Twilight has its own type of vampires, but the strangest one by far is Renesmee Cullen, the daughter of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan – here’s what she is and how she’s different to other vampires. In 2005, Stephenie Meyer introduced readers to a world where vampires, humans, and werewolves coexist in Twilight, the first entry in a series of four novels. The core of the story was the romance between vampire Edward Cullen and mortal Bella Swan, who came across with different obstacles as their relationship wasn’t well-received by all vampires.
The Twilight novels made the jump to the big screen between 2008 and 2012, with the final novel, Breaking Dawn, being split into two films. The Twilight Saga stayed as true to the source material as possible, and Breaking Dawn – Part 2 introduced Edward and Bella’s daughter, Renesmee (played by Mackenzie Foy). The films brought the stories to a wider audience, and that also made some of the questions about the nature of the characters even bigger, such as what exactly is Renesmee and why and how she’s different to other vampires in the Twilight universe.
Renesmee (whose name is an amalgamation of the names of Bella’s mother, Renée, and Edward’s adoptive mother, Esme), was conceived and born when Bella was still a human. Bella was turned into a vampire after giving birth to her, as her body could barely handle the experience. Renesmee is a vampire and human hybrid, known as a “dhampir”, and as such she shares traits from both: her heart pumps blood and her skin slightly glows in sunlight, and though her skin is warm and soft, it’s as strong as a vampire’s. She’s able to sleep and is not venomous, and most importantly, she can survive on either blood or food. As for her physical development, she grows up incredibly fast, but she will reach maturity after seven years, when she looks around 17 (just like Edward), and then stop aging completely.
Not long after her birth, a vampire from the Denali Coven, Irina, saw her and thought she was an immortal child, after which she warned the Volturi as immortal children are not allowed to exist. Immortal children are human kids who turned into vampires at a very young age, and because vampires’ mental and physical age is frozen when they’re transformed, these kids continue to show childish behaviors and act very impulsively, throwing tantrums (which can kill those around them) and being quite irresponsible with their actions, which is why the Volturi have decided to prohibit their existence. It’s easy to see why Irina thought the Cullens had an immortal child, but this misjudgment cost her her life, as the Volturi are not the forgiving type.
Renesmee is not the only one of her type, and the Cullens use another hybrid, Nahuel, brought by Alice and Jasper, to prove to the Volturi that her type is not a threat and can live among both vampires and humans without a problem. Renesmee’s nature is one of the weirdest elements from the Twilight novels and films, but ultimately, it adds to the unique mythology of Meyer’s universe.
