#bogusavathepit

The former, we see Edward do it in Midnight Sun.

He's on his date with Bella in the meadow and trying so hard to focus on something other than the blood, so he starts focusing on the bugs around him. He counts the amount of living insects in the area, and, using that number, he tries to calculate how many are in the area in total.

It's clear he isn't constantly aware of how many insects are in the area, he has to choose to focus on that.

1. The reasons why Aro and Cauis put the wives in the tower were to make sure that they are used against them and if, in the event that they are killed, Aro and Cauis will not become like Marcus—emotionally and psychologically debilitated, correct? Now, because I like living, I would be glad something like the Volturi exists if Twilight vamps existed and that Aro’s game plan is to keep the secret for the sake of both vampire and human peace (even if it is arguably more for the sake of vampires’). I see Aro’s perception of Marcus’ state as more horrified and repulsed than concern for what is means for the greater good. It seemed to have left a strong enough mark on him to merit putting his wife and Athenodora in their tower in the first place, and I see this as an overreaction. Aro’s response was more emotion-driven than logical-again a response to seeing Marcus so…that. If Aro truly wanted to protect Sulpicia for her own sake and placed her safety as priority, I see just creating more buff vampires and placing them around her as she moves about—both as defense and possible diversions for her to vampirically run away—as sufficient. And If Didyme died before Chelsea, Jane, Alec, and Renata joined, Aro still could have placed those buff vamps until he had such players in his arsenal or just left them there for even more protection. Now I think you imply that the wives choose to stay and I’m inclined to agree because by all right they can just punch their way out. However, even if the wives were already more inclined to just dress pretty and walk high around Volterra with Corin at their heels, I remain suspicious of how exactly Aro convinced both women that being so “high” all the time without knowing or contemplating the possible long-term or short-term effects beforehand. Then, until I see stronger canon displays of how Corin’s power works, I feel forced to see that the long term effect of being exposed to her leave you unable to form decisions like you would be able to without her influence, or make you feel that what would/could have bothered you before seems not worth approaching. Then we don’t know enough about these women and how they lived before the Volturi and their rise. Was/Is just Athenodora just tired of having to fight vampires, is she as nervous as Victoria but less inclined to physically confront, or was she just as horrified for Cauis’ safety after that werewolf incident that she’d wholeheartedly just accept that there might be consequences but at least she’s finally safe? Was/Is Sulpicia (and Athenodora) more concerned with comfort and saftey without getting into more arguments or conflicts with their husbands? If Corin’s gift is so potent, then it seems very convienient for Aro to continue to keep them up there for his own assurance that their deaths won’t affect him.

2. And since I agree that Sulpicia must be someone who’d never think or desire Aro’s power for herself (LandD be damned), I don’t think that having her not drugged up and walking around would compromise his own position. Didyme, you seem to argue in a different post, was technically a threat to the endgame since Marcus’ gift was and is very useful to Aro and she wanted to go away with him, but Sulpicia is as tied to Aro as he is to her. She’d never leave him and he picked her for a very good reason. Which is part of my next point.

3. I know that you do not subscribe to soulmates in fiction as a principle nor mates in Twilight for its ties to that soulmate trope. However, when we read Twilight, we see that—other than oneself, mates are ususally the one person that a vampire cannot properly function without, or if that person above any other person in a vampire’s life were to be killed or disappear, that vampire would never recover. Even if it was a matter of stubbornness. We see that Aro at least acknowledges that a mate’s death speaks to their priority in a Vampire’s psychological health when he sees Marcus and decides to seclude the wives. He seems to acknowledge Sulpicia as his most important person, or if he rationally doesn’t he irrationally doesn’t want the irrational to risk his own debilitation. Thus the overreaction. While Carlisle appears to be his best friend, he was willing to let Carlisle die for the endgame and it doesn’t look like he’d be similarly debilitated by Carlisle’s death, even if it was by his own indirect work. Secondly, Carlisle has a much different position than Sulpicia. Sulpicia has been with Aro almost since the beginning. After the years, they’d be more of a unit—or publically seen as one—way before Aro met Carlisle. Sulplicia comes with Aro, Athenodora comes with Cauis—like I said above, neither women seem to feel a motivation to leave the men neither before nor after Corin. They have developed a life that is attached to Aro/Cauis and their ambitions.

