Badass Ladies of the Twilight Universe: Maria

“They were putting together an army, and going about it more carefully than was usual.  It was Maria’s idea.  She wanted a superior army, so she sought out specific humans who had potential.  Then she gave us much more attention, more training than anyone else had bothered with.  She taught us to fight, and she taught us to be invisible to the humans.” (Eclipse, 295-296)*

In Stephenie Meyer’s mythology, life as a southern vampire is kill or be killed.  In Jasper’s account of his early years warring in the south in Eclipse, he introduces his vampire creator, Maria.  She’s not a major character – she only really exists as Jasper describes her, but I included her because I think that she’s an example of the way that women function in the wider vampire world of the Twilight universe – that is, no differently from men.  As recounted in the quote, Maria took the initiative to improve the way that the super-violent wars for the blood supply were fought.  And, even more badass, she’s mentioned as a possible contact for the fight at the end of Eclipse, which means that nearly 150 years after “recruiting” Jasper, she’s still down south doing her thing. 

*Like a good academic: Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007.