roarollymay

right listen listen listen

this started as a rapid text chain to my poor friend @stregoni-benefici at five to one in the morning but have I got a THEORY for YA’LL

Carlisle Cullen’s power is more than just super self control.

Carlisle gets turned into his worst nightmare, adamantly refuses to become that monster. What does he do? he resists his natural instincts and creates a whole new way of life/type of vampire

He is alone for 250 years, crippling loneliness ok? what’s the one thing that he longs for that entire time. more than anything else in the world. The precise words used in canon. ‘someone to truly know and understand him’. What’s the one thing that Edward’s power allows him to do almost instantly?

there’s more. After Edward, Carlisle was happy with the companionship he now had with Edward, what’s the one thing he still yearned for? pretty convenient that he just happens to create a vampire who’s power is super love and compassion

I can keep going. Finding Rosalie, his exact thought process (as terrible as it is) is that ‘Edward could see her the way he sees Esme’ and Rosalie then becomes the most beautiful vampire in canon. When Rose later brings him Emmett, bleeding out and on the brink of death, the one thing he hopes is that ‘he’s strong enough to survive’

Every single vampire that Carlisle has created has benefited him and catered to the exact needs he has at that point. 

And to cover the Eleazar shaped gap in this theory I would like to remind you of Siobhan. Throughout the entirety of BD, Carlisle is convinced that she has some weird influence type power, and its heavily hinted that he’s right, but her gift is so subtle that Eleazar can’t detect it. If Carlisle does have this power, Eleazar would probably have the same issues

Carlisle Cullen’s ability is creating exactly what he needs at that exact point in time

Woke up this afternoon violently angry that twilight didn't end with Edward cooking Bella dinner at her fucking house on prom night. Like, Smeyer WROTE that ending. She WROTE an outtake ending where Edward respects Bella's preferences and puts in effort to learn a new skill for her. Not just any skill, but the thing SHE'S good at, the thing everyone (but him, of course) frequently overlooks her for. It would add meaning to the "in her element making cheerios" quote from Midnight Sun. It would make the Tyler taking her to prom thing more fun when my dude KNOCKS ON THE FRONT DOOR. It would even make the Jacob thing more logical. And it would be romantic, ACTUALLY romantic. They could have the discussion about Edward changing her in Charlie's little candle lit kitchen, a place previously marked by its emptiness, a place of past love and loneliness made warm again by Edward's love for her RATHER than in the GODDAMN PARKING LOT of FORKS HIGH SCHOOL.

Fuck you, Stephanie.

Guys Im at work and very tired™️ so punch me if I'm being Loud and Stupid but...

Rosalie as an Indian woman?

HI SO UH MY HAND SLIPPED >>;;;;;;;

BEAUTIFUL

The thing I keep coming back to is that if the universe were just vampirism should be easier for those who did not choose it and HARDER for those who did. I think that’s what bugs me so much about Bella’s instant, easy acclimation to vampirism in BD. The morality of CHOSING and WANTING to become a creature that kills for blood is so different than having it done TO you, either by accident (Carlisle), for a specific purpose (Jasper), or to save your life (everyone else). And yeah, I guess in the end it was to save her life, and I sort of get the idea that she knew what was coming so that might have made it easier, but it still feels morally weird to me that Bella gets to be off the hook when it was what she wanted.

Everyone else had to struggle so much with it in various ways, and it was nothing they asked for.  Bella DID ask for it and didn’t have to struggle with it at all after literally the first day and that just feels so … unbalanced? 

I guess life isn’t fair and fiction doesn’t have to be, either, but I always feel weirdly resentful on the Cullens’ behalf that they have to watch Bella just be like “wow I’m so good at this?!?!” when that was … not their experience at all. 

I cannot agree more and still in my mind I cannot get rid of the suspicion, that Bella was so “good” purely stems from the fact that Bella is the fictional self-insert Stephenie Meyer. 

I would have loved a blood thirsty Bella. It would have made Edwards struggles much more credible as well.

