Yup, I was at the Breaking Dawn Premiere :-)

*SPOILER ALERT*

You want to talk about true love?  Romance?  Take a dive into the Twilight series.  (For those of you who have only seen the movies and skipped out on the books, you may have to take this with a grain of salt.  The romance between Edward and Bella in the books is vastly different than in the movies, thus creating an even better plot.)

I was at the premiere of the newest movie, Breaking Dawn Part 1, which includes the wedding of Edward and Bella, their honeymoon, and the birth of their child.

The movie starts with a few select characters receiving an invitation to their wedding, and then shows the Cullen family preparing for the ceremony the next day.

The wedding is filled with romance – rose pedals lining the aisle, everyone dressed beautifully, smiling, and Edward only has eyes for his bride.

The must-have shot of the groom, waiting for his bride.

Edward staring into his bride's eyes.

Bella mesmerized by her groom.

Their families so happy for them.

 This looks, on the outside, to be one of the sweetest, most romantic movie scenes.  However, the back story is where it becomes...what we'd call emotion over fact or reason.

Edward is a vampire.  Bella is human.  As a vampire, you do not age.  Edward has looked the same way he does right now for almost 100 years.  He will not die, unless killed.  Bella, as a human, ages quickly and will look much different 100 years from now, and will eventually die naturally, if not sooner in an accident.  

In order for this couple to spend eternity together, Bella must also be a vampire.  In order to change Bella into a vampire, she must give up her life.  Completely.  She must give up everyone she knows, everything familiar to her, in order to spend her life with Edward.  Does this sound normal to you?

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE this series, and I would take Edward in a heartbeat, but if this were real life - which I sometimes have a hard time convincing myself that it's not - this would not be considered healthy.

The Twilight Series (books)

The romance in this scene is constructed by the music, the outfits, the smiles, and the environment.  Who wouldn’t want to get married in a beautiful forest?  Very few people.

As the movie continues, the couple goes on their honeymoon.  The romance is created when Edward stops their taxi in a seemingly spontaneous way and takes his bride into the streets where there is a celebration going on.  They dance, they smile, they explore, and Edward is willing to enjoy every second with his wonderful new wife.

When they get to their honeymoon location, Edward tells Bella they have the entire island to themselves.  His father, Carlisle, gave his wife, Esme, the entire island as a gift, and they were borrowing it.  This shows romance in a different sort of way – the fact that Edwards family is rich enough, and powerful enough to get things for themselves.  Anything thing they want.

Edward then carries Bella through the doorway – just as is expected in a romantic movie.  What woman doesn’t want to the carried through the doorway to their honeymoon?  Not one.

Edward carrying Bella into the honeymoon

The honeymoon is sweet, fun, playful, and seemingly perfect.  They swim, make love (successfully, which was a concern of theirs, since he is so strong), and seem to have a great time.

Fun on the honeymoon

All of a sudden, 14 days into their honeymoon, Bella doesn’t feel well.  She feels something moving in her stomach and realizes she is late on her period.  Immediately the tone of the movie is shifted.  Edward has a frantic call with his father, a doctor, and within minutes they are leaving, on their way home.

Bella realizing she is pregnant

Edward says that Carlisle needs to “get it out of her.”  But you can tell, by the way Bella is holding her stomach and smiling a little, she does not want that to happen.  This is where Edward starts to only care about his individual wants, not Bella’s.  He completely disagrees with Bella when she says that she wants to keep the baby, and he wants her to survive.

Now, I don’t want to give away the whole movie, because it was great and everyone should go see it, but the romance in this movie takes a couple different forms.  First, romance by emotion over fact or reason.  The fact that Bella is willing to give up her family, friends and life forever, just to be with Edward.  Second, romance by individual wants over group wants.  Edward wants Bella to get rid of the baby, but only because he doesn’t want to live without her.  This could also be seen the other way – everyone wants Bella to abort the pregnancy, but she is only interested in her own opinions.