Jacob Black

Jacob Black is a fictional character in the books Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. He is described as a Native American of the Quileute tribe. In Twilight he is fifteen, and in New Moon and Eclipse he is sixteen. When he reaches the age of sixteen, he undergoes the transformation that enables him to phase into a werewolf. He is described as 6' 7", lanky, but still very muscular, with black hair that is cut short when he joins his clan of werewolves, but later grows longer and hangs to his chin. His hair was also long before he became a werewolf.

Twilight
He has a small but very important role in this book. After being flirted with by Bella Swan (as a way to get information), he introduces her to the idea that Edward Cullen is a vampire by telling her Quileute legends. According to Stephenie Meyer via her official website, Jacob was originally just a device to tell Bella about the "Cold Ones". However, both she and her editor liked Jacob so very much that they decided to give him a much larger role in New Moon and Eclipse, the sequels to Twilight.

New Moon
The book starts with Edward telling Bella he can not see her anymore, and that he has to leave. Trying to recover, Bella becomes very good friends with her father's good friend Billy's, son, Jacob. What Bella doesn't know is that Jacob is madly in love with her and he is a werewolf.

Jacob is one of an ancient line of werewolves, a member of the Quileute Tribe that has forever been the mortal enemy of any vampire, even the (relatively) innocent Cullen family. At first Jacob thinks all this is legend, and he is frightened and disturbed by the influence a young man on the reservation, Sam Uley, has on some of the Quileute youth. But when Jacob makes the change himself in response to a new vampire threat, he learns that Sam (leader of the pack) went through his own 'werewolven' hardships, including a rather bloody incident with his girlfriend (now fiancée) Emily. As werewolves are short-tempered, highly violent, and likely to explode into wolf form when provoked to anger, Jacob, prompted by his new pack, agrees that he should stay away from Bella. Besides, he is busy patrolling the forest with his pack, searching for the vampires in the area who are killing local hikers. Jacob and the pack save Bella, who is in the meadow Edward showed her, from a vampire. Laurent (from Twilight) catches Bella alone in the clearing while hunting and attempts to kill her. Before the over-sized wolves run him off, Laurent tells Bella that Victoria, the red-haired mate of James (also from Twilight), is trying to find her to have her revenge on Edward, who killed her mate.

During a conversation in which Jacob almost kisses Bella, Bella's phone rings. When Jacob answers the phone, he tells who he believes to be Carlisle that Charlie is "at the funeral". In reality, it was Edward pretending to be Carlisle, and thinking Bella had died (making the assumption that the funeral Jacob is referring to was Bella's as opposed to Harry Clearwater's), and he immediately goes to Italy to ask the Volturi to kill him. Bella and Alice go to find and stop Edward directly after the fateful phone call, leaving Jacob hurt and angry. Jacob is hurt and disgusted by Edward's return and by Bella's willingness to go back to him and become a vampire.

Presumably, after the Cullens and Bella return to Forks, Jacob has become their enemy because of the treaty, making Bella his enemy as well because of her refusal to leave the vampires.

He also reminds Edward, flanked by Bella, of their treaty, in which the Cullens are not allowed to bite a human. This means that if one of the Cullens turn Bella into a vampire, the treaty is broken, and the werewolves no longer have any reason not to attack them, leaving an open plot for Eclipse. Bella says angrily that it's none of Jake's business. At the end of the meeting, Bella and Jacob (who she affectionately calls Jake) are about to hug when Edward pulls Bella back, saying that it would "not be okay." Jacob begins to shake and his body swells as he gets mad which will turn him into the werewolf. But Bella manages to calm him down and Bella and Edward leave. However, Bella's last look at Jake is of his face crumpling in emotional pain, and she vows that she will see him smile again.

Eclipse
The third installment of the series begins with Jacob still trying to keep a safe distance away from Bella. She desperately tries to get a hold of him to talk. But he continues to ignore her attempts. He decides to write her a note instead. He is not comfortable with the idea of Bella walking around a vampire. And the thought of it causes him to almost lose control with anger.

The book starts with Bella reading the note from Jacob. He has a hard time expressing himself in the note, as she reads through many unfinished sentences that end up being crossed out. The last comment in the note is not crossed out, and shows he is still angry with their situation.

Yeah, I miss you, too. A lot. Doesn't change anything. Sorry. -Jacob

Later on in the series, his affection towards Bella grow stronger. He's enraged by the fact that she will become a vampire after graduation, which is only a few weeks away. Bella feels bad that she's spending all her time with Edward and so she sneaks off to visit Jacob occasionally. Jacob invites Bella to come with him to a Quileute council meeting, and she accepts. Jacob and Bella spend the night together and listen to tribe legends, believed to be real by the Quileute. On one of the later visits, Jacob tells Bella he loves her, and kisses her, thinking that Bella loves him back. Bella, outraged that he would kiss her after he knows that she loves Edward, punches him in the jaw and breaks her hand. Jacob brings Bella home and is told by Edward that if he ever kisses Bella again, he would break Jacob's jaw. But Edward also claims that he would allow it to happen if Bella wanted to kiss him.

