Four = Death!?
Aug. 7th, 2008 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteFourth and maybe final post in the "Twilight" series. I'm going to do this one more like how I wanted to do it originally, with a page-segment play-by-play, where I report on my findings (or whatever you want to call them) as I read Book 4 in Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, a.k.a. "Breaking Dawn."
I'm already 72 pages into the book, so... here we go!
The interview Meyer had with Entertainment Tonight (or was it Entertainment Weekly? I forget) revealed that a wedding was most definitely in Bella and Edward's future, and for some reason, that freaked a lot of people out, even though it was practically spelled out to the letter in Book 3/"Eclipse." I guess some people thought there might be a time gap between Books 3 (Bella and Edward's graduation) and 4, but there's not. And it wasn't a surprise to me, because in Meyer's universe, there is no mysterious "lull" period when vampires and other supernatural things simply vanish and they live on Isle Esme and forget just how far they've come.
Book 4 really reinforces that, frankly, Bella's not a strong girl. I don't mean strong as in "hardy" strong, or physically strong: I mean she's not an admirable woman, a strong protagonist. Sure, I can relate to her in many ways (now that I've read as far as I had; in Book 1, I pretty much hated her, which is surprising for me, because I normally like virtually any female protagonist, and find it illogical when others seem to love the rest of the cast and then hate the main character), but that doesn't mean she's that great. And I mean this in the sense of, she's a bad character, not a Sue, not a Sue done wrong. She's simply not the best written female protagonist.
She essentially "gives in" to Alice's desire to throw her a big floofy wedding, even though it's ridiculously out-of-character for her. She wavers (though I guess this part is IC for her) between wanting to be a vampire immediately and wanting to stay human and experience things a bit longer-- mainly because the stories of newborns being slaves to their thirst, losing their "humanity" (e.g. memories, feelings of being human) scares the $#!T out of her.
And she and super-smexy Edward (now her husband, oooooh) have sex. But it's a fade-to-black kind of scene, except without any tantalizing little bits to REALLY, REALLY imply it. And it might be because I'm reading the eBook and not the real thing, but seriously, to not even have some sort of scene break between the kissing/seducing!? (And Bella only vaguely does the 'seducing bit' well, primarily because it doesn't seem to take much about her to set Edward off; even if he's gotten used to her 'delectable smell' or whatever, he more or less worships her and seems to "enjoy" her quite a bit. Still haven't worked out just how vampires have sex at all, let alone with a human female, but that's probably too X-rated of a question for Meyer to have answered in-text.)
Oh, and by page 72, the implications that she's got morning sickness (and is therefore pregnant) are quite clear. But the general consensus is that you don't get pregnant the first time you have sex. People who really WANT to have children often have to try REPEATEDLY. But then again, I guess there are exceptions, and real life ones, too, hence the constant need for protection. But obviously, Bella and Edward don't need that. They're maaaaaaried. They're spending the rest of eternity together! And I'm sure they both think "Vamps can't have children. Period." So it shouldn't matter who Edward has sex with, they won't get pregnant. Or so he thinks.
I don't know, to me, all this isn't foreshadowing; what with Bella having dreams of a child she has to save, and now drooling over fried chicken one second and then wanting to throw it up the next, the only way Meyer could be more obvious is if she had a giant neon sign that said "BELLA IS PREGNANT." It's a bit like the whole "R.B." thing from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," except in this case, it's not setting up the plot of the next book, it's setting off the plot for what's to come in this book. We already know the Volturi are powerful, interested in Edward and Bella, and quite dangerous, but we've kind of weakened that impression by having them "beat" or vanish (or not care) in the last two books. So, what else to spice up the drama? Why, a BABY, of course!
...How predictable.
Okay, so she's started throwing up now, and Edward thinks they should see a doctor. This guy's 107 years old, his "father's" a doctor, and he thinks they should "see a doctor" about Bella's supposed food-poisoning? GET A CLUE, ED! No, really. I know Edward's a velvet-voiced marble statue of smex, but I didn't think he was this thick. He really is in deep, not even considering the possibility of Bella's humanness?
Wahahha, oh, so wait, Bella's super-speshul awesome and all this obviousness isn't really obvious, but IMPORTANT and WEIRD because hey, 17 days = not possible to be so very pregnant (okay, she's probably morphed to the equivalent of a woman in her second or third month, closing in on that first trimester) girl? It's not Bella's fault for being human, it's Edward's fault for being so super-speshul-awesome! He's like Superman, with wonder-sperm, except they're wonder-vampire-sperm!
You know, I kinda wonder, if Alice is the one that pretty much saw everything: wedding, honeymoon, and even Bella's eventual turning (and I wonder if the details on that have changed at all? I mean, was it Edward's "decision" to turn her that she saw? It seems impossible, given how vehement Ed was about it for such a long time. Maybe she only saw Bella's own personal decision to BE turned? That implies that it doesn't matter WHO does the turning or HOW, just that she'll become a vampire somehow), why is it she packed tampons and not a pregnancy test? Up until Bella explicitly said "tampons," I thought Alice had put a pregnancy test in there because she SAW Bella get pregnant, and wisely managed to keep her lips (and mind) shut about it. It'd be an interesting twist, to say the least. But they're making Alice weak and her powers fallible anyway, so I guess that would be Meyer's explanation for Alice NOT seeing it (and I'm only assuming she hasn't now, at this point in the story).
Oh puh-leaze, the girl's 18, was just contemplating really, truly (at least it sounded like it from her perspective; then again, she is, has been, and probably will continue to be, hormonal) going to college, but GOT MARRIED, and now she wants to KEEP THE BABY? Bah, I'm sure that since this isn't going to end up being a fluke pregnancy (e.g. she's just imagining things; she really does have an evil South American stomach virus) and I doubt she's going to get hurt to badly that this one will die and Edward will give her comfort sex and she'll end up pregnant again... this is it. This is TEH BUBELEH OF DOOM that wankers were wanking about in the F_W posts. This is the part where Meyer's own experience plays far too large a role. I can understand the early marriage thing, and, given Bella's perspective, even her desire to be turned into a vampire (esp. by Edward) so soon despite the cost involved (not to say that NOT being turned won't have a cost; the Volturi would be after her soon enough), but keeping the baby? Geez girl... maybe it's just me, a normal ol' human. Bella, after all, has the Cullens-- having a baby wouldn't put a dent in their checkbooks the way it would for most other women. And as for any of the other usual concerns, I'm sure Meyer can (and has, or rather, will) tidily clean up. *sigh*
That "thing"--!? EDWARD!? ZOMG, I'm shocked. What does he think is inside her, an evil werewolf baby? A chest-monster from Aliens!? I don't have to be Bella to be shocked and angry; for saying that, Edward's a total nimrod. And as an aside, it's kind of interesting he referred to it that way; the last book I read (non-"Twilight", that is) was Tanith Lee's "White As Snow," in which Arpazia (a.k.a. Snow White's mom) hated Coira (a.k.a. Snow White) and when pregnant with her, often referred to her/the baby as "a thing."
HAHAHA I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO TURN TO ROSALIE! (See, that was one of the loose ends from the last book, even though there was no preview in "Eclipse" of "Breaking Dawn.") Rosalie, despite her whole explanation to Bella about why she didn't want Bella in the family as a vampire, still has loose ends to be tied, mainly about pregnancy. Bella being pregnant and NOT wanting to be a vampire due to Edward's attitude about it automatically puts her and Rosalie as allies. But the interesting thing is, good ol' fashioned Edward isn't acting quite so "stodgy old timer" anymore, but more "vampire with a guilt complex." I think if he were more old fashioned, he'd be thrilled that she's pregnant (and so soon). But maybe he and Bella are (yet again), not on the same page as to what's really happening to her. And Bella, emotional as she is, has clammed up re: her dreams and her real understanding (if you can call it that) of what's going on, and what Edward thinks (or what she thinks he thinks).
...So, I'm thinking that, despite Jacob's "luuuurve admission" in the last book, he's going to imprint on Leah. That's another loose end, albeit smaller than the others. Sam and Emily's story pretty much Leah the poor victim, and though she's a bitch, she's also got "cool factor" as a supporting female because she's the lone female wolf in the pack. To be honest, until Leah "came out" as a wolf, I honestly thought Meyer was going to pull yet another misogynistic morphing of supernatural mythos and say that there are never any female werewolves.
And hey, whatever happened to Jacob refusing to be human? He did it when Edward and Bella got engaged, and it seemed like he did it again, after he fought with Bella at her wedding reception and she revealed her desire to have a "true honeymoon" with Edward (a.k.a. have sex with him). Why would he willingly go back to being human and therefore be annoyed with his packmates when Bella and Edward are still away, able to give him plenty of imagination meat to work with?
Hm, Jacob's musings on Bella's eventual turning (which he still hasn't accepted, clearly, and why should he? It's part of his character) are interesting. He says that his own mother died "in a car accident" and yet her coffin had to be nailed shut. I wonder if the truth is something more gruesome and supernatural...
Wahaha, so I'm on page 105 now, and it sounds like Edward is telling Jacob, "Yes, you can screw my wife-- if it makes her pregnant again, and that makes her happy and keeps her alive, then fine!" It's bits like this that have me remembering: "I'm reading it for the LULZ."
Page 133. Ah, conflict! At first, I thought it was going to be half of the Cullens (or at least a fraction of them: Bella, Esme, and Rosalie) vs. Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Edward, and Carlisle. But now it seems that, even if there is a disagreement in the family, no one's acting on it yet, knowing it'll tear the family apart. For vampires, they are being awfully optimistic about Bella's "condition," and it seems to have gotten to the point where Bella CAN'T tell her own story because of how bad it is. Still, I know it can be done (I saw something like it done in Jodi Picoult's "A Change of Heart" with one of the death-row inmates featured in the story), and it'd be interesting to see Bella's thoughts as this "pregnancy" continues. But having Jacob's thoughts is pretty awesome, too.
As it stands, we've got minor conflicts within the Cullen family, a portion of the wolf pack vs. each other, and then the major conflict of vampires vs. werewolves.
