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Basically, at 8:48 am on September 11th, 2001, Gerard Way—before he became the lead singer of My Chemical Romance—was on his way via NYC Ferry to his normal, regular job at Cartoon Network (he had a TV show idea about a Breakfast Monkey yada yada, unrelated), so, he witnesses the towers collapse, and we all know how fucking traumatizing that must have been, but what you might not have known, is that within a week after seeing the towers fall, Gerard was moved to write what would become MCR’s first song, “Skylines and Turnstiles.” Let’s peek the lyrics: “Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun, scorched and black.” Wow, beautiful, no surprise they end up signing with Reprise Records like 3 years later, their album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge baking the kiddie-emo-new-wave into the culture like a government-funded breakfast staple, and, at this point, all the girls are hooked on Gerard and his white man doing white-face look, naturally. I mean every girl (me) wanted him and were (are) incredibly vulnerable to his under eyeshadow, and, you know who else was rocking out to, “For all the dirty looks, the photographs your boyfriend took, remember when you broke your foot, from jumping out the second floor?” You guessed it, author of puberty-kick-starter, The Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyer. MCR’s “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” is cited directly on Smeyer’s blog as one of the 13 songs she listened to while writing Twilight. But are we surprised? Gerard Way’s aesthetic wasn’t anemia cosplay, but very intentional and very politically correct vampire appropriation—i.e. the “Helena” music video (which, by the way, is eerily reminiscent of that scene when Bella turns into a vampire.) But let’s dig a little deeper with an Entertainment Weekly interview, where Stephanie talks about MCR, “This band is so in touch for me with Jacob’s character. This really raw, uncontrolled emotion…The song “Famous Last Words” is a really romantic version of Jacob saying, ‘Okay, I’m putting myself out there, and you’re probably going to break me, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still going to make the offer.’” 

Like?? I mean, talk about “Bella, where the hell you been loca?!” Um, nowhere if it wasn’t for Gerard being the literal G-spot of Smeyer’s imagination. Smeyes, my girl, I’m only speculating, but we fans from Tumblr, Reddit, the Twatlight Facebook group have to know: Was The Twilight Series straight up MCR fanfic, the love-child of a late night Gerard x reader sesh (please drop the link)? Regardless, there are three things about which I am absolutely positive. First, Edward is a vampire. Second, there is a part of him—and I don’t know how dominant that part might be—that is dominantly inspired by Gerard Way. And third, Twilight, therefore, is unconditionally and irrevocably a byproduct of 9/11.

Author’s Note: Twilight then led to the decline of the European Portuguese language and The Ellen Degeneres Show.