#I'm sorry I suspect this meta is Too Optimistic for my carlisle skeptics

[volturialice]

what are your headcanons or thoughts about Cullen family dynamics, like between Carlisle and Rosalie, Jasper and Emmett and + (?)

oh anon I have like. encyclopedic volumes of thoughts! I’m sorry if you were after a cute hcs post but this is gonna be another of my classic Endlessly Long Metas

*and the carlisle & rosalie part got so long that emmett & jasper gets to be a separate post now oops

(cw: mentions of rape under the cut)

carlisle and rosalie is a suuuuper interesting relationship because they sure as hell did not get off to a great start. I kind of wish the books (especially midnight sun) explored this a bit more because edward and bella both view carlisle as this saintly, can-do-no-wrong figure up on a pedestal of Perfect Kindness, and we never really get another perspective except for what little rosalie tells bella in eclipse.

but changing rosalie ""for edward"" (and ymmv on exactly how much that was a factor, because we never actually hear about this from carlisle's pov) is pretty icky. and I personally don't even read it as, like, he found a girl dying in the street and went "hmmm she looks hot let's bring her home as A Mate For My Son and never give her a choice about that," which seems to be a fairly popular interpretation among people who don't like carlisle (note that in eclipse, rose explicitly states it was up to her whether or not to stay with the cullens.) I see it more as "he changed this girl without thinking about it because he couldn't bear to see her die, and later the similarity to how he'd changed esme struck him and his brain went, 'hmm...what if?'" which strikes me as a normal thing to have a few brief thoughts about, but not a good thought to cling to after rosalie woke up and it became clear how miserable she was as a vampire.

but just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it isn’t also kinda fucked up to immediately start thinking of a rape survivor as Potential Romantic Object For Son. like, those two things can be true simultaneously. it doesn’t mean carlisle is Secretly A Horrible Person or anything, just that he’s not in fact an infallibly perfect saint of kindness.

so I think rosalie’s anger at him is entirely justified, even though I myself would feel very differently about being a vampire in her situation. I wish we got more of a look at the post-rose/pre-emmett era, when it was just her and edward constantly butting heads! I always got the sense that a lot of edward’s issues with her stem from her refusal to worship carlisle the way he does.

the emmett flashback in MS basically tells us that rosalie didn't forgive carlisle for changing her until he agreed to change emmett—the passage where edward realizes just how far carlisle would go to make rosalie happy (or depending on your pov, how far he'd go out of guilt) is really interesting to me.

carlisle got improbably lucky with his first two "creations—" a Perfect Son who worshipped him and a Perfect Wife who had secretly already pined for him for years, both of whom were willing and eager (edward's Murder Rumspringa notwithstanding lmao) to follow his weirdass animal blood diet. he was probably feeling pretty good by the time he changed rosalie (once lucky, twice confident, y’know?) it must have been a rude awakening to realize that however noble his intentions, his choice to save her went against her wishes and made her miserable. 

I’m sure it made him sad that she would rather have died, especially once he came to love her as a daughter. and then there was that parental frustration of “why can’t my kids get along?? they’re both so great!!” 

I also bet rosalie’s longing for her lost humanity and a nuclear family with biological kids reawakened his own (and esme’s) feelings along those lines. I think it’s interesting that carlisle longs to be human, too. not in the despairing way rosalie does, but enough to empathize. maybe they bonded over that at some point.

because by the time twilight rolls around, they’re cool. I find it especially telling that in midnight sun, rosalie was 100% ready to kill bella but then (notably unlike jasper) backed down the second carlisle said no. it shows that she really does see him as a parent. it makes sense for her character to want to cling to those “human nuclear family” roles the cullens have implausibly adopted.

and, circling back to emmett, his change being the thing that helps rosalie forgive carlisle also makes sense. because suddenly, rose is in his shoes. she’s directly confronted with a dying person who can only be saved by Emergency Vampirization, and she makes the same choice carlisle did—arguably for more selfish reasons!

so I’m sure they had a heart-to-heart after that, with carlisle (hopefully) apologizing again and reassuring rosalie that she made the right choice.

even then, I think deep down there’s always gonna be some part of rose that resents him. sure, she’s got her happyish ending with emmett and her consolation prize with renesmee, but it’s clear in eclipse that although she’s forgiven him, she hasn’t forgotten.

and I mean, that’s fairly true to life. everyone’s parents fuck them up somehow, whether in little ways or big ways, and a lot of people still manage to make peace with them. it almost makes carlisle’s and rosalie’s found-family bond more impressive, because they had to consciously work through their issues and maintain it. 

and once you get past those issues, there’s tons of stuff for them to bond over. they’re both very intellectually-inclined people, and I’m sure carlisle admired rosalie’s pursuit of all her degrees and impressive mechanical knowledge. she’s much fiercer than carlisle (or edward or esme,) good in a crisis, and better at making tough decisions, which is something they sorely needed (especially pre-jasper.) and I suspect rosalie admires carlisle’s patience and (secretly) his optimism, two things that don’t come naturally to her. in short, they’re a good balance for each other.