Related: Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Almost Fixed The Book's Bad EndingĪs such, the title New Moon’s reference to the darkest point of the lunar cycle underscores that Bella is at her most hopeless and depressed when Edward leaves.
Despite featuring more humor and a warmer color palette, New Moon also centers its narrative on scenes of Bella at the lowest point she reaches in the entire series when Edward leaves her alone with no explanation of his absence.
Despite Catherine Hardwicke being replaced by American Pie director Chris Weitz for the movie adaptation of New Moon, the sequel is significantly tonally darker than the more visually gloomy first film in the series. However, as well as the obvious pun on Jacob’s lycanthropy, New Moon also refers to the darkest point in the lunar cycle. There’s an obvious double meaning to the first Twilight sequel’s title, as New Moon introduces werewolves into the world of Twilight. Here, the twilight of the title refers to the end of their childhood and their inhabiting of the space between adulthood and childhood.
As late adolescents, they are neither considered adults nor children, not yet free to live independently but also not as innocent and in need of protection as children. Like so many fictional pairings, Bella and Edward fall for one another at the twilight of their youth. However, there’s also a metaphorical meaning to the title, as well the practical point of the Cullen family requiring twilight to mask their condition. It is perpetual twilight in the small town, meaning Bella is never far from vampires and can fall for Edward despite traditional vampire lore dictating that he and his brood of bloodsuckers couldn’t live normal daytime lives. Since the infamously sparkly vampires of Twilight aren’t killed by the sun but instead exposed by it, the Cullen clan of the saga resides in the small, gloomy town of Forks. The original title comes from the point at the end of the day where it’s neither day nor night, the only time that is home to both vampires and humans traditionally. TwilightĪ huge success upon publication and an even bigger hit at the box office a few years later, the original Twilight was a phenomenon that at the height of its considerable fame rivaled the Harry Potter series.
New Moon and Eclipse introduced readers to Jacob Black and broadened the scope of the Twilight saga’s lore in the process, resulting in a more complex storyline for the series. However, after the success of the first novel, Meyer was contracted to write two sequels that account for the time between the first and last novels, filling in the blanks and expanding on the supporting cast of vampires and werewolves. The Twilight saga’s titles reflect both Bella’s emotional states throughout the novels and their movie adaptations, and the state of the infamous love triangle between herself, Edward, and the hot-headed, problematic Quileute werewolf Jacob in each installment. When Meyer originally wrote the series, the Twilight saga was intended to be a two-book series starting with Twilight and immediately followed by its ending, Breaking Dawn. Related: Why Twilight: Breaking Dawn's Baby Was CGI (And How It Was Almost Worse)Īlthough the Twilight series never explicitly addresses this, each of the individual installment titles can be read as a reflection of where the story of Bella is, and where it is heading. A close look at these titles tells the story of the series through a metaphorical moon cycle reflected in Bella's character arc. However, neither the novel series nor the Twilight movies ever explained the titles of the series itself, Twilight, and each installment, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. The hugely successful paranormal novel series told the tale of Bella Swan, an ordinary teenager, and Edward Cullen, the ageless vampire she falls in love with.īolstered by a strong cast and a self-aware streak of humor, the Twilight movie adaptations may have flopped with critics but they were a hit with audiences and fans of the source novels.
Released in 2008, Thirteen director Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight was a gloomy, grey-tinged adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s YA sensation the Twilight saga.
The Twilight saga’s titles are never explained in the original novel series or their blockbuster movie adaptations, but they’re secretly a reflection of the character arc undergone by the main character Bella.