I made another one
Bella’s Self-Control?
Just *how* impressive did you understand Bella’s self-control to be in Breaking Dawn? I’ve seen wildly different interpretations in fics, ranging from just being slightly better than most newborns, to her having Carlisle levels of self-control right away. How did you see it? Would she be able to handle a paper cut? Could she control herself around a bleeding human or if she met her ‘singer’? Could she have sex with a human or perform surgery? Is she better controlled than Jasper?
Selfish or Selfless?
Was Bella’s decision to continue her pregnancy a selfless decision in your mind, or a selfish one? Or a little of both? A mother risking her life to bring her baby into the world is selfless, certainly… but when you have no idea what kind of creature it is (other than it is craves human blood and is strong enough to break your bones), and a pack of werewolves are already intent on killing it and anyone who tries to protect it… is it worth risking all those OTHER lives to bring the unknown child into the world? Thoughts?
Why Bella?
What is it about Bella that makes everyone in these books so obsessed with her? Edward, Jacob, Mike Newton, Aro, James, Victoria… Aside from the obvious answer of “she’s the main character,” what is it about her? Are the other characters responding to her personality or looks? Her latent ‘born to be a vampire-ness,’ delicious blood and silent mind, or, conversely, her humanity? What do other characters see in her? What does she have to offer them?
Not trying to stir the anti-Bella/pro-Bella pot here, just curious how other people see it.
On the subject of children
“I can’t get enough of adoring my daughter,” Bella sighed contently as she sat down next to Esme and Carlisle on the white sofa. She then frowned, biting her lower lip. “I’m sorry you guys don’t get to know the feeling. I mean, Edward told me that you actually met when Esme was human. If you guys had gotten together then, you could have had a baby too.”
Carlisle and Esme exchanged an uncomfortable glance.
“Things happened the way they were meant to,” Esme offered.
“It’s just sad. I mean it wouldn’t have been possible for Rosalie and Emmett because she was a vampire first, but it could have been possible for you!”
At the start of “Breaking Dawn - Part 2,” Bella loves the vampire life and can’t stop talking about how much she enjoys her heightened senses and being awake all the time, kind of like the way people used to talk about cocaine in the ’70s.
“
| — | Mick LaSalle of SFGate |
…Once Bella becomes a vampire she loses her relatability. It’s subtle, but you no longer could do anything she could do and it really, as a narrator, she loses a lot of her appeal because she’s a vampire now and it’s really interesting to see how she does things but emotionally I felt like the tie was not as strong. I wanted my narrator for the next story… But Nessie was created because she was the logical voice, you have someone who’s half-human, half-vampire who doesn’t fit in anywhere and is an outsider in some ways, but then loved and cherished by her family.
“
| — |
Stephenie Meyer on why Renesmee would be a good narrator. (I personally do not agree with this. In fact, Nessie is easily the LEAST relatable character in the whole series for me. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t reach adulthood in seven years, walk and talk at a week old, read Tennyson as a baby, etc. At least the vampires USED to be human. Renesmee never was). |
Who is Bella closest to?
Who is BELLA closest to in the Cullen family? Rank them in order of the Cullen she is closest to/likes the most/whatever to the one she is the most distant with based on the books themselves (not anything SM has said in interviews).
No need to include Edward, just: Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper.