A while later there is a graduation party held at the Cullens' house that Jacob decides to go to, giving Bella a charm bracelet with a carving of a werewolf on it as a graduation present. While he's there he learns that Victoria has amassed a newborn vampire army to attack Bella. Jacob eagerly agrees on learning how to fight these vampires and to fight along with the Cullens to protect Bella. Their original plan was to have the werewolf, Seth, watch over Bella in a remote mountain place while the Cullens and the werewolf pack fought off the vampires. Bella, however, wanted Edward with her when she stayed in the mountains, and asked Edward. Edward agreed as long as Jacob would carry her to the place in the mountains so that her scent would be lost. They followed through with the plan, and Jacob carried Bella to the mountain hideaway.

While waiting for the battle to be over, Edward, Bella, and Jacob set up camp. A blizzard blows through the camp, and Bella to begins to freeze. Jacob comes in the tent and stays in Bella's sleeping bag to warm her up with his abnormal body heat, much to Edward and Bella's horror. Later on, Bella wakes up and Jacob leaves the tent. Bella and Edward then start discussing how they're marriage plans, and Jacob overhears their conversation, and runs away because of he's so upset that they're getting married. Upon Bella's request, Edward brings Jacob back and leaves them alone to talk. After some talk, Jacob says that he's going to go and kill himself because Bella doesn't love him. Bella then begs and pleads with him not to. Bella says that she'll kiss him if he won't commit suicide. Jacob agrees and they kiss (although he wasn't going to really go through with killing himself - it was a trick he used on her). Bella then realizes that she loves Jacob, but her love for Edward overpowers everything else. Jacob then leaves to finish the battle, and gets injured in the battle trying to save a fellow werewolf named Leah(who was trying to show off). Carlisle patches him up and worried Bella visits him. They talk and agree that Jacob should let Bella stay with Edward and to stop coming between them. Jacob reminds Bella that he will always be there for her whenever she needs him.

The epilogue is written from Jacob's point of view for the first time in the series. Jacob is sitting on the end of the cliff and Leah is trying to talk to him. Jacob scares Leah off and then returns home. At home he finds that Edward has sent Jacob a wedding invitation to Bella and Edward's wedding. With it a note was enclosed from Edward saying that Jacob did not have to come to the wedding, and Edward thanks Jacob for "everything". At the end, Jacob runs away in wolf form, leaving "Jacob Black" behind him, trying to escape the pain he feels from Bella's decision by trying to become a vampire.

Physical appearance
Jacob is described to be 6'7" tall, with a toned and muscular build. Bella describes him as having dark russet skin. In New Moon, upon discovering his werewolf powers and joining the Quileute pack, he crops his black hair. Later he grows it out to chin length in Eclipse because he thinks Bella likes it better that way. He tends to wear only cut-off style jeans, saying that when turning from human to a werewolf and back he doesn't like to have carry a lot of clothes since they are ruined during transformation.

Werewolf Abilities

 * Regeneration - Body heals at an abnormal rate, faster than any human body can.
 * Phasing - Can morph in and out of "werewolf" form. With practice and skill, one can morph faster and with more efficiency. While less experienced, young werewolves will frequently phase when losing their tempers. There is still a risk when a werewolf ages and becomes more and more experienced in controlling their powers, but happens much less frequently.
 * Telepathy - Only works within pack, when in wolf form. They can speak with each other telepathically and hear each other's thoughts. Though this is more than useful while hunting and tracking, there is no privacy left in the pack because of this ability. It can be described as both a gift and a burden.
 * Physically enhanced - Has "super-strength" in both wolf and human form. In wolf form, they are also exceptionally fast. Before phasing, the human form will build up their muscles naturally and will be ready for the first time they phase.
 * Delayed aging - They cannot start aging until a solid period of time without phasing goes by. It is unknown the exact length of time, only it would be very difficult because of what causes phasing and the fact that the current pack are so frequently needed in the present time of the books.
 * Constant temperature - Werewolves have a constant body temperature of about 108 degrees to withstand severe cold.
 * Imprinting - Werewolves can make an imprint on a certain person they see once they begin phasing. Jacob describes imprinting to be stronger than true love. When Jacob is staring into Bella's eyes intently at the bottom of page 173 in Eclipse, it is implied that he is trying to make himself imprint on her.

Movie Portrayal
On her official site, Stephenie Meyer has said that she pictures Jacob Black being played by Steven Strait. Currently, as of Jan. 18, 2008, Meyer's website is announcing open call for actors to audition for the role of Jacob.