10 Things I Hope Will Be Awesome about New Moon

I went to see Twilight for the second time today, and now feel that I have my wish list for the movie version of the saga's second book, New Moon. In no particular order:

1. The angst - I've said before that New Moon is probably my least favorite of the books, and while that's still true, it's slowly but surely growing on me and I think that its truly epic teen angst is part of that. I mean, they actively compare themselves to Romeo and Juliet. It may not be especially admirable behavior, but it is realistically teen-like and melodramatically awesome. Seeing Twilight and reading interviews with Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson have made me actively excited about seeing the depressing melodrama of New Moon embodied on screen. They both seem like they have reservations about the objective quality of the stories but also like they are genuinely psyched to delve into the suicidal behavior of their characters in New Moon. Going into my second viewing of Twilight knowing that New Moon was a done deal, I felt an irrational sense of glee watching the hospital scene near the end of the film, particularly with Edward's anguished, broken "Where else am I gonna go?" in response to Bella losing her shit over the idea of leaving Forks. Those two will take the angsty lemons of New Moon as it exists in print and make them into sweet, overwrought, melodramatic lemonade.

2. The casting - I think that Twilight was perfectly cast, even with the seeming impossibilities dictated by the physical descriptions of characters offered by the source material. It is my sincere hope that this quality in casting will carry over into New Moon. Barring the mass influx of vampires in the last book of Breaking Dawn, practically every character who is important to the series is introduced by the end of New Moon - the wolf pack, the Volturi, and (briefly) Seth and Leah Clearwater. As someone who's academically interested in the representation of racial and ethnic minorities in popular culture, I'm jazzed about the opportunity for Native American actors offered by New Moon. Hopefully, they'll be a little lax with the whole seven-feet-tall thing and just focus on finding great actors for the various Quileutes we meet as the wolf pack are introduced. Additionally, as I've said before, I'm excited about seeing Jane (and the rest of the Volturi) embodied - it will be interesting to see whether the first film's success will bring in some big names for Aro, Marcus and Caius.

3. The soundtrack - So, the Twilight soundtrack is kind of my new most favorite thing in the whole wide world. In the past few week, I have listened to it enough times that it dominates the Top 25 on my iTunes practically in its entirety. I am fully obsessed with "Flightless Bird, American Mouth." Not only is the soundtrack a good compilation in and of itself, the songs were impeccably matched with scenes in the movie - "Supermassive Black Hole" and baseball? Amazing. I can only hope that the New Moon soundtrack is comparable. Suicidal angst offers a lot of options for quality songs both broad and nuanced, and if they stick with the formula of drawing from the favorites of Stephenie Meyer as well as those making the film, the New Moon soundtrack should be just as excellent as its predecessor.

4. The sourcing - Melissa Rosenberg's condensing of Twilight worked much better than I expected it to, and I think she'll do a great job with New Moon. Entirely based on my own personal opinion, there are a few things that I hope she draws out of Meyer's work and brings into the story - a) Fleshing out the first chapter - one of the things that is fascinating to me about the saga as a whole is the time gap in the narration between Twilight and New Moon. There's a good four to six months that the reader doesn't see when Edward and Bella are together with minimal drama. (I was going to say "no drama" but then I thought about it and realized that if their relationship were a solar system, the sun would be Drama.) Showing some of that summer, which Bella describes in the first chapter, with the debates about attending college and vampire transformation, would show some of the depth of their relationship and counteract the time in the middle when he's gone. b) Bringing in Jacob's sense of humor - I read or watched an interview with Rosenberg where she stated that she has now read the series through Breaking Dawn, and I can only hope that she will thus introduce into New Moon one of the best aspects of Breaking Dawn, Jacob's general hilarity. The book from his point of view made me enjoy his character in a way which I previously did not, and making him a truly dynamic character would do wonders for New Moon. And c) Using Stephenie's extras - the New Moon extra posted on Stephenie Meyer's website from Edward's point of view is one of my favorite things that she's written - the angst and conflict expressed in it are about ten times more depressing than anything Bella says in New Moon and it's pretty revelatory in terms of his thoughts and actions, even though it's brief. I think that the mutuality of their unhealthy attachment to one another can be lost in Bella's point of view, so I would love to see some of his wallowing in abject misery.

