#twilight meta

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if Rosalie woke up as a vampire with no memories of her human life?

She doesn't remember being Rosalie Hale, Royce, or the rape. Do the Cullens pretend that she was a homeless orphan dying abandoned on the streets who Carlisle found, or do they tell her what happened? How would her relationship with Edward and vampirism be like? Would she be happier as a vampire?

How would Rosalie having no human memories change the twilight canon when Bella enters the picture?

You're hilarious, anon.

They don't have a choice, Edward immediately tells her who she is and exactly what happened. Remember he was arguing with Carlisle as she was turning/immediately after that she's the worst person, vain and selfish, and he doesn't want her in their lives while Carlisle's going on about how he found her.

Rosalie is told immediately and Edward lords it over her forever that he knew who she was better than she does and she was the worst person alive.

She now doesn't know why she married Royce, who did such a horrible thing to her, or if she really was this vain and self centered as Edward claims.

She would probably be about the same as a vampire because of this.

[hydrangeadeath]

Do you think he started doing it again in new moon? Do you think he ever stopped?

[fuckmeyer]

Jasper as a character is so interesting because he ends up a Confederate because he can't actually empathise with the slaves and because he simply accepts cruelty around him, and then when he becomes a vampire he literally can't ignore others suffering because it hurts him, but even decades after he becomes a Vegetarian he still can't get a hang of it partially because he still can't see humans as *people*. Idk there's smth to be said about him becoming a vampire because of his own cruelty and then being eternally in horrific pain because of said cruelty that fucks.

Jasper's whole life is a curse & i love to see it

here we have a Confederate supposedly so empathetic that he acquired a "gift"... yet not so empathetic as to recognize he was fighting for the enslavement of an entire race. despite seeing the consequences of slavery literally every day. now, the man who spent his last human days denying the humanity in others is forced to spend his immortal life being slapped in the face with their emotions. forever. hueeueueueu-

yeah, i would call that "gift" a curse, actually.

if Twilight weren't a horror story, we might see a discussion between Jasper/Bella about how immortality forces you to confront the darker side of your nature (e.g. "there will come a day when the societal beliefs imbued unto you leaves you standing on the wrong side of history"), & Jasper's journey with finding love & humanity. OR, y'know, he could've just had ONE (1) line where he says "yeah i'm not proud of my service." simply, if Twilight weren't a horror, Jasper could see the error of his ways & change for the better.

HOWEVER. Twilight vampires are "mentally frozen" when they turn, so Jasper is likely still a racist who does not regret his service. no matter how many times he is confronted with his cruelty, he won't change. meaning whatever life he chooses, his gift dooms him.

wow! eternal curse!

we see evidence of this frozen mental state in his decision to go vegetarian. he doesn't switch bc he feels bad about killing humans:

"I could feel everything my prey was feeling. And I lived their emotions as I killed them. [...] You've experienced the way I can manipulate the emotions around myself, Bella, but I wonder if you realize how the feelings in a room affect me." (Eclipse, Ch 13)

note the dehumanizing term "prey" & the focus on himself. he laments not that the human lives he's taking have value but that their dying moments harsh his vibe.

the irony! trapped as an empath while never possessing the ability to be an empath! CURSE CURSE C-

herein lies a bigger, juicier curse: Jasper is, himself, (hot take) enslaved in the sense that he will never know freedom, philosophically speaking, due to the choices he made in life. the series tries to paint him as a master tactician & competent leader; fanon often paints him as a free-thinking amoral black sheep. in reality, he simply obeys the commands of higher authorities & abides by their worldview regardless of how toxic it is to himself or others.

in the beginning, he had María.

he entered the Southern Vampire Wars not by his own volition but stayed because he was content not having a choice. however one feels about María, the fact of the matter is 1) as a newborn he was stronger, bigger, & faster than her & could have run away or overpowered her, 2) had the "gift" to identify emotions & could KNOW when/if she was malicious or manipulating him, & 3) could have escaped by influencing her emotions to make her disinterested in him. at any time in the 100 years they were together, he could have left. he talks about never knowing a life outside the war & discovering "options I'd never dreamed I had." ok???? run 100 miles in any direction & you would have seen a life outside of war. BOI-

instead, he took comfort in being submissive & adopting someone else's ideology. not only did it remind him of his past, but it meant he had no need to reflect on his actions or beliefs. he prefers others dictate his worldview & order him around even if it means being unhappy. he only left because he was going to be assassinated, & even then, it wasn't until someone else told him another life was possible that he "realized" another life was possible.

notably, the period where he's most free— living with Peter & Charlotte— is his rock-bottom where "the depression got worse." but, again, not because he realized the value of human life: "I was so wearied by killing [...] even mere humans."

then he meets Alice.

