Talk:Sam Uley/@comment-7600752-20130330012934/@comment-7600752-20140124040213

Yes. Although shapeshifters don't age as long as they continue to shift...if they quit shifting for a while...they'll begin to age normally as normal humans would. IF shapeshifters NEVER aged...then the reservation should be full of shapeshifter. But they do age if they so choose. That's why Jacob's grandfather's aren't around....they eventually died. The Cullens met up with Jacob's great-grandfathers back around 1930 or so. They are the ones who made the pact with the vampires to stay off their lands. After the Cullen's left the Forks area...the shapeshifters decided NOT to shift anymore...this caused them to age and to eventually die naturally. However, the gene is still carried through and survives in the male lines though dormant when there are no vampires near. But when the Cullen's decided to move back to Forks, they unintentionally caused the dormant shapeshifter gene to reactivate. Sam was the first to change...since he was of the right age...then the others (including Jacob) then followed. Older tribe members such as Billy Black and Harry Clearwater were too old for the gene to reactivate....but the gene was passed down to their sons and the gene reactivated in them when the Cullens returned. The Cullens liked Forks in the 1930's because they could come out in the weather since it was always so overcast. However, they left because of the shapeshifters. Years later, the Cullens thought all the shapeshifters had died out...so they returned...and were ignorant that their very presence was what caused the shapeshifter to exist in the first place.