“Twilight Vs. Roswell: A Comparison Review”
By Andrew Ronzino
We all know about the Twilight craze. In 2005 Stephenie Meyer wrote a mediocre novel about a sparkling vampire, and teenage girl’s obsession with said vampire; now, Twilight is a huge sensation. However, what most people don’t know about is that in 1999 there was a TV show that aired on the WB called Roswell. Now when you compare the three season TV show with Twilight, you will find that they are extremely similar. And it makes me wonder if Stephenie Meyer got her inspiration from the show. I would like to show the similarities between these two stories.
Let me start off by saying that I have never read the Twilight novels, I will be basing this comparison from the movies, which I have been told are fairly accurate to the books. Also, I have a nostalgic connection to Roswell, as I watched it when I was a teenager. I have no meaningful connection to Twilight whatsoever, so if I seem bias, that’s because I am. Also, let me just come right out and make myself perfectly clear, I hate Twilight, I think it’s stupid. However, because this is a comparison review that really doesn’t matter. One last thing before we begin, the stories aren’t exactly the same, there are a lot of differences. The plots, for example, are very different. But where they’re similar, they’re VERY similar! Also, you may hear some stuff repeated over and over again, that’s because these things keep happening over and over again!
Just so you know, this entire review contains spoilers.
Let us begin. And we shall do so by examining our main characters.
Liz Parker and Bella Swan
Liz Parker, the female protagonist of Roswell, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico her whole life, and is quite used to the alien motif that surrounds the town. Bella Swan, the female protagonist of Twilight, moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father.
Liz and Bella are very similar in personality. Well, similar in the sense that they have NO personality. Both Liz and Bella are complete Mary Sues. Two perfect girls, with somewhat perfect lives, who live in small towns and have no real flaws; boring and bland. They even look somewhat similar; short and brunette. Both don’t want to live where they live, and can’t wait until they’re old enough to move out and get on with their bland lives.
Both girls fall in love with a “complicated guy” at the drop of the hat, and become completely obsessed with him. One is an alien freak named Max Evans, and the other is a sparkling vampire named Edward Cullen. Both girls monologue about their lives, Bella does this through narration at the beginning of each movie. Liz does this at the beginning of each episode while she writes in her journal. This only happens in the first season, there are only a few episodes in the second and third seasons where he does this.
Both girls are misunderstood and “complicated”, and find themselves in strange relationships with their freakish boyfriends. The girls of each story become engrossed with the issues that surround their vampire/alien guys and their vampire/alien associates. Both Liz and Bella go though the whole “I love you, and you love me, but we can’t be together because your and vampire/alien” thing. Liz is willing to throw normal life away to be involved with Max and his world, and Bella is willing to throw her normal life away to be involved with Edward and his world. Both girls are willing to let other people and friends be hurt and even die for their desire to be involved with their men. The are both fought over my two guys. Some of these thing will be talked about in greater detail in later segments of this review.
Needless to say, Liz Parker and Bella Swan are almost the same in every regard.
Max Evans and Edward Cullen
Max Evans, the male protagonist of Roswell, is an alien from some distant world who crash landed on Earth in 1947 with his sister, Isabel (played by Katherine Heigl, that’s right, THE Katherine Heigl…hot!), friend, Michael (the guy who looks like Edward, but we’ll get to that later), and Tess, who they find later on. Edward Cullen, the male protagonist of Twilight, is a vampire who was turned in 1918, moved around a lot, and it currently settling in Forks with his vampire family, called a coven.
Both boys are younger than they should be. Max, though his ship crashed in 1947, he is only sixteen in the first season of Roswell. This has to do with the fact that he, Isabel, Michael, and Tess were in some kind of pod things, and they hatched out of the pods in 1983, looking like normal six-year-old human children. He does age normally, but still, if they crashed in 1947, and the show takes place in 1999, he should be older. All hail the teen drama! Edward, a normal kid, I guess, was turned into a vampire in 1918 when he was seventeen. This makes him over one hundred years old (as the movie takes place in 2005…I think). Why does he want a seventeen-year-old-girl?! I don’t know, but pedophilia seems to be okay with vampires. Also, if he was seventeen when he was turned, and is stuck at that age, why not say he’s 18 and get to stay out of school. Vampire or not, I would not want to be in high school for one hundred years!
Both Max and Edward are major creepers. For example, both guys like to stare at the girls they find attractive. Edward is always staring at Bella and it’s very creepy. Max always stares at Liz, and it’s very creepy. Both girls seem to stare back, creating this awkwardness that the viewers have to endure. One of the very first lines in the pilot episode of Roswell is spoken by Liz’s best friend Maria, and she says, “Max Evans is staring at you again.” In the opening credits of the show, half of the shots during the song is of Max and Liz just staring at each other! Edward, on the other hand stares at Bella constantly, he never seems to stop. If he’s not doing vampire stuff, he’s doing stalker stuff! How is it that these girls find this appealing and, in fact, makes them want the guys even more? It’s so backwards!
Both boys are bland and have hardly any personality. Take a look at the pictures above. See the expression on Max’s face? That is his expression 98% of the time, and that is NOT an exaggeration. I just finished watching three seasons of Roswell, that look was on his face all the time. He smiles every now and then, and on rare occasions he’s look shocked about something. And the look on Edward’s face in that picture is also how he looks most of the time. Granted, he smiles more than Max does, but in retrospect, Roswell was much longer than Twilight, so in reality they smiled about the same amount of time on screen. These guys can’t seem to display emotions!
They also seem to have a desire to always be around their girl, to the point of obsession, but I’ll touch on that in greater detail later. Max Evans is an alien with powers, and Edward Cullen is a vampire with powers, but they are almost the same in all things but their origins and race.
The Day They Met
In both Roswell and Twilight, we have a moment where the story’s main characters meet. We are going to take some time to explore how love at first sight happens in these works of art.
In Roswell, it is mentioned that Liz and Max met in third grade, but they never really spoke to each other until the start of the show, so for the sake of this review, that is what we’ll look into, because we never see the third grade meeting. Liz grew up in Roswell and now, at sixteen, works at her father’s restaurant called “The Crashdown” (It’s Roswell, New Mexico…everything is alien themed), gets shot when a couple of patrons get into an argument about something not important to the story. One of these disgruntled men pulls out a gun and they fight over it, the gun goes off, and Liz gets shot. Max, without hesitation runs to the girl he likes to stare at and rips her work uniform open (which I’m convinced that the only reason for this was to show Shiri Appleby in a bra…as we see her in one three times in the pilot episode). He places his hand on her bleeding wound, tells her to look at him (seriously, she’s dying and you want to stare at her?), and heals her. He then pores ketchup all over her to mask the blood, and asks her not to say anything. He then runs off with his alien friend Michael. She later realizes that she has a silver hand print where he had healed her. Confuses about it all, the next time they see each other is in the biolab at school…where he is her partner. Ironic. Where they are taking samples of their own mouth cells to examine under a microscope. Max, not wanting to be exposed, runs off, but leave the pencil he had in his mouth behind. Liz swipes it and examines his cells. They look different than normal human cells. Side note here, his cells are green, why is it that the inside of his mouth is red like a normal human mouth if his cells are green? This is when Liz Parker starts to wonder about Max Evans, this sparks curiosity and infatuation.
