Week 2: Vampires

To be honest I never really joined in one the Twilight saga hype when it originally happened, but my roommate happened to have a physical copy of the book which I chose to read for this week's Vampire theme. Now off the bat we're introduced to Bella who is overall a very plain character. Seeing as this series was catered highly to a female audience she's clearly characterized as such for a generalized reader to insert themselves into her role. Enter stage left, Edward Cullen, the mysterious loner boy whom raises suspicion in Bella by very obviously trying to avoid her at all costs. Curiosity and persistence lead to one thing and another in which we are dropped hints as to Edwards true nature as a vampire. We're told the lore of this specific world in where vampires have powers in superhuman speed, strength, senses, and special abilities specific to individual characters. My curiosity was peaked by what cause these specific powers to come into fruition. What determined what special ability you got if you turned into a vampire? Digging a little further into the lore and later books it's the human's strongest trait before transformation that factors into the power as well as genetics and repressed emotions. Even then it's rare for vampires to even have a special ability apparently. Seeing as the majority of vampires introduced to the reader are shown to have special abilities signifies that each one has a very specific reasoning for that individual power. Now this is something I can appreciate from the author, the thought put into the backstory of each character. I find these character developments interesting since Meyer had to build the vampire lore to cater her individual world. From this I also understand the hype that came with the series when it came to the whole "Team Vampires" or "Team Werewolves" seeing as the majority of people I met on Team Vampire had already chosen to imagine what their special ability would be in trying to further immerse themselves in the world of Twilight.