What are your top five ways that Meyer blindsided you regarding what you thought versus what she meant? For example, you've said before how you truly thought that Bella being afraid of blood would have implications but that never did. Or how Jacob would fight the imprint!--but he didn't. Or maybe in a more subtext way: for example, Bella showing signs of suicidal ideation in New Moon but Meyer insisting that isn't at all what's happening. In what ways did Word of God blindsided/confuse?
1. Jacob fighting the imprint. I was absolutely sure that was where this was going. Any other YA series would have the main characters be like "NO! I will NOT have some outside force decide my life for me! I don't CARE if we'd be perfect together. It's MY life, I get to choose!" Like just look at all those stories of "utopias" where the characters are paired up by the government or a computer or whatever and they they FIGHT it and that's the whole point and I thought that's where imprinting was going, especially with Jacob being so against it. "They don't belong to themselves anymore" "what's wrong with falling in love the normal way?" "It's just another way of having your choices taken away from you." Like, my god, there was SUCH potential here for a parallel with the veggie vampires choosing not to surrender to their instincts but no, it's a Happily Ever After (supposedly). Also still think if he had imprinted on like Jess or Angela or Random Girl in New Moon/Eclipse, SM would have had him fight it and ~choose his love for Bella~.
2. The James bite. I thought this was going to be a big deal and that would end up mattering later in the series. That the bite and exposure to vampire venom would have made Bella immune and impossible to turn (!), or that they could create an antidote to vampirism from her blood (!), or that it would be the explanation for why she was so good at vampiring right away, or something. But it's just . . . never a big deal, not important, never even really mentioned again other than there being a scar that Edward can be emo about.
3. Denali story/foreshadowing. I legit thought Carlisle was going to die in Breaking Dawn. And he's basically the most interesting character to me so I wasn't all that psyched about it, but it made sense. Often in YA/coming of age stories, the mentor figure has to die so the young characters can really come into their own. But the main reason I thought he was doomed was at the beginning of BD when Bella's talking about the Denali coven and how Carlisle told her about how the sisters' 'mother' had been killed and they were still so upset they couldn't utter her name, and Bella has a thought like "I can't imagine the Cullens without Carlisle" and I was like welp he's a goner. But then, no, we just get that non-fight at the end.
4. THE BABY. Okay, once we get to BD, it's pretty clear the baby is happening. Bella's dreams and the whole Denali backstory with the Immortal Child aren't exactly subtle. But PRIOR to BD, SM seemed to be trying really hard to make the fandom think it was impossible. I remember those halcyon pre-BD days vaguely. I wasn't super into the fandom but I had read the first three books and was Twi Curious, basically, and read some stuff on the Lexicon and followed a few. . . I guess they were livejournals at the time, lmao. And the WHOLE FANDOM was convinced and babies were impossible and would quote things SM has said at Q&As or on the Lexicon and like babyfic was disdained because "that can't happen." And it's retrospect it's clear that SM was tip-toeing around it and answered very carefully so she could be "Haha I never said a male vampire and a female HUMAN specifically couldn't have a baby! Checkmate!" but the fandom still basically felt lied to from the Word of God stuff we had been getting from her over the last few years. I think the backlash wouldn't have been as bad if she had just been like "I'm not going to answer that" or something versus heavily implying it was impossible while leaving a specifically E/B-shaped loophole.
5. Born to be a Vampire. Maybe it's just me, but if you're setting up a character to be "born to be a vampire," maybe making her pass out at the sight/scent of blood and LOVE the sun/warmth is a weird choice? Bella being able to smell blood is supposedly weird (but like . . . I can smell it?) and maybe a hint to her vampiric potential, but then why does it make her sick rather than make her be like "Idk it smells kinda good? That's weird, right? I'm so weird." I also just . . . being a vampire is framed as BAD. The Cullens "rise above the hand they were dealt." They make the best of a situation that is written as being kind of lonely and frustrating at best and DAMNED FOR ALL ETERNITY at worst and then Bella becomes a vampire and it's perfect forevers and bliss and fairytale cottages and I'm just like, what? I wanted bittersweet! I was fine with her becoming a vampire, but I wanted it to be a struggle, for it to not be the fairytale she thought it was, but for it still to be worth it in the end. And I thought that's where it was going with all those gloomy quotes SM put at the beginning of the books. Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Violent delights have violent ends. The world will end in fire or ice. Uh, none of those point to a fairytale in my mind. Also Bella being framed as being uncommonly good/selfless AND 'born to a be vampire' just does not compute in my mind. The Cullens are the way they are because Carlisle was so unsuited to be a vampire that he just rewrote all the rules. Maybe Bella was born to be a CULLEN but born to be a vampire implies something different to me. That's something I might say about a James or an Aro.
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