Was Diego at the Clearing? The “Ending” of Bree Tanner

SPOILER ALERT FOR BREE TANNER

“Holy crow! It’s been like this all day. The battle is finally over. My coven is all dead. Phew! Time to jump out of hiding and take them all on myself! No wait, that doesn’t really make sense… Does it?”

Was Diego actually at the clearing for the final battle in The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner?

The question arises because of this passage, which offers two possibilities:

…I realized now that I’d been hearing the description of Diego’s death.

That night, I’d been sure that something had changed in Riley. Killing Diego was what had changed Riley, had hardened him. I believed only one thing that Riley had ever told me: he had valued Diego more than any of the rest of us. Had even been fond of him. And yet he’d watched our creator hurt him. No doubt he’d helped her. Killed Diego with her.

I wondered how much pain it would have taken to make me betray Diego. I imagined it would have taken quite a lot. And I was sure it had taken at least that much to make Diego betray me.

I felt sick. I wanted the image of Diego screaming in agony out of my head, but it wouldn’t leave.

And then there was screaming there in the field.

My eyelids fluttered, but Jasper snarled furiously and I clenched them together at once. I’d seen nothing but heavy lavender smoke.

I heard shouting and a strange, savage howling. It was loud, and there was a lot of it. I couldn’t imagine how a face would have to contort to create such a noise, and the not knowing made the sound more frightening. These yellow-eyed vampires were so different from the rest of us. Or different from me, I guess, since I was the only one left. Riley and our creator were long gone by now.

I heard names called, Jacob, Leah, Sam. There were lots of distinct voices, though the howls continued. Of course Riley had lied to us about the number of vampires here, too.

The sound of the howling tapered off until it was just one voice, one agonized, inhuman yowling that made me grit my teeth. I could see Diego’s face so clearly in my mind, and the sound was like him screaming.

So there are two possibilities that we are aware of, highlighted by Bree:

Possibility 1. Diego was there at the clearing: This theory is supported by the last straggler vampire’s death, and the question of why a vampire would allow himself to be discovered after the battle is already lost? Why not just stay hiding? Further, perhaps that is why the screaming sounded so much like Diego — it was him — but Bree was prevented from seeing him for herself.

In this scenario, Diego was scouting ahead just as Riley had told Bree, but having figured things out as Bree had, instead of attacking, he hid near the clearing — waiting to save and/or rejoin Bree. Yet once Diego sees that his beloved Bree is in the custody of the fearsome Jasper, he leaps out of hiding to save her — well after the battle is over — is noticed by Leah, and is killed by Jacob (and others), injuring Jacob in the process.

Possibility 2. Diego was not there at the clearing: This theory is supported by Bree’s own conjecture, and as Bree notes, Riley’s “gone to the dark side” behavior.

In this scenario, Diego was tortured by Riley and the Creator, Victoria, the night he confronted Riley with his deceptions, until Diego gave enough information to them so Riley could keep Bree in the attack party. Once they had the information, he was killed.

So how can these options be verified? By counting the vampires who made it to the clearing (and died there) if Diego had been in the group, versus the number of dead tallied by Jane.

If Diego was there:

At Victoria’s cottage: 22 plus Vic and Riley = 24

Ashes on floor (-1 vamp): 21 plus Victoria and Riley = 23
Confirmation: Bree’s headcount just before dawn: 20 plus Vic plus Riley plus absent Diego = 23

Fred leaves on day of the battle (-1 vamp) = 22 (including Diego)

Sara kills male blond she doesnt know name of (-1 vamp) (including Diego, Bree, Victoria and Riley): 21

Victoria + Riley + Total at battle including Bree and Diego = 21

Thus, there would be a total of 21 total dead vampires if Diego was in the clearing, yet was killed by Jacob after the battle was over.

However:

Jane’s tally of the group defeated by the Cullens: 20
Confirmation: Carlisle says there were 18, including Bree, at first; Edward adds Victoria and Riley to the count, which make a final count of 20 vampires left in Victoria’s army of newborn vampires.

Thus, it appears that Diego never made it to the battle, suggesting that he had been tortured and killed as Bree supposed.

Thus, the manner of both Diego’s and Bree’s deaths swerve the mode* of Bree’s story towards a meaningless mode of irony — wherein things just end, and the hero fails to perceive the order in all things (other than the “order” that there is no order to the universe) rather than ending in meaningful tragic mode — wherein the hero gains insights which reveal the order of the universe, which are so valuable that perhaps the joys of these insights transcend the pains of their price to be learned (for the reader, if not the hero).

