Yay! Apparently I didn’t prevent people from liking her by having her first onscreen action be murder!
Bella isn’t immune to just every power that happens to come along. There are plenty of powers that will affect her normally, mostly those that have nothing to do with affecting or investigating her mind. Pera’s power does something close to the “alternate dimension” thing, but it’s not illusion (if it were, they wouldn’t have that problem where stuff can exist in the same place at the same time as long as one thing’s hidden and one’s not), doesn’t rely on attention like Allirea’s power does, and basically is not the correct class of power for Bella to be immune to.
Yay! Apparently I didn’t prevent people from liking her by having her first onscreen action be murder!
Well, if you don’t want your audience to be appalled by something, it really helps when your sympathetic viewpoint character isn’t appalled by it either. I think Allirea’s murderous introduction might be the most distilled example of that principle I’ve ever encountered, though.
if you don’t want your audience to be appalled by something
I wanted my audience mildly appalled. In order to make sense of Allirea’s motivations I had to introduce her as an imprisoned rape victim terrorized and controlled by the-guy-to-whom-she-is-mate, but she’s not a harmless fluffy bunny and I didn’t want anyone thinking of her like one.
(nods) If it helps, I’m appalled by many of the characters in this series.
It was extremely distracting at first, but by now I’ve more or less become accustomed to the “Well, yes, (s)he’s a serial killer, which is, you know, tacky, but what are you gonna do?” cultural norm. It’s amazing what you can get used to, really.
the-guy-to-whom-she-is-mate,
“Stalker” might be a good shorthand term for this.
Though, admittedly, a culture that assumes that of course you will live with your stalker and let them hug you and pet you and call you George has a… well, a different understanding of the concept than I do. (Ref “appalled,” above.)
I don’t care about spoilers, and I try not to think too much about the details of Allirea’s history with whatsisname. I’d be disgusted if I hadn’t (as above) more or less turned that filter off when reading this fic.
I cannot actually decide whether the matter-of-fact acceptance of serial murder is more or less disturbing to me than the matter-of-fact acceptance of forced prostitution. I suppose the fact that the latter is mostly restricted to the official Bad Guys (TM) helps a little.
Yay! Apparently I didn’t prevent people from liking her by having her first onscreen action be murder!
That’s mostly because the Volturi are so terrifying in your story. Vampires and half-vampires who eat people without any sadistic enjoyment of their victims death and pain, I can tolerate when the Volturi exists. When they don’t and some other evil organization hasn’t taken their place, I still see vampires who feed like that to be an issue of suggestion and coercion. I’d try to have intelligent debates with them on why they shouldn’t kill humans, or at least try to stick to criminals, and offer to help them do that if they’re willing. The natural order of things on Earth is that all things die or are destroyed and recreated in some other form, after all. Without extensive research on the effects to society and the ecosystem of Earth if a large part of humanity were to be turned immortal (in age), I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying it.
Anyway, Allirea hasn’t shown any sadistic tendencies yet, except perhaps for what she might to do a defenceless Demitri, but that’s all deserved. She’s been taught to kill humans and to think herself as part of a higher race, it’s not something she chose to do really. If she decides to stick with that belief after considerable evidence to the contrary I still won’t say she’s evil, unless she starts finding it enjoyable to terrorize people she now knows she may not have a right to do whatever she wishes with. Besides, I love all her quirks!
Aro and the Volturi however know all about morals but don’t care a squat about anything that doesn’t benefit them. I can imagine the Volturi of canon doing all this, but since it’s a love story at heart SM didn’t really write much about them and their deeds. If Alicorn’s story is an accurate portrayal of how the Volturi act under pressure, then I fear the happily-ever-after of canon was simply a prelude to slaughter of naive characters. Demitri would likely check when the rebellion broke up, and then they would storm in and kill the Cullen’s, Bella being their main target.
I fear the happily-ever-after of canon was simply a prelude to slaughter of naive characters.
Yeah, this was more or less how I felt about it too. The Volturi were temporarily outmaneuvered and might have to wait a bit before getting what they want.
