Do you think based on what is written not how SMeyer means for it to come across that any of the Cullens could/ would ever end up in some kind of situation where a mate is injured & then that leads other family members to fight?Like Jacob suggesting Rosalie be turned into a pretzel in BD to terminate Renesmee?I ask because it is written that they are very much predators & all that really remains is the human look to an extent.I mean how many predators can really coexist easily?I hope this makes
I think it depends. I think there's sort of a continuum of human-ness.IMO Carlisle is the most human of the Cullens, and Jasper is the least. At this point, I don't think Carlisle is ruled by vampire instincts hardly at all. I mean in the books, even Jacob is impressed by how human he seems. The kids at school subconsciously shy away from the Cullen kids, but no one at the hospital is afraid of Carlisle--everyone loves him and he has a 'wonderfully soothing bedside manner.' He sets humans at ease (WITHOUT a power) rather than frightens them. He's one of the only Cullens who doesn't ever growl or hiss or anything in the books. He's got it all under control.  Now, I think this is something he has WORKED AT for over 300 years. Newborn Carlisle would have hissed and snarled and flipped out like any other vampire, but I think at this point he has actively worked to overcome it so I don't think he would flip out and react "like a vampire" if anything happened to Esme. He'd react like a human. Jasper's the opposite extreme. He would absolutely flip out and go on some rampage if anything happened to Alice, no doubt. It's like SM said: there's no limit to what he would destroy for Alice. Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle, but I think they all tend more toward 'vampire' than 'human.' I think even Esme would have an instinctive vampire reaction to something happening to Carlisle (or any of the kids, really).  But they're a) all a lot younger than him and b) obviously not as concerned with being an active part of the human world as Carlisle is. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't find the angry grr feral vampire freak outs the least bit sexy. The idea that Jasper would destroy whatever for Alice is not romantic, it's frightening. But yeah, I think most of them are still young enough vampires that they are still kind of aggressive/predatory and there could be situations where they would fight. Edward was prepared to fight Jasper to save human Bella in Twi/Midnight Sun. Supposedly the animal blood makes them less feral and snarly, but that whole thing didn't really bear out in BD when there were plenty of perfectly civil human-blood drinkers. Why didn't THEY all get into some fights? They didn't even have Jasper around to emotionally manipulate them into being calm!
