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Fans spend countless hours debating the merits of Team Edward and Team Jacob, as though one over the other is more ideal.  The truth, though, is that people are drawn to them for the same reason — they each represent half of the ideal whole.

Stephenie Meyer has created the “perfect” man, but she has split the qualities between two competing characters.   This of course makes for great drama, but as fans, we lose sight of the point, which is that as long as any of us is fractured, we will struggle with questions of our identity and what we are capable of.  Consider the qualities — all of them good — that Edward and Jake possess respectively, so that it becomes more clear that together, they represent the ideal whole.

For every word included below in the list of Jake’s traits, there is an equally positive, but opposite, word that applies to Edward:

Jake is 1) warm, 2) lighthearted, 3) easy to be with, 4) humble, 5) brutally honest, 6) burly, 7) physically impressive, 8) adorably awkward, 9) a warrior, 10) “real” and vulnerable, 11) youthful, 12) the boy next door, 13) a nice guy hero (think Superman), 14) likes to give homemade gifts, 15) small-town 16) earthy, 17) grounded, 18) doesn’t care about fashion, 19) likes to rough and tumble, 20) is easy to read, 21) spontaneous, 22) wears his heart on his sleeve, and 23)  in a Myers Briggs  test would be characterized as a feeler.

Edward, on the other hand, is (again, equally positive, but opposite): 1) super-cool, 2) deep, 3) intense, 4) confident, 5) protectively evasive, 6) graceful,  7) intellectually impressive, 8] ultra-smooth, 9) a prince, 10) unflappable, 11) mature, 12) sophisticated, 13) the bad boy anti-hero (think Batman), 14) likes to give priceless heirlooms, 15) is worldly, 16) urbane, 17) mythic, 18) stylish, 19) likes to out maneuver, 20) is mysterious, 21) careful, 22) always composed, and 23) in a Myers Briggs  test would be characterized as a thinker.

If you consider each list separately, most women would agree both characters sound nearly perfect, just in different ways.   The brilliant struggle for Bella is that she has to choose between two mates who are supremely perfect if only they were ONE person.

But the real point is that, just as Jake represents the gifts and warmth of the heart and Edward represents the gifts and intelligence of the mind, they are two halves of the ideal whole.   And not just in our mates, but in us.   There has to be a balance between conscience (heart) and the conscious (mind) such that our lives are in congruent harmony between our equally good and equally positive gifts and qualities.   The heart serves better with the wisdom of the mind as an aide, and the mind serves better with the passion and integrity of the heart, and we must strive to bring together those two halves of the “ideal” because only then can we as individuals live our whole potential.

For more about Edward, see http://twilightsagaarchetypes.com/edward/.

And for more about Jake, see http://twilightsagaarchetypes.com/jake/.

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