Breaking Dawn: Chapter 4 - Gesture
Jan. 31st, 2010 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelda_queenZeldaQueen: Quick question before we start, about how long is this chapter?
Projection Room Voices: Seventeen and half.
ZeldaQueen: About how long was the previous chapter?
Projection Room Voices: About eight and a third.
ZeldaQueen: Is there any reason why that chapter and this one had to be split up?
Projection Room Voices: Resuming Media in...
ZeldaQueen: Of course.
Projection Room Voices: 3...2...1...
Chapter 4 - Gesture
ZeldaQueen: When we last left ourheroes protagonists Edward and Bella, they had finally gotten married after three books worth of bitching and were schmoozing with guests before honeymoon in an unknown - but sure to be expensive - location, getting it on, and then having Bella be vamped up. As in being vampirized.
They congratulated by Seth and Bella notes that Seth's mother - Sue Clearwater - looks intense and uses words like "fierce" and "severe" to describe her appearance, comparing her looks to Leah's. Okay, okay, time out here. For those who don't know or who forgot (lucky you), in New Moon, we get the death of Harry Clearwater, Seth and Leah's father and Sue's husband. He dies of a heart attack, presumably from finding out that his son and daughter have turned into wolves. This means that Sue is a widow. Bella comments on her new hairstyle, described as "short, severe", says that it's a similar cut to Leah's, and also that it accents her face which was "thin and fierce" Leah, as has been commented on, is considered by almost all to be a shrewish harpy because her fiance left her for his soulmate (against his own will, I might add) and she's thought of as bitter because she hasn't gotten over it. Throughout the series, it seems that characters who are single or who break up are shown as being bitter, spiteful, nasty, harsh, or generally unhappy. The characters who are "good" (the Cullens, Bella, Renee, Angela and Ben, etc) are all paired up with a True Love of their own and are all lovey-dovey and happy. The only exception to this rule is pretty much Charlie, who is single and still pining away for Renee but obviously not angry or bitter. And this letter from the future which just shot at me has kindly informed me that this statement will be haunting me by the novel's end. Point right here? It basically feels like Meyer's stating that when a person is made single, they are severe and unapproachable and intense. Bella even speculates that "I wondered if she'd cut it the same way in a show of solidarity" That's right - apparently Sue didn't always keep her hair short and severe-looking. She only cut it that way after her husband died. She made herself all angry-looking after she was left single.
Well if Meyer's trying to say that (and it certainly looks like it), then she can bite me. Because trying that? Doesn't work. People break up and lose their spouses or boyfriends/girlfriends or significant others all of the time. In the case of Leah and Sue, it wasn't even their faults. Both women would probably give their left arms to have their lives with Sam and Harry respectively back. And instead of showing that people lose their significant others should try to seek support and move past it, Meyer seems to be saying that you aren't a good person if you aren't throwing yourself into the next relationship. Which is bull because a lot of times a new relationship is exactly what people don't need, especially when one considers how much stress dating and maintaining a relationship can be. There are a lot of people who think that a new boyfriend/girlfriend will solve their problems, but just get hurt even more. So in short, this has me very, very angry and I'm not one page into the chapter.
I'd best move on before I start screaming. We get more catching up on the previously established plot points, by mentioning how Billy Black is the descendant of a long line of magical chieftains, how Sam will take his place in that role since Jacob won't, and how the Cullens had promised never to bite a person in Forks as a part of their peace treaty with the Quileutes. Or something like that. If that's all there is then why not just bite Bella in another country? It's not like it's that hard for them to sneak off to Antarctica. Anyway, Bella gets all worried about what her being vampirized will do to the treaty and if the wolves will attack or be willing to make an exception, seeing as how Quileute and Cullen relationships had marginally improved as of late.
Oh, and when Bella is greeted by her friends from school? She takes time to note that it is nice that Jessica and Mike were holding hands and apparently back together. Yes, I know that plenty of people would feel good to see that and in any other circumstances I'd agree, but given my...previous rant *points upward*...I'm a little less inclined to ignore it.
