mr-cullen i disagree bella is only human with nothing special powers the "woman" from harry potter are "witches". they know "magic". for me that dont count the same level with bella. again you say fighting thing do you suppose bella to fight the vampires without any special powers??? i even have doubt that Hermione or so called Ginny can fight anyone without magic. tell me if i am wrong... oh you will say bella have sort of shield thing too but its not attack its for defense.... don't twilight have strong female characters???rosalie??alice??esme???? oh come on .....have many of you have read twilight????

mr-cullen you want bellas past????tell us hermiones past first..

ariba_c Its not about physical strength. The girls in HP are strong in the sense that they dont need a boy to basically live. Bella completely fell apart when Edward left her. Hermione didnt when Ron left her. This is how I feel and you may feel differently. But either way I personally find Bella to be weak and always will...

ariba_c And about Hermione's past we only know very little but she isnt the main character. Harry is.

mr-cullen what about magic thing then?

lukita ^and what about magic? Are you asking about the origin of magic or how they work? And if you want to compare bella past, compare it to harry. Since they both are the main character the one that most important to the story.

NANCYSAINI2 Are u forgeting smthing........EDWARD is also main character.......aNd talking about strength Bella is very strong..............Even luving another species against all odds is smthing tht requires gr8 strength.............

cassie-1-2-3 Harry doesn't have much of a past. We get a glimpse of Harry as a toddler, and we watch Harry grow up from age 11. That's not really "back story".

NANCYSAINI2 Yeah rightly said.........And if u ask fr ED's past then u get only glimpses when he turned into vampire.........but wht do u wnt more.....He was born in 1901......So he is like 111 years old....U cnt get a past there....And twilight is nt about past........It is about future...

cassie-1-2-3 We do get a little of Edward's past. We got his human education and career goals.

cunha27 Seeing how we're all sharing our feelings, [b]these are my personal feelings and opinions:[/b] 1)I like the characters in HP. They're what attracted me to the series and are what makes the books interesting. The same can be said about the Twilight characters. From the moment I picked up the books , I wanted to know more about all of them. I liked some characters, found others annoying, admired others (Jacob), etc. I enjoyed finding more about each of them as the books progressed, and at the end of the series found myself wishing Meyers would write spin off series about some of my favourites. I still do. 2)There is a lot of background information about most of the Twilight characters, the same as in HP. That being said, I found it quite disappointing the lack of information about Hermione before she attended Hogwarts. I mean, she was one of the main characters, and supposedly one of Harry's best friend, yet we know next to nothing about her life apart from how she affects Harry. 3)I found the acting in HP to be a bit hit and miss. Like missdada15, I too don't know if it was down to the actors, the script or direction. I loved, looooved Alan Rickman. I liked Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Jason Isaacs and in DH Daniel Radcliffe. I really didn't like Bonnie Wright, Emma Watson, Mark Williams, Jim Broadbent, Richard Griffiths, Julie Walters, Predrag Bjelac and Katie Leung. Every time they came on screen I was reminded that these were just actors playing parts and it kind of broke the flow of the movies for me. As much as I can say that there wasn't any stand out performance in Twilight, I found there were less breaks in the flow of the movie than in HP due to the acting. 4)Twilight's purpose is not to be educational. It's pure escapism and aimed at a more adult audience who is already aware of all the lessons “taught” in HP. Most people who read Twilight already know that women too are strong and independent, about bravery and loyalty, how friendship is important, how governments can be cruel, that racism is wrong, looks can be deceiving, etc. I personally don't need the author to be condescending and try to preach to me things I already know. 5)I agree with part of point 5. I do like JK's writing better that Meyer's. It doesn't mean I don't like Meyer's writing, just not as much as Rowling's. JK however was also guilty of creating Mary Sues eg Lily Evans, Ginny Weasley and by the end of DH Neville, Ron and Hermione were just about perfect wizard specimens. She also didn't think through a lot of repercussions of some of the spells, creatures and situations she created. I could go on and on on this topic alone. As to real vampires, what is a real vampire? Vampire myths have existed since prehistoric times. Different cultures have their own type and sometimes vastly different versions of Vampires. Which is the authentic one? I personally have a lot more issues with the way JK Rowling wrote Elves. Making them this pathetic race of slaves whose sole purpose was to be inferior, serve, and grovel to a wizard, even after they'd been freed. I much prefer the regal elves in Lord of the Rings.