Alice, who has visions of being vegetarian & converts him so they can live with the Cullens. Alice, who dictates how her family should live their lives to the point where she manipulates them. Alice, who goes so far as to dress the Cullens, who orders Jasper to wait in the car while she & Bella go shopping, who Jasper refers to as "truly [...] one frightening little monster" because for all his experience she can still beat him in combat.

his eternal soulmate is authority.

despite being unhappy with his vegetarian life, as it makes him feel weak & coddled & a liability to everyone around him, he follows the lifestyle because Alice tells him to.

then there's the Volturi, another authoritative body. "We owe the Volturi for our present way of life," says acclaimed bootlicker Jasper Hale, who in the same moment shudders at the atrocities they committed, yet strangely sees no other way for a governing body to keep the peace... so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

but, since Carlisle outranks the Volturi as an authoritative figure in that he more closely aligns with Jasper's new worldview, Jasper sees no problem deposing the vampiric governing body if it means his sister-in-law of like 2 months can keep her demonic spawn. so i guess we don't really owe the Volturi that much

to his credit, we see glimmers of him questioning his leaders: 1) his decision to leave Maria, 2) his considering switching diets to defeat Victoria, & 3) going against the Volturi. but, again, these decisions are all just a result of his self-preservation & submitting to the higher authority du jour.

in the end, he has the perfect storm of conditions that would allow him to escape the prison he's created, to find freedom & to love humanity unconditionally... but he won't. Jasper's ultimate curse is that regardless of whether he realizes the enslavement of his own self, he will never leave his cage because it's cozy & easy & allows him to never think for himself.

AAAANYWAY Jasper's life sucks & he's trapped in an eternal prison of his own making. lol

[therealvinelle]

What if, in moment of hurt, confusion and not knowing what to do, Renesmee consumed her own mother?

Then that would honestly be one of the most beautiful things to happen in an already beautiful franchise.

"I did a bad thing, family" - Renesmee.

Really, though, there's a beautiful scene to be imagined where Renesmee and Bella are walking through the woods, having a lovely day together, when they spot a UFO, and Renesmee is simply so shocked and confused that she eats her mother. It's a terrible surprise and Renesmee decides she must have imagined the world's trippiest day in the woods and quietly returns to the house, expecting her mother to still be there and not eaten.

Her mother is not there, however, and Renesmee has to conclude she went off on her own somewhere. The alternative, that Renesmee just ate her fucking mother, is too horrible to contemplate.

The Cullens go out to look for her after a few hours, slowly growing more concerned until they're in a full-on panic, at which point Renesmee fesses up (for this part I'm picturing a Bluth family banner, "Renesmee love family, eat mother", with Renesmee standing under it looking very upset. There are party decorations everywhere because Alice noticed Renesmee was preparing a banner and immediately got excited).

Now ask yourself, which is more likely: would a UFO fly by and cause Renesmee to go into such a panic she immediately overpowered her far stronger mother and ate her, or would someone who wanted to fake Bella's death give Renesmee a bizarre hallucination about cannibalizing her own mother to fuck with her?

Renesmee is consoled, of course she didn't kill her mother, and since there's been no sign of any pyres Bella must still be alive somewhere.

(Esme tries to give Renesmee a cookie to make her feel better, Renesmee isn't hungry. Well, her mother is missing, of course the girl doesn't have an appetite.)

The Cullens launch a desperate search, all of them worried as the signs point to the Volturi (only Zafrina is known to have the ability to make people see things that aren't real, and she wouldn't do this of her own will. The Volturi have vampires to influence your will, and they have motive to take Bella.), and Rosalie at one point in her search for Bella stumbles across the news that there was a UFO sighting over Washington the day Bella went missing.

She turns away from her computer to see Renesmee in the doorway, Renesmee is confused and terrified by this news and next thing either of them know Jasper and Emmett are hauling Renesmee off of Rosalie, her jaw snapping like a terrier's.

The Cullens pass a new family rule, don't surprise Renesmee.

[smallcatwoman]

I am too tired to correct the errors here but I hope you get what I was thinking.

What do you think the hypothetical kid of Jasper and Alice gift would be?

My sums of money on hallucinations cause survival reasons. (to combat Renesmee's gift)

Alice I imagine has resentment to Renesme because she blocks her visions. Hence the to combat part. Jasper's gift is emotionally based..SO I was thinking Alice's feelings would also become his cause he feels everything...

First of all, I am shocked in the best way that someone is asking a Twilight question like this to me as if I know anything. I'll try my best.

For the sake of this ask, lets assume Alice inherited Bella's horrendous taste in names and named her child Greige.

As of canon, Jasper can already sense and manipulate Alice's emotions, including her frustration at Renesmee blocking her abilities. If her and Jasper's child is a hybrid, they would also block visions by default.

But let's say, that Greige doesn't block Alice, adopting this as part of their gift, similar to how Renesmee isn't blocked by Bella. This is if we're going off of the theory from @therealvinelle and @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta that hybrids gifts are very powerful and versatile, and focused on helping them survive. This would make Greige significantly less annoying to their mother than Renesmee, especially if Alice also gets to dress them up in adorable outfits and hyper control their life to an even greater extent than she controls Bella.

