The Twilight Saga introduced the audience to various vampires, all of them with unique powers, but out of all of them, who is the most powerful vampire? In 2005, Stephenie Meyer shared her unique vision of a world where vampires, werewolves, and humans coexist in her debut novel Twilight, the first in a series of four novels. The core of the story was the often problematic romance between mortal Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen, but even though there are major flaws and big red flags in their relationship, the Twilight book series was a worldwide phenomenon that led to its big-screen adaptation.
The Twilight Saga was released between 2008 and 2012, with the fourth novel, Breaking Dawn, split into two movies. The movies expanded the books’ already big fanbase but it wasn’t safe from criticism and backlash, and they turned out to be more controversial than the books. The Twilight Saga also highlighted some plot holes and inconsistencies in the stories and raised a lot of questions about Meyer’s version of werewolves (called “shapeshifters” in this universe) and vampires. The Twilight vampires are unlike any others in pop culture and are far from the frightening image the horror genre has given them, as Meyer decided to give them superpowers.
First off, vampires in the Twilight universe share the basic concept of these creatures: they feed on blood, they are immortal, pale, and attractive, but that’s all they have in common. Meyer’s vampires aren’t killed by sunlight, garlic, holy water, nor any of the traditional ways to kill vampires, and instead, they sparkle under the sunlight and can only be killed by decapitation and burning the body. When a human is transformed into a vampire in the Twilight universe, their strongest human trait is heightened to a superpower level, and these traits can go from beauty (as was Rosalie’s case) to reading minds (Edward’s talent) or shielding others from powers that affect the mind (like Bella). These powers are unique to each vampire, and out of all the vampires introduced in the Twilight books and movies, there’s one that stands as the most powerful: Benjamin.
Benjamin (played by Rami Malek) was introduced in Breaking Dawn and is a member of the Egyptian coven. He was created by the coven’s leader, Amun, who chose to transform him into a vampire as he knew he would be extremely gifted. Benjamin’s power is to physically influence the alchemical elements of nature (fire, water, earth, air), and even though these abilities were very impressive, by the time the events of Breaking Dawn took place he didn’t have full mastery over his powers, so he could achieve a lot more. Now, while Benjamin is the most powerful vampire in the Twilight universe, he isn’t the strongest. That spot belongs to Felix, a member of the Volturi clan, who Meyer has confirmed is even stronger than Emmett Cullen. Felix doesn’t have supernatural abilities, so his “powers” are all about physical strength and his fighting abilities.
Unfortunately, Benjamin only appeared briefly in The Twilight Saga and there wasn’t enough time to explore his powers and show what he can do, and this was made worse by the reveal of the big fight at the end of Breaking Dawn being fake. Stephenie Meyer hasn’t fully left the Twilight universe behind, so there’s still even a slight possibility that she could expand on Benjamin’s true power at some point.