Twilight is different in the fact that Bella is new to the town of Forks, Washington, so she meets Edward for the first time at school where she’s trying to fit in. She’s sitting at lunch engaged in awkward “new girl” conversation with her classmates when the Cullens walk in. They discuss how weird they are, and how they sometimes they just don’t show up. Then Edward walks in…and Bella Swan’s infatuation begins. He stares at her, and she stares at him. Then she notes his pale skin and his eyes and all that crap. And he stares at her some more. Later, Bella and Edward are set as biolab partners. Ironic. He continues to stare at her, but acts repulsed by her presence at the same time. This has something to do with her blood smelling good and not being able to read her mind…or something like that. Anyways a few days later, a van almost hits Bella, so Edward uses his vampire speed and strength to stop the van from killing her, leaving a huge dent in the vehicle. She immediately begins to wonder about Edward Cullan, and her infatuation for him grows.
Both girls meet their boys at school, both girls have their lives saved by their boys, both girls are biology partners with their boys, and both girls become infatuated by their boys the moment their lives are saved. This is how it happens in the real world, right? Meet, stare, almost die, be saved, fall in love. Right? Right.
The “What Are You?” Moment
In both Twilight and Roswell we have a moment where the girls confront the guys to find out what the is up with them. It’s where Liz and Bella finally question Max and Edward on their creepy powers and stuff. This happens differently in both stories, but the concept is the same. Both girls do some research, and come to a conclusion, then ask the boys about it.
In Roswell, Liz had done some research to try and figure Max out, this includes taking his cells and checking them out under a microscope, as we already mentioned. Once she’s sure that he’s different, she confronts him about it in a empty classroom. She tells him that she’s confused about how he healed her, why she has a silver hand print on her stomach, and why his cells are different. He says that he’s “Not from around here.”
“Where are you from,” Liz said.
Max takes his finger and points up.
Liz, thinking that this is all crazy says, “Up north?”
Max, without saying a word and continuing to stare at her, raises his finger a bit higher. Liz’s response to this…she glances up with a shocked look on her face. She then says that he’s not really an alien, and Max says, “I prefer the term ‘not of this earth’.” It was a lame attempt at humor.
After that he tells her that he, Michael, and his sister, Isabel are also aliens. That they don’t know where they are from, or why they are on Earth. They only know that their ship crashed in 1947, and that when they came out of the ship, they looked like six-year-old children. He also explains that they have powers, which includes changing the molecular structure of things, he proves this to Liz by passing his hand (which lights up) over a clay sculpture of some old guy and makes it look like just a lump of clay, then back again to the old man. He tells her that it was that power that he used to heal her. From that moment on, Liz is in on the little secret.
In Twilight, Bella does research to find out what the deal with Edward is, and she finds information about a local Native America tribe (More on that later) that is close by, which includes Jacob Black (who we later find out is the wolf of the story) about a legend of vampires. Edward takes Bella on a piggyback ride to the woods (there’s something about spider monkeys in there somewhere. Lame!) While in the woods, she confronts him. Piecing it all together, she is forced to believe the Edward is, in fact, a vampire. Leading to the famous line, “Say it out loud.”
“Vampire.” Stupid!
Edward then proves it to her by stepping into direct sunlight, causing his face to “sparkle like diamonds”. Good God in Heaven, how much I hate this one fact about Twilight! Anyway, I guess she then realizes that she’s in love with a vampire. From that moment on, Bella is in on the little Cullen secret.
The Voice of the Story
Roswell and Twilight both are in the point of view of the lead female protagonist. Mind you, I never read Twilight, but I am aware that it is in first person point of view. But I’m comparing Roswell to the Twilight movies, and in the movie, it starts out with Bella narrating, and telling her story. In Roswell, Liz is also narrating and telling her story. The only difference is that Bella is simply narrating (like I said, I never read the book, so I don’t know if she’s writing in a diary or not), whereas in Roswell, Liz is writing in her journal. They show her doing this (with a voice over so you know what she is writing) before each episode of the show. Like I said before, this changes after the first season, except for a few episodes, but for the most part the whole story is taken from her point of view. So, as we can see, they take on the same style of point of view. The girls narrating their stories as they fall in creepy, unhealthy love with the guys.
The Setting of the Story
Both stories take place in different areas. Roswell takes place in Roswell, New Mexico and surrounding areas, and Twilight takes place in Forks, Washington and surrounding areas. Despite the fact that both stories take place in different places and environmentally different areas, the settings are very similar.
Roswell is in the middle of the hot desert surrounded by a whole lot of nothing, and Forks is in the middle of the woods, surrounded by a whole lot of mountains. You might think, that’s not the same. Well, yes it is. Both are rural areas surrounded by a whole lot of nothing, and both have a beauty all their own. And the similar settings becomes even more apparent when you throw the Native Americans into the mix!
In Roswell, the aliens have to keep returning to a reservation of the Mesaliko tribe, as they seem to have a lot of information about aliens. Because Max and his friends don’t know much about themselves, they go to the reservation. The Mesaliko people have ways of knowing whether or not a person is an alien, as well as knowing ways to heal aliens if they get sick. Throughout the show’s first season, the Mesaliko tribe helps them along. Supplying for the aliens some of their language and some of their history. A character introduced a bit later in the first season called Nasedo befriended one of the tribe members by the name of River Dog. Nasedo can shape shift (more on that later) and we find out that he is the protector of the Royal Four (Max, Isabel, Michael, and Tess…a character introduced around the same time Nasedo is). The Native American tribe is quite important to the story of Roswell.
In Twilight, Forks is close to a tribe of Native Americans as well, the Quileute people. This tribe of Native Americans are where Bella gets some of her information about the vampires. The character of Jacob Black ends up (in another movie) filling Bella in that his tribe has shape shifters who turn into wolves when they get pissed. The Quileute tribe and the vampires hate each other and are normally at war, but the Cullen coven and the Quileute people have a truce going on that they stay out of each others way. This Native American tribe is also quite important to the story of Twilight, as Bella has to choose between Edward or Jacob. Team Harry Potter!
The Origins
Both Twilight and Roswell are based on novels. This is well known for Twilight, but since I’m reviewing the movie and the TV show, and since it’s a comparison review, I need to talk about this. Let’s start with Twilight as it is the more well known.
Twilight is based on a book of the same title that was written by Stephenie Meyer and was published in 2005 by Little, Brown Books. I have heard from friends who have read the book and seen the movie that the movie is pretty darn close to the book. Not exactly, because all movies that are based off of books need to add things for cinematic display, and take things away or speed things up for the sake of time.
Roswell is based off of a series of books called, “Roswell High” written by Melinda Metz and was published by Pocket Books. The first book in the series “The Outsider” was published in 1998. I’ve never read these books, nor do I know anyone who did. But from what I can find from online research is that the books and the show are similar in story, setting, and characters, but with a some of differences such as last names, and the looks of the characters.
Now another difference between Twilight and Roswell is that Twilight is three movies (at the time I wrote this review, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse had come out with Braking Dawn Parts 1 and 2 in production), where as Roswell is a three season TV show. Roswell had 61 hour-long episodes, and Twilight had only three two-hour movies to tell the story in. So Roswell has a lot more time to tell its story, so stuff happens faster in Twilight then they do in Roswell. For example, it seems that by the middle of the movie Twilight, Bella and Edward are together. In Roswell, though the attraction is there right away, Liz and Max don’t get together until the ninth or tenth episode. Many weeks (story wise) after they meet and all that. I’m assuming that in the book, Edward and Bella fall for each other much slower, but I don’t know that for sure. In the movie it’s kind of rushed, but like I said that’s because they only had three two-hour slots in which to tell their story, they have to rush it.