Oh, and so Leah joins the pack, and I'm thinking this is supposed to further reinforce my idea that, since Bella can't/won't be with Jacob in any size/shape/form (mainly because of Jacob's prejudices, not her own, though she's certainly not faultless), Jacob's eventually going to warm up to Leah and imprint on her (or maybe she's already imprinted on him, but because he's Alpha, he has no clue? Maybe because he's male, she can imprint on him all she likes, but it won't matter unless he imprints back?). It'll be like the love-hate relationship. Except I don't really like Leah. -_-
Plot Bunny! I was thinking the conflict and suspense would be much greater if Bella (with Rosalie or simply on her advice) went off on her own: perhaps to find the Volturi. They'd recognize the baby as unprecedented and likely to be a great source of power --therefore, a potential enemy and a potential ally. Since Bella was supposed to be turned anyway, and that's still what she wants/what she's counting on, she might agree to stay with the Volturi indefinitely, do whatever she's told-- if they turn her and save her baby. It'd also be cool if she developed something a bit stronger than this "shielding" power she's shown so far, blocking any mental vampire abilities. For some reason, I thought it'd be cool if Bella were a "pyro" vampire (e.g. had the power to summon fire). Tee-hee.
Page 140. Because this is all so unprecedented, not even ancient, super-smart Carlisle knows what to do to help Bella. I could be off the mark here, but it seems obvious: the kid's quite clearly at least half-vampire, so why not give her blood? Bella might not LIKE it, but she'd drink it even as a human, if just to sustain the baby.
Page 142. Damn it, I was right. But I don't feel proud, exactly-- it sucks, because it means it's predictable. But then again, Bella's already been suffering enough, and the plot's got to get moving along already, right? I mean, we got to THIS point pretty fast.
Oooh, 143, we get another possible -and very interesting- conflict: rather than Bella and Rosalie vs. everyone else, it might just be Bella vs. Rosalie, because Bella knows Rosalie really wanted a child before she turned, but she didn't have the chance. She turned to Rosalie for that very reason, too naive to think that her own pregnancy and Bella's impending death (because it's apparent there's no way Bella would survive the birthing process, and Rosalie's been against Bella's turning from the beginning-- who's to say that Bella being pregnant would change that?) would be exactly what Rosalie wanted. Rosalie gets the baby, Bella dies -and doesn't become a vampire, and Rosalie gets to "go back to normal," mostly-- she's quite selfish if this is actually the case. Gee, I hope she's not THAT much of a bitch.
Page 148. Don't know why this section's got me thinking so much, but I'm a bit amused about Bella's attitude. It's already been pointed out how she's "such a martyr" and everything, but others have argued she's not REALLY self-sacrificing, because it's always HER wanting/getting something, in the end. In this instance... eh, I'm not so sure. I mean, she's counting on the fact that she'll live long enough to be turned after the baby's born, but Edward, Jacob and Carlisle are both thinking she won't, and I'm sure Bella's aware of the possibility, even if she won't admit it. I think she just can't bear the thought of really, truly killing someone (or some "thing") for her own life, her own eventual "eternity" with Edward. If this were like Gabrielle with Dahak in Xena: Warrior Princess, it might be a bit different, because Bella would think "there's some kind of demon spawn in me; he used me, abused me, raped me" but that's not the case here. It really is her and Edward's child, incubus/succubus or otherwise.
Anyway, it was Bella all worried about her "screwing her total" that got me grinning. And then Jacob saying that, once Bella was turned, Edward would have to work on his honesty, because she'd be able to sense things. It's probably the first real sign Jacob's shown of accepting that, for Bella, there is no other path but to be turned-- regardless of who, and the when is only sooner, rather than later.
*snort* I'm guessing the mention of werewolves being inconvenienced by the need to change clothing every time they phase is Meyer's idea of humor injected into an otherwise serious, slow-moving situation. I'm wondering if anyone's done a web comic yet with scenes of the wolves in "bad places to lose your temper if you're a werewolf in the Twilight universe" and has them busting out of their clothes (or phasing back into human form) in weird places. RDRR.
Aside: I want to see werewolf puppies. It's all Edward's fault. (Or wait, would they be cubs?)
I like Meyer's chapter titles-- at least within Jacob's "book."
"Come in or get lost." I think I want a door mat that says that.
*snicker* Vampire mother hen. I'm picturing a beautiful woman with the body of a chicken. And when I try to picture Esme, it's a cross between Kasumi (Ranma 1/2) and Belldandy (Oh! My Goddess). And hey, didn't they both have the same voice actress, anyway?
...Are pregnant women really supposed to be subjected to X-Rays? Does it really matter, since Bella's pregnant with vampire spawn? Ah, bother, I'll just keep reading.
I'm getting irritated with Edward, just like Bella was in the honeymoon: is there anything Edward can't do? I know Edward's 107, but 17 of those years were spent living his life normally. He couldn't have possibly learned how to do everything in the the years he's had since then, right? But aside from being super-smexy and hot, which seems to be a vampire prerequisite (or, as Bella hopes, a part of the deal), the guy can:
* drive like an Indy speedstar
* fight
* play piano like Beethoven
* cook like Emeril, but probably minus the BAM!s
* speak at least 3 different languages (English, Italian, and Portuguese)
* make love like the Love Guru (and if Meyer dared to think that modern 16-year-olds aren't as prudish as she seems to REALLY think they are, we'd probably have Bella gushing over how many orgasms she had the subsequent times they had sex)
* probably a bunch of other things I've either forgotten or Meyer has outlined in Edward's "profile" but has yet to mention in the books)
Wahaha... I like how Seth's telling Jacob about how Rosalie mentioned (aloud) that even normal human babies crack ribs, and poor ol' Edward about had a conniption and "looked like he was gonna rip her head off." And Edward and Jacob are in agreement, re: Rosalie at the moment! How cuuuute!
*grin* This thing Jacob's got against Rosalie (and vice-versa, though with Rosalie, it almost seems like her vs. everyone else-- shows she's way too overprotective of the baby/Bella) is really quite funny. I love how Jacob responded to Alice's suggestion that Rosalie get him some food-- saying he wouldn't want to eat anything that had vampire venom in it, it wouldn't sit too well.
Actually, that brings up an interesting thought. Vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies. Vampires and werewolves are not human-- or rather, they are meta-human. What if a vampire DID bite a werewolf in human form?
Ooh, another terrible, terrible thought. What if all this "animosity" between Rosalie and Jacob resulted in him imprinting on HER? I mean, she's already got Emmett (and is married to him, if I'm not mistaken), but I think it's positively cute how much she hates him. But what sucks is, I usually love those type of relationships (the "love to hate you" kind), but of the two that seem to be present, Jacob's the only likable character in the pair. Leah and Rosalie, despite all the bull they've been through, are just not likable females. About the only female I do like, no questions asked, is Alice! (Esme we just don't know enough about.)
...Bella thinks Charlie is smart?
I don't think Charlie is smart, and everything I know about him is from Bella's point of view. She doesn't seem to hold EITHER of her parents in high regard. I know most teenagers don't, and even those that get past "that phase" won't always think of one parent or the other as so great or infallible... hell, I know I've hated one or the other of my parents at some time, but right now, I don't know what I do without either of them. Both of them are extremely influential in their own way, and I don't think either of them is stupid is the most blasé sense of the word, but... Bella? Despite this being HER series, HER story, HER life we're hearing about, I don't think she thinks the way I do. If that makes sense.
Interesting thing, this potential for Rosalie vs. the rest of her family (and Jacob): Edward can read Rosalie's mind, right, no problem, so how come he doesn't seem to know whether Rosalie is even the least bit ill-intentioned? I'm not saying she's cackling in her mind, thinking "When that bitch is dead and Edward goes off on his little suicide rampage, the baby will be MINE, MINE, MINE!" but maybe she's thinking, very deeply in the darkest recesses of her mind, that she'll be the one to "care" for the baby-- she'll get to be a mother, FINALLY, like she's "deserved" from the beginning. Edward would know that, and yet the thought seems to have only come from Jacob. I can only think of three possibilities:
a) Edward can't read Rosalie, perhaps because she's very good at disguising her thoughts
b) Jacob's wrong
c) Edward can read Rosalie just fine, but he isn't admitting to what he knows is a very distinct possibility: family member vs. his "life," Bella. He would die (again) for Bella, so it seems an obvious choice, but one Edward doesn't want to have to make. He'd rather spend his last hours with Bella, rather than fighting his own "sister."
Page 192: Ah, finally we address the issues Leah still has with Sam (somewhat) and the concept of imprinting. Perhaps the reason why Jacob didn't imprint on anyone (even if he COULD have imprinted on Bella) is because he had such a strong force of will: a willingness to WANT to choose, even if his choices meant that the object of his affections would NOT choose him. For the other wolves, imprinting comes first, then there's this intense love, but for two heartbroken wolves, one of which thinks she's a genetic dead-end, could it be the other way around? I wonder if Jacob could fall intensely in love with her while all this drama with Bella is happening? I think it'd take a while.
Jacob is getting pretty mad at Leah, though, as I'm reading this, because he just doesn't understand the female mind. He's mad about the idea of imprinting taking away free will, but he doesn't get that asking a woman to kill the life that's growing inside her is taking away her choice, her motherhood! (And to bring some unfortunate reality into all this, it only applies IF the mother really has chosen to have the baby, as Bella has. This is not, I hope, an indication of Meyer's stance on abortion.) But Leah has a very good point: people want most desperately that which they can never have. In Bella's case, she didn't think she wanted it until it happened and started to tear her life apart. She could have somehow "chosen" to not have the baby, if there was some fool-proof way of getting it out of her before it developed too much (not that I think there was that much time anyway, if there has even BEEN a way), but she didn't WANT to do that. She'd decided pretty early on that, no matter what it meant, she was going to have this baby, precisely because, based on everything else she thought she wanted, it was the one thing she would never, ever be able to do. (Hrm, so maybe this is really selfish of Bella in the end.)
*grin* Ah, so now we know that Alice is on Edward's side, and if Emmett really did side with Rosalie, Jacob'd take him. Thrills-- if it weren't so heartbreaking for there to be enemies within the family, I'd say "I'd pay to see that."
Page 196: AWWW TEH LITTLE BUBELEH IS TALKING WIT HIS DADDY IN DE MIND! Or something like that. Despite Bella's innate shielding ability, the baby is not so immune to full-vampires, especially super-speshul-awesome ones like Daddy Dearest, who have MIND READING POWERS (doom)! Actually, this scene makes Edward seem more like an empath than a mind-reader; normally he can hear someone's thoughts, and even if Bella is the equivalent of 32 weeks along, I'm fairly sure the baby's brain isn't THAT developed. But oh, that's a technical detail. Never mind all that. But yeah, Edward had to develop an attachment to the baby sooner or later, else Rosalie and Bella probably would side against him, even if it'd mean Bella's own eventual doom.
o_O; Lizzie. Random Sue? Random nobody? No, seriously, because I think I'll throw up in my mouth a little if Jacob actually GETS HIS WAY and manages to imprint on some random girl in the park that he cataloged with his eyes. He better
a) imprint on Leah, or vice-versa
or
b) get over Bella naturally, and determine to move on, and fall in love naturally, minus the whole imprinting thing, or else imprint later
Page 204: Yeah, she'll never admit it, but I'm thinking Leah's already in love with Jacob, or has imprinted on him in her own "genetically mutated" way and just doesn't know it. I want to be like Stitch and say "Neener Neener Neener!"
