Stories like Twilight were born WAAAY before Twilight, and have been going on since. Even during the terrorizing storytelling or Vlad, Van Helsing, etc.

It just so happens that Twilight hit it big, making everyone know about it. The image was ruined long ago. Only now, more people have realized it.

Sadly Stephanie Meyers thoughts of vampires is just out of shape. Vampires to her are Shiny, Marble and Can go out in daylight. Thats Faeries. Not Vampires.
Anyone else get that she is to some extent copying Anne Rice?

Personally I thought the Twilight Saga did ruin the view on vampires. First off its really creepy if a vampire sparkles! Second since when did you have to burn them once you killed them? In Supernatural (Amazing Show) you only had to cut off their head and they are dead! I don't know. It seemed they were a huge waste of money.

Twilight kind of went off the rails with the last book. Sure the series sucks you in and is a great teenage version of mills and boon but it's kinda ridiculous. Sorry but vampires don't GLITTER!

I'm an old school buffy fan - spike - HE was a real vampire!

Is there even an image to compare it to??? I mean has anyone seen a REAL blood sucking vampire? The "image" of vampires change from culture to culture and from some of the movies I've seen some don't remotely look like something off of Dracula.

YEAAAAHHHHH ... i dont think that vampirez are suppose to sparkle .. >.> but then again that'z my opinion
The bookz are okay but i dont like the moviez
^ .. therez are other moviez and bookz about vampirez .. u just hav to find them first >.<

I'm going to have to agree with the person on the first page that said vampires are fictional characters, so they can sparkle if they want to.

My reason for this is since they aren't real and are more of a myth, it's not like whoever created them owns what they are. I liked Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, but that doesn't mean all vampires have to live up to her literary standards. Same with Stephenie Meyers' vampires - hers sparkle, but it doesn't mean all vampires created do (well obviously).

Take Angel and Buffy: Angel will burn in sunlight, but when he has sex with her for the first time, he turns back to his evil self. Who else writes about that?

As for a contemporary couple, say Sookie and Bill going through the same act, Bill doesn't turn evil. In True Blood, when somebody human drinks vampire blood, they get high as a kite. Where has anyone ever heard of that before the series was created?

The fact is they are figments of the writer's imagination. We are expected to believe that vampires will burn when exposed to sun - somebody set that standard a long time ago. But of course, times have changed and so does the public's opinion. It still doesn't mean that just because Twilight's vampires sparkle, Twilight happens to suck as a literary creation. It wasn't meant to be perfect literature, or a classically-renowned book. It's just the direction that pop culture is going through right now.

Though I totally believe the person that says today's "vampires" are lustful teenage freaks.