lukita I wonder when did I said anything about edward past. This book mainly from Bella POV so she is the main chharacter, it's that simple. Just like HP is from harry POV. You only get a glimpse of harry past? So you meant all the past refference from people around him doesn' count? I think it's detailed enough, unless you want a detailed story about his life at the dursley. Which in my 'opinion', is not that important to the plot On another note: Funnily enough it's twilight fan that recently just being dramatic by screaming 'OH MY GOD ME SPEAKING MY OPINION ABOUT HP PLEASE DON'T ATTACK ME' and here I saw people atacking someone who have exactly stated that this is her 'personal' opinion..

lukita Being disagree is not the problem, you can state your opinion in a good way. And say you disagree with her point yadda yadda.. But some of you purposely ridiculling her. That's what I was trying to say. That's being said, and I'm finished here.

mr-cullen i m just pointing that bella is only human till last book and hp girls no magic read my comment above

missdada15 Thank you lukita,i gave up commenting on this though. Whatever i say will just end up in Twilight fans eating my soul,lol. (Not all though,some are okay and others are eather lacking tack or just like being rude.)

bri-marie So, if someone debates on a debate spot with Harry Potter fans, they're rude/disrespectful/lacking in tact? Why does that not go for the people who debate with Twilight fans? Isn't that a bit hypocritical? No one is being rude. No one is ridiculing anyone. No one is disrespecting anyone. People are disagreeing and stating why, in a polite manner. Disagreeing does not equal disrespect.

missdada15 @bri-marie,if you must know i didn't find your comments disrespectful,i was talking about some other certain people know posted here. (I did say SOME.)

mr-cullen u r talking about me????? lol

alexisn10 [b]As for the Twilight characters..i think they are mostly pretty boring and emotionless.[/b] Not necessarily. Bella was the only boring character because she didn't have much going for her. But characters like Edward, Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, and Carlisle had a lot of interesting qualities that made the series more entertaining. [b]To be fair..i'm not sure if the acters in Twilight were terrible or if the one who has written the script was terrible or if the one who made the scenes go together just failed terribly.[/b] The Twilight actors (except Taylor Lautner) are actually very talented. Kristen was magnificent in Panic Room as well as Rob was in Water for Elephants. Dakota Fanning was great in...everything she starred in. It's all just the script writing that makes the acting poor. For some reason, the acting is emotionless and dry. It wasn't like that in the books. [b]Harry Potter teaches us that women too are strong and independent,it teaches us about bravery and loyalty,how friendship is important,government is cruel,racism is useless,looks can be deceiving,good wins over evil...[/b] Well then again, Harry Potter is a children's/YA book series. So themes like that pretty much have to be in all children's/YA book series. But just because Twilight is strictly YA/Adult doesn't mean that it can't supply readers with absolutely no messages (or bad ones). So I agree with what you're saying missdada15. I feel like since Twilight is in the POV of a female and the main audience is females, Smeyer should be teaching us women to not be male-dependent. I pretty much agree with everything else.

bri-marie @missdada15: I never said you meant me. I'm pretty sure I know at least one of the people you were talking about. And I still stand by what I said. [i]No one[/i] here is disrespecting you.

missdada15 @bri-marie -Not how i see it. @alexisn10 -Yeah,i guess it could had been the script and others weren't as bad as Bella..i still thought of them as boring though.(My opinion.)

bri-marie What exactly are they doing that you feel disrespected? I was one of the harsher comments on this thread, and you've already said you weren't talking about me...

ariba_c About Harry's past: There isnt much needed to know. After the age of 1 he lived at the Dursley's and obviously nothing really important would happen to him there as far as we know...

cassie-1-2-3 Same for Bella. Her past wasn't at all relevant to what was happening in the moment. We know enough to know who she is, and that's all we really needed to know.

NANCYSAINI2 Please ppl can't we drop the PAST thing and cm 2 present............What the hell does past hv 2 do wid any of the series...................