This ironic ending adds an element of poetic justice to the deaths of Victoria and Riley, however: they truly deserved to die. There is in this ironic ending an added possibility of subtle political criticism regarding torture, as well.

And yet, a couple issues remain.

First, the ending of “Bree Tanner” doesn’t proceed as one would normally expect for an ironic ending. Generally, any work of art and literature within the Ironic Mode, expresses the sentiments of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” driving the following points home:

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see…

Any way the wind blows
Doesn’t really matter to me, to me

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body’s aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody
I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, oooooooh (Anyway the wind blows)
I don’t want to die
Sometimes wish I’d never been born at all…

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Any way the wind blows…

Bummer. Which is sort of the point. And why most ironic tales don’t do so hot at the box office. But “Bree Tanner” is the best selling book of the year. So either society as a whole has taken a dire and depressing turn, or the book isn’t as meaningless and ironic as this interpretation suggests.

Further, there are few moments before Bree’s death which do not drive home an ironic ending. Instead, Bree is “touched to the core” by the Cullen’s example. She is quickly persuaded that they represent a truer way of existence than what she had ever known. She longs to join with them.

And in this, Bree truly does parallel Bella. They both want to transcend their unsatisfying lives and live more like the angelic, celestial Cullen family.

Accordingly, Bree quickly begins to communicate with Edward Cullen, and deliberately saves the family from the wrath of Jane and the rest of the Volturi coven. Bree lays out all that she has learned of the truth before the godlike Edward, and entrusts him with knowledge of the most heavenly being she had heretofore known, Fred.

So, in the end, Bree not only briefly becomes the messenger of the gods, if you will, but she saves Fred and Cullens and offers information to help them connect and gain more power in case the Volturi or other enemies of truth should return and threaten their heavenly, immortal lives.

In addition, before her demise, Bree struggles to break off from the hunt — in this case, toward Bella — for the first time in her life. She clearly intends to not hunt Bella in the future, should she be allowed to survive. In only a few brief, eventful minutes, even given her minimal understanding, Bree is committed to live according to the example of the Cullens, if she is only allowed to live with them. But the Volturi would never allow her to live.

And in this, “Bree Tanner” takes a firm turn toward meaningful tragedy. It may be “death-bed repentance,” but Bree has thrown off her carnal nature and has become god-like herself. So, we may presume, if there is an afterlife for Meyer’s vampires, Bree’s soul will be saved.

And Diego’s off-screen death certainly softens the blow for Bree, as she faces her own “ending.” She knows that life without her love would leave her bereft, and she is left with the expectation of rejoining him one day in lives beyond.

Further, what happened to Diego’s body? There is no closure (for many readers at least) in his death. He’s just… gone. Weird.

In soap operas, there is a rule that whenever someone dies, they generally die off-screen so that if fans complain enough, so the character can later re-enter the show — it was all a mistake, a ruse, a miracle surgery brought him back to life, etc.

Which suggests that perhaps Diego survives, overcomes Riley, or some other scenario took place which allowed him to escape. And if he escaped, within the confines of the milieu we are given in “Bree Tanner,” we may expect that Diego would join with Fred in the pursuit of greater truths about themselves and their world.

In any case, we do know that the godlike Fred does survive. Since only righteous beings can withstand his presence, the Volturi cannot harm him — or see him, or even understand that he lives. And in that, there is hope.

And all of that hope brings a deeper reading of “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” from meaningless irony into meaningful tragedy, and leaves us, the readers, with a renewed sense of hope, and deeper understanding of how we might best secure our own hopes for a more fulfilling, understanding life — and afterlife.

——-
*There are four modes of literature/drama/art:

1. Adventure, where the hero goes from bad circumstances to good. The hero’s journey is not only triumphant but insightful.

2. Adventure’s opposite, Tragedy, where the hero goes from good to bad. The hero’s fall is saddening and cathartic, yet insightful.

3. Comedy, where the hero goes from good to good (often, slightly better). When everything goes so well in the world, you can’t help but laugh, and maybe learn a little lesson along the way.

4. Comedy’s opposite, Irony, where the hero goes from bad to bad (often worse), yet learns little if anything, other than the pointlessness of (their) life.