Breaking Dawn: Chapter 31 - Talented

[zelda_queen]

ZeldaQueen: Third-to-last chapter! What've we got going?

Projection Room Voices: "Chapter thirty-one, in which Bella is Sued up even more".

ZeldaQueen: Right. Let's get through this.

Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...

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Chapter 31: Talented

ZeldaQueen: Once again, this does not seem promising.

Things kick off with the usual vampires-hate-werewolves routine. Tanya basically makes a brief swipe at Jacob, saying that he's brave but implying that he'll be shyte in battle. We also hear about Jacob looking at Renesmee with "longing" in his eyes and I want to gag.

Well, we've gone on for so long without extolling Bella's virtues, so Meyer apparently thought it was high time for some more. Elezar starts pacing and Bella says that "[h]is tempo was increasing". Tempo? Meyer, that doesn't mean what you think it does! Yes it means an increase in speed, but it usually refers to the speed of music, not walking! *is very annoyed as a violin player* Well anyway, he comments on how "talented" the family is, with "A mind reader for a father, a shield for a mother, and then whatever magic this extraordinary child has bewitched [them] with". Edward and Bella hear him use the word "shield" and are utterly confused about what he is talking about. Elezar says that he believes that Bella is a shield and that he can't be sure because she's blocking him. Bella still doesn't know what he's talking about and insists that she's not doing anything differently.

b['h nm b

Sorry about that, I was just hitting my head on my keyboard. Because Bella and Edward? They are dumb as bricks. We viewers who have higher IQs than kumquats already know what Elezar is talking about. Because we have had it beaten over our heads since book one that Bella has an uber-special "private" mind which some vampires can't use their powers on!!! They all know this. And then someone calls her a "shield" and they have no idea what this could be referring to? And didn't it at all occur to anyone before this that there's the possibility that Bella's mind-blocking could be her super-special vampire power? I mean, these people are willing to call good planning skills a super power, but not a mysterious mind power that blocks out very powerful vampire gifts. Right.

Elezar is forced to point out the obvious and asks how on Earth Edward could be so stupid as to not notice that he (Edward) can't read Bella's mind. Edward says that he couldn't even read Bella's mind when she was human and Elezar starts going off on how this power must be oh-so-powerful if it was so strong when she was a puny human. Once again, this shouldn't be such a surprise to Edward. He already knew that vampire powers could manifest in humans. He knew that Alice saw visions of the future as a human. Why is this so surprising with Bella? Oh wait, I know! Meyer is trying to build up suspense so that we'll all marvel and "ohh" and "ahh" over her stupid Sue with the brilliant and super-strong power.

And Bella is still a complete moron and doesn't know what is meant by her being a shield. *facepalm* Bella. Dear. Listen to me. You've known since the first book that Edward can't read your mind. You've known since the second book that Jane can't fry you and Aro can't get at your memories. You just spent the previous chapter reflecting on how some of the Volturi can't affect you and how to use that to your advantage. Now you are being told you have a shielding power and you don't know what it means? HOW STUPID ARE YOU????

Oh, and to further infuriate me, this entire "unconscious shield mind" thing reminds me of Rose Potter, when the Sorting Hat asks her to lower hers in the first fanfiction.

Bella explains to Elezar who can and can't affect her and he is properly awed and amazed. Edward is slapping his forehead, exclaiming how he can't believe he didn't think of this sooner - yeah Edward, I just ranted about it two paragraphs ago - and brings up a completely random Volturi member named Renata who is the only other shield he ever knew. Apparently Renata's power is a bit different - she actually performs a mind screw on anyone who tries to attack Aro, making the person forget why then want to attack and wander the other way. Personally, that sounds a bit more useful to me than Bella's power, but whatever. Bella's the head Sue here. Elezar just keeps heaping on the praise, going on about how no one could resist Jane and Alec's gifts before. Renesmee actually says to Bella, "Momma, you're special". *headdesk* MEYER, IF EVEN YOUR OWN CHARACTERS ARE POINTING OUT THE SUE-NESS OF YOUR AVATAR, YOU OUGHT TO TAKE A MESSAGE!!!

