Skip to main content

magic - Do most vampires have powers?


In the Twilight universe, some vampires gain no powers when they turn (you know, except for diamond-hard skin, strength enough to lift a car, regeneration, and being able to run at 100 miles per hour).


On the other hand, some gain additional powers. Edward can read minds. Alice can see the future. Chelsea can manipulate people's emotional bonds.


This is because the nature of vampification is to enhance the qualities that someone already has. Those humans with latent powers get full-fledged powers when they turn, whereas humans without such powers simply gain enhanced personality traits.


How common are vampires with special powers? Clearly most of Carlisle's coven has such abilities, as do many of the Volturi, but is this the norm, or are powers more rare among vampirekind as a whole?



Answer



No


Our best estimate of how common vampire powers are comes from Eclipse. In this book, Victoria, an enemy of the Cullen coven, creates an army of newborn vampires to take on the Cullens and werewolves. The vampires present elsewhere in the book are simply too skewed to provide an accurate representation of frequency. Carlisle seems to have an affinity for vampires with powers, for example, and specifically gathers some near the end of Breaking Dawn.


The army of newborns had about 22 members at the end:




“You’ve done so well,” our creator cooed, and there was another kiss. “Twenty-two!”


“Is it time?” Riley asked eagerly.


Her answer came back fast, like a slap. “No! I haven’t decided when.”


“I don’t understand.”


“You don’t need to. It’s enough for you to know that our enemies have great powers. We cannot be too careful.” Her voice softened, turned sugary again. “But all twenty-two still alive. Even with what they are capable of… what good will it be against twenty-two?” She let out a tinkling little laugh.


—The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner



Of those vampires, only two, Raoul and Fred, had special abilities. So our best estimate of the percentage of vampires with special abilities is about 9%.


Of course, the percentage of vampires with special powers seen in the plot is significantly higher, for the reasons previously mentioned.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more