Inability to read Bella’s mind. Back in 2005, Stephenie Meyer shared her unique view of vampires and werewolves in the novel Twilight, the first entry in a series of four books following the romance between vampire Edward Cullen and mortal Bella Swan. The problematic relationship between these characters came across a variety of obstacles, as were a clan of vampires known as the Volturi and a pack of werewolves, among those Bella’s best friend Jacob Black.The Twilight book series was a big hit with readers and quickly built a solid and loyal fanbase, which expanded once the novels were adapted to the big screen. The Twilight Saga was released between 2008 and 2012, and while the movies weren’t well-received by critics, they met their goal of appealing to the fans of the novels and ultimately proved to be entertaining for their target audience. The Twilight movies were as true to the source material as possible, and they didn’t forget about the most important and defining characteristics of the stories, as were the unique powers of each vampire. In Meyer’s universe, each vampire has unique abilities that originate from their more defining skills when they were human, and Edward Cullen’s power was reading minds – except Bella’s.
One of the triggers of the relationship between Edward and Bella was that he wasn’t able to read Bella’s mind, which was extremely weird as she was the only person whose thoughts he couldn’t read. This is revealed after their strange first meeting at biology class, but before that, there was a subtle hint in the movie about Edward not being able to use his power on Bella. During the cafeteria scene, on Bella’s first day at school, the Cullens entered and she asked her new friends who they were. When Edward arrived, Jessica explained how no one was good enough for Edward, and he took a sit with his siblings.
Edward smiled while Jessica talked about him because, even though he wasn’t close enough to their table to listen to the conversation, he could hear her thoughts loud and clear, but once he sat down and noticed Bella’s presence, he realized she was the one person he couldn’t read, which is why he stared at her in confusion, and Alice even looked at him in confusion, too. The facial expressions are subtle but fans will know that’s the moment Edward realized there was something different about Bella Swan. This was confirmed in the novel Midnight Sun, a retelling of Twilight now from Edward’s point of view, where during that exact scene, Edward has an inner conversation about how he “couldn’t hear a whisper” from the new girl. In the final novel and movie, Breaking Dawn (and in the case of the movie, Breaking Dawn – Part 2), it was revealed that Bella’s power was shielding herself and those around her from powers that affect the mind, which is why Edward couldn’t read her thoughts, but she finally let him do so right at the end of the story.
For the casual viewer, Edward’s reaction will seem like he was being rude and didn’t like Bella, as he didn’t even catch his scent at that moment, but it was actually a subtle hint at his powers and how these couldn’t affect Bella. Surely, Twilight and the rest of the movies have a lot of weak points that continue to be mocked and criticized, but it also has some interesting and subtle hints and moments of foreshadowing.