The Fight For Love
In Twilight, Bella Swan has to deal the with issue of having two guys after her. One of these fellows is a creepy stalker of sparkley goodness, and the other is a long haired wannabe jock who later turns into a wolf because the plot deems it so. Both boys want this girl. Why they would want a bland seventeen-year-old with absolutely no personality and who doesn’t truly care about anybody around her as long as the vampire stares at her some more? I don’t know. It seems like there are better girls out there for these guys, but hey, who am I to talk. I’m not a charming essence smelling vampire or a ripped wolf who is “hotter than the competition”.
In Roswell, Liz Parker also has to deal with the ever growing problem of two guys after one girl syndrome. But in Roswell’s case, one is a creepy, bland alien who cannot raise his voice for anything, and the other is a normal human being ex-boyfriend jock who’s name is Kyle, who later becomes a Buddhist…for some reason. Again, both boys want a sixteen-year-old girl who is kind of attractive, (but is beaten by the very presence of Katherine Heigl), who has no personality, and also doesn’t really care about other people so long as she can get flashy kisses from the alien. Again, these guys can do better, in fact, Max tries to do better, but after knocking up Tess, he just wants to go back to Liz. Weird. Not that Tess was good either, she turned out to be a traitor and killed off Alex, played by Colin Hanks. Easily one of the best characters in the show!
Needless to say, these two sets of rival guys end up fighting over who gets the girl. And it seems that both girls tend to lean towards the one that is more abusive. Liz leans towards Max, who is creepy, and keeps breaking her heart every other episode for one reason or the other. And Bella leans towards Edward who is creepy, and keeps teasing her emotions to the point where I’m surprised she didn’t take a gun to her temple already. This guy vs. guy thing also causes problems for each other, such as yelling at each other, nearly hitting each other, and having “I’m a bigger jerk than you” contests. Both guys are not good for the girl, nor is the girl right for the guys. But unlike Twilight, after a while, Kyle gets the hint and backs off. Jacob never stops! This is nothing more then a way to get more teen drama into the story, exactly what the doctor ordered.
Crack? No Thanks, I Have Edward!
What’s better than drugs? Boys of course! Didn’t you know that any good looking freak can give you a better high than any drug in existence? Neither did I, until I saw Roswell and Twilight. Okay, seriously? Seriously?! Liz and Bella become addicted to Max and Edward’s presence? When the guys are not there they think about them, wish they were there, and even freak out a bit. And I don’t mean when they’re simply out of town, I mean any time they are not near them they freak out! Okay, so they don’t flip out like a crazy person, but they do seem to have a strange addiction to their guys. Why is that? Is that apart of the magic of vampires and aliens. They become attached to one person, and that person is screwed because they dared to cross paths with them?
After Liz and Max become an item, and they start making out all the time, Liz receives flashes of Max’s life and different astronomical events like star fields, planets, and black holes. This began when he healed her, he saw some of her early life. It’s like some alien mind connection thing. Anyway, once Liz starts getting these flashes she seems to only want to do one thing, be with Max. And when she’s not, she’s does nothing but pout about it. And God forbid he breaks up with her! It’s a teen drama set in the early 2000’s, what else would happen? She wants to do nothing more then to get her beloved alien back.
After Bella and Edward become an item, she also seems to fall victim to the metaphorical heroin. She soon doesn’t ever want to be away from him. They fix this by him literally appearing in her room all the time. I don’t even what to know what they do there. We know they don’t have sex, because Edward is a Christian vampire…I think. We know this because in the third movie of the Twilight Saga, Eclipse, she wants to have sex with him, but he refuses because he’s “old fashion”. Kudos on keeping it in your pants, Edward; that’s one up you have on Maxwell, the Alien Whore!
That reminds me, both girls keep pressuring they’re guys for sex! What’s the deal with that?
Anyway, in the second movie of Twilight Saga, New Moon, Edward leaves town because he thinks it’s too dangerous for Bella if he stays. Bella flips out, she throws herself into dangerous and high adrenalin situations because when she does she has visions of him…or something like that. So to see him, she tries to kill herself. Jacob (the wolf) uses this vampire free time to snag her and try to build a relationship with her. This is when the true two guy wanting the one girl truly begins. Let me reiterate my view in all of this: Team Harry Potter!
Edward Hair…Seriously?
Okay, for anyone who has seen Twilight, or has seen pictures of Edward Cullen in Twilight, you’ve seen his hair. Kind of crazy and messy looking, the whole nine yards, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Accept for that it’s in Roswell too. Sure, you can claim it as just a style, but I’m counting it and a similarity in the comparison review! In the first season, the character of Michael, who is also an alien, and best friend to Max has the same hair style as Edward. Compare these two pictures for yourself and tell me that they do not look alike!
Come on people, these are the same!
‘Cause This is Killer
In the first season of Roswell, we find out that over the decades since 1947 (when the ship crashed), there have been people who mysteriously died; random people with no connection. The only link is a silver hand print on their bodies that only lasted for a day or two before fading. A hand print that is very similar to the one Liz had after Max healed her. The aliens deduce that there is a forth out there and he is killing a lot of people (this is before they meet the other member of the Royal Four, Tess). We later find out that it’s Nasedo, the shape shifter. Nasedo is killing people then assuming their identity. At one point, Nasedo assumes Max’s identity (he doesn’t have to kill people to take their identity…but he does most of the time). He then uses Liz’s love for Max as a tool to lure her out. Nasedo then uses her has bait to catch and kill a alien hunter that have been chasing him. He pretty much tells her after she figures out that he is not Max that he is going to kill her, or wouldn’t care if the hunter kills her. Anyway, Max ends up saving the day, and Nesado eventually joins them on their quest to get home to their planet.
Granted, the way this happens in Twilight is vastly different. But it seems that there are always other vampires coming to Forks or nearby towns and feeding on people. The series of murders are questioned but really pursued, just like in Roswell. Also, at one point a vampire named Victoria goes after Bella to kill her because her vampire boyfriend wanted to drink Bella’s blood but to stop him, Edward killed him…or something like that. So she wants revenge on Edward by killed Bella.
Both the TV show of Roswell and the Twilight movies have a killer (or killers) on the loose whom the protagonists are worried about, and seem to drive the point that there are, in fact more of them more aliens and more vampires.
We Can’t Be Together
One of the most annoying things about Twilight is the sexual tension between Bella and Edward. This also includes the burning desire to be together, but because he is a vampire and she is a human, they can’t. He’s afraid that she will be in danger and he’s also afraid to hurt her. This creates the “I love you, but we can’t be together” cliché. Bella, because of her odd obsession with Edward, wants nothing more than to be with him always, and later, she expresses a desire to become a vampire and live forever with him. It starts out that she wants to know more about him, but he doesn’t tell. She wants to be with him, but it’s too dangerous because he may have no control over his blood hunger. She doesn’t care and wants nothing more than to be with him again. Then there’s the whole:
Bella: “Turn me.”
Edward: “No. Marry me.”
Bella: “Not unless you turn me.”
Edward: “I won’t turn you unless you marry me.”
Then, not to mention this great series of events:
Bella: “Let’s have sex.”
Edward: “No. Marry me.”
Bella: “Not unless you turn me…or have sex with me.”
Edward: “No, I’m old fashion. I’ll turn you if you marry me.”
