26/1/17 - Favourite Character Praise Friday! - Leah Clearwater

Today, 26/1/18 is the second instalment the series of posts praising my all-time favourite characters for their quirks and flaws etc. called Favourite Character Praise Friday. I will be sharing these posts every two weeks to gush about fictional characters in a proactive environment. With this segment, I intend to demonstrate what makes characters great so you and I alike can use these facts to improve our characters!

So who is the subject of my second Favourite Character Praise Friday?

Leah Clearwater from The Twilight Saga - portrayed by Julia Jones in the film adaptations!

For those who are fortunate enough to not have had a "Twilight Phase", and are unaware of the premise of the series, the basic idea was that a human woman called Bella Swan moved to the town of Forks, Washington and met a vampire, Edward Cullen, whom she fell in love with. Throughout their tumultuous love story, Bella is introduced to the Quileute werewolf pack that lived on the Native American Reservation. The wolves helped the Cullen family when they were in trouble. One of these wolves was Leah Clearwater; the first ever female werewolf.

The following character praise will contain spoilers

So why is Leah Clearwater one of my favourite characters?

Unlike most of the werewolves that Bella meets throughout her story, Leah arguably has the most legitimate reasoning to resent the vampires that live near her land.

For those who are unaware of what constitutes becoming a werewolf in the Twilight Universe, in essence, the presence of vampires is imperative to influence a werewolf's transformation. This is why there tend to be generational gaps between the wolves. However, with becoming a wolf, aspects of their human bodily functions are expended. The most prevalent issue that derives from this is the halting of Leah's monthly cycle upon transforming into a werewolf and the indefinite aspect of her fertility after this lead to her being upset as it lead to the understanding that she may never be able to have children. Due to this fact, she resented the Cullen family for residing near to her land and triggering her transformation as it has left an aspect of her future hanging in the balance. 

Despite her opinions toward the Cullens, she remained loyal to her friends.

In the final book and penultimate movie, Leah's loyalties are tested when Jacob Black inherits his rightful position of alpha of the werewolf pack. He does this amidst an argument about how to tackle the half-vampire infant that was growing within Bella, that Jacob would later imprint upon and dedicate his life to her happiness. However, his opinions of protecting Bella clashed with the pre-existing alpha, Sam; a former love interest of Leah's. Sam and Leah were in a relationship prior to his transformation into a werewolf and he later imprinted on Emily, Leah's cousin. Before she transformed, and understood the situation, it was heartbreaking for her. Her loyalties were tested when her younger brother, Seth decided to follow Jacob and pledge his loyalties to him. She decided to follow Seth and Jacob to protect Bella and the Cullens from her former pack-mates. 

IN THE MOVIE, Leah's character is developed further in her sacrifices

In the final movie of the Twilight franchise: Breaking Dawn Part Two, Alice's vision is shown to Aro, leader of the Volturi as a deterrent to keep her family safe. But it is not revealed to be a vision until it has come to fruition. In this vision, Seth Clearwater is murdered by one of the members of the Volturi and Leah watches the life leave her younger brother's eyes and howls in agony. Later in the fight, Esme Cullen, the matriarch of the Cullen family, is struggling against a member of the Volturi, falling into a large crack in the ground. Leah, seeing Esme's plight, attacks the vampire attacking her and drags him along with her into the large crack in the ground. They both died, hitting a pool of rising magma. As she fell, Esme stared at Leah and watched her wave to her. This scene, was one that made many of my friends that were otherwise indifferent to Leah, weep for her. She had sacrificed herself to save a vampire, whose family she had despised since her transformation, and this sacrifice allowed her to return to Seth and keep Esme alive with the remaining members of her family. 

But what do these factors tell us about writing complicated characters? Several things!

1. Even as a side character, with very little time at the forefront of Bella's attention in the books, Leah's character seemed easy to understand in the eyes of the readers - even "simple issues" such as potentially infertility can drastically influence a character
2. Establishing a character's loyalties and priorities are essential when justifying decisions a character may make - for example, if a character sacrificed their life for a random person, there would need to be a reason
3. Characters that can be deemed unlikable can be redeemed in one single action, if it is fuelled by enough emotion, just as Breaking Dawn Part Two did for Leah

Thank you for reading my reasons for loving Leah Clearwater! I hope my praise influenced the way you perceive your own characters!

Until next time!

And remember: 

Per Ardua Ad Astra! 

- Imogen. L. Smiley