Twilight: How Imprinting Really Works (& Why Jacob Did On Renesmee)
There are many things in the Twilight universe that don’t make sense, such as Jacob imprinting on Renesmee – but what is imprinting?
The Twilight universe has its own mythology and added some new werewolf lore, including the infamous Twilight imprinting concept. The Twilight saga hasn’t aged well in a lot of ways, with many of the characters’ relationships feeling problematic in a modern context — especially Jacob imprinting on Renesmee. While the Twilight books and movies glossed over the lore, it’s not difficult to define imprint logic in Twilight, but how it changed the Jacob and Renesmee dynamic has been controversial nonetheless.
Imprinting had been integral to Jacob’s character arc in Twilight, and who a werewolf imprints on was established as having huge — and immutable — spiritual significance. Imprinting is incredibly significant for Twilight werewolves, as it’s how Jacob’s soulmate would be determined. In a shocking twist, Bella and Edward’s daughter Renesmee was Jacob’s true imprintee, even though she was still a baby. The Renesmee and Jacob relationship is incredibly complicated, and it’s not only critics and Twilight detractors who find imprinting a little unsettling.
What Imprinting Is In Twilight, And What It Means For Jacob And Renesmee
Jacob Imprinting On Renesmee Means They’re Destined For A Romantic Companionship
To define imprinting in Twilight lore is easy enough. Imprinting is an involuntary mechanism through which shape-shifters of the Quileute tribe (werewolves) find their soulmate. It can’t be forced on anyone, as it is a profound and intimate phenomenon. This is why, as hard as Jacob tried to imprint on Bella, he couldn’t, leading to a lot of frustration and tension between them and making the love triangle more complicated. A werewolf can imprint anytime throughout their life, regardless of previous personal feelings, and there are four stages to it for all pairings.
First, when the imprintee Renesmee is young, her werewolf imprinter Jacob will have an older sibling-like bond. In the second stage, as Renesmee grows older, she and Jacob will have more of a platonic, best-friend-type connection. During the third stage, romantic feelings start to develop. Jacob will fall in love with his imprint Renesmee, acting towards her as he did her mother when Bella was pregnant. By the fourth and final stage, true romantic love is in full swing — which is where much of the criticism comes from.
Why Jacob Imprinted On Renesmee And Not Bella
Twilight Doesn’t Fully Explain Why Jacob And Renesmee Are Spiritually Linked
Jacob and Renesmee’s interactions in Breaking Dawn further explain the Twilight imprinting concept. In Breaking Dawn, Jacob was convinced Bella died during birth and Renesmee was to blame, and was determined to kill this “monster”. However, the moment he looked at baby Renesmee, he realized it wasn’t Bella that he’d imprinted on, but Bella and Edward’s daughter. This was obviously extremely unexpected for many reasons, not least of which being that Renesmee was still a baby in utero.
Jacob explained to Bella that he was never actually attracted to her but to the baby, Renesmee, developing in Bella’s womb, an explanation that has troubled people ever since. Imprinting is described in Twilight as being “gravitationally pulled” toward the imprintee while “a glowing heat fills” the imprinter. Everything and everyone else becomes secondary, leaving the imprinter with a need to protect and please their soulmate at all costs. By imprinting on Renesmee, Jacob has imbued her with protection from other werewolves in his tribe.
Prior to taking her on as a romantic partner, Jacob would first act as an older brother to Renesmee until she grew up — which won’t take long given her hybrid nature, which makes her age more quickly (which is in itself a problematic aspect , since she may not be of legal age before the romantic stage commences). Of course, if Renesmee wanted to, she could reject Jacob, though that’s supposedly impossible as the imprinter is considered the “perfect match” to the imprintee. If rejected the imprinter would supposedly feel unspeakable pain that could lead him to end his life.
As for why imprinting happens, the reason was never revealed, but members of the pack have their theories on this matter. Sam Uley, for example, believes that a shape-shifter imprints on the person he has the best chance to reproduce (though in the case of Renesmee and Jacob that seems highly unlikely), while Billy Black, Jacob’s father, thinks imprinting happens to make the shape-shifter stronger.
