Characters / The Twilight Saga

Major Characters

Bella Cullen, née Swan

Portrayed by Kristen Stewart

Isabella "Bella" Swan is the main heroine of The Twilight Saga. After her mother gets remarried, she moves from Arizona to Forks to live with her father. Having gone in only expecting another ordinary stay at the town, she's met with a heavenly surprise when she spots an impossibly gorgeous group of newcomers known as the Cullens at her high school. And among them, she meets her subsequent soulmate, Edward Cullen. It's only through a sequence of contrived events, she discovers that these God-like beauties are actually a clan of fabled creatures known as vampires. But, rather than being shocked by this discovery, instead she decides she's in love with Edward leading them to hook up and venture into a forbidden love. She describes herself as being klutzy, easily bruised and of weak constitution. She also claims to be quite plain in appearance, but takes pride in being very well read, and even moreso in being able to function by herself and having the wisdom of a woman twice her age.

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• Action Mom: After she has a child and becomes a vampire, in that order. Subverted in that she never actually gets to do any fighting in the end, and at most she hunts some mountain lions and deer which are no match at all for her vampire strength. Played straight in the climax of the final film.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Bella thinks of herself as rather plain and unfashionable, while Kristen Stewart plays her in the movies. Then again, considering how much of a Dude Magnet she seems to be at her high school, she's presumably more attractive than she lets on.
• Adaptational Badass: In the films, she gets a few moments that make her more badass than she was in the books. In Twilight (2005), when she's surrounded by creeps in Port Angeles she manages to knee one of them in the groin before Edward swoops in. She later uses pepper spray on James; it doesn't do much, but points for trying. In Eclipse (2007), she cuts her arm with a rock to distract Victoria and Riley to help Edward (in the book, she merely contemplates stabbing herself with it, but the fight is over pretty quickly before she can do anything). Finally, in Breaking Dawn Part 2, she actually gets to participate in the battle with the Volturi and takes out several vampires, including Aro himself with Edward's help, even though it does turn out to be only a vision.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: In the novel, she's described as having silky straight hair. Kristen Stewart sported a wavy hairstyle in the films.
• Afraid of Blood: It causes her to faint in the first book, though there is nothing delicate about it and her description of the incident. Bella herself, though, is pretty delicate: she nearly fainted just from smelling a few drops of blood from part-way across the room.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She wants to date Edward even though he is "dangerous," and also starts to gain interest in Jacob only after he becomes a werewolf. She is put off by Edward when he first acts gruff with her, but, weirdly enough, is never deterred by him stalking or manhandling her, nor by the knowledge that he has killed hundreds of people. However, she doesn't seem to use the stereotypical justifications ("I can change you", "He was just having a bad day"), and is (as noted) originally creeped out by Edward's hostile behavior towards her (though she is, amusingly, always Distracted by the Sexy). Her reaction to Jacob's change of personality is basically: "How dare you abandon me after making me emotionally dependent on you? Also, I think you joined a cult. Also, that's hot."
• All Myths Are True: Bella wonders if this is the case after learning about werewolves.
• All Women Are Lustful: Just try coming up with an instance where Bella doesn't mention Edward's impossible beauty within the same vicinity as him. Better yet, bring a beer along and see how it goes. Also, between her and Edward, Bella is the one who repeatedly pushes for more physical intimacy in their relationship (mostly in taking things to the next level), but gets rebuffed each time. Knowledge that Edward can very easily lose control and kill her during sex never stops her for long.
• Analogy Backfire: In Eclipse, Bella compares herself to Cathy of Wuthering Heights and her love for Edward to Cathy's love for Heathcliff, seemingly forgetting there is actually an Isabella in the same novel who does marry Heathcliff... to disastrous effect.
• Anti-Magic: Bella has a pretty minor version of this, but most vampire powers (not counting purely physical ones) don't seem to work well on her, even while she's still human. Edward for instance can read nearly every mind but hers, and she can't be found directly with clairvoyance.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • When she finds out Edward has broken into her house more than once, even before they were dating, to sit in her bedroom and watch her sleep, Bella is more concerned that he heard her talking in her sleep.
  • Upon discovering that Edward is a vampire and can read minds, she freaks out... because he says he can't read hers, which makes her think that she's the freakish one. This is Lampshaded.
  • Bella is disturbed to find out that Jacob has imprinted on her daughter, but manages to keep her self control about it. Until she finds out he nicknamed her "Nessie", at which point she attacks.
• Audience Surrogate: Confirmed by the author. According to many fans, this is what made Twilight so "magical", since they could live vicariously through Bella and experience Edward's devotion, and the thrill his vampirism offers, for themselves.
  • Further delved into by The Oatmeal, stating that not having her physical appearance conclusively described combined with her insecure personality makes her more of a roleplaying placeholder that any human female who's experienced puberty can identify with and become.
• Author Avatar: An image circulates on the web of how Bella's in-universe description almost exactly matches how Stephenie Meyer looks in real life◊. Meyer has also stated that she partly based Bella upon her own experiences in school/college.
• Badass Pacifist: Mostly nonviolent and a Neutral Female, but has her badass moments.
• Bad Liar: The author frequently states that Bella is a horrible liar, and in the second book she literally proves she couldn't lie to save her life during her meeting with Laurent. When she tries to convince him that the Cullens still keep tabs on her and would avenge her death at his hands, Laurent easily sees through her transparent lies. On the other hand, Bella spends most of her time lying to other characters with them very rarely catching on to it, so it's partly an Informed Attribute.
• Battle Couple: With Edward in Breaking Dawn Part 2, though subverted later on when we learn that the battle didn't actually happen.
• Beautiful Dreamer: Invoked with Edward sneaking into Bella's house at night to watch her sleep. It continues after the two start a relationship and she is allows him to snuggle with her every night and watch her sleep.
• Berserk Button: Turns out that Jacob calling Renesmee "Nessie" was a HUGE berserk button for her, since he's nicknaming her daughter after the Loch Ness Monster. She eventually lightens up about it.
• Better as Friends: With Jacob. Knowing that Jacob has feelings for her and knowing that he's going to go into battle and get himself killed, Bella kisses Jacob. When Edward asks Bella if she loves Jacob, she tells him that she loves him (Edward) more. Later, Jacob is accepted as part of the family despite the romance between Bella and Jacob.
• Betty and Veronica: The Archie for Jacob's Betty and Edward's Veronica. She chooses Edward.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She can have a pretty fierce temper if you get on her bad side, especially when she becomes a vampire.
• Birthday Hater: She hates the attention and how it reminds her that she still ages while Edward doesn't. She gets somewhat better in Breaking Dawn, though: she still freaks out a bit when Alice wishes her a happy nineteenth birthday, but calms down since she doesn't actually age anymore. Furthermore, she gets her own dream cottage as a birthday present, and loves it.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Almost certainly unintentional, but she often comes off as this due to her poor treatment of others and rather uncharitable thoughts about others appearances. Combines with Ron the Death Eater in some circles.
• Blood Knight: After becoming a vampire, she's more than eager to tear the Volturi apart and set them on fire herself and even gives off a couple of uncharacteristic Slasher Smiles at the thought.
• Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: In the film adaptation of Breaking Dawn, she ends up wearing one in a dream sequence.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Bella sometimes uses Jacob's "Sure, sure."
• Brainy Brunette: Despite coming off as Too Dumb to Live to many readers, she gets good grades in school.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: In Breaking Dawn. Justified—she had previously thought male vampires were sterile.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: She calls both of her parents by their first names, or at least she does so mentally or when talking about to others with her father; to his face she calls him dad.
• Childhood Friend: To Jacob. He'd like to be more than friends, but she prefers Edward.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: In regards to Edward. Though she's not as bad as him, she gets quite jealous if any other women show him attention and tends to think catty things about them. She's even reluctant to invite Tanya to their wedding because she used to have a crush on Edward; she only relents when Edward points out Tanya and the Denalis are the closest thing he has to family and he wants them to be there.
• Clueless Dude Magnet: She seems pretty oblivious to all the attention she gets from men. When she does notice (like with Tyler in Twilight (2005)), she gets annoyed.
• Cool Car: Drives a 1963 Chevy stepside pickup. In BD, her pickup crashes, and she gets a Mercedes Guardian and later a Ferrari.
• Crocodile Tears: She pulls these on Jacob after Leah stands up to her on his behalf. Jacob immediately sides with Bella and vilifies Leah for upsetting her.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Dying because your baby has broken your spine as it tries to get out of you is a bloody gruesome way to die. Of course, she gets "better", but still!
• Cursed with Awesome: Now that she's become a vampire in Breaking Dawn Part 2.
• Curtains Match the Window: She's a brunette with chocolate brown eyes. Subverted when she becomes a vampire; her eyes turn red and eventually amber, and she has to wear contacts to make her eyes appear brown.
• Cute Bookworm: By Meyer's standards at least. Her only hobby is reading books, especially classics.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Known for being The Klutz which is seen as cute in the books. This is heavily downplayed in the movies, she only has two clumsy moments in the first movie, but she's far from being klutzy like her book counterpart.
• Dandere: Bella is definitely shy and mostly inexpressive but she is more "dere" toward Edward.
• Damsel in Distress: Bella is ineffectual against a group of rapists and Edward must swoop in to save her. Prior to this, Edward had to save her from a careening truck. Later in the book, she is ineffectual against a vampire, and Edward and his family must swoop in to save her. Subsequent books have the same formula, right down to warring factions — werewolves and vampires — putting aside their differences to save Bella. Bella herself is absolutely useless in a fight until she herself gets cool powers.
• Deadpan Snarker: In the books, Bella tells a number of dry jokes with such a straight face that the others can't tell if she's trying to be funny.
• Death by Childbirth: She is reborn as a vampire after her daughter's birth.
• Description in the Mirror: This is Bella's way of describing her own appearance. She considers her appearance unremarkable, but the description she gives suggests good looks, similar to those of the author.
• Designated Victim: Frequently the victim of any sort of imaginable bad happening. She gets it again after she has become a vampire, only this time she does consider herself pretty.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it at a regular basis. Whenever a crisis rears its ugly head Bella's first instinct is to give up, telling the reader over and over that all hope is lost. The biggest is probably in New Moon, where she spends about a year doing nothing but pining for Edward and lamenting the fact he apparently no longer loves her, even engaging in suicidal behaviour.
• Devoted to You: It seems like every man who falls for her ends up crazy about her, especially Edward and Jacob.
• Distracted by the Sexy: A Running Gag around Edward. Around Jacob too, though she doesn't acknowledge it as easily.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": She corrects anyone who calls her by her first name, Isabella.
• Doom Magnet: For decades, the Cullens have lived in relative peace and routine. Since Bella's introduction, over the span of 2 years they have been involved in vampire wars, worked with werewolves to thwart repeated attempt's on Bella's life, and nearly come to blows with the powerful Volturi.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: In the first book of Breaking Dawn, Bella has a dream about the Volturi coming to kill her and the Cullens. Bella narrates the exact same thing happening in the preface of the third book—literally: Meyer just copy-pasted Bella's dream into the preface.
• Dreaming the Truth: Used after Bella learns Edward is a vampire. Even though Dream-Edward is attempting to lead her to her doom, Bella realizes she doesn't care if Edward's a vampire as she's more upset that Dream-Edward is about to be attacked. The same dream with a slight twist is used in New Moon so she can realize Jacob is a werewolf.
• Dude Magnet: She is very popular among the opposite sex. Apparently even her science teacher fancies her.
• Dull Surprise: Bella in the movie never has a discernible reaction to anything much, from death threats to getting married. The only time she reacts to anything is when she breaks her hand by hitting someone.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Was described as such in the first three books, but even moreso when she becomes a vampire herself.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Bella hates math; it's her worst subject.
• Emergency Transformation: Edward has to turn her into a vampire quickly after she suffers fatal injuries from childbirth complications, including a pulverized pelvis, shattered spine, and the hole her husband bit in her uterus to get the baby out.
• Emo Teen: Bella becomes one for a while after Edward leaves her in New Moon.
• Eternal Love: She aspires for this with Edward and gets her wish as of Breaking Dawn, now that she is also a vampire.
• The Everyman: She's intended to be a very average teenage girl caught up in extraordinary events, although her being a Dude Magnet, her highly-appealing blood and her resistance to vampire mind powers suggests there's more to her. It's subverted after she becomes a vampire.
• Extreme Doormat: In the first three books she has issues standing up for what she wants in the face of what Edward wants and is very averse to conflict. It's not until Breaking Dawn that she starts to show some ability in sticking to her guns.
• Fainting: Bella has an extremely weak constitution, and faints at the smell of blood, when feeling overpowered, or even when Edward breathes on her! This isn't fake fainting to look delicate, nor a deliberate ploy from the author to make her look this elegant. She mentions without much restraint that she came that close from throwing up on one occasion. This is just Stephenie Meyer's way to remind us that Bella is very fragile.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress: Wears one in Breaking Dawn when she marries Edward. In the film adaptation, she has two (one of them is worn in a dream sequence).
• Fanservice Pack: After becoming a vampire, she becomes stunningly beautiful like the other Cullens; even she - the poster girl of I Am Not Pretty - thinks so.
• Fatal Flaw: According to Word of God, her lack of self-knowledge/awareness, which prevents her from realising her true potential, recognizing others' feelings for her and vice versa, and seeing the value in herself that others do.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Bella is a typical girl who cooks for her father.
• First-Name Basis: With her father, to whom she consistently refers as "Charlie", despite trying to call him dad. They don't see each other often so she is sometimes unable to say it.
• Flat Character: She’s just so weak and her entire life revolves around Edward, she literally has no ambition other than becoming a vampire and being with Edward forever. She has no back bone , no ambition and her personality is boring and bland.
• Friendless Background: Though her own will. She doesn't mind being alone, to say the least.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Joins the Cullens as a "vegetarian" vampire after she is turned by Edward. Despite being a newborn, she has a shockingly good amount of self-control.
• Girliness Upgrade: At the start of the series, Bella tends to constantly wear jeans, loose-fitting shirts, outdoor boots, and sneakers; in the films, she often wears a big yellow raincoat. She states she owns only one skirt, rarely dresses up with make-up and fancy hair, and avoids high heels like the plague on account of her klutziness. After meeting the Cullens, Alice makes it her mission to introduce Bella to high fashion, putting her in heels and dresses at every opportunity. By the end of the series, Bella's wardrobe is a lot more glamorous and feminine compared to her earlier, more tomboyish look.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: In case you haven't noticed, Meyer is a Mormon. The subject itself is never treated as a moral dilemma. Bella loves her baby, so she keeps it. But then, the message was perhaps Good Girls Want Children, which would be all the more shocking.
• Got Over Rape Instantly: In The Twilight Saga, Bella is cornered by a group of men who verbally harass her before being saved by Edward who indicates they would have assaulted her. She exhibits no symptoms of stress or trauma and shows even more interest in Edward. The ordeal is never mentioned again.
• Growing Up Sucks: Bella thinks that she should not be any older than Edward physically when she becomes a vampire despite the fact that being slightly older than Edward would not cause too many negative effects for her if she was also a vampire. However, she more or less drops this opinion in Breaking Dawn, after figuring out how great sex is as a human. She's turned into a vampire not long after and still thinks it's fantastic.