It helps that she wasn’t properly onscreen until the murder was over, and that the victim was more of a dazed redshirt than a fully-developed character.
Yay! Apparently I didn’t prevent people from liking her by having her first onscreen action be murder!
Bella isn’t immune to just every power that happens to come along. There are plenty of powers that will affect her normally, mostly those that have nothing to do with affecting or investigating her mind. Pera’s power does something close to the “alternate dimension” thing, but it’s not illusion (if it were, they wouldn’t have that problem where stuff can exist in the same place at the same time as long as one thing’s hidden and one’s not), doesn’t rely on attention like Allirea’s power does, and basically is not the correct class of power for Bella to be immune to.
Well, if you don’t want your audience to be appalled by something, it really helps when your sympathetic viewpoint character isn’t appalled by it either. I think Allirea’s murderous introduction might be the most distilled example of that principle I’ve ever encountered, though.
I wanted my audience mildly appalled. In order to make sense of Allirea’s motivations I had to introduce her as an imprisoned rape victim terrorized and controlled by the-guy-to-whom-she-is-mate, but she’s not a harmless fluffy bunny and I didn’t want anyone thinking of her like one.
(nods) If it helps, I’m appalled by many of the characters in this series.
It was extremely distracting at first, but by now I’ve more or less become accustomed to the “Well, yes, (s)he’s a serial killer, which is, you know, tacky, but what are you gonna do?” cultural norm. It’s amazing what you can get used to, really.
“Stalker” might be a good shorthand term for this.
Though, admittedly, a culture that assumes that of course you will live with your stalker and let them hug you and pet you and call you George has a… well, a different understanding of the concept than I do. (Ref “appalled,” above.)
*giggle*
I hope it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Allirea’s dislike of nicknames is… relevant.
I don’t care about spoilers, and I try not to think too much about the details of Allirea’s history with whatsisname. I’d be disgusted if I hadn’t (as above) more or less turned that filter off when reading this fic.
I cannot actually decide whether the matter-of-fact acceptance of serial murder is more or less disturbing to me than the matter-of-fact acceptance of forced prostitution. I suppose the fact that the latter is mostly restricted to the official Bad Guys (TM) helps a little.
These really are awful people.
That’s mostly because the Volturi are so terrifying in your story. Vampires and half-vampires who eat people without any sadistic enjoyment of their victims death and pain, I can tolerate when the Volturi exists. When they don’t and some other evil organization hasn’t taken their place, I still see vampires who feed like that to be an issue of suggestion and coercion. I’d try to have intelligent debates with them on why they shouldn’t kill humans, or at least try to stick to criminals, and offer to help them do that if they’re willing. The natural order of things on Earth is that all things die or are destroyed and recreated in some other form, after all. Without extensive research on the effects to society and the ecosystem of Earth if a large part of humanity were to be turned immortal (in age), I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying it.
Anyway, Allirea hasn’t shown any sadistic tendencies yet, except perhaps for what she might to do a defenceless Demitri, but that’s all deserved. She’s been taught to kill humans and to think herself as part of a higher race, it’s not something she chose to do really. If she decides to stick with that belief after considerable evidence to the contrary I still won’t say she’s evil, unless she starts finding it enjoyable to terrorize people she now knows she may not have a right to do whatever she wishes with. Besides, I love all her quirks!
Aro and the Volturi however know all about morals but don’t care a squat about anything that doesn’t benefit them. I can imagine the Volturi of canon doing all this, but since it’s a love story at heart SM didn’t really write much about them and their deeds. If Alicorn’s story is an accurate portrayal of how the Volturi act under pressure, then I fear the happily-ever-after of canon was simply a prelude to slaughter of naive characters. Demitri would likely check when the rebellion broke up, and then they would storm in and kill the Cullen’s, Bella being their main target.
Yeah, this was more or less how I felt about it too. The Volturi were temporarily outmaneuvered and might have to wait a bit before getting what they want.
What? Canon has a ‘happily-ever-after’ in which the Volturi are not completely to the last man, woman and fiend? Crazy!
It helps that she wasn’t properly onscreen until the murder was over, and that the victim was more of a dazed redshirt than a fully-developed character.