5. The effects - It's not exactly news that the special effects in Twilight were...subpar. Fans who followed the development of the film knew that the low budget was what we got along with story fidelity, so it wasn't disappointing, necessarily, just kind of lame. However, the gobs of money currently being taken in by the first film should mean good things for New Moon, particularly since they've got even more work to do. When I purchased my ticket yesterday, I thought to myself, "Don't think of it as a nine dollar movie ticket. Think of it as a nine dollar investment in the wolves not looking appallingly shitty." Between the wolves, who are supposed to be horse-sized, which is crazy, and the stunt work involved in Bella's death-wish fulfillment motorcycle rides and cliff-diving, they've got their work cut out for them. Let's hope the stellar box office will make up the difference between imagination and enactment.

6. Charlie Swan - For me, the unforeseen pleasant surprise of Twilight was Billy Burke as Charlie - he and Kristen Stewart played off of each other incredibly well to the point where I was imagining how they would perform some of the classic Bella-and-Charlie scenes of the rest of the series, particularly his awkward attempt at a sex talk in Eclipse and the engagement announcement in Breaking Dawn. New Moon builds emotionally on the father-daughter relationship foundation established in Twilight as Charlie gets up close and personal with Bella's Crazy in Edward's absence. The scene where he explains to Alice what happened during the four-month time jump is heart-rending, and one of my favorites in the book.

7. The birthday party - I've mentioned before (somewhere, I can't find it) that I love the suspenseful ending to the first chapter of New Moon. Objectively, you know that Bella's not going to get eaten, but you also know that the situation is going nowhere good. I think that Twilight did a good job of establishing the degree to which all of the Cullens have blood issues - Alice's difficulty with helping Bella after the fight in the ballet studio was an addition that worked well in the film. If the bloodletting and resultant tension are well done, it would make an unbelievable teaser trailer scene.

8. Alice and the Porsche - There's a reason my quote for Alice's Badass entry was from her car theft in New Moon - it's one of my favorite moments from my favorite character in the series. Generally speaking, I'm not wedded to Stephenie Meyer's dialogue (not like the "lion fell in love with the lamb" people for whom she apparently intervened) but I really want the "grand theft auto" line to make it into the movie. There's something about the image of the bright yellow sports car zooming through Italy that begs to be become part of the film.

9. The vote - The Cullens aren't in New Moon much, but I love the scenes when they are. Bella's decision to take her human vs. vampire fate to the family and ask them to make the call presents an opportunity for each character to express themselves and reinforces the degree to which she really has joined them as part of the unit. I have this kind of tribunal image in my mind of all of them gathered around the table and voting one by one. A personal fave, I guess.

10. Taylor Lautner's hair - Lots of Twilight reviews mentioned the middling quality of the movie's special effects, but few, if any, discussed the tragic wig situation impinging on Taylor Lautner's jailbait adorableosity. My one truly shallow hope for New Moon is that his hair-shearing-necessitating transformation from boy to wolf occurs early on in the film, so they can just let him be with his naturally short hair.

Oh, Tyra

Why are you so crazy?

Other Geekery

Twilight having been released means that I, maybe, will finally move on to another pop-culture obsession.  It's not abnormal for me to veer between various TV shows or songs or teen phenomena, or whatever, but it would be nice to find something else to occupy my time, at least until the whole psycho fangirl cycle begins again when they film New Moon.  I'm particularly looking forward to the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

BSG was my obsession of January 2007 - I watched all the episodes up until that point in a marathon session that consumed my life and scared my roommate.  Of all the cliffhanger half-season endings they've had, "the humans, at peace with the Cylons, land on Earth but it's a barren wasteland" was by far the craziest and most intriguing yet. I'm looking forward to seeing what they've got in store for the audience come January.

My Favorite Adaptations: The Wizard of Oz

When I was younger, I spent my summers attending day camp at a local private school that's been around for decades.  One of my favorite things there was the library and its old editions of old, or even out-of-print books.  They had practically the full set of Oz books, even the later ones written after L. Frank Baum died.  With such a vivid imagination, it's no surprise that his work was turned into a vibrant, iconic film.

I don't have much commentary to add here, just to say that The Wizard of Oz never gets old.  It's one of the few films I watch just as eagerly today as I would have fifteen years ago.