Kate meanwhile is curious as to whether or not Bella can "project" - that is, she wonders if Bella can use her mental shield to help protect other people. Great, I can't see this getting any more Sue-ish. Kate adds that Bella just might not be able to (ha, as if? A Sue? Unable to do something?) and we find out what Kate's power is - Taser touch. No, seriously. She also used to be able to only generate it in her palms, but now is able to make her entire body so that if someone touches it, they get electrocuted. That must make those sex times with the human men...awkward. Anyway, Bella takes an instant shine to the idea of being able to keep her precious Eddykins and Renesmee from being hurt every again and starts clinging to Kate, begging her to teach her (Bella) how to project her mindshield. We get mention of how Bella's shield protected her from being zapped which doesn't make sense, but I'll bring that up in a minute.

Meanwhile, Edward and Elezar start trying to figure out why the Volturi would all be coming for something which probably wouldn't normally warrant such theatrics. Elezar wigs out and gets all disillusioned and we learn that he just realized something horrible about the Volturi - every century or so, Aro would figure out a reason to destroy a coven and let only one vampire off the hook. It would then turn out that this vampire would have some great gift and join the Volturi. We also learn that there is a member of the Volturi guard named Chelsea who has the power to create or destroy the bonds between people. And the fact that I can't take the name "Chelsea" seriously (it was the name I always gave to my plastic Barbie horses), this is yet another stupid power which makes no sense. We were just told that no one was forced to join the Volturi and that it is usually considered a great honor to be let in. Yet here it is implied that these vampires are basically mind-raped into joining. Bella even figures that this explains why the guard obeyed their masters so readily, which she never understood before. I just... augh! And besides making no sense, this also reminds me of those stupid Death Eater-apologist fics like Child of Grace, which handwaves all of the terrible things done by the Death Eaters by saying "They were all forced, every single one of them".

Oh, and we get more True Love bull, with Elezar saying that his love for Carmen was enough that Chelsea couldn't keep him from leaving (once again - weren't the members allowed to leave when they wanted to? Using a power to influence someone's will doesn't sound like that). Elezar also says that abstaining from human blood makes vampires "more civilized". After reading Hyde's Midnight Sun recaps, I beg to differ.

So anyway, long story short is that the reason everyone in Volterra is coming to Forks is because Aro wants to come to get a vampire with a special power, like before. He's afraid to leave the "ancients" alone though, so he brings them along. Apparently it never occurred to him that this leaves his city empty and unprotected, so anyone who'd want to attack would be free to just wander in and take over. Also, why has it taken Elezar so long to realize this anyway? If it happened roughly every century, didn't he ever stop to think "Hmm, we just destroyed an entire coven for suspicious reasons again and only left one vampire alive, who conveniently has a uber-special power. How weird!"

Of course everyone goes back to thinking that this is why Alice ran off - because she probably foresaw Aro coming to get her and Chelsea breaking her loyalty to the Cullens. *rubs head* That...still doesn't make sense. From what we just heard, true love is stronger than Chelsea, so if they threatened Jasper then Alice shouldn't be mind-raped. And even ignoring that, Elezar has just said that he believes that Tanya's clan and the Cullen family had stronger bonds between each other and thus shouldn't be able to be separated. So how does that work???

Bella points out that Aro also wants Edward, but he replies that he isn't as desired and that Aro knows they can't force him to join. Elezar guesses that Aro will be interested in Bella because she's a Sue and everyone's interested in her he saw that she had such a powerful latent ability as a human and will want to see how it is as a vampire. Bella starts to freak out at this and thinks "If Aro wanted me to do something–anything–all he had to do was threaten Edward and I would comply". Yes Bella, we saw that back in Twilight, when you were an utter moron and gave in to Jame's threats rather than taking a few minutes to figure out a plan. Wasn't turning you into a vampire supposed to give you more options to be useful? Hmm?

