I have not read the Twilight books nor seen the Twilight movie. I have a long standing policy of not criticizing things that I haven't watched or read myself. However, I've heard enough about the Twilight series, from a number of sources that I trust, to feel like I have a pretty good grasp at what's going on. (I'm certainly qualified to comment on Buffy and Angel issues, having watched every single episode of both.)
This mash-up video, created by a group of Buffy fans, sums everything up nicely. Edward is creepy, Bella is a passive loser who thinks that his stalking is somehow attractive, and Buffy is a sensible girl who would kick Edward's ass. And rightly so.
There are a lot of interesting discussions that come out of comparing Buffy and Twilight. It's not nearly as clear-cut as "Buffy is awesome and Twilight sucks." Buffy, too, fell in love with her stalker (Angel). One difference between them is that the show recognized the error of Buffy's ways, while Stephanie Meyer does not. By all accounts, Meyer essentially celebrates and honors stalking and general creepiness as a way of showing affection.
Then again, we can't fully have this discussion if we're going to continue to pretend that "that episode" of Buffy, the one with the "incident" with Spike, didn't happen. Hey, I understand why you'd want to pretend that. The show was a lot less problematic if you overlook "that episode."
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