• Happily Married: To Edward in Breaking Dawn.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: One of Bella's primary traits is her extremely low self esteem.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: All Bella does is obsess over Edward and how perfect he is.
• Hypocrite: Either this or Hypocritical Humor, but Bella looks down on Jessica for admiring Edward's looks, yet she herself can't stop describing every inch of his body and swooning over him.
• I Am Not Pretty: The poster girl. Her general physical description, the fact she has boys fawning over her constantly and the choice of casting suggests she's attractive, but she sees herself as plain and mousey. She doesn't truly believe she's beautiful until Breaking Dawn after she becomes a vampire, which makes her even more attractive.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: It takes Bella three books to stop talking like this. Heck, she continues to go on about it at her damned wedding, wondering why Edward would have picked her over the more attractive Tanya or Rosalie.
• I Just Want to Be Special: She desperately wants to become a vampire before she gets too old for her boyfriend, who became a vampire when he was 17. She won't settle for anything less, finding the idea of living a normal life highly unappealing.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Bella is a very good example of type A.
• Informed Ability:
  • She is supposedly wide-read, but never references more than a small handful of books, and they're only the kinds any high schooler had to read in English 101 and are never talked about or analyzed in any depth by her. Subverted in Midnight Sun, when she is seen reading Sense And Sensibility for fun.
  • In the first book she mentions, several times, that she thinks of her mother, Renee, as her best friend. However she barely thinks about her mom after moving to Forks and neglects to e-mail her when she arrives, acting exasperated that hey, after two or three days Renee is getting kind of worried.
  • She thinks of herself as very mature and others claim she behaves like a much older person, yet she throws tantrums when she doesn't get her way, often moaning how something "[is] not fair!" and actually stomping her foot on one occasion, indulges in her impulses to the point that she spends money saved for college to pay for bikes she's not legally allowed to own or ride, has zero plans or ambitions for her future, skips school, often right-out refuses to even consider the consequences of anything going on, and is happy to recklessly engage in all kinds of dangerous activities for the sake of a kick.
• Informed Flaw: Bella spends so much time talking about how "plain" she is. However, boys are still all over her. Chalk it up to the writer's not so subtle way to try and make us believe that Bella is modest.
• In-Series Nickname: Bella is her preferred name in the series as opposed to her full name Isabella. Some of Bella's other nicknames in the series include Bells and Bell (both used by Charlie Swan and Jacob Black), Arizona (used by Mike Newton), Spider Monkey (used by Edward Cullen), Vampire Girl (used by Emily Young and Embry Call), Leech Lover (used by Leah Clearwater and Paul Lahote), and Swan Girl (used by Emmett Cullen).
• Instant Expert: Sure as a human Bella is a hopeless klutz. But, once she's a vampire she's free of any of the consequences faced by most newborns, such as the insatiable desire for human blood.
• Inter-Class Romance: With Edward. While Bella is from a working class status, Edward comes from a wealthy background.
• Interspecies Romance: With Edward before she is turned into a vampire by Edward in Breaking Dawn.
• Irony:
  • Bella is afraid of blood, but wants to be a vampire.
  • Bella also hates cold and cloudy weather, then falls in love with a man who is literally cold as ice and can't go out in direct sunlight.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Bella gets in to Dartmouth with very little effort.
• I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Bella cries because she is so upset that Edward woke her up from an Erotic Dream she was having about him and her.
• The Klutz: She is notoriously clumsy, frequently knocing into things or tripping over; her clumsiness even leads to her being injured. She hates it and mocks herself for it, providing the funniest parts of the book for people who get annoyed by the romance. She loses this after becoming a vampire, who have supernatural gracefulness and agility.
• Like Father, Like Son: She has absolutely nothing in common with her mother aside from being a bit self-centered, but is awkward, shy, and a bit of a loner, just like her dad Charlie.
• Living Forever Is Awesome: Believes that immortality is far more amazing and wondrous than mortality.
• Living MacGuffin: In the last third of Breaking Dawn. Her shield ability - which blocks other vampires' mental powers - is integral to the Cullens' defense in the confrontation with the Volturi, as it allows her to block the abilities of the Volturi's trump cards, Jane and Alec.
• The Load: She doesn't do anything remotely useful until Breaking Dawn and it's because of her that bloodthirsty monsters keep showing up and attacking people in the surrounding areas. In the first book, James is attracted to her scent. In the second, so is Laurent. In the third, Victoria wants revenge for James. In the fourth, it's her daughter that causes the Volturi to come. Every major monster clash in all the books is a result of Bella.
• Loners Are Freaks: Subverted. Bella is a loner who is well liked and doesn't want friends.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Played with. A loner, especially in the first book, but meets Jacob and her friends in school.
• Love Hungry: Especially in regards to Edward.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Particularly lampshaded in the parts of the story (New Moon) where Bella is involuntarily separated from Edward for a prolonged period. She starts seeing visions of him, hearing voices, and even intentionally putting herself in harm's way to evoke these reactions.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Fits the bill whenever her emotions get out of control. The first book hits the nail on the head when she can't tell the difference between a recording of her mother's voice in a home video playing on a VCR in the background and her mother's actual voice calling for help, though this is arguably justified because of her anxiety and everything that just happened up to that point.
• Love Martyr: She is even explicitly compared to a legendary Love Martyr from a true story. She exploits this because things worked out for the Love Martyr's loved ones because of her attitude.
• Mama Bear:
  • In Breaking Dawn, she flies off the handle when she learns that Jacob imprinted on Renesmee.
  • Bella does everything in her power to ensure that her daughter stays alive in Breaking Dawn. That includes letting a dozen or more strangers risk their lives to protect Renesmee.
• Martyr Without a Cause: Bella is a variant. It's not that she wants to be a hero, it's that, as other characters sometimes lampshade, she blames herself for anything and everything that goes wrong. This leads to the same type of self-hatred (if not the same quantity) as The Atoner, and while she doesn't often have the opportunity to risk her life, she clearly considers herself more expendable than those around her, particularly Edward, but also her mother, father, and unborn baby.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Bella is almost a century younger than Edward. Bella is 18 and Edward is over 100.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Bella is Latin for 'beautiful', although pulcher/pulchra is the typical Latin word for "beautiful". In most Latin texts "bella" is the plural of "bellum" and means "wars". Her name is "beautiful swan"—i.e., what the Ugly Duckling grows up into.
  • Probably unintentional, but given the conflicts she ends up causing, one considers the most common Latin translation of "bella": wars.
  • Also probably unintentional, but it is still interesting to note that Bella's last name, Swan, has a meaning in the real-life vampire subculture. Swan is used to refer to people involved in the vampire community, but who are not vampires themselves.
• Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe.
  • Bella's Romeo and Juliet comparisons, where she is Juliet, Edward is Romeo — and Jacob is, for some reason, Paris — which indicate that she has not actually understood the play... Just like a large number of teen girls.
  • Bella is a serial offender at this. In Breaking Dawn, she reads Tennyson's 'Song of the Lotus-Eaters' to lull Renesmee to sleep because she thinks the poem feels restful and peaceful. Tennyson's poem is designed to be the precise opposite, conveying the nightmarish, drug-induced torpor that causes the Lotus-Eaters to forget everyone they love and everything that matters to them.
  • In Eclipse she kept fantasizing that she was the Cathy Earnshaw to Edward's Heathcliff, despite Heathcliff being a violent and abusive man and Cathy a Womanchild who never learned to make her own decisions.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: Bella wants to experience sex with Edward while she is still human, before she gets changed into a vampire. Doubles as a case of Too Dumb to Live, since Edward explicitly warns her that because of his super-strength, the experience will quite likely be extremely traumatic or even fatal.
• Narrating the Obvious: Has a habit of pointing out the obvious in her narration.
• Neutral Female: See Non-Action Guy.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Arguably, Bella's ability to suppress vampires' powers.
• New Transfer Student: In the beginning of the series.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Subverted. On the one hand, Bella only falls in love with monsters and doesn’t even seem happy with the thought of dating a normal boy. On the other hand, Bella does get freaked out a few times in the books, just not as much as an average girl would.
• Non-Action Guy: Mainly due to her clumsiness and weak constitution.
• Not Good with Rejection: When Edward tells her he doesn't love and dumps her in New Moon, she has a complete breakdown, becoming depressed and almost catatonic for months, believing life isn't worth living and even hallucinating Edward's voice out of desperation to be near him. She has a similar reaction when Jacob stops hanging out with her too.
• No Periods, Period: Played straight with Bella, who, despite having yummy blood, does not trigger a vampire feeding frenzy once a month. Handwaved by saying that menstrual blood is 'dead blood'.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Bella in the movies. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, but has Californian Kristen Stewart's natural accent.
• Not So Weak: She saved Edward before his suicide and distracted Victoria to save him once again.
• Occult Detective: Bella in the first two books. In the first book, Bella knows that there is something not quite right about Edward and becomes consumed with discovering what his secret is. The same thing happens in New Moon when Jacob becomes a werewolf.
• Official Couple: With Edward.
• Ordinary High-School Student: At least she was supposed to be one.
• Pinball Protagonist: Despite being the main protagonist and narrator, she actually does very little to move the plot forwards of her own accord, mostly just reacting to events around her whilst the others characters (mostly Edward or Jacob) resolve conflict for her. This may be partly justified in that she's human and so stands little chance against supernatural enemies; case-in-point, she only actively starts contributing to the plot of her own volition towards the end of Breaking Dawn, after she's turned into a vampire.
• The Protagonist: The story centres on Bella and her relationships with other characters. However, she can also be considered as Supporting Protagonist.
• Psychic Block Defense: Bella is completely immune to powers that affect the mind, and it's implied she inherited a more powerful form of this ability from her father Charlie. After becoming a vampire, she can also extend her mental shield to protect others or retract it to allow certain powers (like Edward's telepathy) to affect her.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Bella has prophetic dreams. Meyer tries to Hand Wave this by explaining that the dreams are just Bella's mind sorting out everything she knows... apparently into convenient and highly symbolic visions of the future.
• The Quiet One: Not an outgoing person at all, rather unfriendly as well.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Bella is described as having a very pale complexion with long, straight, dark brown hair. Even before she became a vampire and inherited god-like beauty, Bella was rather pretty, as she unintentionally attracted the attention of several boys in school, not just Edward.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: After she first woke up as a newborn vampire.
• Secret-Keeper: Bella to both the Cullens and the Quiletes in the first three books. Until she becomes a vampire herself.
• Shrinking Violet: Bella describes herself as such and so do her friends. She is often very shy, timid, self-conscious and insecure of herself.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Seemingly weak and fragile but defended herself and saved Edward's life.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Variant: most attractive guy, whom all the other girls obsess over.
• Skewed Priorities: In New Moon, she's initially hesitant about telling the wolf pack what she knows about vampires, because it feels like she would be betraying the Cullens. Even though the Cullens haven't contacted her for about a year, telling the wolves how to defeat vampires will help them protect innocent people from being massacred by Victoria and is in her own best interests, seeing as Victoria is after Bella to get revenge on Edward for killing James.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: At least she knows it. And makes fun of it while regretting nothing.
• Smug Snake: Most noticeable after she becomes a vampire she becomes more arrogant, see Took a Level in Jerkass below.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She states that she looks a lot like her mother, but less pretty.
• Stupid Sacrifice: Bella attempts this several times. Most prominent is Eclipse, when she cuts herself to distract Victoria and Riley from trying to kill Edward and Seth....only to learn after the fact that they were both winning and she had actually made things harder for them. The film adaptation changes this by having Edward and Seth legitimately about to be killed, making her using herself as bait more meaningful.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: After she adopts the vegetarian diet like all of the other Cullens.
• Supernaturally Young Parent: A double whammy. Due to being in her late teens when she gave birth then stopped aging, and Renesmee aging faster than a human (within a few months she looks like a seven year old), Bella looks way too young to be her mother. She tells her father that she and Edward adopted Renesmee and he chooses to accept this explanation.
• Supporting Protagonist: Yes, she's the protagonist but Edward is The Hero and does all the heroic stuff up until the end of Breaking Dawn.
• The Talk: Has an exceptionally awkward one with Charlie in Eclipse. In the novel it just comes across as fairly uncomfortable, but in the movie Kristen and Billy make it hilarious.
• Talking in Your Sleep: And Edward listening while he watches her sleep.
• Teen Pregnancy: She gets pregnant at 18 and gives birth a few days before she turns 19.
• Took a Level in Badass: After she changed into a vampire.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After Jacob tells her that he imprinted on Renesmee and nicknamed her "Nessie", she becomes slightly hostile and cruel towards him. She even goes as far to try to kill him, but Seth gets in the way and saves him. And top of that, she won't let ANYONE nickname Renesmee "Nessie" because it's derived from the Loch Ness Monster. She eventually gets over all that, though.
• True Blue Femininity: Bella begins wearing blue quite a bit after beginning her relationship with Edward, as he thinks she looks pretty in the color. Notable examples include her prom dress and the cocktail dress Alice dresses her in when she first awakens as a vampire.
• Undead Barefooter: She kicked off her shoes before her first hunt, signifying that she may be getting into the habit of going barefoot.
• Unwanted Harem: A female example of this with a total of five guys in love with her, two of them supernatural. And she didn't have any boyfriends before moving to Forks.
• Useless Protagonist: Due to her being The Load, Supporting Protagonist, and Neutral Female.
• Viral Transformation: In Breaking Dawn: Part 1, Bella was changed into a vampire by Edward.
• Virgin in a White Dress: In Breaking Dawn, Bella ends up being a virgin on her wedding day only because Edward was too gentlemanly to have sex with her before they're married.
• Weak, but Skilled: Bella is weak in almost everything except her 'shield'.
• Weirdness Magnet: Her first love and boyfriend turns out to be a vampire, her best friend becomes a werewolf. A vicious vampire sets a whole army to kill her, and the leader of the vampire royalty Aro, places his eyes on her.
• What Measure Is a Human?: She doesn't show much concern over the past murders caused by the other Cullens, most notably Edward's during his vigilante days. Notably, Edward himself thinks what he did was unforgivable, regardless of whether or not he was targeting criminals.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Having learned to take care of her mother over the years and being naturally responsible, Bella had developed into a very mature person, especially for her age. She even starts out Twilight (2005) by telling us that she's prepared to die in the place of someone she loves. She is, however, prone to lapses in judgement. She also occasionally throws tantrums (such as sulking about Edward taking her to prom and literally stamping her foot during an argument with Jacob), becomes near suicidal after her boyfriend of a few months dumps her, and does some very reckless and illogical things that put her in danger. She's also got major issues with getting old, even though she's barely out of her teens. Her self-sacrificing tendencies also seem to stem from her utter lack of self-esteem and tendency to blame herself for anything that goes wrong.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: She pulls this off by pulling Crocodile Tears after Leah calls her out for mistreating Jacob, making the others (including Jacob) believe that Leah hurt her feelings.
• You Are Grounded!: Bella gets grounded by her dad from the last chapter of New Moon to the first chapter of Eclipse.

