In my pathetic attempt to catch up on BD2 promo, I happened
upon an interview yesterday where Rob was asked, ‘What happens now? What
happens after forever?’ Rob looked at the guy like he had three
heads, chuckled in his self -deprecating
way and said, ‘I have no idea.’ Funny
pause. Smirk. Head bob. ‘Yeah, I really
have no idea.’
Yeah... tried to find the link to the actual interview - but have you SEEN the list of promo clips? That's like a needle in a haystack. Just enjoy this instead... You get the idea... |
Rob, I’m right there with you.
What happens now?
The bright lights are all turned out. The wristbands have been
cutoff… Well ok, I’m the loser who hasn’t cut hers off. That’s a proverbial
umbilical cord I’m not ready to sever quite yet. Baby steps… The erotic, couture dresses and
barely there pantsuit have been given back to their designers. Summit is preparing
to count their millions. Rob and Kristen are off in England shopping for
groceries, preparing for their life as ninjas and probably toasting that our
ending, is finally their fresh start.
Rob is also probably beginning an epic experiment to see just
how long he can go without shaving… I
fear Mountain Man is coming…
Good Mountain Man Rob |
Baaaaaad Mountain Man Rob. *cringe* |
Is forever really our
goodbye?
I managed to sit through BD2 in the Nokia last Monday night
and didn’t shed too many tears. But
I’ve seen it two times since returning home and managed to cry a little bit
harder on each successive viewing. In part, because each time felt a little
closer to an end.
And, each time, while the credits rolled through the entire
Saga cast (goddamn you Bill Condon!) I couldn’t help but scroll, in my mind,
through the cast of characters I’ve met during this whole journey.
I’m not talking vampires and werewolves. I’m talking about
you ladies. And a few special gentlemen.
It’s like seeing a list of avi’s and handles flash by. Along with ridiculous conversations about sex
hair and eye sex and sex toys. Ok yes.
We’ve talked a lot of sex. But it’s also
conversations about our kids troubles at school, a sick relative, a lost job, a
new house, a cranky baby… and endless piles of fanfic.
The flashback scene we all knew Bill would try to kill us
with, reminds us Kristen isn’t the only girl in the room who’s grown up and
changed a lot these last handful of years. We’ve all changed and grown
together. In ways big and small.
Wee bitty Rob and Kristen... |
All grown up... |
I had a shirt made to wear in Fan Camp with a back that read:
‘…because at some point this stopped being just a little story about some
vampires and started being the story of us.’
I tried to explain that notion as I walked through camp with
a group one night that included a ‘friend of a friend’ who was there to see what
all the fuss was about. I think the
sentiment of that shirt was scratching the surface with him as he walked among
us, hearing all our stories, seeing us embrace one another, viewing all our
tents covered in pictures that commemorated years of friendship.
“This is about way more than a cute vampire,’ I told
him. “We all came to this thing for
different reasons, but what we found here are little pieces of ourselves we
wouldn’t have found anywhere else.”
So if it holds true this is bigger than vampires… do things
change now that the cold ones have all moved on to new feeding grounds?
I certainly don’t hope for Summit to conjure up some watered
down spinoff version of this whole phenom. As Kristen has said in so many
interviews, it feels complete. Edward
and Bella deserve that moment in the meadow. They deserve for us to leave them
there. Happy. And making out like wild
animals.
But the mere thought of that has me looking over my shoulder
at other, older fandoms, especially the ones that have stood the test of time.
Can we be like them?
Do we want to be?
We already endure the pop culture ridicule that seems to hold hands with the word
‘Twihard’. (After I help Rob find the creator of ‘RPatz’ I’m gunning for the
creator of this label, as the term makes my skin crawl whenever I hear it.) But
how does our culture’s view of super fans morph even further when the object of
the fan affection is something from ‘the past’?
Do we feel differently today about people who dress up like
Captain Kirk on weekends than people did back when the USS Enterprise made it’s
virgin voyage? (You know I’m sitting
here trying to make my fingers do that split thing now right? I never got Star
Trek...)
Once the DVD wrappers are torn away, and there’s truly
nothing ‘new’ to be had, does the fandom hit its own twilight and everything
just slowly fades to black?
I know lots of people out there are already suggesting Forever is not an ending. We will have red carpets to stalk for
future projects. We have a thriving fanfiction community that will keep these characters alive (and
our sex lives happy). Can we survive on
that?
We are essentially like Steph’s vampires now. We’ve been living on fresh human blood for
years. Feasting to the point of gluttony on The Bubble and filming leaks and
movie promo tours. Now it seems we’re
moving in with the Cullens. Becoming
‘vegetarians.’ We’ll have to learn to
like our eyes golden and a life of never being ‘fully satisfied.’
Will we like life
under Carlisle’s rules?
I don’t know. I hope
so.
I returned from LA to a family that I love more than
anything else. To a husband who has humored me but is really ready to have his wife back. I’m really ready to get more than 5 hours
sleep a night and jump back into my life too.
But I guess the answer to the question I’ve asked over and
over on this page is I don’t want to go back to being the woman I was before I
met all of you. She was really boring. My
life the last few years has been more vibrant. I want my life to include you
all in some way. Maybe smaller than
before. But in some way.
The front of that shirt I wore in camp said this: “One woman’s dream, became a few great books,
that turned into a handful of movies, that created a sisterhood, that changed
our lives forever.”
Me and Steph...and my shirt. Which CafePress cockblocked AFTER they printed & shipped it! Suckers! |
When I am old and gray and sitting in a rocking chair
somewhere waiting for my own life’s
credits to roll by – so many of you will be included. I will look back and fondly remember endless nights
spent on twitter trading Rob Porn, snot sobbing support groups reading EP,
trying to stay out of jail on epic nights of Best Kisses and filming in the
streets of Brazil, using the term Laters way before it was cool, huddling in
dark LA parking lots at 3am, bawling the first time meeting Stephenie, taking
chair dancing lessons with the DC girls in my family room, hearing catcalls and
sniffles fill the Nokia when the words ‘The Twilight Saga’ finally faded off
the screen…
Clearly my flashback scene will be longer than Bella’s…
Bill Condon’s brilliance flipped pages so we could see those words Stephenie chose for her own
ending . ‘…We continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our
forever.’
I wish there was a way to flip forward to see what lies
ahead for us…
Forever.
Whatever that means…
- <3
twopeas1pod
Who
wonders where Alice is when you need her.
The beautiful thing that welcomed me home... |
I'll always have Kristen's back.... I mean, ear. #TeamKristen. |