Speaking of insane, Pera is quite a munchkin, but yeah, wouldn’t have much of a resistance anymore without something like her what with the shitstorm that was the end of episode one, ergo not much of a story.
She seemed like just about the minimum entity I could postulate and still have Jacob’s pack running around as they were.
Very clever! The minimum entity powerful enough to somewhat hide Jacob’s pack; also the minimum entity powerful enough to draw the Volturi’s interest more than their ire. In retrospect, the experience with Alice ought to have taught us that Volturi like to collect witches if at all possible. And the phrase “if at all possible”, for a vampire council with probably-infinite patience, stretches over years.
I was surprised that lighting trees on fire would trump her ability: it suggests to me that the Volturi ought to try explosives instead of (comparatively) slow forest fires. Some sort of napalm wall?
That doesn’t sound too discreet. I suspect the Volturi think humans might notice if they started bombing the forest with napalm. And hiding the vampire world from humans is the main reason the Volturi exist (or why they claim to, anyway).
Hiding knowledge of the existence of the vampire world, yes.
Hiding knowledge of any activity performed by vampires, no.
Widespread awareness that someone bombed a forest with napalm ought be of no more concern than widespread awareness that someone blew up the World Trade Center. As long as nobody figures out who actually did it or why, the Volturi are fine.
That being said, the only way the Volturi make any sense to me at all is if they have a thousand-year-plan for world domination and don’t want to be rushed. And if I assume that level of conservatism, it’s not unreasonable that they only exert enough force to keep everyone in hiding, but not enough to actually wipe out the rebels.
She seemed like just about the minimum entity I could postulate and still have Jacob’s pack running around as they were.
Very clever! The minimum entity powerful enough to somewhat hide Jacob’s pack; also the minimum entity powerful enough to draw the Volturi’s interest more than their ire. In retrospect, the experience with Alice ought to have taught us that Volturi like to collect witches if at all possible. And the phrase “if at all possible”, for a vampire council with probably-infinite patience, stretches over years.
I was surprised that lighting trees on fire would trump her ability: it suggests to me that the Volturi ought to try explosives instead of (comparatively) slow forest fires. Some sort of napalm wall?
That doesn’t sound too discreet. I suspect the Volturi think humans might notice if they started bombing the forest with napalm. And hiding the vampire world from humans is the main reason the Volturi exist (or why they claim to, anyway).
Hiding knowledge of the existence of the vampire world, yes.
Hiding knowledge of any activity performed by vampires, no.
Widespread awareness that someone bombed a forest with napalm ought be of no more concern than widespread awareness that someone blew up the World Trade Center. As long as nobody figures out who actually did it or why, the Volturi are fine.
That being said, the only way the Volturi make any sense to me at all is if they have a thousand-year-plan for world domination and don’t want to be rushed. And if I assume that level of conservatism, it’s not unreasonable that they only exert enough force to keep everyone in hiding, but not enough to actually wipe out the rebels.
A forest fire’s a forest fire: I guess napalm is out, but enough accelerants to catch the wolves off-guard could be plausibly covered up.