T.04.11 The Two Things...

In Which We Explore the Divine Bloodline of Werewolves

So the pack has agreed to start the blood-letting and starts to strategermize. Jacob tries to fight Sam on the plan and there's a fairly good part where Jacob resists the orders of the Alpha until Jacob finally breaks the command.

It's good stuff EXCEPT the only reason Jacob is able to break the link is because he's of royal werewolf blood. Seriously? So an evil pack Alpha couldn't be fought by pack members unless they're of superior stock? Why can't it be because Jacob is, you know, right about not wanting to do this? Or even just really against the idea? That seems like a vastly superior system: Alpha says lets go eat all the babies, members of the pack fight back with enough moral fiber to break his order-mindcontrol and suddenly they're no longer part of the pack or there's a new Alpha. Bad guy loses Alpha mantle and the pack isn't dragged around because somebody had "better" genes.

But no, it's because Jacob is of royal blood and so he essentially splits off. Sam expects a fight to be pack Alpha, which makes some kind of wolfish sense, but Jacob refuses. He breaks off and we get two different Alphas. As Jacob runs off to the Cullens, Seth appears in his brain and says he's changed packs. They both note that Sam is out of their head, which I guess makes sense. Sort of. I'd argue the logistics of this magic, but it's not worth it.

Jacob orders (but not orders) Seth to go home and he refuses. They're pack "B" now. Not wanting to use the brain-smack, Jacob gives up and they rush off to warn the Cullens that the other pack is en route. Jacob and Seth have a good, long conversation about the situation.

SumUp C-

Now that we're away from the vast, cuckolding conspiracy we get a fair insight into some Pack conversations. It's still silly telepathy and the order business sucks and the royal bloodline crap sucks, but I'm trying to focus on the positive. Jacob is much more interesting as a tactician and reluctant leader than as a sexual predator or third-wheel not-boyfriend and I guess the descriptions of the world aren't awful, but I wasn't paying attention. I give this chapter a C- because there are no angry scribbles in my notes and I didn't feel compelled to rip any pages out of this library book.