#aro volutri

[yoomiii123]

Loved reading your thoughts on Edward and Jasper's relationship. Especially the last part with what happens after BD. How do you imagine the situation would resolve? Will Aro get his hands on Alice eventually?

Thank you so much for asking this! I've been thinking about it a lot, since I wrote my Edward and Jasper post (I'm glad you liked that one :-) ).

Realistically, I don't seen this ending well for my OTP. However, this is unacceptable so here's a less realistic but better ending headcanon I came up with:

Alice and Jasper tried to stay with the Cullens for as long as possible, while secretly discussing their options. However, once Alice's visions of Aro making a move became more frequent and turned violent for the other Cullens as well, they decided that it was time to leave the family and cut all ties. The Cullen lifestyle just made them too easy to find and this was the only way to keep the others out of it.

Alice's initial plan was to find a non-confrontational and non-violent approach. She considered travelling as nomads and hiding from the Volturi for as long as possible, but her visions told her that wouldn't last for long. Next, she thought about talking to Aro and finding acceptable terms (like e.g. a limited time of service, letting Jasper join as well, guaranteeing their dietary needs etc.). Unfortunately, she didn't see that work out for them either and thus agreed to Jasper's more extreme plan, when they left the Cullens.

Jasper, who had been plotting this since Alice's trip to Volterra in New Moon, had briefly considered a confrontational approach. They wouldn't be able to attack the Volturi head-on by themselves, but maybe he could get the Romanians or Egyptians to make a move? However, that approach was eventually discarded for what he considered to be their best strategy: Finding a replacement to offer to Aro in Alice's stead.

So, when they left the Cullens, Alice and Jasper started to scour the earth for a vampire with similar talents to Alice's. When that didn't turn up any promising leads in the first weeks, Jasper quickly branched out to considering humans who displayed signs of clairvoyance as well. (Imagine Jasper threatening con-men and -women into admitting they don't actually see the future—the image is glorious). Alice wasn't entirely on board with the plan but by this point the threat of losing Jasper and the Cullens forever was very real which made her desperate enough to accept the selfish act of offering someone else in her stead.

The pair reconnected with some of the Cullens after Alice accidentally killed the first promising human in an attempt to turn them. Jasper's plan was to guilt Edward into helping them, since he was in his mind the one responsible for this mess in the first place, but he underestimated Edwards aversion to condemning humans to their existence. Fortunately, Bella, who overheard their argument, didn't share Edward's reservations and was all game—she really wanted her best friend back. So they went ahead behind Edward and the other Cullens' backs, keeping their ploy a secret using Bella's gift. And on the fourth attempt, they stoke out lucky.

Bella turned a human who manifested a similar gift to Alices. He was able to see the future of anyone he touched (similar to Aro's gift). While this made his talent slightly less powerful than Alice's in terms of who he could see, his visions were more precise in terms of knowing time and place, and he could also see very clearly whose future was entangled with that person's, knowing exactly how these people's actions might alter the current course. Jasper decided that this had to be good enough, so Alice and him contacted Aro for the exchange. He, of course, acted all surprised and denied that he would have ever made Alice join unwillingly, but eventually accepted the gift, enabling Alice and Jasper to resume their life with the Cullens.

However, knowing that they sacrificed other people's lives for their happiness changed Alice and Jasper forever and, once they returned and Bella's shield was no longer enough to keep their secret, the entire Cullen family wasn't the same again. Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, and obviously Bella were okay with their actions and welcomed them back, but Edward and Carlisle seriously struggled with what had occured for a long time.

That's it! Kudos go out to my awesome friend / writing wife @theunexpectedness for making this headcanon even more awesome by suggesting Bella's role in it (I initially had Jasper pegged to be able to convince Edward). You're the best!

[troquantary]

Didyme?? What are your thoughts, please I'm dying to know!

Oh boy, I’m glad you asked, but you probably won’t be once you see the epic I’ve spawned now that you’ve given me the excuse. (But really, thank you so much for asking!)

