So a telepath and a vampire walk into a bar

I was recently introduced to a little-known show -- maybe you've heard of it? -- called True Blood. We borrowed the first season on DVD from my brother and his wife and quickly devolved into watching four or five episodes in a sitting. Love Sookie, love Bill, love the trashy Louisiana setting.

But did anyone else notice the similarities to another popular vampire series?

For instance, Edward Cullen is a vampire who lives among humans in secret. Bill Compton is a vampire who, until recently, lived among humans in secret.

Edward and the Cullens live on animal blood because they are good vamps who don’t kill humans… most of the time. Bill subsists mostly on synthetic True Blood because he's a good vamp who doesn't like killing humans. Most of the time.

Edward is a telepath who can hear everyone’s thoughts... until he meets Bella. Sookie is a telepath who can hear everyone’s thoughts...until she meets Bill.

Edward is irresistibly drawn to Bella because he can’t hear her thoughts, even though she smells so good that he can hardly resist killing her. Sookie is irresistibly drawn to Bill because she can’t hear thoughts, even though he is very, very dangerous.

The Cullens are monitored by Jacob’s pack of werewolves. Bill is monitored by Sookie’s boss, Sam. Who is a werewolf.

The wolves hate all vampires, but Jacob especially hates Edward because he’s in love with Bella. Sam hates all vampires, but he especially resents Bill because he’s in love with Sookie.

Jacob and his pack turn out not to be werewolves after all. They’re just shapeshifters who happen to turn into wolves. Sam turns out to not be a werewolf after all. He's just a shapeshifter who prefers taking the shape of a dog.

Is this all a mighty coincidence? The Sookie Stackhouse books were published before Twilight, but I can't fathom a good Mormon girl like Stephenie Meyer reading them (I'm almost done with Dead Until Dark, and some of the sex scenes would make Emmett Cullen blush.) I mean, I'm not complaining. I love Twilight. I love True Blood (I'm not 100% sold on the books yet). But man, there are a lot of similarities.

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Related: So who else is watching The Vampire Diaries? I heartily approve, both because there was a snippet of a song by MGMT that I love in one scene and because they have my long-lost LOST boyfriend playing a major role. Oh, Boone, how I've missed you ever since that damned plane fell on you in Season One! Plus, they've got a great Wolverine vibe going on with the whole good-brother-just-wants-to-live-life-in-peace-but-bad-brother-won't-have-it-thing.

Comments

[heidikins]

Maybe Stephenie Meyer is telepathic and she somehow read the thoughts of Sookie...

xox

[nancypearlwannabe]

But... Sam isn't a werewolf! He's just a shape shifter. Clearly Stephenie Meyer had never even HEARD of Sookie Stackhouse.

[Pink Herring]

OK, right. Sam isn't a werewolf. But he sure seemed like it, with the
turning into a dog and all.

On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 2:10 PM, wrote:

[Liz]

I remember hearing that she "stole" her entire plot from Sookie. Oh well, I enjoy BOTH series, though I've only seen the first two episodes of True Blood.

And I don't know who this Boone character is but damn, he's hot.

[kate]

Twilight strikes me as being like "True Blood Jr" - all of the vampires and the love, but less of the graphic sex scenes and violent murders. In any case, I love them both :) I'm about halfway through the first Sookie book myself and it's definitly growing on me.

[Kari]

I think that Twilight and the Sookie Stackhouse series are both good on their own. I love Sookie more I think b/c I'm a grownup :) But as soon as I read your post, it was hard to finish b/c Sam isn't a werewolf. He's a shifter. He can turn into any creature he likes whereas werewolves can only turn into wolves. Geesh! Get it right! :)

[Janssen]

Glad to hear about Sookie Stackhouse having some serious sex scenes - now I can skip them with a clear conscience :) (Yes, I have guilt about not reading books).

[Angela Noelle]

Haha, I totally agree! There are a LOT of similarities, but I'm thrilled because I really wanted to like Twilight, but just didn't. So True Blood came along and swept me off my feet, doing everything that I wanted so badly for Twilight to do. Plus, I love dirty vampire sex ;)

And yes, based on the first episode of Vampire Diaries, I'm lovin' it!

[alyndabear]

Big hugs to you for today. That's all. x

[Lindsey]

I got my friend Holly into the vampire books. First she read the Twilight Series, then she got into True Blood (she read all of Harris' books too). She decided she would read the Vampire Diaries books and shortly thereafter she came into work in shock...she said that she is surprised Stephenie Myer didn't get in trouble for plagiarism!! She said the similarities were ridiculous! I couldn't believe it...!!!