? I know there's pajama bottoms and whatnot, but those look like her blue jeans.
So yeah, it's now the Day of Meadow Sparkling, and we get a picto-montage of Bella getting ready, deciding what to wear, and so on and so forth
ZeldaQueen: Yep, couldn't get much more Date Sim-ish if it tried.
So, off to the mountains! Again, we are blessedly spared Bella's constant griping about how clumsy she is, though Edward continues to be a jerk about her eyesight. And I curse it all, because if I hadn't read the books and see what an asshole Edward was there, I could almost pass it off as the cute teasing that I know Young Kim was going for
ZeldaQueen: So yeah, as you all can see, Young Kim once again makes use of different coloring in here. It's actually pretty nice, although I'm almost certain that a good number of those trees weren't actually hand-drawn. Bella is all awe-struck by the light and starts going through the meadow and Edward goes all drama-llama as he sets out. And then, it gets silly
ZeldaQueen: You know, this panel actually makes me think that if Meyer had been halfway consistent with her physical descriptions of vampires, it could be understandable why things like Bella touching Edward's face would be so fantastic for him. I mean, let's say that he's marble-like and stone cold all of the time. He probably only ever has physical contact with other people who are marble-like and stone cold because he won't let any humans touch him (let's pretend that it's because he doesn't want to risk danger to them or whatever it is Meyer says, as opposed to him just being a pretentious ass). So feeling something soft and warm against his skin for the first time in a hundred years would be a very new sensation. Makes me wish Meyer actually was good enough to express that.
Anyway, yeah. I love how serious Edward is while he's sparkling in the sunlight! Jeez, any normal person would be facepalming with embarrassment over how silly they looked!
And really, most of this is the same sappy stuff from the books, all while they sit on a hill. I suppose if their conversation was more interesting or witty, this part wouldn't be too bad. For example, we get the part where Bella leans in for a kiss and Edward leaps back because he doesn't trust his control. We get some good panels of him slowly walking back into the meadow, before he sighs and apologizes to Bella for that. And then we get that stupid thing about him being the world's greatest predator, which doesn't match what came before it at all and which just makes him look like a dick who wants to intimidate his girlfriend. It's even more of a big-lipped alligator moment because immediately after he spends two entire pages ranting bout how dangerous he is, he gives Bella his hand and assures her that he will never hurt her. I guess the idea is that he's trying to help her feel secure, that she'll always be safe from whatever danger he is, but it just is stupid after he ran around her, ripping off tree branches and snarling while she gasped and shook.
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, I think that line about how Bella is Edward's favorite brand of heroine is one of the ones Meyer really likes. And yes, in case you were wondering, the line about the lion falling in love with the lamb also made it in.
I have to say, the two pages where we get Edward leaning in to sniff Bella's neck actually came out pretty nice. I think there might have been a little inspiration from the movie, where Edward pretends to bite Bella in a harlequin fashion while they're at prom. I think that Young Kim might have been trying to kick up some suspense and get the readers to worry that Edward might have bitten Bella after all, because when he leans in, we can't see his mouth and Bella gets this shocked look on her face, before relaxing and looking like she's totally getting aroused.
Actually...yeah, Young Kim really did heap on the sexy for the entire remainder of the scene, where Bella starts stroking Edward's face and then they kiss. Although it then gets very creepy, as Edward pulls back and is drawn without pupils or a mouth. Bella's reaction is being kind of embarrassed so I think it's supposed to be that she's worried that things got a little more intense than Edward could handle, but the first time I saw him like that, it was freaky.
And then Edward smiles and tells Bella that it's all good. We then get him picking her up and carrying her through the woods and get a lovely cliffhanger as she's on her way home. You know, given that I've yet to hear of a part two for this, I'll bet a lot of people who haven't read the books would be confused about what the deal was with James
ZeldaQueen: And that's the note the graphic novel ends on. The quote is just Young Kim thanking Meyer for supervising "each and every page", her friends, family, and the Yen Press team for their love and support, and her editor for her patience and encouragement. We also get some bull about how Bella and Edward started the graphic novel believing that they were too different to find happiness (um no, they were both whiny assholes), but that now it looks like they might find hapiness with each other. Dear, we read the books. We know how it turns out!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Thoughts
ZeldaQueen: So yeah, we'll just take a moment for a few parting thoughts on this all.
A lot of the various criticisms have been addressed elsewhere in this sporking. There are a lot of basic errors here. The speech font isn't exactly easy on the eyes, the speech bubbles and smaller panels tend to cover important things like characters' faces, and there are a ton of times when scenes that could show some action only have talking or narration.
