#bella swan

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In a world where Renee Swan left her daughter Bella with Charlie when she left, Bella got to visit the nursing home every day with her dad, and in the evenings he made steak and potatoes until Harry Clearwater begged him to feed his child a vegetable. In a world where Bella was raised by Charlie, she maybe cooked or cleaned a bit more than the average kid, because her dad was so busy, but she wasn’t worried about paying the bills or reminding her dad when she had to go to the doctor. Bella got to be a kid, and she got to have a relationship with her grandparents before they died when she was in kindergarten. On those summers where she visited Renee, she saw how hectic her mother’s life was, although fun, and was relieved for the stability and boring nature of Forks.

In this world, she grew up playing with Leah, Seth, and Jacob and his sisters. She went fishing and spent weekends at the beach and got to scrape her knees hiking on a monthly basis. She went to school with all the kids from Forks and the Newton kid got over his crush on her in like a week, cause she wasn’t all that interesting since she played pirates with him in second grade. Bella’s best friend was Angela but Jessica was a close second, although the two of them had a more on again off again type of relationship. She and Eric game together, because once he and Mike had a fight and he had nobody to hang out with him for a month. Lauren is a frenemy that Bella loves to hate.

She is a klutz, but Charlie watches her like a hawk and usually catches her before too bad of a fall. Her grades are killer and when she’s thirteen Charlie takes Bella and the girls to Seattle for a painful day of shopping. (Bella didn’t want to either, but she wanted the right of passage and wanted to make her friends smile). Bella and Jacob become the best of friends after a particularly bitey spring and their dads are always off fishing together. (Leah, Rachel, and Rebecca are too cool for a while and Seth is too much of a puppy dog). Maybe they think about dating and maybe they don’t, maybe they’re best friends and don’t care. Well adjusted, happy, perhaps a bit prone to melancholy, depression, and insecurity, Bella is in a much healthier place when the Cullens arrive in early high school.

She doesn’t even get a chance to meet them.

Edward reported to Carlisle with some urgency after their first day in Forks that Chief Swan’s daughter may be his singer. There is no suggestion that he just kill her or test his resolve. Bella Swan is too beloved, too known, too surrounded and ensconced in the community. If she died or went missing, there would be no forgetting this girl. She had been here since birth. It didn’t matter that she has a quiet mind, Edward realized shortly after that Charlie’s mind is murky and hard to read as well, shrugs his shoulders because there’s something off with the Swans. But his possible singer? A slip up would destroy the town and likely expose his family.

The Cullens leave in the night. The locals blandly gossip that a better hospital in Alaska offered double for Doctor Cullen’s services. Life goes on, and Bella believes that the supernatural is just a myth or legend, like she hears about at the bonfires with Jacob and her dad. She decides she’s going to make Charlie eat more greens.

When I say I took notes/saved favourite parts… it’s like when you had to highlight the important parts of text in school, and thinking it all sounds important so you highlight almost the whole page? But I did this for the whole book. I-

When just being next to the person you desire is electrifying <3

I would be exactly the same as Bella. I would want to know everything!

“She could stay forever and it would not be long enough.”

le sigh. <3

Love these little moments where he touches her lightly, gently… lovely. Like when he caresses her cheek and along her jaw…

(these types of moments were missing from the first movie… wah!)

I would break her.

There’s so much going on here… some of the Cullens are learning that Bella knows about them… I want to see each person’s reaction!

Alice tells Edward not to underestimate Bella (something he struggles with throughout nearly the whole saga)…

Edward getting used to, or ignoring, the fact that Bella and Alice will be best friends… (stop fighting it, dude)…!

Her breath touched my face, so sweet.

I could stay here all night like this…

- Edward Cullen, Midnight Sun

Her heart fluttered; my dead heart felt warmer.

- Edward Cullen, Midnight Sun

I want to talk about Vampire Bella! ✨

I’m reading Breaking Dawn right now and once Bella transforms, I realised I had a harder time picturing it, or rather, my mind kept going to movie Bella as a vampire. And I never really liked how Vamp Bella looked in the movie… there are a few exceptions, but for the most part, I wasn’t into it.

So I stopped reading, and tried to take in the words and let them mix with how I would see her if I hadn’t seen Breaking Dawn part 2, and I found myself very thankful for Chris Weitz and the New Moon vision we see from Alice of Bella’s future.

