Bree Tanner

"How can you stand it? I want her."

- Bree on Bella Swan

Bree Tanner was a newborn vampire created by Victoria in order to fight the Cullen family in her army of newborn vampires. Despite her ignorance of vampire laws, her act of surrendering and showing adequate control of herself, she was cruelly executed by Felix of the Volturi on Jane's orders.

Early life
Bree was born in Nevada on March 11, 1990, but lived in Idaho for most of her life. Bree believed that her mother had left her abusive father when Bree was four; in truth, Bree's father murdered her mother. He buried the body in the desert, then packed up and moved to Idaho with his young daughter. Becuase of the abuse, Bree felt isolated from her peers. She was a quiet, withdrawn girl. No one ever noticed the signs of her abusive home life, despite some physical evidence. Finally, Bree ran away from home a few weeks before her sixteenth birthday. She had enough money for a bus ride to Seattle, but nothing more than that. She tried unsuccessfully to get a job, and began stealing in order to eat. She slept in parks and alleys - any place where she felt a little bit safe. Her biggest fear was that the police would catch her and send her home to her father. She'd been on the run for less than three weeks when Riley found her behind a restaraunt, picking through the trash bins.

Unbeknownst to her, her mother's bones were found by the police, and when they did not find Bree, they were led to believe that she had met the same fate and arrested her father for both murders.



The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
On June 5, 2010, Meyer released The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner which tells Bree's story of her final moments of being a vampire. The book picks up a couple of days before her appearance in Eclipse. A couple of weeks after the book came out, it was named the best-selling book of 2010.

One night, after three months of becoming immortal, Bree went hunting with Kevin, a blond vampire who called himself "Spider-Man" (whose real name was Casey), and a disciplined vampire named Diego. When Kevin and "Spider-Man" started squabbling over a human, Bree and Diego went hunting on their own and used the time to get to know each other. When the sun arose, Diego and Bree hid in an underwater cave. They later discovered that vampires weren't vulnerable to sunlight, but rather sparkle like diamonds. When their army left Seattle without leaving a clue, Bree and Diego set off to find them on their own until they finally caught their scent and followed it to their new location.

While Riley went to visit Victoria, Bree and Diego followed him to tell him of their discovery, only to find out more than they've expected to about the world of vampires when the Volturi approached Riley and Victoria. Diego proceeded with his plan while Bree went back to their group and awaited their return. However, Riley later told Bree that Diego had gone with Victoria to watch the Cullens after he informed the army of the plan to destroy the "yellow-eyes". He seemed hard and cold to Bree. That was why Bree was suspicious of their real agenda, but she decided to stick with them. When the army prepared for war, her new friend, Fred, decided to leave and explore the world, and asked Bree to join him. Although she wanted to, she decided to stay until she found Diego.

When the Cullens and werewolves destroyed her army, she found no trace of Diego and realized that Victoria and Riley had already killed him for confronting Riley about the "burning sun". Carlisle and Esme Cullen offered her safety in exchange for her surrender, which she accepted. When Jasper Hale saw her, he instinctively crouched to kill her, but Carlisle stopped him and explained that Bree had surrendered. Jasper disapproved, but was convinced by Esme to leave her alone. He agreed not kill Bree if they let him watch her, since he knew how newborns act

Eclipse
"What did you do to me? I'm so..." "Yeah, I know. We'll find you someone to drink. Just try not to get killed, will ya?"

- Riley and Bree

Bree was the last of the newborns to be killed. Once Victoria and Riley were killed, Edward and Bella made their way over to the rest of the Cullens, where they stood by Bree. She found it very hard to resist Bella's attractive blood, but managed barely to keep herself under control. The Volturi soon arrived, at which point Jane questioned the group. While acting ignorant to everything they discussed, Bree provided secret information to Edward of everything she knew. Jane concluded Bree as a criminal, despite her ignorance of the laws and the Cullens' willingness to take responsibility for her, and ordered her to be killed after torturing her with her power. She made no resistance, and was destroyed by Felix.

Carlisle was deeply saddened about what happened, as he would have welcomed her to his coven, and expressed that invitation to both Bree and the Volturi, to try and keep Bree alive. As explained in The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner, she was watched by Jasper before and during the Volturi's presence until she was killed by Felix. Knowing that the Cullens were kind, she was grateful to their protection over her, despite she was their enemy.

Bella later wondered if she would become like her as a newborn, to which Alice replies, "something like that".

In the film, her experiences were very different. She was changed before Bella's graduation, and went along with the army's plans to feel safe. During the battle scene, she was mostly hiding behind a tree, watching her army get slaughtered in horror until Carlisle and Esme Cullen found her. She screamed and tried to resist Felix but still met her fate by his hands.

