With the Twilight Renaissance upon us during an age of remakes, it was inevitable that there would be a reboot. The show is currently in its infancy, but it has caused plenty of discussion within the fandom: who’s going to play our main characters? What direction will they go with the storyline? Blue tint or no?

It’ll be months before we get any answers, but for now, we’ll ponder the possibilities of sparkly-skinned vampires in the age of TikTok.

On October 24th, we're holding a New Moon Brew 'N View at the Majestic Theater in Madison! GET TICKETS: https://majesticmadison.com/events/

Despite often being the punching bag of the internet, online fandoms are powerful, precious things. They’re spaces where people can find escapism and create friendships over a shared love of something as ridiculous as the Twilight saga. Even as adults, it’s cathartic and healing to reignite our obsession and to pay homage to our younger selves that grew up kissing Edward Cullen posters.

Fae, Kayla and Taylor, three of the administrators for the hugely popular Facebook group, Twilight Shitposting, reminisce on the past and present of the Twilight fandom. Together, we remind ourselves of why we fell in love in the first place, and how we can grow with media that is–seemingly–frozen in time.

Twilight Shitposting:
-Become a ratty and join the Facebook group here.
-Follow their Instagram here.
-Follow their Twitter here.

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Much like Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey spawned a renaissance for women across the globe; except instead of plastic Halloween fangs and Edward Cullen barbies selling out on shelves, it was blindfolds, human leashes and handcuffs. Even with its Mormon backbone, Twilight somehow had enough sultry moments to inspire author EL James to create the best selling erotica of all time, additionally inspiring a new wave of conversations about kink and pleasure in the mainstream. We take on the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy and its vampy origins.

In the midst of the Twilight Renaissance, we know just how saturated the internet is with quotes and memes around the widely-loved (and hated) saga. But what does this world look like to an outsider? Would someone who has never interacted with Twilight even enjoy reading it today? Can the book hold up in 2023 to fresh eyes?

We challenged Shawn Johnson, the State Capitol Bureau Chief for Wisconsin Public Radio, to take on reading the first book cover to cover to test the longevity of Twilight and determine if we can recruit even an unlikely TwiHard.

Perhaps the biggest barrier for Twilight fans is reconciling the huge age gaps in the romantic relationships of the Twilight saga. How do we come to terms with Bella and Edward’s one-hundred year age gap, especially in the context of Edward being immortal? Can we ever justify Jacob and Renesmee’s epilogue romance, knowing he helped raise her? We attempt to unravel these relationships, Stephenie Meyer’s reasoning behind making them and whether there is anything redemptive from large age gap relationships.

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Stephenie Meyer wrote Life and Death, a 2015 gender-swapped retelling of Twilight, for the ten year anniversary of Twilight. Through the retelling, she also intended to prove a point about her damsel in distress main character–that the story would be the same if Bella was actually Beau. The storyline, however, lacks freshness and provides more name swap confusion than introspection into whether or not gender sways the storyline. We dive into Life and Death so you don’t have to.

Check out the Gender Forking Podcast on whatever streaming platform you use!

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Twilight star, Ashley Greene, has joined the playing field, and we might be on the losing side. Her new podcast, The Twilight Effect brings a behind-the-scenes look at how the movies were made and what it was like being in the center of the universe–or just left of center. Is there enough room for the both of us, or should someone hit the road? We give you our full review of The Twilight Effect in our one-year anniversary episode.