Views on Twilight and Background

You've got to be kidding me. Twilight?

Ok, first off, please don't hold the fact that I read Twilight fanfiction against me. I read the Twilight Saga when I was much younger. It was a guilty pleasure, even if it felt like my brain was coming out of my ears at times. I've always loved stories that involved a regular person becoming involved in something extraordinary (for whatever reason, like Cinderella, Mulan, etc.), so I found the concept intriguing.

What type of Twilight Fanfiction?

I discovered the fanfiction world soon after I finished reading the saga, and at the time was more into the stories than I am now (essentially, I've grown up). Back then, I was immediately drawn to stories that didn't actually include the ridiculousness of cold, sparkly vampires. In fact, I generally don't read fics that have any vampires or involve the supernatural (although with the latter, it has more to do with the fact that most of the fics I've found that involve the supernatural aren't written particularly well... no offense to any authors intended).

POV?

Not being a man, I find it difficult to get into the mind of men, so I prefer fics written from BPOV rather than EPOV (although I have found a handful of really fantastic EPOV fics or ones that include EPOV with the BPOV). Ones with EPOV are generally ones with a really romantic Edward. I'm a bit of a romantic, I guess...

Why Bella? She's annoying!

Yes, in my opinion she is. I have nothing against people who feel otherwise, but I find Bella's character to be too Mary Sue-like in certain aspects and completely lacking in self-esteem for no particular reason. Fics where Bella has some self-esteem issues due to weight/other personal appearance issues or emotional abuse are far better than ones where a girl has been so "dazzled" that she considers her significant other to be on a pedestal so high it's on the moon. I believe in equality in relationships, and while there may have been a certain balance in some areas, the fact that it was written from BPOV and Bella didn't see Edward as an equal bothered me.

That being said, most of the stories I've read portray a slightly different Bella from the one in the original story, and she is usually one I can relate to much better than Meyers'.

As for the other women in the Twilight universe, I've read way too many stories that were written with horrible grammar or butchered the characters' personalities to pursue stories where anyone other than Bella and Edward are the main characters.

Which brings us to... Why Edward?

*Sigh* I don't really have a good answer to this one. I guess because I like reading stories with at least a little bit of romance, and I can't really picture anyone else with Bella. Also, I find a lot of the descriptions of the different Edward portrayals to be so intensely attractive in personality and appearance...

Anything else?

Canon couples. This has more to do with the fact that in my mind I imagine Jasper and Rosalie to be siblings, as well as Alice, Emmett, and Edward. I also think of Carlisle and Esme as being parents to some of them, so any switching of couples makes me feel squeamish due to the thoughts of incest. I know that they aren't actually related, and there are a lot of stories where none of them have any familial ties, but that doesn't stop me from being weirded out.

Oh, and from what I've read, most of the really well-written Bella/Edward stories are rated M or NC-17, so this is where most of the explicit sex scenes will be from.

Bottom line?

And so, virtually all of the Twilight fics I read are ones where all the characters are human (AH), written from BPOV, and are Bella/Edward.