211: Hot damn, it finally gets full of action and suspense. I'm wondering if the "fountain of blood" Bella threw up was her own, or the blood she drank, or...? Well, I don't want to think much about a third possibility. I find it interesting that Edward's so infallible and honest: Bella's blood really doesn't make him thirsty anymore, not when she's in danger of dying, not when he now realizes the baby is in danger (the baby that he now loves, and will refer to with a pronoun other than "it").
Yikes-- for fangless vampires, apparently Meyer's vampire teeth sure are a threat: newborns and veteran vamps like Edward alike. It's like screw "scalpel!" it's more like "FANGZZZ!" Scarier still is the fact that Bella has been broken from the inside out, more or less, and will NEED to be changed, right here, right now, by Edward, because if she doesn't, her internal injuries will kill her. And if by some miracle they didn't, they'd make her want to die, because she'd be paralyzed, no questions asked. But if turning vamp freezes you in the state you were in at the time of "death," then wouldn't vampire!Bella have a broken spine, too? Sure, vampires have an incredible healing rate, but something like the spine seems pretty permanent to me... *shrug* I don't know.
Please be kidding me. The baby is NOT Renesmee. I know the nickname "Nessie" was going around, but it better be the kid's FULL name, or short for something more plausible, like Vanessa. Portmanteaus are NOT meant for real people's given names! PLEASE! (And that means no children named Spuffy or Spangel, either!)
Oh, seriously? I'm going to be mad if the VAMPIRE BABY ended up turning Bella instead of Edward. What a rip-off!
...o_O Edward put his venom into a syringe? HOW!? (The only method I can think of would corroborate my theory that vampires of Meyer's creation do indeed have bodily fluid-- saliva, at the very least) Well, at least it's mostly his venom doing the deed, though not as prettily as I (or Bella, I'm sure) would have hoped.
I find it interesting that "my" idea of Bella being the opposite of your usual vampire: related to fire and burning, the way werewolves seem to be, is what's happening in the book, as Bella describes what's going on in her mind as Edward (and possibly Renesmee)'s venom takes effect in her body. She mentioned when James bit her that it was like fire, but the way she goes on about it, about appreciating a new capacity for it, etc. makes me think that, internally, vampires feel fine (and as a downside, might not be able to tell when someone else is cold or hot via touch). They don't feel the heat and cold the way normal humans do, and are on the opposite end of the temperature spectrum from the werewolves, who develop a much higher capacity for heat.
Isn't there a song called "Feels like Fire" or something? And the bit with her saying she recognizes her strength coming back when she's able to twitch her toes-- reminds me of the scene from "Kill Bill" when The Bridge is sitting in the Pussy Wagon saying "Wiggle your big toe."
o_O Okay, another moment of weird. I thought vampires hearts didn't beat. It seemed Meyer kept up with this idea, even though her vampires can breathe IF THEY WANT. So why is it that Bella, newborn vampire, has a beating heart? Does it not "shut off" unless she wants it to, and even then, she survives? What's going on here? And how is it that, even with all the pain of the venom disappearing, she's still mostly sentient, and not driven by her thirst?
229: Well, good thing Meyer ties up her loose ends as soon as she makes them. I didn't know the heart was the last organ to go in the newborn-creation process.
Wahaha, newborn vampy Bella squishes Edward and his perfect marble body. Wahaha. CRACKS IN THE FLAWLESS MAN O' SMEX, BELLA!
More wahaha'ing. I can totally see newborn Bella -amazingly sentient and all that jazz, not so consumed by her thirst as everyone thought/assumed/supposedly knew she would be- pouncing on Edward and just having her way with him. *snicker*
If Renesmee is half-human, with a beating heart and blood in her veins (all necessary, I'm sure), then how is it that Rosalie can be around her, when the blood gushing out of Bella earlier practically had Rosalie salivating? Is it because Rosalie just can't kill a baby? Is it because they're not newborns, the way Bella is? But even so, some of them obviously had issues with control when it came to blood... I don't know, it just seems unfair to Bella.
251: "Centuries of practice." EDWARD, YOU LIAR. You're only 107 years old (and 17 of them weren't as a vampire)! You haven't even had ONE full century of practice in hunting! LIAR LIAR LIAR! (Okay, Bella called him on it. Good girl. But she's still wrong; it's still not one full century.)
253: "It seemed odd now that I needed him [Jacob] so much then. That sense of absence without him near had vanished; it must have been a human weakness." BITCH. No, seriously, this line has any respect I have for Bella -human or vampire- tanking real fast.
264: NO FREAKIN' WAY. Jacob imprinted on Renesmee?! (Half of me saw it coming and dismissed it as too freakin' ridiculous. I forget, "This is Twilight. I'm reading it for the lulz."
*gigglesnort* So it's Jacob that gives her the nickname, eh? Well, the wankas have it. Even with that ridiculous name, Nessie is better than nothing. At least she doesn't LOOK like a giant Scottish sea monster. (I'm giggling more now because I just got to the part where Bella wants to rip Jacob a new one over the nickname. She immediately remembered the Loch Ness Monster.)
267: My question about what happens to werewolves bit by vampires is answered. But to call it "poison" to them is wrong: venom is venom, poison is poison. One is not worse than the other; they're delivered in entirely different ways.
Fugu (Japanese blowfish) is poisonous. A blowfish can fart on you and you will live. But if you eat the wrong part of it, ingest the poison-filled sac, you DIE.
Snakes are venomous. If they bite you, you die. If you eat it... well, who the hell eats snakes? You'd probably still die, though. BUT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!
Oh. Renesmee's not venomous. Answers another question. Meyer's keeping up with this whole "loose end" thing. Not bad.
PAUSE! You know, it seems like we're coming to a conclusion even though we're just over midway through the book. I know the second half is probably going to deal with Bella's transition as a vampire and, of course, the Volturi, but I'm frankly surprised that, even with Bella's sped-up pregnancy (and it going even faster once they HAD cracked out a timeline), the Volturi didn't arrive SOONER.
*snort* 275: She wants to shoot lightning bolts from her eyes. I guess my respect for her's gone up a notch. Only a geek would say something like that.
Bella apparently is so stunningly beautiful now... she's still recognizable to people like Jacob, but I do wonder: if Angela, Jessica, Renee, Mike, Charlie, et. al. all saw her, would they think she was Bella post-plastic surgery, not Bella at all, or something else? I mean, why does becoming a vampire PRETTIFY you, anyway? What if someone who was seriously fucked up --I mean burns, pock-marks from disease, birth defect, something-- got turned into a vampire? What would they look like? It's EXTREME MAKEOVER: VAMPIRE EDITION!
Okay, so someone needs to make an icon: baby face on a Loch Ness Monster body. But the baby has to have vampire fangs (I know, I know) or at least sparkly teeth, and red eyes (even though she's got brown eyes, I bet they change color like her daddy's). And it should move its head like it's going to eat the person watching it. Hahaha.
286: *snark* So Edward explains all the free time he's had because he hasn't had Bella around to jack off to in his mind?
...Still doesn't explain how vampires have sex in the first place.
287: "Alice," we said together. He said her name like an explanation; I said it like an expletive.
BEST LINE IN THE BOOK.
288: "So it's still standing?" he managed to get out between his snickers. "I would've thought you two had knocked it to rubble by now. What were you doing last night? Discussing the national debt?" He howled with laughter.
Oh, I love Emmett. The guy's got such potential, but hardly any of it is explored. I can understand; we have such a huge cast here as it is. But I like him as comic relief more than any other character-- he's cool without being stupid. And this is probably the second-best line, assuming it doesn't trump the previous one. In some ways, Meyer's writing really has just improved with each book. I certainly like this book better than "Twilight," even though the fluff just about gagged me and the predictability nearly had me snoring.
292: What is a book these days without a Batman reference? +10 to Meyer for that.
301: "Just scored the first touchdown," Emmett confirmed. He shot a look in my direction, wagging his eyebrows like a villain in vaudeville. "'Bout time somebody scored around here."
Surely Emmett doesn't REALLY think that Bella and Edward spent their second honeymoon in the cottage discussing the national debt, DID HE? *snort* If so, he really is the uber-jock.
306: No, he didn't. He just loves messing with Bella. What a great older brother! I hope she kicks his ass in this arm-wrestling contest.
309: Bella saying that all of this feels like a good resolution, that, as a human, she was just 'average' and settled for whatever came her way... I'm sorry, that's pathetic. She was 17 when she met Edward and first learned of vampires and thought about the necessity of being turned. Age 17 is not a year when you really know ANYTHING about life, let alone what it's going to throw at you. If her situation HAD been more romanticized and she hadn't been turned out of a need to save her very body, then I'd probably be more disgusted. As it is, I am already, but I'm willing to let it go in the face of her immaturity; she didn't know any better, doesn't know any better, and will only have centuries to figure out how wrong she is. -5 respect points.
311: Baby Nessie an adult at 15? Her mom's 18/19 and her dad's forever stuck at 17/107? Seriously, how are they going to pull this off for eternity? I guess they can try passing her off as a niece or younger sister, but that's going to make for some awkward moments, don'tcha think?
335: Bella tries to justify her selfishness. Oh, how cute. Then again, the "limited time to live" tack has been used for centuries and is a staple of romances, so it's not exactly Meyer's fault for falling prey to the cliché.
350: I knew the shield thing was coming; read it from the wank. I don't think it's a bad thing, per se, and I'm inclined to agree with Bella that her quick ability to adapt to her immortality is because of how much she was surrounded by it beforehand, by how much "preparation" she did mentally. As Edward pointed out, no one else really "chooses" to be immortal the way Bella did, long before she was even turned. I'm sure she would have wished for better circumstances under which to be turned, but given that her "life" was in danger, it was better than just letting her die a bloody pulp.