However, Carlisle is an independent subject in the sense that he has his own vampire life, ambitions, desires, hopes, etc. and is as by himself as the random nomadic vampire living in Turkey by the time he meets and lives with the Volturi. Even though his diet places him as the weirdo. I surmise that if Aro ever entertained the idea of locking Carlisle up, he wouldn’t have felt it benefited him. Carlisle is a lot more devoted to his “no-eat-human” value that he is to Aro, and if Aro were to try to trap him and force him to feed on a human, it wouldn’t work because Carlisle would rather starve as he has before. We also see in canon that when Aro tried to entice Carlisle with a bloody body, Carlisle didn't succcumb. If he added imprisonment to that, I imagine that Carlisle would try to convince Aro to let him free, give up after a certain point or after some argument and just look away in disappointment. Both that and the starving wouldn’t appeal to Aro—why would he want to reduce Carlisle to that, especially when it is Carlisle’s character and confidence that Aro treasures? Aro had to let Carlisle go but he doesn’t have to let Sulplicia go, and even if Aro decided that he wanted Carlisle, he’d have to face the both the inconvenience and PR of having a barely controlled, starving, unwilling vampire in his midst. A visiting vampire who may hear, smell, see Carlisle wouldn’t feel that great about the implications of how Aro leads and uses his power and if they don’t they may question why the Volturi doesn’t just kill them. Rumors spread, yada yada. And in the face of all of that Aro would have had to let Carlisle go both to keep him as a friend and to maintain his image, which is all fine to me. I guess you could argue that Aro is able to keep Carl properly hidden away especially when Carl’s self control hits a point where he has to stay immobile to not attack a human, thus allowing Aro to physically move him somewhere….because Carlisle just seems to be the sort of person to sacrifice his independence to allow one human to live. Or that Aro would assure everyone that Carlisle has gone mad by his diet. But again, he wouldn’t want to see a starved, insane Carlisle. He likes him too much. It is just that I don’t think we can assume that Sulplica has similar benefits or the same position as Carlisle for us to assume that the implications will apply for her and Athenodora.

People, including vampires, generally don’t want to get involved or get caught getting interested in the inner dynamics of a romantic couple or “family” unit. Plus, even if neither applied, Athenodora neither Sulplicia are not not canonically active in vampire politics, deciding things for example. Maybe they give their two cents here and there, but there is no indication that the public has seen them or heard of them doing so. These women do not act out a political role other than being the wife of their leader. I can see that most vampires don’t give much thought to them due to their inactivity and near invisibility because it doesn’t affect them personally either implicitly, explicitly or directly. However, what happens to Carlisle is more likely to raise questions. Therefore, what happens with the wives (the good, the bad, the possibly ugly) isn’t likely to get out and cause bad PR and could be written off as either non of someone’s business or incidental. Then there is the fact that, again, Sulp/Athen are recognized as the official romantic partners of the leaders. Carlisle is a nobody, so Aro being so “crazy” about his wife makes more sense than does him insisting on Carlisl’s imprisonment—once again, if he is so dangerous why not just kill him? If Aro were to argue for Carlisle’s imprisonment by saying his diet made him mad, then wouldn’t there be a protest or claim that he could easily get rid of Carlisle by killing him? In that narrative, Carlisle was a danger to the secret and was a whack job. He deserved to get punished, or if not exactly deserved then he was a serious liability. Yet Aro insists on keeping this freaky nobody around? There might be some questioning Aro’s devotion to his own goal or his rationality. So Carlisle can and must go, even if Aro had an impulsive moment of thought.

Carlisle is just outside of Aro’s intimate authority and control than Sulplicia is due to their different type of connections to Aro.