Moving on, we are now introduced to the members of the Denali Clan, specifically Tanya. Who has strawberry blond hair. Huh. She lives in Alaska, has a Russian name, and has features that seem to be European. I'm...not too sure what to make of that. Anyway, Bella's self-esteem takes another nose dive (dang it girl, get some therapy!) and Tanya paws up Edward and talks about how the Cullens are finally paired up. *stares at point above* Y'don't say... She also expresses the hope that she and her sister Kate will be next. Kate basically says fat chance and I just know this is going to be coming around later.
Then we get them going through the cake (which Bella says is "too grand" for their group of family and friends), tossing the bouquet (Angela catches it, woo-hoo!), and Edward taking Alice's garter belt off of Bella with his teeth (hawt!) and tossing it at Mike's face (dude, dick move there! You're already married to Bella, leave the poor guy alone!) They then move on to dancing and Edward starts going on about how Mike is having "inappropriate" thoughts about Bella. Erm, it's called "hormones" Edward, teenagers tend to have them. He mentions that given how stunning Bella looks, he's not surprised and Bella insists that Edward's just biased. Edward responds by directing her to a mirror:
"I caught just a glimpse of Edward's reflection–a perfect duplicate of his perfect face–with a dark-haired beauty at his side. Her skin was cream and roses, her eyes were huge with excitement and framed with thick lashes. The narrow sheath of the shimmering white dress flared out subtly at the train almost like an inverted calla lily, cut so skillfully that her body looked elegant and graceful–while it was motionless, at least."
ZeldaQueen: Interesting...
"I was blown away. Was that me? My hair was tamed and made slick with a light gel, not that it needed it much, since it was always well behaved and straight. Now it had a bit of body to it as well. My eyebrows were tweased and darkened giving them an elegant and arched look. They decided to forego putting any color on my face, since I hardly needed it (thanks to being a Metamorph again) and just accentuated my cheekbones and eyelids. My lips were colored with a red metallic gloss; that was smearproof and lasted for about twelve hours."
~ Rose Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 22: The Yule Ball
“'I think so. How do I look?' Ariana asked nervously. She was wearing dress robes of a pale lavender, which made her hair and eyes seem even darker than they were. She’d asked Remus to buy them for her especially for the dance. They fit her perfectly. Her dark black hair had been curled even more than it naturally was, and fell lightly around her shoulders and down her back."
~ Ariana's Hidden Power, Chapter 12: Surprise Everyone
"The dress was the most beautiful and the most expensive I had ever seen. The King had spared no expense when he had it made. The top of the dress was a low "V" cut with lace that crisscrossed in front of my breasts to hold them up. And a feathery lace design lined the edges. Inter woven in the lace was an intricate design of pearls and at the very center was a gold Triforce design. The lace design "V at the waist and a different lace pattern started where the other left off. The other pattern was all of the Triforce design. Smaller gold Triforce symbols lined the bottom of the dress. The sleeves were a see through lace that ran from mid arm all the way down to my wrist and attached at my middle finger. My veil had a full pearl design at the front and small solid white Triforce designs lines the edges. After I was fully dressed all that was left to do was finish my hair.
Just then Princess Zelda said she was done with my hair. I walked over to a mirror to take a look. The sides of my hair were done into a halo braid. The back of my hair was done up into four smaller braids that looped up and attached to the back of f the halo braid. A silvery lace ran from the front of my hair to the back of my head and then around the four smaller braids. As I touched my hair with my hand I turned to look at Princess Zelda and smiled at her. 'Thank you soo much, I just love it.' I cooed as she smiled back."
~My Inner Life, The Wedding
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, it's basically like every other Mary Sue "beyond recognition makeovers". Whatever. But then Edward gets distracted because...Jacob's here! Bella is thrilled! "Now everyone I love is here!" she squeals. Edward excuses himself and Bella and Jacob have a dance. Bella yammers on about how she missed Jake and how glad she is that he's back and he talks about how weird it is to be a human again and then they start talking about her being Mrs. Cullens and then move on to the subject of her being vampirized and sleeping with Edward as a human. Jacob freaks out upon hearing this and starts shaking Bella hard enough to hurt her. Oy Meyer, there is something terribly wrong with your concept of "romantic"! Edward actually intervenes with Seth and they get Jake to let Bella go. Seth drags Jacob off while trying to calm him down (I do like Seth, he's rather funny in a cute way) and Edward helps Bella who is getting rather worked up also. She starts blaming herself for getting Jacob upset - seriously Bella, stop blaming yourself for everything! Not everything is your fault!
