The vampires in the the Volturi.
The 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 its 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 kept 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, sensibility 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 heightened after the transformation, which in some cases becomes a supernatural power. For example, 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. Some viewers have pointed out that in the opening of New Moon, during Bella’s dream where she grows old next to Edward, he doesn’t have a reflection in the mirror, but that might just be a way of the director to show that this is nothing more than a dream and further symbolizing that he will never grow old.
The Eyes of Twilight Vampires Change Colors
A simple way in which humans can know if another person is a vampire in the Twilight world is by paying attention to their eye color, yet not many seem to notice that they have a particular color that changes constantly. While vampires in other media often get a different eye color once they are transformed into these blood-sucking creatures, Meyer decided to give her vampires different eye colors, each representing something different: black eyes mean that the vampire needs to feed (and the more they wait to do so, the darker their eyes turn), red eyes are for those who drink human blood or if they are “newborn” vampires (as there’s still human blood in them), and golden eyes are for the vampires who chose not to drink human blood and instead only eat animal blood, calling themselves “vegetarians”.
Twilight Vampires Are Hard To Kill
Traditionally, vampires can be killed either by exposing them to sunlight, garlic, holy water, or by stabbing them through the heart – but not the vampires in Twilight. why Edward could sneak into Bella’s bedroom to watch her sleep.
Twilight Vampires Can’t Transform Into Bats & Other Animals
In some cases, particularly that of Dracula, vampires can transform into bats (or other animals), but in Twilight that never happens. The only shapeshifters in the Twilight universe are the Quileute pack who can transform into wolves (though they aren’t exactly werewolves), but the vampires keep a human form at all times. While this is not a general characteristic of vampires, it’s a very popular one used in many movies and TV shows, but in the Twilight universe, things work very differently. Although there are no strict rules on what vampires should be like, Stephenie Meyer’s decisions were too much for many and not in a good way, as the sparkly vampires continue to be mocked, but if anything, at least they made way for a lot of debate on vampires and what makes a blood-sucking character a vampire.
