The song for these chapters is Fabric Of My Life by Zooey Deschanel [suggested by H.L.]
This week is the great and glorious TWICON 2009 in Dallas, Texas! I will be down at the convention all the days and unable to do my regular blogs here, so I decided that in order to keep up, I’d have to read two chapters today! I figured I needed to double up at some point in Breaking Dawn, but wanted to avoid doing this back when it was from Jacob’s point of view, and the post titles might look like:
Reading Breaking Dawn: Chapter 17 (What Do I Look Like? The Wizard Of Oz? You Need A Brain? You Need A Heart? Go Ahead. Take Mine. Take Everything I Have) AND Reading Breaking Dawn: Chapter 14 (You Know Things Are Bad When You Feel Guilty For Being Rude To Vampires)
which I assume might crash my website every time someone tried to load the page.
Charlie Swan seems to be taking the strange news quite well, considering the fact that he was just introduced to his new granddaughter who magically appears to be years older than she should. I wonder if he still thinks this is all some big joke? I suppose if I was Charlie, and I hadn’t seen Jacob transform into a big wolf, I might think that all this was a very elaborate plan to cover up something much bigger and more sinister than simply ‘Bella was sick’ and ‘Renesmee is a strange baby’.
However, despite Charlie’s good intentions, I think what Renesmee needs least of all right now is another admiring servant. She already has the Cullens and Bella and Jacob and Leah and Seth waiting on her every whim – now she has a grandfather who’s attached and ready to do her bidding. Forget her ability to crush rocks: the fact that she’s not a bratty beast is shocking enough. I was wondering for a while if she would have difficulties since she appeared to be two years old but was only two weeks old, but thankfully since she seems to also be learning at a faster rate, she might actually be able to fit in with their semi-society.
This brings up an interesting question: since Renesmee is a vampire-human child, will she ever be able to associate with humans? I mean, both Bella and Edward were able to go to high school, and to have some sort of a life with others around them. Will Renesmee be forced to live alone with her parents, and not be out with others? I wonder also if since Jacob has imprinted on her, if she actually needs those other people, and won’t feel lonely being cut off from society as long as he is around.
The arm-wrestling match proves in a way just how powerful the new Bella is. She goes from being the weakest of them all, and clumsy, and vastly uncoordinated, to being able to defeat the strongest vampire she has ever known. Seriously, she’s punching rocks and crumbling stones into powder with “the consistency remind[ing her] of hard cheese.” It makes me feel sympathies for the surrounding boulders.
It’s nice that after all of the pain and the problems that Bella has had to go through for the past couple years, to see her finally getting to have a little bit of happy, family life:
“Happiness was the main component in my life now, the dominant pattern in the tapestry.”
But even as all this happiness seems to be taking over Bella’s life, the entrance of a new vampire puts a great, dark streak across it. When Irina appears, immediately the thoughts of the other vampires return: there are others who will not be so pleased with Renesmee and Jacob, much less Bella. I keep wondering how the Volturi will actually react when they discover this news. Is Renesmee really that much of a threat to them? If the Cullens can stay hidden for so long, I don’t see why they couldn’t hide Renesmee just as easily.
–NOTES–
– Today’s post is shorter than usual because I have to pack and get ready for Twicon! I’ll have more info tomorrow!
206 Responses
maybe the ones who not imprint are not kwalefied too pas on his genes. In nature a pack of wolfs only the most kwalified alpha and beta male may pas on his genes, as if it is for the strenghten the bloodline you won't only the best genes.
But than why are there so many – at least 4 or 5, forgive me, I'm not sure – in the current pack who imprint? Are they all that strong? I mean, Sam, Jacob (and Quill), I can kind of understand – they are all descendents of leaders or at least of powerfull wolves. But the other one, I think it was Jared, who imprinted on Kim – why him? As far as we know, he's not thát far up the wolf-pack – or am I mistaken? It's been quite a while since I read the books, to be honest.
Well in that theory it is a strong pack and maybe it is necessary to have more offspring than they just too forthe future, like why there is now the biggest pack of wolfs. i don't it is so. only SM knows why ofcourse but in theory it can't be explained that way.
Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for all your replies – it was just a flaw I saw, this way it is kind of solved. Now we'll just have to wait and see whether or not chrisd34 agrees with us on this xD
By the way, I can't believe I'm discussing this while it's 1:31 AM over here. Oh, well, it's vacation I guess xD
sorry i am a bit tyred and i make a lot of faults i see. you understand what i meant.
wel i agree that we have to wait of Chrisd34 will agree on this.
by the way i am dutch too
Yeah! I'm not the only freak who's up this late just randomly posting on Kaleb's blog! Well, now it's just waiting for Chrisd34 😉
Thank you for reading my very long post, now on to your questions/discussion points.
I believe Jacob is compelled by the imprinting process to be close to Bella during her pregnancy. Part of him very much wants to leave, however he can’t bring himself to sever the relationship. In fact during Bella’s pregnancy his future starts to take shape. He defends Bella against his pack, he leaves the pack to start his own, and he grants the Cullen’s permission to change Bella into a vampire. Leah is the one that causes Bella the most pain by pointing out all of the rotten things she has done to Jacob. I was glad Leah stood up for Jacob because even though I feel Jacob was unable(because of the Imprinting process) or unwilling to sever his relationship with Bella during New Moon and Eclipse, Bella was not strong enough to firmly let Jacob know that Edward was her choice. I thought it was warranted for her to understand the pain that her inability to communicate with Jacob caused.
On the subject of why only some of the wolves imprinted I have two theories that have at least some basis of fact from what Ms. Meyer has written. The first theory is that only the wolves that have a strong enough bloodline will imprint. Some of the wolves may not have a “pure” enough bloodline to cause/warrant imprinting. My other theory (and the one I believe more) is that imprinting is not rare it is just that the other wolves have not met there destined companion yet. Some of the wolves were lucky enough to find their imprint-mates within the tribe; others found them outside the tribe (during family visits and such). One interesting thing to note is that all of the wolves imprint with females that have Native American bloodlines (expect for Jacob with Nessie but I explain my thoughts on that in my original post). When the non-imprinted wolves finally meet the person that will allow their offspring to strengthen the bloodline they will imprint. In my mind this also includes Leah. She is not a genetic “dead end” as she states in Breaking Dawn. Her family has very strong bloodlines. I believe if the Twilight universe did exists she will imprint when she finds the one male that will allow her to conceive superior shape-shifting offspring. Given enough time to pass in the Twilight universe, I would like to think that most of the wolves will imprint as they finally meet their destined mates (or they may just stop phasing long enough for them to revert back to being mortals; in which case they would never imprint).
Thank you for your reaction! The first part I get and I do agree with. On the second half, however, I feel there is still something missing; namely why Jacob and Sam were 'brought' towards their imprints (both of them in an early stage of being a werewolf), while the others who haven't imprinted weren't. Do you think that everybody will imprint eventually (also the ones that have died a long time ago), if not for the fact that werewolves a lot of times stop begin a werewolf and then sort of give up on imprinting? In other words, do you think that if a werewolf waits long enough, he will imprint, that it's just patience?
alright
–adverb all right.
Usage note:
The form alright as a one-word spelling of the phrase all right in all of its senses probably arose by analogy with such words as already and altogether. Although alright is a common spelling in written dialogue and in other types of informal writing, all right is used in more formal, edited writing.
I do believe that imprinting is something that all of the wolves will/could do if they find their destined-partner. However, you bring up interesting point. Maybe only those wolves that have superior bloodlines (like Jacob who by his birthright should be the Chief of the tribe) with feel the pull of their destined mates to allow their actions to be guided to them. The others may feel some compulsion, but only when their imprint-mates are close by (I include Sam in this because he just happened to see Emily when she was visiting Leah – I do not recall him doing anything special to seek her out).
He didn't, no. You could only say that he fell for Leah because she would lead him to Emily – but since he fell in love with Leah in High School (before becoming a werewolf, I believe) and the entire reservation seems pretty close, I don't really think it makes a difference whether or not Sam did something to seek out Emily. I don't think he did – therefore, he must have been just a lucky boy (except he had to break the heart of someone he held very dear, ofcourse).