Like if they had to move. Bella never gets to see Charlie again. On the night before they leave she stands outside their home and she sees him and sue and she misses him but even being outside the house is overwhelming for her and she can hear his heartbeat and all she wants is to literally murder her dad.

A moment between Edward and Bella where she apologizes to him. She thanks him for trying to protect her from that. She of course doesn’t regret it and she’s still happy she gets to have this life forever yadayada but she finally understands why he was so hesitant.

A moment with Rose that has similar tones but she asks her for help because she’s like how the FUCK have you never killed anyone I don’t know if I can do this. And so Rose has a monologue moment and it’s beautiful and heart breaking at the same time.

I think Bella becoming a vampire should have had more of an impact on the story (and I don’t mean the plot with the volturi, but more like how we see the other characters). I think it should have shifted the dynamic between her and her new family (the cullens). Before she was the “prey”, she was vulnerable and delicate and human. Jasper had almost killed her, James had almost killed her, Victoria had almost killed her, the Volturi had almost killed her. The Cullens had, for so long, seen her as a person to protect and now she was almost invincible. 

This should have had more of an effect on her relationships. I wish we had seen her and Jasper bonding over how difficult the blood lust is. the cullens move to a new place and only Bella and Jasper don’t start fresh at the new school, it’s too hard for them and so they develop a friendship around that. Being a vampire would bring her more to “their level” where she doesn’t need to be looked after or protected. They should have seen her as more of an equal, and that should have been reflected in the books. 

I want to see Edward being fine leaving her alone for a period of time because she’s strong and capable and can survive plane crashes now. I want to see Esme and her go hunting together, and her finally understanding the primal, animalistic side of her new mother. 

I want the Cullens to go from gods to monsters, but in the most intimate way. I want group hunting expeditions and body cover-ups when Bella accidenatlly kills yet another person. I want her to see Emmett in his true, scary vampire form with her new eyes and think “was he always this scary”

we missed out on so much and it haunts me

Are you really…. not supposed to…. describe what your characters are wearing….

I think there’s a great deal of misinformation on this topic.

I believe it’s fine to describe what your characters are wearing. However, like all things, it should serve some kind of purpose.

For instance, describing winter clothes helps impart to the reader a sense of how cold it is. Describing summer clothes helps explain how warm it is.

Describing an outfit before a social event gives a window onto the character’s sense of fashion, or explains their reverence (or lack) for the event; for example a character can wear a black suit to a funeral, or watch from a distance while wearing a t-shirt and jeans. These impart a different attitude.

An outfit may be described purely to give a little more interest to a character; to give the reader a bit more insight into who they are, through the way they present themselves. It may have no greater significance to the wider story but this is still a reason to do it.

So the “purpose” doesn’t need to be super-vital to the story. It can be just because “describing this to the reader helps them appreciate the character or scene”, but that’s still a purpose.

I like that last comment because I think it can apply to a lot of things in storytelling! Anything that shows some element of your character has a purpose to the story even if it doesn’t exactly advance the plot.

I think too there’s also the matter of how it’s described.

“I was wearing a purple hoodie, black skinny jeans, and checkered converse.”

 vs 

“I wiped my palms on the thighs of my jeans. Black was the best color for when you’re going grave robbing – the dirt and blood didn’t stand out as much. Sadie flung the shovel back with a little more force than was necessary, flinging hunks of dirt onto my shoes. I paid 85$ for these limited edition checkered converse, and while perhaps I shouldn’t have been wearing them to grave rob, I didn’t have anything else. I pulled Abby’s shirt out of the pocket of my hoodie, running my fingers over the fabric. It was covered in purple lint from my jacket, but she wouldn’t care anyways. She was dead”

Treat the clothes as an aspect of the character and the situation. The first one is just information about one thing thrown at the reader, whereas you get the same information in the second, but you’re also presented with a situation, thoughts behind the dress choice for the situation, and a reaction from the reader (why is the character going grave robbing? Who is Sadie? How did Abby die?). You get so much more out of your story and your character.

Reblogging this again for @endymions ’s addition.