A lot of the problems I had with the graphic novel - the stupid dialogue, the shallowness of the characters, and the pointless plot - were all things that were carried over from canon. I understand that, and I know that Young Kim really didn't have much choice in the matter. If anything was changed at all, Meyer and the diehard portion of the fanbase would revolt.
However it still begs the question of why this was any more insightful or interesting for anyone than the book or movie. Given how a good many plot points and details from the book are glossed over (like who Lauren is, for example), it seems that most newcomers to the fandom will be locked out, asking questions like "Why does Bella randomly sniff her hair when her lab partner is pissy?"
Artwork-wise, a few of the panels were very pretty, although there is the question of how much of it was actually drawn by Young Kim and how much was either copied directly or traced from other pictures. The character designs though, dear lord! I can't count how many times I looked at a character and thought how they looked like some sort of alien with an adult's face stuck on a teenager's body. I'm not sure exactly what it is about the features, but something is just not right about them all. If it were only the vampires, I would think it was Young Kim's way of showing how they are not human, but all of the human characters are drawn that way as well!
Pacing-wise, things jump around just as much as in the novel. This is quite grating, because there are a few times when Young Kim does put in a few of those picto-montages, which at least gives the readers a sense of time passing. There are some other times when there aren't any though, which makes the time jumps even more jarring. In fact, I got the impression that days passed here, as opposed to the canon months. I know that the amount of time a story is told does get changed depending on the media, but all it does in this case is make it even more inexplicable that Bella somehow became the darling of Forks and Edward Cullen, since she's been around for apparently much less time than in the book.
Ultimately, this thing seems to suffer from much the same thing that the movies suffered from. While the people making it did seem to try to make appropriate cuts and changes, I got the feeling that Meyer just kept sticking her nose in because she just couldn't stand the thought of her precious work being altered in any way, without her consent. I don't know what other works Young Kim has done so I honestly don't know how much of it can be chalked up to a bad job on the artist's end, but the back of the book gives us this quote from Meyer
"I've enjoyed working on this new interpretation of Twilight. Young has done an incredible job transforming the words that I have written into beautiful images. The characters and settings are very close to what I was imagining while writing the series"
ZeldaQueen: So yeah. all of you who noted how Bella was far hotter than the Plain Jane the book implied? Everyone who saw those maniac grins on Edward's face, especially when he talked about the Quileutes and their long memories? The horrible, terrifying, blank, serial killer-esque expressions on Edward's face whenever he was apparently flirting with Bella? That was what Meyer was thinking about. That was what her mind saw for her ultimate love story, with the greatest heroine and hero of all times.
Before I go hide under the bed, I'd like to give one final quote, this one from the graphic novel's blurb. "Twilight: The Graphic Novel provides rare insight into the author's vision of the original work as it is brought to life in this compelling new medium". That, ladies and gentlemen, is bullshit, clean and simple. There is nothing new here at all. We are told instead of shown, we get the same stupid quotes, and the characters, if it's possible, show even less depth or motives for their goals. The only insight we get is from the quote above, which gives us insight into Meyer's psyche and shows us that apparently she was just as batshit back then as she is now, but apparently just wasn't able to convey it as well.
The long and short of it? Twilight: The Graphic Novel is, in one word, pointless
ZeldaQueen: So yeah, still have Betrayed and Ghosts of the Abyss going on. City of Bones will hopefully be go for launch soon. Also, I found a new book which is horrible and I will be sporking soon and really needs to be ripped into. More details to follow! In the meantime, more Zoey Redbird and Kate Sparrow!
Onward to: Art Analysis
Back to: Part 6
Return to: Table of Contents
Also, a very Happy Birthday to mogseltof!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Part 7
ZeldaQueen: Going off of where we left off, we get some "cutesy" school stuff, including the part where Edward says that he doesn't like Mike's thoughts. Bella asks if he was spying on her in class and when he teases her about her physics fail in badminton, she gets all flustered and storms off. Given how it's drawn, I'm pretty sure Young Kim was aiming for it to be some lighthearted teasing. Except...again, we know how Midnight Sun went. We know how Edward laughed at stuff Bella was humiliated over. We know that he never lets her out of his sight. And we know what he wants to do to Mike for thinking unapproved thoughts.
Yeah.
Also, the "Oh you!" routine doesn't exactly come across as appropriate when one person has just confessed to mentally spying on the other!!!