I do think Greige would have some skills of emotional manipulation, similar to how Renesmee seems to enthrall others and make them love her. But in terms of combining Alice and Jasper's gifts, the only thing I can think of is sensing the emotional outcome of decisions.

So like, if it's going to rain and Greige doesn't put on a coat, they can't see themselves getting rained on, but they can sense the annoyance and discomfort they would feel. If Carlisle decides to kiss Aro in front of everyone, Greige can't see the horrified expressions of the Cullens and everyone arguing about it, but they can sense the horror, disgust, jealousy, etc that the Cullens would feel, as well as the happiness and love that Carlisle and Aro would feel. Maybe not as useful as Alice's visions, but still helpful in a pinch.

[yoomiii123]

So here goes another of my out-there twilight headcanons: The events of the saga destroyed the relationship between Edward and Jasper.

Edward and Jasper are in my head two of these people, that just do not fit together—Edward is the eternal moping teenager and Jasper the bitter old veteran that just cannot get over his past. Their personalities and experiences are vastly different and the only thing I can see them somewhat bond over is the shared intrusiveness of their gifts. However, even here there are differences: While Edward seems to have no filter, openly replying to other's thoughts and revealing them in the process as if they had been spoken aloud, we rarely see Jasper reveal someone else's feelings and/or address them directly.

So, needless to say, in my headcanon they do not get along at all at first and are the second most likely Cullen pairing to butt heads (Rosalie and Edward being the first). However, through patience, understanding, and a big portion of goodwill due to their shared love for Alice, they worked on this relationship over the decades and eventually became friendly (they don't really hang out alone together but both of them are totally up for a brotherly hunting trip if Emmett comes along too).

And then Twilight happens...

Over the course of two years, Edward manages to single-handedly destroy the relationship he built with Jasper through his selfish aversion to turn Bella into a vampire.

Edward's desire to be with Bella and keep her human...

... puts the entire family at risk of exposure, and endangers the treaty with the wolves—and that's before the Volturi come into the picture.

... has Jasper constantly live on edge for about 1.5 years, knowing that if he slips up and accidentally kills Bella, he will destroy Edward and thus the entire family.

... endangers Alice's life not once, not twice but four times (five times in the movies: protecting Bella from a ruthless tracker, going to Volterra to face the Volturi, fighting against an f*ing newborn army, fending off the wolves when they come for Renesmee, and the confrontation with the Volturi in BD).

... forces Jasper to kill more vampires in two years than he had to in the previous five decades combined.

... brings Alice's gift to Aro's attention, basically hanging the Sword of Damocles over his and Alice's relationship.

I'm certain if I took some time, I could come up with even more points to add to the list. And while I'm sure Edward regrets some of the consequences his love for Bella have had, I don't see any indicators that suggest he would change his mind and admit that not changing Bella instantly was a mistake.

Edward's behaviour in the saga highlights all the traits about him that Jasper struggled with in the beginning. It brings his forever teenage-mind, self-centred and too preoccupied with his own internal drama to realise the consequences of his actions for others, to the forefront.

And no matter what happens after Breaking Dawn, I doubt that the chasm that the saga's events caused between Jasper and Edward can ever be truly closed again. Jasper is a realist, he knows that, now that Aro had a taste of Alice's gift, he will never stop pursuing her. Edward's happy ever after will eventually come at the cost of his own, and that is something Jasper cannot forgive.

I doubt that Jasper would be openly antagonistic against Edward, for Alice's and the rest of the family's sake. But he'd be more reserved towards him, and his tolerance for Edward's behavior would be severely lowered, leading to more arguments.

Alice doesn't care for the renewed tensions between her mate and favourite sibling and initially tries to appease Jasper, but once she starts to get visions of Aro actually plotting to obtain her, I think the fear would set in and she'd be 100% on Jasper's side again.

[cto10121]

Bella and Edward Are (Barely) Two Different People

Fresh from my Midnight Sun rereading, the parallels and similarities between these two just. stood out like a sore thumb. So without further ado, here are the receipts:

Bella being afraid of seeing Edward and Edward being afraid of seeing Bella for an entirely different reason

Edward being disgruntled about Forks and high school and high key thinks he is better than this. Bella being disgruntled about Forks and high school and high key thinks she is better than this.

Both are meh about anyone human. Except Angela. Angela is cool and kind and honest. Ben is too. They’re nice

Rosalie: *exists* Bella and Edward: 😬 🤢 😡 and eventually 🤝

Bella wants to pair Mike and Jessica, tries, and succeeds. Edward wants to pair Angela and Ben, tries, and succeeds. They should open a matchmaking agency methinks

Bella winks. Edward winks. Wink wink

Bella calls Edward her Romeo like the dramatic classic lit nerd she is. Edward calls Bella his Persephone like the dramatic classic lit nerd he is

Edward loves speed, Bella quickly develops a liking for Edward running, motorcycles speed

Tanya and Mike: *exist* Bella and Edward: 😡😭😡😩😡🥺😡

Both go from Debussy to…this? (Linkin Park)

Edward’s favorite color quickly changing to brown and Bella’s quickly changing to topaz. Eye color is clearly a big deal

Bella is mother in a depressingly parentified way. Edward is mother in a Latina mom-coded way

They’re okay-looking at best and ugly at worst…except that most everyone gawks and wants to date them and thinks dirty thoughts about them. But that means nothing, that’s because they’re new to town/an alluring vampire. It’s probably not because people think they’re genuinely hot, lol

Speaking of which, what does Bella see in Edward and Edward see in Bella?! Can they believe that their love would really want to be with them? Isn’t that just amazing? Isn’t that some inscrutable and unfathomable miracle of the universe?!!!

