Look, Bella, it's a worm!

(I love the concept with the Pack, too, but it's different in that they are all roughly the same age and grew up in the same place.)

But I find that sometimes people take the family thing too literally for my tastes. And again: write and read what you like! I'm just saying that for me part of the appeal is that it's not any easy 1 to 1 comparison to a nuclear family. In my head, Esme and Carlisle might have parental roles, but they aren't like . . . grounding anyone, or making them do their homework, because their "kids" are immortal vampires and not actual teenagers.

I also think the fact that they were all raised by someone else to adulthood or nearly adulthood is a factor, too. I can go hang out with my parents and brothers as an adult and fall into some childhood patterns, but the Cullens don't have that, at least not in the human sense. Esme didn't teach Edward how to tie his shoes. Carlisle didn't teach Alice the alphabet. They weren't involved in their childhoods. They were 17-20 years old when they came into Esme and Carlisle's lives; adoption is absolutely a valid way to have a family, but Esme and Carlisle never experienced raising a baby or child. The dynamic would naturally be very different here.

(I guess you could argue that from a vampire perspective they raised 'newborns' but like, Esme came after Edward, and Alice and Jasper were already mature vampires when they showed up.)

Reminder that the Quileute tribe, whose sacred stories made author Stephanie Meyer a multi-millionaire, never received any money from the enormous success of the Twilight books or films.

Their entire community is located in a Tsunami disaster zone, in a region where a world-changing earthquake and tsunami are expected to hit perhaps within our lifetimes.

They should be set for life financially based on the use of their stories in Twilight. Instead, they have to publicly raise funds to move to higher ground and have been raising the same funds for years.

Anyone is encouraged to donate, but if you have personally purchased a physical or digital copy of any Twilight media or Twilight merchandise, I recommend matching the purchase with an equal donation to the Quileute People.

Recently, they successfully moved their school to higher ground! It was a major accomplishment to ensure Quileute children can learn in a safe environment! But there is still much to be done .

Statement from the Tribe (link to the source):

“Living in a tsunami zone at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, a catastrophic earthquake can wipe out our community in less than 10 minutes – an entire generation of the Quileute people will cease to exist.”

You can even set up a monthly donation. I don’t have much, but I’ve had a small monthly donation coming out of my PayPal for a few years now.

Many people don’t realize that the tribe didn’t profit off of Twilight, so I mention it whenever I bring up the series!

The Quileute Tribe has been fundraising to save its community for years. Let’s make this happen!

Once again, if you purchase any Twilight media or merchandise—even from independent fanartists—please match with a donation to the Quileute people!

this is that vampire song right?

Yeah. And I don't think it adds anything? There's no narrative reason he has to be in school. Just say he's a few years older than the others, or he goes to a charter school because reasons, or he's homeschooled or whatever.

I mean I generally find the idea of them going to high school at all pretty ridiculous. It could work, maybe, if their cover story weren't so laughably weird (our 20-something parents adopted teenagers barely younger than they are! and they take us out of school on sunny days to go camping!), they weren't all publicly dating their foster siblings/legal cousins, and if they put a bit more effort into actually blending in. Also if they seemed to get anything out of it? They all seem to hate it. They don't seem to be enjoying being around their physical-age peers, or learning new slang, or keeping up with pop culture or whatever other excuse. It's just so Edward can meet Bella in school.

But Jasper is the one for whom it's the MOST ridiculous. He's the one who was leading the most adult life before he even became a vampire, and then AS a vampire was living as the second in command in a vicious vampire army for 90 years or so . . . and now he sits in high school classes? He does group projects? Writes papers on The Great Gatsby?

Edward, Rosalie and Emmett were immediately taken in by Esme and Carlisle, they went from living with their human parents to living with Dr. and Mrs. Cullen; they've been frozen in that teenage/young adult phase of their lives the whole time, so it makes a little more sense in my head for them to go to high school (although at 20 and 6'5" Emmett is too old and too big, like . . . trying to pass him off as a sophomore or whatever just, again, seems counterintuitive to BLENDING IN), but Jasper makes zero sense. He's not in that headspace. He hasn't been since the 1860s. And THAT's not even getting into his control issues. Again, maybe if the high school thing were presented as a way for them to help them get used to being around human blood with their siblings around to monitor and support them or whatever, but even then seems like a big risk.

I think SM would answer this with "he does it for Alice" but like . . . does Alice even want to be in school? She's was on her own for awhile before meeting up with Jasper and the Cullens, too. Like Jasper, she wasn't introduced to vampirism with 'parents' there to look after and provide her like Ed, R and Em were.

But Jasper does not belong in high school even a little bit, and he can be a big boy and not be at Alice’s side every second, dear god. It’s not like he and Alice have the same attached-at-the-hip thing that Emmett and Rosalie do, you know? It’s portrayed that way in the movie for every single couple (insert the sassiest eyeroll) but in the books? Not really.

Poor Sam phased and is out there in the woods too freaked out to calm down and take human form for two weeks. The guide says that he thought he had gone insane and was suffering from delusions. But even if he eventually realized it was all real, how do you cope with suddenly finding yourself in the body of a giant wolf? He probably thought he was going to be stuck like that forever, that his mother and Leah must be so worried about him. There is no one else to help him.

Then he comes back and can't explain where he was, is terrified it will happen again, doesn't understand what happened . . . until he shakes hands with Old Quil and he recognizes the elevated body temperature. He is summoned to a council meeting. Old Quil, Harry, and Billy explain, but having never been wolves themselves, there are a lot of gaps in their knowledge.

Having an explanation helps, but it's still scary and lonely, and now there's the added layer of knowing you're supposed to protect your people from vampires, and oh, by the way, the new doctor the next town over and his family are vampires. And this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't shown up in the first place.

But . . . the life she is choosing is vampirism. It's not about whether she's going to college or not, getting married or not, having children or not. She's actively choosing to become a supernatural creature whose intended prey is human beings. Sure, she ends up being instantly amazing at NOT killing people, but she had no way to know that. Statistically, the odds were not in her favor. This choice she is making was potentially putting humans at risk for eternity. That, to my mind, removes it from being a morally neutral decision about living the best life for herself.

Even the narrative itself doesn't give a whole lot of weight to the morality/ethics of making this choice. It's much more about the things Bella will give up (most of which she doesn't even end up having to give up, although she didn't know that), and a little about how upset it would make Charlie for her to disappear. Bella approaches the idea that she might kill people with humor, ("I guess I could throw in a few extra homicides, if it makes Jasper happy. Why not?" and "does this screw my total?") which could very well be a coping mechanism. But you never really feel the WEIGHT of it; it's like since SM knew Bella was going to be a perfect vampire it wasn't really worth wringing one's hands about. Even Edward is more worried about Bella's soul and whether she will be unhappy as a vampire like Rosalie, and not like, "what if you become a ravenous killing machine?" And maybe it wouldn't matter that much if Bella were presented as something other than this uncommonly selfless and Good person, but since she is, you'd think "oh God what if I accidentally murder Charlie or Mike or Jessica?" would keep her up at night. But she just trusts that Edward/the Cullens will stop her from eating people and that's kind of the end of it.

okay, I'm doing it and remember, this ain't about Bella! It's about YOU! Which wolfpack lover would you pick to live out happily ever after with.