My Two Cents

Generally speaking, I don't have a problem with Rolling Stone's "However Many Greatest Songs/Singers/Albums/Guitar Players, etc. of All Time" lists, because I think they're kind of fun to read through and learn new things about rock history and one can make delightful music playlists from them.  I'm in the midst of working on a paper for class about the MTV VMAs, which have a totally mysterious voting process, so RS's process of balloting among artists and music journalists is refreshingly transparent, and an interesting way of conducting the formation of such a list.  Probably they should call them "Our Favorite" instead of "The Greatest," since I think the presumption of authority is what gets people all riled up about the lists.  Anyway, the point is, I usually don't quibble, but Grace Slick was robbed of a spot on their recent "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" (or, if you go by their description of the voting instructions, the rock era) list:

I've always loved "Somebody to Love," but after I recently watched Monterey Pop for the first time, "High Flying Bird" jumped into the top 25 Most Played on my iTunes. Isn't that beautiful? Also, the woman can wear a headband - this performance gives me an unreasonable desire to have bangs.

My Favorite Adaptations: Clueless

Clueless represents a deviation from two trends in my personal book-to-movie adaptation m.o. - I saw the movie before reading the book it was based on, and I liked the movie more than the book.  Generally speaking, I'm a Jane Austen fan.  This past weekend I used time that should have been devoted to academic reading to reading Persuasion again, and it was positively delightful.  I have to say, though, that of her six novels, Emma is my least favorite.  It's a book at which I had to make more than one go - that is, the first time I started to read it I got bogged down midway through, such that when I finally picked it up again I had to start over from the beginning.  (This was my undoing with The Fellowship of the Ring.  Two tries have proved fruitless, and I seriously doubt that I have the fortitude to try again, although I do plan to see the movie someday.)  Of all Austen's heroines, I find Emma the least sympathetic and actually kind of annoying.  In fact, it's fair to say that I might never have made it through Emma if not for Clueless.

In an academic sense, I disapprove of Cliffs Notes, but I have to give Clueless credit for providing the basic plot/character outline that I needed to maintain my focus while reading Emma.  The film has just the right balance of adherence to the source material and updating, making it one of the best, if not the best, of the "classic-of-English-literature-updated-as-a-teen-movie" genre.*  Also: Paul Rudd being dreamy.  How can you lose?

*Other successes, in my opinion, would include Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, which is a visually stunning movie, and 10 Things I Hate About You, which is wittier and better-acted than some of its peers and still makes me laugh out loud.  A miss would be She's the Man, which is also funny, but mainly because it's kind of terrible and really highlights the massive suspension of disbelief that forms the heart of Twelfth Night.  It showcases perhaps the best use of Amanda Bynes' histrionic acting style that I've ever seen, but there is no point during the movie where it is at all believable that she's a boy.  Since these are based on plays, which come prepared to be staged, I'm not writing full posts about them.

My Favorite Adaptations: Little Women

So, a few years ago when Batman Begins came out, I felt myself getting filled with giddy excitement about it, like, all the time.  One day I just had to ask myself, "Self, why do you love Christian Bale so much?" A moment of contemplation revealed the answer: Little Women.  When I was younger, I loved this movie so much, especially Bale's Laurie.  I still haven't ever seen Empire of the Sun or American Psycho, but Little Women has earned him an enduring place in my heart.  Beyond elementary-school-era crushes, the truly great thing about Little Women is that as I've grown older and plowed through Louisa May Alcott's classic read a few times the film has only grown in my esteem.

What this film version, adapted by Robin Swicord, does that others don't is place the Marches in their historical milieu and flesh them out into real people.  Watching the March sisters pass an injured soldier in the street brings the Civil-War-era setting of the story home in a way that the knowledge of their absent father, away at war, simply doesn't.  The performances breathe life into characters that have been re-imagined and re-embodied enough times to seem rote.  Claire Danes in particular gives a three-dimensionality to Beth, a character who basically exists to be tragic, that makes predecessors seem especially shallow and treacly.  Additionally, like the later Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March by Geraldine Brooks, Little Women conflates the Alcotts with the Marches, bringing in some of their Transcendentalist philosophy and making Marmee a tough proto-feminist.  In this version of Little Women, the Marches and their companions don't just come off of the page, they live.  Nearly fifteen years after its release, I will still drop everything to sit and watch this movie.

Just for Me

Have you ever encountered a product that seemed like it was made just for you? Like to kind of a creepy degree?

