Tornado, it's not exactly that I'm contemplating that additional suffering (specifically) is required from either character. This is more of a story critique, where BD seems to veer off through this pregnancy plot. And actually that part isn't that bad, but there is this building tension that finally explodes in the middle of the book, and then everything is resolved so quickly. Little time is spent on what is gained and the meaning of it. I'm thinking of Edward here, and to some extent Charlie. Everything is wrapped up boom, boom, boom. Gifts are given to our characters, but we end up having to fill in too many of the blanks ourselves. Everyone is overjoyed at their Christmas presents, but then go off to their own room to play.
Know what I mean? Of course Edward is ecstatic, and of course he is overwhelmed by both Bella and Nessie. But we really didn't get to see that with Nessie, it's something we just have to assume. What is missing is being able to appreciate these gifts with them. A "suffering" arc tends to take care of that by itself. The "family" arc chosen by SM is more difficult and requires more effort and skill to convey that feeling of appreciation.
Ideally the "payoff" scenes for the characters should be our payoff too.
smitten_by_twilight wrote:I agree with you about the movie in many ways working better than the book - i think it is because (1) the book was never adequately edited (2) Steph said she could always see her story unfolding (3) by the time the book came out she was already learning about the moviemaking world, and would have been more visual.
Yeah. It was interesting how the movie was able to show the latent power of the original story through this relationship between Edward and Nessie, plinking away on a piano, and Edward thanking Carlisle for this "extraordinary life". And, of course, the action sequences at the end. I loved Bella just standing in her shield pose and emanating power to thwart Jane.
I've seen this critique several times about the editing of the story, and I'd have to agree. Slight changes can make big differences. The movie imprinting scene came off much better than the book without making huge changes (Jacob doesn't give the game away by possessively maintaining a hold on Nessie, for example). We are given little time and few scenes of real impact that allow us to appreciate what has happened. In this sense it is a little unfair to compare the actual story that needed some additional work with an imaginary story that never was. I'd like to think of the movie as the actual final edited version of the ending of BD.
BTW,
Smitten, I didn't mean to come off as denigrating Bella's path as being "easy". It's just that the final piece of the puzzle, her coming back to Edward without regret, is solely in her hands. She can see the end, whereas Edward has to put his faith and trust in Bella and then commit the act he cannot objectively conceive as being the right thing to do. This is what works best for me when looking at EC, that Bella finally does understand this about Edward. She would have to see it, otherwise she might gain a different view of Edward there at the end of EC if he had always been eager to change her. She knows it will work out and he is the right choice because, ironically, he doesn't want to do it.
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December, one thing I'm not sure about the Swoony story is how Bella was ultimately going to be changed. Edward is already planning to use morphine on her, so it would have been Bella saying "Do it", and then lights out until she feels the burn. Or, it may have been an emergency vampirization. Either way, I think the canon BD bite scenes and burning scenes are actually quite good. This was one benefit from having the Jacob POV there. You lose the "romantic" bite of faith and trust, but you gain a fantastic scene of Edward methodically working to save the life of Bella. I'm not going to say it was better, but I would definitely say that at least SM found the power within that particular scene.
I'm just wondering what the theories were on how that alternative scene would have played out. I know fanfics have their "romantic" bite scenes, but I think Edward was always planning on more of a clinical version.