Ignoring a witch who makes multiple escape attempts, can make herself and others unnoticeable and is invisible to Alice does not strike me as an argument against the presence of an idiot ball.
I have a tendency to only speak up when I have something to complain about, so just to be clear, I do like this story. It seems perfectly believable that the Volteri set up this system hundreds of years ago when they only had one or two uncooperative witches, then never bothered to reevaluate it as the operation scaled up. From a story-telling perspective, neither Bella nor Elspeth are HJPEV, so it would be inappropriate to make Aro into Quirrelmort unless you really hate Bella and want her to lose.
On the other hand, believable idiocy is still idiocy. If Aro WAS Quirrelmort, he would have experimentally determined how much of a vampire could be destroyed without killing it and whether they could be crippled by cutting open their joints and pouring venom into the wound. If the answers turned out to be “none” and “no,” he could still have at least one other vampire in the room to attach the head of a witch immediately before feeding it and decapitate it immediately after it finishes.
Ignoring a witch who makes multiple escape attempts, can make herself and others unnoticeable and is invisible to Alice does not strike me as an argument against the presence of an idiot ball.
They would be idiots if they willfully ignored her. They aren’t. Her power is to be ignored. Occasions when she chooses not to be ignored are rare, and they can’t get rid of her without ruining the effectiveness of an important witch of theirs. (Do they wish they’d kept James, now, so they could kill Allirea and Demetri and replace the latter with a less effective tracker with a more convenient (dead) mate? Yes, yes they do, but they didn’t.)
hundreds of years ago when they only had one or two uncooperative witches
Adelaide did not work for the Volturi hundreds of years ago, and so they had no reason to keep witches in the basement in bits.
Bella knew about Allirea’s power and apparently remembered long enough to tell Elspeth about it. I thought the Volteri would remember things that Demetri told them about his mate, even if they couldn’t notice her.
They don’t usually know this. She’s usually too inconsequential for them to remember.
Ignoring a witch who makes multiple escape attempts, can make herself and others unnoticeable and is invisible to Alice does not strike me as an argument against the presence of an idiot ball.
I have a tendency to only speak up when I have something to complain about, so just to be clear, I do like this story. It seems perfectly believable that the Volteri set up this system hundreds of years ago when they only had one or two uncooperative witches, then never bothered to reevaluate it as the operation scaled up. From a story-telling perspective, neither Bella nor Elspeth are HJPEV, so it would be inappropriate to make Aro into Quirrelmort unless you really hate Bella and want her to lose.
On the other hand, believable idiocy is still idiocy. If Aro WAS Quirrelmort, he would have experimentally determined how much of a vampire could be destroyed without killing it and whether they could be crippled by cutting open their joints and pouring venom into the wound. If the answers turned out to be “none” and “no,” he could still have at least one other vampire in the room to attach the head of a witch immediately before feeding it and decapitate it immediately after it finishes.
They would be idiots if they willfully ignored her. They aren’t. Her power is to be ignored. Occasions when she chooses not to be ignored are rare, and they can’t get rid of her without ruining the effectiveness of an important witch of theirs. (Do they wish they’d kept James, now, so they could kill Allirea and Demetri and replace the latter with a less effective tracker with a more convenient (dead) mate? Yes, yes they do, but they didn’t.)
Adelaide did not work for the Volturi hundreds of years ago, and so they had no reason to keep witches in the basement in bits.
Bella knew about Allirea’s power and apparently remembered long enough to tell Elspeth about it. I thought the Volteri would remember things that Demetri told them about his mate, even if they couldn’t notice her.
Keyword being Bella. She’s badass like that. :)
Demetri is also immune to Allirea’s power. Due to the magic bond he never sees her as unimportant.
OK, I obviously have not been doing a good job of thinking through the examples I’m using.
I’ll concede this point.