Edward Cullen

Portrayed by Robert Pattinson

A 104-year-old vampire gifted with the ability to read minds. Having first encountered Bella in biology class, he's quick to discover that her floral scented blood evokes an intense, lethal craving. But rather than giving in, he settles for sneaking into her room at night, intrigued by the fact that he can't read her mind. Though he resists the urge to eat her, he'll stop at nothing to claim he's a soulless monster unworthy of redemption. And despite his claims of being a threat to her life, he (a century old vampire) decides it's fine to pursue a relationship with a 17 year old girl anyway. He was turned when he was 17 and dying of Spanish flu.

---

• The Ace: How Bella sees him, but apparently all the vampires qualify compared to the humans. Oddly, even his adoptive mother Esme refers to him as "the best of [them]" without really backing up this statement.
• Age Lift: Downplayed. The books take place in 2005-6, while the movies take place vaguely within the years they were released (2008-12). However, they keep Edward's backstory of being born in 1901 and turned in 1918, which makes him chronologically a bit older. In the New Moon movie, he states his age as 109, implying the current year is 2010.
• Alone Among the Couples: Before meeting Bella, he was this in the Cullen coven, since his adoptive parents and siblings were all already in a relationship.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: The meadow scene, which is what Meyer dreamed about and also the first scene she wrote.
• The Atoner: Edward was a rebellious vampire before he learned the error of his ways.
• Badass Driver: As a result of being able to read the other drivers minds, and (as shown in Midnight Sun) especially when he has Alice and her precognition next to him.
• Battle Couple: Becomes this with Bella in Breaking Dawn Part 2.
• The Beautiful Elite: All of the Cullens are supernaturally beautiful beings who are also filthy rich, due to Alice often correctly predicting how the stock market would pan out.
• Big Man on Campus: Played with. He's a bit of a loner, however he's considerd the most attractive and desirable guy in the school, as well as the smartest (he and the other Cullens are all perfect students).
• Bishie Sparkle: Famously so, being one of the faces of the series.
• Bookworm: Edward loves reading and literature, though we only ever witness him commenting on well-known classics that are standard mandatory reading for US high school students.
• Breaking and Bloodsucking: Edward breaks into Bella's room at night. Infamously, he doesn't feed on her blood; he watches her sleep. A month before they met, too.
• Byronic Hero: Edward is lonely but can't stand how much he wants Bella and her blood.
  Edward: Beautiful? This is the skin of a killer, Bella.
• Celibate Hero: Until he met Bella. Before he married Bella, Edward was a virgin.
• Chick Magnet: Just about any woman in the series acknowledges that he's attractive, including Bella's human friends.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: Edward attracts girls but he seems to be completely oblivious to it.
• Cock Fight: With Jacob over the affections of Bella.
• Cool Car: Edward drives a Volvo S60R, Aston Martin V12 Vanquish. Subverted in the New Moon movie with Edward's Volvo XC90. Why such a soccer-mom car?
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Make a move on Bella, and he won't be very happy with you.
• Cursed with Awesome: He's a telepathic vampire ... who has fallen in love with a living, breathing, blood-filled human whose mind he cannot read, at all. We'll let you figure out why that's so awful.
• Curse That Cures: This is how Edward views vampirism. On the bright side, he was saved from a horrible, wasting death from the Spanish influenza and is now impossibly beautiful. On the negative side, he is hard as rock and cold as ice, dead, can't go out in direct sunlight, constantly thirsts to kill people, and has to go to high school for the rest of his life (which is forever). This is why he is unwilling to make Bella a vampire, despite the fact that she wants to be one.
• Deadpan Snarker: To Bella, sometimes.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Edward is from the early 1900s. Some of what he does was perfectly acceptable in his native time. Other parts of his behavior, like sneaking into a girl's room every night to "protect" her, would have gotten Victorian/Edwardian fathers to take out the shotgun (or send the footman with a club).
• Deuteragonist: Edward is this to Bella's The Protagonist.
• Drives Like Crazy: One of the few things Bella actually finds scary about him.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Edward's struggling with whether to drink Bella's blood.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Towards Bella oh-so-much.
• Elegant Classical Musician: After decades of practice, he is an accomplished classical pianist.
• Emergency Transformation: Just another victim of the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic.
• Eternal Love: With Bella as of Breaking Dawn Part 2 now that she is a vampire herself.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Like all vampires in the Twilight universe, he sparkles in the sunlight.
• Everyone Has Standards: In "Eclipse", as much as he loves Bella, he would never touch her without her permission, which is why he threatens Jacob when he kissed Bella without her consent and decide to give Jacob a clue: Wait for Bella to say the words.
  Edward: (to Jacob) If you ever touch her against her will again...
  Jacob: She's not sure what she wants.
  Edward: Let me give you a clue: Wait for her to say the words.
  Jacob: Fine, then she will.
• Fatal Attractor: Edward would like to believe he is this.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Well, he's more of a surly neighborhood vampire, having dealt with the crushing guilt of having killed people in an earlier time, but he's quite firmly on the side of good once the chips are down. His entire family qualifies as this as well.
• Happily Adopted: Loves his adoptive parents, Carlisle and Esme.
• Happily Married: To Bella in Breaking Dawn Part 1.
• The Hero: Although the story is told from Bella's point of view, Edward is the one who does most of the heroic deeds in the earlier books, due to the fact that he's a vampire and the threats they come across are supernatural themselves.
• Heroic BSoD: Edward also has one when Bella tells him she is pregnant.
• Heroic Willpower: Edward's resistance of Bella's blood makes him the poster boy for this trope. Of course, both Edward and Bella have to resist their regular sexual lust too, for reasons of safety and morality.
• Horror Hunger: For Bella's blood. The scent of Bella's blood drives him crazy.
• I Am a Monster: Struggles with this, especially since he's murdered people in his past. However, they were all criminals, and, as Bella points out, he probably saved more lives than he took.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: He has to go to the Volturi in order to commit suicide.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: He wishes he could relate to Bella the way a normal guy would, without the blood lust and super strength getting in the way.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: He's attracted to Bella because of her mysteriousness.
• I Love You, Vampire Son: He is the one who turns his love interest, Bella, into his vampire mate, per her request.
• In-Series Nickname: Other names used for Edward in the series include Cullen (used by Mike Newton), Mr. Edward (used by J. Jenks), and The Hair (used by Jessica Stanley).
• Informed Flaw: His "dangerous" nature.
• Inter-Class Romance: With Bella. Edward is from a wealthy family and Bella is from a working class background.
• Interspecies Romance: With Bella before she became a vampire in Breaking Dawn Part 2.
• Interrupted Suicide: Edward attempts this on New Moon when he thinks his beloved Bella is dead.
• Insecure Love Interest: In New Moon, Edward leaves Bella because of this, resulting in much angst from both of them.
• Invincible Hero: Vampire skin is supposedly as hard and tough as granite, and he takes a few heavy hits in the movie without even flinching. Furthermore, vampires in this universe lack most of the traditional vampire weaknesses and can even regenerate from decapitation. Their only major weakness seems to be fire, which is one of the few things that can kill them.
• Invisible to Normals: Edward's stopping of the van about to crush Bella with his bare hands with no one but Bella realizing could fall under this, and it is even mocked in Mark Reads Twilight, where he says this is part of an overused idea he calls "The 'I Am Going To Do Something Spectacular And Clearly Attention-Grabbing In Front Of Plenty Of People, Yet No One Is Going To Notice Except (Conveniently) The Main Character' Phenomenon."
• I'm Not a Hero, I'm...: "What if I'm not a superhero? What if I'm the bad guy?"
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Even when Bella is with Jacob.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He was initially very aloof and rude to Bella but it's because he really wanted her.
• Kiss of the Vampire: Edward's make out sessions are tame for this reason.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Rosalie, although there are quite a few fans who may disagree.
• Love at First Sight: With Bella. More like Love At First Smell in Edward's case.
• Love Makes You Crazy: To the point where he stalks and controls Bella.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Edward has almost a century on Bella in regards to age. Edward is over 100 years old and Bella is 18.
• Meaningful Name: The name Edward means "wealthy guardian". Also Edward's last name Cullen ("culling"), which is for a family of predators.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: His telepathy is strongly hinted at as one of the reasons he's so alone prior to Bella's coming to Forks. He's rich, handsome, smart, strong, and wanted by every woman who comes in contact with him (it seems), but he ends up falling in love with a rather dull, uninspiring, self-described plain girl whose distinguishing feature is the fact that he can't read her mind.
• Misaimed Fandom: In-Universe. Edward draws a comparison between imprinting and the love spells in A Midsummer Night's Dream — though whether he is secretly taking a jab at the lack of consent on the part of the imprintees is anyone's guess.
• Mood-Swinger: He has a rather disturbing proclivity to switch between a romantic gentleman to a frothing lunatic at any resistance on Bella's part.
• Mr. Fanservice: Considering the series is largely from Bella's POV, and she's madly in love with him.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: He's the skinniest of the Cullens and yet still managed to lift a full-sized van off of Bella, thanks to his Super-Strength.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In New Moon, when Bella gets a small paper-cut, Edward punts Bella away to prevent Jasper attacking her in a blood-frenzy. This, however, causes her to lacerate her arm.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Edward is the Noble Male to Jacob's Roguish Male. Where Jacob is a cocky, reckless, hotblooded, bad-boy werewolf, Edward is a cultured, thoughtful, overprotective and somewhat repressed gentleman vampire,
• Official Couple: With Bella.
• Old-School Chivalry:
  Edward Cullen: I'm from a different era, things were a lot less complicated. And if I'd met you back then I would have courted you, would've taken chaperoned strolls, iced tea on the porch and... I may have stolen a kiss or two, but only after asking your father's permission. I would have got down on one knee and I would have presented you with a ring.
  [he puts a small ring box in her hand and kneels in front of her]
• Papa Wolf: He's very protective of Bella and his family.
• Pretty Boy: He's tall, slender, with delicate features and a borderline-androgynous build. According to Carlisle and Word of God, Edward takes after his mother.
• Really 700 Years Old: He looks 17, but is really 104 years old.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Calm, soft-spoken Edward is the Blue Oni to brash, thrill-seeking Jacob's Red Oni.
• Rescue Romance: Edward and Bella were already secretly interested in each other, but it was Edward saving Bella from Tyler's out-of-control van that laid the groundwork for their relationship.
• Romantic Vampire Boy: Bella considers him to be a kindhearted and protective vampire.
• Sadist: He gleefully fantasizes about torturing Mike Newton because of Mike's crush on Bella.
• Serial-Killer Killer: When Edward was younger, he rebelled against Carlisle's animal blood philosophy, so he used his mind-reading powers to only feed on rapists and murderers. But even that proved to be too much for his conscience.
• Sex God: Played With. He and Bella have some issues with him bruising her during sex because he Does Not Know His Own Strength in the heat of the moment - Bella enjoys it just fine, but Edward feels guilty about hurting her accidentally. Once they are both immortal this trope is played straight and their sex is so good, Bella wonders how they will be able to stop constantly having sex with plenty of Destructo-Nookie, considering that vampires never get tired and don't even sleep.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Bella. Edward is fascinated by even the most mundane things about Bella and she gushes about how gorgeous he is every time he enters her field of vision and once even swoons over how good his breath smells.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: In his human life.
• Single-Target Sexuality: The only girl he has ever dated or fallen in love with is Bella.
• Smug Snake: Despite all the brooding he does about how horrible it is to be a vampire, and how miserable his life has become since then, Edward really does consider himself far superior to those around him.
• The Sociopath: He has little regard for human life, and claims to be a very good torturer. In "Midnight Sun", he casually ponders committing genocide of the Quileute because Jacob has unwittingly broken the contract by telling Bella the old vampire-related legends of his people.
• Spiky Hair: In the graphic novel adaptation.
• Stalker with a Crush: Constantly stalks his girlfriend.
• Stalking is Love: One of the most egregious acts he does in the name of "love" is breaking into Bella's room every night to watch her sleep. And he did this before they were a couple.
• The Stoic: There's very little that causes him to raise his voice above the soft whisper he often uses.
• Suicide by Sunlight: Played with. Although Meyer's vampires don't burn in the sun, their skin sparkles like hundreds of diamonds, therefore disrobing in front of a crowd would reveal to the public that something isn't quite right with him and attract the Volturi's attention.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Cold towards Bella at first, but soon warms up.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Any vegetarian vampire has this, but Edward's are mentioned so often that they deserve a place in here.
• Super-Speed: He's the fastest vampire among the Cullens.
• Super-Strength: His vampire abilities along with speed and Psychic Powers.
• Supporting Protagonist: While Bella is no doubt the protagonist of the series, Edward is The Hero and does all the heroic stuff up until the end of Breaking Dawn.
• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: At least to Bella Swan, who thinks his actions were perfectly reasonable and even romanticized the idea of him murdering people.
• Telepathy: Edward's telepathy allows him to hear the thoughts of anyone with a radius of a few miles around him.
• Troubled, but Cute: Edward is constantly described as being very good-looking, but is also quite broody, due to his past as a murderer, albeit one who only took out rapists and serial killers. He understandably relaxes more after he and Bella can finally be together, and their entire family is safe from the Volturi.
• Unreliable Narrator: Has a pretty nasty case of this, mostly in regards to his own family -
  • Says that Carlisle changed him due to him being special, when in reality, it was because his mother begged him to.
  • Says that Carlisle only changed Rosalie due to seeing her as a potential mate for him when in reality, he only changed Rosalie due to feeling that she had barely lived her life and in fact told her that she was free to leave the Cullen's if she wished.
• Viral Transformation: When he was dying of the Spanish influenza, his mother-who knew what Carlisle was-begged him to save her son. Carlisle, who was immensely lonely after years of being alone, agreed.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Bella often describes his eyes as being like liquid gold.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In "Eclipse", he gives one to Jacob and threatens him by saying if he ever touches Bella without her consent again and tells him to wait for Bella to say the words to which Jacob agreed to.
• Wife-Basher Basher: After "rebelling" against Carlisle to try out a more "traditional" vampire lifestyle, his first act was to track down, torture, and murder Esme's abusive ex-husband before escalating to judge, jury and executioner of anyone he deemed "evil".
• Yandere: Besides being a Crazy Jealous Guy, he'd kill off any love rivals... if Bella didn't stop him.
• You Need to Get Laid: Edward's broodiness and fatalism has been linked to the fact that he has never had sex in almost a century. Once he gets married and does the deed he certainly becomes less stressed.

Jacob Black

Portrayed by Taylor Lautner

Jacob first knew Bella when they were just children, and they lost contact for years while she was away. He tried to push for a more romantic relationship, but by the time he made his intentions clear, she only had eyes for Edward. He became a werewolf in New Moon.

---

• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: In the books Jacob grows his hair long again at some points when he runs away or stops taking care of himself, but in the movies, from New Moon onwards he keeps his hair cropped short. A probable factor is that Taylor Lautner hated wearing a long wig.
• Ascended Extra: He has a minor role in Twilight (2005). In the following books, he becomes the Tritagonist.
• Badass Biker: Jacob had an interest in fixing and riding motorcycles before he became a werewolf, and over the course of three books, he cements his status as a badass werewolf who rides bikes.
• Barbarian Longhair: To contrast the "perfect" Cullens. He gets a haircut after he starts phasing, to stop his fur becoming too long.
• Berserk Button: Jacob loses it when he discovers that Bella wants to be a vampire. He also loses it when he finds out that Bella plans to lose her virginity to Edward while she is still a human, but it's justified, as he fears that the superhumanly-strong Edward will either hurt or kill her in the process.
• Better as Friends: With Bella. Ultimately, Jacob imprints on Bella's daughter, Renesmee.
• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Edward's Veronica for Bella's Archie. He loses.
• The Big Guy: At least in the books. He stands 6'7". Subverted in the film, as he's only 5'8".
• Boisterous Bruiser: Like Emmett, Jacob is very proud and he loves a good scrap. In fact, one of the only things he enjoys about becoming a werewolf is his newfound status as a tough guy who can take on vampires. In both Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, Jacob has to accept that not all his problems can be solved with pure brawn.
• Brutal Honesty: Jacob tends to not sugarcoat things. Though he does try to be softer with the people he cares about, his default reaction is still blunt honesty, a flaw that's juxtaposed with Edward's (who's often more secretive).
• Catchphrase: "Sure, sure."
• Character Development: Jacob goes from being a friendly but mild-mannered and non-confrontational teenager to an aggressive, hotheaded Boisterous Bruiser after he transforms into a werewolf and becomes part of Sam's pack. He butts heads with Edward numerous times out of jealousy and mutual Fantastic Racism, but gradually overcomes his prejudices towards the Cullens so he can help Bella, even after he's already become the loser in their love triangle, and he gradually comes to accept the Cullens as friends and allies during Bella's pregnancy. After being the cocky, reckless, rebellious bad boy of Sam's pack for several books, Jacob has to mature and deal with a brand new set of responsibilities when he becomes alpha of his own little pack, consisting of Leah and Seth, which results in him becoming a more responsible and authoritative werewolf, if still irritable. He finally mellows out entirely once he finds his own imprint.
• Childhood Friends: With Bella.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Bella again.
• Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Jacob in the third book suffers from derailment: he goes from a friendly, devoted guy to a possessive jerk to better enable the canon couple. Then, in the last book, he imprints on Bella's newborn baby, is conveniently is no longer at all attracted to Bella, and mellows out considerably. In fact, with the notable exception of Leah, basically every major character is wonderfully paired off by the end of the series.
• Cock Fight: With Edward over the affections of Bella; their mutual prejudice towards each other's species contributes to it. Jacob winds up being the loser in the love triangle, though they do eventually become friends later as they put aside their differences for Bella's sake in the second half of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.
• Cool Bike: He drives one throughout the entire series.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jacob is very snarky and sardonic, especially as he grows increasingly cynical about his life and his place in the supernatural world from New Moon to Breaking Dawn.
• Determinator: Jacob is very stubborn and rarely ever gives up on the things he considers to be worthwhile. This is a both a strength and a flaw, depending on the situation.
• Did Not Get the Girl: While he was heartbroken with Bella's choice of marrying Edward, he was willing to accept it and reluctantly agreed to stop coming between them.
• Distress Ball: Jacob ends up grabbing this when he shoves Leah out of the way just to be crushed by a newborn vampire. The book attempts to make it out that Leah was the one in distress because she was fighting the vampire alone to begin with, but both she and her little brother have defeated newborns in single combat before, and nothing about this fight really necessitated Jacob shoving her out of the way. Of course, all the blame for this goes to Leah. Not to mention the entire reason Jacob gets hurt is that he was too slow for the vampire - Leah is the fastest werewolf.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Alice has called Jacob "mutt" and Rosalie has called Jacob "dog."
• Expository Hairstyle Change: After he starts phasing, he chops his long hair off. It's because long hair equals long fur as a wolf.
• Forgot I Could Change the Rules: Jacob has to submit to the will of Sam, the Alpha Wolf. When Sam orders him to help destroy the Cullens (and Bella), he remembers that he was born to be the Alpha but he had voluntarily given up the birthright. Choosing to become the Alpha frees Jacob from obeying Sam's orders.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Justified due to his werewolf gene. Jacob was already hotheaded as a human, but this trait is amplified after his transformation into a werewolf, leading him to worry at times about turning into Sam.
• Hopeless Suitor: To Bella.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager
• Hot-Blooded: Literally. His body temperature is about 108.1 at rest. The reasons behind it verge into Artistic License territory, but they're not unreasonable.
• Important Haircut: It marks his transformation into a werewolf.
• Imprinting: He imprinted on Renesmee in Breaking Dawn Part 1.
• In-Series Nickname: Other than Jake, which is what Bella and everyone else often calls him, some of Jacob's other nicknames in the series include Chief Jacob (used by Bella Swan), Uncle Jay (used by Claire Young), and Jacob Wolfe (used by Bella Swan).
• Intimate Healing: Jacob has a higher body temperature than normal, so he's the obvious choice to help Bella avoid hypothermia.
• The Jailbait Wait: He's imprinted on Renesmee and will only be seen as her brother until she comes of age. Whether they develop romantic feelings for each other has yet to be seen.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jacob can be selfish, rude, and hotheaded, and once he becomes a werewolf he's often characterized as a Noble Bigot. Jake is also strong, loyal and courageous, a true friend, and is often willing to put his own feelings and needs aside for the bigger picture, making him worthy of his eventual status as pack alpha.
• Just Friends: With Bella.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Bella after Edward briefly leaves in the second installment.
• Mr. Fanservice: Those abs...
• The Nicknamer: Jacob has a variety of different nicknames for basically every single character in the series.
• Noble Bigot: After Jacob becomes a werewolf and discovers all the Quileute legends are real, he starts to despise vampires, particularly the Cullens because of Bella's relationship with his romantic rival, Edward. Jacob freely admits to enjoying being able to fight and kill amoral, carnivorous vampires who try to hunt on the reservation, though he nevertheless honors the peace treaty the Cullens have with the tribe, and is willing to team up with the Cullens whenever Bella is in danger. A large part of Jacob's character development in "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn" is letting go of his resentment towards the Cullens and realizing, like Bella did, that they try to be good people in spite of their vampiric nature.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Jacob is the Roguish Male to Edward's Noble Male. Where Edward is a cultured, thoughtful, overprotective and somewhat repressed gentleman vampire, Jacob is a cocky, reckless, hotblooded, bad-boy werewolf.
• Odd Friendship: He forms one with Alice in the fourth book. Both of them initially hated the fetus growing inside Bella. She also starts hanging around him more, seeing as him being a werewolf numbed the psychic headaches she was getting from constantly trying to see Bella's future.

