Jacob Black

[Liv-wa]

as for thunderstorms, i guess i was referring to the fact that they are very dramatic, befitting of bella and edward's melodrama, and just like they are sort of big and loud and the cliche of power/drama. you could obviously apply that to many other things, it just seemed to be that if i wanted to keep the two analogies together, i should stay in the weather family!

That's what I thought. Bella and Edward are so intense, almost like they are constantly being electrified [; It's just a tad intense (and when I say a tad I'm being very gracious) Jacob is like a breath of fresh air after all the Edward/Bella drama. He is a very...refreshing character.

[trhmllr]

I LOVE JACOB!!!!!!!1 Even back in Twilight I liked him. He was a typical teenage.
He is funny, lovable, sarcastic, persistent, protective, and so many other things!!! I liked him in all the books. People talk about how is with Bella... but he is a teen boy in love. Teen boys are cocky and believe they can do anything. He was trying to show her he will do anything to keep her and will keep trying. I love when he kissed Bella and she punched him. I like how he was with Rose in Breaking Dawn... all the jokes. I was glad to read from his POV!!! Some of my fav parts are in that.
I was fine with him imprinting on Nessie. It wasn't weird her being a newborn, being Bella's child, or the fact he loved Bella first. He only thinks about Nessie. I love him as a wolf!!
He is a great guy!!

[spicey16]

I LOVE him with Rose. I just couldnt take thier fighting seriously, more like brother/sister stuff - it was too funny! but I love him period. He is hillarious and doesnt even mean to be. I like that he's mean to bella. He's the only one who is totally honest about everything he's thinking - good or bad. His and bella's relationship is more natural but also more friendly, he doesnt know this because he's young and thinking with the wrong organ. I dont think bella ever saw him as more than a friend. I think she tired to but it never worked.

[holdingoutforjacob]

actually, bella WAS in love with him, and he WAS in love with her - and with all of him, not single organs.

it states so in eclipse. why would she TRY to be in love with someone other than edward? she tried NOT to be in love with him. she failed.

i think bella and jacob's relationship is as loving as HUMAN and NATURAL relationships come. jacob was her destiny, except edward exists.

jacob realized what was really between him and bella before bella did. his youth doesn't mean it didn't exist. would you say that bella only loves edward this much and has only devoted her whole life to him because she's "thinking with the wrong organ?" no, you wouldn't. so why say the same about jacob??

[Esme echo]

I think Bella loved both Edward and Jacob, but she loved them in different ways, for different reasons. In the end, her love for Edward was more important to her than her love for Jacob. I think Bella could have been happy with Jacob if Edward had never returned, but probably not as sublimely happy as she was with Edward; she seems to have been designed for life as an immortal--as mentioned by a couple of different people in BD.

Something to think about: if Bella had married Jacob the age discrepancy would have begun to show up very soon. I can't see that Jacob was determined to stop phasing, so he would not age, and Bella would have continued to age. I can foresee that becoming a problem. Taha Aki outlived two wives and was living with his third when he stopped phasing. Bella would have been pretty unhappy about that. I know she would have loved having Jacob's children--maybe that would have made up for her aging!

Overall, I think Bella made the right choice. I'm just glad that Jacob will alway be her "best man" and they can both be happy in that relationship. Jacob's too good a guy to not have in her life!

[holdingoutforjacob]

i mostly agree, but there's one point i'd like to address.

you said you believed that bella decided her love for edward was more important than her love for jacob. and that's not true. she decided that she was more IN love with edward than with jacob. nowhere in this series does it specify who she generally loves more, or who generally loves her more.

if jacob hadn't shown up at the wedding, i don't honestly think bella would have gone much longer without him.

[moon.cherry.twilite]

at first it seemed overly coincidental and convenient that Jacob imprinted on Renesmee, but now I'm just happy that everyone could be like "a happy family".

[Esme echo]

i mostly agree, but there's one point i'd like to address.

you said you believed that bella decided her love for edward was more important than her love for jacob. and that's not true. she decided that she was more IN love with edward than with jacob. nowhere in this series does it specify who she generally loves more, or who generally loves her more.

if jacob hadn't shown up at the wedding, i don't honestly think bella would have gone much longer without him.

I guess we're interpreting Bella's reactions differently. All through New Moon Bella reminded Jacob that Edward was her only true love. When Laurent was preparing to kill her, all Bella could think of was Edward. As soon as Bella knew there was a chance to rescue Edward, she was there.

In Eclipse the lines got blurred a little more. When Edward was so furious with Bella for skipping school and spending the day with Jacob, Bella told him, "Jacob is family. You are ... well, not exactly the love of my life, because I expect to love you for much longer than that. The love of my existence." After Bella acknowledged that she felt romantic love for Jacob and she was saying goodbye to him she thought to herself, "I wondered if I would have wavered, if I hadn't lost Edward once. If I didn't know what it was like to live without him. I wasn't sure. That knowledge was so deep a part of me, I couldn't imagine how I would feel without it." (p. 599)

In Breaking Dawn, Bella was happy at her wedding and reception. I didn't see that she even thought of Jacob until he showed up. She was certainly happy to see him, but after he was gone, Bella very deliberately put Jacob and his problems out of her mind. When Edward began to slip back into worry over their plans, Bella reacted: "Stop it," I said fiercely. I grabbed his face in my hands and waited until he opened his eyes. "You and me. That's the only thing that matters. The only thing you're allowed to think about now." (p. 69) And she didn't think about Jacob again until he came to see whether she was dead.

I interpret all of that to mean that Bella loved Edward more deeply than she loved Jacob. She made her choice in Eclipse and never looked back. Jacob's pain definately ate at her, but I don't think there is any way Bella would have tried to hang on to Jacob in a romantic way after her marriage.

[holdingoutforjacob]

um, in this case, you misinterpret me.

i don't think that bella loves jacob romantically more than edward, nor will you ever hear me say that. i just think that she loves them equally, in different ways. yes she loves both of them romantically, or did, but she loved edward more, ROMANTICALLY. however, that doesn't mean she doesn't love jacob in general just as much.

when i was talking about BD, she was VERY worried and concerned and thinking about him, directly up until the wedding, when her mind was pre-occupied. when her mind is left to wander, it wanders to jacob. i don't think she would have changed before she talked to him again.

[Esme echo]

Sorry for the miscommunication. I think you're probably right. The times when I knew someone dear to me was in pain--especially if I contributed to the pain--I have felt that nagging worry that never quite goes away until the situation is resolved. I'm sure Jacob's pain nagged at Bella in much the same way.

My philosophical musings about different kinds of love in relationships--which seem very applicable to this discussion--are all over on the Edward thread!