New York Post Tries To Battle The Twi-Hype

New York Post writer, Ari Karpel, recently put out an article entitled "5 Reasons 'Vampire Diaries' Is Better Than 'Twilight'". Now while I'm actually a big Vampire Diaries fan, I couldn't help but get a little riled up at the the tone of this article and a few of the reasons Karpel gives.


Karpel's 5 Reasons VD is Better than Twilight:

1. Vampire Diaries came first.
2. Vampire Diaries is bloody and gory and full of killing.
3. These sexy vampires actually have sex.
4. Elena is an independent young woman. (And Bella, by contrast, is not.)
5. Had it with the Twi-Hype? Vampire Diaries is the underdog.


I could go on for hours about each of these, but I'll keep my responses simple because, quite honestly, that's all it will take:

1. Since when does first mean better? I can see why this would give VD itself more credit, as most think of it as someone trying to copy Twilight and get in on the vampire hype. However, it certainly doesn't make it better than Twilight - only separate.

2. Twilight has always been about the love story rather than vampires. Yes, there are vampires, but it is not ABOUT vampires. So you are right, that VD is more about blood and gore...but again, since when does that mean better? It simply means different, which is perhaps why Twilight has gotten such a strong following. It was nice to get a fresh and less disgusting vampire story in many fans' opinions.

3. K...clearly you haven't read the Twilight series...Breaking Dawn? Honeymoon? Pregnant with a half-vampire baby? Ringing any bells? Not to mention, sex is EVERYWHERE in these novels from Eclipse on out. It's just between the lines. It isn't so much morality that keeps them from having sex (though Edward is oddly moral for a vampire, it fits his character nonetheless because of the time period he is from), but the simple fact that Stephenie Meyer created her vampires in such a way that having sex with a human would almost assuredly mean killing that human. So, since she wanted to keep her main character around, she kind of had to keep them from jumping in the bed too quickly. Again, why is that bad?

4. Don't even get me started on this one. This may have to wait for a completely separate post. I'll just leave it at this. Bella IS independent. VERY. This arguement always bugs me. I'll have to write in more detail about this later.

5. This reason holds no validity. Being an underdog doesn't make something better.

Quite honestly, I think #5 is the only reason you wanted to write the article. You're tired of the hype so you whip out 5 things you like about VD, which basically summed up is blood, gore, sex, strong women, and the fact that it's not Twilight. Since Twilight has all but one of those things (and a bit less gore - it's a love story, not a horror story), I'm not really seeing your point.

Ok, I think I'm done for now. There is so much more that can be said about this stuff, so if you want to discuss you can comment or head over to the forum.

The full New York Post article is HERE by the way.