Gianna

[redlipstick]

wasn't northern italy famous for its overflowing orphanages? well- educated, polished, cultured ( vivaldi- someone wrote songs for orphans)

wouldn't that be a perfect start? no real human connection in the first place? brain wrapped around eternity and velvet, already. no sense of family, but a great sense of powerful crowds?

[scoundrel]

wasn't northern italy famous for its overflowing orphanages? well- educated, polished, cultured ( vivaldi- someone wrote songs for orphans)

wouldn't that be a perfect start? no real human connection in the first place? brain wrapped around eternity and velvet, already. no sense of family, but a great sense of powerful crowds?

Vivaldi was the choral conductor and composer for the choir at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for many years, in the first half of the 18th Century. Gianna was born in the late 1970s; I would think the supply of abandoned babies and orphans in northern Italy was thinner by then. But the Volturi are international and a-political as far as human politics goes; the former Warsaw Pact countries, including Russia, would have been a good potential recruiting ground. Gianna speaks fluent Italian and has an Italian name, but the Volturi themselves change names sometimes and Gianna may well have been brought in as a child and raised for her post. The degree to which she is relaxed and comfortable around the Volturi could indicate that she has been around them a bit longer than one might expect, given she is still a young woman.

[scoundrel]

Gianna is consenting to be a mass killer. I wonder if Edward could read her thoughts- there's a chance she's surprised they walked out, and that she's pettish towards Bella. Jeolous, even.

I have sometimes wondered why no one thought to offer Bella a hot bath and a change of clothes in Volterra. Bella comments on their escape that Alice retrieving her bag means she will have access to a toothbrush; but its mildly surprising she did not catch pleuresy after all the temperature gradients she climbs up and down inside Aro's castle, wearing soaking wet clothes all day long. She gets nothing to eat either, although in fairness she won't have been hungry after hearing the screams of Heidi's coach party.

The vampires are not especially clued up on how to look after a living human body; not even Edward, who is a doctor, or Alice, who is a very practical district nurse. They see Bella shaking and in shock, "freaking out" and discuss in a slightly bemused way what they should do for her. But isn't Bella also experiencing a physical reaction to being in a warm space again after hours traipsing around an unheated mausoleum in wet clothes? Shock victims should be kept warm; that's why you see them wrapped in blankets on the news. Hypothermia victims should be warmed up in a progressive rather than a sudden way, to avoid a fresh strain on their already weakened hearts and systems. Bella should be in a bath and with hot water being added gradually to step up the heat until it is as hot as she can stand it. I bet she would need two lots of bathwater, having cooled down the first lot like an ice cube in a large gin and tonic.

None of the vampires can be expected to think of this because they might not even remember what it feels like to be perishing with cold. But Gianna would know what this feels like because there is no human in the world who has never experienced severe cold, not even in the desert regions or in equatorial rain forests. Cold is about contrast as well as absolute temperature; it is about being wet and exposed to draughts. Gianna would know all that. But she offers no practical measures to warm Bella up; no food, no hot tea or coffee, no blanket, and no hot bath. I have always thought this odd. It way well be that she feels maliciously towards Bella, especially if she has learned by listening to her betters that Bella was offered a place with the Volturi; that would have to be annoying.

[Shimmerskin]

You both make a good case for Gianna's possible malice toward Bella. I think everything you've said is very likely to be the case.

Do you ever wonder if Gianna may have narcissistic personality disorder, or even that she may be a sociopath? Either one would explain a lot.

[scoundrel]

You both make a good case for Gianna's possible malice toward Bella. I think everything you've said is very likely to be the case.

Do you ever wonder if Gianna may have narcissistic personality disorder, or even that she may be a sociopath? Either one would explain a lot.

It all depends on why Gianna is there. Did she fall or was she pushed? The Volturi don't advertise. This doesn't happen:

Situations Vacant: Secretary and personal assistant to the board of directors of a major European vampire coven. Generous compensation package includes free accommodation and a clothing allowance; however the group does not operate a pension scheme...

So, rather than turning up at Aro's castle and saying "Me! Me! Me!", I think Gianna was looked for and head-hunted as it were. It is very likely that she is playing a long-drawn out game of Russian Roulette, and not necessarily a game she herself volunteered to play. I do think she is a very bad girl with no conscience and no morals; but if she was suckered into the situation she is in when Bella visits, then I will admit it; I also think Gianna is chock full of guts, almost as brave as Bella, though without Bella's moral centre. Gianna is villainous but she's courageous and stylish and I have quite a bit of sneaking respect for that. I like a villain with style. I bet Aro does as well; it is one factor that will weigh in Gianna's favour whenever decision day arrives.

[Shimmerskin]

I like a villain with style. I bet Aro does as well; it is one factor that will weigh in Gianna's favour whenever decision day arrives.

Unfortunately for her, it wasn't enough to save her. I'll never forget SM's rueful snicker (at the BD concert/signing event at UCLA in August of oh-eight that Gianna "didn't make it."

[scoundrel]

Unfortunately for her, it wasn't enough to save her. I'll never forget SM's rueful snicker (at the BD concert/signing event at UCLA in August of oh-eight that Gianna "didn't make it."

I wonder if Gianna is already a gonner when the Volturi turn up at the Ranier Field in the Gathering scene in Breaking Dawn? It might even be that they dispensed with her specifically because they were all leaving to visit the Cullens. If they left Gianna behind all alone, she might run for it. Just as bad, she might be detected and give away The Secret. She might even be captured by Vladimir and Stefan (Aro wouldn't know they were waiting for him in Washington State); I bet Vladimir and Stefan would find out anything Gianna knows if she knows anything, and I'd be sorry for her if she didn't know anything. If all the Volturi are in the Ranier Field, Gianna is probably dead.

[redlipstick]

wasn't stephenie meyer a receptionist?

not applicable, but just a funny aside.

[scoundrel]

Do you ever wonder if Gianna may have narcissistic personality disorder, or even that she may be a sociopath? Either one would explain a lot.

The author has a recurring device of running characters in parallel, for example Edward and Jasper, Emmett and Felix, Rosalie and Leah, possibly Alice and Angela Weber. The similarity of character traits sheds useful light on their chosen paths.

Gianna seems to be a bad doppelganger for Bella; she has a superficially similar ambition but vastly different motives and drives. Gianna's more accurate parallel might be Lauren Mallory, a militantly selfish and malignant ill-wisher who sees the world simply in terms of personal advantage; even Jessica is much more accessible to empathy and a sense of duty to others than Lauren. Gianna's active desire to become a vampire, unless the motive is self-preservation, is wickedness distilled out of wickedness. Bella hates to think of harmimg anyone; her purpose is to live ethically alongside the man of her life, not to be immortal for its own sake. Lauren is the true facsimile for Gianna because Lauren lives by and for no higher good than the benefit of Lauren.