  Alice: I have to admit, it's a relief having you close by-in spite of the wet dog smell. Everything goes away. Like having my eyes closed. It numbs the pain.

  Jacob: Happy to be of service, ma'am.

• Our Werewolves Are Different: Jacob (as well as his pack) is more of a shapeshifter than a traditional werewolf. He transforms into a full (albeit giant-sized) wolf instead of a bipedal hybrid, and he can bring on the transformation at any time of the day instead of just turning on the full moon.
• Primal Polymorphs: Following the events of Eclipse, Jacob spends many weeks living in the forest in his wolf form, as he finds it easier to cope with the pain of Bella rejecting him romantically. However, he eventually returns to living in human civilization.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Until he starts taking a more dramatic role, he is the funniest character in the book.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jacob is the Red Oni to both Bella's and Edward's Blue Oni.
• Refusal of the Call: As a descendant of Ephraim Black, an old chief and the alpha of the tribe's first werewolf pack, Jacob was actually supposed to lead the new pack when it resurfaced in New Moon, but he hated being a werewolf, he didn't want the job, and he wasn't ready, so he handed the responsibilities over to Sam. Jacob does wind up regretting this later, when he has to follow Sam's orders to the word. Jacob winds up answering the call anyway and rebelling when Sam tries to force him to do something he considers to be abhorrent, striking off on his own and unwittingly creating his own faction of Quillette werewolves: his own pack.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In Breaking Dawn, Jacob decides that Bella's baby must die because Bella apparently died giving birth to her. He goes to find her and kill her himself, only to imprint when he actually looks into the baby's eyes.
• Romantic Runner-Up: To Edward for Bella.
• Shirtless Scene: According to the Seattle Times, Jacob takes his shirt off thirteen times total in the movies; out of which, three times were in the rain, and not happening at all in the first movie.
• Squaring the Love Triangle: When Jacob ends up falling in love with Renesmee.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Even before he became a shape-shifter, Jacob was pretty tall, clocking in at ‎6'7 feet, and Bella describes him as being a beautiful man several times. This trope is downplayed in the films, where Taylor Lautner is nine inches shorter than book Jacob.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Jacob is frequently described as being tall and handsome in the books, and after he becomes a werewolf, his personality starts to become sardonic, sarcastic, and self-deprecating.
• Took a Level in Badass: When he became a werewolf. Jacob starts the series as an ordinary and unassuming, if remarkably tall, lovesick teenager. However, over time, he becomes a super strong, super fast werewolf who has hunted down and killed vampires; eventually leading his own splinter pack of shapeshifters.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After becoming increasingly cynical, frustrated and aggressive in New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn about how being a werewolf has permanently changed his life for the worse, along with his unrequited feelings for Bella, imprinting helps to relieve a lot of the tension in Jake and leads him to becoming a more amiable and laidback person once more.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Twilight (2005) and the first half of New Moon he was a sweet, amiable guy with a simple crush on Bella that she selfishly exploited. But, once he becomes a werewolf, he's a surly, petulant Noble Bigot with no qualms about forcing himself on Bella.
• Tritagonist: He's the third most important character after Bella and Edward from New Moon onwards.
• Ungrateful Bastard: His response to Leah telling off Bella for the way she (Bella) has been treating him? He immediately jumps to Bella's defense when she starts crying, and gets mad at Leah for upsetting her, even though she stood up for him.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Sadly, he did not end up with Bella, his childhood friend.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Once Jacob transforms into a werewolf, he's almost always shirtless whenever he appears, to the point where it almost becomes a running gag in the franchise. Lampshaded by Edward in Eclipse, when he grouses "Doesn't he own a shirt?"
• What the Hell, Hero?: He was given one by Edward in "Eclipse", after he forcefully kisses Bella against her will. He later agrees with Edward that he will wait for Bella to give him consent.
• Wife Husbandry: Jacob imprinted on Renesmee the moment she was born in Breaking Dawn Part 1. He becomes a sort of uncle/older brother figure to the her, and it's assumed that of course, she'll want to marry him once she's of age.
• Working-Class Werewolves: Jacob and his packmates come from a rather modest, working-class background on a reservation, compared to the most lavish and indulgent lifestyles the vampires in the franchise partake in, from the Cullens to the Volturi.

Humans

Bella's Family

Charlie Swan

Portrayed by Billy Burke

Charlie is Bella's father and the police chief of Forks. He is quiet and a bit of a loner, who enjoys watching sports and drinking beer. He mostly leaves Bella up to her own devices. He will occasionally try to interact with Bella, but she usually is too busy protecting him from the horrors he is not aware of to actually spend time with him as well.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the books, Bella frequently uses rather unflattering terms to describe Charlie's appearance. Billy Burke, however, is fairly attractive.
• Adults Are Useless: Bella's going through all of this, and Charlie barely steps in. When she becomes a vampire, he ends up keeping his knowledge of what has happened on a need-to-know basis. It has to be said, though, that this is only partly due to his discomfort with the strange goings-on; Bella and the Cullens know that if the Volturi find out he knows about vampires, they will either kill him or force the Cullens to turn him.
• Amicably Divorced: From Renee. They mainly split up because Renee couldn't stand Forks, and Charlie didn't want to leave. They're shown to be in communication regarding Bella, and on the rare occasion that they are together, they are quite friendly with each other.
• First-Name Basis: Bella almost always calls him "Charlie" instead of "Dad", due to the two barely knowing each other at the start of the series. She only uses "Dad" when she's particularly emotional or upset.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Is the police chief of Forks and has the mustache to back it up.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Frequently seen drinking a tall can of beer when going through stressful times with Bella, which is often.
• Lethal Chef: Many fans wonder how he even managed to survive before Bella moved in. He can't even use a microwave properly!
• Like Father, Like Son: A quiet loner who is in over his head with all the supernatural happenings, both before and after he becomes aware of them? Hmm, that sounds familiar...
• Locked Out of the Loop: Until Breaking Dawn when he begins to learn a bit of the world around him. He invokes this trope by asking Jacob and Bella not to tell him any more than the basic essentials.
• Only Sane Man: The most rational character who doesn't get involved in the crazy melodrama and love affairs.
• Papa Wolf:
  • The fact that Bella's moving to Forks was presumably the first time he'd seen her in several years did nothing to stop him from looking out for her. An example: When meeting Edward for the first time in the film, he's carrying a shotgun with him. Granted, it would have done nothing to Edward, but you've gotta give the guy points for trying.
  • Arguably subverted in Eclipse. Charlie barely reacts when he learns Jacob forced a kiss on Bella. Then again, he was also aware Bella punched Jacob in response (even if she broke her own hand doing so), so maybe he felt the situation resolved itself.
• Parental Obliviousness: Arguably justified, considering Bella actively tries to exclude him from anything supernatural, for his own safety.
• Parents as People: He's far from perfect and often has no idea how to handle Bella, but it's clear that he adores her and wants to do a good job now that she's living with him.
• Police Are Useless: Justified. There really isn't a practical way for the police to respond to vampire activity. He probably does okay against the everyday, run-of-the-mill crime, it just isn't shown because it isn't part of the story.
• Porn Stache: In the movie.
• Psychic Block Defense: Downplayed. He doesn't entirely block out attempts at reading his mind like Bella does, but in Midnight Sun, Edward finds his thoughts to be very muted, vague, and hard to read.
• Secret-Keeper: Jacob told him he's a werewolf.
• The Talk: Has an exceptionally awkward one with Bella in Eclipse. In the novel it just comes across as fairly uncomfortable, but in the movie Billy and Kristen make it hilarious.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Drinks Rainier beer in the movies, which is accurate to the Pacific Northwest.

Renée Dwyer

Portrayed by Sarah Clarke

Bella's flighty, fun-loving mother, ex-wife of Charlie, now married to Phil Dwyer.

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• Adults Are Useless: She isn't involved very much in Bella's life.
• Amicably Divorced: Fron Charlie. They mainly split up because Renee couldn't stand Forks, and Charlie didn't want to leave. They're shown to be in communication regarding Bella, and on the rare occasion that they are together, they are quite friendly with each other.
• Charm Person: According to Edward, Renée (like her ex-husband and daughter) is a gifted human. Her ability is to subconsciously project her thoughts to others, drawing them to her and making them anxious to help or assist her.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Is rather haphazard.
• Happily Married: To Phil.
• Womanchild: To the point where Bella claims to be the mom of the relationship.

Bella's Classmates

In General

The human students at Forks High School. The most prominent ones are Mike Newton, Jessica Stanley, Angela Weber, Eric Yorkie, Tyler Crowley, and Lauren Mallory.

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• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Angela hooks up with Eric in the movies even though she didn’t in the books.
• Casanova Wannabe: Tyler and possibly Mike, if you trust Midnight Sun.
• Composite Character: In the movies, Lauren is merged with Jessica and Ben is merged with Eric.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Eric, Tyler, and especially Mike were this to Bella.
• Everyone Must Be Paired: Mike gets with Jessica, Tyler with Lauren, and Angela with Ben (Eric in the films).
• Green-Eyed Monster: Besides Angela, the girls are all jealous of Bella.
• Hopeless Suitor: Most of the boys seem to be crushing on Bella. Of course, normal high school boys have no shot with a girl who hangs out with sparkly vampires and buff werewolves.
• Race Lift: The movies turn these characters into a Five-Token Band.
• Satellite Character: All of them.

Mike Newton

Portrayed by Michael Welch

• Abhorrent Admirer: While not unattractive, Mike has an obsessive crush on Bella but she has no interest.
• Covert Pervert: Listening to his thoughts is Edward's equivalent of a Mind Rape, so he tries to concentrate on Angela's, whose head he says is an "easy place to be."
• Lovable Jock: Mike is both nice and a jock.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: To Bella, Mike is a perfectly likable, popular, athletic, nice guy but he comes off as totally useless since Edward Cullen is around.
• The Generic Guy: Subverted when it comes to Midnight Sun.
• Stalker with a Crush: Mike obsesses over Bella, following her like a 'dog'.

Jessica Stanley

Portrayed by Anna Kendrick

• Attention Whore: Allegedly. See False Friend.
• False Friend: Apparently. Exploited in Midnight Sun. She keeps thinking that Bella isn't that interesting and decides to befriend Bella to create an interesting Girl Posse to bring attention to her. However, Breaking Dawn heavily implies that though self-centered and oblivious to Bella's feelings, she has come to genuinely like her.
• Hidden Depths: In the movies, at least. Listen to Jessica's rambling about the zombie apocalypse genre, and you'll find that it's actually quite thoughtful — it just happens to be in Valley Girl speak. This was thanks to Anna Kendrick being allowed to improvise a bit. Amusingly, at this point in the book, Bella admits that Jessica is going on about something, but she's not listening to her and has no clue what she's even talking about. For all we know, this might be what she was saying.
• Informed Flaw: The narrative frequently accuses Jessica of being a False Friend, but no evidence actually exists to prove this. It comes to light in Midnight Sun, when we can see inside her head.
• Motor Mouth: When will she not talk?
• Smarter Than You Look: Shallow "chatterbox" and Attention Whore Jessica was smart enough to be valedictorian of her class (but only in the film; in the books Eric was valedictorian). A cropped scene from the books has Bella explicitly state that Jessica has better marks than herself.
• With Friends Like These...: Bella's friendship with Jessica, especially the scene where Bella walks willingly into a dangerous situation without caring that she puts Jessica, who's quite reasonably panicking, at risk at well.

Angela Weber

Portrayed by Christian Serratos

• Huge Schoolgirl: Angela is 6'1" and her height makes her self-conscious.
• Nice Girl: Angela, who is Bella's closest human friend in the novels, is repeatedly shown to be quite selfless and pleasant in contrast to the others who come off as overbearing. Even Edward thinks highly of her in contrast to his opinions of Bella's other human friends as he finds her unusually kind, with Midnight Sun showing her thoughts to be genuine towards Bella.
• Shrinking Violet: In the books, she was described as being quite tall (around 6'1), which attracted so much unwanted attention that she became shy and timid.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: In the books, she is tall and gets together with Ben Cheney, who is described as little next to her.

Eric Yorkie

Portrayed by Justin Chon

• Asian and Nerdy: In the films. In the first book, Bella describes him as looking like "the overly helpful, chess club type." Eric in the films is played by Korean-American Justin Chon.

Lauren Mallory

• Alpha Bitch: Popular and bitchy Lauren.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Word of God says Lauren fell prey to a modeling scam that cost her over a thousand dollars and a good chunk of her hair. What made her deserving of this? She made one relatively minor sarcastic comment about Bella.

Jacob's Family

Billy Black

Portrayed by Gil Birmingham

Jacob's father.

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• Alliterative Name: Billy Black.
• Handicapped Badass: He uses a wheelchair, though it's implied that he was once a formidable member of the Quileute tribe.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Midnight Sun gives a look into some of his thoughts and just seeing Edward puts him on edge and hearing from Carlisle- who is as agreeable and accommodating as ever- practically puts him in a state of despair. Not that he hasn't good reason to distrust "cold ones" but one would think he'd know by now that the Cullens aren't like most vampires.

