Bella as Queen

I am happy (and sad) to say that I've completed the Twilight series. Breaking Dawn was, again, breathtaking. This second time through, I took the time to read some of the interview with Stephanie Meyer at the end. At one point, she discussed the art on the cover of Breaking Dawn, comparing Bella's evolution to chess pieces. At the beginning of the novel (and the series for that matter) she's as weak as a pawn. By the end, she's the strongest player on the board, the queen. I agree with Stephanie's statement in part. Bella does, in fact, emerge as the strongest player. She's able to use her immense talent to protect her entire family and friends from the powers of the Volturi. She even learned to completely remove her "blocking" power to let Edward in her mind. However, I don't agree with the statement that she was as weak as a pawn in prior to becoming a vampire and honing her talent. She was definitely physically weak because she was human. However, her courage and mental toughness were far from small. I would argue that she should be compared to a knight-travelling only in a certain L shape. Human Bella could "block" vampire powers from her own mind, but not keep others safe. She was brave enough to endure the pain of becoming a vampire. She was never afraid of Edward, his family, or the wolves. These could hardly be the qualities of a pawn.