In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 37 -- Contrivances · 12:31pm Jul 28th, 2018
That describes most of the book. Most of the series, actually.
Aro and Caius, another one of the Volturi, discuss Nessie, and Bella overhears. Aro is adamant that Nessie isn’t an immortal child and the Cullens don’t deserve to die for that. Then Caius brings up the werewolves:
“Will you defend that alliance, too, Aro?” Caius demanded. “The Children of the Moon have been our bitter enemies from the dawn of time. We have hunted them to near extinction in Europe and Asia. Yet Carlisle encourages a familiar relationship with this enormous infestation — no doubt in an attempt to overthrow us. The better to protect his warped lifestyle.”
…“Children of the Moon”? There’s no moon out. This is during the day. And these werewolves don’t need the moon to transform. Anyway, Edward speaks up:
“Caius, it’s the middle of the day,” Edward pointed out. He gestured to Jacob. “These are not Children of the Moon, clearly. They bear no relation to you enemies on the other side of the world.”
“You breed mutants here,” Caius spit back at him.
Edward’s jaw clenched and unclenched, then he answered evenly, “They aren’t even werewolves. Aro can tell you all about it if you don’t believe me.”
Not werewolves?! Then why have you been treating them like werewolves? Why have you been calling them werewolves? Why haven’t you said anything? Why have the two species been acting like they’ve been bitter enemies since the dawn of time? This is bullshit! This only exists to let the Cullens get off scot-free for fraternizing with the enemy!
Aro says that the werewolves aren’t werewolves, but just shapeshifters whose animal form happens to be a wolf. As such, the Volturi have no quarrel with them. Well. Isn’t that convenient.
Caius summons Irina and begins grilling her. He accepts that she couldn’t have known Nessie wasn’t an immortal child (YES SHE COULD HAVE), but questions why she was down near the Cullens in the first place.
I heard Edward make a disgusted sound under his breath. Caius was ticking down his list, looking for an accusation that would stick.
Here’s the thing: even if Caius is looking for an accusation, the one who’s been shooting his reasons down is Aro. One of the Volturi himself; the leader, even. He’s committed to the truth. So why are all the Volturi eeeevil? And if Caius and Aro are at odds, then we’ve got- Oh, hell, we’re adding vampiric court intrigue to the list of things Twilight never uses.
Irina claims the Volturi have no reason to be there, as Nessie isn’t an immortal child. But Caius gives a signal and has her burnt alive, trying to snap the tension and get the fight going. Sadly, it doesn’t work; although Irina’s sisters (on the Cullens’ side) freak out and try to charge Caius, the other Cullen vampires manage to hold them back. Aro looks nervous throughout this, which Bella claims is because “his need for an audience had backfired”, but I think is because one of the Volturi just turned out to be psychopathic and insubordinate. Once the situation dies down, Aro says Irina was punished for bearing false witness. And considering all the signs that Irina should’ve seen that said, no, Nessie wasn’t an immortal child, he’s completely right.
Aro begins calling up some of Carlisle’s witnesses, asking them if they think Nessie is at any risk of revealing vampires to the world. He monologues on the necessity of secrecy and makes some pretty good points:
“For thousands and thousands of years, our secrecy has been more a matter of convenience, of ease, than of actual safety. This last raw, angry century has given birth to weapons of such power that they endanger even immortals. Now our status as mere myth in truth protects us from these weak creatures we hunt.”
None of Carlisle’s witnesses think Nessie is a danger, and one of them gives a two-pages-long monologue on the Volturi seeking to stamp out the Cullens — which, I might repeat, we’ve seen no evidence of yet beyond the Cullens’ own paranoia. He claims the Volturi “seek the death of our free will”, which… no. Aro starts being a boss, staying impeccably polite in the face of this slander and quietly turning aside all accusations against him. Before making his decision, Aro turns to his guard, and… Well, this is pretty damn heroic.
“We are outnumbered, dearest ones,” he said. “We can expect no outside help. Should we leave this question undecided to save ourselves?”
“No, master,” they whispered in unison.
“Is the protection of our world worth perhaps the loss of some of our number?”
“Yes,” they breathed. “We are not afraid.”
Team Volturi, bitches! The only ones concerned with the world beyond themselves!
The Volturi turn to counsel, and Bella realizes it’s time for Nessie and Jacob to run. Edward realizes what’s up and accepts that the secrecy was necessary to keep the information from Aro. Everyone says their farewells, and this one from Edward to Jacob is especially weird:
“Goodbye, Jacob, my brother… my son.”
(thinks about it) …Eeeeewwwww…
Edward took my hand. He knew that he was included. When I said my fate, there was no question that I meant the two of us. We just halves of the whole.
CM + 1
All the other vampires realize what’s up, too, and say their last goodbyes to each other as they wait for the Volturi to make their decision.
Clinginess Meter: 61 x 6
Chapters Left: 2
So: either the Volturi decide to let Nessie be, in which case the Cullens look like idiots, or they decide to kill Nesie, in which case we get a giant vampire fight. I’ll take either one of those. Win-win! I’m hoping for the brawl, though. These last few chapters have been especially boring.
Part of me is wondering if Meyer is intentionally writing Bella so badly, seeing as there are sane characters and good ideas about. Reminds me of an idea I had for a story.
#VolturiDidNothingWrong
Okay, what's with that "my son" garbage though. <.< Like, the implications are horrendous.
Wow. There's more garbage here than the Death Star's trash compactors. The Volturi deserve better than this.
4909195
Here's the thing. Read the description of Bella, then look at a picture of Meyer.
Then go read The Host, which is actually pretty good.
This actually doesn't make any sense at all.
Yes, there are nukes, but in order drop a nuke on Bella you'd also be nuking a sizable portion of the Pacific Northwest. There are no vampire cities to obliterate with modern weaponry, they live in places mostly filled with humans. Yes, there are machine guns, but a machine gun is primarily useful to stop oncoming hordes, not a single guy hanging out among friendlies. Yes, there are drones, but on average drone strikes have to "kill" someone three times before they actually get their target (if they ever get their target), and in the process blow up hundreds of civilians, which you can get away with at the colonial periphery, but start applying that logic in the core countries and see how long people put up with you exploding their hospitals and schools and gram-grams.
Basically, take the complete mess of counterinsurgency efforts over the past century (starting with Palestine in the 1920's to Vietnam to Iraq) and now make that global, and also the insurgents have sparkly magic powers as opposed to just being pissed off peasants armed with rifles old enough to have great-great-grandchildren.
Then on top of that, most vampires are serial killers, which means the police are already trying to track them down and eliminate them as individuals.