This new theory is interesting – and I might just agree. If those with superior bloodline feel the pull that every werewolf feels the strongest and it just degreeses from there on, that would explain both why mainly people high in the tribe have imprinted (Jacob, Sam & Quill), but also way for instance Jared imprinted; it is in his nature to do so, but the pull his weaker and therefore he needed a bit of luck as well to imprint. Jacob, as born leader, would have the strongest pull. No matter which of the 3 old wolves is the father of Sam, it is clear that one out of three is, making him one of the highest as well – his pull is much weaker, but may have drawn him to Emily in a way he didn't even notice – the same goes for Quill & Jared.
I'm quite pleased with this theory, really ^^ This way it somehow makes more sense to me. I still don't líke it, but at least it's rationalized xD
If I were going to postulate an answer as to why Jared imprinted, it would be that he imprinted on Jacob's sister, who is not a wolf, but still carries the very prominent genes through their family line. Since imprinting seems to be a very complicated process capable of securing fates beyond belief, I suppose it could happen that by mating with Jacob's sister, Jared is guaranteed to have a male son who could end up with the same bull headed features of the family, and could perhaps one day stop a huge war from breaking out, much as Jake has done in this book.
Totally agree! So many people say that Jacob imprinting with Nessie is “oogie”. But IMHO, if you are going to by into Stephenie Meyer's Twilight World, you have to do it completely. If SM says that imprinting is not an “oogie” thing, everyone should accept it as she means it to be. Just like you said,
“He'll be what she needs at the time, be it big brother, best friend, or boyfriend. It's a pretty cool thing.”
That is exactly how SM means and portrays it, so that is how we should all see it also. If we are willing to accept “sparkly and vegetarian vampires”, we should accept imprinting, as it is meant to be, and not assume that it is something “weird” or “oogie”.
Jake has NOTHING but Reneesme's best interest at heart. As twilightguy says, if he didn't Edward would have already killed him!
He doesn't think Nessie is “all his”, he just wants to make sure that Bella, as a new vampire, will not hurt her.
He only has Nessie's well being at heart.
YES! I want a Jake and Nessie book!
That is a good point to make. What would vampire Bella have done with a human baby?
Sorry, I was wrong about the name of the boy than. The Jared thing, I agree on that. But there was someone where there was nó drama – the only one. He imprinted on Kim, a girl from his class and I can't remember his bloody name. And searching for it in the books, I don't really feel like doing that right now, at 3.00 AM.
It is not an actually “choice” for the wolves. It has nothing to do with “thinking before”. It just happens.
The way imprinting works has nothing to do with the imprintee's age. Whenever the wolf sees the imprint for the first time (after he/she transforms for the 1st time), the imprinting occurs. It doesn't matter if they are 19 (Emily), 2 years old (Claire) or a newborn (Reneesme).
From the moment the wolf sees his imprint, he will be whatever she NEEDS him to be. Once the imprintee reaches a certain age, that usually turns into their soulmate in ALL ways, but it doesn't always work that way. If the imprintee just wants them in their lives as a best friend/brother forever, that is what the wolf will be. Period.
She reaches full growth at age 7, so Jake doesn't have to wait for very long for her to be his complete partner.
Your right though, luckily Jake will be the same age as long as he continues to phase.
If Bella and Jacob got together, theres nothing stopping him from going off and imprinting on someone else.
Jacob is immature, arrogant and dangerous.
He kept pushing Bella to choose him, and not to mention forcing her to kiss him.
He even threatened to kill himself just to get a kiss out of Bella.
He doesn't care what she wants. He only cares about what he wants, and what HE thinks is best for her.
Edward is loving, protective, understanding and sweet. He'd rather protect her from the bad things, then flat out tell her. To me, that's whats more important. She knows Edward inside and out. She truely loves Edward, and thats all that matters. She doesn't love Jacob in that way. It's always been Edward. And I'm sure if Edward was standing infront of you, all you'd think about was his looks.
Edward has made mistakes, and so has Jacob. Jacobs mistakes may be small compared to what Edward has done, but I feel they've had more impact on her. Sure, Edward left. But he returned and made up for it. He did his best to get along with Jacob. Jacob didn't try to like Edward, even though what he was doing was hurting Bella, and again, he didn't care. Jacob needed to accept the fact that Bella loves Edward, and will always love Edward. Jake needed to back off.