Vampires

In General

• Berserk Button: Vampires in general in this series are not forgiving by nature. And, as shown throughout the series, unless you want to face a vengeful wrath, never kill their loved ones, or their mate.
• Bishie Sparkle:
  • Vampires do this in the sunlight.
  • The climax of New Moon revolves around this, where Edward tries to step into the sunlight in the Volturi's city, which would get him noticed by the humans and killed by the Volturi.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Within the Twilight universe, vampires in general do not value much of human life let alone see humans as equals. They apparently think nothing much of taking a human life particularly if it means sustaining themselves with human blood which is said to be more appealing than that of blood from an animal. Even ones who don't feed on humans for moral reasons of their own usually have some feeling of superiority and don't think much of other vampires feeding on humans. The Cullens seems to be perfectly content with letting their non-veggie friends murder humans while they're visiting, as long as it's not anyone from Forks.
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • Vampirism comes with a lot of upsides and few downsides, especially if you live on a diet of animal blood. You get an eternity of youth, beauty, strength, and possibly some sort of superpower, and you can do it without harming humans as long as you're willing to live on something that tastes gross. Despite this, a few vampires, most notably Edward, regard their status as a curse, and wish they could have lived out human lives instead.
  • The movies give us another example when Edward shows Bella what happens when a vampire is in direct sunlight. When she says it's beautiful, he responds with this frequently-quoted line:
    Edward: "This is the skin of a killer, Bella."
• Daywalking Vampire: Played with. Vampires aren't harmed by sunlight itself, but it does make their nonhuman status obvious, which is dangerous since it can get them Killed to Uphold the Masquerade. Because of this, vampires do have to avoid sunlight, but only when there are humans around to see them.
• Destructo-Nookie: Vampires all have Super-Strength so they have destructive sex; Emmett says that he and Rosalie have broken multiple houses.
  • Edward breaks the bed while having honeymoon sex with Bella.
• Glamour Failure: Vampires avoid sunlight because it causes their skin to sparkle.
• Immortality: All vampires are The Undead and the Life Drinker. They are incapable of physically aging and have the ability to live forever without getting sick or dying.
• Kill It with Fire: The only known way to get rid of vampires for good. But just fire isn't enough: first you have to rip them up into pieces (which is kind of difficult, considering that their flesh is as hard as stone) and then scatter the ashes. However, since their bodily fluids are flammable, once you have them in little pieces setting them on fire is pretty easy.
  • A simple way for them to get set on fire would be through the mouth. And considering the most physically supreme coven in existence (the Romanians) died from regular arson (by the Volturi, but still just arson), they are obviously not nearly as impervious as they seem.
  • The reason why vampires have to be in pieces before they can be burned is because otherwise they can put the flames out, which is largely helped by their Super Speed. Even if a vampire were to be set on fire through the mouth, all he or she would have to do to extinguish the flame would be to close their mouth.
• Light Is Not Good: Let's see... The vampires have sparkly skin, religious dogmatism (which the author sanctions), a smug sense of superiority towards other races, the predominant colors white and gold and solar associations.
• No Periods, Period: Vampires don't have periods, because their bodies are unchanging (this ties into the whole "can't bear children" thing).
• Our Vampires Are Different: Rather than being harmed by sunlight, vampires in Twilight sparkle unnaturally in the sun. They also lack fangs (even cute little ones), are not bothered by holy symbols or garlic, and each vampire has Super-Toughness, Super-Speed, and Super-Strength.
• Photographic Memory: Vampires in this series are stated to have this, being able to remember every moment from when they became a vampire onwards with perfect clarity.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Recently turned vampires (called newborns) have these, as do those that continue to feed on human blood.
• Sex God: Vampires Are Sex Gods is very literally in play. Being amazing at sex is just a common vampire trait in this universe.
  • Edward and Bella quickly become Insatiable Newlyweds. Edward even has to warn Bella that she can't just have sex 24/7. To the point where Bella is having so much fun having sex with Edward she forgets about her newborn daughter.
  • The whole Happily Married Cullen family: Bella even marvels, once she realizes how great vampire sex is, why they aren't having sex all the time.
  Emmett Cullen: Did Edward tell you how many houses Rose and I smashed?
• Psychic Powers: A small number of vampires possess a quantifiable supernatural gift which they had as humans that's enhanced by the vampire change. Many of these said gifts are psychic in nature.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: "Vegetarian" vampires, who drink animal blood rather than human blood, have these.

The Cullens

Carlisle Cullen

Portrayed by Peter Facinelli (movies), Justin Rose (Turncoats), James Physick (Masque)

Dubbed by: Bruno Choël (movies, European French)

The patriarch of the Cullen clan, Carlisle's been around for centuries. The son of an Anglican pastor in the 1600s, Carlisle was turned after a fateful encounter while hunting vampires. Initially horrified, he tries many times to kill himself before succumbing to his thirst by drinking animal's blood. After being revived, he goes on to live out his immortal lifespan as a doctor and helper, and eventually decides to create a companion for his growing loneliness. The rest is history.

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• The Ace: At least in the medical field. Being a vampire with more than a century's worth of experiences in the field, Carlisle hardly needs any sleep or rest, making him the perfect on-site physician, what with his stamina, appearance, and kindly nature. He's also one of the few members of his kind who have completely overcome their thirst for human blood.
• Action Dad: Carlisle always knows what's going on and gets quite involved. Even if he hates violence and fighting.
• Alliterative Name: Carlisle Cullen.
• The Atoner: Became a doctor to save lives as a compensation for, well, being a vampire.
  • Alternatively, he is trying to compensate for the lives taken by the vampires he created. Indirectly, he does have a lot of blood on his hands. However, he only created family members from people who were sure to die if he didn't turn them immortal.
• Badass Bookworm: Carlisle is extremely well-read, having lived through decades of literature, and is a vampire who doesn't hesitate to fight if his loved ones are in danger.
• Badass Pacifist: Hardly ever seen fighting, and the only vampire (other than Bella) to have never been confirmed to have killed a human.
• The Beautiful Elite: Along with his family.
• Big Good: Treated as such.
• Cultured Badass: Very well-read, if the description Bella gives of his study is any indication. He is also well-traveled.
• Curtains Match the Window: At least in his vampire life. After he decided to become a 'vegetarian' vampire, he has gold eyes and golden hair.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Him and his whole family.
• Good Parents: Along with Esme.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: His main personality trait is compassion.
• Happily Married: He and his wife Esme are an extremely close and happy couple.
• Heroic Willpower: According to Edward, it's taken at least 200 years for Carlisle to control his thirst. Now, he's completely immune to the smell of human blood.
• Hospital Hottie: A doctor, and as beautiful as any vampire.
• Hunter of Monsters: As a human, Carlisle was the son of a 17th century Church Militant pastor who led like-minded individuals in hunts for vampires, witches, and werewolves, with his efforts mostly resulting in Burn the Witch! fates for innocent people while the real monsters eluded them. When Carlisle takes over from his father, Edward notes "At first Carlisle was a disappointment; he was not quick to accuse, to see demons where they did not exist. But he was persistent, and more clever than his father. He actually discovered a coven of true vampires that lived hidden in the sewers of the city." He and his fellows went after the vampires with Torches and Pitchforks but were badly outmatched, and it's not clear whether they killed any of the vampires due to their enemies' superior strength, speed, and durability. Carlisle was bitten in the fight, and became the first-known Vegetarian Vampire, leading to the events of the main series centuries later.
• I Love You, Vampire Son: Carlisle was the one who turned his wife Esme into a vampire.
• In-Series Nickname: Jacob has called Carlisle "Dr. Fang".
• The Medic: He's a doctor.
• Nice Guy: Pretty much always well-intentioned, very helpful, warm, and kindhearted.
• The Patriarch: Of the Cullen family.
• Reluctant Warrior: Never wanted to be a vampire. Jacob also lampshades this when the pack is planning to strike the Cullens in Breaking Dawn, thinking that the reason they'll be able to kill Carlisle is because he will be hesitant to fight back even when his life is at stake.
• The Smart Guy: Appears to be the most knowledgeable of the Cullens. He's also a doctor.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like all of the other Cullens.
• Team Dad: The "father" among the Cullens, and his personality fits.
• Technical Pacifist: He dislikes violence of any type. He'll fight to protect his family, but he won't enjoy it.
• Vampire Doctor: Carlisle Cullen has managed to attain such perfect control over his blood lust that he can operate as a medical doctor for humans without issue, despite it being incredibly difficult for vampires to hold themselves back from attacking when they smell human blood.
• Vampire Hunter: Before he became a vampire himself.
• Viral Transformation: From human to vampire.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: In this case his power is compassion, which kind of pales in comparison to some of the more awesome powers.
  • That said, it does give him an edge on resisting the desire to drink human blood, to the point that he is able to effectively operate in an environment where he is constantly exposed to it (namely a hospital), which combined with his centuries of medical experience, makes him an exceptional surgeon.
  • May also have something to do with why the Quileutes have agreed that Carlisle is the lowest priority target should they ever go to war with the Cullens.
  • Also, the majority of the vampires willing to witness for and defend the Cullens are Carlisle’s friends. People have to care about you a whole awful lot to sign up for a doomed battle on your behalf. Particularly people who aren’t prone to social bonding by nature.
• Worst Aid:
  • Despite supposedly being a great doctor, Carlisle does things like cleaning the shrapnel from Bella's wound at the beginning of New Moon in the very dining room where it happened, and stocking up on the rarest kind of blood from the Forks blood bank to make sure Bella has nourishment handy during her first few days as a vampire. When Bella's pregnancy is killing her, he even exclaims "I can't figure out what it wants!" He can't figure out that the offspring from a human x vampire copulation could, possibly, be part-vampire and have a vampire's dietary needs.
    • Not to mention that freaking morphine is his go-to drug, even in circumstances where a much less potent painkiller could have been used.
    • And the fact that he applies antiseptic after suturing Bella's wound, not before.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: He is said to have been a disappointment to his father.

Esme Cullen

Portrayed by Elizabeth Reaser (movies), Sara Akay (Masque)

The matriarch of the Cullen clan and Carlisle's wife, Esme's beauty is matched only by her gentle nature and great capacity for love. After meeting and forming a crush on Carlisle as a young girl, she later married another man who turned out to be an abusive jerk. She managed to escape, while pregnant, but her child died shortly afterwards, robbing her of the will to live. After a near successful suicide attempt, Carlisle, who recognized her, transformed her. She fell in love all over again, and has since found solace in her big family of immortal adopted kids.

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• Action Mom: The Cullen family's matriarch, and also a vampire.
• The Beautiful Elite: Along with her family.
• Emergency Transformation: Attempted suicide by jumping off a cliff after the death of her young son. She was found and transformed by Carlisle.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: One of the friendliest, in fact.
• Good Parents: Along with Carlisle.
• Happily Married: To Carlisle.
• The Heart: Of the Cullens.
• Hidden Depths: According to the official guide, Esme's interests involved architecture, interior design, and house flipping.
• Interrupted Suicide: Nearly committed suicide due to the death of her child, but was interrupted by Carlisle who turned her into a vampire, whom she fell in love with later on.
• Nice Girl: As seen with her vampire power.
• Outliving One's Offspring: The trigger of her attempted suicide was the death of her young child.
• Out of Focus: Definitely the least developed of the Cullen family. Also gets the least lines in the movies.
• Proper Lady: She has all the personality traits: hardworking, mature, gentle, very competent in housework, sweet, maternal, and devoted to those she loves.
• Satellite Character: Her entire role is basically to serve as the Cullen's designated mom.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like all of the other Cullens.
• Team Mom: She's designated as the Team Mom, but never actually displays any of the traits of one. She generally just follows Carlisle's lead and does little on her own.
• Viral Transformation: Per usual, for vampires.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Her vampire power is the ability to love passionately. Although you can argue that her (and her husband's) real power is the ability to hold such a large group of vampires together, which makes them effectively the most powerful coven in North America by numbers alone.

Alice Cullen

Portrayed by Ashley Greene (movies), Paloma Kwiatkowski (The Mary Alice Brandon File), Emma Tremblay (young, The Mary Alice Brandon File), Sara Yoko Howard (The Groundskeeper), Maddisyn Carter (We've Met Before)

One of Edward's many adopted siblings, Alice used to be in a mental institution because she claimed to see the future. After being transformed into a vampire to save her from a sadistic hunter, she managed to find Jasper and the Cullens and has lived with them since. She is funny, happy in nature, and well adapted to living as a vampire. Aside from Emmett, she is Edward's closest relative and ally. She adores Bella even before she meets her, just because she knew she would love her.

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• Adaptational Dye-Job: In the books she's described as having black hair, but in the films it's reddish-brown.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Sometimes acts like this, particularly towards Edward.
• Badass Adorable: Seems to fit, as she's constantly described as "tiny" and "pixie-like".
• The Beautiful Elite
• Beware the Nice Ones: She has been known to display a temper every so often, such as when Emmett and Jasper are restraining James and she leaps onto his shoulders and tears his head off. In the film of Breaking Dawn, Jane kills Jasper. Alice's response is to grab Jane and drag her to Wolf!Sam's waiting jaws. All Just a Dream, lucky for Jane.
  • Typical of her clan, she's especially hostile to members of the Quileute tribe.
• Blood Knight: Shows shades of this in "Eclipse" when she finds out that Edward will be sitting out of the fight with the newborn army at Bella's request, even stating that he is going to be missing all of the fun.
• Boyish Short Hair: During her time in the asylum, Alice's hair was shaved off for "treatments" and was growing it back when one of the caretakers-a vampire who had grown fond of her-bit her to save her life. Since vampires and all their features stop growing completely after they transform, her hair has simply stayed that way since. In the films, her hair starts out as a choppy, feathered bob◊ in Twilight (2005), then a longer, straighter bob◊ in New Moon, a slightly shorter bob◊ in Eclipse (2007), and finally ends up as an actual pixie cut◊ in Breaking Dawn.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Alice is the Gentle Girl to Jasper's Brooding Boy.
• The Chessmaster: Due to her clairvoyance.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Gives off this vibe.
• The Cutie: Generally acts like this, despite being a vampire.
• Cute Bruiser: Fairly cute, but also a badass.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The Official Illustrated Guide for Twilight revealed that Alice had seen her father kill her mother, but her father had her declared insane and locked away in a mental institution, so no one believed her. At the institution, she underwent shock treatment and lost all memories of who she was(this is a documented side effect of shock treatment). She also ended up being hunted by James, which made the vampire taking care of her decide to force a (painful) transformation on her while she was in this state, only for James to kill him and leave Alice without any guides when she awoke as a vampire. Additionally, it's not touched upon in the series, but her time at the institution must have been doubly unpleasant, considering conditions at the time. Perhaps its for the best that she doesn't remember any of it.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not to the extent of many other characters, but she has her moments.
• Drives Like Crazy: A trait she shares with her adoptive brother, Edward.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: A vampire with black hair.
• The Fashionista: Loves dressing people up and throwing parties, especially if Bella's involved. She not only organized Bella's wedding, but packed her honeymoon suitcase, dressed her up in a cocktail dress and stilettos for her first post-vamp hunt, and filled up her closet at home with more clothes than Bella felt she could wear for a while.
• Fragile Speedster: Although her size gave her a significant amount of speed, it also made her a target for unfriendly parties who were gunning for the tiniest-and therefore weakest-ones first.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Like all of the Cullens.
• Genki Girl: She's extremely energetic.
• Girly Bruiser: She has an immense appreciation for the world of fashion, but also seemed very excited at the prospect of a fight in the third installment.
• Happily Adopted: By the Cullens.
• Hope Bringer: She represents hope for Jasper.
• In-Series Nickname: Some of Alice's nicknames in the series include Shortie (used by Jacob Black), Little Freak (used by Edward Cullen), Frightening Little Monster (used by Jasper Hale), and Psychic (used by Jacob Black).
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Alice is the Light Feminine to Rosalie's Dark Feminine.
• Magic A Is Magic A: How Alice's precognition worked seemed to vary each time it figured into the plot. Sometimes her visions are infallible, other times unreliable, and sometimes people can avoid showing up on her radar if they know the right tricks. Sometimes she can get visions of things she specifically wants to see, other times what she sees and when she sees it are totally random. Generally the only thing consistent is her power goes dark if the future involves a species she's never been, like a werewolf or half-vampire. Except when it doesn't.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: To Jasper.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Alice being able to see the future (Specifically how well it works goes up and down depending on how handy it is or isn't to the plot for her power to work. And not just how well it works at the moment, how well it's always worked and how much the Cullens have always depended on it changes to reflect how well it works in any particular scene).
• Nice Girl: Alice is known to be really friendly towards everyone.
• Perpetual Smiler: Bella often describes her to be overly-energetic.
• Plucky Girl: It takes a lot to get her down, with a lot being a coven of vampires coming for her family.
• The Pollyanna: Despite her Dark and Troubled Past, Alice doesn't seem to have any issues in the present day. Granted, this may be because she doesn't remember any of it, but it's probably for the best as well.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: The ivory skin is a staple of all vampires and her short hair is naturally black.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: She and Jasper have this dynamic.
• Seers: Alice can see into the future. Her visions are subjective, however, as the future isn't set in stone. They are based on the decisions of others, so when someon changes their mind, her vision changes accordingly. Alice can only see visions involving humans and vampires. She can't ses anything involving the Quiluete shapeshifters or half-vampires.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like all of the other Cullens.
• Viral Transformation: A vampire caretaker transformed her in order to save her life.
• Waif-Fu: Pulls off a lot of insanely cool moves throughout the series.
• Waif Prophet: She is described as pixie-like and has visions of the future.
• Womanchild: She's often described as being rather child-like, due to her short stature and overwhelmingly positive nature. This may be because she was transformed at nineteen, and vampires don't progress past the mental state they were in when they were bitten.

Emmett Cullen

Portrayed by Kellan Lutz

Adopted into the Cullen family after Rosalie, Emmett is a fairly jolly guy. Found by Rosalie after getting mauled by a bear, they saved his life by transforming him and has been inseparable from her and the Cullens since then.

