The National Review said:
More than once, Edward and his family look the other way — or even provide assistance — when fellow members of their species hunt humans, just as long as those humans aren’t people they know.
...
What a very strange thing to say.
They are VAMPIRES! To nearly all vampries, human beings on at the bottom of the food chain. The vampire leaders themselves, the Volturi, feed on humans. In the books, the Cullen family are considered odd by other vampires because they refrain from human blood. If they started protecting humans everywhere it would be if one of us tried to protect all cows in the world from being slaugthered. They are not responsible for what other creatures like them do.
But, you see, they are. Being vampires does not put them above or beyond the law or morality and there are these crimes called Accessory, Conspiricy, and Facilitation. To put it bluntly, if you help someone commit murder, cover up a murder, intentionally provide the means to commit murder, or whatever, you are a murderer.
The Cullens could stop all other vampires from killing trivially. All they'd have to do is come out in a public manner. Once the public knows about vampires, vampires can't kill without risking arrest or death at the hands of human law enforcement.
But the Volturi would kill them, some might argue. The Volturi aren't all powerful. If done right the news can be out worldwide before the Volturi get hint of it. At that point, its impossible for the Volturi to do such a thing without attracting the wrath of human law enforcement and perhaps military. Comming out forces vampires to play nice without significantly harming nice vampires.
So, go ahead, Bella get yourself killed and give up everything your life could be and stands for because you want to feel a sparkly, cold, penis inside you. Becuase, hey, this part of your life is about making mistakes that you can just fix or work out later.
Except for the being undead part, the craving blood part, the never seeing your family again part and all of the other hurdles that come with being a vampire in this universe. (And yes, I'm aware of what "really" happens when Bella is changed but from her POV she, nor Edward, knows this will be the case.)
I just don't get it! Why is this supposed to be romantinc? Why is this girl giving up everything that she is for high-school boyfriend supposed to be romantic? Why am I supposed to want this relationship to occur? What reason is there to be on "Team Edward"? And, yes, I'm a 31-year-old man without children so I'm likely not in a position to "get it" but many adult mothers have wrapped themseleves up into this "romance" and many parents seem to encourage girls being all swoony over Edward and thinking he's a great guy for Bella.
Why is he such a great guy? Because he won't killl her?! WTF?! If that's all it takes to impress women these days I've got it made. "Hey baby, I promise to love your forever, and do anything for you you want, but I won't kill you."
Craving blood is a silly reason to emo. Plenty of people drink blood. Its a staple product amongst a great many herding cultures. And as Buffy the Vampire Slayer often pointed out, you can buy it at any local butcher shop.
Being undead? Twilight vampires are biovamps, not magic vamps. They're magically physis-defying biovamps, but they're not undead. They're alive, just different. In fact, vampiresbeing alive is a rather huge plot point, since if they were undead a hybrid child would be impossible.
The only reason being a vampire really sucks is the Volturi's restrictions. And, well, the Volturi are pathetically easy to kill. Sure, they're super strong and tough and have awesome mental powers, but they have no practical defense against anti-tank missiles fired from UAVs. Twilight vampires, like most urban fantasy vampires, are profoundly stupid and eschew such modern weapons in favor of the medieval approach. But it only takes one to blow them all away.
Personally, I'd do exactly what Bella did if I were in her situation. This isn't for any love of Edward. I'd probably kill him myself soon afterward. The issue is one of personal ambition. Long life isn't a curse and no amount of wangsting will make it one. More to the point, the power that someone in Bella's position could actually wield is amazing. She just doesn't see it. Or she doesn't care. At the end of Breaking Dawn she was one step away from killing the Volturi and making herself queen of all vampires, after all, and she failed only because she actually wanted peace.
There is some alternate character interpretation that Bella is an emotionally parasitic sociopath who just uses the people around her for her own self-gratification. This first perfectly with her characterization. Thus, her transformation into a vampire could be seen not as a sacrifice to Edward but as an logical progression of her sociopath need to be special.
Anyway, Eclipse has some good fight scenes, so that makes up for the plot sucking. I can watch the movie of the killing.
