Reasons why Harry Potter is better than Twilight

First Off.....

I know there are a lot of Twilight fans out there who feel like Twilight is the most amazing thing ever, OMG EDWARD I LOVE YOU, I need a boy who sparkles, etc etc, Well, guess what? You are wrong. No, this is not an opinion, this is fact. Harry Potter trumps Twilight in ever single way, hands down, no argument, no competition. That stated, let's see why.

Harry or Edward?

Let's examine these two gentleman shall we?

Harry Potter has lived his entire life facing hardship after hardship: His parents murded when he was an infant, he is sent off to be raised by his abusive aunt and uncle. He is bullied by his cousin and classmates, until he is one day told that he's a famous wizard. He's sent off to a school where he knows nobody, yet people constantly point at him, stare at him, ask him personal questions, and generally make him feel uncomfortable. During the next few years he faces mortal peril at least once per book, has to deal with trying to keep his loved ones safe when they're a target for being close to him, and try to defeat the most powerful and evil wizard alive, who happens to be out to get him. It really doesn't seem that easy.

Edward, on the other hand, lives in a huge house, and has access to more money than he knows what to do with. He doesn't have to worry about having a job, because he's been in high school for a century, and that isn't changing any time soon. He's 17 forever, and can just mooch off his parents' money for hundreds of years, buying sports cars on a whim every now and then. The biggest problem he has to face is not biting people.

Now, who do you think has to deal with more hardships? Who has more responsibilities?

Underlying Shallowness

Harry Potter is, by all accounts, not the hottest guy around. He's skinny, a little short for his age, socially awkward, and wears glasses, not to mention the unsightly scar. Ron is a gangly red-head with more freckles than face, and Hermione has frizzy hair and beaver teeth. But you know what? Harry Potter fans love them anyway.In fact, all the good guys in Harry Potter are relatively unattractive: Snape, with his sallow skin and greasy hair; Dumbledore, and old man with flowing silver hair and bear; Hagrid, an immense man with unkempt hair and an unnerving tendency to befriend deadly creatures. The Harry Potter books never put emphasis on how good the characters look, beauty is not a main factor in how much we're supposed to like them.

In Twilight, however, ALL the characters are gorgeous. The books are filled with descriptions of the vampires' breathtaking beauty, Edwards pristine hair and skin, the way all vampires are more beautiful than even the most perfect human. This is pretty much the main theme of the book, a girl falls in love with a beautiful boy, and wants to join his beautiful life and become part of his beautiful family. Meanwhile, lots of beautiful bad guys want to kill beautiful Bella, beautiful Edward, and later their beautiful baby. Why? Why can't Edward just be a normal looking guy? That would be a true romance book, the tale of two average looking people falling in love for who they were, not how they looked or because they had "imprinted". Why teach young girls that you have to be pretty to be loved?

The Theme of Love

The main argument Twilight fans present against Harry Potter is that Twilight is a book about never ending, eternal, undying true love. I even had one Twilight fanatic tell me once that "Twilight is all about love, and there's none of that in Harry Potter."

.....are you kidding?

If you think that Harry Potter is not about love, you probably need to go back to first grade and learn reading comprehension again. The Harry Potter books are FILLED with love, far more than Twilight.

Twilight is, of course, a romance book, so I'm not going to deny that there is love in it. But Twilight's downfall is that it only has the "relationship" type of love. In Harry Potter, there is not only romantic love (come on, we all knew Hermione and Ron would end up together), but there is also the love that exists between friends. What else could have made Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna risk their lives to come with Harry to the Ministry of Magic in The Half Blood Prince? And what about the love between parent and child? Lily and James Potter died to save Harry. Think about that for a second. They gave up their lives for him, because they loved him so much. Is there anyone in this world you would truly and honestly die for? Voldemort even told Lily that if she got out of the way and let him kill Harry that he would spare her. But she chose to lay down her life and give Harry the protection of her undying love. And what about the simple love for justice? The simple, underlying desire for right that drives Harry and his friends to confront Voldemort time and time again, to refuse to give in to evil, to fight against prejudices against those who are different from them, and to stand up for those who can't defend themselves. All of those things, THAT is what love really is.