In any case, I'm thinking this is a bit like an RPG; you have your characters who are better defenders or healers than they are offensive attackers. This is quite clear in the Cullens: Edward, Emmett and Jasper are offensive fighters; Esme is a healer, Alice is a defender, and Rosalie can shift between offense and defense. Bella is quite clearly a defender/healer, but I think she COULD use her powers to hurt. For some reason, I thought of Bella using her ability a'la Magic Cylinder in Yu-Gi-Oh: take an offensive attack, block it, and then send it back to the originator. If Jane tried to attack her (or any of the other Cullens, assuming she learns to project-- which I'm sure she will for the final Big Battle), Bella would send the agonizing mental pain right back at Jane, and I'm fairly sure she would be down for the count. If it was Alec that did it, even better, because Bella would then be able to take out the entire Volturi force at once, rendering them senseless on the spot. For the sense-heightened vampires, that'd be pretty frightening!
355: Aw, nuts, this Benjamin guy does what I was hoping Bella could do (see the fic idea I had earlier). Well, if people who write "Twilight" fic think that Bella's shield power is weak, by all means, give her the same power Benjamin has, or at least a fraction of it-- like a specific element (fire! burn it with fire!) I'm kind of pleasantly surprised that Meyer thought of interjecting true "magic" into this otherwise supernatural world, though technically Edward says that he's not doing magic; he's manipulating the physical boundaries of the world. He also says Bella's shield wouldn't do anything against it, but is that only his opinion, or what he "knows" from Benjamin's mind? Neither of those opinions are particularly trustworthy, especially given Eleazar's opinion that shields are especially rare and no two people are exactly alike with their abilities. The only way to know for sure is to test... and again, like Amun is trying to do, make Benjamin into a weapon, what if Ben --independent-minded as he is-- could be turned against the others? Maybe Bella's shielding power would be the only thing that could save them!
358: See, I knew Edward wasn't going to teach her how to fight. BAH! Well, if Emmett doesn't do it, I hope Jacob or some of the foreign vampires do, because having Bella come back a multi-talented ass-kicker would be pretty righteous (duuuuuudes)!
As an aside, I wonder if the memories everyone has as a human remain fuzzy, or if they ever clear up... or perhaps disappear altogether? I mean, clearly Carlisle remembers his human life, Edward and Rosalie theirs, etc. etc.--everyone except for Alice, up until James revealed he had a connection to her when she was still human. I'm hoping Bella's human memories DON'T disappear and DON'T stay fuzzy, because frankly those memories are what made her who she is today (a vampire, but still).
364: Romanian vampires. Gee, why does this sound familiar? I would love to see a Buffy crossover at this point. (For the uninformed, it was a Romanian tribe of gypsies that gave Angel his soul. Clearly they had plenty of experience with vampires, but it was only Angelus' actions that caused them to go so far as to give him a SOUL.)
I'm wondering about the vampires that refuse to touch Renesmee: what would happen if they did, whether willingly or otherwise?
366: I think Charlie's going to hook up with Sue Clearwater and Billy's jealous.
368: So wait, Bella and Edward can have sex all night and all morning, and there's no worry about exhaustion. The girl doesn't even sweat. She KNOWS any 'exhaustion' she feels is purely mental, so why doesn't she do a single practice session with Zafrina to get her shield working properly? Work until it's done right, Bella! I'm pretty sure that's how Edward --what with all his free time, being mate-less until now-- did it. He learned how to play piano by playing and playing and playing more and more until he sounded like a freakin' Beethoven.
373: Bella is apparently extremely able to stop herself from harming strangers --this Max guy-- even when they're human and, in a neighborhood like Bella's described, probably not going to be missed (much). I know she was practicing fighting and shielding, but what about her initial newborn-ishness? She amazed Edward when she was able to just take a deep breath and run away from the human hikers, but that was only after she thought she might attack Edward. Edward's not involved at all in this equation, so where's the bloodlust stopping her from eating Max? Are the answers she wants enough to keep that thirst at bay? Or has enough time passed and I've just felt there haven't been enough indications of transition?
373: JASON SCOTT. I want to LOL. Anyone that's ever read my FL in the past should know why. :D :D :D :D Meyer: +10 points for randomness!
377: I want to know what song Meyer had in mind when she decided Edward would compose Bella a lullaby. I'm sure they had to write something for the movie, right?
380: Unrelated to the page I'm on, but "Deliver Me" by Sarah Brightman just came on; I'm listening to the "Sight Through Sky-Eyes" Fan-Soundtrack for Seto and Anzu, and I think the song is eerily appropriate for Bella and her current situation in "Breaking Dawn." For some reason, I'm even imagining things that are most certainly NOT going to happen in this book: Bella wanting to find some form of spirituality, some proof that she and Edward really DO have souls, that even if the Volturi shred and burn them, they'll exist in some other form, together, still eternally bound and able to watch over Renesmee (and Jacob). And she'd bend her head down in front of a cross, afraid to touch it... and look up and find herself able to cry. Real tears, too, not venom. Oh, *swoon*!
390: The Cullens are "vegetarians" (the wrong word, considering they still get their blood from living creatures), but don't try and press their opinion on other vampires. Apparently, not all of the vampires that are allied with them are vegetarians, and I wonder why or how the Cullens can't be more forceful in that whomever they choose as prey NOT be human. I mean, doesn't that mean all the Cullens are condoning innocent deaths, even if the return is that they get some powerful allies against the Volturi? Or are these other people all hunting animals, going to blood banks/butchers, or something else? Do they kill off criminals, like vampire Kiras without a Death Note? I really don't know. Another thing I don't feel Meyer has made clear. But it could just be me.
420: Haha, Bella's kicking ass without even moving. In a way, that's quite cool. What would be cooler still is if she could manifest the shield in other shapes --not just domes and the like, but an actual shield, to repel off Benjamin's attack and direct it back toward the others... aaahhh, who am I kidding, I just wanna see a firefight!
425: It would be cool if Bella could learn to repel physical attacks, too.
426: Huilen tells the story of another woman who basically went through what Bella did. But for some reason, her sister's child had venom and was able to bite Huilen, while Renesmee does not/cannot. Why? Is it another thing, specific to Bella and/or Edward?
427: Oh, so it might be a random chance and/or gender thing? Good job Meyer-- she tied up that loose end within one page. (And I'm not being sarcastic: having it be narrowed down to SOME possibility is better than not having it narrowed down at all, and just leaving that loose end dangling.)
428: WHAT!? There's not going to be a bloodbath!? ;_; I'm disappointed even though I know it's still at least partially "right," still somehow fitting in line with everything Meyer's been saying from the start. But it's not like the Cullens and their allies are against fighting at all-- we've had vampire vs. vampire fights from the very first book. This book presented even more reason for them, what with Irina's destruction (which frankly wasn't fair; I hated her for her betrayal and her stupidity for trusting Laurent, and Laurent's stupidity for going along with madwoman Victoria --who reminds me of Drusilla from BtVS, by the by-- but she tried to come clean and died for it).
429: It occurs to me Meyer has pulled a "super speshul awesome" ending and paired everyone off. Seriously, are there no gay vampires? No woe-is-me vampires besides Alistair (basically angsty vampires that aren't cowards, but are more "broody" so to speak) or no "Fuck other people/vampires. I am hot enough on my own"? Ah, *le sigh*.
431: You know what would have made the "fight" more interesting? If Bella's shield truly was a shield, and blocked powers outgoing-- in other words, blocked Edward from reading Aro when Edward was inside the shield. But then again, Edward's power is only one-way to begin with, so if he's shielded and Aro is not, perhaps it's more like, why shouldn't he be able to read anyone outside the shield? And Bella's power only DID cover mental ground, so I guess it's limited enough in its own respect. Like I said, RPG-- the physical fighters could have decimated the Cullens and Co., had they been given the chance. But they weren't, because the mental vampires are the heads of the (forgive the pun) pack.
432: Oh, Edward, stop busting holes in my human myths just because they give humans a sporting chance! Surely there's got to be SOME supernatural creature out there that regular old humans could kill under some magnanimous circumstances!
433: Jacob vs. Nahuel! WHOO HOO!!!! (Kidding.)
435: Sue and Charlie: I TOLD YA SO.
436: This is the page that people saw in the blurry scans when the wank first broke. Ha! WANKAS FOR THE WIN! Also, I knew that in the end of this book, Bella would be able to mentally link to Edward (let him "read" or "hear" her thoughts). It was probably the only other loose end dangling (besides just WHY Edward is so madly in love with her, but... DETAILS, DETAILS! For some reason, these books make you not care so much about the irrationality of love.)
OVERALL: Well... I liked it. It's got its serious detractions, to be sure, and I think I mentioned them quite a bit throughout my posts and in the comments that some of them spawned. But it is a growth/coming-of-age sort of story, and in that respect, it did okay. I really think Bella and Edward can only mature more, get more experience, and fall more in love with each other (if that amount of mush is even possible).
I think Meyer did a decent job tying up most of the loose ends, as evidenced by the questions I asked throughout my posts getting answered --if not within a few pages, then within that same book, or very shortly in the next book. Anything that wasn't answered was likely because of my own ineptitude (reading, but not understanding what Meyer was trying to say) or because it was just too detailed to include: above all else, this is Bella's story, so digging questions about anyone but her (and I suppose Edward, Jacob, and Renesmee, because they're so central to Bella) are probably unimportant, and more meant for the guidebook than the novels.
Is the wank justified? Yeah, probably, in many ways. Is this series better than the "Harry Potter" series? No. I don't believe she's the next JKR. And there are a lot of points in the story when I felt I could have done it better-- and I don't even like to read/write gothic/horror fantasy romances, which I feel the "Twilight" series is. I really did read it for the LULZ, and to see what all the wank was about, and I'm walking away having LOL'd, having a better understanding of both sides of the wank, and in a state of pleasant surprise. I actually like the characters now.
Would I join the Nutter Butter fandom? No. Not officially, anyway. Makes me glad I didn't try and explore it when FanLib was still up, because FanLib was the one place where "Twilight" was incredibly active. I haven't bothered to check FFnet, and I only will if one of my plotbunnies or questions becomes agonizing to think about, and distracting/detrimental. (Hey, it happens.)
This book: 4/5 stars.
This series: 3.5/5 stars, mainly for the first book and subsequent partial suckage in the other ones, but not as much.
Feel free to argue or otherwise discuss; this was kind of fun for me. I do wonder what my roommate will have to say about it when she finally finishes the fourth book; it'd be nice to discuss it with her genuinely, instead of having all my opinions colored by wank and the opinions of my FL (which are not mine, but I tend to agree with more often than not, as a default mechanism).
I suppose I'd probably read the "Midnight Sun" series when it comes out, and I might even check out other works by Meyer. Not sure if I'd drop serious $$$ for hardcover copies of her books or anything, and I sure as hell won't be getting a poster of Robert P. to put up in my room any time soon, though. That's taking it a bit far.
