Every Twilight Vampire’s Powers Ranked From Useless to Best: The Cullen Edition

Stephanie Meyer‘s Twilight Saga is rife with vampires. From Italy to the Amazonian rainforests, the undead immortals exist in pockets of civilization all over the world. Gifted with enhanced strength, speed, and beauty, these creatures are not only alluring predators but ruthless in every way imaginable.

But the only thing that separates each vampire from the next is their individual “gift” or power. Below is a list of all the Cullens, from the oldest (Carlisle) to the newest (Renesmee), ranked according to their powers from useless to best:

9. Rosalie: Enhanced Beauty

For vampires, beauty is a trait that comes with the transformation. It is not just a material bonus but a deadly and crucial aspect of their nature itself. The enhanced beauty and allure of vampires help to enthrall and hypnotize their prey, making the species effective as hunters and killers.

Edward best describes this during his confrontation with Bella in Twilight, when he says:

For Rosalie to be gifted with enhanced beauty in what is already a ubiquitous trait among vampires helps no one. It is neither an offensive skill nor a defensive trait, and the only thing that her beauty tempers in Rosalie Cullen is her baser, crueler nature.

8. Esme: Love and Affection

Esme is the mother hen responsible for keeping the Cullen family together. Her profound ability to love those around her is a rare and exceptional quality for a vampire, but quite useless in a tactical and strategic situation. And yet, those traits alone have helped foster a loving home for the Cullens, providing them with a sense of stability and making her a guiding figure in the family.

We see a reflection of this power (if it can be called that) in Twilight, when Bella comes over to meet the Cullens. Esme not only puts the former at ease with her warm and conversational tone, but also makes their “predator’s den” seem like a welcoming home to Bella.

7. Carlisle: Compassion and Humanity

Carlisle, sire of the entire Cullen coven in Twilight, is the most humane of the lot and is gifted with absolute self-control, compassion, restraint, and morality. Though not a tactically useful power for a vampire, the most predatory creature of all, Carlisle’s gift of compassion and humanity allows him to be the only one who can resist the temptation of human blood.

This allows him to exist freely among other humans without fearing exposure or losing control by going into a blood frenzy. His day job as a doctor is not without its merits, as it helps to dismantle the notion of vampires as ruthless predators. Instead, Carlisle singlehandedly proves that even a creature as cold and undead as himself can still retain their humanity, should they will it so.

6. Emmett: Brute Strength

Even for a vampire, Emmett’s strength is exceptional in that his power exceeds others by several degrees. Emmett can seamlessly take down multiple adversaries in a fight and be quick and effective in combat, all of which proved crucial in turning the tide of the battle in Breaking Dawn: Part II.

When it comes to raw strength, there may not be a vampire in the entire Twilight saga that can overpower him. Though his ability was not flaunted much on-screen, one fleeting scene in Breaking Dawn: Part II proved just how underplayed his abilities are when he beheaded Alec, one of the most powerful Volturi guards, in a single move (as per Alice’s vision).

5. Renesmee: Thought Projection, Shield Penetration

Born to supernaturally gifted parents, Renesmee Cullen is an impossibility and a miracle among vampires, but her powers make her even more special. As Edward and Bella’s child, Renesmee possesses the exact opposite of both her parents’ powers. She can project thoughts, images, and memories onto another person’s mind by touching them, making them relive an event and feel the sorrow, joy, or euphoria embedded in it.

This ability allows her to communicate thoughts, emotions, and feelings in their truest, most unadulterated form, without having to utter a single word. What makes Renesmee’s powers even more incredible is her ability to use them as a newborn, while asleep, or even subconsciously.

Moreover, she can break through another person’s mental shields, even Bella’s supernaturally enhanced one, to imprint a thought or a memory, as seen from her perspective. This can prove effective in de-escalating a misunderstanding, reliving a past moment, or sharing a treasured memory, and makes Renesmee a very intuitively gifted persona. [Twilight Saga Wiki]

In Stephanie Meyer’s saga, it is implied multiple times in Breaking Dawn that Renesmee will grow to become the most powerful and influential of the Cullens, once she has fully matured into adulthood.

4. Edward: Telepathy

Edward Cullen, the role that made Robert Pattinson ubiquitously famous and turned him into a pop culture meme alongside Kristen Stewart, is a telepath in Stephanie Meyer’s saga. His ability allows him to constantly be privy to everyone’s thoughts and innermost secrets without their knowledge or consent.

He can use his power to discern one’s hidden flaws and mental weaknesses, thus making him formidable against an enemy. Beyond telepathy, Edward has also proven to be a highly skilled and efficient tracker. Overall, his powers not only make him effective in battle but also come in handy in day-to-day life, making it a rare combination of gifts and one of the most useful in Twilight.

3. Bella: Shield

Although not as useful as telepathy or quite so effective in day-to-day life, the only reason for Bella’s power to rank so high is due to its superior tactical advantage. She is impervious to every single vampyric influence, be it Edward’s telepathic invasion or Jane’s ability to inflict insurmountable pain.

However, Bella’s powers are not just limited to her. She singlehandedly shielded her entire coven from the Volturi in the battle of Breaking Dawn and helped Alice as she ripped her way through the battlefield trying to get to Jane. She also proved to be ruthless and effective in a fight, being the one to defeat and behead Aro, the leader of the Volturi, and bringing an end to the conflict (as shown in Alice’s vision).

2. Alice: Precognition

In the realm of supernatural abilities, the power of seeing the future is one of the most sought-after gifts. Alice, though possessing the same, has a very limited control over it. She can infer the outcomes of decisions made by other people, and if their decisions change, so do Alice’s visions. When it comes to a spur-of-the-moment deed, her precognitive abilities are of no use beforehand.

In the Twilight saga, Alice’s foresight and vision into the future helped stop countless deaths and meaningless tragedy in the battle of Breaking Dawn 2. Throughout the franchise, her abilities proved to be the tide-turner in life and death situations, as she helped find Bella in Twilight, foresaw Edward’s sacrifice and stopped him in time in New Moon, and tracked down a vampire-human hybrid, Nahuel, to save Renesmee from the Volturi in Breaking Dawn 2 (both film and novel).

1. Jasper: Emotional Manipulation

Jasper’s power – pathokinesis – is the most underrated in the entire Twilight saga. He is not only able to sense and feel the emotions of others but also manipulate them into whatever state he’d like. He can incite a crowd into a battle frenzy or de-escalate wars by mellowing everyone into feeling calm and peaceful.

Even Bella is not immune to Jasper’s abilities, as he is shown to bypass her impenetrable mental shield to influence her mood on more than one occasion.

He can inflict a certain feeling or emotion on someone and control behavior to change the reaction or response of others. He can manipulate someone into feeling either safe or traumatized, loyal or betrayed, calm or afraid, depending on the situation. Jasper’s power helps him to end a conflict without ever using a word or raising a fist. As succinctly put by a Redditor:

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Although there are many older, stronger, and wiser vampires in the Twilight universe, especially some veteran royalty in the Volturi, none match the level of incredulity as Jasper’s ability.

Below is a table of every member of the Cullen household, their powers, partners, age in the saga, and the actor who plays them in the franchise:

Which of the Cullen members is your favorite, in terms of their powers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Twilight films are available to buy/rent on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango At Home.