I remember at the time, a lot of people didn’t like it for some reason…

I love it! Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have had this image of vampire Bella so soon because that’s what the books and movies are all leading up to, and with that clip, it’s a little spoiled. But now when I read, my vision of vampire Bella is much closer to her in Alice’s first vision than it is in Breaking Dawn part 2, and even overrides a little of what is actually on the page.

So I guess this is about my dream vampire Bella.

The Cullens were never dark, edgy vampires. In the books, Stephenie always has them in lighter clothes (especially Edward), and so this idea that when Bella transforms, she’s now wearing leather, and a very dated smoky eye (more on that later). Well, she just wouldn’t…

In Alice’s vision in New Moon, it’s much more cottagecore/fairy tale, and I think that’s much closer to the books and how it plays in my mind. Her dress is just lovely, and she looks age appropriate.

So here’s some outfit inspo for how I would have liked to see Bella, instead of all those nondescript, very flat outfits she wore in BD2.

We know how both Bella and Edward like blue (though, we did at least get her in a blue dress when she woke up…)

And then something like this one above for more casual attire.Or maybe a graphic tee tucked into jeans and boots. I think Bella still would have upped her fashion game a little from when she was human for several reasons:

1: she has more confidence as a vampire

2: Alice’s influence and Bella’s newly fully stocked, very large closet in the cottage

3: she will be travelling at some point, and getting to see new places and people has an effect on such things, even for Bella

While we’re talking about outfits, that beige whatever-that-was dress she wore when they leave the wedding for the honeymoon was… I hated it.

It seemed like something one might wear to a fancy office job or important meeting, not your honeymoon…

I didn’t hate everything about the vampire Bella we got in the movie. I loved that her hair was longer (though the style somehow strangely aged her. I think it was the parting and the way she wore it pushed away and back from her face. Instead of it having that sexy messy look that Kristen has when her hair is mussed that way, it leaned more towards lots-of-hairspray and back combing that an older woman from a different time would do). And I liked her eyes. The way the red seemed to bleed out as time went on. Her amber eyes were very unique, and we know from the books that each Cullen has a different shade of amber/gold so that fit really nicely.

I like her hair here on the right, but this was like the only time that it looked liked this. And her hair on the left is classic Bella for me, and how I picture her when I read all the other books.

Bella is only 18 when she is turned, and becoming a vampire is meant to make you more refined and elegant. To accentuate things. I felt the makeup they chose for her (and let’s be real, all of the Cullens makeup New Moon and beyond was way too heavy and smoky, and it was like each vampire had the exact same makeup too) was just a smoky eye with false lashes that really aged her. And it wasn’t very Bella-esque.

I also feel like finally getting to see Bella sparkle in the sunlight was way too quick and not very thorough, it should have been a whole moment, and Edward finally getting to see her skin like that would have made him realise how she felt about him when she saw him in the meadow the first time. Can you imagine?! Sigh.

It’s a real shame there aren’t any proper images of her like this. Just a clip where she’s constantly in motion. ✨

I think it was actually a nice twist that Bella had super self control when she wakes up. She’s so clumsy in her human life (and I’m clumsy, so I liked to see that mirrored back to me, lol), very stubborn, and doesn’t often budge once her mind is made up. So I liked the idea that she could essentially skip over the frenzied madness that comes along with being a newborn because being a vampire for Bella, was like levelling up.

But I felt like we got robbed both in the book and movie of seeing Bella learn everything. We get a quick lesson on jumping, and then the only other thing is learning to hunt. I wanted more of everything else. More of her heightened senses and how she learns to deal with having so much space for so many thoughts at once, realising she can learn new things like that *snap* and remember everything because of her perfect recall. Maybe she has trouble switching it all off what with not being able to sleep ever again.

Even though she was super good at not eating that hiker, and not lunging for Charlie when she first sees him, I wanted to see them starting over, maybe going to college, and Bella learning to be around so many people all at once, and also learning to keep the secret. How she is with those new people, and what wonders they might have re. her own eyes, and who her and the rest of the Cullens really are?! etc.

I finished Midnight Sun, and began the whole saga again, and being on Breaking Dawn now had me constantly thinking about this, lol.

What do you think of vampire Bella?

- samrosey

Edward’s warming realisation that Bella cares for him too doesn’t last very long once he starts overthinking again. He’s convinced he will hurt her.

I also hate that Rosalie’s feelings on the whole situation have clouded his judgement. He sees the other women in his life and picks the most extreme example of what could go wrong.

Falling for their love all over again… *sniffs*

“Three days?” she asked, her voice suddenly sharp. “Didn’t you just get back today?”

I didn’t understand the edge in her voice. “No, we got back Sunday.”