November 03, 2008

Jacob Black, pedophile?

In the comments to Jacob Black's Final Fate, a Real Native American Twilight Fan took me to task:As a Twilight Fan, I'm offended by this entry. As a Native American, I disagree with the entry as well. Again, it has nothing to do with race. Why do you seek it out to be? The only thing I'm offended by is how they didn't really cast a Native to play Jacob in the movie. ... I have a cousin who would play him perfectly. ... No one sees Jacob as a Pedophile ... except non Twilight fans who didn't read the book. ... If anything we're rooting for him to be happy ... which has nothing to deal with his race. ... "Because Native Americans are oh so unhappy." ... Is that according to Stephanie Meyer?My first response:

Real Fan, I'm offended by your being offended. No, actually, don't bother with this line of complaint. Your emotional state is irrelevant to the issues I raised.

If you have something to say about the content of my posting, go ahead and say it. But don't waste my time sharing your "feelings." The only thing that interests me is whether my assessment is accurate or not.

Jacob's pedophilia

I quoted one fan who's read the books and associated Jacob's actions with pedophilia. Here are some more quotes on the subject:

Why does everyone hate Jacob Black?I noticed a few people called [Jacob] a pedophile.More than Anyone--Renesmee Cullen/Jacob Black"Mm nothing tastes better that baby love." -- Jacob Black: Pedophile esquire.JACOB BLACK!  Cause he's cute and cuddlyI can't believe she made Jacob a pedo!!! Jacob, my Jacob! Seriously, Jacob was a bad ass super sexy awesome force of Native American man! What the hell?Jacob Black:  Love him or Loathe him?He's an a**hole. I loathe him. And this is coming from a fan of Jacob Black--previously. He's a pedophile, for crying out loud! That's disgusting.Running at Midnight [Jacob Black]"Well at least I'm not a fucking pedophile who's in love with a toddler!"So your claim that "no one sees Jacob as a pedophile" is flatly wrong. Care to try again?

Obviously no one is saying Jacob is literally a pedophile who molests children. They're saying his relationship with Renesmee has aspects of pedophilia. It's poorly conceived and a mistake, in their opinion.

For more exchanges with Real Fan, see Noble Savages in Twilight and Twilight's Missed Opportunity. For more on the subject, see Quileute Werewolves in Twilight.

P.S. I corrected Real Fan's highly irregular use of ellipses and periods to make his comments more readable.

Below:  "Protect me, you big, bad hunk of man-wolf!"

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

By the way...,

It is indeed quite possible for a relationship to have aspects of pedophilia, e.g., two Sundays ago I was at my local Home Depot where as I waited in line I noticed a physically child-like (4'-7" in height and weighing perhaps 80 pounds), young (early twenties or even late teens) Asian female in the company of a grizzled old fat boy military retiree (who just so happened to be white and was about 6'-5" and maybe 280 pounds).

Anyway, the female was this man's wife (who could barely speak English in the voice of a ten-year old girl), but she was so, so very child-like in every respect that I was near sickened by the sight of them together.

Anonymous said...

I admit I read all the books partially because I am a compulsive reader but anyways. This is what I got from her description of imprinting that while his love was still a child he didn't really feel romance more brotherly love and a sense of being attached by fate. So the romance develops later. So can be interpreted as pedophilia. Also I am italo-american my father was born there and many italo-americans are interpreted as either fat cooks or mafia men which is lamer than being a cool werewolf. I got the since that that tribe of indians were like the chosen people to be the gaurdians against the unnatural vampires. Also back to the imprinting there are two magical creatures vampires and werewolves. Vampires dont really imprint on people as they eat them. Werewolves mate with humans. So werewolves imprint looking back the first imprint that we hear about I feel is a foreshadowing for when jacob imprints.

Anonymous said...

Sorry if its hard to follow my comment my thoughts go too fast to type ending up in sometimes confusing sentences. Im more of a visual artist than writer.

Anonymous said...

I haven't finished the book but I have mixed feelings about this. Jacob is/was my favorite character. I really wanted him and Bella together however, I always knew that would not happen. She was destined for edward long before she and Jacob began to have romantic feelings. As for imprinting. They book says it's not voluntary. They don't chose to imprint on someone. Quil, his friend, imprints on a toddler. However, it shows their relationship as really like her faviorite uncle or older brother. He is very protective of her but not romantic with her in any way or form. However, he isn't really interested in other females any longer although he could date if he wanted to. It's simply implied that when Claire (the little girl) grows up she will likely accept Quil and then things will be romantic. Since they (the werewolves) don't age he would be still physically be 16 or 17. This would be the same for Jacob and the little girl he imprinted on. Not all of them imprint on younger girls. In fact these were the only two. The others imprinted on women their own age currently. Other have not imprinted at all.

I wish the author had given Jacob a better ending. He was the hero of the series in my opinion. Even though he was only 16 and made tons of mistakes but I don't understand how people hate him. His main thought was to save Bella's humanity (his childhood friend and the woman he eventually loved) and he was willing to do whatever it took to protect her from Edwards which he saw as evil, even if it cost him his life and even if she didn't love him as much as she did Edward. I thought he was Noble and awesome and conflicted and the most REAL of them all. I understand for those fans of Bella/Edwards Romeo/Juliet type of romance that they feel Jacob to be an interloper. But really I think they misunderstand his character.