The two go back to dancing, where Emmett is cool and asks to have a chance with Bella since "This could be my last chance to make her blush" After enough dances, Bella is apparently able to forget about her concerns about Jacob (she must have the memory of a pigeon) and goes back to dance with Edward. And they have a slow and intense kiss. Jesus, even the romance plays out like a Mary Sue fanfiction! I'm getting flashbacks to Ariana Black here! Shades of Rose Potter too, except that they aren't screwing...yet (which is one of the few things in this series that I've been profoundly grateful for). Alice then shows up and is a total cock blocker and tells them that Bella needs to get changed so that they can make their flight. Apparently they're too busy kissing to care, but agree to break it up when she threatens to tell Bella where they'll be honeymooning. Alice drags Bella back to put her in her going away dress (wow, she really is like a female version of Edward - must be why there are so many Alice/Bella undertones here) and Bella starts to say her goodbyes to her parents. She actually gets pretty chocked up about leaving them and normally I'd actually think this was kind of sad (especially given Bella's track record), except that a note from the future has warned me otherwise.
She and Edward pile into their car - with tin cans and (brand new designer) shoes tied to the back - and Edward actually shields her from the rice as they get in. EDWARD! I KNOW YOU THINK VERY LITTLE OF BELLA'S DEFENSES, BUT EVEN SHE WILL NOT DIE FROM BEING PELTED WITH A FEW BITS OF RICE!!!
Anyway, they head off and Bella mentions the last thing she sees is her mother, Phil, and her father, standing together and watching her leave. She reflects on how that will be the last time she'll see them. And again - potentially pretty sad, except... *glances at letter from the future again*...yeah. Oh, and there's a "piercing, heartbreaking howling" from the forest, which Edward ignores and therefore Bella ignores it too. Oy.
ZeldaQueen: Will the Jacob/Bella/Edward love triangle ever get sorted out? Will Bella die on her honeymoon? Will we be so lucky? Will there actually be any conflict or plot any time soon? Tune in next chapter, when we find out!
Onward to: Chapter 5: Ise Esme
Back to: Chapter 3 - Big Day
Return to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Seventeen and half.
ZeldaQueen: About how long was the previous chapter?
Projection Room Voices: About eight and a third.
ZeldaQueen: Is there any reason why that chapter and this one had to be split up?
Projection Room Voices: Resuming Media in...
ZeldaQueen: Of course.
Projection Room Voices: 3...2...1...
Chapter 4 - Gesture
ZeldaQueen: When we last left our
They congratulated by Seth and Bella notes that Seth's mother - Sue Clearwater - looks intense and uses words like "fierce" and "severe" to describe her appearance, comparing her looks to Leah's. Okay, okay, time out here. For those who don't know or who forgot (lucky you), in New Moon, we get the death of Harry Clearwater, Seth and Leah's father and Sue's husband. He dies of a heart attack, presumably from finding out that his son and daughter have turned into wolves. This means that Sue is a widow. Bella comments on her new hairstyle, described as "short, severe", says that it's a similar cut to Leah's, and also that it accents her face which was "thin and fierce" Leah, as has been commented on, is considered by almost all to be a shrewish harpy because her fiance left her for his soulmate (against his own will, I might add) and she's thought of as bitter because she hasn't gotten over it. Throughout the series, it seems that characters who are single or who break up are shown as being bitter, spiteful, nasty, harsh, or generally unhappy. The characters who are "good" (the Cullens, Bella, Renee, Angela and Ben, etc) are all paired up with a True Love of their own and are all lovey-dovey and happy. The only exception to this rule is pretty much Charlie, who is single and still pining away for Renee but obviously not angry or bitter. And this letter from the future which just shot at me has kindly informed me that this statement will be haunting me by the novel's end. Point right here? It basically feels like Meyer's stating that when a person is made single, they are severe and unapproachable and intense. Bella even speculates that "I wondered if she'd cut it the same way in a show of solidarity" That's right - apparently Sue didn't always keep her hair short and severe-looking. She only cut it that way after her husband died. She made herself all angry-looking after she was left single.