I'm already 72 pages into the book, so... here we go!
The interview Meyer had with Entertainment Tonight (or was it Entertainment Weekly? I forget) revealed that a wedding was most definitely in Bella and Edward's future, and for some reason, that freaked a lot of people out, even though it was practically spelled out to the letter in Book 3/"Eclipse." I guess some people thought there might be a time gap between Books 3 (Bella and Edward's graduation) and 4, but there's not. And it wasn't a surprise to me, because in Meyer's universe, there is no mysterious "lull" period when vampires and other supernatural things simply vanish and they live on Isle Esme and forget just how far they've come.
Book 4 really reinforces that, frankly, Bella's not a strong girl. I don't mean strong as in "hardy" strong, or physically strong: I mean she's not an admirable woman, a strong protagonist. Sure, I can relate to her in many ways (now that I've read as far as I had; in Book 1, I pretty much hated her, which is surprising for me, because I normally like virtually any female protagonist, and find it illogical when others seem to love the rest of the cast and then hate the main character), but that doesn't mean she's that great. And I mean this in the sense of, she's a bad character, not a Sue, not a Sue done wrong. She's simply not the best written female protagonist.
She essentially "gives in" to Alice's desire to throw her a big floofy wedding, even though it's ridiculously out-of-character for her. She wavers (though I guess this part is IC for her) between wanting to be a vampire immediately and wanting to stay human and experience things a bit longer-- mainly because the stories of newborns being slaves to their thirst, losing their "humanity" (e.g. memories, feelings of being human) scares the $#!T out of her.
And she and super-smexy Edward (now her husband, oooooh) have sex. But it's a fade-to-black kind of scene, except without any tantalizing little bits to REALLY, REALLY imply it. And it might be because I'm reading the eBook and not the real thing, but seriously, to not even have some sort of scene break between the kissing/seducing!? (And Bella only vaguely does the 'seducing bit' well, primarily because it doesn't seem to take much about her to set Edward off; even if he's gotten used to her 'delectable smell' or whatever, he more or less worships her and seems to "enjoy" her quite a bit. Still haven't worked out just how vampires have sex at all, let alone with a human female, but that's probably too X-rated of a question for Meyer to have answered in-text.)
Oh, and by page 72, the implications that she's got morning sickness (and is therefore pregnant) are quite clear. But the general consensus is that you don't get pregnant the first time you have sex. People who really WANT to have children often have to try REPEATEDLY. But then again, I guess there are exceptions, and real life ones, too, hence the constant need for protection. But obviously, Bella and Edward don't need that. They're maaaaaaried. They're spending the rest of eternity together! And I'm sure they both think "Vamps can't have children. Period." So it shouldn't matter who Edward has sex with, they won't get pregnant. Or so he thinks.
I don't know, to me, all this isn't foreshadowing; what with Bella having dreams of a child she has to save, and now drooling over fried chicken one second and then wanting to throw it up the next, the only way Meyer could be more obvious is if she had a giant neon sign that said "BELLA IS PREGNANT." It's a bit like the whole "R.B." thing from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," except in this case, it's not setting up the plot of the next book, it's setting off the plot for what's to come in this book. We already know the Volturi are powerful, interested in Edward and Bella, and quite dangerous, but we've kind of weakened that impression by having them "beat" or vanish (or not care) in the last two books. So, what else to spice up the drama? Why, a BABY, of course!
...How predictable.
Okay, so she's started throwing up now, and Edward thinks they should see a doctor. This guy's 107 years old, his "father's" a doctor, and he thinks they should "see a doctor" about Bella's supposed food-poisoning? GET A CLUE, ED! No, really. I know Edward's a velvet-voiced marble statue of smex, but I didn't think he was this thick. He really is in deep, not even considering the possibility of Bella's humanness?
Wahahha, oh, so wait, Bella's super-speshul awesome and all this obviousness isn't really obvious, but IMPORTANT and WEIRD because hey, 17 days = not possible to be so very pregnant (okay, she's probably morphed to the equivalent of a woman in her second or third month, closing in on that first trimester) girl? It's not Bella's fault for being human, it's Edward's fault for being so super-speshul-awesome! He's like Superman, with wonder-sperm, except they're wonder-vampire-sperm!
You know, I kinda wonder, if Alice is the one that pretty much saw everything: wedding, honeymoon, and even Bella's eventual turning (and I wonder if the details on that have changed at all? I mean, was it Edward's "decision" to turn her that she saw? It seems impossible, given how vehement Ed was about it for such a long time. Maybe she only saw Bella's own personal decision to BE turned? That implies that it doesn't matter WHO does the turning or HOW, just that she'll become a vampire somehow), why is it she packed tampons and not a pregnancy test? Up until Bella explicitly said "tampons," I thought Alice had put a pregnancy test in there because she SAW Bella get pregnant, and wisely managed to keep her lips (and mind) shut about it. It'd be an interesting twist, to say the least. But they're making Alice weak and her powers fallible anyway, so I guess that would be Meyer's explanation for Alice NOT seeing it (and I'm only assuming she hasn't now, at this point in the story).
Oh puh-leaze, the girl's 18, was just contemplating really, truly (at least it sounded like it from her perspective; then again, she is, has been, and probably will continue to be, hormonal) going to college, but GOT MARRIED, and now she wants to KEEP THE BABY? Bah, I'm sure that since this isn't going to end up being a fluke pregnancy (e.g. she's just imagining things; she really does have an evil South American stomach virus) and I doubt she's going to get hurt to badly that this one will die and Edward will give her comfort sex and she'll end up pregnant again... this is it. This is TEH BUBELEH OF DOOM that wankers were wanking about in the F_W posts. This is the part where Meyer's own experience plays far too large a role. I can understand the early marriage thing, and, given Bella's perspective, even her desire to be turned into a vampire (esp. by Edward) so soon despite the cost involved (not to say that NOT being turned won't have a cost; the Volturi would be after her soon enough), but keeping the baby? Geez girl... maybe it's just me, a normal ol' human. Bella, after all, has the Cullens-- having a baby wouldn't put a dent in their checkbooks the way it would for most other women. And as for any of the other usual concerns, I'm sure Meyer can (and has, or rather, will) tidily clean up. *sigh*
That "thing"--!? EDWARD!? ZOMG, I'm shocked. What does he think is inside her, an evil werewolf baby? A chest-monster from Aliens!? I don't have to be Bella to be shocked and angry; for saying that, Edward's a total nimrod. And as an aside, it's kind of interesting he referred to it that way; the last book I read (non-"Twilight", that is) was Tanith Lee's "White As Snow," in which Arpazia (a.k.a. Snow White's mom) hated Coira (a.k.a. Snow White) and when pregnant with her, often referred to her/the baby as "a thing."
HAHAHA I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO TURN TO ROSALIE! (See, that was one of the loose ends from the last book, even though there was no preview in "Eclipse" of "Breaking Dawn.") Rosalie, despite her whole explanation to Bella about why she didn't want Bella in the family as a vampire, still has loose ends to be tied, mainly about pregnancy. Bella being pregnant and NOT wanting to be a vampire due to Edward's attitude about it automatically puts her and Rosalie as allies. But the interesting thing is, good ol' fashioned Edward isn't acting quite so "stodgy old timer" anymore, but more "vampire with a guilt complex." I think if he were more old fashioned, he'd be thrilled that she's pregnant (and so soon). But maybe he and Bella are (yet again), not on the same page as to what's really happening to her. And Bella, emotional as she is, has clammed up re: her dreams and her real understanding (if you can call it that) of what's going on, and what Edward thinks (or what she thinks he thinks).
...So, I'm thinking that, despite Jacob's "luuuurve admission" in the last book, he's going to imprint on Leah. That's another loose end, albeit smaller than the others. Sam and Emily's story pretty much Leah the poor victim, and though she's a bitch, she's also got "cool factor" as a supporting female because she's the lone female wolf in the pack. To be honest, until Leah "came out" as a wolf, I honestly thought Meyer was going to pull yet another misogynistic morphing of supernatural mythos and say that there are never any female werewolves.
And hey, whatever happened to Jacob refusing to be human? He did it when Edward and Bella got engaged, and it seemed like he did it again, after he fought with Bella at her wedding reception and she revealed her desire to have a "true honeymoon" with Edward (a.k.a. have sex with him). Why would he willingly go back to being human and therefore be annoyed with his packmates when Bella and Edward are still away, able to give him plenty of imagination meat to work with?
Hm, Jacob's musings on Bella's eventual turning (which he still hasn't accepted, clearly, and why should he? It's part of his character) are interesting. He says that his own mother died "in a car accident" and yet her coffin had to be nailed shut. I wonder if the truth is something more gruesome and supernatural...
Wahaha, so I'm on page 105 now, and it sounds like Edward is telling Jacob, "Yes, you can screw my wife-- if it makes her pregnant again, and that makes her happy and keeps her alive, then fine!" It's bits like this that have me remembering: "I'm reading it for the LULZ."
Page 133. Ah, conflict! At first, I thought it was going to be half of the Cullens (or at least a fraction of them: Bella, Esme, and Rosalie) vs. Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Edward, and Carlisle. But now it seems that, even if there is a disagreement in the family, no one's acting on it yet, knowing it'll tear the family apart. For vampires, they are being awfully optimistic about Bella's "condition," and it seems to have gotten to the point where Bella CAN'T tell her own story because of how bad it is. Still, I know it can be done (I saw something like it done in Jodi Picoult's "A Change of Heart" with one of the death-row inmates featured in the story), and it'd be interesting to see Bella's thoughts as this "pregnancy" continues. But having Jacob's thoughts is pretty awesome, too.
As it stands, we've got minor conflicts within the Cullen family, a portion of the wolf pack vs. each other, and then the major conflict of vampires vs. werewolves.
Oh, and so Leah joins the pack, and I'm thinking this is supposed to further reinforce my idea that, since Bella can't/won't be with Jacob in any size/shape/form (mainly because of Jacob's prejudices, not her own, though she's certainly not faultless), Jacob's eventually going to warm up to Leah and imprint on her (or maybe she's already imprinted on him, but because he's Alpha, he has no clue? Maybe because he's male, she can imprint on him all she likes, but it won't matter unless he imprints back?). It'll be like the love-hate relationship. Except I don't really like Leah. -_-
Plot Bunny! I was thinking the conflict and suspense would be much greater if Bella (with Rosalie or simply on her advice) went off on her own: perhaps to find the Volturi. They'd recognize the baby as unprecedented and likely to be a great source of power --therefore, a potential enemy and a potential ally. Since Bella was supposed to be turned anyway, and that's still what she wants/what she's counting on, she might agree to stay with the Volturi indefinitely, do whatever she's told-- if they turn her and save her baby. It'd also be cool if she developed something a bit stronger than this "shielding" power she's shown so far, blocking any mental vampire abilities. For some reason, I thought it'd be cool if Bella were a "pyro" vampire (e.g. had the power to summon fire). Tee-hee.