My thoughts on Didyme can be separated into two thematic chunks. The first has to do with out-of-universe world- and character-building -- namely, I don’t believe Meyer had this specific “Aro murdered his sister and that’s why Marcus is Like That” backstory in mind while writing New Moon (although she probably did in Breaking Dawn). The second is just pure speculative fun, because based on what Meyer tells us in the illustrated guide and a foundation of some meta that I personally agree with, we can draw some...interesting conclusions about Didyme (and Marcus) as a character. (Or at least, we can if you’re a cynical harpy like me. Which I guess is a content warning about negativity incoming, but the negativity is more about Meyer’s logic than Didyme as a character.)

What I’ve ended up doing is answering you with the first chunk, regarding worldbuilding and such, because I’ve truly outdone myself with the Verbosity. (Like, the second chunk has sub-parts now, what the fuck.) But I’ve nearly written it all, and I’ll follow up with part two very quickly. So. LET’S DO THIS.

Didyme, Part 1: What Backstory? (Or, We Should Have Heard About Her in New Moon)

(relevant Kate Beaton comic)

This is a great time to talk about Meyer and her backstories, because @zzinvolterra has already done a chunk of the work for me with this post, with some excellent additions from others, and @panlight has another great post with replies going in a similar vein. The common theme of both is that Meyer most likely came up with the bulk of her characters’ backstories after the fact, otherwise some of it surely would have come up in the books themselves. Didyme, in retrospect, is glaringly absent from the books, particularly New Moon. It makes the timeline of her backstory’s creation, as @zzinvolterra succinctly put it, “a bit sus,” and I said as much here.

Now, I get that not every background detail about a character has to make it into the books -- it would be clunky, it would fuck with the pacing, and when you’re already dealing with a very limited narrative viewpoint like Bella’s, it doesn’t always make sense to include those tidbits unless they directly concern what’s happening to the viewpoint character.

Didyme’s death, though, and its impact on Marcus, are absolutely relevant to the plot of New Moon. The story of one of the three Volturi leaders, one of the most powerful vampires in the world, rendered a mere husk by the loss of his mate -- this sounds like the kind of cautionary tale that many vampires, and especially the Cullens, would know.

Plus, considering Edward supposedly fucks off to Italy to beg for death because he’s lost his ~one true love~ and there’s no point in living anymore, and also considering Victoria is murderous with grief over James and hunting Bella down with single-minded focus on revenge...I just...there are parallels here, you know? Like, these are some significant plot beats that could be reinforced and given special poignancy through the tragedy of Didyme and Marcus. I mean, am I crazy, or was this not a huge missed opportunity?

If Meyer had Didyme’s murder in mind while writing New Moon, she could have had Alice bring it up to Bella on the plane to Italy, in order to illustrate to Bella (and the audience) the profound grief vampires experience when they lose the ones they love. It’s a grief they can’t forget, because they can’t forget anything, and that grief is the dark side of the strength and constancy with which vampires love their mates. As much as the subject is likely verboten in Volterra, I think the loss of one of the leader’s mates is a story that would have survived among some vampires, and it’s conceivable that Carlisle (and therefore his family) would know at least that Marcus had a mate and that she died -- although nothing detailed, because if anyone thinks too hard about this it’s probably obvious that Aro was behind it.

Personally, I think it was a mistake to not mention Didyme’s death and its impact on Marcus at the most relevant point in the series. Hell, if anything, Meyer could have used Bella’s catatonic state of grief after Edward left as proof of the ~profundity~ of their love by comparing Bella’s grief to Marcus’ -- considering the Romeo and Juliet references she dropped like anvils throughout New Moon, that seems like something she’d have pounced on. Because of the omission, I tend to think Meyer came up with it after the fact, which brings me to one more note on the out-of-universe aspect of this: I also believe Meyer only came up with this backstory to further reinforce how eeevil Aro (supposedly) is and how terrible and corrupt the Volturi (supposedly) are. She really scrambles in Breaking Dawn to justify Edward’s conclusion that the Volturi are Bad Hombres and want nothing more than to destroy the Cullens. (He’s actually full of shit, but my view that the protagonists are Meyer’s mouthpieces and that she isn’t subtle at all about what she wants us to believe is a whole other subject.)

And you know, I can accept that Aro murdered Didyme -- but I don’t have to take it at face value. Which means it’s character analysis/headcanon time, so coming soon, like within the hour if I can get myself to shut up -- is Part Two.

[alecvolturi]

I have a confession to make

Before I saw a twilight movie I pronounced Aro like “arrow”