Victoria

"I'm the one with the wicked curve ball."

Victoria was a nomadic vampire member of James' Coven. She was his mate and started a vendetta against Bella Swan in revenge for his death by Edward and the Cullens. To this end, she spearheaded several plots to end Bella's life, including creating a newborn army in Seattle, with the express purpose of killing her and destroying the Olympic Coven. However, at the conclusion of the newborn crisis in Seattle, Victoria's life of violence and malice was ended by Edward Cullen in the battle with the newborn army.

Early life
Victoria was born in London in the 1550s. She worked as a housemaid with her older sister, Anne, but the owner always mistreated them and they had barely enough to live. When she was 12 years old she ran away with Anne and they eventually found new jobs, though they were still mistreated. One night, her sister disappeared and Victoria had to learn to survive on her own, perfecting her evasion of pursuers. A few years later, her sister returned as a vampire and changed her into one as well, and introduced her to her creator, Hilda, as well as two other vampires, Mary and Heidi. A few years later, they were joined by Noela. Victoria lived a happy life with them, until the Volturi came and claimed that they had drawn too much attention from society and executed Hilda for the crime. Heidi was immediately taken in by the Volturi, under the influence of Chelsea's power. The other four vampires tried to escape, but only Victoria survived.

While in London, she became the target of the tracker James, and she tried to avoid him for months until he found her evasion interesting and made her his mate. She became a member of his coven, which was later joined by Laurent.

Twilight
After coming across the Cullens in Twilight, Victoria assisted James, her lover and coven leader, in tracking Bella. When he tricked Bella to going to Phoenix, Edward saved Bella and killed James. Since then, Victoria declared revenge on Edward, and as such, secretly began to plan to kill Bella. Since Edward killed James, she thought it would be fair if she killed Bella, striking out at Edward in the same way he struck out at her.

In the Twilight movie, she, James and Laurent feast on the people in Washington State, including one of Charlie Swan's close friends, Waylon Forge. She is also seen dressed in a prom dress with make-up on, spying on Bella and Edward as they dance to prom music at the end of the movie.

New Moon


Victoria returned to Forks in New Moon in the hopes of killing Bella to get back at Edward for killing James in order to make him feel the pain that she'd felt. She even sent Laurent to check if she was still under the Cullens' protection. However, she failed to attack Bella due to the vigilant protection of Jacob and the other Quileute wolves. While being hunted by the wolves, Victoria jumped into the water for safety. Bella saw what she thought was fire on the water after she went cliff diving, but it was actually the flowing red-orange hair of Victoria, who was forced to retreat into the ocean by the pursuing Jacob and the other Quileute wolves. She has also learned from Laurent about the Cullens' powers and limitations, and began to create her newborn army to kill them.

In the movie, Victoria finds Bella in the water and attempts to make a move on her, but Jacob drags Bella out before she could try.

Eclipse
In Eclipse, Victoria made an army of newborn vampires in Seattle, where she killed over 30 people of all ages, races, and sizes to build her army while evading Alice's vision by hiding in the shadows and letting someone else select a member for her. She sent Riley to get an article of Bella's clothing, her red blouse, to give her scent to the other newborns and get them into action.

Bella managed to figure out her plan and gave Alice a connection to the army and Victoria. Eventually, while her army was fighting with the Cullens and wolves, she and Riley came across Edward, Bella, and Seth. She attempted to escape while Seth battled Riley, drawing away her object of distraction, but Edward taunted her relationship to James, angering her to make her resist her survival instincts. She fought Edward while Riley battled Seth. After Seth killed Riley, Victoria tried to escape again, but Edward caught her and ripped her head off. Victoria and Riley's remains were then burned, and her newborn army was defeated by the other Cullens and shape-shifters.



The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
In the Eclipse novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, it is revealed that she started her army almost one year ago. She inflicted the army with the myths of vampire weaknesses in order to control them better and had Riley select the numbers for her to change while she hid in the shadows. One of the members, Diego, figured out the truth, but she killed him to prevent the rest from finding out. The Volturi came to Victoria and Riley one night and gave her a five-day limit to fulfill her army's purpose, which explains why they made a decision to attack the Cullens when they did.

Physical appearance
"Her orange hair was brighter than I'd remembered, more like a flame. There was no wind here, but the fire around her face seemed to shimmer slightly, as if it were alive."

- Bella on Victoria's hair

Victoria was described as feline or cat-like with long, curly red-orange hair that was usually described as looking like fire. She possessed a terrible beauty and had a soft, high soprano of a voice that contrasted with her fierce looks. She moves at a quick pace with perfect, lethal steps, as of her agility. When Bella heard Victoria speak for the first time in Eclipse, she described her voice as 'belonging to blond curls and pink bubblegum'.

Personality and traits
Victoria is shown to have a mysterious but elegant personality. She could best be described as calculating, however she was frequently bloodthirsty, whether it was when she was dying to kill Bella for her delicious blood on the baseball field in Twilight or when she was stalking Bella for revenge in New Moon and/or Eclipse. She is also marked as one of the most persistent and ruthless characters in the series. Like most archetypal vampires and femme fatales, she is seductively charming and rather vain. As seen in Eclipse, Victoria is shown to be very manipulative and is willing to use others in order to achieve her own goals. Victoria lied to and manipulated Riley in order to get revenge on Bella Swan, though she felt that Riley was nothing more than a pawn to her. In The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, she is also petulant and spoiled.

Powers and abilities
Victoria was a very capable fighter, and Bella describes her as "lethal", since even Edward, who could read her mind and was an equal fighter to Jasper, couldn't finish her immediately. They danced for a thrilling while, woven in a deadly blur. However, her ability was based more on her gift of self-preservation than on fighting skills; according to Stephenie Meyer, "her feet were dragged to safe spots and places".