Page 140. Because this is all so unprecedented, not even ancient, super-smart Carlisle knows what to do to help Bella. I could be off the mark here, but it seems obvious: the kid's quite clearly at least half-vampire, so why not give her blood? Bella might not LIKE it, but she'd drink it even as a human, if just to sustain the baby.
Page 142. Damn it, I was right. But I don't feel proud, exactly-- it sucks, because it means it's predictable. But then again, Bella's already been suffering enough, and the plot's got to get moving along already, right? I mean, we got to THIS point pretty fast.
Oooh, 143, we get another possible -and very interesting- conflict: rather than Bella and Rosalie vs. everyone else, it might just be Bella vs. Rosalie, because Bella knows Rosalie really wanted a child before she turned, but she didn't have the chance. She turned to Rosalie for that very reason, too naive to think that her own pregnancy and Bella's impending death (because it's apparent there's no way Bella would survive the birthing process, and Rosalie's been against Bella's turning from the beginning-- who's to say that Bella being pregnant would change that?) would be exactly what Rosalie wanted. Rosalie gets the baby, Bella dies -and doesn't become a vampire, and Rosalie gets to "go back to normal," mostly-- she's quite selfish if this is actually the case. Gee, I hope she's not THAT much of a bitch.
Page 148. Don't know why this section's got me thinking so much, but I'm a bit amused about Bella's attitude. It's already been pointed out how she's "such a martyr" and everything, but others have argued she's not REALLY self-sacrificing, because it's always HER wanting/getting something, in the end. In this instance... eh, I'm not so sure. I mean, she's counting on the fact that she'll live long enough to be turned after the baby's born, but Edward, Jacob and Carlisle are both thinking she won't, and I'm sure Bella's aware of the possibility, even if she won't admit it. I think she just can't bear the thought of really, truly killing someone (or some "thing") for her own life, her own eventual "eternity" with Edward. If this were like Gabrielle with Dahak in Xena: Warrior Princess, it might be a bit different, because Bella would think "there's some kind of demon spawn in me; he used me, abused me, raped me" but that's not the case here. It really is her and Edward's child, incubus/succubus or otherwise.
Anyway, it was Bella all worried about her "screwing her total" that got me grinning. And then Jacob saying that, once Bella was turned, Edward would have to work on his honesty, because she'd be able to sense things. It's probably the first real sign Jacob's shown of accepting that, for Bella, there is no other path but to be turned-- regardless of who, and the when is only sooner, rather than later.
*snort* I'm guessing the mention of werewolves being inconvenienced by the need to change clothing every time they phase is Meyer's idea of humor injected into an otherwise serious, slow-moving situation. I'm wondering if anyone's done a web comic yet with scenes of the wolves in "bad places to lose your temper if you're a werewolf in the Twilight universe" and has them busting out of their clothes (or phasing back into human form) in weird places. RDRR.
Aside: I want to see werewolf puppies. It's all Edward's fault. (Or wait, would they be cubs?)
I like Meyer's chapter titles-- at least within Jacob's "book."
"Come in or get lost." I think I want a door mat that says that.
*snicker* Vampire mother hen. I'm picturing a beautiful woman with the body of a chicken. And when I try to picture Esme, it's a cross between Kasumi (Ranma 1/2) and Belldandy (Oh! My Goddess). And hey, didn't they both have the same voice actress, anyway?
...Are pregnant women really supposed to be subjected to X-Rays? Does it really matter, since Bella's pregnant with vampire spawn? Ah, bother, I'll just keep reading.
I'm getting irritated with Edward, just like Bella was in the honeymoon: is there anything Edward can't do? I know Edward's 107, but 17 of those years were spent living his life normally. He couldn't have possibly learned how to do everything in the the years he's had since then, right? But aside from being super-smexy and hot, which seems to be a vampire prerequisite (or, as Bella hopes, a part of the deal), the guy can:
* drive like an Indy speedstar
* fight
* play piano like Beethoven
* cook like Emeril, but probably minus the BAM!s
* speak at least 3 different languages (English, Italian, and Portuguese)
* make love like the Love Guru (and if Meyer dared to think that modern 16-year-olds aren't as prudish as she seems to REALLY think they are, we'd probably have Bella gushing over how many orgasms she had the subsequent times they had sex)
* probably a bunch of other things I've either forgotten or Meyer has outlined in Edward's "profile" but has yet to mention in the books)
Wahaha... I like how Seth's telling Jacob about how Rosalie mentioned (aloud) that even normal human babies crack ribs, and poor ol' Edward about had a conniption and "looked like he was gonna rip her head off." And Edward and Jacob are in agreement, re: Rosalie at the moment! How cuuuute!
*grin* This thing Jacob's got against Rosalie (and vice-versa, though with Rosalie, it almost seems like her vs. everyone else-- shows she's way too overprotective of the baby/Bella) is really quite funny. I love how Jacob responded to Alice's suggestion that Rosalie get him some food-- saying he wouldn't want to eat anything that had vampire venom in it, it wouldn't sit too well.
Actually, that brings up an interesting thought. Vampires and werewolves are mortal enemies. Vampires and werewolves are not human-- or rather, they are meta-human. What if a vampire DID bite a werewolf in human form?
Ooh, another terrible, terrible thought. What if all this "animosity" between Rosalie and Jacob resulted in him imprinting on HER? I mean, she's already got Emmett (and is married to him, if I'm not mistaken), but I think it's positively cute how much she hates him. But what sucks is, I usually love those type of relationships (the "love to hate you" kind), but of the two that seem to be present, Jacob's the only likable character in the pair. Leah and Rosalie, despite all the bull they've been through, are just not likable females. About the only female I do like, no questions asked, is Alice! (Esme we just don't know enough about.)
...Bella thinks Charlie is smart?
I don't think Charlie is smart, and everything I know about him is from Bella's point of view. She doesn't seem to hold EITHER of her parents in high regard. I know most teenagers don't, and even those that get past "that phase" won't always think of one parent or the other as so great or infallible... hell, I know I've hated one or the other of my parents at some time, but right now, I don't know what I do without either of them. Both of them are extremely influential in their own way, and I don't think either of them is stupid is the most blasé sense of the word, but... Bella? Despite this being HER series, HER story, HER life we're hearing about, I don't think she thinks the way I do. If that makes sense.
Interesting thing, this potential for Rosalie vs. the rest of her family (and Jacob): Edward can read Rosalie's mind, right, no problem, so how come he doesn't seem to know whether Rosalie is even the least bit ill-intentioned? I'm not saying she's cackling in her mind, thinking "When that bitch is dead and Edward goes off on his little suicide rampage, the baby will be MINE, MINE, MINE!" but maybe she's thinking, very deeply in the darkest recesses of her mind, that she'll be the one to "care" for the baby-- she'll get to be a mother, FINALLY, like she's "deserved" from the beginning. Edward would know that, and yet the thought seems to have only come from Jacob. I can only think of three possibilities:
a) Edward can't read Rosalie, perhaps because she's very good at disguising her thoughts
b) Jacob's wrong
c) Edward can read Rosalie just fine, but he isn't admitting to what he knows is a very distinct possibility: family member vs. his "life," Bella. He would die (again) for Bella, so it seems an obvious choice, but one Edward doesn't want to have to make. He'd rather spend his last hours with Bella, rather than fighting his own "sister."
Page 192: Ah, finally we address the issues Leah still has with Sam (somewhat) and the concept of imprinting. Perhaps the reason why Jacob didn't imprint on anyone (even if he COULD have imprinted on Bella) is because he had such a strong force of will: a willingness to WANT to choose, even if his choices meant that the object of his affections would NOT choose him. For the other wolves, imprinting comes first, then there's this intense love, but for two heartbroken wolves, one of which thinks she's a genetic dead-end, could it be the other way around? I wonder if Jacob could fall intensely in love with her while all this drama with Bella is happening? I think it'd take a while.
Jacob is getting pretty mad at Leah, though, as I'm reading this, because he just doesn't understand the female mind. He's mad about the idea of imprinting taking away free will, but he doesn't get that asking a woman to kill the life that's growing inside her is taking away her choice, her motherhood! (And to bring some unfortunate reality into all this, it only applies IF the mother really has chosen to have the baby, as Bella has. This is not, I hope, an indication of Meyer's stance on abortion.) But Leah has a very good point: people want most desperately that which they can never have. In Bella's case, she didn't think she wanted it until it happened and started to tear her life apart. She could have somehow "chosen" to not have the baby, if there was some fool-proof way of getting it out of her before it developed too much (not that I think there was that much time anyway, if there has even BEEN a way), but she didn't WANT to do that. She'd decided pretty early on that, no matter what it meant, she was going to have this baby, precisely because, based on everything else she thought she wanted, it was the one thing she would never, ever be able to do. (Hrm, so maybe this is really selfish of Bella in the end.)
*grin* Ah, so now we know that Alice is on Edward's side, and if Emmett really did side with Rosalie, Jacob'd take him. Thrills-- if it weren't so heartbreaking for there to be enemies within the family, I'd say "I'd pay to see that."
Page 196: AWWW TEH LITTLE BUBELEH IS TALKING WIT HIS DADDY IN DE MIND! Or something like that. Despite Bella's innate shielding ability, the baby is not so immune to full-vampires, especially super-speshul-awesome ones like Daddy Dearest, who have MIND READING POWERS (doom)! Actually, this scene makes Edward seem more like an empath than a mind-reader; normally he can hear someone's thoughts, and even if Bella is the equivalent of 32 weeks along, I'm fairly sure the baby's brain isn't THAT developed. But oh, that's a technical detail. Never mind all that. But yeah, Edward had to develop an attachment to the baby sooner or later, else Rosalie and Bella probably would side against him, even if it'd mean Bella's own eventual doom.
o_O; Lizzie. Random Sue? Random nobody? No, seriously, because I think I'll throw up in my mouth a little if Jacob actually GETS HIS WAY and manages to imprint on some random girl in the park that he cataloged with his eyes. He better
a) imprint on Leah, or vice-versa
or
b) get over Bella naturally, and determine to move on, and fall in love naturally, minus the whole imprinting thing, or else imprint later
Page 204: Yeah, she'll never admit it, but I'm thinking Leah's already in love with Jacob, or has imprinted on him in her own "genetically mutated" way and just doesn't know it. I want to be like Stitch and say "Neener Neener Neener!"
