Reading Breaking Dawn: Chapter 22 (Promised)

The song for this chapter is Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

It is easy to forget that Bella hasn’t been given much chance to hold her own child, because her thirst seems to have consumed the past two chapters so much that it’s almost like she didn’t even have a daughter at all. Usually one would at least expect Bella to demand to see her baby for a little more than the few seconds she had, especially considering the devotion she showed to the baby all through the pregnancy. This whole thirst for blood thing is far too distracting.

I don’t even know what I would do if my child’s preferred diet consisted entirely of blood. I mean, this is somewhat understandable if the only baby food available was something like

but when you change this to

I’m not exactly sure how well the general public would react. Especially if Renee decides to babysit for an hour or two, and little Renesmee gets hungry.

I want to let out a great sigh of ‘FINALLY” when Bella realizes that her relationship with Jacob has changed. Before this moment, it was obvious she loved him. It was impossible for her to let him go, even to let him out of her sight. Even after she married Edward there was a piece of her that was still with Jacob, this little part of her that meant she could never fully be Edward’s because she still had feelings for someone else. If she loved Jacob, then fine: go with Jacob - but don’t keep both of them hanging on to you. Now, however, things are suddenly how they should be:

“…I noticed that the strange need I’d felt for him before I’d changed was completely gone. He was just my friend, the way it was supposed to be.”

It reminds me of the earliest times she had with Jacob, in New Moon: those times where they were just having fun as friends, even though it was obvious that Jacob had always wanted more than that. Now, it is such a sudden change of heart that the conspiracy theorist within me wonders of Jacob is actually sincere in how he is acting. He has flipped over like a card on a windy day. We have Edward standing there, hold Bella right in front of him, and he doesn’t so much as react in the slightest, besides laugh a bit. It’s all almost too good to be true, how things between Bella and Jacob might actually, finally, be working out. It’s like he really just wants to be friends now. If this goes on, even I wouldn’t have a problem with Jacob sticking around Bella.

I like it that Renesmee has this power of communication, as odd as it may be for a baby to actually have these powers. It’s very different than usual, because vampires’ powers were supposed to be a glorification of some ability they had before they transformed. If Renesmee was born half-vampire, her powers aren’t really something from who she was before, because she never was someone before. It’s really impossible then to know what to expect from her, because she is essentially one of the first (if not the first) of her kind.

A lot of people made comments on my post for Chapter 18 which went something along the lines of:

“KALEB YOU IDIOT. HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE END OF THIS CHAPTER. IT IS SO OBVIOUS.”

To which I replied:

“SHEESH I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. BUT I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW BECAUSE I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN SPOILERED!”

even though it is oh-so-obvious what happened then, especially considering all the talk of ‘imprinting’ and Jacob’s sudden and unexpected change of heart at the end of that chapter. Now, it’s even more obvious, because suddenly JACOB of all people is trying to protect little Renesmee, when not so long ago he wanted nothing more than to kill the baby so that Bella wouldn’t hurt anymore. What happened?!?!

Yes, I know.

I don’t know exactly how to react to this news, and I quite honestly haven’t known what I would write when this chapter finally came. I’ve known for quite a while that Jacob imprints on Bella’s daughter (how can I not know, it’s on every forum and chatroom I visit). So I will give my commentary in the following format by displaying my play-by-play reaction to Bella and Jacob’s confrontation:

“You didn’t,” I snarled at him. OH NO YOU DIDN’T, JACOB BLACK!

“You know it’s not something I can control.” UH-HUH.

“You stupid mutt! How could you? My baby!” PUNCH HIM BELLA! DO IT!

“It wasn’t my idea, Bella!” UH-HUH, RIGHT IT WASN’T.

“How dare you imprint on my baby? Have you lost your mind?” A WELL DESERVED QUESTION, JACOB.

“It was involuntary!” … SAVE IT FOR THE JUDGE.

And that was my reaction. Both of them have reasonable points (Bella’s obviously more reasonable than Jacob’s). I don’t really know what to say, honestly. I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of a teenager who loved Bella to change suddenly into loving her toddler daughter. It just seems icky - but this is when the situation is given only a cursory glance. The ickyness is made less with Jacob’s point: would Edward have let him live that long if he had anything other than safe and good intentions? Edward can read all of his thoughts, so despite what any other human or vampire there thinks, Edward would really know what Jacob is thinking. I know that this is an understandably large dividing point in the Twilight fandom, but if we can accept that Edward is a vampire, and accept that Jacob is a werewolf, and that Renesmee is half vampire, can we not also accept the fact that Jacob imprinted on a baby?

Still, I obviously don’t blame Bella at all for lunging at Jacob’s throat at the end of this chapter. Oh I do hope he doesn’t get hurt too badly!

Question For The Comments: Do you think it was alright for Jacob to imprint on Renesmee?

–NOTES–

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