Well if Meyer's trying to say that (and it certainly looks like it), then she can bite me. Because trying that? Doesn't work. People break up and lose their spouses or boyfriends/girlfriends or significant others all of the time. In the case of Leah and Sue, it wasn't even their faults. Both women would probably give their left arms to have their lives with Sam and Harry respectively back. And instead of showing that people lose their significant others should try to seek support and move past it, Meyer seems to be saying that you aren't a good person if you aren't throwing yourself into the next relationship. Which is bull because a lot of times a new relationship is exactly what people don't need, especially when one considers how much stress dating and maintaining a relationship can be. There are a lot of people who think that a new boyfriend/girlfriend will solve their problems, but just get hurt even more. So in short, this has me very, very angry and I'm not one page into the chapter.
I'd best move on before I start screaming. We get more catching up on the previously established plot points, by mentioning how Billy Black is the descendant of a long line of magical chieftains, how Sam will take his place in that role since Jacob won't, and how the Cullens had promised never to bite a person in Forks as a part of their peace treaty with the Quileutes. Or something like that. If that's all there is then why not just bite Bella in another country? It's not like it's that hard for them to sneak off to Antarctica. Anyway, Bella gets all worried about what her being vampirized will do to the treaty and if the wolves will attack or be willing to make an exception, seeing as how Quileute and Cullen relationships had marginally improved as of late.
Oh, and when Bella is greeted by her friends from school? She takes time to note that it is nice that Jessica and Mike were holding hands and apparently back together. Yes, I know that plenty of people would feel good to see that and in any other circumstances I'd agree, but given my...previous rant *points upward*...I'm a little less inclined to ignore it.
Moving on, we are now introduced to the members of the Denali Clan, specifically Tanya. Who has strawberry blond hair. Huh. She lives in Alaska, has a Russian name, and has features that seem to be European. I'm...not too sure what to make of that. Anyway, Bella's self-esteem takes another nose dive (dang it girl, get some therapy!) and Tanya paws up Edward and talks about how the Cullens are finally paired up. *stares at point above* Y'don't say... She also expresses the hope that she and her sister Kate will be next. Kate basically says fat chance and I just know this is going to be coming around later.
Then we get them going through the cake (which Bella says is "too grand" for their group of family and friends), tossing the bouquet (Angela catches it, woo-hoo!), and Edward taking Alice's garter belt off of Bella with his teeth (hawt!) and tossing it at Mike's face (dude, dick move there! You're already married to Bella, leave the poor guy alone!) They then move on to dancing and Edward starts going on about how Mike is having "inappropriate" thoughts about Bella. Erm, it's called "hormones" Edward, teenagers tend to have them. He mentions that given how stunning Bella looks, he's not surprised and Bella insists that Edward's just biased. Edward responds by directing her to a mirror:
"I caught just a glimpse of Edward's reflection–a perfect duplicate of his perfect face–with a dark-haired beauty at his side. Her skin was cream and roses, her eyes were huge with excitement and framed with thick lashes. The narrow sheath of the shimmering white dress flared out subtly at the train almost like an inverted calla lily, cut so skillfully that her body looked elegant and graceful–while it was motionless, at least."
ZeldaQueen: Interesting...
"I was blown away. Was that me? My hair was tamed and made slick with a light gel, not that it needed it much, since it was always well behaved and straight. Now it had a bit of body to it as well. My eyebrows were tweased and darkened giving them an elegant and arched look. They decided to forego putting any color on my face, since I hardly needed it (thanks to being a Metamorph again) and just accentuated my cheekbones and eyelids. My lips were colored with a red metallic gloss; that was smearproof and lasted for about twelve hours."
~ Rose Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 22: The Yule Ball
“'I think so. How do I look?' Ariana asked nervously. She was wearing dress robes of a pale lavender, which made her hair and eyes seem even darker than they were. She’d asked Remus to buy them for her especially for the dance. They fit her perfectly. Her dark black hair had been curled even more than it naturally was, and fell lightly around her shoulders and down her back."