I was in the grocery store and I saw this Green Tea Ginger Ale and I almost did some kind of embarrassing dance in the aisle because mixing tea and ginger ale together is one of my favorite things to to, beverage-wise.  It's like the Canada Dry people said to themselves, "Selves, let's forget mass appeal for a second. What would Liz like?" and then they dispatched someone to hang outside my window and watch my drink-mixing habits and the watcher reported back that I might like it if the tea and ginger ale came pre-mixed. Which I really, really, do. 

Sometimes, you just have to take your joy where you can get it.

A New Project!

In a project along the same lines as the Badass Ladies, I've decided to write about my favorite book-to-movie translations, why they're my favorites, and the different adaptive techniques they use. First, Honorable Mention Gossip Girl:

I decided that Gossip Girl only sort of marginally counts, since it's a TV show rather than a movie. Using the deliciously trashy book series by Cecily Von Ziegesar as a jumping-off point, the show has both retained and changed elements from the books to create a first-class guilty-pleasure television experience. Some characters have been greatly enhanced by their TV incarnations - Ed Westwick's Chuck Bass has turned into this epically manipulative, womanizing character (as opposed to the pet-monkey-toting background joke that the character often is in the books), and the choice of Kristen Bell to voice the eponymous anonymous rumormonger was inspired - while a few have been done a disservice - the show has turned Vanessa the kind-of-punk filmmaker classmate with a shaved head and healthy cynicism about the goings-on of her peers into Vanessa the kind-of-whiny hipster with only marginal ties to the UES milieu of most of the characters.

A pleasant surprise of the show's second season is that the writers have returned to the books to provide new storylines. I know that some shows will use a book as inspiration, then move into their own stories as the show progresses (I've heard that this is the case with Dexter, but I don't know because I haven't read the books). Gossip Girl, however, has drawn characters and situations from the books into the adapted world that exists in the show - as a Yalie I was excited to see them bring in Blair's single-minded obsession with the school, even if the episode set at "Yale" was kind of a farce (in my elitist opinion :)). I, for one, am really hoping that they decide to incorporate Dan's uber-pretentious literary salon. For the most part, Gossip Girl the show encompasses the best of what its source material has to offer and uses it to achieve new heights of over-the-top soapiness every week.

Radical Friends

I know this is totally played out, but can I just talk about this for a minute?

The conservative demonization of Barack Obama for even daring to spend one second in the same zip code as Bill Ayers has been making me angry for some time now, but the fact that it's still being brought up now, after the election, is just another story entirely.  Because, here's the thing: separate from any endorsement of violence as a political tactic, there's a fundamental misunderstanding of the ideology of the Weather Underground that is making all this finger-pointing especially egregious.  Apart from the fact that Ayers and his former cohort have not bombed anything in decades, they branched off from SDS and decided to utilize violence because they didn't feel that their voices were being heard otherwise.  If they had had the political power that comes from, say, being the president (or being "friends" with the president), then they wouldn't have bombed anything because they would have had non-violent avenues open to them to enable the end of the Vietnam War. 

Just wanted to put that out there.  There is a thoroughly excellent documentary that delves into the issues at hand even further, if you're curious.  If we're going to drag up stuff from the Nixon Administration, then let's use some critical thinking, please.

Mood Music

You know how there's, like, a specific time of the semester that is designated as "Midterm"? And then sometimes your own personal Midterm is not at the same time as Official Midterm, and it seems like you and only you are swamped with work? Monday was like that for me.  I'm only now starting to feel non-zombie-like after a serious nap this evening.  

When I was flagging over the weekend, I listened a lot to the Girl Talk album "Feed the Animals." It's like pure energy in music form.  As someone who listens to a lot of music, but not in a musician/technician sense, I'm in awe of the ability to pick and pair hooks in mashups like this.  The corresponding mash-up fan videos that go with the songs visually display the complexity of each track.

My favorite from "Feed the Animals," "In Step" - I love the juxtaposition of "Push It" and "Lithium"

And "Overtime" from "Night Ripper" - the use of Fleetwood Mac is kind of mind blowing.

