Twilight Saga Q&A #3

[who_needs_fangs?]

I don't remember if her spinal cord was completely severed, but yes, you're remembering correctly. And they don't get to use the words very often, but the Q & A is awesome like that, what's your point?

[akire]

That's exactly my point, who_needs_fangs! I love that kind of stuff!

[ringswraith]

Hmm. Now I see where the paralysis came from.

I think that whatever the person's normal state is when the venom is introduced, is where they'll end up after the transformation. Anything broken is mended, anything missing stays missing.

[navarre]

I was thinking about how vampire venom is supposed to heal all injuries, well, if somebody was in a car accident before they got changed, and their leg had to of been amputated, do you think it would grow back when they became a vampire? It healed all of Bella's injuries, but she just had broken bones, no missing limbs.

Transformation will not bring back amputated limbs, but will heal paralysis, blindness, and also in Alice's case - mental infirmeries. SM state if your hair is short in human existence, it will stay that way always.
Frozen forever.

Alice was never mentally unsound- they just thought she was due to her visions. Her family didn't know what to do with her, so they had her committed.

Let me ask you something, do you think that if you were put in a dark cell(asylum) for years that you would have kept your sanity? I think not. Back in those days, asylums were prisons. The patients were not treated, but inprisoned. James described Alice as"she'd been stuck in that black hole of a cell for so long..". Up to that point, Alice's mind was probably not functioning to full capacity - shock treatments will alter ones thinking, acting, speaking, etc. It alters the chemicals in the brain - I read this once. It was the only treatment next lobotomy that was used on patients that were considered too far gone for anything else. Then he said when she opened her eyes, strong with her fresh youth, it was like she had never seen the sun before".

The venom cured her. gave her life and mind back. She was healed. Alice talks about the healing that venom does when she, Jasper & Bella were holed up in the hotel in Phoenix.
"As long as the heart keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing changing the body as it moves through it."

When Edward had turned Bella and while she was burning, he was concerned whether she would heal - Carlisle reassured him "Her injuries weren't so much worse than Esme's. The venom will heal her as it did Esme"I had gone with the idea that Bella's spine was severed by Ness as she fought to get out - remember when that loud crack happened? Her spine snapped, the venom healed it. "The only change came suddenly, impossibly, my pain doubled. The lower half of my body, deadened since before the morphine, was suddenly on fire, too. Some broken connection had been healed - knitted together by the scorching fingers of the flame."

That's were I get my belief that the venom cures most anything.

[ringswraith]

What I should have said in my initial post is, Alice wasn't crazy to begin with.

I see your point, navarre, but there are too many unknowns (re: Alice) to make that conclusion. We don't know how long exactly she stayed there. We don't know what "treatments" were administered to her. For all we know she could have been left pretty much alone, perhaps sedated when she had a vision... There's too much left to interpretation that we can argue this either direction.

Also, when I voiced my question, I was asking why you specifically mentioned blindness and paralysis, since we were never given these examples in the novels. (Bella's and Esme's circumstances notwithstanding; they both had severely broken bodies, but neither were in a state of paralysis prior to Bella's accident or Esme's leap.)

I too am of the opinion that the venom will cure almost anything, if the things to be fixed are in the system.

[navarre]

What I should have said in my initial post is, Alice wasn't crazy to begin with.

I see your point, navarre, but there are too many unknowns (re: Alice) to make that conclusion. We don't know how long exactly she stayed there. We don't know what "treatments" were administered to her. For all we know she could have been left pretty much alone, perhaps sedated when she had a vision... There's too much left to interpretation that we can argue this either direction.

Also, when I voiced my question, I was asking why you specifically mentioned blindness and paralysis, since we were never given these examples in the novels. (Bella's and Esme's circumstances notwithstanding; they both had severely broken bodies, but neither were in a state of paralysis prior to Bella's accident or Esme's leap.)

I too am of the opinion that the venom will cure almost anything, if the things to be fixed are in the system.

Certainly not when she was initially place in the asylum, but after a period of time the mind will start to break down. I stand by that because of James' description of Alice. As far as blindness, I threw that one in because of all of the things venom can cure. A stretch, I'll admit, but I would not be surprised if it could cure that. We do know that human vision becomes animal like when the transformation is complete, why not blindness be cured?

But Bella & Esme were in a state of paralysis when they were transformed. They were healed.

I feel that if a spine can be reconnected then eyes can see again. That's how I take it.

[ringswraith]

One thing to counter James' description of Alice: Bella's own descriptions when she first "awakes" after the transformation. She sees Edward again, and she thinks that she "may as well have been blind."

The quote you mention from James about seeing the sun for the first time- this could have been the same thing, Alice seeing through more powerful eyes. Especially after being kept in the dark.

But, again, something that can be debated both ways.

[navarre]

One thing to counter James' description of Alice: Bella's own descriptions when she first "awakes" after the transformation. She sees Edward again, and she thinks that she "may as well have been blind."

The quote you mention from James about seeing the sun for the first time- this could have been the same thing, Alice seeing through more powerful eyes. Especially after being kept in the dark.

But, again, something that can be debated both ways.

Yeah, okay. We'll call this one a draw.

[who_needs_fangs?]

But SM said that the only reason Alice remembered her name was because her creator said it post-last shock treatment, so yes, she was shocked regularly. And James was also talking about how in those days, psychics were electrocuted, so I do believe she was shocked until she couldn't even remember who she was anymore.

[navarre]

Yep.

On another topic - Rings & Narnia, you both really need to get that Trivia thread. That sounds like great fun and 'brain-pickin' time.