Even as a vampire, Edward Cullen carried 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.
Despite Edward’s physical strengths as a supernatural creature, he still had many humane fears that added to and even defined his character. While many of them were tame and Bella-centric, others were a bit more intense, validated, and menacing than the others.
10 Being Exposed As A Vampire
Given his unorthodox 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.
Exposure would not only mean immediate consequences, such as attacks or town-spread chaos, but it would also force all the Cullens to have to relocate and try to hide elsewhere. But despite its validity, Edward’s powers and his supernatural charm give him an advantage when it comes to calming this easily dismissed fear.
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.
He constantly worries that he is destroying Bella’s future. Apart from simply harming her or her soul, Edward is overwhelmed by the terror of Bella not reaching her full potential because of him. However, this fear is fueled more so by his insecurities and low view of vampires (which Bella opposes), making it less scary than other actual threats.
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.
From keeping his initial distance to leaving her in New Moon, so many of Edward’s defining actions are driven by his fear of him somehow jeopardizing her fragile safety. However, like most of his other Bella-focused fears, this one is driven more by his intense feelings for Bella rather than being truly scary.
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 greatly fears that she choose wrong.
This fear is more validated than some others and shows a more vulnerable, humane side to Edward, amplifying its scariness with how relatable and painful these thoughts are.
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.
While this fear of his has scariness attached to it due to its severity and how greatly it motivates his actions, it mostly displays an affectionate sensitivity and is a reflection of his old-school values. Plus, it is one he eventually manages to overcome due to Bella almost dying during childbirth.
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 terrified 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 substantial 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.