Bella: “Okay.”
Stupid! Seriously, this “tension” is really crappy! It gets annoying with how much they’re “together”, but still can’t be together!
This cliché is just as annoying in Roswell, it may even be worse because there’s more of it to watch. Again, there is an immediate sexual tension between Maxwell and Liz. The moment he heals her, she wants to do nothing but sex the guy up. But, he’s an alien and she’s a human. He’s afraid that it will be too dangerous for them to be together, do to how many people hunt aliens in this show. But, like most teenagers in these supernatural dramas, they give in to their passion. This is when they start to make out…a lot. I mean, half of these hour-long episodes are dedicated to showing us how much Max and Liz make out. But they’re not the only ones, we get to see Michael and Maria make out as well for half of the show as well. Fun!
As I mentioned before, Liz and Max discover that when they kiss, they will see flashes of each others lives, this brings privacy to a whole new level. There’s even an episode where Liz has a sexual fantasy of Max seeing her naked in the shower—Okay, lets just stop there for a moment! Seriously, do girls have fantasies of guys seeing them naked in the shower? Isn’t it the other way around? Anyway, Max later reveals that one time during their hour long make out session in The Eraser Room—Yep, Roswell High has a popular spot in the school called The Eraser Room where students go to make out and have sex. Why doesn’t the faculty do something about this? They know it’s there, the principal even mentions it some parents in one episode—that Max saw her sexual fantasy. Weird! This gets so crazy that soon, the harder they make out, the more flashes they see, to the point of addiction. This is because Liz and Max see his ship crashing, and crazy stuff like that. Towards the end of the episode, they are about to have sex to see “what happens, and what they can discover about Max’s home”. They stop soon after because they discover an orb thing from the alien’s home world. After that, the “drive” is gone, and they cool down. Literally, it’s like alien fate forced them to make out so much so they could find the orb. Pathetic!
But they also undergo the whole, “we can’t be together” thing as well. It goes kind of like this:
Liz wants to be with Max, and Max wants to be with Liz, but she has a boyfriend, Kyle.
Liz dumps Kyle to be with the alien.
Max and Liz want to be together, but it’s too dangerous.
Liz and Max give into the lust!
Max breaks up with Liz for “noble” reasons.
They soon gives back into the lust!
Liz realizes that Max has a “destiny” to be with his alien bride from the past, Tess, so she breaks up with him.
Max wants Liz back, and Liz wants him back, but won’t admit it.
Max gives up on Liz and sleeps with Tess, and knocks her up with alien sex!
Blah, blah, blah.
Max and Liz get back together, but he has a son out there somewhere.
Stupid! Seriously, the whole “we can’t be together” thing only lasts a little while, then they’re together, only to be broken up, and brought back to gather a bunch of times. What the crap!
As you can see…Roswell is worse than Twilight in that regard, but Twilight still has more stupid lines!
Awkward Levels Rising
I’m not going to spend long on this one, it’s very simple. Both Twilight and Roswell have moments of extreme awkwardness where you want to do anything but watch it because it’s almost painful! Again, Roswell has more simply because it’s longer, and more story to tell. But most of the first season is made up of questions immediately followed by silence and Max staring at Liz, it’s very awkward. The same with Twilight, Bella will ask a question followed by a very long stare. Awkward! Awkward, I say. How many conversations do you have with people when you ask them something and they just stare at you, not in confusion or anything like that, but a plain faced stare? Twilight and Roswell dialogue is very awkward at times! Enough said, lets’ move on, shall we?
Alien Council vs. Vampire Council
In Twilight there is a council of vampires called the Volturi, whom I like to call the Vampire Vatican, because they live in Italy and rule the vampires. So this Vampire Vatican is a group of very old vamps who are sticklers about vampire rules…or something like that, I don’t really know. But they are kind of like vampire royalty. Edward and Bella have to go there at some point and meet with them (I know about the whole killing himself thing, but I’m not getting into that). Anyway, the Vampire Vatican realize that Bella isn’t a vampire, and they give her the choice, become a blood-sucker, or die. Edward makes a deal with them, that after Bella graduates high school, Edward will turn her.
Roswell also has a counsel of royalty, the difference is, they don’t like each other. Max’s planet is at war with four other planets in the area. It all started with a coup when the Royal Four (Max, Tess, Michael, and Isabel) are killed, and a guy named Kivar takes over. The Royal Four’s DNA was mix with human DNA then cloned, and sent to Earth to be kept safe until they are ready to reclaim the throne. So Max, being the king of his planet, has to meet with Kivar and the other four kings (of their own planets) to make a deal, they do this on Earth in a old warehouse. The deal never goes though, and war continues.
So in both shows we have a royal council, and our protagonist tries to deal with them.
Powers All Our Own
I thought to myself, we’re done, there can no more similarities, but alas, I was wrong! Both Roswell and Twilight have people who have powers that no other character has. You might be thinking as I did, “Twilight is about vampires, why would they have personal powers?”, but you would be wrong. Not only do the vamps have the normal vampire abilities, but they also get something a little extra that is different depending on who the vamp is.
Here is what I mean, as Twilight vampires, they all are faster and stronger than humans, they all drink blood and have a blood lust, they all are practically invincible, all naturally good looking (what if the bite an ugly guy?), and they all sparkle in the sunlight (I can’t speak for the books, but in the movie, the only vampire I ever saw sparkle was Edward, maybe that’s another personal power). However, each vampire can do something extra. Here is a small list of what some of them can do:
- Edward – Mind reading, he can read the minds of anyone within a few miles of himself. The exception is Bella for some reason that is most likely bull crap!
- Alice (Edward’s “sister”) – Precognition, she can see the future, but only once a plan is set, so if you make a rash decision, see wont see it. But I saw in the movies Bella and Edward planning to make a spur of the moment decision, how did Alice not see that? They planed not to plan!
- Jasper (Edward’s “brother) – Empathy, he can feel other people’s emotions, and control them.
- Jane (Some chick at the Vampire Vatican) – Pain, she can make people feel pain by simply willing it.
- Carlisle (Edward’s “dad”, and is the only vampire in these movies that I like, he’s kind of cool) – His special ability is…compassion? LAME! He can resist the blood lust, and when he bites people he doesn’t want to drink all their blood. That’s compassion?! I looked it up, and the only ability I can find for him is friggen compassion! LAME! Give the guy a REAL power! Make him fly or something, now THAT would be sweet!
In Roswell, we have the same thing, the aliens have personal powers. They all have the same alien abilities, they all can manipulate molecular structures (change ketchup into mustard, stuff like that), and they all have telekinetic abilities (to a degree, it’s not like the Force from Star Wars, it’s used more in a pushing matter, move people away, slam doors, stuff like that), but they all can do this, what can each of the Royal Four do? I’ll tell ya:
- Max – Healing, he can heal people, this often leaves a silver hand print behind. He can cure minor cuts and bruises to gunshot wounds, and even cancer (there’s an episode where he cures an entire children’s cancer ward in a hospital). The bigger the wound or illness, the more strength it takes for him to heal them, and it will leave him weak for a while. He also gains the ability to make a green shield to protect himself and others from alien and human harm.
- Isabel – Dream walking, she can enter someone’s dreams. If she concentrates on someone’s photo, or knows them well enough, she can fall asleep and enter their dreams. She can either be a silent observer, or she can contact the dreamer through the dream. We often see her do this for entertainment purposes. Someone say creeper? However, I would not object to Katherine Heigl invading my dreams!
