Stephenie Meyer Wrote More From Jacob Black’s Perspective Because Fans Thought He Had a ‘Dark Agenda’ in ‘New Moon’

Twilight is all about Bella and Edward, the vampire romance that had a lot of teenagers crazy for Edward Cullen in 2005 through 2008 and beyond. But it also spurred a massive Team Edward vs. Team Jacob debate as well, with many teens on either side. Edward, of course, had a lot of fans, but Jacob had his fair share as well, especially after Taylor Lautner took on the role and was mostly shirtless throughout the films. 

But Stephenie Meyer saw a lot of hate toward Jacob before the movies came out and she blamed herself for that. So she took it upon herself to fill in some holes and write some more of the first two books from the 16-year-old werewolf’s perspective. And you can still read it today. 

Stephenie Meyer said that Jacob Black was her first minor character that took on a life of his own

It’s a pretty big part of the Twilight lore that Meyer wrote the first book based on a vivid dream she had of Bella and Edward in the meadow. And as she described on her site when telling the story of her process with New Moon, she had no plans to do sequels, at least not three more after the first one. 

But her characters took on lives of their own, and that goes for Jacob Black as well. Meyer wrote that he’s actually the first minor character that took on such a new life for her as she was going through her process. 

“Originally, Jacob was just a device,” she wrote. Meyer pointed out that Bella needed to found out about what Edward was and Meyer did that with the Quileute legend of the Cold Ones (which actually isn’t a real legend). And in doing so, she created the character of Jacob, her plot device. 

But, Meyer goes on to write that Jacob took on a “roundness” to his character and a “life that I couldn’t keep him locked inside a tiny role.” She found herself going back into Twilight and adding more of Jacob and Billy Black while writing New Moon, since she was editing Twilight as she was writing the sequel. 

“From the very beginning, even when Jacob only appeared in chapter six of Twilight, he was so alive,” she said. “I liked him. More than I should for such a small part.”

Meyer found it disturbing that some readers were giving Jacob the ‘most nefarious motives’

But fast forward to after the books were out and Meyer found out that a lot of fans found Jacob to be less than agreeable to them. She wrote in a separate post on her site called “Extras: New Moon,” that she “noticed a disturbing trend” of online discourse surrounding Jacob Black. 

“People are ascribing the most nefarious motives to Jacob Black, insisting he has some kind of dark agenda,” Meyer wrote. “Some of this is due, in my opinion, to a heavy general bias in favor of vampires over werewolves. But some of it must be my fault. Apparently Jacob’s intentions are not as clear to the reader as they are to me.”

It’s hard to say what the online discourse was that Meyer was referring to; the three New Moon documents she has are from 2006 but that’s about when New Moon came out. And there isn’t a date on the site, so, again, it’s tough to say. But it’s possible some fans were talking about Jacob’s intentions with Bella, before Breaking Dawn came out and they could get into his head (officially). 

To fix this, Meyer wrote parts of ‘New Moon’ from Jacob Black’s perspective 

Now that it’s 2021, fans have gotten into Jacob’s head. And while there’s still a lot of discourse to be had about Jacob and his motives, along with where his story ends up with Renesmee, Bella, Edward, and the Cullens in general, it’s safe to say that he didn’t have a “dark agenda.” 

Jacob could be overzealous and manipulative for his own gain, but he was a teenage boy who really thought Bella would choose him in the end over Edward, not really grasping how strong her bond with Edward was. And he did experience a lot of growth over the course of Breaking Dawn, alone. 

Regardless, if fans want to get a look into Jacob’s perspective prior to Eclipse, then they can. 

“I’m not up for writing all of New Moon from Jacob’s perspective (I’m dizzy at the thought), but I did want to let people look through his eyes for a bit, were they so inclined,” Meyer wrote on her site at the time.”

She seemed to think it was important to “walk a mile in Jacob Black’s shoes” and really have a look at where his head was at as Bella moved into Forks, befriended him, and as he went through the horrifying change of becoming a wolf. The 16-page chapter is a bit disjointed and written in the second person tense, but it gives that perspective Meyer wanted to tell.