#but the bedward endgame was absolutely no secret

[cto10121]

Yeah, no.

There is a reason why all those examples I listed in my first reblog was from Bella’s reaction to Edward from before she knew he was a vampire or anything, OP. Homegirl was lowkey hungering from the get-go.

So Meyer makes it clear that it’s not just Edward’s vampirism or vampirism by itself that is a draw for Bella. For one thing, none of the other Cullens or even rogue vampires affect her in that way at all. She is able to admire their beauty and their grace and their scent to a certain extent—objectively speaking she knows Rosalie and later Chelsea is probably the most gorgeous of them all. But she is not tongue-tied into incoherency when faced with them. She does not go into long-winded or consistent descriptions of their beauty, either physical or personality-wise. She isn’t affected in that way, for instance, when she has to wear Esme’s clothing—meanwhile she behaves like a puppy dog with Edward’s jacket. And while Carlisle gets a flattering description, nothing he does is ever tinged with that same level of interest. She is even less impressed with the nomad/non-vegetarian vampires even when they are beautiful and graceful and charming (her eagerness for vampiric life, it seems, is contingent on a vegetarian diet). If the vampires have mental powers, she is immune to them.

Edward, though, does make her flustered and swoony and dazzled (notice how she doesn’t describe any vampire as having a dazzling effect on her) even late in the series. It’s his beauty that makes her go into consistent poetic raves as she does for no other vampire. Because Edward affects her not as a vampire, but as an erotic love interest. As a woman is affected by a man.

Jacob, though, did not affect her on that deep level. Bella’s love for Jacob is written as lesser and conditional than her love for Edward. I’ve always thought it very…interesting how easily Bella accepted Edward as a vampire and yet when it came to Jacob’s lycanthropy, she could barely stomach it. As in, full on fear mode. She is consistently more frightened of the wolves than of the vampires until Eclipse when she realizes oh! They are just overgrown puppy dogs, huh? Yeah, no duh, Bella.

That’s because Jacob for her did not affect her in this otherworldly (cougheroticcough) way. Her love for Jacob was essentially a bromance forged at a time when Bella was extremely vulnerable. As in, completely heartbroken. I feel reading New Moon must be very hard for Jacob lovers at some level (I am only a mild Jacob liker, but even so ouch) because of how Bella seems to view Jacob as an emotional crutch at times. He is her distraction and the means to an end: Hearing Edward’s voice. In Eclipse, part of her felt guilty for ditching him—hence her attempts to see him and make it right even when Jacob angered her with his persistence.

I like Jacob fine. But he is very clearly written to be the Rosaline of the series. He is the lesser, conditional love to a grand, operatic main love of the series. If Bella had met Jacob before Edward, no doubt she would have been with Jacob. (I think that Eclipse quote Bella was thinking of how her love life would be if Edward didn’t exist as opposed to life with human!Edward vs. human!Jacob). But as soon as Edward comes around—human or not—Bella would run straight for Edward (eventually—no doubt she would do a whole how-can-I-do-this-to-poor-Jacob mental dance-angst). She would have been KO’d. No contest.

So no, I think even a human Edward would have exerted that same fascination. Bella has her own classist prejudices too, don’t forget—her agony and frustration of being stuck in small town Forks over cosmopolitan Phoenix make that lowkey clear. Edward would have still stuck out like a sore thumb in Forks and would have been different for Bella—and not solely because of his wealth.

At worst, theirs would be a Pride and Prejudice-type of romance in a human AU. Mr. Darcy dismissed Elizabeth very offhand too—“She is tolerable, but not enough to tempt me.” And yet he was the first to really fall hard and fast almost from that comment. Edward is definitely written to be of that exact same mold—as soon as he returned from Alaska he began to notice her and notice her obsessively. He’s KO’d when she wears a simple blue blouse, for God’s sake. And Edward and Bella are even more written to be mutually attracted to each other than Darcy/Elizabeth.

Also. I know sexual tension and chemistry is very subjective. But I personally feel Jacob and Bella’s chemistry is more bromance chemistry if anything else. Bella and Edward’s UST in the meadow scene alone could power a supernova.

If Edward & Jacob were human, Bella would’ve chosen Jacob. No questions asked. This is canon. She wouldn’t have had to even choose between them because Edward wouldn’t have even caught her eye. This is why people are team Jacob, for those of you still confused.

[cto10121]

Hiii

What does it mean when they say "Netflix is gonna promote S&B like Twilight" ??? I'm have no idea.

Oh, anon. Anon, anon, anon. I’m sorry that I, of all people, must soil that blissful innocence, pop your cherry. Act as your Darkling and guide you to a higher if sadder state of consciousness and more worldly connaissance. I hope you’re ready for some fandom history, nonny.

In the original Twilight, our everyday heroine Bella falls into absolute fascination with the mysterious Edward Cullen, a beautiful, shameless cuttease whose dark secret is that he is a vampire who thirsts for Bella’s blood against his better nature, and that is enough of a barrier to the lovers’ consummation. (Think of that juicy, R&J-inspired forbidden love). When Edward leaves, Bella reunites with local friend Jacob Black, who undergoes a drastic change and becomes a werewolf in New Moon. When Bella saves Edward at the end of New Moon (long story), he returns and thereafter in Eclipse begins a cold war between him and Jacob, who is an official romantic rival for Bella’s affections. Bella steadfastly refuses to be a bauble in this macho if very comic tug-a-war, (her father Charlie is completely biased towards Jacob and it’s hilarious) and sticks with her Edward, even though she eventually does see Jacob as a viable option. And thus the infamous Team Edward and Team Jacob shipping wars of the aughts began and raged until Breaking Dawn came out and perhaps beyond. Who should Bella choose? Who is better for Bella? Whom does Bella like best? Who is hotter, period? The marketing team played both sides, of course.

So once again we have a not-quite love triangle with an obvious endgame ship versus a beloved fan favorite ship, only I will avow that the Team Jacob shippers were never a majority in the fandom as the Darklinas were, more like an intense vocal minority. Bedward had always been still the popular ship, a rarity for a canon ship among fandom. Even the film adaptations, flawed as they were, had Kristen Stewart (Bella) with more chemistry with Robert Pattinson (Edward) than Taylor Lautner (Jacob), which isn’t saying much imo. With Darklina vis-à-vis Malina, the disparity is even starker.

In any case, nowadays corporations have finally clued into the power of fan culture and fandom in ways they didn’t in the aughts, so people speculate they may play up the ship wars and romantic speculation à la Twilight. The likeness of the contested ships is admittedly uncanny—though unlike Bardugo, Meyer did have a very strong endgame ship, and even those that didn’t like it or accept it had trouble accepting Bella/Jacob anyway.