I think as an alternative he should have been with Leah, who was in his pack (female werewolf). She loved him. She had been jilted by Sam the alpha in the other pack and understood Jacob and his unrequited love for Bella as she had experienced the same way with Sam. They had a lot in common. Leah was a bit bitter at first, but after awhile she was very cool and quite a warrior. She was a strong woman for Jacob. To me that would been an end more fitting for Jacob. His character deserved that.

However, hopefully the author will explore a relationship with Jacob/Renesme when she is grown and it won't seem so pedophilic - if there is another book. I would be curious to see what happens with them when she is grown.

I never though of it as pedioliphilia and was stunned when people were calling him a pedophile because it was made very very clear in the books there was absolutly no romantic feelings to at this point. I know the whole thing seems weird but somehow in the Twilight world it works out.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the person above me. Jacob is my favourite character in these books and I didn't like the ending. I think he would have diserved something better (yes, I admit I wish he could have been together with Bella!). But well, it was an easy ending, everybody is happy and as Jacob imprinted on Renesmee his love for Bella is gone so everybody can have their "happily ever after"...

As for the pedophilia thing, there is set in the book that there is no romantic aspect in the relationship until the girl is fully matured and is beginning to look for that. And by the way, Edward is something like 100 years old, maybe not his body but his mind is, and Bella is what 16-17 in the beginning and that's a biggest difference than it will ever be between Jacob and Renesmee! But I guess this is normal.

As for why people hate Jacob, I can't really understand it either. But nowadays it has become so easy to hate something without any reason. It's maybe because most of the girls are "totally in love" with Edward who is so beautiful, thoughtful, talented and... hot! (and too 'calculated' up to me, it's a bit boring) and they think Jacob doesn't stand a chance and they don't see why he's still bothering trying. But for me too, he is the more real, not normal but real with strong feelings, conflicts, and he has a huge heart! But it seems that girls always go for the bad guy... :)

903Juli said...

Wow, what an interesting thread... This is probably the most mature discussion of this subject I've yet to see online.

Jacob is by FAR my favorite character in the books. Even as a mature woman, I physically felt my heart ache for his pain. That hasn't happened for almost 20 years since I "fell in love" with the character Nick Andros in Stephen King's "The Stand".

Being mature as stated above, I've learned through experience that flighty, tortured, sensitive intellectual type guys are overrated and can destroy your self esteem. That's what Edward represented to me. Jacob was warm and human and passionate and REAL. Mistakes, flaws and all, give me Mr. Black's beating heart over Mr. Cullen's still, self-absorbed one any day of the week.

That said, I was VERY unhappy with the sickening fate Stephenie Meyer chose to bestow upon a character she claimed to be so fond of. I knew he and Bella wouldn't end up together in the end (Bella was an annoying moron, anyway), but the vampire-spawn kid??? It's not that I find it pedophilic... I think the attachment is adequately explained so as to alleviate any of those assumptions. It's just that as one other poster mentioned, Jacob is a red-blooded, hot, hormonal male with needs. Yet Ms. Meyer decides to sentence him to virginity until he's well into his 20s??? Disgusting. He'd have been better served as a character and we as his fans by him falling for Leah.

But then, I guess I'm not as sensitive to the pedophile angle as most because I'm married to a hot Native American guy 15 years my junior. lol

Thanks for the intelligent discussion forum!

Lynette Hughes said...

Just found this one to add. http://www.tmz.com/2008/12/19/furious-twilight-fans-cyber-attack-replacement/8#comments

105. who cares? jacob is a douche! TEAM EDWARD BITCHES!!! besides, he's just gonna become a pedafile anyway.
Posted at 9:44PM on Mar 1st 2009 by lily

Anonymous said...

Under no circumstance have I ever even thought 'Jacob' and 'pedophile' in the same sentence intill now. It is clearly explaned in Eclipse, the third book of the Twilight Saga, on page 176, when Jacob is talking to Bella about how his friend Quil imprinted on Claire, who is two:
"I've seen what it's like, through his eyes. There's nothing romantic about it at all, not for Quil, not now." He[Jacob]took a deep breath, frustrated. "It's so hard to describe. It's not like love at first sight, really. It's more like... gravity moves. When you see her, suddenly it's not the earth holding you here anymore. She does. And nothing matters more than her. And you would do anything for her, be anything for her... You become whatever she needs you to be, whether that's a protecter, or a lover, or a friend, or a brother.
"Quil will be the best, kindest big brother any kid ever had. There isn't a toddler on the planet that will be more carefully looked after than that little girl. And then, when she's older and needs a friend, he'll be more understanding, trustworthy, and reliable than anyone else she knows. And then, when she's grown up, they'll be as happy as Emily and Sam." A strange, bitter edge sharpened his tone at the very end, when he spoke of Sam.
"Dosen't Claire get a choice here?" [Bella asked]
"Of course. But why wouldn't she choose him, in the end? He'll be her perfect match. Like he was desighned for her alone."
-End-
Obviously, the same rules apply to Jacob and Renesmee. Next time you want to point fingers, get your facts straight. Okay, Robby-Poo?

OliviaMonroe said...

very well said by the poster above me who quoted pg 176.

Anonymous said...

While I agree that the books explicitly state, that the relationship between Renesmee and Jacob won't be a romantic one until Renesmee is an adult, I still think it's creepy.

Imagine the person who acts like a brother/uncle/friend for most of your life, who helps RAISE you, telling you he wants to have sex with you once you've grown!

That's called Child Grooming, people, look it up!