Edward thinks he’s a monster for being a vampire (understandable). Bella thinks she’s a monster for briefly cheating on Edward with Jacob (also understandable). Both should fucking chill

Bella “I’m Switzerland” 🤝 Edward “An obsessed vampire stalker”

Bella has her useful mind shield and Edward his mind reading. It’s like mirrors except the inverse

Bella forgives Edward for everything leaving her dead inside with a figurative gaping hole in her chest. Edward forgives Bella for everything cheating on him with Jacob and just loving Jacob in general. Very forgiving people

Edward is in her books, Bella is in the stars of the night sky. Bella is the girl and Edward is him. If they are together, it is heaven. This is to say, both cannot and do not chill

Edward: “Soft perfection” 🤝 Bella: “Perfect”

Bella cannot function without Edward. Edward cannot function without Bella. Romeo and Juliet quietly prepare a lawsuit. There can be room for only one epic literary het couple fucked over by love and this cursed heteropatriarchal Christofascist life. And it ain’t the vampire and his favorite blood bag

[venusofvolterra]

Notes on Demetri Volturi: Sadism & Violence pt.1

So much of this man’s screen time is spent being kinky particularly violent which is why I wanted to explore this topic with him.

In this first part, I will focus on the movies as the characterizations in my opinion are not too dissimilar and the advantage of film being a visual media will help me extrapolate the first part of my point best.

1. Having Alice in a Chokehold, he didn’t have to subdue her this way but this lends him a much more sinister energy to hold her by the neck. Furthermore he is so confident in his ability to subdue her that he doesn’t go for a much more effective means of restraint, like holding down her arms.

2. Though this clip was in a trailer and not the official cut of the movie, Demetri is the only member of the Volturi we actually see feed. He even makes a point to throw the secretary around a bit. No one is around in this clip really, though we can assume it’s the throne room. I can’t imagine he feels the need to put on a show for the kings since he’s worked for them ~800 years at this point. He’s doing this for himself, speaking to his own sadistic nature. There is also a clip of an alternate version of the scene in which he pushes Felix out of the way so he can be the one to deliver the kill. 

3. Slapping Jasper. He’s never even ordered to hold Alice and Jasper back, he just leads the other guards to do it. Showing that he takes initiative in matters of violence. Furthermore, slapping Jasper is solely an intimidation tactic. We even see Demetri give a slight smile after this and even at some of the other violence in BDP2.

4. Now of course, we have several instances of Felix and him restraining and killing vampires. This I find fascinating because unlike Demetri, we only ever see Felix carry out violence on an order. The only time we see Felix carry out Violence without Demetri directly helping is when he kills Bree — which he does on an order - and I do read some hesitancy on his part in this scene (Felix’s characterization as far as sadism & violence is concerned could be a different post entirely so I’ll stop here, the point: Felix is not needlessly violent in the way Demetri is.)

5. When it comes to the confrontation with Toshiro, Felix actually passes Toshiro over to Demetri, a gesture which reads as “here, you rough him up a bit.” When the kings are done intimidating Toshiro, it is Demetri who rips his head off.

6. There are other examples too of course, Demetri smiling at Aro when he believes he’s killed Edward, when he’s the first to suggest taking the newborns out sooner rather than later in Eclipse, he perks up and looks maybe mildly disappointed when Alec suggests that they missed an entertaining fight, all of the times where he seems rather satisfied with himself after he executes someone, and of course, his infamous line about fishing.

Now, here’s my thesis for this long post: Demetri’s characterization in the series is fascinating because he is played off as a character who is very persuasive, tactful, and elegant, however, the actual content of his actions betrays something much more sinister within him, perhaps some kind of deep-seated love of violence, therefore, Demetri’s characterization reads to me as that of a true sadist.

Now, while I mostly pulled from the movies thus far, I do want to delve into book canon as well to better develop this interpretation for a few reasons.

1) I have used mostly movie evidence up until this point because we don’t see the Volturi really get violent at all in the books.

2) As it pertains to movie adaptions, anything that is not directly contradicted in the movies by the books or vice versa can be assumed to be canon in both universes therefore, we have no reason to doubt that Demetri‘s behaviors are similar in both because we have very little content of him in the first place let alone, any meaningful difference in characterization (unless you count Charlie Bewley being a blonde/j).

Stick around for part 2 where I will delve into the guide, some general book canon, and use some personal head canon to fill in the gaps. These will be in part two in order to avoid this post being seven years long.