Self-preservation
"It's what you do, isn't it? It's why James kept you around. Useful, if you like to play deadly games. A partner with an uncanny instinct for escaping."

- Edward taunting Victoria

Victoria's special ability was self-preservation, which is how she was able to escape being killed by the Quileute wolves in New Moon. This ability was carried over because, as a human, she was a servant that was beaten by her masters. She had to learn to hide from her masters for long periods of time. Also, when she ran away by herself, she was excellent at sneaking into houses, stealing food, and sleeping somewhere safe without any person or animal knowing. Edward identified her ability as self-preservation, which was the instinctive need to do what is necessary to stay alive. This ability works by instinctively knowing when her life was in danger, how to evade an enemy's attack and where to run in order to survive. It is however undetermined whether this can be classified as a shield. Because of this ability, she became a prominent threat to Bella and the Cullens, as it was impossible to catch her.

In Eclipse, Edward angered Victoria enough to make her resist her survival instincts, but that brought her to her death when Edward ripped her body apart and burnt the pieces.

Since vampires bring out their strongest sides during their transformation, it can be easily implied that Victoria had a strong survival desire and instinct as a human.

James
Victoria met James on a hunt. He noticed her scent and immediately decided to hunt her down. He kept on her trail for months. Howeer, she kept on evading him when he got close to her. Interested, James decided not to kill her, feeling that, when playing deadly games, it is always good to have a partner that can escape. He did not know that, because he didn't want to hurt her, her gift didn't work as effectively. She eventually met him in a clearing that had a lot of escape routes, just in case. When they met up, he proposed that they team up. She warily accepted and they joined each other.

Victoria quickly began to fall in love with James. She loved his ruthless personality and vicious nature. He, too, liked Victoria. However, he found her as more of an asset than a mate.

Victoria proved to be a vital part of James' coven. In any situation that he was having trouble getting out of, she would help him escape. Also, she was the one that said that they needed more than just the two of them in their coven. That is why they often had more vampires in their coven. However, it was generally just the two of them.

When they got into the Forks area, they immediately picked up the scent of the Cullens. Them meeting at the field was actually James getting tha lay of the land. Victoria wanted to get more vampires. However, James said that Laurent would be enough. She faithfully followed James in the hunt for Bella. She searched for information on Bella's life and told James that Bella's mother lived in Phionix.

When James was killed, Victoria was a wreck. For the first time in centuries, she felt vunerable. Due to this, she created Riley and the other newborns to befend her. However, once she learned about newborn armies, she decided to avende James, even though he probably wouldn't have done the same.&nbsp

Laurent
Laurent was an original member of James's Coven, but when James and Victoria went to hunt down Bella, he told the Cullens that he was sick of James' games. After, he went and lived with the Denali Coven and soon Irina became his mate. Victoria sought him out. She did this for a few reasons. Mainly, she was still furious about him betraying James to the Cullens. She thought that if Edward was still there, he would kill Laurent for talking to Victoria. Or, if Edward wasn't there, she would find out that the Cullens left.

She asked him to go back to Forks to see if Bella was still under the Cullens' protection. He called her once to tell her that the Cullens' house smelt as if it hadn't be entered in a while. As Laurent was passing through Forks in New Moon, he found Bella in Edward's meadow and was about to kill her but was destroyed by Jacob Black and four other werewolves.



Riley Biers
Riley Biers was a newborn that Victoria created to protect her from the Cullens. He seemed strong and smart so she felt that he would be the prefect tool. She lied to him and said that she watched him fo a while and fell in love with him. He immediately returned those affections, though they were real for him.

She left him in charge of the newborns when she created them. She felt that Alice would not know to look for his decisions. This proved useful when she had him steal things with Bella's scent on them to see if they could get past Alice.

She had him train the newborns to fight the Cullens. During the fight, she andRiley went in search of Edward. She caught his scent and thought that he would be anywhere Bella was. This proved correct and the fight began. riley fought Seth while Victoria fought Edward. Edward tried to convince Riley that Victoria didn't love him. However, he believed that Victoria dod love him and fought. He lost the fight to Seth and Edward and cried to Victoria. However, she didn't even glance his way.

Bella Swan
After Bella's mate, Edward, destroyed Victoria's mate, James, Victoria set out to take revenge by killing Bella in order to return the favor. This becomes a major plot line in both New Moon and Eclipse.

In order to succeed, she studied the Cullens' powers and prepared an army of newborn vampires to get past them. Bella described Victoria as wild and chaotic.

Film portrayal
To prepare for her role of Victoria in the Twilight film, Rachelle Lefevre watched lion attacks on YouTube and acted like a cat for a day to get used to acting feline. During her audition, she jumped on a chair and hissed at director Catherine Hardwicke, assuring her of her scary cat abilities. She also wrote a letter to Hardwicke about how she bonded and had a relation to Victoria. As in the novel, Victoria was portrayed as fierce and beautiful, but while in the book she didn't speak, in the movie she had a few lines and at the end during Bella's prom she appeared to be planning a way to get revenge for her mate, James. Lefevre reprised her role as Victoria in New Moon, but was replaced with Bryce Dallas Howard in Eclipse. In the films, Victoria was given the last name "Sutherland".

Appearances

 * Twilight
 * Twilight film
 * New Moon
 * New Moon film
 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse film
 * The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Trivia

 * In the books, Victoria's first appears in Twilight, and first speaks in Eclipse. Again, she does not speak in New Moon.
 * Bella states she was expecting Victoria's voice to be more feline-like, instead of being almost little-girlish.
 * In a deleted scene from New Moon, she is seen in a car talking to a woman about her mate James.