Twilight re: racism and jacob slander.
Earlier I was scrolling on tiktok (ew.) And had the unfortunate experience of stumbling a slideshow discussing things left out of the films. Which itself isnt the problem i enjoy things like that as someone who is more a book fan rather than a movie fan.
The issue lies in how the discussion both on the slides and in the comments were handled. The slides REPEATEDLY talked about "good edward moments" left out of the movies which ok sure. The only slide about jacob was about the forceful kiss which I think everyone can agree was 100% wrong and jacob shouldnt have done that. It was assult.
However it went on to paint jacob as this dangerous character who never respected or cared about bella.. that she needed to be saved from (by edward.. a white man) and thats just not true. Jacob and the tribe mightve been the only person/people throughout the series to actually care, respect bella and see her as a person. The Cullens really dont see her as a person and more so a pet/object that belongs to edward. They (especially rosealie who is the only respectable cullen) find her to be a risk to keep around and an obstacle to overcome until she turns. Argue with the wall.
The caption goes on to say "read the books before telling me youre team jacob". I open the comments to find multiple people being outright racist to jacob and the tribe (which we'll get to.) And an insane amount of people saying that if you read the books youd know bella "never" loved jacob and if she did it was "pre phasing".
Ive read these books 100 times at this point. I wish I was joking. You genuinely have to be dumb or blindsided by your hate for jacob thats rooted in racism (which i plan on making a separate post abt making your only indigenous characters turn into animals with uncontrollable rage and then having them imprint on children and the connotations that creates) to not see that bella was/is in love with jacob both pre and post phasing.
From the very beginning jacob is this comforting presence in her life and she becomes very attached to him even from book one. In new moon after edward ABANDONS her IN THE WOODS who does she run to? Jake. His dream catcher helping the nightmares? When he starts pulling away from her she flips out and asks him to not break up with her regardless of the fact they arent dating.
In Eclipse after edward goes behind her back and tells jacob abt the engagement she literally realizes she has feelings for him and tells him to kiss her bc shes worried hes gonna get himself killed. Or her desperately needing to see him after the newborn fight? Why do you think the howl hurt her so much? She invisions herself growing old and having a life with him. Married with kids but she doesnt have feelings for him? Right.
The wedding?? Both in the book and in the movies she is the happiest she been all day on her WEDDING DAY once jacob is there. Even pregnant with rikitikitavi she desperately wants and needs jacob around. Even after shes turned their understanding and love for eachother is insane.
Which people like to say its because of him imprinting on ratsputin but thats not true and even if it was we know via sam and emily is imprinting doesnt erase the feelings you had prior it js overpowers them.
Which brings me to the imprinting of it all and people using that against jacob. Imprinting is INVOLUNTARY. Jacob repeated talks about how he hates it. How it makes them slaves to another person and how he hopes to never imprint. Jacob did not want to imprint on that baby. More so he was going to KILL ragnarock. Id also like to point out that before new moon and eclipse were even a thing and twilight was only going to be two books Stephanie STILL had jacob one of her only indigenous characters imprint on a baby.
He wasnt even a side character at that point. There was no love triangle and he was a plot device in that version and he STILL was made to imprint on a baby. Thats not in line with his character or a decision he wouldve made. That is literally all on Stephanie and her egregious writing.
Also jacob is a child he is 16 years old. Edward is 100+. He refers to both jacob and bella as children. There are two things jacob did that are "bad" one of which wasnt voluntary. Holding jacob a indigenous teen. A literal child to the standards yall do is crazy while simultaneously turning a blind eye and defending the sparkling, predatory white man.
I feel the need to remind everyone edward is abusive. Both in the books and the films. Mentally and physically. He abuses bella. He physically assults her and uses coercive control MANY times throughout the series. He goes as far to dismantle her car (to stop her from seeing jacob) and having his creepy sister KIDNAP bella to prevent her from doing something he doesnt want her to do but he knows she wants (seeing jacob). Hes racist towards the tribe the continuous calling the indigenous people "dogs" and "mutts" is gross and the whole cullen family does it.
Not to mention they come back to land theyre not wanted on knowing it causes harm and distress to the tribe. (Phasing). They steal, theyre in illegal business and they bring harm to everyone around them without regards to the consequences. Theyre freaks. And allowing edward to cosplay his fantasies on a 17 year old girl is weird. Hating a 16 year old boy is weird.
Yall excusing the cullens bad behavior and abuse and screaming "nuance" and "context" and "b-but they went through alot" while being able to dog pile and and not use that same line of thinking when applied to indigenous characters is appalling and why this fandom is so toxic and shitty.
Anyways if youve read all this thank you and thank you for listening to my rant. I hope yall have had a lovely day/night love yall - Nova 🎀