And again, blackmailing an engaged woman to kiss him? That just plain wrong, on so many levels.
Jakes just a kid, that needs to grow up before he starts relationships with people.
I think it IS fair to keep Jacob away from Nessie while Bella gets used to HER DAUGHTER.
I understand that people wanted Jacob and Leah to be together. But Jacob and Nessie are soulmates, just like Bella and Edward are. They belong together, just like Bella and Edward do. That is what SM was planning from the beginning, and after all, the Twilight World is her world.
It is a difficult concept to get a handle on, if you put it in terms of our real world. But in the Twilight World and for SM who created that world, it makes perfect sense.
But I agree, it is very likely to cause some angst between Jacob/Nessie/Bella/Edward in the future. However, I think it would make an excellent book, so many different themes and situations that SM could put them in!
You have to remember that Stephenie Meyer is a Jacob lover, too!
She loves Jacob and Edward both!
Jacob is NOT a creeper. He does NOT have sexual feeling for Nessie, and will NOT have them, unless she has them for him first, when she is full grown! He will be whatever she needs him to be!
And your reasoning on the age thing is double sided. If you apply that to all of the characters, like you apply it to Jacob, then Edward is oogie, too. After all, he and Bella fell in love when she was 17 and he was 107!! Their age difference is MUCH huger than Jacob's and Nessie.
Bella could NEVER kill Jacob. They are closer than best friends and brother/sister.
Sorry, but we have to go by what Stephenie Meyer wrote and created. She says Jake imprinted, so he imprinted. PERIOD. He is no longer “hung up on Bell” at all. He loves her like a favorite, dear sister, the way they were meant to be. He did NOT “settle for seconds” with Reneesme. She is his soulmate.
As much as Edward and Bella must be together as soulmates, so must Jake and Nessie.
Love it… Full Circle… Beautiful.
Great response!
At first, that is probably true. But what he says at the end of the book to Jacob, regarding his relationship with him, is sooo touching. I just love it. One of my favorite lines in the book.
Nope, so sorry, you're right. Jared imprints on Kim, the girl he met at school. Paul is the name of the chip thieving idiot marrying Jacob's sister.
I guess the reason is because she just happened to go to his school, so “finding her” wasn't difficult. Maybe her parents chose to move to the reservation right after they found out they were going to have a baby because imprint fate destined it to be that easy so she and Jared could have a baby that will save the world! LoL
Stephenie has said she always knew it was going to be this way. Some writer's have a picture of the end of the story in their head and then write toward it, but I can see how that transition is a bit bumpy.
The weirdest part for me was not that Jacob has imprinted on a baby but that it entirely changed the reasons for his feelings in the other books. We (and he too) thought it was Bella he was in love with but it was Renesmee. m
I like that Nessie will have a protector. He is really devoted to her.
Paul imprinted on Jacob's sister. I forgot about Paul and Jacob's sister…she would have an excellent bloodline (e.g. Jacob's). However having Paul as a brother would suck.
The idea of the imprinting being so powerful that it was like love for Jacob and Bella is a fascinating concept for me.
I think if they would have been in a world without magic, they would have been great for each other. They would have had a loving, caring relationship. Both of them realize this in Eclipse.
So, I feel that the feeling they had for each other was real, but the magic changed it. I think it was Destiny (or in other words SM!) that they all must eventually be in each others lives in some way. Edward must be with Bella. Jacob must be with Nessie. Jacob must be in Bella's life in some way. Imprinting is the way that SM can bring this all together. Perfect is the word.
And yes, Nessie is so important to the Saga.
Love your response. The example of the little girl next door is great.
I totally agree with you. People who are so against Jake imprinting on Nessie I feel wanted to see Jake in a romantic relationship (which would have been quite awesome), and were disappointed when he wasn't.
Most of them wanted a Leah/Jake pairing, which would have been nice in a way, but it would have put him out of Bella's life. And he and Bella were MEANT to be together in some way. Not necessarily as a love pairing, but definitely in some way. That is the way SM created it. It is HER story. We have to accept it as her creation.
I would have been very sad if Jacob and Bella had said goodbye to each other forever.