Everyone agrees that the Volturi won't be attacking until they have some sort of a pretext and then Carmen starts in on the Volturi betraying the trust everyone puts in them. Once again, Meyer has continually built up the Volturi as this terrifying group that everyone wants to stay under the radar of. I've yet to hear of anyone trusting them or wanting their help. It appears that Meyer is trying to make them at least partially appear to be a sort of extremist police group recently showing evil intentions, but it just comes off as unbelievable. Meyer, if you want to characterize someone in a way to have a shocking reveal later, don't start to characterize them like that three chapters before the end of the final book!

Edward insists that the Volturi probably won't be attacking without a reason and everyone is unconvinced because they're evil darn it! Just at that moment, a shot rang out they hear a car pulling into the driveway. Bella assumes that it's Charlie, but Edward says that it's Peter and Charlotte. Wait, what? Weren't Peter and Charlotte nomadic? Which would mean that they wouldn't really have the money or information to even rent a car, let alone buy one. Why would they even need a car anyway? Don't the nomads just walk and run everywhere?

And with that, we are done.

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Onward to: Chapter 32: Company

Back to: Chapter 30: Irresistible

Return to: Table of Contents

Comments

[das-mervin.livejournal.com]

Two things.

1) The Chelsea thing is a good idea pissed away, actually. That's a creepy and extremely effective power--brainwashing you to do what they want, but in a way that makes it seem like you are the one who wants it? That's perfect loyalty, and much better than fear. But it's pissed away because Meyer tries to handwave it with, "But it won't work on us because we all love each other and don't eat people." So....why do we care about Chelsea if she doesn't work on that? Not to mention....DON'T SOME OF THE VOLTURI MEMBERS HAVE TRUE LOVES? THEN HOW DID SHE MANAGE TO BRAINWASH THEM? *hits head against a wall*

2) Um....I don't know if you're accurate about your chapter count. Aren't there...thirty-NINE chapters?

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

1.) According to Meyer, Chelsea used her gift to keep Marcus loyal to the Volturi, despite him still being in love with the murdered Didyme. So apparently the True Love thing only works if the True Love is alive?

And as for the Volturi members, Meyer just keeps flip-flopping. First we only are told how scary they are. Then we hear that they're all perfectly willing and pleased and can leave whenever we want. Now we hear that they've just been brainwashed into doing being loyal. It just...it's befuddling.

2.) Yes, you're right. ^^; I thought things were ending weirdly early. How the heck did I miss that many chapters? O_o Thanks!

[das-mervin.livejournal.com]

Not even that excuse works! Jane and Alec have their family bond as twins--yet they are just as devoted as the others!

Also, Marcus is three-thousand years old. Didyme was killed probably only 2500 years ago. But fortunately, Aro had CHELSEA to keep Marcus from killing himself! What? Didn't you know they had such modern names back then, and Jesus's unknown disciple Bob? *massive eyeroll*

[das-mervin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I just realized some other inconsistencies (surprise, surprise)--Eleazar was a member of the Volturi before he met Carmen, right? So....he was serving willingly? No brainwashing? Wow--he's really compassionate. Then he meets Carmen and falls in love and wants to leave.

MEYER, YOU HAD ARO MURDER HIS OWN SISTER TO KEEP THE ABSOLUTELY FUCKING USELESS MARCUS AROUND. BUT HE WON'T BOTHER KEEPING SOMEBODY WHO ACTUALLY HAS A DECENT ABILITY????!!!!!!

*SCREAMS*

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Apparently Eleazar was dumb as a brick, since he seemed to be completely oblivious to Aro's whole "kill people to get powerful vampires" thing. Now if Meyer was really good, she could have done something sinister, like making it that Eleazar was secretly being brainwashed and him falling in love broke that and made him wake up and think "WTF am I doing here?" That could also explain why Aro would let him leave - he'd be afraid that Eleazar would figure out about the brainwashing and the Volturi would lose their "good" reputation. But we don't really get any of that.