Badass Ladies of the Twilight Universe: Stephenie Meyer

“Numbers are easy to change.  Moving is harder.  They’ll have to drag me out of this place on a plank.  Before I move, I’m going to put up a fence and get shepherds.  And then I’ll have a button and get to say ‘Release the hounds!’” (Entertainment Weekly, 7/18/08, p.26)

Because: Duh.  Obviously, I had to end with the woman who created said universe, bringing together the fictional and real women I've obsessively chronicled over the past two-and-a-half weeks.

True story: When I first read Twilight, I liked it but I didn't love it.  I was sufficiently intrigued by the chapter of New Moon included at the end of the book to go ahead and order it and Eclipse (a genius decision on the part of Little, Brown if ever there was one - I mean, common sense tells you that the second chapter of New Moon isn't going to begin "And then Bella was eaten. The End." but the whole setup is still unbelievably dramatically enticing), but it hadn't really tipped over into full-tilt obsession.  Interest shifted into fascination and then addiction when I first visited Stephenie Meyer's website, a veritable treasure trove of fan fuel.  

It's fairly astonishing, what Meyer has accomplished in five years' time.  Over three months after the release of Breaking Dawn, all four books in the saga are still in Amazon's top ten.  Entertainment Weekly are kind of her bitches now. The out-of-control swirl of hype around the film is ultimately rooted in her work.  

Meyer's seen a lot of criticism, both of herself and of her work, as the saga has become more and more popular.  Some people seem to see her as a goody-two-shoes moralizer, a reading that I personally just don't get.  Some academic more well-versed in LDS theology and traditions than I can take on that land mine, but I think that any woman who refers to Cinderella as an "abused shut-in" is doing at least a bit more critical thinking about gender tropes than people are giving her credit for.  A sardonic sense of humor comes through in statements like the one shared in the above quote, in which she addresses the sometimes-overzealous fans of the series.  The literary references in the saga show a genuine love of reading and thinking about books - what other novel popular with teenagers references The Merchant of Venice? Her FAQs on each book show her to be extremely thoughtful, and responses in which she directly addresses the arguments that the books are anti-feminist are well-reasoned and thought-provoking.  In interviews, she has adamantly rejected the idea that her stories should be taken as prescriptive of anyone's behavior, and whenever I've seen her asked about a moral to the saga, she's declined to give even a relatively innocuous one.  Maybe it's in the eye of the beholder, but I see capability and intelligence in Meyer and her work.

Finally, by far the most badass act by Stephenie Meyer has been her decision to suspend work on Midnight Sun.  I won't lie, I was seriously disappointed when she made that decision - the first chapter of the book, posted for a long time on her website, was what really drew me in on that first visit mentioned above, and I was probably more excited about Midnight Sun than Breaking Dawn.  The fan backlash following Meyer's suspension of the book shows the degree to which her decision was, in my opinion, admirable.  In the face of a rabid fandom, what must be serious publishing revenues and ever-increasing hype, it was brave to choose herself and her work.  She asserted her agency over the world she created, an unpopular act to be sure, but, in my eyes, seriously badass.  I look forward to seeing what comes from her next, Twilight universe or otherwise.

Two weeks!

Badass Ladies of the Twilight Universe: Alice Cullen

“‘How far is it from Florence to Volterra?’

‘That depends on how fast you drive….Bella?’

‘Yes?’

She eyed me speculatively.  ‘How strongly are you opposed to grand theft auto?’” (New Moon, 439)*

When I first encountered the accusations that Twilight was anti-feminist, one of the major reasons that I was shocked was that they all seemed to exclude Alice.  Outside of the Big Three of Bella, Edward and Jacob, Alice is arguably the next most important character in the saga.  I mean:

Starting out, the clip gets a basically excited reaction from the audience (I mean, how psyched must the Volvo marketing people be? What other mega-hyped teen romance is going to have their male lead driving a Volvo?) but they collectively lose their shit when Alice shows up.  Because she is awesome. (Can I digress for a minute and talk about how much I love this clip? It's both legit-awesome and cheesy-awesome, which is all I want in Twilight the movie. The Cullens seem note-perfect, especially Nikki Reed's bitchface as Rosalie and the expression of "Oh My God, you guys, CHILL OUT" that Robert Pattinson wears throughout the kitchen scene. Then the tree-climbing, and the piano, and it's so, so cheesy and I love it.)