- Michael – Explosive, he can blow stuff up. Michael does not have as much control over his alien abilities as the other three, this makes using his powers somewhat dangerous. However, with focus, he finds that he’s good and making stuff explode.
- Tess – Mind warping, she can manipulate people’s minds. She can make them see things that aren’t there, or mask their presence from others, as well as brainwash people into thinking something different. If she brainwashes someone, it has a chance to wear off. We see this when Kyle as well as Maria’s mom start tapping their fingers all the time and start seeing and saying things that have to do with the brainwash. This is the episode where we find out that Tess killed Alex.
So, in both shows the main characters have special abilities all their own.
In Conclusion
So as you can see, Twilight and Roswell are very similar in many ways. I do not think that Stephenie Meyer stole the idea or anything like that, but I do wonder if some of the inspiration for Twilight came from Roswell, because when you directly compare them, the two are very close. Both Twilight and Roswell are not very good. They’re characters are bland and boring, and their plots are just stupid. And though I like Roswell better, I have to admit that it is still no good!
I might add more to this review when the new Twilight movies come out, there may be more stuff that is similar!
And remember, Team Harry Potter!
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Twilight Vs. Roswell: A Comparison Review
By Andrew Ronzino
We all know about the Twilight craze. In 2005 Stephenie Meyer wrote a mediocre novel about a sparkling vampire, and teenage girl’s obsession with said vampire; now, Twilight is a huge sensation. However, what most people don’t know about is that in 1999 there was a TV show that aired on the WB called Roswell. Now when you compare the three season TV show with Twilight, you will find that they are extremely similar. And it makes me wonder if Stephenie Meyer got her inspiration from the show. I would like to show the similarities between these two stories.
Let me start off by saying that I have never read the Twilight novels, I will be basing this comparison from the movies, which I have been told are fairly accurate to the books. Also, I have a nostalgic connection to Roswell, as I watched it when I was a teenager. I have no meaningful connection to Twilight whatsoever, so if I seem bias, that’s because I am. Also, let me just come right out and make myself perfectly clear, I hate Twilight, I think it’s stupid. However, because this is a comparison review that really doesn’t matter. One last thing before we begin, the stories aren’t exactly the same, there are a lot of differences. The plots, for example, are very different. But where they’re similar, they’re VERY similar! Also, you may hear some stuff repeated over and over again, that’s because these things keep happening over and over again!
Just so you know, this entire review contains spoilers.
Let us begin. And we shall do so by examining our main characters.
Liz Parker and Bella Swan
Andrew Ronzino
The Paradigm 
Comments on: "Twilight Vs. Roswell" (60)
Nice post!!!;-)
burn notice
I think that this is a good essay and really funny. Twilight is really similar to Roswell no doubt about it
But i wonder if in some parts of this post you just wanted to be funny or you didn’t really watch roswell. The summary of the events are way too shallow, generalized and biased.
More than a twilight vs roswell essay where you analyzed the similarities between the two this is an ad hominem essay where the events are roughly summarized to make them fit with your personal biased opinion of the characters.
That said, in my opinion Max and Liz are way better than Edward and Bella because they’re more believable as a couple and both the characters actually have a personality and a life outside the romance part. Before being a couple Max and Liz are friends and they don’t promise eternal love and suicide after day 1. They have a connection and them becoming a couple was more gradual and understandable. Max loved Liz since he was a kid and they weren’t really strangers prior the shooting (after all they were lab partners at school so it’s literally impossible that they never talked with the other one) yet Liz didn’t notice that he was attracted to her because Max wasn’t a creepy stalker who followed her around and watched her while she was sleeping. There’s absolutely nothing weird or creepy about Max staring at Liz it’s only natural what you expect from people that are in love? Ignore each other? You said that Max is emotionless yet you didn’t want him to show any emotion and when he did he was creepy for some mysterious reason that you didn’t explain. It’s not that Max wanted to eat her blood or something like that. Jason Behr wasn’t emotionless, he showed that his character had feelings for the girl. Liz is also different compared to Bella because Liz had friends a family and dreams and she cared about them too. She actually had a life to lose and she was smart. She wasn’t selfish (no more than the other characters anyway) in the second season she sacrificed her happiness for the others. She did something that other women would never do. In the end she didn’t get everything she wanted, she had to make sacrifices. Bella got everything even a vampire baby (???) and immortality.
Thank you, Dan for your comment, and I respect what you’re saying.
However…I did mention that I’m bias at the very beginning. I made that perfectly clear.
I also want to state that I do believe (and since my review was nothing more than my opinion, I can do that) that Max is a very bland character. I don’t mean that he doesn’t have emotion, but rather he never shows it. He has one look on his face through 80% of the three seasons of Roswell…blank.
As for the “love” they share, it’s stupid infatuation brought on by alien/human interaction. I will give you that there is more of a real relationship between Max and Liz then there is with Bella and Edward. But not much more, not the way I see it anyway. But that may be because there are three seasons. They have more time to show a working relationship. Things happen slower in Roswell, but it’s still, what I would call, an abusive relationship.
Also, I have not yet seen the ending of Twilight, as I’ve never read the books, and the last movies aren’t out yet. But when I do see them, I will be adding to this review
But again, I respect your opinion, and thanks again for the comment.
-Andrew
[…] it’s an article just for fun. I’ll start it and just go and take the long road. My Twilight Vs. Roswell Review is a prime example of that! It took me weeks to compile, write, and format all that […]
I LOVE ROSWELL!!!!
Yes, I did as well. Now I just see it as the lesser of two evils. Like I said in the review, I think Roswell is a lot better the Twilight. But that, I believe, is mostly due to the time they had to develop the characters and story. Twilight had four books, and going to have five movies (which, I swear they’re splitting the last movie because Harry Potter is doing it). Roswell, on the other hand had three full seasons to tell the story. They had more time. But they both still suck. It’s just that one sucks a little less.
Needless to say, thank you for commenting! :-)
Great little essay altho I LOVED Roswell and really like Twilight and thought that they were extremely similar, I googled to see if anyone felt the same way and viola! P.S. for years my email was iamroswellian lol I still have it, just dont use it
ME TOO !!!!
Ahh!! I totally agree with this comparison!! I remember watching that Lab scene in the Twilight film thinking ‘hmm….I’ve seen this somewhere before?’
That’s what made me remember the Roswell series and I have definitely picked up on the same comparisons as you!
Also the ridiculous love triangle sagas ie Bella/Edward/Jacob vs Max/Liz/Tess.
I prefer Roswell tbh.
Anyways great review….I’m so glad someone acknowledged this!
Thank you very much! I’m glad you liked it. Yeah, before I wrote the review, I check the internet for other reviews like it. But all I found were small little things with not enough information, so for weeks I worked on making this one. It was fun!
[…] return to it later. This includes a few of the long winded topics here on The Paradigm. Like my Twilight Vs. Roswell Comparison Review, my Inside Look at “The Neverending Story” Review, or my Truth About Halloween Article. […]
The major difference between these two-
Twilight SUCKS!!!!!!!!
Roswell is awesome.
Screw twilight and all of its loser fans!
It’s true, Twilight does suck. However, like I stated in my review, Roswell doesn’t get off the hook just because it’s the lesser of two evils. It’s still crappy. But I loved it when I was a teen when it first aired.
Thanks for the comment!