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• Animal Motifs: Bella often likens him to a bear, due to his large, muscular build and dark eyes. A wild bear was also what caused his Emergency Transformation, deciding his future as a member of the Cullen clan.
• The Beautiful Elite: Like every Cullen.
• The Big Guy: He is even described as stronger than an average vampire.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He loves fighting, even seeming excited for the battle against the Volturi in BD.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Has repeatedly (and, on Meyer's part, probably unintentionally) proven himself to be actually pretty smart or at least very sensible, as he's pointed out multiple ways to avoid conflict all throughout the series (see also The Strategist below). That being said, he appears to have zero interest in his education, and has never finished any particular degree simply because it bored him.
• Determinator: Known to demand a rematch for every fight he loses, even if there's little to no chance he'll win next time.
• Double Entendre: Constantly makes jokes about Edward and Bella's sex life, and around Charlie no less!
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Dark-haired and a vampire.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Not exactly friendly to everyone he meets, but one of the nicer vampires nonetheless.
• Gentle Giant: Despite his deceiving build, Emmett is naturally cheerful and childish. He becomes something of a surrogate big brother to Bella, giving her giant hugs that tended to sweep her off her feet more often than not.
• Happily Adopted: He's the one who seems to enjoy being a vampire the most.
• Heroic Build
• In-Series Nickname: Emmett's nicknames include Em (used by all of the Cullens) and Monkey Man (used by Rosalie Hale).
• Manchild: Physically the oldest of the Cullen "children" and actually pretty mature in a lot of ways, but he still has a tendency to act kind of childish.
• Nice Guy: Despite his Big Guy build, he is normally friendly and cheerful.
• Perpetual Smiler: Has zero problems with being a vampire and doesn't seem at all haunted by his past.
• Rescue Romance: With Rosalie, who saved him from a bear.
• Sore Loser: A mild version, Emmett's reaction to losing is to keep asking for rematches until he wins.
• Stout Strength: Not necessarily overweight, but still bulkier than the other Cullens.
• The Strategist: Downplayed because it's only there for a single chapter, but the fourth book, he is the one to come up with a plan to defeat the Volturi, or at least keep them from killing the Cullens. And, at the end, it actually works.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like all of the other Cullens.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Also qualifies as Tall, Dark, and Snarky.
• Viral Transformation: Emmett was once the breadwinner of his family. One day, while out hunting, a black bear mauled him and left him for dead. Rosalie then found him and brought him to Carlisle to save his life. The rest is history.

Rosalie Hale

Portrayed by Nikki Reed

The second kid to be adopted into the family. Rosalie is stunningly beautiful, even for a vampire, but she's really had a hard life. She grew up during the Great Depression, but managed well, and was even poised to marry a man who still had his money in those tough times, even though she didn't love him. She was then beaten and gang-raped by her fiancé and his friends while they were drunk off their rockers, and was left for dead in an alley. Taking pity on her, Carlisle transformed her. Being with Emmett gave her a reason to keep going on. Initially cold towards Bella, she grows to respect and like her, and even protects her when Edward wants to abort the then-unborn Renesmee.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: As a human, her eyes are described as being violet/blue in the books, but are brown in the movies.
• Affectionate Nickname: Emmett calls Rosalie "angel" and "babe."
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: A very strange example: while she insists that Edward is like a brother to her, she also confesses that the fact that he was never interested in her hurt her vanity, especially when he fell in love with Bella. As Edward himself puts it in Midnight Sun:
  Edward: Rosalie was mortally offended that I found some insignificant human girl more appealing than her.
• The Beautiful Elite: Unlike the other Cullens, she was this even before she became a vampire, having been the daughter of a noveau riche family who planned to use their daughter's extreme beauty for further social advancement.
• Beauty Is Bad: Averted. The only reason she was ever mean towards Bella was because she envied the latter's mortality and ability to have children. She was also mad about the fact that Bella was willingly giving all that up, just to be a vampire, while Rosalie never even wanted to be a vampire in the first place.
• Beneath the Mask: During her heart-to-heart with Bella in Eclipse, she reveals a very sensitive, caring side of herself.
• Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Defied Trope. After becoming a vampire, she took revenge by killing her rapists — a group that included her would-be fiancé — while wearing a wedding dress (not hers, but one she had stolen for the occasion; she said she was quite melodramatic back then). However, she was very careful not to actually spill any of their blood because she knew she wouldn't be able to resist it and she didn't want any of them to be a part of her, so the dress went unstained.
• Broken Bird: Most of her bitchy behaviour towards others, primarily Bella, is because of what happened to her in her Dark and Troubled Past.
• Curtains Match the Window: Like Carlisle, Rose has golden hair and golden eyes.
• Dark and Troubled Past: It was revealed that Rosalie was gang-raped and left for dead before she was turned into a vampire.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: At first, she came off as very cold towards Bella. She eventually mellows out towards her though.
• Determinator: Usually around blood. While she momentarily loses focus when helping perform Bella's c-section, she's rather proud of the fact that she's never once tasted human blood. That includes the time she carried a bloodied, bear-mauled Emmett hundreds of miles to Carlisle to change. She didn't try to turn Emmett herself because she didn't trust herself to be able to stop if she actually sunk her fangs in him.
• Emergency Transformation: Was dying right before her transformation.
• Freudian Excuse: Rosalie is not a villain, but she is the only member of the Cullen family who seems to dislike Bella, and is semi-antagonistic towards her. Her behavior is explained in Eclipse as being the result of having been deprived of everything she ever wanted by her transformation into a vampire, right when she was about to achieve it. The reason she is so angry at Bella is that Bella is ready to throw her entire future as a human away to become a vampire with a long, repetitive life ahead of her, without so much as a second thought. The events leading up to Rosalie's transformation might also have something to do with her anger.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Has never once drunk human blood.
• Happily Adopted: Though she isn't as vocal about it as her siblings, Rose really loves Carlisle, Esme, and the rest of her family.
• Hidden Depths: Though she's initially presented as a stone-cold bitch, it's revealed that Rosalie has a deep maternal instinct and loves children. Also, despite her appearance, she loves getting her hands dirty when it comes to cars. According to the official sourcebook she also has at least two masters' degrees (one in mechanical engineering), as well as a medical degree that Carlisle specifically asked her to get in order to keep his knowledge current.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: She wants nothing more than to be able to have children and grow old with Emmett and would give up her beauty and immortality just for that chance. As such, she isn't thrilled with Bella's seemingly off-hand dismissal of potential motherhood.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: Being a vampire renders a person "frozen in time" and therefore unable to become pregnant. Before her vampire transformation, she wanted children and now cannot have them. This is a source for a lot of her hostility towards Bella, because Bella wants to be a vampire and would willingly give up the one thing Rosalie truly wants and cannot have.
• In-Series Nickname: Rosalie's nicknames include Rose (used by the Cullen family), Kitty (used by Carlisle Cullen), Babe (used by Emmett Cullen), Blondie (used by Jacob Black), Ice Cold Barbie (used by Jacob Black), and Angel (used by Emmett Cullen).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rosalie can be cold, unsympathetic, and bitterly cynical. She still cares about those she loves, though. And eventually, she starts to treat Bella like a sister-in-law after Renesmee's birth.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The dark to Alice's light.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Edward, although there are some fans who would disagree with this.
• Perpetual Frowner: You can pretty much count the times she isn't frowning or sulking in the series on one hand.
• Pride: She (quite justifiably) thinks she's just about the most beautiful thing that ever existed, and she usually enjoys the attention she gets for it.
• Rape and Revenge: She killed the men who gang-raped her and beat her almost to death.
• Rape as Backstory: One night, Rosalie was walking home when she ran into her drunken fiancé and his buddies, who gang-raped her and left her for dead in the streets. This story is used to shed light on Rosalie's bitterness and make her more sympathetic to Bella and to fans.
• The Resenter: In the beginning, towards Bella. But it was mostly out of jealousy of the fact that Bella was a human and Rosalie has always desired to be human again.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In regards to her relationship with Emmett. Rosalie admitted that, after the trauma she went through, her life got better after she met Emmett.
• The Snark Knight: Rosalie is rather snide, especially whenever Bella is around.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Her social climbing parents basically treated her like a trophy to be married off so as to elevate themselves. Rosalie was so naive at the time that she didn't realize it. Later, she also came to blame her looks for her getting raped.
• Socialite: Back during her human days.
• Statuesque Stunner: She is the tallest of the Cullen women. Averted in the movies.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Cold at first, but more kind later on.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like all of the other Cullens.
• Token Evil Teammate: As mentioned above, she's not really evil, but she is the only one of the Cullens to ever be openly antagonistic towards Bella.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She becomes Bella's guardian when she gets pregnant with Renesmee. She was mostly focused on the latter, though. And after Renesmee's birth, she finally accepts Bella as a member of the Cullen family.
• Tsundere: Cold towards Bella just because she was jealous of her.
• Viral Transformation: She was gang-raped and left for dead in a ditch by her would-be husband and his friends. Carlisle, taking pity on her, transformed her.
• Wight in a Wedding Dress: She deliberately invokes this trope to scare her ex-fiance and rapist after becoming a vampire.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Rosalie is described as being the most beautiful woman in the world.
• Wrench Wench: Likes her flashy cars and also fixes them up herself. According to the sourcebook, at one point she even got a college degree in mechanical engineering.

Jasper Hale

Portrayed by Jackson Rathbone (movies), Liam Johnson (We've Met Before)

Born in the Deep South, Jasper participated in the Civil War before being transformed. He lived out his early days training an army of vampires, but after the stress proved too much for him, he left, and later met the love of his existence, Alice, and has lived a peaceful existence with the Cullens since then.

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• Aloof Big Brother: To Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie. He is the eldest of the Cullen children.
• The Atoner: Jasper used to be a troubled vampire who endlessly killed others for sport. He has since learned the error of his ways, thanks to Alice and his love for her.
  • This is subverted in Midnight Sun, Eclipse, and the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.
  • In "Midnight Sun", he had no issue with murdering Bella, an innocent girl in cold blood to "protect" Alice and the family's secret from what he deemed to be "a slight danger."
  • Then in Eclipse, he had no issue with suggesting (and if Carlisle had not been against it) that the entire Cullen Clan eat innocent people to be stronger for their battle with the newborn army.
  • In "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner," he shows that he had no issue with abusing his power to entice Bree into attacking him so he could have an excuse to kill her after Carlisle offered her asylum.
• The Berserker: When he was an emotionless Super-Soldier who killed endlessly.
• Blood Knight: Struggled with this.
• Blood Lust: Jasper lost control and almost killed Bella when she cut her finger.
• The Bore: He can use his power to invoke this on himself as well as others to make others overlook the selected individuals. In Midnight Sun, Edward looks at him during the meeting with James' coven and finds himself feeling incredibly bored, despite how alarming Jasper's scar-ridden appearance ought to be. Though it's not foolproof and the moment James can smell Bella, he looks past the invoked feelings of boredom to see Bella for what she is.
• Break the Cutie: His whole past qualifies as this.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Jasper is the Brooding Boy to Alice's Gentle Girl.
• The Corruptible: To Maria.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Maria did this to Jasper by turning him into a vampire and using him to become a killing machine.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Jasper was transformed by Maria, a vampire, who only wanted him as an errand boy and nothing less. It was also during around this time that Jasper killed tons of people, some of which for sport.
• The Empath: His main power set. He can both sense and influence emotions, and even manipulate people into feeling what he wants them to feel.
• Emotion Eater: Of a sort. In Midnight Sun, Edward notes him hanging around him and Bella just to get high off the intense feelings of attraction the two have with one another. In Breaking Dawn, he feels drawn towards Bella because she was so happy all the time with Edward stating he can't resist an emotionally healthy environment.
• Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: He's not really the chatty kind, but he and his family do refrain from killing people for their blood.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Jasper can control the emotions of those around him, and according to Bella, it's impossible to feel anything but what he wants you to feel. It's also not a matter of discussion or consent.
  Jacob: Bloody annoying, that's what it is, only you can't be annoyed until after.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The good kind.
• Happily Adopted: By Carlisle and Esme.
• Hidden Depths: Jasper may look stoic but he actually has a rather dark and troubled past. He was used by a woman named Maria and was basically a killing machine for a long time until he discovered her ulterior motives.
• Horror Hunger: Jasper still has issues with human blood. He even admitted that he was tempted to kill Bella because of her blood.
• Love Hurts: He initially believed that Maria, the vampire who had turned him, truly returned his affections. However, she was still hung up over losing her mate, and since vampires mate for life, he knew it would literally take forever for her to get over him.
• Love Redeems: In regards to his relationship with Alice, who completely changed Jasper's dreary outlook on life.
• Meet Cute: Alice and Jasper first met in a diner in Philadelphia, after at least a century's worth of depression on the latter's part. Due to her psychic powers, Alice already knew they were destined for one another, and when he walked in, she teased him by saying that he'd been keeping her waiting for a long time. Despite his initial surprise, Jasper "bowed his head like a good Southern gentleman and answered, "I'm sorry, ma'am." The two left the diner together, fell in love, found Carlisle, and the rest is history.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Jasper has little to say throughout the movies until the Training Montage in Eclipse. Up until then, he has a rather generic American accent, but in Eclipse he remembers he was a Civil War veteran from Texas replete with a... jarring southern accent.
• The Quiet One: In his family, he often speaks the least.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Savvy Guy to Alice's Energetic Girl.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He later became a Super-Soldier after he was turned by Maria.
• Southern Gentleman: He was born in Houston, Texas, and still carries the manners of his time to the present.
• The Stoic: He's rarely smiling, except when he's around Alice.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Ice towards Bella and other newcomers; sugar when he starts warming up to them.
• Super-Soldier: To some extent.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like all of the other Cullens.
• Troubled, but Cute: Like Edward before him, Jasper actively killed people before transitioning into the "vegetarian" lifestyle. Unlike Edward, Jasper killed whoever got in his way, regardless of their innocence. He also found out that his vampire sire, Maria, wasn't as in love with him as he thought, and was basically using him for her convenience. This led him to leave her coven and wandering about until he finally met Alice, who had been waiting for him all long, thanks to her psychic powers.
• When He Smiles: Jasper only smiles whenever Alice is around, and it's truly something to behold.

Renesmee Cullen

Portrayed by Mackenzie Foy (young!Renesmee) and Christie Burke (teenage!Renesmee)

Edward and Bella's vampire-human hybrid daughter, conceived, carried and given birth to by Bella while she was still human, and Jacob Black's imprintee.

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• Age Lift: In a sense. While she's literally the same age as her book counterpart, she's played by then-12-year-old Mackenzie Foy, in contrast to the toddler she was described to look like in the novel.
• Brainy Baby: She was able to speak only seven days after her birth. Although she enjoys bedtime stories like most children, Bella notices that she doesn't like it when they read the same story twice and shares a love for literature with her mother.
• Child Prodigy: As a vampire-human hybrid, Renesmee has way more intelligence than the average child, even during her time in Bella's womb. During this period, she discovered that her sudden movements hurt her still-human mother immensely and tried to lessen it to ease Bella's pain. A few days after her birth, the Cullens discover that she has a photographic memory and can control her thirst even better than most vampire adults. In the films, she also learns how to play the piano after a few lessons from her father.
• Creepy Child: She almost never speaks except through tactile telepathy and has a disturbing level of awareness and intellect despite being only a few months old.
• Dhampyr: Although the word is never used in-series, she is the daughter of a human woman and a vampire.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Half-vampire, half-human, all impossible.
• In-Series Nickname: Jacob Black gives her the nickname "Nessie" because he thinks her full name, Renesmee Carlie Cullen, is a "mouthful". At first, Bella refuses to use this nickname because of the obvious allusion to the Loch-Ness Monster, but by the end of the series she eventually warms to it. Before long everyone thinks of her as Nessie. Other nicknames include Ness (used by Charlie Swan and Jacob Black), Vanessa Wolfe (by Bella Swan), E.J. (meaning Edward Jacob; used by Bella Swan), Bebe Linda (used by Carmen), and Little Nudger (used by Bella Swan).
• Last Episode, New Character: She is born in the last book.
• Living MacGuffin: Her birth is the very reason the Volturi comes for the Cullens in the fourth book.
• Touch Telepathy: She can project thoughts, images, and emotions into people through physical contact.
• Unstable Powered Child: Averted, but other characters immediately assume that she is this, mistaking her for an immortal child.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: After she was born, Renesmee learns the vampire laws and limitations very quickly and understands their consequences. She can perfectly memorize anything she sees or experiences, and understands people without much problem. Bella comments that she is already more intelligent than most adults, and has better control over her thirst than any of them.
• Younger Than They Look: She ages at an increased rate, able to speak by one week after birth and learning to walk after three. It's said she will reach full physical maturity by age seven.

The Volturi

An ancient coven of vampires living in Volterra, Italy. They consider themselves the rulemakers of the vampire world and purveyors of the arts. They are a large group, headed by the Big Three: Aro, Caius and Marcus, and have many scouts and guards. They are considered the antithesis of the Cullens.