Depth of Characters

Basically, there are two types of people in Twilight: Beautiful good people who are in some freaky kind of obsessed infatuation, and beautiful bad people who want to kill them, often for no explainable reason.

In good ole' HP, the characters aren't so simple. Sure, Harry is obviously a good guy, but he isn't purely good. He faces temptation, like in The Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone when Harry considers giving Voldemort the stone in order to get his parents back. Harry sometimes wonders if there is evil deep down in him, because he can talk to snakes or because the sorting hat considered putting him in Slitherin. Harry faces temptation in his life, and has to keep fighting for what is right.

In fact, Harry Potter only has two characters who are purely good or purely evil: Dumbledor, obviously, represents the ultimate good - he is infallible, nothing could ever, EVER corrupt Dumbledore. This makes him the "Jesus" figure, so to speak (he even sacrifices himself so the students of Hogwarts might live). And then of course, there's Voldemort, who is completely evil. There is not a shred of goodness in Voldmort, not a speck of caring or mercy. This makes him the "Satan" figure of the book.

There are also several anti-heroes in Harry Potter: characters who are on the side of good, but who aren't always particularly pleasant people. The prime example of this, of course, is Severus Snape. Obviously, he's not a nice guy. He loathes Harry and his friends, he delights in punishing them, and he is overall an unlikable guy. And yet he risks his life to spy on Voldemort for Dumbledore, he saves Harry's life multiple times, and he ultimately dies in the struggle against Voldemort. Snape is a complex, well written character with depth and dimension, and no one even remotely as complicated as him sets foot in limited plot of Twilight.

Prejudice

One of the most condemning things about Twilight is that, after having read the entire series, you don't really feel as though you've learned anything. There are literally zero life lessons to be had from the books.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, is a veritable goldmine of moral learning. The most important ongoing moral theme, I feel, is that of prejudice. The books are filled with examples of discrimination: Voldemort wishes to purge the world of anyone different to him, for example Muggles, Muggle-borns, and anyone who sympathizes with them; Dolores Umbridge harbors a hatred for all half-breeds like centaurs, merpeople, and half-giants like Hagrid; and Remus Lupin faces continual prejudice and has to quit his job at Hogwarts because he is a werewolf. While none of these fantastic creatures exist in real life, that doesn't mean we don't face the same problems. People are discriminated against every day for being whatever race or religion they are, for their gender, or for being gay or transgender. These types of injustices are exactly what Rowling was portraying in the magical universe she has created, and they are exactly what Harry Potter would fight against if he were here.

And Lastly, Quality of Writing!

Twilight fundamentally lacks quality writing. The plot lines are simplistic and the dialog is not exactly literary genius. Harry Potter, on the other hand, has plot elements that span the entire series, and subplots intertwining all over the place. You can always predict what's going to happen in Twilight, because you know the bad guys will be defeated, and the good guys will stay in love forever. But with Harry Potter, you don't always know what you're going to get! GOOD GUYS DIE IN HARRY POTTER! Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Snape, Dumbledore, and countless other lay down their lives, and you never know who is safe and who isn't. I was expecting Harry to die in the last one, because you never know. Also, Harry Potter is set in a magical world unlike anything we could ever experience, whereas Twilight is set in a mundane, rainy American town that happens to have vampires. I mean think about it, the reason there is a Harry Potter theme park and there will never be a Twilight one is because there is just more cool stuff in Harry Potter. What would be in a Twilight theme park? Some attractive people covered in glitter? Harry Potter captures the imagination with it's quirky ideas, where as Twilight dulls the senses with it's derivative... well, everything.

In conclusion...

Intelligent people, who enjoy interesting plots and dynamic characters, are almost always Harry Potter fans over Twilight. Twilight is designed to be read by 12 year old girls of average intelligence who want something to be obsessed with. It is my belief that, 10 years from now, time will prove me right, because I very much doubt there will be die-hard twilight fans in a decade, where as I know that I for one am a Potter-lover for life.