If you truly see how the imprinting works, you would see that Jake will be WHATEVER Nessie needs him to be, whenever she needs him to be it. If she never “falls in love with him” that is O.K.
Sure, that would be awfully sad for Jacob, because that would mean he would never be in a love relationship, which would be very sad, but for Nessie, it is not icky at all. She would be under no pressure to feel guilty whatsoever. Jake will only want what makes HER happy.
I do agree that it would be awkward for Nessie to find out that her mom and Jacob had feelings for each other, but there are many awkward situations in the Saga already, which is partly what makes it interesting.
Feel the same!
Ah – I don't remember what he says to Jacob – but I'm starting to read Breaking Dawn for my 2nd time around through the series so I'll wait and see. 🙂
First of all, Jacob does NOT have homicidal tendencies. If ANYONE has homicidal tendencies it is the VAMPIRES. Jacob only wants to protect human beings FROM vampires. That is the only reason he is ever violent. He is a PROTECTOR.
And about Jake coming around and that being his fault why he imprinted, did you ever think that the reason WHY he was coming around Bella during her pregnancy was that she had ALREADY imprinted on the baby before she was ever born? Once Reneesme was born, his feelings for Bella completely changed to a brotherly love, so it's obvious that the reason he kept coming around and that Bella kept WANTING him around is that Jake and Nessie had already imprinted.
And what's all this stuff about wanting Jacob to be gay?! We really should have more respect for Stephenie Meyer's characters. She loves them all.
Yes, I had read that Stephenie had always knew what was going to happen but I still feel like its forced… I don't know…
I didn't hate the book like so meny people but it is definetly my least favorite of the four. Though to be honest I liked The Host more (I can see hordes of fangirls coming out to get me…)
There is a much smaller age difference between Jacob and Renesmee than between Edward and Bella. Is that relationship also creepy?
You make some excellent points. I also understand your reason to vent! This subject is one of my pet peeves regarding the Saga. I just have to defend Jake. Stephenie Meyer feels EXACTLY the same way about defending Jake. She has often felt hurt by people being ugly about him. She loves both Edward and Jacob. So do I.
Only thing I would add is this. I hated seeing all three of the characters suffer. I felt so bad for all of them. But I REALLY felt bad for Jacob, because I knew and he knew it was a lost cause. The only thing that makes it bearable is that Bella and Edward give Jake his reason for living too.
Bella and Edward MUST be together and Jacob and Nessie must ALSO be together.
Bella and Jacob must also continue to be a part of each others lives. Their relationship is too important for them to say goodbye forever. SM did a fantastic job of bringing everything full circle.
Good points.
Dude, he was gonna MURDER Renesmee untill he saw her and imprinted. That's 'so not' homicidal.
ONCE RENESMEE WAS BORN. Not before! If you do recall, he was still extremely protective and jealous of Bella, like that time he found Seth with his arm around Bella. Yeah, he was totally concerned about the kid at that point. He hated Renesmee before she was born.
Are you honestly saying that if Meyer loved her characters, she wouldn't make them gay? I don't think you seem to realize how hurtful that is to people. Its discrimination, and honestly, you're insulting way more people then you think. Every one in ten people, loves, knows, or works with someone who is gay. Every one time out of ten you make an homophobic comment, you're insulting someone who cares for an LGBT. Think about that.
I really don't think it was forced. SM was planning it for a long time.
And she wanted Bella to be happy. She would have had something missing in her life without Jake and Charlie.
I don't blame SM for allowing Bella this, I wanted it too.
Me too!
So true!
But that is what SM was planning all along. It is her Twilight World after all.
I 100% totally feel the same. I LOVE Jacob Black. It really bothers me when people talk bad about him. So much so that I constantly find myself defending him. I just can't help myself. (as you can obviously see on all my response posts on here!) I have to try and get people to see Jake as he really is and how SM really portrays him. She loves him, too!
Jacob is hilarious, loyal, caring, and gorgeous!
So true. Edward and Bella must be together and Jacob must suffer, because that brings him HIS soulmate. Whether it be romantic or not, Jake is there for Nessie however she needs him t obe.
It was cool the way SM explained it all with Quil and Claire. The beach scene with Claire is adorable.
I don't look at it as “the egg”, but the soul that was waiting to be born throught that “egg”.