Twilight: Edward Cullen’s 10 Greatest Fears (Ranked By Scariness)
Even as a vampire, Edward Cullen carries a lot of fears with him in The Twilight Saga, ranging from tame and small to perpetually haunting.
With Taylor Lautner’s recent marriage (via Vogue) and speculation about Robert Pattinson’s The Batman, Twihards are still reveling in the Twilight nostalgia that 2022 has brought with it. Pattinson’s recent success as the Caped Crusader has especially made fans reminisce about his equally tortured role as Edward Cullen, the heartthrob vampire.
10. Being Exposed As A Vampire
Given his unnorthodox existence as a vampire, Edward has an inherent fear of his truth being exposed, and that fear manifests at various times, such as when he saves Bella from the van or when Jacob warns Bella at prom.
9. Ruining Bella’s Future
Edward’s fixation on Bella makes for some overly intense moments and some of his most cringeworthy quotes in Twilight. It also means that a lot of his preoccupying fears revolve around the young human girl.
8. Jeopardizing Bella’s Safety
Edward is one of the few Twilight characters the movies do better than the books, and this is largely thanks to how much they downplay Edward’s perpetual fear toward Bella’s safety. This is the case in the Midnight Sun novel, which gives Edward’s perspective of the first book.
7. Bella Choosing Wrong
There are many things that only Twilightbook fans know about Edward and Jacob’s rivalry, such as just how deeply affected by it Edward was. While the movies posit him as confident about Bella’s feelings, in the books, he is distraught by how hard it is for Bella to leave Jacob in Eclipse, and he is greatly afraid that she chose wrong.
6. Destroying Bella’s Soul
Apart from her physical safety, Edward is also constantly worrying over the status of Bella’s soul, a driving factor behind his hesitancy in both turning her and being intimate before marriage.
5. Losing A Family Member
Edward’s beloved coven has just as much dysfunction and chaos as any, as evidenced by the great memes that perfectly sum up the Cullen family.
However, they are also incredibly close-knit and mean the world to Edward, which is why his fear of losing any of them is so deep. It’s also one of the scarier ones as he repeatedly has to face it again and again, whether it be Alice being captured with him and Bella in New Moon or the potential vampire battle in Breaking Dawn.
4. Victoria’s Newborn Army Attack
Victoria may have been one of the most likable side characters in Twilight, but she was a true menace for Edward, with her newborn army’s attack being one of his biggest fears throughout the series.
What made it so scary was not only the large scale of the attack but how much Edward had to lay on the line to try and survive it. From having his family members at the front line of the battle to getting a front seat to Bella and Jacob’s make out session, Victoria’s army forced Edward to face many other fears of his all at once.
3. The Volturi’s Persistence
The Volturi’s persistence throughout the series and their big personalities are reasons why they became fan favorites, and also why they continued to haunt Edward at many moments.
From pushing the idea of turning Bella in New Moon to coming for him and his entire family in Breaking Dawn, the Volturi were relentless in torturing Edward throughout the series. With their immense power and the likes of Jane already giving him a taste of what they had in store, the Volturi were one of Edward’s scariest fears.
2. Renesmee’s Initial Ambiguity
Edward’s many years of existence and his vampire nature mean that not many world things – outside of his own inner demons and insecurities – have the power to truly scare him.
However, an anomaly to this was his own offspring; Once he found out Bella was pregnant, Edward was truly dismayed for her well-being, along with all the ambiguity surrounding the unknown creature. While it all worked out once Renesmee was born, she gave Edward one of the biggest scares in all of his existence. Not to mention how the birth killed Bella, which almost broke him.
1. Becoming A Monster
Even with his few external and many Bella-centered worries, Edward’s greatest and undoubtedly scariest fear is the thought of becoming a monster. Much of his vampire life is dedicated to fighting his killer instincts and having a pure, non-beating heart to counter the early murders that still haunt him, no matter how justified they were.
Although the worry of succumbing to his nature always torments Edward, the last installment finally sees him getting some peace as he thanks Carlisle for this extraordinary life. In doing so, he finally defeated his most significant and considerable fear, allowing himself to achieve the happy ending he deserved.
The Twilight Saga can be streamed on Amazon Prime or on Netflix in certain regions.