I don't think Meyer knew how to make Aro. In her backstory for Marcus, Aro, and Didyme, she said that a key part of his personality was that he was willing to destroy things he loved to get more power. But we never really see that though, especially towards the end of this book when he apparently has a LOT of powerful vampires he wants and is itching for a fight. I feel like Meyer tried to make herself an ersatz Dumbledore but got a stupid rip-off one instead, sort of like in "Titanic: The Animated Musical".

[das-mervin.livejournal.com]

No, we don't. As far as we know, there was no brainwashing done on Eleazar. Pfft. And that other point is precisely the problem--he is willing to kill his own sister to keep someone who has a really dumb ability, but he just lets someone else go who has one that is precisely what he needs and wants to acquire more powerful vampires. Why didn't he just kill Carmen and make himself another Marcus?!

Well, I've already done a huge rant on Aro's supposed want for power. Mainly, my question was WHAT POWER? Seriously. What power? What power is to be had in the vampire world in these books? What is he the ruler OF? I would be thrilled if you could answer this for me. I've been wanting to know for forever.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

If I can figure it out, I'll tell you. I doubt it's going to come up though. The Volturi just seem to pretty much be placeholders for Bad Guys, with little rhyme or reason.

[das-mervin.livejournal.com]

(I promise this is the last one, but you might want to point it out in your recap.)

Wait, what? Weren't Peter and Charlotte nomadic? Which would mean that they wouldn't really have the money or information to even rent a car, let alone buy one. Why would they even need a car anyway? Don't the nomads just walk and run everywhere?

For that matter, how did Carlisle manage to get vampires who were in EUROPE AND AFRICA over to Forks?

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

O_o Dude, you're right! I could kind of understand if he flew over and found them or something, but these vampires don't have fixed addresses. They just wander the area. I guess one could argue that they walked underwater to America like Alice and Jasper did, but seriously they did all of this in a day or two?

I'll point that out in the next chapter, when the other vampires start to show up. Thanks for pointing that out!

[shaolina.livejournal.com]

I liked the extra powers, which annoys me because they're dismissed as not as powerful. Way to kill the tension Meyer! Honestly, why should I care about the upcoming battle? It's not like anybody cares. Bella stressing alone doesn't cut it, especially because everyone else is chill and they've been vampires for longer.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

The extra powers could have been interesting, but it was way too much. We've already got vampires which are super-strong, super-fast, have heightened senses, have marble-like skin, and have venom-filled fangs. They don't really need extra powers along with that.

Now if Meyer were writing a Marvel-type book with an underground world of mutants, the powers might make a little more sense. As it is...

And I'd love to care about the upcoming battle, but we all know how *that* is going to turn out. =_=

[shaolina.livejournal.com]

I would have actually liked to see those powers in humans and have a human resistance of vampire. So while a vampire has super speed a human can control the speed of targets making the vampires go into matrix time. That way it would have made sense for vampires to want secrecy, they don't want beef with the humans.

And you know, I don't mind a book ending in a way other than a battle (Most of my stories are like that) but they have to make sense. The non battle feels like a cop-out instead of a real ending.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

...That's actually a really good idea. The vampires are...well vampires but the humans have superpowers.

"And you know, I don't mind a book ending in a way other than a battle (Most of my stories are like that) but they have to make sense. The non battle feels like a cop-out instead of a real ending."

Especially since Meyer does her dead herring thing. Seriously, we get chapter after chapter of "OMG, we're GONNA DIE!" and wishing each other goodbye and training and crying...and nothing happens. BLAH!

[kawaiicow.livejournal.com]

This chapter is dumb. All of it, every single paragraph you wrote about it. More Sue, more stupid, more convenience, more 'TWU WUV CONQUERS ALL'. Just...duuuuuuuuh.