Don’t forget that in both Roswell and Twilight both Liz and Bella (the main girls) end up having special powers. Plus Liz turns into an alien because Max helps her and Bella turns into a vampire cause Edward helps her. So in the end they both end up with powers and become special creatures. And also both Liz and Bella get married to the boys they love.
Oh, believe me, I didn’t forget. But the last Twilight movie hasn’t come out yet, and I’m basing my review on the movies vs. the Roswell TV show. Once I see the last two Twilight movies (i dread that day), I’ll update with the new stuff that is the same between them.
Thank you for the comment!
I love Roswell. I thought it had a great storyline. Twilight I have and probably will never see. The whole thing I personally believe is stupid. Even all the fans of Jacob and Edward is stupid. The war between them is lame. “omg I love Edward. He sparkles!” umm I’m pretty sure guys don’t ‘sparkle’ unless they are gay… I agree though. Go Harry Potter
See, I agree. I think it had the potential to be a GREAT show, but they filled it with too much teen drama crap and it really ruined the show for me. But the overall, the idea and plot was solid. It was the filler that made the show crappy. But I will still take it over Twilight any day.
Team Harry Potter!
I think I remember Roswell’s title but not the actual show. (In ’99, I would’ve been only 7, and I didn’t watch much TV. It wasn’t that I was necessarily forbidden; I just didn’t do it.) I read one paragraph from a Twilight book before crying over its awfulness, and watched all of two minutes of the movie on a YouTube video before doing likewise. Sounds like Roswell is definitely the lesser of two evils. I mean, really! At the time, it was probably somewhat original!
It really is. Again, I’m not saying that Stephenie Meyer plagiarized from Roswell. I just wonder if she watched it and though…”What if it were vampires?”
Thanks for the comment!
I’ve never heard about Roswell before but from what you’ve said here it seems like Twilight is a just another cracked up version of it. And when you said that they seemed to get together really fast in the movie and that it may just have been the movie, it wasn’t. In the book they get together SERIOUSLY fast. And you know what’s even better? In the last book, Breaking Dawn, they get married (at 18), Edward screws Bella so hard that it knocks her out basically, Bella gets knocked up (at 18 again) Jacob gets pissed, Bella almost gets killed while having the mutant child, Edward turns her into a vampire, they have some kind of freakishly smart child that grows 10x faster than a human and is going to probably die when shes 15 or something, and THE DAY the baby is born Jacob imprints (falls in love) on her and turns into a pedophile.
There was something else I wanted to comment on but I forgot. Oh well.
This was very cool though! 2 thumbs up! (:
(And if you already heard about this, sorry for bringing it up again, haha. )
Awful things like Twilight make me ashamed to be a 15 year old girl. Because EVERYONE thinks you LOOOVVVEEEE Twilight. (Or one of the actors)
And if you say something like “I like vampires” or “I like werewolves” that’s what everyone thinks your talking about immediately. Gets on my nerves.
But again, thanks for the awesome similarity. They where funny. (:
Yeah, I’m aware of all of that. And when the last two movies come out and I see them (I have mean friends who will make me see them), I will add to this review, cause I know there are more similarities, but I don’t want to say them without seeing the end of Twilight for myself.
Thanks for the comment! Hope you keep reading!
Rosewell was nit a show I have ever heard of, but from the sounds of it, I think you are right about how it may have inspired twilight.
It was a cool show…back in the day, but now it’s stupid! Well, it was stupid the too, but as a thirteen-year-old guy, all I saw was hot girls, aliens, and powers! That all equaled cool to me.
Now that I’m older and much wiser, I know what I was really watching…crap. But again, I would take it over Twilight any day.
Thanks for checking out The Paradigm!
That ‘have sex’ conversation is kinda…yuck….
I was paraphrasing, it didn’t go exactly like that, but that was what it boiled down to. Shame, really.
Thanks for the comment!
Meyer is a patetic bitch, who cant come up with her original story, so she is stealing from other novels.:(And she took from a few more novel-Vampire Kisses, Vampire Diares,but above all else-she stoled from Anne Rice`s books.Meyer is not worthy author, nor worthy person.
In terms of the comparison, they have a lot of similarities. At the same time there are also vast differences between the two. The mythological and fantasy oriented differences make them unique in their own individual right. What is bothersome is that the humans are in fact bland, and they make for very dry characters. This is only my opinion of course, but I find them difficult to reach. The emotionless from the vampires from Twilight and the aliens of Roswell are more embodied and powered. There is difficulty remembering what it means to be human, and the struggle to identify with it. And yet this creatures are more empathetic and enriched beyond that of their human counterparts. So put me down for “Team Beyond The Realm Of So-Called Normal”!
I’ve read all the twilight books and the last thing they or the movies require is more time. Considering how long the books are, not a whole lot ever happens. You’ve only seen the movies so it might seem like there is more going on, but that’s because the script writers are better than Meyer and have spread it out and tried to flesh things out more so there is something more to watch than the two characters staring longingly at each other for an hour (although there is still a lot of that).
It’s been a while since I saw Roswell, but I remember liking it. I’d be interested in hearing what you did think was good about the show.
Also, as I read this I couldn’t stop thinking about the awesome twilight parody (i’m putting the link as my website, but it’s xlormp at livejournal) about Xlormp, an alien, and Friggen’ Gorgeous, the human who wants to be his slave. If you’ve got time you should check it out, because it’s a lot of fun and stands on it’s own pretty well. I’m very much on Team Lou!
Hey! Thanks for the comment and opinion!
You asked me what I do like about Roswell. Well, your wish is my command. I believe I shall put up a post about that! Just give me some time to compile the information, write it, find pictures for it, and I shall post it!
Wow i have watched twilight, but not roswell (but im going too it looks great) i have seen another blog about this, um i think meyers dreams was a case of watching the roswell dvds lol..
I am however a big twilight fan (mum)… Your article is great.
thanks for sharing your thoughts, x
This post was SPOT ON. I used to watch Roswell and enjoyed it alot (so much so I have all the seasons on DVD…I didn’t pay for them if that’s any consolation lol) and seeing every similarity broken down between Roswell and Twilight really makes you scratch your head. They’re way more similar than I’d ever thought. It’s actually a bit frightening too considering the creepy nature of both story lines. Anyway, good job.
Oh, no worries, I own all the seasons on DVD too. Despite the fact that it’s alien Twilight, I still enjoyed some aspects of the show. In fact, someone asked me what I did like about Roswell, so I will be, at some point, posting an article about the things I liked about Roswell. Thanks for the comment.
ROSWELL Is Obvious Better than Twilight. I thought I was the only who thought that twilight was a remake of Roswell. I like Aliens better than Vampires lol
Nope, there are a lot of us who recognized the similarities! Thanks for reading.
I like Roswell very much, and I have to admit the comparision is even nice and funny ;P
But there’s some facts more:
1.) Isabel and Rosalie. Both are sisters of main male character and both hated their brothers’ girlfriend (but it changed in following episodes). Also, both are blond beauties, thinking they’re the best in the world.
2.) Liz and Bella finally became “one of them”, gained extraordinary powers and thanks to it, they saved their friends/family.
3.) You wrote, that you didn’t read the Roswell book. What’s a pity. There is the next similiarity – their powers. Aliens can connect to each other and to other people to ‘send’ them their own memories or to take another’s memories. In Twilight sending thoughts and memories was Reneesme’s power, and taking memories was power of one of the Volturi (I guess it was Aro, but I can be wrong).
