In Which I Read Twilight: Chapter 15 -- The Cullens · 1:30pm Jan 28th, 2018
When Bella wakes up, she discovers that Edward stayed all night to watch her sleep, which totally isn’t creepy in the slightest. During breakfast, he proposes that she meet his family. What with the different vampire powers, they already know about the two of them already, so it’s just a matter of time. Edward also mentions that Bella should introduce him to Charlie. Because Bella is a terrible, terrible person, she doesn’t want to. Not for any real reason, just ’cause. And:
“Are you going to tell Charlie I’m your boyfriend or not?” he demanded.
“Is that what you are?”
…Yesterday you were seriously considering marriage! If he’s not a boyfriend, what in sweet Celestia’s solar name is he?!
They drive out to the Cullens’ house. Carlisle and Esme are waiting for them and greet Bella warmly. Alice and Jasper come in soon after, and I immediately latched onto Alice as someone to like. Barely anyone in this story has a personality, but Alice comes in and is bouncy and upbeat from the word “go”. It’s refreshing.
After a round of introductions, the Cullens leave to give Edward and Bella some space. Edward plays Bella a song on the piano, which would’ve been nice if the narration had focused on how the song sounded rather than how Edward plays it OMG so perfectly. Bella notices that Rosalie and Emmett aren’t there, and thinks they don’t like her. Edward says Emmett’s fine with her, but as for Rosalie:
He sighed deeply. “Rosalie struggles the most with… with what we are. It’s hard for her to have someone on the outside know the truth. And she’s a little jealous.”
“Rosalie is jealous of me?” I asked incredulously. I tried to imagine a universe in which someone as breathtaking as Rosalie would have any possible reason to feel jealous of someone like me.
“You’re human.” He shrugged. “She wishes that she were, too.”
“Oh,” I muttered, still stunned.
First off, Bella thinks Rosalie can’t be jealous of her because Rosalie’s hot. I’d just like to quote famous beauty Hedy Lamarr on that:
My face has been my misfortune. It has attracted six unsuccessful marriage partners. It has attracted all the wrong people into my boudoir and brought me tragedy and heartache for five decades. My face is a mask I cannot remove. I must always live with it. I curse it.
Did you know she helped develop the technology that laid the foundation for wi-fi? But barely anyone remembers that because she was hot. Personally, I’d rather be known for wi-fi than for hotness.
Second, Bella just kind of skips over Rosalie’s whole existential crisis on being a vampire. I get that she wouldn’t want to linger on it, but she doesn’t try to put herself in Rosalie’s shoes and think about the possible downsides of being a vampire — a constant hunger for blood, limited contact with humans, being unable to go outside on a sunny day, etc. — she just ignores it. Why not explore this a bit? Like I said earlier, nearly everyone needs some personality; this is the sort of thing that could add it.
After a brief mention of Alice foreseeing some “visitors” coming over, Edward shows Bella the upstairs, along with each person’s room. Carlisle’s door actually has a cross hanging from it. Carved by Carlisle’s father. In the 1640s. Carlisle’s father was an Anglican pastor in London, intolerant against Catholicism and non-Christian religions, and a bona fide monster hunter. His zeal often led to him burning innocents at the stake, but he did catch real monsters every now and then. When the pastor grew old, Carlisle took up his mantle. He was cleverer than his father and rooted out more genuine monsters than not. In fact, he discovered a coven of vampires living in London’s sewers. He gathered a mob to chase one of them down, and in the pursuit, Carlisle was turned into a vampire.
I’ll admit, that backstory is actually pretty awesome. However, the next chapter is semi-devoted to Carlisle, and, spoiler alert: awesomeness remains confined the backstory. Carlisle’s state of mind isn’t really delved into, we barely get his thoughts on the matter, and any implications of the backstory are thrown to the side of the road and left to rot. Yay.
Sometimes, Twilight feels like driving down the Vegas strip without stopping anywhere. There’s all sorts of potentially interesting things happening around you, but for all you interact with it, it’s ultimately just pointless scenery.
That last paragraph is an excellent simile. :)
...feel like we're gonna need to keep a scoreboard of all the infinitely more interesting stories contained in the backstory of Twilight.
Wow. Stephanie Meyer (or however you spell her) is a master of underutilization. I guess it goes to show that a concept is only as good as the writer behind it.
4783731, 4783735
Wait until next chapter. Carlisle's backstory gets to be even more impressive and even more underutilized.
I’m kinda pissed that my name’s in this book.