Love it or hate it, The Twilight Saga launched the craze for YA movies as we know it today. While there’s been much criticism for both the books and the movies, the franchise has been undeniably popular, sparking debate about the portrayals of teen romance in mainstream media. At the core of this paranormal romance are Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, the star-crossed lovers who fall in love with each other and must grapple with the fact that—spoiler alert— Edward is a vampire. Their forbidden romance is further complicated by the fact that Bella’s blood smells extra tasty to Edward, and that humans aren’t allowed to know that vampires exist.
As if that weren’t hard enough, Stephenie Meyer throws in Jacob Black, resulting in one of the most recognizable angst-filled love triangles in pop culture. Cries of Team Jacob versus Team Edward rapidly flooded the Internet, with some fans even opting for Team Bella as a way to redirect the focus onto the teen girl.
However, as with most major franchises, there are plenty of things that don’t quite add up in Twilight, even with a character as average and accessible as Bella Swan. As the franchise grows its arsenal of tie-in materials, perhaps it’ll be able to address some of the inconsistencies. For now, we’ve compiled some details about Bella that’ll make you raise an eyebrow or two. The list includes content from the books and movies, so proceed with caution if you’re not all caught up with the franchise.
Here are 20 Things That Make No Sense About Bella Swan.
20. Her Immunity To Mental Powers
Bella Swan is pretty much average in every way. That’s part of her appeal as a character. She’s an ordinary teen girl who gets swept up in a grand romance with an extraordinary boy-slash-man, allowing readers and viewers to relate to her. However, she does have one peculiar trait: she’s immune to the mental powers of vampires. After turning into a vampire, she’s able to manipulate her immunity to protect others from mental attacks as well. Bella’s immunity is never fully ed for in the series.
It’s odd that she’s the only human with a power like that.
It serves more as a convenient plot piece to draw Edward to her, since he can’t figure out why he can’t hear her thoughts.
19. She's An Accident Magnet
Another overly convenient plot device is how accident-prone Bella is. Actually, she’s beyond accident-prone: she’s basically a magnet for every misfortune imaginable. She really gives the Baudelaire children from A Series of Unfortunate Events a run for their money. At least, the incidents seem unfortunate until you realize they’re all ways for her to interact with Edward.
In one of the most pivotal moments of the first book and movie, Bella’s about to get hit by a car, but Edward jumps in to save her, displaying his superhuman strength in a heated moment. This bizarre knack for attracting accidents is a perfect match for Edward’s obsessively protective tendencies. The universe has its mysterious ways of getting people together.
18. She's Way Too Oblivious to guys' attention
Bella is super shy, preferring to keep to herself and spend her free time reading classic English literature. She favors low-maintenance clothes like shirts and jeans, and doesn’t give her appearance much thought. Despite her own disregard for her physical appearance, several boys at her new school find her attractive as soon as she relocates to Forks, including Edward.
While it’s perfectly possible not to think of oneself as attractive, what’s puzzling is that Bella seems to have never noticed that people find her attractive. Ever.
Three boys ask her out to the spring dance—Eric, Mike and Tyler.
Plus, Mike apparently still has feelings for her at her wedding, yet she still has no awareness of her impact on others.
17. She Doesn't Run From Edward
Bella can be painfully shy and is afraid of a lot of things, so you’d think that even the mere suspicion of Edward being a vampire would send her running in the opposite direction. Instead, she dives headfirst into the world of vampires, asking questions and regularly hanging out with Edward alone.
Edward even notes in Midnight Sun that she has neither a sense of fear nor self-preservation.
Sure, everything about vampires is designed to lure in their prey (aka humans), but plenty of the humans in Forks avoid the Cullens. It's hard to buy that someone as sensitive as Bella would stick around and endanger her life for a nice face.
16. She's fine with Edward obsessing over her blood
Just the thought of potentially getting bitten by a vampire would drive most mere mortals far away. If a vampire told us that our blood was extra fragrant to them? We’d be packing our bags, forging new IDs, and moving halfway across the world immediately. Not our girl Bella!
The Cullens are “vegetarians” who drink only animal blood, so their vampirism might not be a deal-breaker. But Bella takes the recklessness to a whole other level when she decides to stick around even after Edward confesses that her blood smells extra tasty to him. She doesn’t even blink when he says he has to be super careful around her to keep himself from attacking her.
15. She Asks To Be Turned Into A Vampire By Her First Serious Boyfriend
Bella’s love for her vampire boyfriend is so strong that she sticks around despite the risks, illustrating the power of true love. Lest we forget, Edward is Bella’s first serious boyfriend, and after just a short while, she asks him to turn her into a vampire so they can spend eternity together.
That’s a pretty big commitment, and a bold move on Bella’s part, especially when she's only seventeen years old.
In fact, Bella’s desire to turn into a vampire is a central conflict between the young couple. Edward refuses to bite her, concerned that he’d be condemning her soul to eternal damnation. He does ultimately give in thanks to pressure from his family and the Volturi.
14. Their Relationship Progresses Way Too Fast
Young love and undying devotion is as much of a staple in YA romance as rebellious teen heroines fighting against society with her scrappy found family. Of course, many people think they’ll stay with their first loves forever, and high school sweethearts spending their lives together isn’t unheard of. Twilight takes the theme of eternal romance to a whole new level when you consider how quickly things progress for Bella and Edward.
The lovebirds meet when Bella is just seventeen, and by the time she’s eighteen, she’s already had a kid and committed to vampirism. That’s a lot of milestones in just one year, and it doesn’t seem to occur to them to slow things down just for a hot second.
13. She's Okay With The Huge Age Gap
Bella has a bit of an identity crisis when she turns eighteen in New Moon. She has nightmares about her becoming a shrivelled old grandma while Edward stays seventeen forever. Except he’s not really seventeen, is he?
Edward became a vampire when he was seventeen, but he was born in 1901.
Bella, on the other hand, was only seventeen in Twilight, which takes place in 2005. That means he’s a 104-year-old dating a seventeen-year-old. He even confesses that his views on things like marriage might be a bit antiquated for the 21st century because of how old he is. It’s a bit odd that Bella thinks of Edward as a teen, and kind of creepy for Edward to be dating someone who’s 1/5th his age.
12. She's Super Attracted To Edward's Angst
The trope of the Byronic hero is nothing new, but Twilight as certainly renewed the popularity of the archetype. Tall, dark, and mysterious, Edward is a tormented soul with an extra pinch of dangerous bad-boy vibes thrown in for good measure. His air of enigma has captured the hearts of fans all around the world, but perhaps nobody is as infatuated as Bella.
It’s almost as though the more depressed he is, the more attractive he is to her. Her love for tragic figures doesn’t come out of nowhere, though. Bella has a taste for tragedy, quoting classics like Romeo and Juliet and Fire and Ice throughout her journey to eternal love.
11. Watching Her Sleep Is Romantic
Most people like a bit of privacy when they sleep and don’t appreciate unsolicited attention. After all, it’s a vulnerable position to be in. However, Edward sneaks into Bella’s room several times to watch her sleep, and even realizes that he’s in love with her when she says his name.
It’s presented as something of a romantic gesture in the books and movies, but it’s actually creepy.
Bella doesn’t seem to mind, though. When he confesses that he’d been watching her sleep, she’s mostly horrified by him hearing her sleep-talk, and not upset that a virtual stranger had been breaking into her room to stare at her as she slept without her permission.