4.) Both, Max and Edward use a window to get in their girlfriend’s rooms.
5.) Someone else noticed that Renee (Bella’s mother) has so similiar character to Amy DeLuca? ;)
Thank you for commenting. Yes, I know there are things I left out, but I did it for three reasons: either I didn’t find it applicable for my review, the jokes didn’t work, or because its from a part of Twilight I haven’t seen yet. I have yet to see Breaking Dawn Part 1, and the second part isn’t out yet. Because of that I left out a lot of the comparisons that I heard are in the last part of the story. I believe once Breaking Dawn Part 2 is out, I shall give them a watch (God help me!), and finish up the review.
Thank you for reading!
I didn’t give that similarities in my previous comment to complain that you forget about that facts or something like that. I understand the reasons why you didn’t mention about it. I just wrote it all in my comment in addition to your comparison; as a confirmation that Twilight is indeed very similar to Roswell (and because of that I think Twilight is… uhm well, not too good film – to avoid swear words. ;)).
And one more similarity: Alien’s pregnancy lasts about a month, Bella was pregnant also a very short time.
I cannot thank you enough for writing this! I started watching Roswell last week after I saw Jason Behr guest starred as a charming serial murderer/rapist in Breakout Kings. Even knowing he’s a psychopath, I would probably still jumped into the white unmarked van with him. I had to look him up and realized he was the main guy from Roswell, the show I knew of but never watched and remembered thinking he was really hot. So… being a sci-fi fan I gave it a chance. I was hooked, not because of the storyline, the sci-fi aspect (which wasn’t really there) or character development (also not really there).. but because I couldn’t stop staring at Max Evans! There were A LOT of staring but I didn’t mind one bit and I hoped they would keep staring (reminds me of how Chandler and Joey from Friends commented on Baywatch that the whole show should just be them running). My ‘love’ for Max Evans started to creep me out since I’m in my late 20’s but I did the math and found that Jason Behr in Roswell was around my age which explained his constant 5’clock shadow even though he was supposed to be 16. The more I watched, the more I hate myself for not being able to stop, then it hit me, I’M WATCHING TWILIGHT, the franchise I loath and make a point of telling people I don’t have to watch it to know how terrible of a Mary Sue crap it is. I started doubting my intellect, my taste in TV shows.. or even taste in men! I started to wonder if my life lacks certain element that needs to be fulfilled by watching this type of shows. Since I refused to watch Twilight (although I feel like I already know and have seen too much of it for my liking already) I consulted the internet to see if there’s a comparison between the two and if I could find any proof that maybe, just maybe, Roswell is still better than Twilight maybe if only a little bit and of course I found your blog. Your detailed analysis somewhat snapped my head back into its place. I think I can go back to watching something more sophisticated now.. maybe Archer.. jk! Thanks again and great job!
Haha! Well, I’m glad I could put you back on the right track. Heck! I was all about Katherine Heigl when she was on Roswell (not so much now…she’s still hot, but she makes crappy movies, so there it is). Funny thing, I saw Jason Behr in a movie called D-War, and I was surprised at how much like Max Evans his character was. Bland, boring, never raises his voice for anything, etc. It brought me back.
I’m glad you enjoyed my review, thank you for stopping by.
Some points I would like to make..
-Additional similarites
Yeah, the biggest similarity you left out was Rosalie and Isabel – both blond beauties who hate their brother’s girlfriends and both do so for the sample reason. Both of them are cautious and constantly worried about people discovering their secret.
Another similarity is how both male leads ask the females to marry them but after graduation- not that you would get married during high school..but just pointing out a similarity. I also find that Liz getting premonitions and Alice seeing the future are powers that are quite similar. Both Liz and Bella share a tense relationship with their fathers who want to forbid them from seeing their male leads.
Now moving on to dissimilarities mainly between Liz and Bella
-Bella and Liz while at first seem similar are very very different at the end
I agree with most points you made in your review but I disagree with your comparison between Bella and Liz. I think no matter how similar Liz and Bella started off at the beginning of their respective stories, there was a lot of character growth for Liz’s character while Bella still remains the same Mary Sue she was at the beginning of Twilight forever.
-Bella’s treatment of her dad worsens over time while Liz’s treatment gets better
Another difference between Bella and Liz is how they treat their dads. When Liz left her dad and mom to run away with Max, she left them her journal explaining why she left and the truth about Max being an alien. Additionally in spite of Liz’s relationship with her dad being tense for all the drama and illegal stuff she does, further communication between them shows that she appreciates his concern for her and loves him as much as he loves her. Bella on the other hand always leaves her dad at the drop of a hat without any explanation. This gets worse where Bella plans to leave her dad after becoming a vampire. She hopes she doesn’t have to but we all know that she is quite naive and unrealistically hopeful.
-Bella has no goals while Liz keeps hers in sight in spite of the craziness
Liz is ambitious and actually has a dream. She wants to get into Harvard because she admires this woman whose article changes her life (I don’t remember the details) and when that fails due to the alien stuff happening she applies to more colleges and gets accepted to Northwestern. Bella on the other hand is forced by Edward to apply to colleges. It’s like the girl has no ambitions, hobbies or desire to do anything at all after meeting Edward.
-Bella idolizes Vampirism while Liz is freaked out by the changes that happen
Bella’s unconditional acceptance of her involvement in Edward’s chaotic vampire abnomalism never wavers throughout the saga. Bella is naive and thinks that being a vampire will be a walk in the park. She views vampiric life though rose-colored glasses and wants to become less awkward and beautiful through rebirth. She does show minor disgust and fear when she hears the screams at Volterra but she keeps whining about her aging and how she desires to be turned ASAP so she can be with Edward. Liz on the other hand is less willing to accept Max’s faults and blames him for his mistakes. Liz and Maria in the third season state that they want to step away from the alien craziness and be normal but Max’s death reminds Liz that she loves him in spite of him complicating her life with his alien craziness. Liz also blames Max for the ch-changes in her body when she is developing alien powers. Here is where I admire Liz- she actually asks her Dad to send her away from Roswell and Max so she can rediscover herself and who she was before Max came into her life. Liz keeping sight of her goals and identity in spite of Max’s presence in her life amidst the alien chaos that keeps on sucking her in, is what differentiates Liz from Bella. Though you could argue that Bella has no personality or hobbies so keeping abreast of that must not be hard work once you throw Edward into the mix.
I guess my dislike of Bella is pretty apparent from my above comments but I do like Liz which is why I mind the comparison. I only wanted to write a few lines stating their differences but I guess I got a bit carried away.
wow,interesting but am not convince in every movie that include having abilities a girl will always be safed by an hero like clark kent and lois lane,she was safed by him then feelings for him begins to grow.
Roswell High goes in a COMPLETELY different direction from the TV Show. Do better research on it next time, please.
he was talking about the tv show. not the novel..so.,
lol I just found the series: “Roswell” on Netflix about an hour ago and watched the first episode. I noticed the similarities as well! LOL! I had a feeling the characters and the story was going to be quite similar to twilight but with a different plot of course. After watching the first episode, I had to google it to see if I wasn’t the only one who noticed too. Then I found this post hahahaha xD It was soo worth reading =P Great post!! =)
Me and My hubby really believe that… we are watching Roswell again and we see all the things u r saying.
There is also another something similar about the two movies. Michael was a solider ( General to be exact ) in his past life and Jasper, Edwards younger brother, fought not only in the Civil War, but also the vampire wars and was known as the youngest Major in history.