In General

• Anti-Villain: They keep other vampires in line, enforce the laws and put down any threat to the secrecy of vampires which, inadvertently, protects humanity as well.
• Blind Obedience: The entire Volturi guard towards the leaders, especially Aro, because of Chelsea's ability of relationship manipulation.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In the books, the Volturi hierarchy is determined by the color of their cloak. The leaders, wives and Chelsea wear pure black, the permanent members of the guard wear shades of gray with Jane and Alec wearing the darkest shade, and Felix and the replaceable guards wear light gray.
• Deflector Shield: Renata, Aro's personal bodyguard, projects a psychic shield that repels an attacker by diverting them in another direction with a confused memory of what they were doing in the first place.
• Evil Counterpart: The Volturi are collectively presented as one to the Cullens as the only coven large enough to rival the Cullens in size. A few of the individual members of the Volturi are even presented as counterparts to individual members of the Cullens, such as Felix to Emmett as each is The Big Guy of his respective coven.
• Freudian Trio: Caius is the Id, Aro is the Ego and Marcus is the Superego.
• Humans Are Special: Although they tend to see humans only as food, and don't care much about their human servants, they do appreciate art, literature, and music. They also acknowledge that taking over and ruling the planet is impossible.
• Mind Rape: Most of the Volturi's psychic talents are variations of this trope which adds to the coven's formidability. Notable examples include Aro, Jane, Alec and Demetri.
  • Heidi's ability to physically appeal to others, regardless of species or gender, also works inside the mind.
  • Renata's Deflector Shield works against potential attackers by implanting a thought in them to go some other way with a confused memory of the reason why they were doing so.
• More than Mind Control: Two permanent members of the guard, Corin and Chelsea.
  • Chelsea can manipulate the relationships between individuals (rapportokinesis): she can strengthen, weaken, or completely sever those ties.
    • Chelsea's power is used to create and sustain the slave-like devotion and loyalty the guard displays towards the leaders. Her gift is also the glue that keeps the coven organized and functional.
    • When Aro wants a specific vampire to join the guard, she creates the loyalty that vampire feels towards the Volturi which makes them want to join the guard willingly, even when they had no previous interest in serving the Volturi.
    • Also, in battle, her gift is used to disband the allegiances between the Volturi's enemies.
  • Corin induces individuals with a feeling (which includes an addictive side effect) that leaves people content and satisfied no matter their present situation, so her primary job is to keep the Volturi wives (Sulpicia and Athenodora) content with their prison-like circumstances.
• Nepotism: A member of the guard, Afton, has a permanent position, but not on his own merits. Though he has a shielding talent to make himself invisible to others, Afton's power is severely limited: unlike Bella and Renata, he's unable to project his shield, only making himself invisible and someone with a strong enough focus can see through the illusion. He's only kept within the guard, simply because he's Chelsea's mate, and Chelsea gets everything she wants.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Volturi enforce laws that all other vampires must follow: any humans who learn of vampires must be turned into vampires or killed, do not turn babies or toddlers into vampires, do not make alliances with werewolves, do not hunt in Volterra, do not lie to or defy the Volturi. The punishment is death, but the Volturi often bend the rules and invites vampires with special talents to join them.
• Pragmatic Villainy: The laws they enforce indirectly protect humans, but they do it to keep their power over the vampires and to protect The Masquerade, not out of the goodness of their hearts.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The movies have them in stylized Non-Uniform Uniform attire with a red-and-black theme. Par for the course for a Council of Vampires.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: They have red eyes as they feed off human blood.
• Red Right Hand: Due to centuries of being waited upon and never acting of their own volition, the oldest Volturi's bodies are starting to crumble.
• The Renfield: Gianna, the human seen in their compound in New Moon. She's hoping to be turned as a reward for her service, but the Volturi just plan to eat her once she's outlived her usefulness. The movies also show two later Renfields, Bianca and Valentina, who are presumably Gianna's successors.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Heidi, whose beauty is comparable to Rosalie's. Her attractiveness, as well as her psychic talent to physically appeal to others, is why she is the Volturi's 'fisher', who lures human victims to Volterra for the sustenance of the coven.

Aro

Portrayed by Michael Sheen (movies), Jeff Riberdy (Consumed)

• Ambition Is Evil: Aro holds power over anything and is willing to do anything even commit the unspeakable to secure his status over the vampire world. He secretly murdered his own sister Didyme to keep her husband Marcus from leaving the Volturi because Marcus' gift was too integral to his plans to lose.
• Big Bad: Aro in the fourth book and the fourth and fifth films.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Aro with Victoria in New Moon.
• Big Bad Friend: Aro is this to Carlisle, though after the events of the fourth book, their friendship is strained, and Aro sees his coven as a threat, though he does express his hope Carlisle will in time forgive him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Aro orders the death of the secretary because she misspelled "Carlisle" in a note.
  "Carlisle? Which is spelt with an S. Sweet, Bianca."
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Aro, despite his ambition, manipulation and thirst for power, actually values his wife Sulpicia more than his talented guard members, ensuring that she is perfectly protected at all times.
• Familial Foe: Aro is out to destroy the Cullen Family (although, unlike most examples of the trope, they are an adoptive family), except for their most talented members, who he wants to forcibly recruit. The whole family comes to loathe him as a result of his actions.
• Faux Affably Evil: Aro is described as "never more dangerous than when he was gracious."
• Grammar Nazi: In Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Aro commands Demetri and Felix to kill Bianca, the Volturi's most recent human secretary, simply because of her mispelling Carlisle's name.
• It Must Be Mine!: He covets vampires with unique supernatural gifts to add to the guard and to his own power. In the present day, he has invited Edward, Bella and most especially, Alice to join the guard several times.
• Large Ham: Aro in the movies. Michael Sheen clearly had too much fun playing him!
• Manipulative Bastard: He uses Marcus' gift for his own ends while also having killed his wife Didyme, Aro's own sister, without Marcus knowing.
  • The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide reveals he employs Chelsea to use her ability to manipulate the relationships amongst all of the Volturi coven to sustain their ability to co-exist together (i.e. their absolute loyalty and subservience to him). He even employs her to tie Caius and Marcus to him this way (despite supposedly sharing his status as leader of the Volturi with them) which prevents Caius from overthrowing Aro (as he knew Caius wouldn't be totally satisfied with his cause), and Marcus from abandoning the Volturi through suicide.
  • At the same time (as Chelsea is the vampire Aro is the most dependent on and vulnerable to), he secretly ensures Chelsea is regularly exposed to Corin's gift of addictive contentment meaning she would have a hard time abdicating her role as the Volturi's linchpin.
• Touch Telepathy: This is Aro's special ability, which allows him to hear the thoughts of whomever he comes into physical contact with. His gift is far more powerful than Edward's standard telepathy as while Edward hears only an individual's thoughts at present, Aro hears every thought a person has ever had.

Caius

• Ambition Is Evil: When Caius and his wife Athenodora first met Aro and Marcus, Caius was immediately interested in Aro's plans for dominating the vampire world and the idea of joining forces with the two gifted vampires. In return, Aro was drawn to Caius' ambition and passionate capacity to hate.
• Blood Knight: Caius is easily the most cruel of the Volturi. He obsessively devotes his time to heading the punitive expeditions of the Volturi's rule, and whenever the opportunity presents itself, he always advocates for the most draconian methods of handling situations, usually in favor of executions or a massacre.
  • In New Moon, he is in favor of executing Bella, Edward and Alice when they are brought before them citing Bella's knowledge of the vampire world.
  • In Breaking Dawn, Caius has Irina executed (see You Have Failed Me) under the excuse of providing false information in an attempt to ignite a bloodbath between the Volturi and the Cullens' allies. When the leaders cast their votes regarding Renesmee, he immediately votes to kill the child and anyone who protects her.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite Caius' bloodlust and cruel personality, he ensures his wife Athenodora is perfectly protected at all times, showing he does value her life.
• Fantastic Racism: Caius almost lost a fight with a werewolf (actual lycanthropic werewolves, not the Quileute shapeshifters) centuries ago and has spearheaded the Volturi to hunt them into near extinction. Upon witnessing the Cullens' alliance with the Quileute packs, he pushes for that to use as an excuse for a bloodbath during Renesmee's 'trial'.
• Functional Addict: The Twilight Saga: the Official Illustrated Guide reveals that Caius frequently uses Corin's drug-like gift to mitigate his boredom between punitive missions and battles.
• Sadist: He enjoys using Jane's gift to punish offenders of the Volturi's laws before he has them executed.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Caius.
• You Have Failed Me: Caius doesn't handle disappointment well, as Irina learns fatally.

Marcus

• Authority in Name Only: Technically, Marcus is a leader of the Volturi but it’s easy for Aro and Caius to outvote him to further their ambition and bloodlust, and we get the sense that they do this often. When Marcus votes to leave the Cullens alone at the end of Breaking Dawn no one shows any reaction to this, being well aware that his opinion isn’t the one that will matter.
• Death Seeker: The Twilight Saga: the Official Illustrated Guide reveals that after the death of his wife Didyme and giving up hope for revenge, Marcus became suicidal. He was only prevented from ending his life because of Aro having Chelsea use her gift to tie him to the Volturi.
  • Implied in the Breaking Dawn movie; when the Romanians go for him, he doesn't bother fighting, merely stands and says quietly to himself, "Finally."
• The Eeyore: Marcus, since his wife Didyme, which was Aro's sister, had been murdered and he never found the culprit (Aro).
• The Empath: Marcus' talent is seeing and identifying the relationships between people.
• The Quiet One: Marcus doesn't talk much. Justified, since he is depressed and bored most of the time.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Marcus has little interest in forcibly subjugating other covens and is willing to listen to the arguments put before the coven, such as whether or not to kill Bella or Renesmee, and actually makes lenient decisions that both Bella and the readers find a little relief in. Unfortunately Aro and Caius tend to subvert this and can easily outvote him.
• Token Good Teammate: Relatively speaking, for the same reasons listed under Reasonable Authority Figure.

Jane and Alec

Portrayed by: Dakota Fanning and Cameron Bright (movies), Elizabeth Kenney and Zach Shearon (adolescent, Consumed), Alyssa Emily Marvin and Pharaohe Rosado (young, Consumed)

• Adaptational Explanation: The Consumed segment of The Storytellers gives an explanation as to why the twins were condemned. Jane was picking flowers in a field one day and was harassed by three local boys, which caused her to lose control of her powers and attack (and possibly kill) them. When questioned, she could not remember what had happened to them, causing the villagers to claim she and Alec had killed them.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Bella described Jane as having short, pale brown hair in the books. In the movies, she has long blonde hair tied in a bun.
• Agony Beam: Jane's gift allows her to inflict a burning pain onto someone with a mere glance. More a case of Mind Rape since her talent is described to work inside the mind like most of the Volturi's talented members.
• Berserk Button: Jane really does not take well to her power being rendered useless.
• Burn the Witch!: They were accused of being witches and sentenced to be burned at the stake. Aro arrived just in time to halt the execution and turned them into vampires.
• Creepy Child: The twins were born with psychic talents which were evident even in their human state, and were heavily suspected of being witches by their town's superstitious villagers.
• Creepy Twins: Jane and Alec are twins and can be very creepy, both individually and together.
• The Empath: Jane seems like an inversion, as she can make you feel pain but seems unable to feel other people's pain, but it is at least somewhat plausible that she started out a regular empath who devoted her abilities to torturing people for Aro, and now that seems to be all she does.
• Little Miss Badass: Jane. Despite being a little girl changed at the age of 12, she is feared and respected by other vampires.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Jane's hair is styled into one in the movies.
• Mind Rape: Jane and Alec's respective powers are described as abilities that trick the mind and work inside it for their gifts to take.
• Sadist: Jane enjoys the fear and respect her power gives her.
• Sense Loss Sadness: Alec's gift is total sensory deprivation. He can cut off any or all five senses of his targets, supernatural or not.
• Undead Child: Jane and Alec, the youngest and smaller vampires of the series, twins turned at around age twelve by Aro. (Exact ages for what constitutes as an Immortal Child was never explicitly stated. It is assumed that if the child in question is able to follow the laws set by Volturi, then they will be allowed to continue their existence.)

Felix

• Adaptational Dye-Job: In the novels, Felix is described as having short cropped black hair. In the movies, however, he is portrayed as having dark brown layered hair.
• Affably Evil: Or at least in the novels, where he has a much more darkly playful attitude than his fellow Volturi members despite being their primary physical enforcer. Unlike Aro, his attitude seems to be truly genuine: being openly friendly with both fellow Volturi members Demetri and Heidi and giving Bella a genuine compliment and a friendly wink during the standoff between The Volturi and the Cullen Family and their allies in Breaking Dawn.
• The Big Guy: Felix is this for the Volturi guard. He rivals Emmett in terms of strength and size.
• Blood Knight: He shows an eagerness for fighting as displayed in 'New Moon'' when Edward aggressively steps forward in defense of Bella multiple times. He is also always part of the Volturi's punitive missions, being their primary physical enforcer and a keen executioner.
• The Brute: Felix is a huge, muscular vampire whose combat techniques and Super-Strength exceeds that of most vampires. His intimidating appearance is described by Bella as being as hulking and menacing as an iron-spiked cudgel.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Cocky, aggressive and being something of a flirt, Felix is the Red Oni to Demetri's Blue Oni.
• Sole Survivor: Felix, possibly in Breaking Dawn - Part 2. When Alice shows Aro her vision of how the battle of the Volturi vs. the Cullens and their allies would play out if it actually happened, Felix is the only named character on the Volturi side who is not explicitly killed onscreen in the battle.
• Strong and Skilled: Word of God has stated that Felix's talents are his unrivaled fighting skills as well as his Super-Strength, that no matter how good someone else is in physical combat, Felix always stays one or more steps ahead of them.
• Super-Strength: His superpower, even by vampire standards. The Twilight Saga: the Official Illustrated Guide states Felix is the physically strongest vampire the Volturi have encountered.
• Those Two Guys: He and Demetri are commonly seen together during missions.

Demetri

• Adaptational Dye-Job: Demetri has dark wavy hair that reaches his shoulders in the novels. In the movies, his hair is cropped short and coloured frosted brown/blonde.
• The Lancer: He is the Volturi's main tracker and therefore one of their main combatants.
• Lean and Mean: Demetri is tall, being described as hard and lean as the blade of a sword by Bella and being the Volturi's tracker, he is the main threat to those who wish to evade the Volturi's wrath.
• Mind Rape: Like most of the Volturi's supernatural talents, Demetri's tracking gift is a variation of this. He captures the "essence" of someone's mind when he meets them, or through someone else who met them before, and then follows that essence like tracking a scent over any distance.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Demetri is rather calm and formal, to the point of being polite at times being the Blue Oni to his outspoken partner Felix's Red Oni.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Demetri, with heavy emphasis placed on how much more gifted he is at tracking than James. While James has to be relatively close to his victim, Demetri could track people from all across the world.
• Those Two Guys: He and Felix are commonly seen together, as both are always part of the Volturi's more violent missions.

James' Coven

The first adversary encountered in the first book. They first started out as a small group of hunters and nomads who just lived to drink good blood. Things went from bad to worse when Bella and her rich blood came into the picture. James was offed in Twilight, followed by Laurent in New Moon, and then Victoria and her giant army of newborns in Eclipse.

In General

• Big Bad: James in the first book and the first movie. Victoria in the second and third books and the third movie.
• Blond, Brunet, Redhead: In the movies, James is blond, Laurent is the brunet, and Victoria is the redhead.
• Token Trio: In the movies. James is white, Victoria is a woman, and Laurent is black.
• Undead Barefooter: They hunt barefoot; justified, since they don't feel pain, and it allows them to run faster.

James

Portrayed by Cam Gigandet (Twilight), Jesse Lehman (The Groundskeeper)

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Described as having light brown hair in the books, but blond in the movie.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: James is described as being very unremarkable in appearance, but in the movie, he's played by this attractive guy◊.
• Challenge Seeker: Midnight Sun gives a look into his thoughts as heard by Edward. He's only momentarily enraged when Edward blocks him from getting at Bella at the field, then he becomes quite excited for the challenge ahead.
• Faux Affably Evil: His gentle and almost polite amusement makes his cruelty even worse.
• For the Evulz: He often torments his victims before killing them, seemingly only for the amusement.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: His primary reason for torturing Bella. Getting her alone and all to himself was too quick and too easy for him, so he hopes to get Edward to chase him.
• Sadist: He gleefully records himself torturing Bella, for starters!
• Scarily Competent Tracker: His vampire superpower is tracking.
• Would Hit a Girl: He breaks several of Bella's ribs, gives her a head wound, and breaks one of her legs.

