Sulpicia, Athenodora and Didyme

[Bronze Haired Girl]

This is the place to discuss the Volturi wives.
Sulpicia - mated to Aro
Athenodora - mated to Caius
Didyme - mated to Marcus, Aro's sister, deceased

To discuss the Volturi as a group visit The Volturi Coven and Guard thread.

[Shakespeare]

Didyme's power is eternal happiness, right? I read on Meyer's FAQ that Aro killed her because he needed Marcus's power. Marcus senses relationships. Does anyone else find it strange that Aro chose a guy who senses relationships over someone who provides happiness? I think his sister would've been much more useful.

[Tegan]

Not eternal happiness. She carried an aura of happiness around her, so that anyone who was near her was overcome with happiness.
Aro didn't have any need for the gift. Marcus's gift allows him to see who is still loyal to him and who isn't without reading peoples minds. It allowed him to see who's bonds needed to be tightened and loosened on a battlefield. All Dydime could do was make people feel happy. In context, it's not very useful when trying to take over the vampire world.

[bite_me]

. All Dydime could do was make people feel happy. In context, it's not very useful when tryig to take over the vampire world.

I disagree. I think it would actually be quite useful. Because if they were really really happy, they probably wouldn't mind the idea of dying or joining the Volturi or anything like that because they feel like everything is right and good and fun. So then the Volturi wouldn't meet as much resistance as they might otherwise in a fight or something.

Unless all the Volturi become incredibly happy too and don't care if the people they're fighting/accusing get away . . . ? I don't know exactly how her power works, so I don't know.

[Destani]

I don't think it was so much that Didyme's power wasn't useful at all, just that she was less useful than Marcus. Since Didyme and Marcus were planning to leave the Volturi, Aro had to kill one of them or he would lose them both. So he destroyed the one that he deemed the least useful (Didyme) and was able to hold onto the one he found more useful (Marcus).

It does make me wonder how Aro could murder her when her power would have made him feel happy as soon as he got close to her. Since he was was still able to kill her, I'm assuming her power would not have disrupted the Volturi's ambition and desire to fight, but I could be wrong.

[Shakespeare]

But Aro can read minds. Shouldn't he be able to get a good idea of a relationship between people without Marcus's help? And I agree with bite_me. Happiness can be extremely useful and powerful. Think of how many people Aro could have convinced to join the Volturi with the promise of happiness.

[Valentina]

Yes, but Aro needs to have contact to read minds... Marcus doesn't need contact to see the relationships (which makes me wonder how it works... does he just know? Cuz I picture I sort of life-sized family tree and that's clearly wrong). If someone is no longer loyal to Aro, but he doesn't know this, he could be putting himself in danger by getting close enough to them to be able to read their mind.

As to Didyme's happiness power, given that the idea of having more power likely would be a happy one for Aro, then I doubt it would've been affected by her power. It may actually have heightened his resolve to kill her, if he went to her to kill her determined already that his course of action would've ensured Marcus' loyalty, because then wouldn't he just feel happy about what he was going to do?

[waiting tobe dazzled]

It turned out that Didyme did have a gift; she carried with her an aura of happiness that affected everyone who came near her. Though it wasn't exactly what he had hoped for, Aro pondered the best ways he could use this gift. Meanwhile, Aro's most trusted partner, Marcus, fell in love with Didyme. This was not unusual; given the way she made people feel, lots of people fell in love with Didyme. The difference was that this time, Didyme fell in love herself. The two of them were tremendously happy. So happy, in fact that, after a while, they no longer cared that much about Aro's plans for domination. After a few centuries, Didyme and Marcus discussed going their own way. Of course, Aro was well aware of their intentions. He was not happy about it, but he pretended to give his blessing. Then he waited for an opportunity to act, and when he knew he would never be found out, he murdered his sister. After all, Marcus's gift was much more useful to him than hers had been.

--stephenie's question and answer page

Hope that helps

[Ruby_Eyes]

Didyme is facsinating, I won't deny that, but isn't anyone else curious about Sulpicia and Athenodora? I mean, they are unknown, which instantly makes me curious. I personaly think Sulpicia would be the type to marry Aro for his position, since he seemed like the leader. Plus, I've noticed that Stephanie Meyer's characters usualy sound like their name (ie, Bella sounds nice, soft and Bella is nice and soft. Edward sounds old fashioned-thought not that old- and Edward IS old fashioned. See where I'm going?). Sulpicia sounds sly and ambitous to me. I think Athenodora simply got bullied into marrying Caius (another one who sounds like his name), Like maybe Caius wanted her and she didn't return the interest so Caius used his power to bully her into it.
But that's just my opinion. I'm working with basically nothing.

[Destani]

I am very interested in Sulpicia and Athenodora. I'm curious about what kind of women would marry Aro and Caius. Hopefully there will be some details about them in the Twilight Saga Guide.