Badass Ladies of the Twilight Universe: Victoria

“‘Yes,’ he assured me.  ‘I’ll be very quick.  You won’t feel a thing, I promise.  Oh, I’ll lie to Victoria about that later, naturally, just to placate her.  But if you knew what she had planned for you, Bella…’ He shook his head with a slow movement, almost as if in disgust.  ‘I swear you’d be thanking me for this.’” (New Moon, 241)*

The Twilight trailers have been pushing James as the big bad villain of the story, but fans know that the threat he poses is totally dwarfed by that of his mate.  James is around for a few chapters and then he's dead – Victoria stalks Bella for half the saga.  She is frighteningly impressive in her quest for vengeance, though little-seen, ramping up from eating unsuspecting campers in the woods around Forks to her last stand, when she utilizes an army of bloodthirsty newborn vampires as a diversionary tactic.  It almost seems sometimes that she's just letting the Cullens and the wolves know that she's still around, right outside of their reaches, just to keep the anxiety level high.  Though she’s ultimately thwarted in her attempts to kill Bella, as mindreading trumps strategy in her fight with Edward, she gets pretty damn close.  One of the things I’m excited about for the movie is that the increased focus on the nomads means that Victoria should be more present as a character - as Bella notes, the fight at the end of Eclipse is the first time that we hear Victoria speak.  Rachelle LeFevre did an awesome job on Swingtown as Melinda the assertive lady stockbroker/homewrecker, and I have high hopes for her turn as the villainess who terrorizes Forks in New Moon and Eclipse. 

*Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.