[edwardsvirtue]

idk man, every time I see a post about how jacob was better for bella, how he accepted and understood her exactly how she was, how he could have made her so happy... i don't know how to say "yes! this is totally correct! but also missing the whole point."

the fact that bella had another option for happiness (where she wouldn't have to sacrifice anything or change herself at all) but STILL CHOSE EDWARD ANYWAY is meant to lend more significance to her decision, not to demonstrate that she somehow chose incorrectly. bella knows she has the potential to become something greater than what she is by becoming a vampire. she also knows that SHE can't make JACOB happy because she will never stop thinking about what could have been with edward. and i think this was what stephenie was trying to say with the HEA in breaking dawn.

it's not that team jacob is wrong, it's that the whole jacob/bella relationship was designed specifically to be a tragedy. stories have themes – it's not just about rewarding whichever character is the least problematic. i agree that stephenie communicated this theme really poorly, but this is how i've always personally interpreted eclipse. jacob deserved better than what he got, but he also deserved better than being bella's second choice.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If a version of Midnight Sun existed for each following instalment of the Twilight series (New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn), what do you think they’d be called/what would you call them and what (new) scenes would be in them?

Anon, you speak my greatest dream. I want this in my life. If no one else does, then I am the sole person who does. If there is not one person who wants this, it means that I have died.

I need this.

But for now, I can only imagine (and no doubt fail miserably to what it would be in actuality).

New Moon

The thing is that Meyer would also want to call this New Moon for the reason that she called it New Moon for Bella: this is a book about hopelessness. Edward leaves, Bella's soulmate, she literally cannot survive without him and this book is her discovering "oh, yeah, I literally cannot survive without him" (and making friends with Jacob but let's be real Meyer was never that into that).

It's a book where the moon, the light, is gone.

For Edward, we have the same narrative, he tries to leave Bella for her own good, fails, has a miserable time, and comes crawling back only to find that he's made everything worse.

But because Edward is more dramatic, and to thematically work with Midnight Sun (named thus as Bella is the unexpected sunlight in what should be the darkest of Edward's nights) we have Polar Night which is the phenomenon opposite of Midnight Sun where instead of the sun never setting at all we have the night never ending.

As for what would be in it. My friend, my beautiful friend, everything would be in it.

We'd get the scene where Edward bullies his family into leaving, many of them having reservations, and then steals all Bella's photographs and tries and fails to steal the stereo out of her car. We'd get scenes of Edward fantasizing about Bella marrying and holding hands with MiKe NEWtoN and it being entirely too much for him. We get all of the birthday party, period, which from Edward's point of view would no doubt be insane.

We have Edward so fucking depressed that he feels he's bringing the family down and chooses to leave on the vague pretext of catching Victoria. Then he doesn't catch Victoria and loses her in Mexico but is so depressed he just keeps going south until he hits Brazil.

Where he stays, and per what he says to Bella (which is undoubtedly not the entire truth) he was fucking miserable and did nothing for months. Did he have a Hallucination Bella who told him not to eat human food because it'd make him sick? Did he write a rock opera about Bella Swan only to realize it didn't live up to real life and burn it in a fit of despair and anger? What about the family calling to check in? We know that happened, Rosalie could reach Edward and he answered, so did they just call and quietly try to ask if Edward's coming back home or not? You know? Anytime? Edward?

And then of course his pleading for death with the Volturi, being told no, planning his elaborate massacre-suicide before settling on good old suicide without any murder and Bella being alive and that whole debacle from his point of view including "OH NO OTHER MAN MOVED IN" when he realizes Jacob's... kind of... a thing...

Everything would be new in part because we see so little of Edward and given the insanity in Midnight Sun that was never in Twilight I can't even guess to what Edward got up to for months in Rio.

It could be fucking anything.

Eclipse

Or "Edward did a bad thing and is now very nervous" the novel. As for what it's call, this is less clear as we have to go with the sun/moon themes here, and Eclipse is already taken. If we're allowed weather related events maybe "Eye of the Hurricane" as there's a storm out there and this book is about Edward barely holding his shit together. This is his nightmare scenario in every way.

Bella has a new love interest, a friend she believes is platonic who is very interested in her, and worse, Edward actually does admire and is hands down in Edward's opinion the better man for her to be with. Bella's changed when he was gone and is now an adrenaline junky, what else about her has changed? How much did he miss? She's involved in werewolves who all hate Edward, for good reason, and want her to leave him, for good reason. Edward has discovered that he actually can't leave Bella, Alice was right, even though he wants to be that strong desperately. Bella got the family to agree to turn her and they'll do it, Edward's barely gotten her to agree to be turned by him instead, but she's hemming and hawing about marrying and committing to him and she wants him to bang him (which will likely lead to her death)

Edward is straight up not having a good time, bro.