Both characters in themselves are alike. Jasper is more quite, until later in the series, but is also very emotional and with his power and the ability to feel his coven’s blood-lust addend with his loses control more than the others.
With Michael it’s similarly the same, because of who and what he is he doesn’t trust, along with the abuse from his adoptive father Hank he sticks to what he knows ( same in Jasper ). When he emotional he loses control.
Both are fierce warriors and extremely protective of the ones they love.
Something else to think about is the characters Alice Cullen and Maria DeLuca and Isabelle Evans and Rosalie Hale.
I believe you are onto something.
this is a very nice post and well thought of. i just wish you know the difference between they’re and their. :)
We just got Netflix finally and decided to show our daughter the pilot from Roswell. We’ve been on an 80s-90s family movie series kick with our children lately. Anyways, I immediately made near all the links you mentioned about the two from the first episode, and everything I remember about the series from when I was a young teen. My husband, 41, of course is being tortured by all of this teen love drama. He decides to look it up online and found your write-up about it. We’re both teachers. So here I am commenting not on Roswell or on Twilight but on the work that you did. Not sure how old you were when you wrote this but I am quite impressed. It is quite the compare and contrast essay. I would have given you an A ;o) The fact that you are a guy that wrote it is even better, even more impressive. Not that guys do not have that potential, they are great critical thinkers. But we are teachers and see the struggles with getting boys to be passionate about writing. I am most impressed with your motivation to follow through in such a huge comparative research project. Love the humour as well. Our daughter is currently writing a compare and contrast essay on conventional schooling versus homeschooling, unschooling and self-schooling. I plan to let her read this as a good example of Intro-AB-AB-AB-Conclusion format. GREAT JOB! (I know… I am such a dork)
Haha! Thank you very much. I wrote this a long time ago, and I’ve been meaning to update it with all the new stuff from the last two Twilight movies, but I just can’t bring myself to watch them. Thank you for the kind words.
[…] is fairly precise, and someone else did such a great breakdown that I don’t need to, but you can read it here if you really want. He covers it all, from short, bland brunette to weirdoG non-human who stares a […]
Hey! Thanks for the plug!
First off I really enjoyed reading this, not many people enjoy the tv show Roswell or even heard of it. That being said, I must tell you I am 100% Roswellian, no I mean I am completely obsessed with that series both the show and books and have my very own crashdown café uniform. I did not notice the similarities until you pointed them out so thank you for this it was a very entertaining read.
I also have to say,I am a big fan of twilight books and movies,but im Roswellian al the time and believe Max and Liz have a great relationship. I am also a fan of Maria and Michael. Their relationships bring me joy, as for Bella and Edward, I feel like their relationship is a little possessive, but still enjoy them together.
Roswell was a show that was way for its time. Had it been created now there might be more seasons. People really need to watch it because it is a excellent show.
The characters in roswell are very complex in my opinion. We have the aliens who are trying to fight for their lives on earth and fit in as teenagers, then you have the humans involved who want to protect one another from the harsh world. There is tests of loyalty, love and respect for one another alongthe way but the show ended on a happy note.
Most of this article was great. Kind of annoyed at parts of it though. I’ll mainly address those. I love Roswell and always have since the moment i taped all the episodes on my VCR! I read and watched twilight too. Liking it at first, then realizing what an idiot I was later. Anyway, I’m annoyed at the bashing of Roswell’s themes, plot, lines, and relationship analysis. And by the way, high school girls DO obsess about boys just like Liz. Yes, we used to think about boys 24-7. Not all high school girls, mind you. But plenty of them were like that, I was boy crazy. Its not uncommon for us obsessive girls to stare like that from afar. I did it constantly. It wasn’t creepy, it was just normal high school crush longing. What’s creepy is an uncontrollable murderous vampire sneaking into a girls room every night to watch her sleep!! As in Twilight. That’s what Edward did every night for weeks before they “got together.” That part was glazed over in the movies. And yes, they did get together very quickly in the books too. I remember thinking, holy crap. They knew each other 5 minutes and already said they love each other. As in the literally, the moment they decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend, THE BEGINNING of the relationship, the love word was already said. It was an f*ed up needy overly dependent relationship. When Edward left Bella, she was frozen in place for months and didn’t say a word. When Liz and Max broke up, Liz was upset obviously, she loved him! But she wasn’t immobile and could still function like a human being! I think its insulting to such a great show, the comparisons on the horrible relationship that is Bella and Edward compared to Max and Liz. Yes there was lots of, to quote Isabel, “face sucking” but that’s what hormonal teens do! I also disagree with the lines, I thought they were plenty funny, and part of Max’s charm was his brooding attitude, not very “positive and happy” with lots of smiles. And the part where he jokes and it wasn’t that great of a joke, was supposed to be endearing, I guess you just missed it lol. He didn’t have a lack of personality. He was an introvert. Quiet, mysterious. I’ve dated a guy like that once. Boring on the outside, but you see their qualities eventually once you get to know them. In the end, Max was patient, kind, loving towards his family. Protector of everyone. What you call lack of personality, I call an amazing leader, who always made the right choices as a King. Especially in Season 2, you see him vulnerable after he finds out he is a going to be a father, and sees his mistakes. Anyway. That was my rant. I do want to say though, everything else, spot on. I thoroughly enjoyed the comparison.
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Thanks to Netflix, I am watching Roswell for the first time. From the very first episode, I thought to myself… OMG! This Twilight! When I googled Roswell to post my observation to FB, I found this post… glad I am not the only one!
I have read the books and seen the Twilight movies. I guess if you can have a Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, you can have a Roswell and Twilight!
For years I have been telling people that the twilight author was lying, claiming she got the idea from a dream. Biology partners, risked identity to save his love, and the only difference is a vampire, not an alien. I love this analysis. It was perfect!!!!
Very interesting article of comparisons on Roswell and Twilight.
Have to agree with most of them although I strongly disagree with Roswell not being a great series.
I will say I have not read either of the book series for both of them but have watched the Roswell tv series and the Twilight film series. While I understand why many find Twilight to be over the top I enjoyed it for what it was. Like the main couple (Bella and Edward’s) chemistry but think Liz and Max’s chemistry was much better and their relationship more believable in terms of how it was portrayed on screen and how it affected the characters.
I also think Liz and Max were much better developed characters then Bella and Edward.
I have all three series of Roswell on DVD and love to go back time and time again to watch them even though I am a much older person. I still love the stories that they told and all the other main characters and couples in particular Micheal and Maria. At least with Twilight they had a series of stories to tell and got to complete them. Roswell will always feel to me like it could and should have gone on for at least another couple of series because there was still so much more SLs they could have done. Ah well.
This analysis was brilliant! I read Twilight and saw the movies a few years ago, and when Roswell originally came out I saw it as a teenager but I couldn’t remember it. So recently, feeling nostalgic, I rented the show only to be completely stunned by the pilot and its similarities to Twilight! Needless to say, googling “did Twilight rip-off Roswell” me to your essay. Thanks!
Hey there! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My web site looks weird when browsing from my iphone4. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to resolve this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. Many thanks!
It’s 2019 and I stumble upon your blog..I never got the chance to watch Roswell in my teens, caused it was aired so late at night on TV during my school years. I’ve just finished the series, and it was so addictive. It does similar to Twilight series, but Roswell is slightly better. I have to admit that both series are kind of my guilty pleasures, especially for my inner high school teenage soul.