me thinking about caves

if jake and bella had feelings for each other bc jake imprinted on the small part of renesmee inside bella, does that mean that jake and edward loved each other equally as much before bella got pregnant bc jake would have imprinted on the part of renesmee in edward?

Okay, there are two things we need to take into consideration here:

Stephenie Meyer didn’t really have a strong understanding of biology, which she openly admitted to in interviews when asked about the mechanics of a Vampire Pregnancy 

‘Imprinting’ never exactly was defined as ‘being in love’. 

Before we really jump into this, I would just like to take the time to lay a curse on you and all your future generations for making me think this hard about the Twilight Saga in 2017, the year of our Lord. How did you even think of this question? 

Anyway, let’s begin.

So, going through interviews or just checking out Meyer’s faq page, which I did FREQUENTLY in seventh and eighth grade, one is able to find out that she put A  L O T of thought into coming up with How A Vampire’s Biology Should Work. She really came through with all these new, weird, made up vampo-fluids that keep the body working and what not, but she also admitted to not having the clearest understanding of actual, real biology. Of course, actual real biology should probably never come to play in this explanation in the first place, as we’re talking about a 109-year old vampire with sparkly skin knocking up his 19-year old human wife, but we can’t escape it as a fact. Now, Meyer’s stated that she got the inspiration for Nessie because she read up on the incubus, which can reportedly impregnate women. But wait, she must of thought, this is a book, people are gonna want an explanation on How The Fuck That Actually Works. So, she did some research, as any author would, and discovered that while after a certain point, women stop producing eggs (which would’ve been a moot point as the vampires can’t change anyway), men never actually stop producing semen. A dude could be in his late 90′s, and as long as nothing’s been snipped and he can still get it up, he could very much still impregnate someone. Now, you’re thinking, ‘Okay, but corpses can’t impregnate anything! Edward’s dead!’ which is true, to an extant- For all the poetic waxing he does about being dead and damned to hell, Edward was changed into a vampire on the verge of death. He’s not undead, technically, he’s a totally different life form. Edward, while he doesn’t need certain things a human would, can still experience them (I mean like breathing and blinking and stuff), because Meyer put effort into developing their biology. Like, they don’t have blood in their veins, but they have some Weird Vampire Stuff that performs all the functions of blood. So it goes to stand that he would be able to impregnate someone, since he was still functionally alive and therefore able to produce semen. 

However.

This really works because she invented biology for her characters, she’s an expert at this stuff because it is HERS. Any other biology, real biology, that she has not studied and probably has just a very basic understanding of? That’s not hers. As she has admitted to have very liminal knowledge on how Human Biology works, it’s hard to apply it too this story. It’s NOT hard to assume she might not have a totally correct understanding of it- I mean, for example, I remember when I was learning about it, everyone was pretty surprised to learn that it actually takes a bunch of sperm to break down the egg before one can fertilize it, and that the egg wasn’t basically a mini-baby just waiting to be hit up, and stuff like that. Like, the split dna thing was obvious, but every biology class I’ve ever been in had people vastly underestimating the role the sperm plays. It would also be wise to acknowledge that Nessie’s dna is bizarre for both humans and vampires, which could add to the explanation, but overall- I think a good explanation would be that Stephenie Meyer just really didn’t have the fullest grasp on the importance of Edward’s sperm in the situation, and therefore just didn’t consider it when it came into play. 

Now, for the next theory:

Imprinting was never defined as romantic love. It was defined as ‘strong feelings’ or something to the like. 

 "It’s not like love at first sight, really. It’s more like…gravity moves…suddenly. It’s not the earth holding you here anymore, she does…You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that’s a protector, or a lover, or a friend.“

That’s how Jacob describes the phenomenon to Bella. Now, sure, some of the wolves and their imprints HAVE fallen in romantic love- Sam and Emily, Paul and Rachel, but then like…you have Jacob. And you have Quill. They’ve imprinted on little kids! But nowhere in the series is pedophilia endorsed (like, listen, the books do have some Issues but that really wasn’t one of them). They do not view Nessie or Claire as their future mates or anything, they just see them as little girls and care about them. The feeling are strong, but it’s platonic. They view themselves as older brothers almost. The wolves don’t age, so when they girls get older, dynamics shift. Maybe once they’re women the wolves do fall in love with them- but that’s no guarantee of anything. Imprinting is never a guarantee, Emily didn’t want to be with Sam for the longest time. Bella even asked Jacob what would happen if the imprintee didn’t love the wolf back, and he told her, like, okay, they don’t wanna be together, that’s fine. The wolf can’t control imprinting on a girl and the girl can’t control how she feels in return. People can have very deep, very platonic feelings for each other. Best friends can be soulmates. As long as the wolf and the imprintee have some relationship, be it sibling or best friends or lovers, the wolf will pretty much be satisfied.  

But wait, you say, how does this answer my theoretically question about Edward?

I’d like you to remember- Jacob has had a crush on Bella since they were little kids. When he becomes a hormonal teenager, his crush becomes a little stronger. When he becomes a wolf, the theory goes that he unconsciously sensed the little piece of Nessie inside her, latched onto that, and that basically amplified his feelings for Bella. It wasn’t ‘I can sense my future wife in you so I’m gonna have feelings for you but they’re really for her’, his feelings for Bella were real. But his wolf sense took his innocent, horny little crush and blew it up to mega-proportions just because it could sense his future imprint. That’s the theory that was proposed, anyway. So, I’d like to propose back: If he never transformed into a wolf, his feelings for Bella would have never gotten That Bad. They were just amplified without his control. 

So, perhaps: He hated Edward so intensely because he turned into a wolf and could unconsciously sensed his imprint in him as well. 

I mean, think about it: In the first book, he didn’t LIKE Edward because of all the stuff his father told him about the Cullens, but he really didn’t have any strong opinions on the guy either. In New Moon, before he changed, he thought Edward was a dick for leaving Bella, but he wasn’t as…aggressive about him as he is after he changes. But after he becomes a wolf? Every time he sees Edward he’s ready to rip his head off. If his feelings towards Bella were amplified because he could sense Nessie in her, it stands to reason that his feelings towards Edward were amplified as well. The difference being, the were just negative feelings! It was still strong feelings! It still could’ve very much had to do with the imprint! And also, to add to this, may I point out- what’s the point in the story where Jacob and Edward come to an understanding, where Jacob decides he hates Edward less than before? After Bella is already pregnant with Nessie. They start working together to protect Bella, and Edward asks Jake to kill him if she dies. And Jake basically thinks “Hey, he’s still a dick, but maybe he’s not as bad as I’ve thought this whole time? Maybe he actually does love Bella? I feel bad for him?” And Jake is still 100% focused on Bella at this point, but he spares Edward no mind even though he’s been obsessed with hating him for like two years now at that point, and what’s the thing that’s changed in this situation? Edward’s not the one that’s pregnant! All parts of Jacob’s future imprint have left him. Jacob no longer has amplified feelings towards Edward. Just solely his insane crush on Bella, until the second Nessie’s popped out and he’s like “Oh, fuck.” I think this is could be a very good explanation on that whole dynamic. Jacob did sense the imprint in Edward, it just manifested differently than with the girl he’s been crushing on since he was a toddler. 

OR, I mean, we could just acknowledge the fact that “sensing Nessie” was never really made canon, just an explanation a 16 year old boy came up with to explain why he used to be in love with his imprint’s mother, and this is all bullshit and something else was going on entirely. 

I cannot believe I wrote this.