The vampires in Twilight break most traditions of classic vampires, which earned them a lot of criticism. Here’s how different they are.
The vampires in the Twilight series are unlike any others and break a lot of traditions about these legendary creatures. Back in 2005, Stephenie Meyer shared her unique view of vampires and werewolves in the novel Twilight, the first entry in what was to become a series of four books. The core of the series was the often problematic romance between vampire Edward Cullen and mortal Bella Swan, who came across a lot of obstacles, such as a pack of werewolves and a group of vampires with strict rules called the Volturi.
The Twilight novels were a big hit and quickly built a solid fanbase, which expanded once the movies made the jump to the big screen. The Twilight Saga was released between 2008 and 2012, and while it was a success with fans, critics had a lot to say about the movies, especially the stories. Still, the Twilight phenomenon continued and grew bigger and bigger with each movie, and it became clear to those not familiar with the books that these weren’t traditional vampires, which earned the books and movies a lot of hate.
Twilight took vampires and made them their own, changing many of the defining characteristics of these creatures in an effort to make them more realistic and human, which didn’t exactly work out like that. The vampires in the Twilight world ended up being endlessly mocked for their unique characteristics and different lifestyles, which are very different from those of traditional vampires. Of course, these changes worked within the Twilight context, but many people felt they were disrespectful to the image of vampires as dangerous and tragic creatures – so, how different are Twilight’s vampires to traditional ones?
Twilight Vampires Resist Sunlight – & They Sparkle
The vampires in Twilight keep the most basic characteristics of these creatures, which are that they drink blood to survive and that they can turn humans into one of them by biting them. However, one of the biggest (and most criticized) changes Meyer did to these creatures is that they can resist sunlight. Traditionally, vampires are fully nocturnal creatures, sleeping during the day as sunlight is deadly to them. This characteristic was made popular by F.W. Murnau’s film Nosferatu, where its main character, Count Orlok (Max Schreck), couldn’t stand sunlight as it could kill him, while the original Dracula was only weakened by sunlight. After that, sensitivity to sunlight has been taken as one of the main characteristics of vampires, which has been included in many other works centered on these creatures.
In the Twilight universe, vampires aren’t killed by sunlight but they can’t walk around freely on a sunny day either, as their skin sparkles like diamonds due to its composition (more on that later). This allows them to blend in with the humans, as they can live a somewhat normal life without being caught, but that also means they can’t move to a place where the sun is shining all the time, as they could be easily caught, and the consequences can be horrible. As a result of sunlight not being deadly for them, the Twilight vampires don’t need coffins to use as protection and to sleep in them, as they don’t sleep either.
Twilight Vampires Have Powers
When a human becomes a vampire in the Twilight universe, their strongest trait is brought to their new life, and this special skill is accelerated after the transformation, which in some cases becomes a supernatural power. For example, Edward Cullen can read minds, except Bella’s, who turned out to have the power of shielding herself and those around her from powers that affect the mind. Some vampires, however, have very simple and to an extent useless powers, such as Esme, whose power is that of “passionate love”, and Rosalie, who has enhanced beauty. Although Twilight vampires are not the first and only ones to receive special abilities when transformed (Anne Rice’s vampires, for example, have telekinesis, pyrokinesis, telepathy, and more), Meyer gave each one a different set of abilities, which in most cases are simply too hard to believe, as awesome as many might be.
Twilight Vampires Have Reflections
Traditional vampires have no reflection and don’t appear in photos and videos either, which is how humans can identify if the person next to them is a vampire. In some cases, vampires don’t cast shadows, representing their lack of a soul. In Twilight, vampires do have reflections, as seen in the first movie, when Edward and James are fighting at the dance studio, which is full of mirrors.
