T.02.13 Killers

In Which We Suffer Through Dramatic Irony

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows things the characters in the book don't know. It provides tension because we see a character make mistakes while we have full knowledge of why it's a mistake. It's a powerful tool, but only if the characters aren't unaware because they're morons. Watch me lose respect for the main characters.

Bella thinks Jacob is a killer, despite the blindingly obvious fact that there's an actual Vampire in the woods. A creature that Bella is familiar with as an actual killer and one that she's personally afraid will come and kill her.

Jacob thinks Bella won't accept his werewolf-ism because it makes him a monster. Yet she dated a Vampire not six months ago, a fact that he's very much aware of. I can almost forgive this, Jacob is young and naive and Bella hasn't really been sharing emotions very well. The problem comes from the conversation, he's blind to what Bella believes because it's convenient to the miscommunication subplot.

After chatting with Billy and peeking in on a sleeping Jacob, Bella decides to let Jacob sleep and warn him about Charlie & the hunters when he wakes. She sits down on the same beach where Scary Stories took place in T.01.06. "Jacob was my friend, whether he killed people or not", she decides. Wow. If any friends of mine are considering starting a hiker killing spree, put my lost friendship on the "con" side of your decision scale. Just sayin'.

Jacob finally arrives and we get to endure a 4 page long "comedy" of errors where Bella thinks Jacob is talking about killing people and he thinks she's angry at him for being a monster who doesn't actually kill people. Jacob then explains that the werewolf pack has been protecting Forks from a vampire. Bella suddenly understands that if Laurent is dead and if the werewolf pack isn't offing hikers, then Victoria is in the area. Oh, it's a revelation. Now maybe we're all caught up.

Bella then fills in some missing motivations for Victoria, explaining that Bella is the intended blood donor thanks to her connection to James' death. Which is a weird, nonsensical bit of logic. Why would Victoria care about Bella? Bella's job in the whole Hunt was to get lugged around and then to deliver herself to James, the guy trying to kill her. Ultimately, she was rescued by the Cullens who then killed James. I'll remind everyone this "killing James" was done off-camera and barely rated a mention which is high on the on the list of literary crimes the first book committed. I'm not going to rant again. The short of it is that Bella had close to nothing to do with James' death. Her only failure was not dying fast enough to prevent the Cullens from finding her.

Regardless, Jacob thinks this will help the pack with their plans to protect Forks and kill Victoria. Bella also clues Jacob (and the pack via more telepathy, ugh) to the fact that Edward can read minds and Alice can sort-of see the future. Guess that's fair play for telling Edward about Jacob's loose lips. Someone needs to stop telling Bella secrets. Jacob drags Bella off to meet the rest of the pack.

SumUp F
Finally, the big werewolf reveal and acceptance so we just have to suffer through some Q&A next chapter and it's done.

Why an F? The dramatic irony on Bella's side was manufactured and unbelievable. It existed just so the reader could chuckle as Jacob and Bella argued across each other until they worked out the misunderstanding. The conversations tell us what we already know and they drag out for 80% of the chapter. It's tedious and I'm guessing most readers would skim through it.

As for character development, we find ourselves in very familiar territory. Bella is once again threatened by a vampire while surrounded by super-powerful beings to keep her safe. In other words, a damsel in distress. She's scared. She's a sounding board for other characters to reveal their actions and motives. She blabs stuff that her "friends" would probably rather she shut up about. She's essentially pointless. She is Bella from book 1. And Bella from book 1 was a miserable character.