211: Hot damn, it finally gets full of action and suspense. I'm wondering if the "fountain of blood" Bella threw up was her own, or the blood she drank, or...? Well, I don't want to think much about a third possibility. I find it interesting that Edward's so infallible and honest: Bella's blood really doesn't make him thirsty anymore, not when she's in danger of dying, not when he now realizes the baby is in danger (the baby that he now loves, and will refer to with a pronoun other than "it").
Yikes-- for fangless vampires, apparently Meyer's vampire teeth sure are a threat: newborns and veteran vamps like Edward alike. It's like screw "scalpel!" it's more like "FANGZZZ!" Scarier still is the fact that Bella has been broken from the inside out, more or less, and will NEED to be changed, right here, right now, by Edward, because if she doesn't, her internal injuries will kill her. And if by some miracle they didn't, they'd make her want to die, because she'd be paralyzed, no questions asked. But if turning vamp freezes you in the state you were in at the time of "death," then wouldn't vampire!Bella have a broken spine, too? Sure, vampires have an incredible healing rate, but something like the spine seems pretty permanent to me... *shrug* I don't know.
Please be kidding me. The baby is NOT Renesmee. I know the nickname "Nessie" was going around, but it better be the kid's FULL name, or short for something more plausible, like Vanessa. Portmanteaus are NOT meant for real people's given names! PLEASE! (And that means no children named Spuffy or Spangel, either!)
Oh, seriously? I'm going to be mad if the VAMPIRE BABY ended up turning Bella instead of Edward. What a rip-off!
...o_O Edward put his venom into a syringe? HOW!? (The only method I can think of would corroborate my theory that vampires of Meyer's creation do indeed have bodily fluid-- saliva, at the very least) Well, at least it's mostly his venom doing the deed, though not as prettily as I (or Bella, I'm sure) would have hoped.
I find it interesting that "my" idea of Bella being the opposite of your usual vampire: related to fire and burning, the way werewolves seem to be, is what's happening in the book, as Bella describes what's going on in her mind as Edward (and possibly Renesmee)'s venom takes effect in her body. She mentioned when James bit her that it was like fire, but the way she goes on about it, about appreciating a new capacity for it, etc. makes me think that, internally, vampires feel fine (and as a downside, might not be able to tell when someone else is cold or hot via touch). They don't feel the heat and cold the way normal humans do, and are on the opposite end of the temperature spectrum from the werewolves, who develop a much higher capacity for heat.
Isn't there a song called "Feels like Fire" or something? And the bit with her saying she recognizes her strength coming back when she's able to twitch her toes-- reminds me of the scene from "Kill Bill" when The Bridge is sitting in the Pussy Wagon saying "Wiggle your big toe."
o_O Okay, another moment of weird. I thought vampires hearts didn't beat. It seemed Meyer kept up with this idea, even though her vampires can breathe IF THEY WANT. So why is it that Bella, newborn vampire, has a beating heart? Does it not "shut off" unless she wants it to, and even then, she survives? What's going on here? And how is it that, even with all the pain of the venom disappearing, she's still mostly sentient, and not driven by her thirst?
229: Well, good thing Meyer ties up her loose ends as soon as she makes them. I didn't know the heart was the last organ to go in the newborn-creation process.
Wahaha, newborn vampy Bella squishes Edward and his perfect marble body. Wahaha. CRACKS IN THE FLAWLESS MAN O' SMEX, BELLA!
More wahaha'ing. I can totally see newborn Bella -amazingly sentient and all that jazz, not so consumed by her thirst as everyone thought/assumed/supposedly knew she would be- pouncing on Edward and just having her way with him. *snicker*
If Renesmee is half-human, with a beating heart and blood in her veins (all necessary, I'm sure), then how is it that Rosalie can be around her, when the blood gushing out of Bella earlier practically had Rosalie salivating? Is it because Rosalie just can't kill a baby? Is it because they're not newborns, the way Bella is? But even so, some of them obviously had issues with control when it came to blood... I don't know, it just seems unfair to Bella.
251: "Centuries of practice." EDWARD, YOU LIAR. You're only 107 years old (and 17 of them weren't as a vampire)! You haven't even had ONE full century of practice in hunting! LIAR LIAR LIAR! (Okay, Bella called him on it. Good girl. But she's still wrong; it's still not one full century.)
253: "It seemed odd now that I needed him [Jacob] so much then. That sense of absence without him near had vanished; it must have been a human weakness." BITCH. No, seriously, this line has any respect I have for Bella -human or vampire- tanking real fast.
264: NO FREAKIN' WAY. Jacob imprinted on Renesmee?! (Half of me saw it coming and dismissed it as too freakin' ridiculous. I forget, "This is Twilight. I'm reading it for the lulz."
*gigglesnort* So it's Jacob that gives her the nickname, eh? Well, the wankas have it. Even with that ridiculous name, Nessie is better than nothing. At least she doesn't LOOK like a giant Scottish sea monster. (I'm giggling more now because I just got to the part where Bella wants to rip Jacob a new one over the nickname. She immediately remembered the Loch Ness Monster.)
267: My question about what happens to werewolves bit by vampires is answered. But to call it "poison" to them is wrong: venom is venom, poison is poison. One is not worse than the other; they're delivered in entirely different ways.
Fugu (Japanese blowfish) is poisonous. A blowfish can fart on you and you will live. But if you eat the wrong part of it, ingest the poison-filled sac, you DIE.
Snakes are venomous. If they bite you, you die. If you eat it... well, who the hell eats snakes? You'd probably still die, though. BUT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!
Oh. Renesmee's not venomous. Answers another question. Meyer's keeping up with this whole "loose end" thing. Not bad.
PAUSE! You know, it seems like we're coming to a conclusion even though we're just over midway through the book. I know the second half is probably going to deal with Bella's transition as a vampire and, of course, the Volturi, but I'm frankly surprised that, even with Bella's sped-up pregnancy (and it going even faster once they HAD cracked out a timeline), the Volturi didn't arrive SOONER.
*snort* 275: She wants to shoot lightning bolts from her eyes. I guess my respect for her's gone up a notch. Only a geek would say something like that.
Bella apparently is so stunningly beautiful now... she's still recognizable to people like Jacob, but I do wonder: if Angela, Jessica, Renee, Mike, Charlie, et. al. all saw her, would they think she was Bella post-plastic surgery, not Bella at all, or something else? I mean, why does becoming a vampire PRETTIFY you, anyway? What if someone who was seriously fucked up --I mean burns, pock-marks from disease, birth defect, something-- got turned into a vampire? What would they look like? It's EXTREME MAKEOVER: VAMPIRE EDITION!
Okay, so someone needs to make an icon: baby face on a Loch Ness Monster body. But the baby has to have vampire fangs (I know, I know) or at least sparkly teeth, and red eyes (even though she's got brown eyes, I bet they change color like her daddy's). And it should move its head like it's going to eat the person watching it. Hahaha.
286: *snark* So Edward explains all the free time he's had because he hasn't had Bella around to jack off to in his mind?
...Still doesn't explain how vampires have sex in the first place.
287: "Alice," we said together. He said her name like an explanation; I said it like an expletive.
BEST LINE IN THE BOOK.
288: "So it's still standing?" he managed to get out between his snickers. "I would've thought you two had knocked it to rubble by now. What were you doing last night? Discussing the national debt?" He howled with laughter.
Oh, I love Emmett. The guy's got such potential, but hardly any of it is explored. I can understand; we have such a huge cast here as it is. But I like him as comic relief more than any other character-- he's cool without being stupid. And this is probably the second-best line, assuming it doesn't trump the previous one. In some ways, Meyer's writing really has just improved with each book. I certainly like this book better than "Twilight," even though the fluff just about gagged me and the predictability nearly had me snoring.
292: What is a book these days without a Batman reference? +10 to Meyer for that.
301: "Just scored the first touchdown," Emmett confirmed. He shot a look in my direction, wagging his eyebrows like a villain in vaudeville. "'Bout time somebody scored around here."
Surely Emmett doesn't REALLY think that Bella and Edward spent their second honeymoon in the cottage discussing the national debt, DID HE? *snort* If so, he really is the uber-jock.
306: No, he didn't. He just loves messing with Bella. What a great older brother! I hope she kicks his ass in this arm-wrestling contest.
309: Bella saying that all of this feels like a good resolution, that, as a human, she was just 'average' and settled for whatever came her way... I'm sorry, that's pathetic. She was 17 when she met Edward and first learned of vampires and thought about the necessity of being turned. Age 17 is not a year when you really know ANYTHING about life, let alone what it's going to throw at you. If her situation HAD been more romanticized and she hadn't been turned out of a need to save her very body, then I'd probably be more disgusted. As it is, I am already, but I'm willing to let it go in the face of her immaturity; she didn't know any better, doesn't know any better, and will only have centuries to figure out how wrong she is. -5 respect points.
311: Baby Nessie an adult at 15? Her mom's 18/19 and her dad's forever stuck at 17/107? Seriously, how are they going to pull this off for eternity? I guess they can try passing her off as a niece or younger sister, but that's going to make for some awkward moments, don'tcha think?
335: Bella tries to justify her selfishness. Oh, how cute. Then again, the "limited time to live" tack has been used for centuries and is a staple of romances, so it's not exactly Meyer's fault for falling prey to the cliché.
350: I knew the shield thing was coming; read it from the wank. I don't think it's a bad thing, per se, and I'm inclined to agree with Bella that her quick ability to adapt to her immortality is because of how much she was surrounded by it beforehand, by how much "preparation" she did mentally. As Edward pointed out, no one else really "chooses" to be immortal the way Bella did, long before she was even turned. I'm sure she would have wished for better circumstances under which to be turned, but given that her "life" was in danger, it was better than just letting her die a bloody pulp.
In any case, I'm thinking this is a bit like an RPG; you have your characters who are better defenders or healers than they are offensive attackers. This is quite clear in the Cullens: Edward, Emmett and Jasper are offensive fighters; Esme is a healer, Alice is a defender, and Rosalie can shift between offense and defense. Bella is quite clearly a defender/healer, but I think she COULD use her powers to hurt. For some reason, I thought of Bella using her ability a'la Magic Cylinder in Yu-Gi-Oh: take an offensive attack, block it, and then send it back to the originator. If Jane tried to attack her (or any of the other Cullens, assuming she learns to project-- which I'm sure she will for the final Big Battle), Bella would send the agonizing mental pain right back at Jane, and I'm fairly sure she would be down for the count. If it was Alec that did it, even better, because Bella would then be able to take out the entire Volturi force at once, rendering them senseless on the spot. For the sense-heightened vampires, that'd be pretty frightening!
