Characters who acted like Bella

[marienomad]

Now, we know that Bella Swan talks and acts like Edward Cullen walks on water. What about other fictional characters that have that same sort of worship of others that just seemed weird?

Like for instance, Bobby Heenan, a wrestling manager/commentator on the then WWF wrestling, introducing Lex Luger. The way he talked about him made me thought that if Bobby Heenan was a female, he would have been a fangirl. Just look at this video.

[annoyed]

If you want to bring up wrestling, try all of John Cena's fans

[Madame Celeste]

If we're on the subject of fictional characters who act(ed) like Bella, I may as well bring up Jesse from the Queen of the Damned movie (NOT to be confused with the actual book). I would even go as far as to say that the QotD movie had already used the Twilight formula (at least in part) before Twilight even existed, but that's a whole 'nother rant entirely.

Now, getting back on topic, the movie portrays Lestat as your typical angsty vampire, alternating between two moods as far as I can tell:

1) Bouts of arrogance and/or apparently senseless killing of innocents (brushing off the threat of Akasha and all the vampires who want him dead with comments like "bring it on" or "let her come", killing two groupies/call girls brought in by his manager for no adequately-explored reason, killing a woman in front of Jesse just to prove a point about her desire to become a vampire, and so on and so forth), and

2) Frequent wangsty monologues about how alone he feels.

So basically, take Edward Cullen and remove the "vegetarian" factor, and you've got this movie's Lestat in a nutshell. But unlike the book, in which Lestat and Jesse barely spend a minute or so together, the movie's Jesse becomes increasingly obsessed with Lestat after discovering that he really is a vampire and not just a rock star with a gimmick. Not only that, but her eventual desire to become a vampire and her apparent mood after being turned into one bears some eyebrow-raising similarities to Bella's nagging Edward to turn HER. (Not to mention one part where Jesse, in response to Lestat telling her that her humanity is suddenly very precious to him, says "I'm not as precious as you think" as she cuts herself with a needle in front of him.)

[Georgaina]

Now I could be wrong on this, but I seem to recall a weird period in the Harry Potter books where we had Lavender Brown x Ron Weasley happening. Now she might not have been half as bad as Bella, but for the time she was there, I found her extremely annoying.

She threw quite the bitch fit when she saw Hermione with Ron in the hospital wing when no one bothered to tell her he was there. I can't recall this happening in the books (I presume it did, though), but when Ron woke up, he asked for Hermione first. That she cried at that seemed natural, though, I'll give her that.

What I thought made her really similar to Bella was the fact she acted on what Bella wanted (wanting to snog 24/7), that she seemed to worship the ground on which Ron walked and that she was extremely jealous, like Bella with a flirty waitress or simply people like Jessica. They have to be called out as bitches by her in the hopes of getting the reader to feel the same way.

[arcanius]

Teens get bitchy all the time. We've all been there, we all know how it works, and we've all done something like that at least once in our lives. Thing with Bella is - she's an "old soul" "the mature one"... Only she's a whiny teen brat... Honestly that is kinda part of what makes her that level of annoying - I can accept the idea of teens being bitches, because frankly - teens are just like that. Among the most annoying factors of Bella is that, even though she'd make an entire army of whining teens look mature - we're supposed to think she's smart, calm, awe-inspiring and wise beyond her years. What a load of bull.

So anyway, my point is that a character who acts like Bella would be someone that was bitchy and whiny, but was intended as someone who acts smart

[Chaotic Neutral]

^Agreed. I define Bella not only by her obsession with Edward, but her "It's All About Me" attitude that the world turns on its head to reinforce and her complete inability to care about other people.

To that effect: Dorian Gray. The vain prettyboy who unknowingly sells his soul when he makes a wish for a beautiful painting age in his place. He at least starts off as a innocent and moral character than Bella was at the beginning (not to mention more likeable), but where Meyer shows Bella becoming eternally young and apathetic to the suffering of others to be the height of the character's potential, Dorian's story shows his fall from grace and puts some real focus in the consequences of his selfish and downright cruel actions. Much like Bella and like most people, his desire for eternal youth stemmed from his fear of aging, and when he realized he had it, he wasted no time in taking full advantage of it and embraced a hedonistic lifestyle full of pleasure and no personal consequences.

Look at this line after he broke of his engagement to Sybil Vane that ruined her and resulted in her suicide: "Cruelty! Had he been cruel? It was the girl's fault, not his... And, yet, a feeling of infinite regret came over him, as he thought of her lying at his feet sobbing like a little child... But he had suffered also. During the three terrible hours that the play had lasted, he had lived centuries of pain, aeon upon aeon of torture. His life was well worth hers."

He broke up with her because she gave one bad performance, and it's noted that he fell in love with her acting and the characters she portrayed rather than the woman herself, kind of like how Bella fell in love with her warped view of Edward and his perfection. And then there's the matter of Lord Henry who helps set off Dorian start of darkness and whom Dorian admires (like Edward) and the artist Basil who cares greatly for Dorian and wishes to save him (like Jacob).

[Chaotic Neutral]

Someone else that blindsides me with her sheer stupidity and selfishness: Roxie from Chicago.