~ Ariana's Hidden Power, Chapter 12: Surprise Everyone
"The dress was the most beautiful and the most expensive I had ever seen. The King had spared no expense when he had it made. The top of the dress was a low "V" cut with lace that crisscrossed in front of my breasts to hold them up. And a feathery lace design lined the edges. Inter woven in the lace was an intricate design of pearls and at the very center was a gold Triforce design. The lace design "V at the waist and a different lace pattern started where the other left off. The other pattern was all of the Triforce design. Smaller gold Triforce symbols lined the bottom of the dress. The sleeves were a see through lace that ran from mid arm all the way down to my wrist and attached at my middle finger. My veil had a full pearl design at the front and small solid white Triforce designs lines the edges. After I was fully dressed all that was left to do was finish my hair.
Just then Princess Zelda said she was done with my hair. I walked over to a mirror to take a look. The sides of my hair were done into a halo braid. The back of my hair was done up into four smaller braids that looped up and attached to the back of f the halo braid. A silvery lace ran from the front of my hair to the back of my head and then around the four smaller braids. As I touched my hair with my hand I turned to look at Princess Zelda and smiled at her. 'Thank you soo much, I just love it.' I cooed as she smiled back."
~My Inner Life, The Wedding
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, it's basically like every other Mary Sue "beyond recognition makeovers". Whatever. But then Edward gets distracted because...Jacob's here! Bella is thrilled! "Now everyone I love is here!" she squeals. Edward excuses himself and Bella and Jacob have a dance. Bella yammers on about how she missed Jake and how glad she is that he's back and he talks about how weird it is to be a human again and then they start talking about her being Mrs. Cullens and then move on to the subject of her being vampirized and sleeping with Edward as a human. Jacob freaks out upon hearing this and starts shaking Bella hard enough to hurt her. Oy Meyer, there is something terribly wrong with your concept of "romantic"! Edward actually intervenes with Seth and they get Jake to let Bella go. Seth drags Jacob off while trying to calm him down (I do like Seth, he's rather funny in a cute way) and Edward helps Bella who is getting rather worked up also. She starts blaming herself for getting Jacob upset - seriously Bella, stop blaming yourself for everything! Not everything is your fault!
The two go back to dancing, where Emmett is cool and asks to have a chance with Bella since "This could be my last chance to make her blush" After enough dances, Bella is apparently able to forget about her concerns about Jacob (she must have the memory of a pigeon) and goes back to dance with Edward. And they have a slow and intense kiss. Jesus, even the romance plays out like a Mary Sue fanfiction! I'm getting flashbacks to Ariana Black here! Shades of Rose Potter too, except that they aren't screwing...yet (which is one of the few things in this series that I've been profoundly grateful for). Alice then shows up and is a total cock blocker and tells them that Bella needs to get changed so that they can make their flight. Apparently they're too busy kissing to care, but agree to break it up when she threatens to tell Bella where they'll be honeymooning. Alice drags Bella back to put her in her going away dress (wow, she really is like a female version of Edward - must be why there are so many Alice/Bella undertones here) and Bella starts to say her goodbyes to her parents. She actually gets pretty chocked up about leaving them and normally I'd actually think this was kind of sad (especially given Bella's track record), except that a note from the future has warned me otherwise.
She and Edward pile into their car - with tin cans and (brand new designer) shoes tied to the back - and Edward actually shields her from the rice as they get in. EDWARD! I KNOW YOU THINK VERY LITTLE OF BELLA'S DEFENSES, BUT EVEN SHE WILL NOT DIE FROM BEING PELTED WITH A FEW BITS OF RICE!!!
Anyway, they head off and Bella mentions the last thing she sees is her mother, Phil, and her father, standing together and watching her leave. She reflects on how that will be the last time she'll see them. And again - potentially pretty sad, except... *glances at letter from the future again*...yeah. Oh, and there's a "piercing, heartbreaking howling" from the forest, which Edward ignores and therefore Bella ignores it too. Oy.
ZeldaQueen: Will the Jacob/Bella/Edward love triangle ever get sorted out? Will Bella die on her honeymoon? Will we be so lucky? Will there actually be any conflict or plot any time soon? Tune in next chapter, when we find out!
Onward to: Chapter 5: Ise Esme
Back to: Chapter 3 - Big Day
Return to: Table of Contents