In Which I Tolerate Eclipse: Chapter 3 -- Motives · 2:38pm Apr 28th, 2018
The chapter opens with Edward and Bella flying back from their trip to Jacksonville. Bella didn’t like it quite as much as she thought she would, because Renee is supposedly more insightful than Charlie and kept making uncomfortable observations about Bella’s and Edward’s relationship. Like this bit:
“The way you move — you orient yourself around him without even thinking about it. When he moves, even a little bit, you adjust your position at the same time. Like magnets… or gravity. You’re like a satellite, or something. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
It’s telling that Renee compares Bella to a satellite, something almost entirely defined by that which it orbits around, and Bella doesn’t deny it.
When Charlie welcomes Bella back home, he tells her to call Jacob, who’s been calling the Swan household every five minutes since six in the morning. However, when she calls him, he only asks her if she’s going to school tomorrow, which she is, and says he wanted to hear her voice. Bella ponders this as she begins to make dinner, and then it hits her: she was gone for three days. Three days is the amount of time it takes for a human to turn into a vampire. Jacob was making sure she hadn’t been turned yet and the Cullens hadn’t broken the treaty. The idea fills Bella with a new nervousness; she realizes that once she plans to be turned, she has to leave Forks and can never come back.
The next morning, however, Edward tells Bella that she was wrong about Jacob’s motives. Jacob knows that Edward is wherever Bella is, so if she was going to school, so was Edward. Jacob wanted to talk to Edward in a place with witnesses. Indeed, he’s already waiting for them at school. Edward and Jacob argue, with Bella watching on the sidelines, and it comes out that something happened between Emmett and Paul, the latter being the most aggressive of the werewolf pack. When Bella acts surprised by this, Jacob asks if Edward told her anything. Edward gets aggressive, and suddenly Bella realizes what’s going on.
Victoria is still hunting her. Alice’s vision had something to do with Victoria and Edward flew Bella across the country to avoid it. The vampires and the werewolves were both chasing her and came into conflict somehow. Edward and Jacob argue about the benefits of keeping Bella happy versus keeping Bella informed before Jacob cuts it off by thinking of something Edward can’t bear to see. Jacob takes the chance to tell Bella that he misses her, that it’s not the same without her.
Finally, the principal comes along and breaks the “meeting” up. During English class, Edward explains the situation to Bella via notes. Alice’s vision was about Victoria. Emmett and Jasper chased her down, but before they could catch her, she skipped across the boundary line of the treaty onto werewolf land. It was so precise that Edward speculates that Victoria’s vampiric power is a talent for evasion. The werewolves retaliated against Victoria, but Paul thought Emmett had gone over the line. Things got heated; Carlisle and Jasper managed to calm everyone down before anyone got hurt, but Victoria escaped in the confusion. Bella accepts that Edward was trying to keep her safe, but she wants to be informed next time, and Edward concedes.
After class, other kids in school start taking bets on whether Edward or Jacob would win in a fight. The split’s about fifty-fifty. The chapter ends there, and, huh. No Clinginess Meter additions.
Clinginess Meter: 8
What’s this? A conflict that isn’t lovey-dovey idiocy? One that’s actually being set up? One that appears before the halfway mark? Apparently, Twilight’s learning its own lessons. Not ones like, “make sure your characters have redeeming qualities” or “don’t pad out your chapters” (about a third of this one is devoted to a conversation between Bella and Renee about her relationship with Edward), but it’s learning lessons nonetheless.
Well, it's certainly progress. That being said...
I'm not seeing the logic here. That isn't what "evasion" means. Supernatural dodging skills, maybe. But this? This implies that either she has super-cartography powers or she actually planned ahead. Shocking concept, I know.
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It's kind of implied later on that she supernaturally knows just what to do to avoid being caught. She always knows where to hide, how to act, what to do, etc. to stay under the radar. It's less like she knew where the boundary was and more her power telling her, "If I go here, the Cullens can't chase me, and if I go here, the werewolves can't chase me. Better go back and forth between them." I guess that's one way to justify a team of vampire-killing werewolves not being able to hunt down one measly vampire all last book.
That being said, Edward's logic still doesn't make sense, since it violates Occam's Razor: "The simpler explanation is usually better." Victoria easily could've done that by planning ahead, as you said. Maybe he's trying to justify everyone's lack of skill: "Uh, no, we didn't screw up. No. Totally not. She, uh... has a superpower that lets her evade us! Yeah. Definitely that. Yes."
All I know about this book is that MovieBob said the movie version had a fantastic final fight sequence, which is not something anyone really anticipated.
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You know, vampire “special abilities” sound… almost like cutie mark talents, actually. Sometimes has a specific spell associated with it, but frequently just manifests as being extremely gifted at specific tasks.
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*...scribbles furtively*
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One character in the book series has the theory that an aspect or trait of a person is enhanced when they become vampires. In some cases, it manifests as a superpower.
Edward was good at guessing what others were thinking and he gained telepathy when he transformed.
Esme, on the other hand, became more motherly.