In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 31 -- Talented · 12:46pm Jul 22nd, 2018
…snrk. Yeah, right.
Tanya asks about what the werewolves are doing and- Shouldn’t chapters divide ideas where they make sense? This feels like a chapter break was inserted mid-conversation because… because. I know the thinking is probably that a reader will just go from one chapter to the next, but then why have chapters in the first place? Why not pull a Matthew Reilly and have it all just blend together in one long sequence? Wait, he’s actually good at writing and knows what he’s doing. Geez, I’m so bored by these books, I’m criticizing chapter structure.
Tanya asks about what the werewolves’ stake in this is. Jacob, who’s been hanging about, says they’ll protect Nessie. Tanya muses that Nessie is special and hard to resist (gag), and Eleazar says that it’s to be expected, with such gifted parents. He calls Bella a “shield” and explains what he means when Edward asks. A shield is a vampiric talent that is purely defensive; in Bella’s case, she can keep out unwanted mental intrusion. Eleazar is shocked when he hears that Bella isn’t consciously doing it, as keeping someone out without even trying must mean she’s very powerful. Of course she is. We can’t have her be avera-
Hold up. If Bella’s talent is shielding her mind, why was she so in control when she first became a newborn? Everyone thought her self-control was her talent, but now we know that’s not the case. Was she just speshul? Outside of a single paragraph of Bella pointing this out, it’s never brought up again and no one thinks about it.
Kate asks if Bella can project: extend her shield beyond herself to protect others. Bella says no and Kate isn’t surprised; she’s been trying to do that with her own talent for centuries without luck. Kate’s talent is to run an electric current over her skin. Wanting to protect Edward and Nessie, the idea of projecting her shield is appealing to Bella, and she grabs Kate’s arm, pleading with her to teach her projection (even though Kate just said she could barely do it…). Kate instinctively tries to shock Bella, but Bella doesn’t feel anything.
But… But Kate explicitly said the current is in her skin! It’s not mental! It’s an actual, physical thing! Bella should be shocked! Why am I even surprised at this stage? Bella’s been getting everything.
Eleazar and Edward, who have been in quiet conversation in the background, speak up. They’ve been discussing why all of the Volturi are coming, and they think they have an answer: they’re after a certain talent. In the past, similar events have happened: the Volturi would reveal evidence that a coven had committed some terrible crime and curbstomp them, Aro would claim one especially talented member had repented, and that member would join the Volturi. Edward suspects they made their decision to come so quickly after hearing from Irina because they were already prepared and were just waiting for an excuse. Then why didn’t they have everything already set up? They won’t be in Forks for another month or so. Anyway, the talent Aro wants most is Alice’s, so Edward thinks that’s why she left, to prevent Aro from getting her. Everyone sees this as the Volturi abusing their power and the trust vampires have in them, and reflects that the problem just got more complicated. End chapter.
Is this just here to make the Volturi look villainous? All the other things they’ve done in the books have been neutral at worst. Vampire society is chaotic, with blood feuds, turf wars, newborn armies, and immortal children. The Volturi are the only ones doing anything to stomp all that out and keep vampires safe. Get out of hand? Try to make your own army? Do anything to draw the attention of humans? You’re dead. Because in this day and age, humans could potentially win against vampires in a species war if it got that far, and you bet your biscuits that humans would want to exterminate a predator that mainly hunted them. The Volturi are the only people keeping vampire society together. Even the Cullens, the good Cullens, are willing to sit by and let a vampire tear up Seattle in creating an army so long as that army doesn’t affect them. Team Volturi for the win.
Side note: characters have a tendency to slip in and out of conversations, going quiet and not getting mentioned for pages at a time. It’s like they stop reacting and Bella forgets they still exist. I know that not everyone can contribute something to a conversation, but there’s no attempt to integrate them at all.
Clinginess Meter: 58 x 5
Chapters Left: 8
Ten pages about nothing but Bella’s talent and how powerful it is. Seriously, this isn’t even subtle.
I’ve been trying avoid the term “Mary Sue”, since I think it’s a meaningless buzzword critics use in place of “character I don’t like”, but look: Bella takes to vampirism like a duck to water. She’s especially graceful and especially beautiful from the start. She’s able to not kill humans from day one. No one ever wants to upset her because potatoes. She’s got a daughter who’s perfect, who grows right through the annoying “baby” part of childhood that stresses parents the most, who’s been able to tell her exactly what she wants since she was born. And now she’s got a power that everyone’s praising as more powerful than anything they’ve ever seen. Bella has no personal problems. The only problem she has now, that the Volturi are coming, comes from the Volturi not understanding how speshul Nessie is and scheming to take another vampire for themselves. And to facilitate that, they’ve suddenly been committing evil, dastardly, bastardly shenanigans for years, meaning they’ve always been secret villains even though they’re the ones making sure vampires aren’t napalmed off the map.
I hate this book and I hate Bella. There really isn’t more I can say at this point.
EIGHT.
CHAPTERS.
REMANING.