Physical appearance
"The girl was curled into a small ball beside the flames, her arms wrapped around her legs. She was very young. Younger than me - she looked maybe fifteen, dark-haired and slight. Her eyes were focused on me, and her irises were a shocking brilliant red. Much brighter than Riley's, almost glowing. They wheeled wildly, out of control."

- Bella Swan on seeing Bree for the first time

Bree was described as a young girl of about 15, though she was really 16 when she turned. She was said to be slender with chin-length dark hair, though in the film her hair extended to her waist. She possessed the glowing, red eyes indicative and marble-hard skin of a newborn vampire that glittered under sunlight. She also has a high-pitched voice and a shrill scream, demonstrated from when she was being tortured by Jane.

Personality and traits
Bree didn't really like being a vampire, although she was used to it. She longed for a normal life. She had a hobby of reading, and would pretend to read when she was bored. She would occasionally steal from bookstores at night to keep herself occupied during the day. Like the others in her army, she believed in vampire legends and, at first, was afraid of stakes and the sun. When she discovered these couldn't harm her, she was relieved. Although she was allied with Victoria and her army, she was merely playing along to ensure her own safety, because no one had ever told her about the laws of vampires.

Bree had shown some amount of maturity even for a newborn; although she found it hard to resist the scent of Bella's blood, she demonstrated a great amount of self control, especially for a newborn vampire. She was able to see through Riley's empty promises and was always careful not to draw unwanted attention to herself.

When Felix was about to destroy her, she showed no fear to her upcoming death (only because she already wanted to die because of Diego's death) and deeply appreciated that the Cullens tried to protect her and used her thoughts to tell Edward everything she knew before she died.

Diego
"Diego grinned at me, his face beautiful with light, and suddenly, with a deep lurch in my stomach, I realized that the whole BFF thing was way off the mark. It was just that fast....But even though Diego looked like his normal self again -not made of blazing light anyway- I knew he would never look the same to me. That tingly sensation in the pit of my stomach was still there. I had a feeling it would be there permanently."

- Bree on Diego about having fallen in love with him.

Diego was part of the Seattle newborn army. He was Bree's only vampire friend and proved to her that vampires did not die in sunlight. He and Bree spent time together one night when they were out hunting when he showed her undue kindness by letting her drink the blood of a girl he had knocked out. After spending time together in a cave to escape the sunlight, the two of them became good friends. Bree fell in love with him after seeing him sparkle in the sunlight. Diego and Bree found out that they were not being told the truth by Riley and that they were just pawns in Victoria's vampire army. Diego confronted Riley about being able to survive sunlight and Riley killed him to ensure he wouldn't tell the other newborns.

Fred
"I guess Fred can sort of repel people on purpose. It's all in our heads, though. He makes us repulsed at the thought of being near him."

- Diego to Bree on Fred

Fred was part of the newborn army, and one of the only two with a gift. Because his gift allowed him to repel vampires who wanted to pick a fight with him, Bree was constantly hiding in his shadows to stay out of trouble. About six days before the army moved out to attack the Cullens, a vampire approached Diego and Bree to pick a fight, and Fred inflicted him and his group with his power to save her. About one day before they fought the Cullens, Fred and Bree started forming a friendship together. Having realized that they were not being told the truth, Fred wanted to explore the vampire world on his own, and asked Bree to come with him. Though she agreed, she told him she needed to go with the group to find Diego. Fred agreed to wait for them in Riley Park, Vancouver, but he would wait no longer than one day, at which point he would leave Bree behind. Right before the Volturi killed her, she telepathically asked Edward to be nice to him if they ever were to cross paths in the future.

Etymology
Bree is an Irish name meaning "power". It can also be a feminine form of Brianna, derived from Brian, meaning "hill" and "high, noble".

Film portrayal
In the film of Eclipse, Bree is portrayed by Canadian actress Jodelle Ferland. Ferland is best known for starring as the main character in Silent Hill in which she portrays the missing young daughter of a woman who enters a strange world in order to get her back. She has also appeared in several other films, most notably Case 39 with Renee Zellweger.

Prior to Eclipse, Ferland and Kristen Stewart starred together in The Messengers, in which Ferland portrayed a young boy (thanks to a wig) who appeared in the opening scene of the movie.

Stephenie Meyer allowed Director David Slade, Jodelle Ferland and Xavier Samuel to read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner during filming of Eclipse, to allow them to get a better idea of their characters and to portray them in a better way. After reading them, the copies were burned.

Prior to appearing in Eclipse, Ferland had mentioned she didn't have a lot of followers on Twitter. Once it was announced she would be starring as Bree, she noted that her number of followers had tripled to 40,000 or more.

Appearances

 * Eclipse
 * Eclipse film
 * The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner