T.03.13 Newborn

In Which Jasper Gets A Story!

So the wheel of backstory finally lands on Jasper and we get a full chapter. Sadly for you it has nothing to do with the plot of the book except in one area, so I'm not obliged to pass any of it along.

Important point #1: Newborn vampires are frantic, near-mindless killing machines. They're also stronger than mature vampires.
Important point #2: In the past, vampire lords used them as disposable armies to carve out human-hunting territory.
Important point #3: The Volturi are not fans of this practice and will rain down on you with furious anger if you try it.

So Jasper, Civil War soldier becomes Jasper, newborn fighter becomes Jasper, vampire Lieutenant. He works for a trio of vampires named Maria, Nettie and Lucie until he makes friends with peacenik vampires Peter and Charlotte. I only mention these 5 in case they come up again. He is eventually rescued by Alice and joins Carlisle's merry band.

And for some reason, Carlisle is still yakking about the Volturi. I don't get it.

Carlisle tries to recruit help from the Vampires in Alaska, but they're peeved over Laurent's death and want to trade their help for taking out the Werewolves. Carlisle refuses.

SumUp B

It's a nice little ditty, if a little late. Which really highlights a problem I have with these books. Meyer introduced a pile of characters early on and gave us such pathetic outlines of them, leaving everything to come much later. It's taken over sixty chapters to work our way through the list (remember Rosalie just a few chapters back?) to get Jasper's story. We still have no history of Esme, barely anything for Alice, and nothing for Emmett. Meyer also seems stuck in the late 19th or early 20th centuries for her creations. This means that Jasper has sort of been loitering in the shadows with motivations that we didn't understand until now. If history is any clue, we also won't see anything else of Jasper's story for the rest of the book, either.

So, here's the Alaska connection. This crew in Alaska has been described (and is described here) as near family. At the Wahmpireball game we're introduced to James, Victoria and Laurent. James breaks off to hunt Bella. Victoria goes AWOL and Laurent goes north to hide. He apparently ends up at the Alaska camp and joins in with Tanya. Apparently he hooks up with Irina (who is, if I remember correctly and would bother to check if I cared enough) Tanya's sister. Irina is now the reason behind the Alaska revenge problem. Werewolves killed her squeeze, we hate the werewolves even more.  Now I don't think Carlisle mentioned the werewolves to Tanya, but I guess she's aware of them and you'd think that would be enough to prevent assistance.

There's still the elephant in the room = Victoria. Why couldn't she make newborns? She's been lurking as a risk since late in the FIRST BOOK. Why is everyone so fixated on the Volturi? Victoria comes up from time to time, but it seems impossible that nobody has seriously considered that an army of newborns is within her capabilities or an obvious tactic to adopt since she clearly knows about Edward and Alice's powers. The clothes for scent? That's pretty obvious, why would the Volturi need that? The newborns? Carlisle has made some gymnsatic logical leap about covering their tracks, but why would the Volturi care? Do they answer to anyone? If they wiped out a clan out of sheer spite, who's going to stop them? Is there a Vampire UN to sanction them? A Vampire Court for War Crimes? Anything? Seems like the Volturi have the run of it, why would they be subtle at all? It's all so we can have some big reveal where all the characters can be newly shocked about the threat and worry about Bella's well-being. It's PADDING and it's BORING.