355: Aw, nuts, this Benjamin guy does what I was hoping Bella could do (see the fic idea I had earlier). Well, if people who write "Twilight" fic think that Bella's shield power is weak, by all means, give her the same power Benjamin has, or at least a fraction of it-- like a specific element (fire! burn it with fire!) I'm kind of pleasantly surprised that Meyer thought of interjecting true "magic" into this otherwise supernatural world, though technically Edward says that he's not doing magic; he's manipulating the physical boundaries of the world. He also says Bella's shield wouldn't do anything against it, but is that only his opinion, or what he "knows" from Benjamin's mind? Neither of those opinions are particularly trustworthy, especially given Eleazar's opinion that shields are especially rare and no two people are exactly alike with their abilities. The only way to know for sure is to test... and again, like Amun is trying to do, make Benjamin into a weapon, what if Ben --independent-minded as he is-- could be turned against the others? Maybe Bella's shielding power would be the only thing that could save them!
358: See, I knew Edward wasn't going to teach her how to fight. BAH! Well, if Emmett doesn't do it, I hope Jacob or some of the foreign vampires do, because having Bella come back a multi-talented ass-kicker would be pretty righteous (duuuuuudes)!
As an aside, I wonder if the memories everyone has as a human remain fuzzy, or if they ever clear up... or perhaps disappear altogether? I mean, clearly Carlisle remembers his human life, Edward and Rosalie theirs, etc. etc.--everyone except for Alice, up until James revealed he had a connection to her when she was still human. I'm hoping Bella's human memories DON'T disappear and DON'T stay fuzzy, because frankly those memories are what made her who she is today (a vampire, but still).
364: Romanian vampires. Gee, why does this sound familiar? I would love to see a Buffy crossover at this point. (For the uninformed, it was a Romanian tribe of gypsies that gave Angel his soul. Clearly they had plenty of experience with vampires, but it was only Angelus' actions that caused them to go so far as to give him a SOUL.)
I'm wondering about the vampires that refuse to touch Renesmee: what would happen if they did, whether willingly or otherwise?
366: I think Charlie's going to hook up with Sue Clearwater and Billy's jealous.
368: So wait, Bella and Edward can have sex all night and all morning, and there's no worry about exhaustion. The girl doesn't even sweat. She KNOWS any 'exhaustion' she feels is purely mental, so why doesn't she do a single practice session with Zafrina to get her shield working properly? Work until it's done right, Bella! I'm pretty sure that's how Edward --what with all his free time, being mate-less until now-- did it. He learned how to play piano by playing and playing and playing more and more until he sounded like a freakin' Beethoven.
373: Bella is apparently extremely able to stop herself from harming strangers --this Max guy-- even when they're human and, in a neighborhood like Bella's described, probably not going to be missed (much). I know she was practicing fighting and shielding, but what about her initial newborn-ishness? She amazed Edward when she was able to just take a deep breath and run away from the human hikers, but that was only after she thought she might attack Edward. Edward's not involved at all in this equation, so where's the bloodlust stopping her from eating Max? Are the answers she wants enough to keep that thirst at bay? Or has enough time passed and I've just felt there haven't been enough indications of transition?
373: JASON SCOTT. I want to LOL. Anyone that's ever read my FL in the past should know why. :D :D :D :D Meyer: +10 points for randomness!
377: I want to know what song Meyer had in mind when she decided Edward would compose Bella a lullaby. I'm sure they had to write something for the movie, right?
380: Unrelated to the page I'm on, but "Deliver Me" by Sarah Brightman just came on; I'm listening to the "Sight Through Sky-Eyes" Fan-Soundtrack for Seto and Anzu, and I think the song is eerily appropriate for Bella and her current situation in "Breaking Dawn." For some reason, I'm even imagining things that are most certainly NOT going to happen in this book: Bella wanting to find some form of spirituality, some proof that she and Edward really DO have souls, that even if the Volturi shred and burn them, they'll exist in some other form, together, still eternally bound and able to watch over Renesmee (and Jacob). And she'd bend her head down in front of a cross, afraid to touch it... and look up and find herself able to cry. Real tears, too, not venom. Oh, *swoon*!
390: The Cullens are "vegetarians" (the wrong word, considering they still get their blood from living creatures), but don't try and press their opinion on other vampires. Apparently, not all of the vampires that are allied with them are vegetarians, and I wonder why or how the Cullens can't be more forceful in that whomever they choose as prey NOT be human. I mean, doesn't that mean all the Cullens are condoning innocent deaths, even if the return is that they get some powerful allies against the Volturi? Or are these other people all hunting animals, going to blood banks/butchers, or something else? Do they kill off criminals, like vampire Kiras without a Death Note? I really don't know. Another thing I don't feel Meyer has made clear. But it could just be me.
420: Haha, Bella's kicking ass without even moving. In a way, that's quite cool. What would be cooler still is if she could manifest the shield in other shapes --not just domes and the like, but an actual shield, to repel off Benjamin's attack and direct it back toward the others... aaahhh, who am I kidding, I just wanna see a firefight!
425: It would be cool if Bella could learn to repel physical attacks, too.
426: Huilen tells the story of another woman who basically went through what Bella did. But for some reason, her sister's child had venom and was able to bite Huilen, while Renesmee does not/cannot. Why? Is it another thing, specific to Bella and/or Edward?
427: Oh, so it might be a random chance and/or gender thing? Good job Meyer-- she tied up that loose end within one page. (And I'm not being sarcastic: having it be narrowed down to SOME possibility is better than not having it narrowed down at all, and just leaving that loose end dangling.)
428: WHAT!? There's not going to be a bloodbath!? ;_; I'm disappointed even though I know it's still at least partially "right," still somehow fitting in line with everything Meyer's been saying from the start. But it's not like the Cullens and their allies are against fighting at all-- we've had vampire vs. vampire fights from the very first book. This book presented even more reason for them, what with Irina's destruction (which frankly wasn't fair; I hated her for her betrayal and her stupidity for trusting Laurent, and Laurent's stupidity for going along with madwoman Victoria --who reminds me of Drusilla from BtVS, by the by-- but she tried to come clean and died for it).
429: It occurs to me Meyer has pulled a "super speshul awesome" ending and paired everyone off. Seriously, are there no gay vampires? No woe-is-me vampires besides Alistair (basically angsty vampires that aren't cowards, but are more "broody" so to speak) or no "Fuck other people/vampires. I am hot enough on my own"? Ah, *le sigh*.
431: You know what would have made the "fight" more interesting? If Bella's shield truly was a shield, and blocked powers outgoing-- in other words, blocked Edward from reading Aro when Edward was inside the shield. But then again, Edward's power is only one-way to begin with, so if he's shielded and Aro is not, perhaps it's more like, why shouldn't he be able to read anyone outside the shield? And Bella's power only DID cover mental ground, so I guess it's limited enough in its own respect. Like I said, RPG-- the physical fighters could have decimated the Cullens and Co., had they been given the chance. But they weren't, because the mental vampires are the heads of the (forgive the pun) pack.
432: Oh, Edward, stop busting holes in my human myths just because they give humans a sporting chance! Surely there's got to be SOME supernatural creature out there that regular old humans could kill under some magnanimous circumstances!
433: Jacob vs. Nahuel! WHOO HOO!!!! (Kidding.)
435: Sue and Charlie: I TOLD YA SO.
436: This is the page that people saw in the blurry scans when the wank first broke. Ha! WANKAS FOR THE WIN! Also, I knew that in the end of this book, Bella would be able to mentally link to Edward (let him "read" or "hear" her thoughts). It was probably the only other loose end dangling (besides just WHY Edward is so madly in love with her, but... DETAILS, DETAILS! For some reason, these books make you not care so much about the irrationality of love.)
OVERALL: Well... I liked it. It's got its serious detractions, to be sure, and I think I mentioned them quite a bit throughout my posts and in the comments that some of them spawned. But it is a growth/coming-of-age sort of story, and in that respect, it did okay. I really think Bella and Edward can only mature more, get more experience, and fall more in love with each other (if that amount of mush is even possible).
I think Meyer did a decent job tying up most of the loose ends, as evidenced by the questions I asked throughout my posts getting answered --if not within a few pages, then within that same book, or very shortly in the next book. Anything that wasn't answered was likely because of my own ineptitude (reading, but not understanding what Meyer was trying to say) or because it was just too detailed to include: above all else, this is Bella's story, so digging questions about anyone but her (and I suppose Edward, Jacob, and Renesmee, because they're so central to Bella) are probably unimportant, and more meant for the guidebook than the novels.
Is the wank justified? Yeah, probably, in many ways. Is this series better than the "Harry Potter" series? No. I don't believe she's the next JKR. And there are a lot of points in the story when I felt I could have done it better-- and I don't even like to read/write gothic/horror fantasy romances, which I feel the "Twilight" series is. I really did read it for the LULZ, and to see what all the wank was about, and I'm walking away having LOL'd, having a better understanding of both sides of the wank, and in a state of pleasant surprise. I actually like the characters now.
Would I join the Nutter Butter fandom? No. Not officially, anyway. Makes me glad I didn't try and explore it when FanLib was still up, because FanLib was the one place where "Twilight" was incredibly active. I haven't bothered to check FFnet, and I only will if one of my plotbunnies or questions becomes agonizing to think about, and distracting/detrimental. (Hey, it happens.)
This book: 4/5 stars.
This series: 3.5/5 stars, mainly for the first book and subsequent partial suckage in the other ones, but not as much.
Feel free to argue or otherwise discuss; this was kind of fun for me. I do wonder what my roommate will have to say about it when she finally finishes the fourth book; it'd be nice to discuss it with her genuinely, instead of having all my opinions colored by wank and the opinions of my FL (which are not mine, but I tend to agree with more often than not, as a default mechanism).
I suppose I'd probably read the "Midnight Sun" series when it comes out, and I might even check out other works by Meyer. Not sure if I'd drop serious $$$ for hardcover copies of her books or anything, and I sure as hell won't be getting a poster of Robert P. to put up in my room any time soon, though. That's taking it a bit far.
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Date: 2008-08-07 05:46 pm (UTC)Thank you for saving me a lot of time and effort XD
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Date: 2008-08-08 07:16 am (UTC)