The problem with Twilight.

Here be spoilers. Ye be warned!

So The Hunger Games (which I will refer to as THG from this point on) movie came out last month, and in my personal opinion, the movie was all right. It was true to the book, despite the minor changes they've made.

Naturally, I then went around looking for THG discussion forums. Things were pleasant at first, until the emergence of threads entitled, "Team Peeta or Team Gale?!"

These threads started to take over the forum slowly, and now, there are several threads discussing the same thing. Now, this irks me for two reasons:

1) I don't like it when people clutter up the forum with duplicate threads. If there already is a thread discussing Peeta vs Gale, then why make a new one? Are you too blind to spot these existing threads?

2) THG is not Twilight. So stfu please.

I think reason number 1 is easy to understand. When I go to the forum, I'm always hoping for a new topic to be discussed - but instead, I see another goddamn thread on Peeta vs Gale. It's annoying, and it gets on my nerves.

My second reason for hating these threads needs some explanation, I think. So here we go:

I hate it when people start using the term "Team" for Peeta and Gale. As you may or may not know, the whole "Team X versus Team Y" thing is made popular by the Twilight fans. It's often used to argue whether Edward Cullen, the sparkly disco-ball vampire-wannabe, or Jacob Black, the 'I-liked-you-enough-at-first-but-then-you-turned-into-a-pedophile' werewolf (or shall we say shapeshifter, since SMeyer screwed up her own headcanon) deserves to be with the series' Mary Sue of a lead character, Bella Swan.

One person in the THG forum argued that there's nothing wrong with the usage of the term 'Team,' or with the whole 'Team Peeta vs Team Gale' topics, because it's the romantic sub-plot of the book. It deserves to be discussed about, she says, because it's also a part of the books. Therefore, if some of us have problems with seeing the topic being discussed, she says that we should just stay away from the threads.

While I agree with her that the romance aspect of THG deserves to be discussed about, I think she's missing our crucial point: that we want these people to stop using the term 'team' and fangirl over how hot Gale or Peeta is, because it's ruining the awesomeness of THG by making it seem like the love triangle is all there is to the series.

It annoys me that there are people who want to only discuss about Gale and Peeta, and how cute or sexy they are, because 1) Obviously they're basing these claims on the movie, where the boyish Josh Hutcherson plays Peeta (who they claim is, OMG SO CUTE11!!) and the ever-sexy brother of Chris Hemsworth's, Liam Hemsworth, plays Gale (who they often describe as OMG SO HOT11!!!) - this only makes me look down upon these kinds of fans even more because it's obvious that they don't care much about the books at all; and 2) There's so much more to THG than Peeta and Gale, and these squealing fangirls discussing their 'teams' only further ruin THG by failing to look past the love triangle theme and into the more fascinating themes that Collins had come up with.

Also, the love triangle itself is so different from the one in Twilight. For me, I had no doubts at first that Gale really did like Katniss, because they'd been friends for quite some time, and at a very difficult period for them both. Their dads had both died, and they both had to look after their own families - it's a stressful life, and it's understandable that Gale fell for the girl who's always there with him in the forest. Even if we didn't know whether Gale liked Katniss or not at the beginning of the book, it's obvious that he respected her and liked her enough to suggest,

"Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it."

Meanwhile, I was skeptical when I read about Peeta's confession. Let's keep in mind that he confessed his feelings, that he'd had a crush on Katniss since forever, on live TV in the Capitol during the intreview with Caesar Flickerman. This is more than enough to make me doubt Peeta's true intentions. Was he trying to fool Katniss so that she wouldn't view him as an enemy in the Games? Was it one of his strategies to win the Games? He knew how talented Katniss was when it came to hunting, so it's only logical that he'd want to try and mess her head up before the Games. Even afterwards, I had my doubts about Peeta's alleged crush on Katniss. Who wouldn't? He teamed up with the Careers in the Games, for heaven's sake.

Now let's go back to Twilight, the poor excuse of a book. Why did Edward like Bella? And why did Bella like Edward? Why did Jacob fall for her?

Edward was attracted to Bella because he couldn't read her mind (and we never got any explanation for this either: what was so special about Bella, that Edward couldn't read her thoughts? Since SMeyer didn't explain, most of us have agreed to settle down with, "Because she doesn't have anything on her mind to begin with; she's that shallow.")

And as far as anyone's concerned, Bella only liked Edward for his physical appearance. She described his features in painful purple prose - his eyes, his skin, his hair, and at one point, even his freakin' breath. It's obvious from this alone that Twilight's main theme is the attraction between two people, and not much else. I mean, in one of the chapters where the biology turned off the lights so the class could watch a movie, Bella actually got horny. I'm not sure Katniss ever got horny in THG -- do you see my point now? These two are different book series entirely, and comparing them just makes you look pathetic. Twilight is basically about a girl who fell for a guy. The end.

But THG is different altogether. The main thing that draws people to the series isn't Peeta or Gale, or who Katniss will ultimately choose, but the Hunger Games and its concept, where 24 teens were chosen each year to be thrown into an arena to kill each other off. That, more than anything, deserves to be discussed - not Team Peeta or Team Gale.

And there are other fascinating and sickening things that we can discuss about when it comes to THG - how the Capitol saw the Games as a form of entertainment while those from the Districs basically hated and feared it; how extremely different the Capitol was from the poor district from which Katniss hailed; the question of humanity and whether or not Katniss would kill when push comes to shove, and so, so much more.

I guess the problem with Twilight, is that it tries so hard to be one of the good series with an actual plot other than Bella's lady boner when she sees Edward. First, it rubs all over Harry Potter's tailcoat, trying to get some of its fame. When that failed, it looks for other well-written series, in this case THG, to compare itself to.

There was this one thread saying that THG is exactly like Twilight. This was what I said:

Yes, they are exactly the same. Bella gets chosen at the Reaping in Forks. And since she's such a klutz, everyone knows that she won't stand a chance in the Games without the help of her sparkly boyfriend. She is later killed in the Games by Glimmer. Didn't you read the books? :/

See what I just did there? I highlighted both the differences between the series and the pathetic 'plot' of Twilight.

THG has a strong female lead character who hunts for food and is the breadwinner of her family. Twilight, sadly, has a whiny, selfish, shallow little girl who clings to and couldn't do anything without her vampire boyfriend as the main character.

So, THG or Twilight? I think the answer is obvious.