So, we'd get Edward's insane plans to keep Bella and Jacob apart, his meeting Bella in the road after her looking like he'd love nothing more than to pull The Terminator where he chases her car down. We get Edward's increasing nervousness that Bella "wants to be with him forever" but "doesn't want to marry him" (which for Edward, understandably as he doesn't have Bella's background, is something that just doesn't compute). And there's Jacob, kissing Bella, warming her up at night, thinking very dirty things when Edward's sitting right there internally screaming.

And of course, offscreen things with the family, likely venting about the Denali who are leaving them to die because they won't let them kill the children Native Americans, wondering if they're all going to die in this fight, even more of the tent scene with Jacob (which I'm sure, somehow, I'm sure, got very homoerotic in there). Probably sobbing to Alice "I fucked up" and then hating Rosalie BECAUSE THIS IS ALL HER FAULT HISS HISS.

And of course, what we know he sees from Bree and perhaps the discussion with the family that Bella never got to be privy to.

And I imagine a lot of fantasies of Bella pregnant with Jacob's beautiful babies.

Breaking Dawn

I'm going to bow out for this one too, Meyer would want to name it that. Maybe we get "Hailey's Comet" or something, in that Edward has related Bella to a comet streaking across the bleak sky of his life and this is him learning to accept to be happy and perhaps good things are allowed to happen to him.

But anyways.

I mean.

We get Breaking Dawn.

We get Edward gearing himself up for sex and asking the family how to bang a woman. We know he did this. Canonically he confesses to Bella, in the weirdest manner possible, that he asked his entire family how to do it (and it made it clear that Carlisle didn't really approve and was pretty :/ and "don't do it" about all of it). We get the family probably watching Alice like hawks because they're waiting for her to tell them if Bella lived or died through intercourse. We get Edward interrogating the maid in Portuguese and god knows what they even said to one another but it had to be wild.

We get Edward planning Bella's abortion, the betrayal by Rosalie yet again, and then more planning of her forced abortion with Jacob and his opinion on Jacob turning from "respected rival" into "my only friend".

Then we get Edward's complete flip on Renesmee which must have been... I don't even know. But he'd be thinking she's the spawn of Satan before that (in the most Edward manner possible) and then that she's Jesus after that (in the most Edward manner possible).

Then of course there's "my son, Jacob" and honestly probably fantasizing about an adult Renesmee pregnant with Jacob's beautiful babies. Let's be real here. and just...

Look.

I can't predict this.

What we saw of Breaking Dawn was already insane and this would only be more so because it's Edward. There's so much we don't see as Bella pays 0 attention to the other vampires and to the family at large and Edward would just...

I have no idea.

It would just be madness.

TL;DR

I need this.

[littlec0ward]

Rosalie

Rosalie Hale is one of the best characters in Twilight and she was really done dirty in the Eclipse movie.

In the book, when she tells Bella her story, Bella is in Edwards room and Rosalie very politely comes to talk to her.

"It's me," Rosalie said softly, opening the door enough that I could see the silver glow touch her perfect face. "Can I come in?"

"Do you mind talking to me for a few minutes?" she asked. "I didn't wake you or anything, did I?" .... "Please don't think I'm horribly interfering," Rosalie said, her voice gentle and almost pleading. She folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them as she spoke. "I'm sure I've hurt your feelings enough in the past, and I don't want to do that again."

She hasn't exactly been friendly to Bella in the past but this is the scene where we find out why. Rosalie is almost the only character who doesn't want to be a vampire. She loved her human life and, to her, becoming a vampire represents losing everything she wanted. It is naïve for Rosalie to also apply this to Bella, though, because Bella wasn't born into a wealthy and powerful family. But we realise that Rosalie is actually jealous of Bella for having the opportunity to raise a family.

"You already have everything. You have a whole life ahead of you - everything I want. And you're going to just throw it away. Can't you see that I'd trade everything I have to be you?" ... "You did get some of your happy ending, though," I reminded her. "You got Emmett." "I got half." She grinned. ... "But there will never be more than the two of us. And I'll never sit on a porch somewhere, with him gray-haired by my side, surrounded by our grand-children."

To Rosalie, Bella's making a huge mistake that she'll have to live with for eternity.

"You don't want to be rash about permanent things, Bella."

I do believe that Rosalie should have respected Bella's decision to turn because to Bella, vampirism represents the opposite. It represents everything she wants (strength, beauty, immortality, etc.). But still, Rosalie's intentions are clear in this scene.

Rosalie was looking out for Bella.

However, in the movie version of Eclipse, Bella walks in on Rosalie who proceeds to just be flat out rude, opening with this line:

I personally have always felt like Smeyer had no respect for Rosalie as a character. This scene was the perfect opportunity to show just how complex she is but I guess the creators of the film didn't respect her enough either. Instead, we basically get a character assassination that makes her one of the most over-hated characters in the Twilight universe.

