In Breaking Dawn, Jacob imprints on Renesmee, Bella and Edward’s daughter, shortly after she is born. This divisive event occurs after a long, drawn-out conflict between Jacob and Edward as they both fight for Bella’s affection. However, the imprinting scene isn’t nearly as strange in Breaking Dawn as it is in Forever Dawn.
Because of Jacob’s significantly lessened presence in Forever Dawn, he is not present during Renesmee’s birth. This means that he does not imprint on her immediately. Rather, he imprints on her several weeks later when Bella is meeting with Charlie (via Stephenie Meyer). Although still problematic for the fact that there is a significant age gap between the two, Jacob’s relationship with Renesmee in Forever Dawn is even worse than it is in Breaking Dawn because of how insignificant his relationship with Bella and Edward is.
Jacob confusing his feelings towards Renesmee for Bella is the central conflict of the love triangle, but it also explains Jacob’s presence up until Renesmee’s birth.Fans of the Twilight Saga theorize that the reason Jacob was in love with Bella is because his wolf instincts knew that she would give birth to Renesmee. Jacob confusing his feelings towards Renesmee with Bella is the central conflict of the love triangle, but it also explains Jacob’s presence up until Renesmee’s birth. Initially, he’s there to support Bella in her pregnancy, and to protect her from the wolf pack. They’re important to each other, which is why Bella declares that, if she were to have a son, his name would be Edward Jacob Cullen. Afterward, he’s there for Renesmee.Forever Dawn ruins this dynamic because it erases the conflict of the love triangle that originally brought Jacob into the fold. Jacob imprinting on Renesmee is even more problematic because he has no prior connection to Bella and Edward beyond his minor crush on Bella. His presence during Renesmee’s birth is also important because it represents Jacob and Edward’s developed relationship as they are able to be there for Bella without fighting. Therefore, it’s good that Meyer ultimately scrapped Forever Dawn in favor of writing the four-part Twilight Saga because it gave fans more drama and intrigue to chew on.
In *Breaking Dawn*, Jacob’s imprinting on Renesmee, the daughter of Bella and Edward, is already a highly controversial and divisive moment in the *Twilight* saga. The scene occurs right after Renesmee’s birth, following a prolonged love triangle between Jacob, Bella, and Edward. However, the imprinting is portrayed in an even more unsettling light in Stephenie Meyer’s earlier draft of the story, *Forever Dawn*.
In *Forever Dawn*, Jacob’s role is significantly reduced, and he is not present at Renesmee’s birth. Instead, he imprints on her several weeks later during a meeting between Bella and Charlie. This delay in imprinting makes the situation even more problematic because it suggests that Jacob’s connection to Renesmee is not as immediate or as fate-driven as it is in *Breaking Dawn*. The delay diminishes the significance of his relationship with Bella and Edward, making the entire imprinting situation feel more arbitrary and less defensible.
Moreover, Jacob’s imprinting on Renesmee in *Forever Dawn* comes across as more uncomfortable because it lacks the context of the intense emotional journey that Jacob goes through in *Breaking Dawn*. His confused feelings toward Renesmee, stemming from his unresolved love for Bella, are central to the conflict in the original story. However, in *Forever Dawn*, this confusion and emotional complexity are downplayed, making his bond with Renesmee feel less like a natural resolution to his unrequited love and more like a forced plot device.
As a result, Jacob’s relationship with Renesmee in *Forever Dawn* not only exacerbates the issues surrounding the age gap but also undermines the narrative weight of his character’s journey. It makes his eventual imprinting seem less meaningful and more unsettling, leading to a portrayal that is even more problematic than the one seen in *Breaking Dawn*.