So, now the Volturi are brainwashing members? First of all; I have no idea how Renata and Chelsea's (*snort*) powers are supposed to be so super and special if they have been almost instantly written off as "Don't worry, your lurve is tooo twoooo!". Secondly; the Catholics Volturi can only keep members if they are mind slaves? Is this the only way people join? *Hissssssssss*
Good God, the Volturi suck. This is all contrived suckage to make CONFLICT! and extoll non-existent virtues.

I think this may be a contender for the most tedious chapter to date.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Well to be fair, there's no mention of if Renata's power is stopped by love. Agreed on Chelsea though.

"Good God, the Volturi suck. This is all contrived suckage to make CONFLICT! and extoll non-existent virtues."

Word! After two books just harping on about how dangerous and evil they are, Meyer suddenly starts backpedaling about how they're not REALLY bad, just so that we can have the big "OMG, THEY'RE EVIL!" reveal. Which we've already had. And...that's it. Everyone just talks. She probably could have hooked this chapter with the one before it with no problem.

"I think this may be a contender for the most tedious chapter to date."

Well, it certainly is starting to challenge Jacob's chapters, yes.

Thanks for reading!

[southerngaelic.livejournal.com]

So....her Sue powers involve an extended mental shield to protect the sparklepires from Vole powers? Is that what I'm reading correctly?

Cos, I have these Holy weapons you see, and I don't give a fuck about her Sue abilities. A sword to the fucking spine still kills!

*STABS THEM ALL...except Emmett who is still Awesome*

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Well, there's some nonsense we get later about how the shield only protects her from *non*-physical powers, which is why Jasper can still affect her (his powers affect hormones and the like in her bloodstream. Doesn't explain how she's immune to Kate and Jane, since pain is caused by tripping synapses in the brain, but yeah).

So, long story short, your Holy weapons ought to work just fine. Have at them! ^_^

[southerngaelic.livejournal.com]

.....Geez, Meyer. You're telling me your sparklepires are that dependent on their powers? "Ooh no, the Sue is blocking my telewhatsits, let's just give up."

But hey. Works in my favour :D

*resumes stabbing*

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

Well Bella's reasoning (which is unusual somewhat good) was that the Volturi had gotten so dependent on their powers that they wouldn't be very good at actual physical combat, hence why she was begging for Edward to teach her (the idea being that while Jane tries to fry her mind or whatnot, she'd be able to smack her around). It's a decent concept which would actually make sense (especially since there's so much emphasis on how Aro loves special powers and goes out of his way to get them), and ideally it would be a halfway decent set-up for the Volturi to get a blow in a huge climactic fight - they put all of their time and energy into special powers and now that they've come across someone who can't be affected by them, they're more of sitting ducks.

This is all brought crashing down, of course, by the teensy fact that NOTHING FREAKING WELL COMES OF IT! Let's face it - we all know that there's no battle, no one does anything significant, and all Bella does is easily shield everyone while Jane spitefully tries to mindfry a few people for no reason.

Long story short? Stab away. *takes a swipe with Perseus's Medusa-slaying sword*

[torako-tiger.livejournal.com]

if you're going to argue that, it really blurs the line between "physical" and "mental" to the point where nothing really makes sense anymore. honestly, i don't have a problem with bella being immune to kate, since she's already been shown to be immune to jane, and kate's powers are basically the same as jane's, other than requiring physical contact (and she's been shown to be immune to "mental" powers that require physical contact, with aro). it's completely silly, but there's at least consistent internal logic there. it would actually make LESS sense if bella weren't immune, since that would suggest that kate is actually somehow conducting an electrical charge over her skin, which 1) is stupid and 2) would make everyone's reaction to benjamin very confusing.