[fuckmeyer]

Do you think the Volturi would ever get desperate enough to make their own newborn army to continue being in power?

yes, but actually no

Yes

the Guide says they overthrew the Romanians by "launching a successful war." really, they just convinced a bunch of vamps to go to war for them for 100+ years on the premise that it was mutually beneficial for everyone to follow certain laws.

here's the thing. the tactic of newborn armies didn't exist until Benito tried to pull it off in the 1800s. end result: the Volturi came in full force & exterminated the newborns. this lil anecdote in vampire history tells us that 1) while the Volturi have gone to war, they have not experimented with newborn armies. & 2) when faced with a challenge to their doctrine, they do attack.

fast-forward like 200 years. in Second Short Life of Bree Tanner, they threaten to punish Victoria for creating a newborn army but give her the chance to destroy the Cullen clan first. it seems, given the right adversary, the Volturi are willing to bend their rules...

they have a history of starting wars, combat, & breaking their rules.

But actually no

their whole shtick is noninterference & secrecy. they've gained power through soft diplomacy & quiet hard diplomacy. (amassing an arsenal of talented vamps, spreading their doctrine, solidifying their reputation etc). potential problems are resolved quickly & discreetly. a newborn army is the antithesis of their mission & their strategy. bottom line, they would lose a lot of power & credibility by openly flouting their own philosophy.

"ok but 'yes, but actually no' is a non-answer"

NO, the Volturi would not get desperate enough to create a newborn army. they would prefer an elite, highly trained team of talented statesmen & gifted vampires over a hoard of volatile newborns. under the right conditions, however, they might wage a proxy war.

imo, they would be at their "most desperate" when they lose everything: the guard, the coven, & the reputation. even then, i don't think they would resort to outright creating a newborn army.

from the Guide: "Aro called his soldiers “the Volturi guard,” making it clear that they were subservient to the actual coven of five." there are 9 permanent members of the guard & more transitory members, all of which he views as his "collection." "Ambition was [the coven's] bonding element. [...] Rank in the guard is decided by power."

there's already tension among the guard fighting for their rank within the system (or to be a permanent member).

post-Breaking Dawn, the Volturi's reputation has taken a hit. covens have lost faith in their ability to lead. morale is down in the guard; perhaps some transitory members take a hike. the Volturi already rely heavily on vampires who modify relationships & mental states i.e. Chelsea, Corin, Marcus. they're all in this stupid club for ambition & power's sake; imagine one of them is dissatisfied with the Volturi's loosening grip on power? imagine the Volturi must quash an exodus in their guard, leading them into a vicious cycle of lost trust & draconian measures? imagine the guard fights with itself as some begin to turn on the Volturi...?

if the core Volturi coven don't have their guard, what do they have? a telepath (Aro), a relationship identifier (Marcus), regular-ass Caius, & two regular-ass wives who don't even want to be there. in addition, they have their reputation & their abilities as statesmen. that's it.

[consider this: "If a vampire remains unmoving often enough over thousands of years, dust begins to petrify in response to the venom-like liquids that lubricate his eyes and skin." Bella notices this milky film over their eyes. she also doesn't notice any vampire scars. it's probable the kings have seen little to no combat in centuries, if ever.]

if the guard turns on them, & they've lost reputation with the other covens, what would they do? the wives might dip bc being stuck at home for hundreds of years kinda soured them on the whole "being married" shit. Marcus would ask for death lmao. that leaves Aro & Caius. (possibly Jane/Alec/& other loyal guards.) considering the guards' experience w/ newborn armies, really the only way out of this is negotiating the kings' freedom. openly creating their own newborn army would permanently destroy their reputation, & their ties with other covens will become their greatest asset when the guard turns.

tl;dr worst case scenario, in response to an existential threat i see them saving their own hides & fucking off into obscurity while they figure out their next moves (which would largely involve diplomacy, rebuilding their "collection," & proxy wars).

[therealvinelle]

if Twilight vampires had compulsion would Edward use it on Bella?

Oh, absolutely, assuming her gift wouldn't fend him off.

He would compell her to forget the truck incident and not think any more about him, only to start worrying about all the ways she might get hurt. This is the man who convinced himself that staying in her bedroom was necessary to protect her from danger: he would compell her to accept the brand new car with terrific safety features some mystery benefactor bought her, and compell Charlie not to question it either. He'd compell her to remember to eat, to stay away from Mike Newton, to keep out of the woods, to walk carefully when it's icy out, he would compell the PE teacher to let her sit out his classes, and on it would go.

Bella would turn into Coppelia, it would be awful.

[magicianpanache]

Women: Madonnas or Whores

In Midnight Sun, it’s revealed that Edward absolutely despises almost all the women he meets. The exceptions are Esme, Bella, Alice and Angela. The others, like Rosalie, Jessica, Lauren, the waitress in Port Angeles and Siobhan, he spends the book hating on.

While looking at the list, we easily spot some points in common between the members of those two groups.

Esme, Bella, Alice and Angela are all Madonnas. They are all perceived as unsexual beings. Edward clearly says that he never heard Esme and Carlisle have sex (as opposed to Rosalie and Emmett). Angela doesn't really have romance on her mind that much, and when she does it's a passing fancy about a short guy in her class, indicating she isn't shallow. He can’t read Bella’s mind, but he’s surprised to hear she finds him attractive, despite Bella spending half of Twilight describing him as a god. In fact, he’s offended on Bella’s behalf that Mike thinks about them having sex.

