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How am I supposed to live without you?

Kim Hollis: Now that the franchise has ended (for now), what are your overall thoughts regarding the Twilight phenomenon?

Jason Barney: I think it is significant to note that many of the largest opening weekends of all time come from stories that started as books. Five of the top nine largest weekends - I was surprised by that number. The list includes the last of the Harry Potters, three of the Twilights, and Hunger Games. Each of these has an appeal to younger crowds who tend to anticipate the opening of a film a bit more than older audiences. The energy tends front load results of films a bit, but they do open big.

The other aspect of this is the popularity of the books. I can remember when the Harry Potter books were the craze. Then the Twilight series. I was amazed at how many people were reading them. Now it is the Hunger Games. No clue what the next one will be, but when the energy of the teenage imagination becomes captured by some of these characters, it means huge dollars for movie studios.

Edwin Davies: I understand it, acknowledge that it is a thing, and hate it. Truly, truly hate it. I can't speak to the quality of the books since I haven't read them, but I have seen all the films with the exception of the new one (it was for a podcast and no, I'm not proud of myself) and they are not only terrible films - although the first two are fun to mock; the third and fourth are too dull to make fun of - but ones which I think are, at best, retrograde in their attitudes towards women. They're meant to be these big, epic romance stories, but all they amount to is a dumb morality play about chastity wrapped up in vampire mythology which reduces its female lead to a milksop who spends 80% of the time moping over her boyfriend, rather than, I don't know, doing something to move the story along. I find it disconcerting that a lot of young women seem to be obsessed with this version of love and this image of femininity, and can only hope that its the Katniss-emulators who wind up inheriting the earth, and not the Bella ones.

Felix Quinonez: I guess I hadn't really though about this before, but I haven't read one of the books or seen any of these movies. But I do really hate this franchise, it just bothers me and from what I hear the movies are terrible and the books are really badly written. That being said, I'm just glad it's over.

Matthew Huntley: As the above posts indicate, the Twilight series seems to trigger an extreme reaction from both sides. You either love it or hate it (and, almost by default, love to hate it). I actually think I fall somewhere in the middle. Yes, for the most part, the movies are poorly made, poorly written, poorly acted and ultimately dry. I've only marginally recommended the second and fifth films in the franchise, but I have no reason to see any of them again. They leave no lasting impression and there's nothing I ever took away from them besides mindless drama. Yet, with that said, there's nothing about them I out-rightly despise, either. They don't annoy me so much as simply have no real effect on me. I'm glad we/Hollywood can finally move on, but I really never gave the series a second thought.

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