In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 27 -- Travel Plans · 10:36am Jul 18th, 2018
Most of this chapter is a sort of montage/summary of the first three months of Bella’s vampirization. It’s perfect, of course. She claims to take mythology a lot more seriously, which could be interesting, but it’s only so she can make a too-long metaphor about the Fates’ loom and the color of the threads of herself, her family, and her friends. Nessie keeps growing quickly and she’s adorable without having any character. Alice and Rosalie make a scrapbook of her growth to create the illusion of a longer childhood to outsiders. Jacob’s relationship with Nessie gets creepier every time it’s mentioned:
When
RenesmeeNessie walked for the first time, fewer than three weeks later, it was similar. She’d simply stared at Alice for a long moment, watching intently as her aunt arranged bouquets in the vases scattered around the room, dancing back and forth across the floor with her arms full of flowers.RenesmeeNessie got to her feet, not in the least bit shaky, and crossed the floor almost as gracefully. (Gag. Can’t ANYTHING come hard to these characters?)Jacob had burst into applause, because that was clearly the response
RenesmeeNessie wanted. The way he was tied to her made his own reactions secondary; his first reflex was to giveRenesmeeNessie whatever she needed.
Are we sure Nessie isn’t some demonic hellspawn brainwashing everybody?
As Nessie’s growth continues, holy shit she’s not even allowed to look like a toddler!
At three months,
RenesmeeNessie could have been a big one-year-old, or a small two-year-old. She wasn’t shaped exactly like a toddler; she was leaner and more graceful, her proportions were more even, like an adult’s.
She can dance. She can read Tennyson. And even though she’s capable of speaking perfectly, she prefers to use her touch telepathy to communicate. This is shown as sweet and cute rather than stunting her capability to relate to people. Aren’t you a speshul snowflake. I wish you’d behave like a snowflake, too, and melt once you come indoors, you little drip. There’s a weak attempt to create tension, as Carlisle predicts that she’ll be an adult by seven and an old woman by fifteen, but with the way everything else is going, I suspect that won’t be the case. The Cullens plan to go down to Brazil; there are legends of half-vampire children down there, some of the few in the world.
Oh, and remember the Volturi? During the honeymoon, Alice had seen a vision of them preparing to see if Bella was still human, so she sent them a wedding invitation to delay them. Somehow. Now, Aro sends them a gift: a rully purty necklace and a letter expressing a desire to personally meet the new Mrs. Cullen. Bella decides she’ll go visit him alone, to keep him from knowing about Nessie and trying to draft her; Bella’s the only one whose thoughts he can’t read.
Alice kept searching for the future, but the things she found were unrelated to what she was searching for.
Why? She’s never had that problem before. Whenever she’s wondered, “Whatup with Bella?”, she’s been able to look and go, “Thatup with Bella.” Plot convenience, I guess.
In the middle of all of this:
The days were not long enough for me to get my fill of adoring my daughter; the nights did not have enough hours to satisfy my need for Edward.
Two people, so CM + 2.
One day, Bella, Jacob, and Nessie are out hunting in the mountains. Nessie doesn’t like the taste of animal blood that much, but she still needs to learn, and she thinks that it at least tastes better than human food (which she’s capable of eating). Bella gives them a head start while Jacob and Nessie compete to bring down the biggest elk. While idly scanning the landscape, Bella notices Irina far away and acts like that name should mean something to the reader. *double checks* Okay, Irina lives up in Alaska and lost her “mother” to the Volturi because the mother tried to create an immortal child. She was mentioned once or twice in the series before, never in any important capacity. And, apparently, she was in love with Laurent; when she hears Jacob and Nessie howl and yell the success of their hunt, she notices them, recognizes Jacob as a werewolf, and runs away.
I sprinted into the forest after
RenesmeeNessie and Jacob, unwilling to have them out of my sight. I didn’t know which direction Irina had taken, or exactly how furious she was right now. Vengeance was a common obsession for vampires, one that was not easy to suppress.
Then why did it take you so long to realize that Victoria was behind the newborn army in the last book?
Jacob and Nessie are okay, but Bella calls up Edward and Carlisle while Jacob summons Seth and Leah. Carlisle and Edward try to chase after Irina so they can console her while Seth and Leah escort Bella, Jacob, and Nessie home.
RenesmeeNessie was complacent in my arms, one hand still resting on my face. Since the hunting trip had been aborted, she would just have to make do with donated blood. Her thoughts were a little smug.
Oh, geez. Bella, you need to start disciplining her. A vampire gets pissed at the presence of her werewolf; what is Nessie’s response? A) Be anxious for the safety of her werewolf. B) Be happy that she doesn’t have to drink icky animal blood. If you said A, congratulations! You’re sane and can relate to other people. However, that also means you have no place in Twilight’s universe. Yeah, Nessie doesn’t care about Jacob’s safety at all.
Clinginess Meter: 52 x 5
Chapters Left: 12
Maybe it’s just me, but I would’ve written this chapter a little more scene-by-scene. Rather than being told about Nessie’s first steps or first words or whatever, I’d sketch it out in a few paragraphs. It’s more personal, I think.
Was that ever stated not to be the case? The subtext is pretty clear.
So she's some disturbing mini-person that looks nothing like an actual human being of that age or size? Again, look past the "Everything is amazing and perfect forever" Bella Filter and the subtext for this horrifying psychic homunculus is right there.
And it's not like one can look up vampire legends on the Internet oh wait Bella did that in the first book.
And the mental image of this toddler-sized, adult-proportioned humanoid running down elk in the woods... I'm reminded of the tooth fairies from Hellboy 2. At least there isn't a swarm of her. Yet.
Yaknow, I once had an idea for a trilogy of novels about the worst characters ever falling in love, getting together, and spawning the Antichrist from their perfect, terrible love.
I'm ashamed to see that Twilight beat me to it. :(
Wasn’t there foreshadowing that Nessie would be a werewolf? Has that been mentioned since?
Also, with 12 chapters left, I would think that we would start getting to the climax of the book - which is what, exactly? I don’t know.
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It wasn't foreshadowing that Nessie would be a werewolf, it was foreshadowing that Jacob would imprint on Nessie. Apparently having the same number of chromosome pairs means you're destined to be in love.
As for the climax, the plot for which it's a climax of hasn't started yet. The next chapter will establish what the plot is for the rest of the book several dozen chapters too late. Don't worry; in the grand tradition of Twilight, it's stupid.
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I’m not sure if my misunderstanding of the foreshadowing is Meyer’s fault or my own. Also, doesn’t imprinting normally work on normal humans, and not just werewolves? Don’t answer that second part, we’ll be here all day.
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Y'know, I think Twilight would read better as witnessing the start of a genestealer cult, as the parents in that situation are brainwashed by their mutant hybrid child in a fashion this is eerily reminiscent of.
Are you sufficiently familiar with the 40k universe to pick up what I'm putting down?
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I'm more familiar with the "eviscerate everyone while Ciaphis Cain wishes he'd charged the Eye of Terror with nothing but a rusty spoon instead of ending up here" part of genestealer infestations, but I get the general idea.
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He does run into them a lot, much to his chagrin.
Basically, after being implanted by the xenomorph wannabee purestrain, the victim has an intense desire to have children. While the resulting mutant hybrid baby gestates, it psychically brainwashes the parents into believing it to be the most beautiful and precious thing in all existence. After it's born, it convinces the parents to raise it in the undercity or someplace equivalent, and to seek out more victims to add to the cult.
So yeah, I can't help but see the parallels in this scenario.
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Something something time loops