This makes all of those women worthy of protection and esteem.

The other women are whores, which makes them deserving of Edward’s scorn. Their crime? Enjoying having sex, in Rosalie's case, or gasp thinking about guys they find attractive in Jessica and Lauren's cases.

Edward, being a man of his time, associates moral traits to a woman's libido (or lackthereof), which I think is also informed by his clear demisexuality. The Madonnas are selfless, kind, maternal and unshallow women who must be protected by the protectors of the coven since they cannot protect themselves (preys), while the whores prey on men, are selfish, independent, materialistic and shallow (predators). Edward cannot reconcile both parts in a woman, which is why his relationship with Rosalie is terrible while his relationship with Bella is hanging by a thread of denial.

Edward has no place for female protectors. We see that from the fact that Edward believes Alice found the family with him and Emmett gone because the protectors weren’t there. He spares no thoughts to the fact that Rosalie completely considers herself Emmett’s protector because of his recklessness in the James encounter. No, Rosalie cannot be a protector, because she's a woman.

Alice is the notable exception. Because of her gift, Edward considers her a protector of their coven, just like he is. However, her protection is mental, not physical. In fact, Alice is a tiny woman, which makes her independence acceptable: she's still in need of physical protection.

[smallcatwoman]

Thoughts on Carmen

I’m a fan of @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin and @therealvinelle works and blogs of course. You may want to read some of their metas if you’re not familiar with them or else some of what I say is going to sound insane. I especially love their delightfully horrendous Eleazar from their fics. x x x

He’s so much fun to read and to write, and between those two excellent writers and several fans inspired by them, Eleazar has been quite thoroughly dragged through the mud multiple times over. (Not that I have any intention of stopping, provided I have enough inspiration/fanfic prompts.)

Carmen, however, isn’t discussed nearly as much, but this woman fascinates me. 

Carmen is barely in canon and has almost no speaking lines in fanfics (because of a bingo card maybe? Idk.) The only thing that sticks out in my mind from rereading every chapter of breaking dawn featuring the denali fifty times (for reasons that may or may not become clearer mid July) is that she was the first to accept Renesmee and be charmed by her, and seems like a sweet enough person the couple of times that she says anything at all. 

I just have to wonder what goes on in the brain of someone who is happily married to Eleazar of all people. 

She’s obviously not a moral person, considering that she enables the shenanigans that the Denali sisters/Eleazar get up to, and probably participates in it as well. But I do think she is very pleasant and “nice” in terms of the way she talks and interacts with people. Similar ish to how Umbridge from Harry Potter is evil, but acts like a very sugary sweet kind of person. 

And tbf I agree with muffin/vinelle that the Denali are completely unaware of the fact that they are serial rapists and that the men they sleep with are probably terrified of saying no to them. Carmen has good intentions, and thinks that she and Eleazar are paragons of morality, and even if she and Eleazar woohoo people to death in hot tubs, at least they don’t eat them. 

I also think that she’s probably an insanely easygoing person, who is nigh impossible to annoy or offend. She would also have to be fairly quiet, and a good listener, since Eleazar loves the sound of his own voice. 

I think that if her circumstances were different and she didn’t meet Eleazar, she could have been a sweet, easygoing, and supportive partner to anyone. Either another horrible obnoxious person where she would just be similarly chill and accepting, no matter what nonsense they get up to. Or she could end up with a sane, normal person who doesn’t have weird kinks of woohooing with their food. 

Honestly, the human equivalent of  what Edward and the denali are into is like if a person was sexually attracted to a hot apple crumble, fresh out of the oven. Compared to sleeping with another person, it’s way too warm, way too squishy, and smells like food. Plus you would destroy a perfectly good apple crumble, which is just a shame.

Anyway, that’s all. tdlr Carmen is a very supporting and easygoing person, and very interesting to me considering she is happily married to the worst person in the universe.

[denalilily]

🕯️✨ Twilight Advent Calendar - Day 3 ✨🕯️

Pick one deceased twilight character to tell us more about. How would the universe be different if they had been alive?

If Sasha had never created an immortal child and had never died for it, I think that would have made the most difference to canon. Not only does the Denali coven change completely, the Volturi confrontation likely doesn't happen in Breaking Dawn. The Denalis probably wouldn't have seeked out human men (apparently they did it to distract from their sadness) and wouldn't have discovered vegetarianism. Irina could still have seen Renesmee if they somehow still become vegetarians and befriend the Cullens, but because she has no personal history with immortal children, she would have fled and gone back home, telling her family to not associate with the Cullens anymore but likely wouldn't have gone to the Volturi. So the confrontation doesn't happen. Irina might have lived happily with Laurent for a long time, but Kate wouldn't have met Garrett. Life for the Cullens doesn't change that much, their life goes on the same as in the end of Breaking Dawn, except that Bella doesn't discover her shield power, or even if she does, she doesn't get the training from Kate and the other vampires for it to become as powerful.