[darkslover.livejournal.com]

I've given up trying to understand what the devil is going on with the Volturi. I'm just accepting that Meyer writes spasmodically about how strong/awesome/scary/evil they are and end of story.

I H.A.T.E. this chapter. When I saw Renesfail saying that Bella was "special" I screamed. Literally. This is too shameless in my eyes. I simply couldn't stomach it. I had a headache for hours after this chapter. And the fact that Bella bests other, much older and experienced vampires in her training in later chapters only adds to that. GRRRRR.

Regarding the mutant talk above... picture if the mutants (yes, like in in X-Men) were actually nature's weapons against vampires to fight equally for the sake of humanity. I mean, a deer has buckhorn, the rabbit speed, etc to avoid predators. It'd only make sense that the mutants existed for this, since humans seem defenseless against vampires the way SMeyer presented them. It would only explain a bit better the existence of the Quileute wolves, even. Add to that that any of these mutants could be turned into a vampire and you have the vampires with the gifts, like Edward and Alice.

Hmmm, so many ideas, so little time...

I cannot wish you good luck for the next chapters. I wouldn't wish them even for my worst enemy.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

"When I saw Renesfail saying that Bella was "special" I screamed. Literally. This is too shameless in my eyes."

I know. And later, we find out that Bella's power was all that they needed to freak out the Volturi. Because evidently there has NEVER in the history of vampirism any other sort of power that can block other powers. GOD MEYER, HOW DID YOU NEVER NOTICE HOW SUE-ISH BELLA IS? I know Meyer's read fanfiction, she ought to have been more familiar with it!

That mutant idea is really good! Someone ought to write down that story. It would make a lot more sense than this series. Like you said, it would at least explain why there is no human extinction

That's okay, I've got my pith helmet and popcorn, so I'm ready! :) Thanks for reading!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/When I saw Renesfail saying that Bella was "special" I screamed. Literally. This is too shameless in my eyes./

Sheesh, every time that anybody remarked on how "special" Bella or Nessie were, I mentally face-palmed and wondered if it was really happening. Every moment like that caused me to mentally cringe and think, "Is Meyer serious? Does she really have to have *this* character say how special Bella is or *that* character say that Nessie is amazing?" I just could not believe what I was reading.

[lurkythespork.livejournal.com]

You know, the concept of humans able to nullify vampire powers? Fascinating. You'd think there would be more of them.

Now, a story about a Volturi plot to find Nullifiers and vamp them so they can take power? Why couldn't we have had that instead of four books about how amazing Edward is?

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

And that would also explain why Aro's so paranoid about "collecting" vampires with potential. He doesn't want humans running around with the power to overthrow vampires, nor does he want any other vampires getting the idea to turn them, specifically to overthrow the Volturi. It would also give an actual reason to angst over being vampired - it would be really upsetting, in my opinion, to find out that you were more or less manipulated and forced to give up your humanity just because you had a power and were considered "dangerous" by other vampires.

This story must be written. O_O

[angel-renoir.livejournal.com]

THE HECK ARE THOSE POWERS?????? NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE!!!!

Okay, I know I'm only repeating what's already been said, but... it's just too much!!!!! YYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This is probably not the correct place to say this because it's an old topic, but.... You know the time when Bella is imagining holding mini-Edward with green eyes or whatever? For the longest time I've always had the impression that Edward had red hair, so when she said that thing about mini Edward, the only thing I could only imagine was Bella holding that fire-breathing creature in my icon and... well, I really don't know whether I should laugh or scream.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

XD Oh man, that would be hilarious. The only thing is that Edward has golden eyes. According to Meyer, animal blood-drinking vamps have that, and Bella goes on endlessly about his butterscotch/topaz eyes.

[angel-renoir.livejournal.com]

But I thought Bella was imagining the baby to be mini Edward with green eyes because as a human Ed had green eyes... Hence the flame-spewing guy in that icon.

[zelda-queen.livejournal.com]

You're probably right. I haven't read the book for months. ^^;