They have lunch with the canon conversation and demonstration of Edward eating pizza, and both do look a like happier. I'm honestly not sure if I'm reading too much into it, but it looks like Young Kim was going for the idea that Edward was a bastard at the beginning of the book, but Bella changed him, Mama. This wouldn't be so bad except for two things. The first is that we know from the books that Edward wasn't just a jerk, he also used to be a murderer, and one who clearly is unrepentant. The second is that Edward continues to look smug and creepy. I think I've figured out why that is, incidentally. All of these characters have very almond-shaped eyes, which might explain why most of the shots look like they have their eyes narrowed and look spiteful or jerkish.
Anyway, we do get that stupid conversation about how Edward really loves Bella more than she loves him, damn it all! And then SON OF A BITCH, we get that stupid thing where Edward asks Bella her favorite color and gemstone and so on. And Young Kim is trying to make it interesting, with Bella and Edward holding hands and so on, but it's just painful how boring it is. Thank the lord, we only get one panel of it before we get to that stupid bit where Edward waxes poetry about how it's twilight. Oh, and there's a short bit where Billy Black and Jacob show up. It serves even less point than in the book, so let's just skip over it
ZeldaQueen: Wait, Bella actually wears her jeans to bed? Seriously? I know there's pajama bottoms and whatnot, but those look like her blue jeans.
So yeah, it's now the Day of Meadow Sparkling, and we get a picto-montage of Bella getting ready, deciding what to wear, and so on and so forth
ZeldaQueen: Yep, couldn't get much more Date Sim-ish if it tried.
So, off to the mountains! Again, we are blessedly spared Bella's constant griping about how clumsy she is, though Edward continues to be a jerk about her eyesight. And I curse it all, because if I hadn't read the books and see what an asshole Edward was there, I could almost pass it off as the cute teasing that I know Young Kim was going for
ZeldaQueen: So yeah, as you all can see, Young Kim once again makes use of different coloring in here. It's actually pretty nice, although I'm almost certain that a good number of those trees weren't actually hand-drawn. Bella is all awe-struck by the light and starts going through the meadow and Edward goes all drama-llama as he sets out. And then, it gets silly
ZeldaQueen: You know, this panel actually makes me think that if Meyer had been halfway consistent with her physical descriptions of vampires, it could be understandable why things like Bella touching Edward's face would be so fantastic for him. I mean, let's say that he's marble-like and stone cold all of the time. He probably only ever has physical contact with other people who are marble-like and stone cold because he won't let any humans touch him (let's pretend that it's because he doesn't want to risk danger to them or whatever it is Meyer says, as opposed to him just being a pretentious ass). So feeling something soft and warm against his skin for the first time in a hundred years would be a very new sensation. Makes me wish Meyer actually was good enough to express that.
Anyway, yeah. I love how serious Edward is while he's sparkling in the sunlight! Jeez, any normal person would be facepalming with embarrassment over how silly they looked!
And really, most of this is the same sappy stuff from the books, all while they sit on a hill. I suppose if their conversation was more interesting or witty, this part wouldn't be too bad. For example, we get the part where Bella leans in for a kiss and Edward leaps back because he doesn't trust his control. We get some good panels of him slowly walking back into the meadow, before he sighs and apologizes to Bella for that. And then we get that stupid thing about him being the world's greatest predator, which doesn't match what came before it at all and which just makes him look like a dick who wants to intimidate his girlfriend. It's even more of a big-lipped alligator moment because immediately after he spends two entire pages ranting bout how dangerous he is, he gives Bella his hand and assures her that he will never hurt her. I guess the idea is that he's trying to help her feel secure, that she'll always be safe from whatever danger he is, but it just is stupid after he ran around her, ripping off tree branches and snarling while she gasped and shook.
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, I think that line about how Bella is Edward's favorite brand of heroine is one of the ones Meyer really likes. And yes, in case you were wondering, the line about the lion falling in love with the lamb also made it in.
I have to say, the two pages where we get Edward leaning in to sniff Bella's neck actually came out pretty nice. I think there might have been a little inspiration from the movie, where Edward pretends to bite Bella in a harlequin fashion while they're at prom. I think that Young Kim might have been trying to kick up some suspense and get the readers to worry that Edward might have bitten Bella after all, because when he leans in, we can't see his mouth and Bella gets this shocked look on her face, before relaxing and looking like she's totally getting aroused.
Actually...yeah, Young Kim really did heap on the sexy for the entire remainder of the scene, where Bella starts stroking Edward's face and then they kiss. Although it then gets very creepy, as Edward pulls back and is drawn without pupils or a mouth. Bella's reaction is being kind of embarrassed so I think it's supposed to be that she's worried that things got a little more intense than Edward could handle, but the first time I saw him like that, it was freaky.
