In Which I Suffer Through New Moon: Chapter 13 -- Killer · 3:40pm Mar 28th, 2018
When we last left Bella, she was thinking about whether or not to tell Jacob about the hunting parties out looking for wolves. He’s her best friend, but she thinks he could be a killer. She’s come to a compromise: warn him about the hunters, but also try to convince him to stop eating hikers. She drives over to Jacob’s house, but Billy says Jacob’s still sleeping. So Bella just bangs open the door as loudly as possible without knocking. However, she changes her tune once she sees Jacob asleep and obviously very tired.
Once you cared about a person, it was impossible to be logical about them anymore.
A line that, I think, would’ve been better in a story where “love” didn’t mean “clinging to someone like a leech”.
Bella tells Billy to tell Jacob she wants to talk to him and waits at the beach for him to show up. When he does, she learns that he already knows about the hunting parties for the thing that’s killing the hikers, and he doesn’t care. Naturally, Bella’s shocked as his disregard for human life. Somehow, the conversation (which slowly turns into a shouting match) manages to go on for two pages with them discussing “the murders” before Bella brings up “werewolves committing murders”. The moment she does, the ethical dilemma gets short-circuited: the werewolves aren’t the ones killing people. Werewolves are supposed to be protectors, meant to shield humans from vampires. And yes, Jacob does used words like “supposed to” and “meant to”, even though that implies that some higher power went around designating their role in life and neither one of them thinks about that bit.
At first, Bella thinks Laurent is still around, but Jacob says he and the pack killed him after chasing him away from the meadow. This surprises Bella, since she knows how dangerous and hard-to-kill vampires are, but Jacob laughs it off, saying it was hardly even fun. He quickly adds that he thinks killing vampires doesn’t count as murder, since vampires don’t count as people. Bella asks, if Laurent was dead, what was Jacob talking about last night when he said it was dangerous for her to see him? Part of the problem, Jacob says, is that he was scared Bella wouldn’t want him if she knew he was a werewolf and he needs to keep a tight rein on his emotions.
“What would happen… if you got too mad?” I whispered.
“I’d turn into a wolf,” he whispered back.
“You don’t need a full moon.”
He rolled his eyes. “Hollywood’s version doesn’t get much right.”
You know I had a short rant ages ago about never bringing up Edward’s lack of vampiric weaknesses? Something like this is all I really need, just an acknowledgement that movies and reality don’t match up. Ironically, Twilight’s version of lycanthropy is closer to actual folkloric lycanthropy than Hollywood lycanthropy. In most of the oldest myths, werewolves were simply people who could turn into wolves, with no moon required, no infectious bites, and no silver-bullet weaknesses. (In fact, the first mention of silver being anti-werewolf first appeared as late as the 19th Century and might’ve just been part of the general “silver is anti-magical-beast” sentiment in folklore, and silver bullets didn’t appear until 1935.)
Then Bella realizes something: Laurent died a week ago, but people are still being killed. Victoria’s still out there, looking for, even as Jacob’s pack harrasses her. She quickly explains the situation to Jacob and how scared she is.
Jacob held me so tightly that there was no need for me to clutch at the hole — he kept me in one piece.
Dammit. Almost halfway through the chapter with nothing added to the Clinginess Meter, I was hoping… Oh, well. CM + 1
With this info in hand, Jacob decides to tell the others. They go back to his house; Jacob dashes into the forest while Bella freaks out in her truck. Jacob returns a few minutes later and clarifies where he went:
“See, when we’re wolves, we can… hear each other.”
My eyebrows pulled down in confusion.
“Not hear sounds,” he went on, “but we can hear… thoughts — each other’s anyway — no matter how far away from each other we are. It really helps when we hunt, but it’s a big pain otherwise. It’s embarrassing — having no secrets like that. Freaky, eh?”
I’ve seen plenty of fantasy series treat constant mental bonds as the Best Thing Ever. Seeing Twilight, of all series, point out that it means no secrets between the bonded is kind of a shock.
In any case, Bella and Jacob set out the meet the rest of his pack. During the trip, Jacob clarifies why he didn’t just say, “Yo. Imma werewolf, dawg.”:
“Sam told me I couldn’t tell you. He’s… the head of the pack, you know. He’s the Alpha. When he tells us to do something, or not to do something — when he really means it, well, we can’t just ignore him.”
Unlike the above, it isn’t pointed out how creepy this domination can be.
However, Jacob still likes Sam and the rest of the pack for all the support he had during the change. He had no clue what was going on, but there were a group of people around him for support. In fact, Jacob feels sorry for Sam, since Sam never had any such help.
Bella wonders why she’s going with Jacob to meet the pack. Jacob says that she has first-hand experience with vampires, which is more than any of the rest of the pack has. They exchange a little bit of information, like whether Victoria has any extra powers.
“I don’t think so,” I hesitated, and then sighed. (Sic, since Bella apparently hesitated a phrase.) “He would have mentioned it.”
“He? Oh, you mean Edward — oops, sorry. I forgot. You don’t like to say his name. Or hear it.”
I squeezed my midsection, trying to ignore the throbbing around the edges of my chest. “Not really, no.”
CM + 1
Jacob points out that, even with Edward gone for a long time, Bella’s still unhappy.
“Did you ever think… that maybe… you’re better off?”
I inhaled slowly, and then let my breath out. “No.”
“ ’Cause he wasn’t the best-” (Damn right.)
“Please, Jacob,” I interrupted, begging in a whisper. “Could we please not talk about this? I can’t stand it.”
CM + 1
Jacob drops the subject — which is just as well, since the rest of his pack has just shown up. More and more, I’m noticing that New Moon’s definition of “cliffhanger” seems to be “stop chapter in the middle of a scene and throw off pacing”. Or maybe I’m just terrible at closing off these blogs.
Clinginess Meter: 45 x 3
In a better written series, I'd suspect that lycanthropy had been deliberately created by human magic-users to counteract the threat of vampires in a sort of supernatural arms race.
Here? I'll be surprised if the origin of either is ever touched on again.
Also, got to love how alpha authority keeps other pack members from mentioning valid counterarguments. No way that could ever be abused.
>tfw Twilight actually pretty well by werewolves
I mentioned it in an earlier chapter, but it seems to me that the werewolves get pure benefit from more publicity. If they’re “meant to be protectors,” make it clear that this is the case. Shout it from the rooftops. The vampires are clear antagonists (again, the Cullens are oddballs, most actually do feed on humans), and they have a legitimate reason for the whole masquerade deal. The werewolves are following their enemy’s rules for no obvious reason.