Alice’s prescience makes her a vital part of the Cullen family, and she plays a significant role in the final conflicts of each book.  In Twilight and Eclipse, her contributions are mainly strategic, enabling them to find Bella at the ballet studio and prepare for the coming newborn army, respectively.  In New Moon, she and Bella work together to intervene in Edward's suicide attempt and save him from his own melodramatic impulses.  Additionally, when Edward can’t bring himself to confirm Bella’s future as a vampire to Aro, Alice is the one who steps up to rescue the situation.  Breaking Dawn shows the second situation where Bella and Alice act in tandem, this time saving everyone’s asses from the wrath of the Volturi.  First, Bella holds everyone off with the awesome power of her mind, then Alice bounces in all “Surprise Witness for the Defense!” In my opinion, it’s a pretty awesome display of girl power.  (I think also that it speaks volumes to the male-female dynamic in the series that the Volturi are one of the most straightforwardly patriarchal groups.  There are women in the guard, but the central family is dominated by the men.  The wives are non-entities, and the only one of them who ever wielded any power was killed.)

It's maybe less badass than interesting, but in my opinion Alice's detachment from a human past, and resultant fascination with the trappings of humanity make her one of the most complex characters in the series.  She's essentially the counterpoint to Rosalie, who is driven by the fact that she deeply misses being human. (Another digression: If I were the kind of person who is compelled to write fanfic, mine would be like a sitcom spinoff where the young women of the Cullen coven go off on their own and open up some sort of roadside shop: "Alice and Rosalie's Fortune Telling and Car Repair.") I love the moment in Eclipse when Alice expresses her excitement over having a sleepover – she seems to recognize that kidnapping Bella on Edward’s behalf is kind of a dick move, but she also is genuinely excited over having a real sleepover, like something that she always wanted but never got to have. 

Within Alice's story, one of the things that I find most interesting about the Cullens is the agency that the women derived from their transition from human to vampire.  As young women in early twentieth-century America, all three were held down by their circumstances.  Esme was stuck in a loveless marriage to an abusive husband, Rosalie was brutalized and left for dead by her fiancé, and Alice was institutionalized by her family.  The empowerment and freedom derived from becoming a vampire work to support Stephenie Meyer’s contention that Bella’s needing to be saved is a result of her being a human rather than her being female.  Basically, what it just sums up to is there being more women in the series beyond Bella, each representing a different point of view, history and experience.

*Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006. 

Badass Ladies of the Twilight Universe: Rosalie Hale

“‘I saved Royce for last.  I hoped that he would hear of his friends’ deaths and understand, know what was coming for him.  I hoped the fear would make the end worse for him.  I think it worked.  He was hiding inside a windowless room behind a door as thick as a ban vault’s, guarded outside by armed me, when I caught up with him.  Oops – seven murders,’ she corrected herself.  ‘I forgot about his guards.  They only took a second.’” (Eclipse, 163)*

The above quote comes from what is probably my favorite chapter in the entire series.  Eclipse is perhaps the most character-driven of the books, with a lot of different people putting their cards on the table and leveling with one another.  While I enjoy Jasper's account of his past and Edward and Jacob's Big Emo Talk about Their Feelings in the tent, Rosalie's explanation of why she's been so unpleasant to Bella shows her to be one of the most interesting characters in the saga.  In Twilight and New Moon she's sort of in the background, clearly disapproving but not explaining why.  Her story as told when she breaks her silence in Eclipse is thus deeply affecting, and takes on a deeper significance in Breaking Dawn as it helps Bella to know that Rosalie is exactly crazy enough to help her keep her improbable monster baby.  Rosalie, in her own way, provides a counter-narrative to the Great and Epic Love of Edward and Bella by refusing to completely buy into it.  She thinks that choosing to become a vampire is a terrible decision, and has a well-reasoned explanation for why that is.  Like Leah, Rosalie is not particularly interested in tailoring her opinion to make it more palatable to those around her. Also, if anything in this saga is badass, it is most definitely Rosalie's tale of violent revenge against the men who did her wrong as a human.

I also love that Rosalie's own love story (in a universe comprised of soul-mate pairings) involves her as the savior, as does Alice's. Alice rescues Jasper emotionally, taking him away from a life of people-eating-derived clinical depression.  Rosalie saves Emmett physically, intervening in a bear attack that nearly kills him as a human.  Basically, Edward's not the only hero in his family.  I just love Rosalie and her unrepentantly unpleasant, auto-fixing self.  

*Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.