And then Edward smiles and tells Bella that it's all good. We then get him picking her up and carrying her through the woods and get a lovely cliffhanger as she's on her way home. You know, given that I've yet to hear of a part two for this, I'll bet a lot of people who haven't read the books would be confused about what the deal was with James
ZeldaQueen: And that's the note the graphic novel ends on. The quote is just Young Kim thanking Meyer for supervising "each and every page", her friends, family, and the Yen Press team for their love and support, and her editor for her patience and encouragement. We also get some bull about how Bella and Edward started the graphic novel believing that they were too different to find happiness (um no, they were both whiny assholes), but that now it looks like they might find hapiness with each other. Dear, we read the books. We know how it turns out!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Thoughts
ZeldaQueen: So yeah, we'll just take a moment for a few parting thoughts on this all.
A lot of the various criticisms have been addressed elsewhere in this sporking. There are a lot of basic errors here. The speech font isn't exactly easy on the eyes, the speech bubbles and smaller panels tend to cover important things like characters' faces, and there are a ton of times when scenes that could show some action only have talking or narration.
A lot of the problems I had with the graphic novel - the stupid dialogue, the shallowness of the characters, and the pointless plot - were all things that were carried over from canon. I understand that, and I know that Young Kim really didn't have much choice in the matter. If anything was changed at all, Meyer and the diehard portion of the fanbase would revolt.
However it still begs the question of why this was any more insightful or interesting for anyone than the book or movie. Given how a good many plot points and details from the book are glossed over (like who Lauren is, for example), it seems that most newcomers to the fandom will be locked out, asking questions like "Why does Bella randomly sniff her hair when her lab partner is pissy?"
Artwork-wise, a few of the panels were very pretty, although there is the question of how much of it was actually drawn by Young Kim and how much was either copied directly or traced from other pictures. The character designs though, dear lord! I can't count how many times I looked at a character and thought how they looked like some sort of alien with an adult's face stuck on a teenager's body. I'm not sure exactly what it is about the features, but something is just not right about them all. If it were only the vampires, I would think it was Young Kim's way of showing how they are not human, but all of the human characters are drawn that way as well!
Pacing-wise, things jump around just as much as in the novel. This is quite grating, because there are a few times when Young Kim does put in a few of those picto-montages, which at least gives the readers a sense of time passing. There are some other times when there aren't any though, which makes the time jumps even more jarring. In fact, I got the impression that days passed here, as opposed to the canon months. I know that the amount of time a story is told does get changed depending on the media, but all it does in this case is make it even more inexplicable that Bella somehow became the darling of Forks and Edward Cullen, since she's been around for apparently much less time than in the book.
Ultimately, this thing seems to suffer from much the same thing that the movies suffered from. While the people making it did seem to try to make appropriate cuts and changes, I got the feeling that Meyer just kept sticking her nose in because she just couldn't stand the thought of her precious work being altered in any way, without her consent. I don't know what other works Young Kim has done so I honestly don't know how much of it can be chalked up to a bad job on the artist's end, but the back of the book gives us this quote from Meyer
"I've enjoyed working on this new interpretation of Twilight. Young has done an incredible job transforming the words that I have written into beautiful images. The characters and settings are very close to what I was imagining while writing the series"
ZeldaQueen: So yeah. all of you who noted how Bella was far hotter than the Plain Jane the book implied? Everyone who saw those maniac grins on Edward's face, especially when he talked about the Quileutes and their long memories? The horrible, terrifying, blank, serial killer-esque expressions on Edward's face whenever he was apparently flirting with Bella? That was what Meyer was thinking about. That was what her mind saw for her ultimate love story, with the greatest heroine and hero of all times.
Before I go hide under the bed, I'd like to give one final quote, this one from the graphic novel's blurb. "Twilight: The Graphic Novel provides rare insight into the author's vision of the original work as it is brought to life in this compelling new medium". That, ladies and gentlemen, is bullshit, clean and simple. There is nothing new here at all. We are told instead of shown, we get the same stupid quotes, and the characters, if it's possible, show even less depth or motives for their goals. The only insight we get is from the quote above, which gives us insight into Meyer's psyche and shows us that apparently she was just as batshit back then as she is now, but apparently just wasn't able to convey it as well.
The long and short of it? Twilight: The Graphic Novel is, in one word, pointless
ZeldaQueen: So yeah, still have Betrayed and Ghosts of the Abyss going on. City of Bones will hopefully be go for launch soon. Also, I found a new book which is horrible and I will be sporking soon and really needs to be ripped into. More details to follow! In the meantime, more Zoey Redbird and Kate Sparrow!
Onward to: Art Analysis
Back to: Part 6
Return to: Table of Contents