Twilight’s Bella Swan was really good as a newborn vampire in Breaking Dawn, so could she actually be descended from vampires? Let’s take a look.
The Twilight Saga spent a lot of time following Bella and her desire to be turned into a vampire, and when that finally happened in Breaking Dawn, she, along with viewers and readers, were surprised at how good she was as a newborn vampire – and a theory suggests this happened because she’s descended from vampires. Creatures like vampires and werewolves have become very popular thanks to their many adaptations to all types of media, but none can compare to what Stephenie Meyer did in her Twilight series. The core of the books and movies was the relationship between vampire Edward Cullen and mortal Bella Swan, and together, they had to overcome a variety of obstacles that went from werewolves to other vampire covens.
The Twilight book series became a worldwide phenomenon, so it’s not surprising that it didn’t take long for it to be adapted into a movie saga. The Twilight movies were released between 2008 and 2012 (with Breaking Dawn split into two movies), expanding the fanbase of the books but also highlighting the many problems of the story and leaving more questions about it than the ones it answered. Viewers saw Bella go from the new girl at school (and Forks) to a vampire and Edward’s wife, and while the process of transforming into a vampire isn’t easy and all “newborns” go through a rough period of adjustment, Bella seemed to do fine, which has made some fans believe there was something about her Meyer never shared.
Newborn vampires in the Twilight universe are those who have been transformed for less than a year, and their physical strength surpasses that of older, more experienced vampires, as they still have their own blood in their tissues. Newborns are also incredibly thirsty for blood and have to learn to control their instincts, especially those who go for a “vegetarian” diet, like the Cullens. However, Bella didn’t seem to struggle much during her newborn phase, and even she mentioned in Breaking Dawn how it “was like she had been born to be a vampire”. A detailed fan theory suggests this was because Bella is actually descended from vampires, but as years passed and vampires got together with humans and so on, she had more human than vampire characteristics.
The theory, posted on Reddit, starts by linking the name of Bella’s mother, Renée, to the Volturi member named Renata, who only appears in the books. The author explains that “Renée” is derived from the Roman name “Renatus”, and the feminine form of it is “Renata”, and the Volturi member has a similar power to that of Bella, as she can divert physical attacks while Bella was ability to provide a mental shield. Renée, then, could be “a distant grand-niece” of Renata (and was even named after her), but years of getting together with humans (making way for hybrids, like Renesmee) and so on causing Bella to develop like an average human instead of a vampire or hybrid. However, these buried vampire traits and more came out once Bella was finally turned into a vampire, allowing her to be “a natural” at it and not struggling much during her newborn phase, which was pretty smooth compared to others described and seen in the books and movies.
This, of course, would take the “average girl” label that was placed on Bella’s forehead from the beginning of Twilight off and would make her extraordinary to an extent, as if she hadn’t met the Cullens, she would have never known her had a “talent” at being a vampire. As with many other fan theories that haven’t been addressed by the creator, it’s up to fans to decide if Bella could truly descend from vampires or if she being so good at being a newborn was just a classic cliché from teen novels.
