Let’s be real; Eclipse was the book that made most of us realize that Edward’s siblings were infinitely more interesting than him and Bella. Rosalie’s tragic tale of how she became a vampire? Jasper’s upbringing as a non-vegetarian under the influence of Maria?
I always did have a soft spot for Alice, but Eclipse solidified my opinion that Jasper and Rosalie had a lot more to them than met the eye.
For the 15th anniversary of Eclipse‘s publication, here are my reasons why Eclipse was the book that made us finally relate to and understand the Hale twins, without them being just ‘the blonde Cullen siblings’.
1. Rosalie’s Reasoning for not wanting Bella to become a Vampire
The reason behind Rosalie’s transformation was terrible. She had been gang-raped by her fiance and left for dead before Carlisle found and transformed her. Unfortunately, as all Rosalie wanted in life was to fall in love, marry someone, and have babies, turning into a vampire was one of the worst things that could possibly happen to her.
She tells Bella that she would give up everything, her soulmate, Emmett, her family, her beauty, her immortality, all of it if she could be human and have a child. Knowing how much she had lost, she explains to Bella why she has been envious of her all along and why Bella shouldn’t voluntarily become a vampire. Her explanations endear her to the readers and show that she’s not quite as shallow as she initially seems.
2. Jasper’s Backstory
The so-called Hale twins had arguably the worst transformations ever. Jasper was transformed by a vampire called Maria, who created him as part of her newborn army for conquering territory. Thanks to his gift of controlling emotions, he was extremely useful to her and knew nothing but killing.
His eventual escape led to Alice finding him and his eventual happy-ever-after, but his backstory finally explained to us why he was finding ‘vegetarianism’ so difficult and what brought Alice and Jasper, the only two of the Cullen clan not related by venom, to the family.
3. The Training Scene
The training scene in Eclipse was arguably one of the best parts of both the books and the movie. Jasper and Alice’s fight scene was so darn cute and Alice being one of the few people who can actually beat Jasper in a fight? Even with her premonition powers, that is serious GOALS.
These scenes were even funnier in the movie than they were in the book. Flashback time to vampire baseball…baseball has never been more interesting to me HAHA.
4. Jasper Getting Bitten To Protect Alice
In the final fight against Victoria’s newborn army, Jasper tried to be everywhere at once and actually got bitten protecting Alice from the newborns. Even though Alice was more than capable of taking care of herself, he still did everything he could to protect her. That is ROMANTIC, albeit a little foolish….
5. Both Jasper and Rosalie (and the rest of the Cullens) got more ‘screen time’
Twilight focused almost exclusively on Bella and Edward. New Moon was almost entirely about Bella and Jacob, with hints of Edward and Alice thrown in for good measure. In Eclipse, we finally got more insight into the Cullen family and what made each of them unique.
Eclipse was the book that gave the characters much more depth than just being ‘Edward’s newest brother who struggles not to drink human blood’ and ‘Edward’s beautiful sister who hates Bella’. It was also my favourite book in the entire Twilight Saga series, so despite vampires not aging, happy 15th birthday to Eclipse!