Victoria

Portrayed by Rachelle Lefevre (first two movies), Bryce Dallas Howard (Eclipse), Sophie Labell (The Groundskeeper)

• Ax-Crazy: Stay far, far away from Victoria.
• Big Bad Ensemble: In the second film, with the Volturi.
• The Chessmaster: Victoria's power is enhanced self-preservation, which allows her to instinctively know exactly what moves to make to evade danger.
• Crusading Widow: She plans to kill Bella so that Edward will feel the same pain that she felt when James died. Doubles as Avenging the Villain.
• Evil Redhead: Victoria is bloodthirsty and ruthless, with fiery red hair to match.
• Hero of Another Story: Before she fell in with James, she qualified as one, surprisingly enough. In her backstory she was a mistreated servant girl who was turned by her sister Anne and joined a coven of outcasts that included her sister’s creator. Two years later, the Volturi attacked them; Victoria and Heidi were the only survivors, and the latter was taken into the coven under Chelsea’s influence while Victoria went on the run .
• Manipulative Bitch: In New Moon and Eclipse. She gets Riley to do her bidding all the way to the end by pretending to be in love with him, and gets Laurent to spy on the Cullens and Bella for her by pretending to be friendly to him in spite of his earlier betrayal.
• Moral Myopia: Victoria's reason for wanting to kill Edward and Bella is to avenge James. It was never brought up that the only reason Edward killed James was because he thought it was good idea to make Bella his next prey, ignoring the Cullens' warning that Bella was under their protection, and thus off limits.
• Revenge by Proxy: Victoria's search to harm Bella after the Cullens kill her mate James.
• The Vamp: She uses Riley as a tool while making him believe she loves him.
• Vocal Dissonance: When Bella finally hears her speak in Eclipse, she is shocked by her soft, high voice and how it contrasts with her fierce looks.
  Her voice was not the strong, wild, catlike growl I would have put with her face and stance. It was soft, it was high — a babyish, soprano tinkling. The kind of voice that went with blond curls and pink bubble gum. It made no sense coming through her bared, glistening teeth.

Laurent

Portrayed by Edi Gathegi

• Affably Evil: Laurent is the most civilized of his coven, but still a dangerous killer.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In the first novel he warns the Cullens about James, and doesn't take part in his hunt for Bella. However, in New Moon he agrees to Victoria's request to spy on the Cullens for her. It could be argued that he was doing this out of fear of her, but he also admitted to wanting to drink Bella's blood.
• Killed Offscreen: He's hunted down by the Uley pack and ripped to shreds shortly after his encounter with Bella in New Moon, said fate only being revealed when she sees Jacob later.
• Mercy Kill: Laurent claims this is his motivation for trying to kill Bella in New Moon: If he kills her, it'll be quick and painless. If Victoria kills her, it won't.
• Oh, Crap!: It's the last expression on Laurent's face after he encounters the wolf pack.
• Race Lift: In the books, he's described as olive-skinned. In the movies, he's black.

Werewolves

The Wolf Pack

Wolf-like shapeshifters (not werewolves) of the series. They are members of the Quileute tribe and are trained to protect humans from vampires. Members include Sam Uley (alpha), Paul Lahote, Jared Cameron, Embry Call, Quil Ateara V, Seth and Leah Clearwater, and Jacob.

In General

• Animorphism: Aro says that they aren't really werewolves; just shapeshifters who take the form of wolves. However, it's what Meyer has been calling them since the second book, and so the term sticks.
• Blessed with Suck: Unfortunately, their Healing Factor can sometimes cause their injuries to heal too fast, which is why Jacob needs his bones to be re-broken over and over to prevent them from knitting in the wrong shape.
• Canis Major: The Quileute shapeshifters in the sequels turn into wolves as tall as horses.
• Compelling Voice: An Alpha shapeshifter can command their subordinates in the "voice of the Alpha" forcing them to obey against their will, but they cannot command other Alphas.
• Fantastic Racism: Towards vampires. To be fair, aside from the Cullens, most of the vampires they encounter kill innocent people (and if the stories are to be believed, two vampires slaughtered many of their tribe centuries ago).
• The Generic Guy: Apart from Seth and Sam, they really don't have much to distinguish themselves from one another, and only Paul has a personality trait as a hothead.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Many of them suffer from this to a dangerous degree since they can transform as a result and become ten times more deadly. Sam even left horrific scars on Emily's face when they got into a fight.
• Healing Factor: All Quileute werewolves have this.
• Hot-Blooded: Paul, though he settles down in Breaking Dawn after imprinting on Jacob's sister offscreen.
• Important Haircut: If they have long hair, they chop it off after they start phasing because it means shorter fur as a wolf.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: At first. Once they gain enough control, it becomes Voluntary Shapeshifting, although they might accidentally phase anyway if they lose their tempers.
• Lightning Bruiser: Most of the wolves fight like this.
• Magical Native American: The werewolves can be counted as part of this trend, given their common ethnicity.
• Men of Sherwood: Jake's wolf pack is constantly growing over the last three books and has several members who get little or no focus or development. They protect the area from hostile vampires, ultimately avoid coming to blows with the Friendly Neighborhood Vampires, and survive every battle or showdown they have with vampires without losing a single shapeshifter.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: The Quileute wolves (also referred to as shape-shifters) are purely hereditary, have higher body temperatures in human form, and can transform at will as long as there's a nearby vampire presence. Once they transform, they gain Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Senses all of which are strongest in wolf form, which makes them capable of taking on vampires.
• Psychic Link: Those in the same pack involuntarily hear each other's thoughts when they're in wolf form. For Alpha shapeshifters of different packs, they can also communicate in this way, but they have control over which thoughts they want to share.
  • The psychic connection pack members share with their Alphas allows for an observed cascading effect, where in Breaking Dawn, Bella discovers that by protecting an Alpha with her mental shield provides protection for the entire pack.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Most of them have Old Testament names (Jacob, Seth, Leah, Sam, Paul, Rachel, and Rebecca).
• Team Mom: Emily. She gives them a home to rest in, clothes them, and feeds them, which is no easy task to do, considering how the entire pack are a bunch of BigEaters.
• Theme Naming: Four of them (Jacob, Seth, Emily, and Paul) are named after Meyer's siblings.
• Totally Not a Werewolf: Though they're often mistaken as such throughout the series, the pack are not in fact werewolves, but shapeshifters. The difference between the two winds up being crucial when Caius from the Volturi accuses the Cullens of allying themselves with werewolves, which has been against the Volturi's rules since they attempted to hunt werewolves to extinction. However, since the pack aren't actually werewolves, the Cullens and their allies get off scot-free.
• Wife Husbandry: A bad side effect of imprinting, as Quil and Jacob learn. Jacob is initially slightly Squicked to think about how this relates to Quil and Claire, but after he imprints on Renesmee, the process is detailed more; his primary concern is for her to be "safe and happy", and if they eventually hook up, well, that's just a bonus.
• Working-Class Werewolves: Jacob Black and the rest of the werewolves (although they're technically "shapeshifters who can turn into wolves") live on a Native American reservation (which are notorious for high poverty rates) in rather rundown houses (or at the very least, Jacob's house is quite humble) and often wear little but denim cut-offs. This a sharp contrast to the vampiric Cullens who regularly show off their wealth with their Cool Cars and Big Fancy House, and own an entire island off the coast of Brazil. It even comes up in the Vampire-Werewolf Love Triangle; Jacob gives Bella a second-hand truck he fixed up and a handmade wolf charm on a bracelet as gifts, whilst Edward gives her an Audi and a diamond heart charm. In the film adaptations, this trope is fully taken advantage of by the filmmakers to give Jacob an opportunity to strip off or walk around shirtless in just about every scene he's in.

Leah Clearwater

Portrayed by Julia Jones

Daughter of Sue and Harry Clearwater and one of Jacob's close friends in the Uley Pack.

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• Action Girl: After becoming a werewolf, she fights vampires with the rest of the pack. This is even more prominent in the films, as we see more of the fights onscreen.
• Adapted Out: In the film version of New Moon, though she shows up in Eclipse like in the books.
• Affectionate Nickname: Sam used to call her "Lee-Lee". Jared later refers to her by the nickname in an attempt to get her to return to Sam's pack, which just pisses her off.
• All Love Is Unrequited: She is still in love with Sam, but he left her for Emily due to imprinting on her.
• Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Emily's Betty for Sam's Archie.
• Big Sister Instinct: Towards her little brother Seth.
• Blessed with Suck: How she generally views being a werewolf. To be fair to her, it's made her life much more difficult and causes her a lot of suffering she could otherwise avoid.
• Boyish Short Hair: After becoming a werewolf, she wears her hair in a pixie cut to avoid having longer fur. In the films, it's a slightly longer bob cut.
• Broken Bird: Perpetually bitter and angry about various incidents in her life.
• Brother–Sister Team: With Seth.
• Childhood Friend: To her cousin Emily, even thinking of her as a sister. Until the incident with Sam, at least.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her boyfriend, whom she loved very much and thought she'd spend the rest of her life with, disappeared for weeks and then came back a changed person, without explanation. Unbeknownst to her at the time, he had started phasing, and due to tribe laws, could not tell her his secret, even though he wanted to. He then unexpectedly dumped her and started pursuing her cousin Emily, whom she was very close to. Although she tried to fight the feeling for a while, Emily eventually got with Sam, leaving Leah feeling utterly betrayed and devastated. Not too long after, Leah found out she was a werewolf which completely mucked her life up; even worse, the first time she phased was during an argument with her father, shortly after which he suffered a fatal heart attack, which she now believes is her fault. Subsequently, she's stuck in a pack where no one else likes her, has to obey the commands of her ex, and watch him and her cousin be googly-eyed over each other.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of her most defining traits is her snarkiness.
• Death by Adaptation: Somewhat. In Breaking Dawn: Part 2, she is killed after she pulls one of the Volturi off Esme and falls into a fiery chasm, which didn't happen in the book. However, it then turns out the battle was only one of Alice's visions and Leah is fine after all.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Thanks to having some time apart from Sam in the last book, Leah warms up to Jacob and becomes much happier and calmer than she used to be.
• Die, Chair, Die!: The first time she phased, she shredded a couch.
• Double Standard: Leah is a bitch who is ruining the lives of everyone because she can't get over being dumped by her fiance for a girl he'd literally just met, and having to mentally listen to him loving said girl and him wishing she would disappear, with no way to escape. When Jacob is the same because Bella married her boyfriend instead of him, Sam (the fiance who dumped Leah) tells Leah to be nice to Jacob, because he's had a much rougher time than she has. As if that wasn't enough, the girl Sam left Leah for was her own cousin, Emily, whom Leah was very close to, and when Emily told Sam to go back to Leah he snapped and mauled her face so badly that she bears horrific scars that everyone can see.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Her initial reaction to Emily getting together with Sam. She is more forgiving towards her after she finds out about the whole werewolf and imprinting business, though they're still not as close as they once were.
• First Love: For Sam. Then he met Emily...
• The Friend Nobody Likes: All the other shapeshifters think she's a complete bitch. To be fair to them, she does try to stir up trouble by purposefully bringing up painful subjects, but still, it's not hard to sympathize with her due to everything that happened to her.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Film only. In Breaking Dawn Part 2 she sacrifices herself to save Esme, launching herself and a few other vampires over a cliff edge to prevent Esme from being dragged over.
• Hopeless Suitor: To Sam. Especially after she became a werewolf, she knows she has no hope of ever being with him, because he imprinted on Emily.
• Howl of Sorrow: In Breaking Dawn Part 2, she lets out one when she sees Seth killed in front of her.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Subtle, but she clearly hates having to live with a pack that makes it clear she's not welcome. In Breaking Dawn, she says she almost wishes she could imprint on someone just so she'd stop loving Sam.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: She wants to stop phasing, and plans on stopping ASAP and going to community college.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Her perspective on Sam/Emily. She loves Sam and wants the best for him; she just doesn't want to have to stick around to watch them be together. She even agrees to be Emily's bridesmaid at their wedding.
• It's All My Fault: She blames herself for her father's death in New Moon because it happened as the result of a heart attack he got from seeing her phase for the first time.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Her calling Bella out for stringing Jacob along in "Breaking Dawn" (off-screen) is supposed to make readers feel sorry for Bella, who breaks down into tears over it, except Leah is completely right and only does so to defend Jacob.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be rather unsympathetic, cold, and bitterly cynical, but she still cares about those she loves and defends her tribe and other innocent people from vampires. Eventually, her protection extends to said vampires as well.
• The Lancer: Jacob promotes her to his beta when he forms his own pack.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Downplayed, as she's isn't overly fixated on having kids, but in Breaking Dawn she is upset that she's stopped menstruating due to the phasing, as she worries this means she may never actually be able to have biological children if/when she wanted to. She even wonders if this is why Sam didn't imprint on her.
• Lightning Bruiser: She's the fastest of the pack; her speed is just about the only thing about being a shapeshifter that she likes.
• Love Hurts: She hates still having feelings for Sam, because she knows he cannot be with her, but due to being a werewolf, she's stuck sharing a Psychic Link with him and gets to have front row seats to his Happily Ever After with Emily. What's more, after she became a shape-shifter, she had no choice but to forgive Sam and Emily after learning what happened. It's one of the sources for her ongoing emotional pain.
• No Periods, Period: Averted. It's mentioned that she stopped cycling when she phased, even though it freaks the guys out to talk about it.
• No Sympathy: She's one of the few protagonists who doesn't show much sympathy for Bella, especially in Breaking Dawn where she gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She gives one to Bella (off-page) in Breaking Dawn, in particular chewing her out for stringing Jacob along with little regard to his feelings.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With her younger brother Seth. He's a very cheerful, idealistic, and friendly boy, while she's usually quite bad-tempered, cynical and snarky.
• The Smurfette Principle: She is the sole female werewolf not only in her pack, but in HISTORY.
• Slut-Shaming: Leah is the only woman in the series who's been confirmed to have had premarital sex. Jacob says she got worried when she stopped getting her period and might be having a freak werewolf pregnancy since she hasn't had sex with anyone since Sam. She's also the only woman in the series to get hit with these tragedies specifically related to her love life and is one of the only prominent characters in the series to not end it in a relationship.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Her abrasiveness is due to her grief and turmoil over the various things that have gone wrong with her life.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's said to be very beautiful and stands 5'10" in the books.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: In the epilogue for Eclipse, Leah complains that Jacob's feelings for Bella are making her dream about kissing Bella through their Psychic Link. Of course, some fans don't buy that explanation.
• Tsundere: Type 1. She's generally bitter, sarcastic, and abrasive, but has a softer side that comes out around her little brother and eventually Jacob.
• Trauma Conga Line: In a rather short space of time, she loses her boyfriend to her cousin/best friend (and so loses her friendship too), becomes a werewolf which upends her life, and if that wasn't enough, she loses her dad, too. It's not all that surprising she's a bit jaded.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Develops this type of friendship with Jacob in Breaking Dawn.
• We Used to Be Friends: Leah is more than a little pissed at Emily (her cousin/best friend, who was like a sister to her) for giving in and getting together with Sam. To be fair to Emily, however, imprinting isn't exactly something you can fight, and on the very last time she tried sending Sam away-notably by pushing his Berserk Button of being compared to his deadbeat father-Sam phased and scarred her horrifically for life. So. You know. It's pretty much painful for all parties involved.

Seth Clearwater

Portrayed by Boo Boo Stewart

Leah's little brother who looks up and idolizes Jacob.

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• Cheerful Child: Seth is a teenager, but definitely fits this trope.
• The Lancer: Seth plays this role for Jacob after they split from Sam's group.
• Nice Guy: Seth. Edward even mentions that his mind is one of the purest and kindest he's ever read.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Seth leaves Sam's pack when they decide to attack the Cullens, citing this as the reason. Leah to a certain extent leaves for the same reason, but moreso to protect Seth.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With his older sister Leah. He's a very cheerful, idealistic, and friendly boy, while she's usually quite bad-tempered, cynical and snarky.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Seth becomes less nice in Breaking Dawn for a little while, due to jumping on the Double Standard bandwagon against his sister, but thankfully, he (unlike most other characters) gets over it fairly quickly.

Sam Uley

Portrayed by Chaske Spencer

The pack's alpha.

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• Berserk Button: Most of the wolves have a Hair-Trigger Temper that causes them to shift, but Sam has an especially bad one: comparing him to his father, who left them at a young age. The last time anybody used this against him, said person got mauled horrifically, giving them lasting scars.
• Team Dad: Sam. Considering he was the first one who ever phased, the boys tend to see him as a de facto Alpha, and he tends to help out the newer ones with their tempers so as not to trigger any accidents.

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