Edward spent the Twilight series trying to stop Bella from becoming a vampire, and Midnight Sun reveals he always knew that was going to happen.
Midnight Sun offers a different point of view of the events in Twilight thanks to Edward Cullen being the narrator. As a result, the book comes with some revelations, such as Edward knowing from the beginning that Bella was going to become a vampire, even if that seems to contradict his actions in the Twilight series. Back in 2005, Stephenie Meyer shared her world of vampires, humans, and werewolves through Twilight, the first novel in a series of four books that follow the often problematic romance between vampire Edward Cullen and human Bella Swan, with werewolf Jacob Black in-between.
The Twilight novels made the jump to the big screen not long after, and in the meantime, Meyer began working on a fifth book titled Midnight Sun – but a couple of days after the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, was published and a couple of months before the release of the first movie, 12 chapters from Midnight Sun were leaked, and Meyer decided to stop writing it. Fans waited for years for updates on the fifth book, and in May 2020, Meyer announced it was ready to see the light and was finally published in August. What’s special about Midnight Sun is that it’s a retelling of Twilight but from Edward’s perspective, which answers a lot of questions but also makes some big reveals.
Midnight Sun offers a deep look at Edward’s heart and mind and his many inner conflicts (the constant battle between his human side and the “monster” inside him), as well as the development of his relationship with Bella. Another aspect explored in the novel is Edward’s relationship with his siblings, especially Alice, with whom he has a special bond as they can communicate telepathically thanks to their combined powers: Edward can read people’s minds and Alice can see the future. From the very beginning of the novel, Edward notices there’s something different with Bella as she’s the only person whose thoughts he can’t read, and Bella’s special quality is enhanced during the now-famous biology class scene, where Edward perceives Bella’s scent, which turns out to be quite irresistible. Of course, Alice starts having visions about Bella, which Edward has easy access to, and he sees different outcomes: one where he kills her, another where he leaves her, and one where she becomes a vampire.
Together, Alice and Edward work through these possible outcomes based on their present actions – for example, taking Bella to the meadow leaves the “Edward kills Bella” future out – but one that remains is Bella becoming one of them. Edward spends a big part of the Twilight series postponing Bella’s transformation and giving excuses as he doesn’t want her to go through the same suffering as he has, but Bella never changes her mind about it. Edward knowing from the beginning that she was going to become a vampire at some point explains why he questioned every single decision since their relationship began, as they could be a step closer to that particular future coming true.
While this explains why he was so worried all the time about everything that happened around him and Bella, it also makes their relationship more problematic and highlights Edward’s manipulative ways. Edward didn’t trust Bella’s decisions and did what he could to change her mind and a future he saw thanks to his sister, instead of letting Bella make her own mistakes and decisions. Midnight Sun has various revelations – some dark, others silly, and some that do more harm to the characters than Meyer probably expected.