The lady cheated on her husband with a guy, not out of any real love or affection, but for the false promises he gives her to make her a star. Then when he reveals the false promises for what they were and that he only used her to get laid, she shot and killed him, and she would have had her husband take the fall for it. And while I get that she's the main lead, none of this makes me inclined to like her very much. Even when she's in prison trying to avoid the death penalty, she's STILL more concerned with keeping the spotlight than the fact that her life is on the line. Much like Bella and her misplaced concern on her love life between two hot guys over the fact that there are forces trying to KILL HER. Roxie gives the impression that she sees people as tools to be used, and while we are constantly being hammered with how "loving" and "selfless" Bella is, I can't help but notice how she treats people the same way.

Roxie used her husband, her lover, and even her lawyer all in attempts to further her own selfish desires of fame and fortune. Similarly, Bella uses Charlie, Jacob, all of her human friends, and the Cullens in her selfish desire for eternal youth and beauty. Both used people until they could get a step up, then dropped those people. From Roxie's husband to her lover to what she thought would be a deal in showbusiness. And Bella from Charlie to Edward, Jacob to Edward, all of her human friends to Edward, and ultimately Edward to immortality. And in the end, they both get away with this use and abuse, and even getting off scott free for MURDER is portrayed as a good thing. Nevermind that both DID cause needless deaths and neither showed an ounce of remorse for it.

[marienomad]

Aug 27, 2014 20:08:22 GMT -8 Chaotic Neutral said:

Someone else that blindsides me with her sheer stupidity and selfishness: Roxie from Chicago.

The lady cheated on her husband with a guy, not out of any real love or affection, but for the false promises he gives her to make her a star. Then when he reveals the false promises for what they were and that he only used her to get laid, she shot and killed him, and she would have had her husband take the fall for it. And while I get that she's the main lead, none of this makes me inclined to like her very much. Even when she's in prison trying to avoid the death penalty, she's STILL more concerned with keeping the spotlight than the fact that her life is on the line. Much like Bella and her misplaced concern on her love life between two hot guys over the fact that there are forces trying to KILL HER. Roxie gives the impression that she sees people as tools to be used, and while we are constantly being hammered with how "loving" and "selfless" Bella is, I can't help but notice how she treats people the same way.

Roxie used her husband, her lover, and even her lawyer all in attempts to further her own selfish desires of fame and fortune. Similarly, Bella uses Charlie, Jacob, all of her human friends, and the Cullens in her selfish desire for eternal youth and beauty. Both used people until they could get a step up, then dropped those people. From Roxie's husband to her lover to what she thought would be a deal in showbusiness. And Bella from Charlie to Edward, Jacob to Edward, all of her human friends to Edward, and ultimately Edward to immortality. And in the end, they both get away with this use and abuse, and even getting off scott free for MURDER is portrayed as a good thing. Nevermind that both DID cause needless deaths and neither showed an ounce of remorse for it.

If this is any conciliation, the person that Roxie was based off of, Beulah Annan, got divorced and ended up dying of tuberculosis in a sanitarium only four years after her acquittal.

[Chaotic Neutral]

Aug 28, 2014 7:04:11 GMT -8 marienomad said:

Aug 27, 2014 20:08:22 GMT -8 Chaotic Neutral said:

Someone else that blindsides me with her sheer stupidity and selfishness: Roxie from Chicago.

The lady cheated on her husband with a guy, not out of any real love or affection, but for the false promises he gives her to make her a star. Then when he reveals the false promises for what they were and that he only used her to get laid, she shot and killed him, and she would have had her husband take the fall for it. And while I get that she's the main lead, none of this makes me inclined to like her very much. Even when she's in prison trying to avoid the death penalty, she's STILL more concerned with keeping the spotlight than the fact that her life is on the line. Much like Bella and her misplaced concern on her love life between two hot guys over the fact that there are forces trying to KILL HER. Roxie gives the impression that she sees people as tools to be used, and while we are constantly being hammered with how "loving" and "selfless" Bella is, I can't help but notice how she treats people the same way.

Roxie used her husband, her lover, and even her lawyer all in attempts to further her own selfish desires of fame and fortune. Similarly, Bella uses Charlie, Jacob, all of her human friends, and the Cullens in her selfish desire for eternal youth and beauty. Both used people until they could get a step up, then dropped those people. From Roxie's husband to her lover to what she thought would be a deal in showbusiness. And Bella from Charlie to Edward, Jacob to Edward, all of her human friends to Edward, and ultimately Edward to immortality. And in the end, they both get away with this use and abuse, and even getting off scott free for MURDER is portrayed as a good thing. Nevermind that both DID cause needless deaths and neither showed an ounce of remorse for it.

If this is any conciliation, the person that Roxie was based off of, Beulah Annan, got divorced and ended up dying of tuberculosis in a sanitarium only four years after her acquittal.

Yeah, but she immediately divorced her husband who stood by her and paid for all her attorney fees on the basis of abandonment. Her statement to the media was that "He is too slow." That blatant using of people to get what she wants then dropping them after is exactly the same as Bella.