4. I for one feel neutral towards Aro. He serves a purpose—I don’t want to die a horrendous death nor see my loved ones or really anyone else I am around die like that. He reads to me as interesting but also having the weakness that many vampires in the series has, which is that fear of being weak and/or locking power. Which I’d say is an exacerbated hangover from being human (humans don’t like being emotionally vulnerable) coupled with being so used to being the apex predator. Aro is very used to having the upper hand on others, and it doesn’t make him the Devil Incarnate. It just make him a person who likes and is used to having peak intimate and socio-political power. His weakness is his desire, which is power. Cauis is similar, if we were to look back to how he remained affected by the close call with the werewolf.

Chelsea, Demetrius, Corin, and Jane and Alec weren’t recruited for the sole purpose of keeping the wives in their tower. They are all much too useful and valuable, with their gifts being applicable to every imagined need that Aro has. Which is why I wonder why Aro couldn’t have used a rotating guard of super buff men like Felix and Santiago to be around the wives around the clock. Maybe the wives refused, but again, we don’t have canon proof of that nor an indication. I’d have to make a lot of assumptions first. Which can be fun, but I like to cover my bases first. As much as I can anyway.

I do agree that Aro acts graciously at times when he didn’t need to and that he, like Carlisle, is very devoted to his endgame. For me, the problem is that I can’t quite tell who these women are for myself and how they came to be as they are. It is all a little too easy and tied up for me.

I also agree that the interpretation could go either way amongst us interpreters. It isn’t as if Meyer will come out to answer all of my questions and since this is a fictional situation the questions won’t be answered satisfactorily (in a sense) without her input for me.

This was fun.

I forgot to add I further get that ”the argument can go both ways” deal. I think as much in my considerations of Bella’s sexuality. Wait, that’s another thing that I disagree on. Well we got two, folks.

(bogusavathepit is referring to this post.)

All good and interesting points. Glad we agree to disagree.

Then James would have continued the hunt. Victoria's death would only have made it better, as it would have made it much harder for him. He now has no allies, while the Cullens can focus on him. With the stakes now that much harder, James now has the hunt of life.

The hunt likely goes on for longer, ending only when James either wins, loses, or Bella gets turned.

Huh, interesting.

For the wives, there are a few factors at play that make me optimistic they're fine:

The reason they were placed in the tower in the first place no longer applies The wives were sequestered up there after Didyme's death, for safekeeping. With Renata's inclusion into the guard, and the twins should Renata be busy, the wives could leave the tower and even Volterra itself without concern for their wellbeing. What does Aro gain from keeping them there?

Sulpicia is highly unlikely to be someone Aro needs to keep out of his way or neutralized If it was Claire Underwood up there I'd understand Aro wanting to keep her out of commission, as it is I strongly doubt Sulpicia is that. Aro chose a woman who'd make him the perfect wife, which makes her likely to be loyal and unambitious. In other words, not a threat.

Carlisle was able to leave Even if one doesn't subscribe to Aro being in love with him, it's still pretty clear that Aro is fond of him and considers him his close, if only, friend. It would have been very doable for Aro to keep Carlisle from leaving, and yet he never did. Which has hopeful implications for the wives.

I have a high opinion Aro Wouldn't get me far in court, but goddamnit I think the guy demonstrates a great capacity for personal integrity and graciousness over the course of canon. His acts of villainy are never without reason, and while the legitimacy of said reasoning is up for debate he sticks to a pattern where maintaining power and enforcing the law are his end motives. I don't see how imprisoning two women is in his interest.

There's opposing arguments, the big one being that if the wives are there unwillingly then there's not a lot they can do about it. There's Corin and Chelsea making the prospect of leaving an unappealing one, and should they decide to escape there would be Aro knowing about it and Demetri being able to find them should they somehow succeed.

However, Aro did not recruit these people for that purpose (well, maybe Corin, but he uses her on everyone, himself included), so while he could use these gifts to that end that's the same as saying Carlisle is surveilling the Cullens' psychological states because he happens to have Alice, Edward, and Jasper in the family.