Bree Tanner

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

- Bree to Bella Swan

Bree Tanner was a vampire created by Victoria for the purpose of fighting to kill the Cullen family with 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 members of the Volturi on Jane's orders.

Early life
Bree Tanner lived with her abusive father when she was a human, her mother having left her at a very young age. Bree had enough of her father, so she ran away from home, not thinking about her father's warning of starvation. She either had to steal food or eat out of garbage cans. Three weeks later, she encountered Riley. Marveling at his beauty, Bree accepted the burger Riley had offered to her. It was at this point that Riley brought her to Victoria to be transformed into a vampire.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Three months after she became immortal, Bree went hunting with Kevin, a blonde vampire who called himself "Spider-Man", and an obedient vampire named Diego. Bree and Diego went hunting alone and used the time to get to know each other. When the sun rose, 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 about the world of vampires. Diego proceeded his plan while Bree went back to their group and awaited their return. However, Riley told Bree later that Diego had gone with Victoria to watch the Cullens after he told the army of the plan to destroy the "yellow-eyes". Though Bree was suspicious of their real agenda, 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 most of her army, she found no trace of Diego whatsoever and realized that Victoria and Riley had already killed him for confronting Riley about "burning sun". She surrendered to the Cullens to save herself, which Carlisle and Esme accepted, despite Jasper's fearful protests.

Eclipse


Bree was one of the last of the newborns to be killed. Once Victoria and Riley had been killed and burnt, 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 blood, but managed barely to keep herself under control. The Volturi soon arrived, at which point Jane questioned the group. Jane concluded that Bree was a criminal, despite her ignorance of the laws, 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, and 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 controlled by Jasper before and during the Volturi's presence until she was killed by Felix.

Physical appearance
Bree is described as a young girl of about 15. She is said to be slender with chin-length dark hair, though in the film her hair is much longer. She possesses the glowing, red eyes indicative of a newborn vampire. She has a high-pitched voice and a shrill scream.

Personality and traits
Bree didn't really like being a vampire, although she was used to it. She longed for a normal life. She liked to read books, and would occasionally steal from bookstores at night to keep herself occupied during the day. 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.

Although Bree found it hard to resist her desire for Bella's blood, she demonstrated a great amount of self control, especially for a newborn vampire.

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
Fred was part of the newborn army, and the only one with a gift. Because his gift allowed him to repell 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 meet him in the future.

Film portrayal
In the film of Eclipse,Bree is portrayed by Canadian actress Jodelle Ferland. Jodelle is best known for starring as the main character in Silent Hill in which she portrays the young daughter of a woman who's child goes missing and enters a strange world in order to get her back. She has also appeared in several other films, most notably a movie called Case 69 with Renee Zellwegger. Jodelle has built up an impressive portfolio for herself for starring in such movies.

Ironically, she has already starred in a movie with Kristen Stewart, prior to starring in Eclipse,. This movie is The Messengers, in which Jodelle portrayed a young boy (she wore a boyish wig to portray such a thing) who appeared in the opening scene of the movie. Although she didn't actually share a scene with Kristen, it is worth mentioning so.

In the movie, a couple of elements from The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner were be used to allow the viewers to get a better sense of the back story regarding the destruction and livelihood the newborns had prior to the battle. Stephanie Meyer allowed Director David Slade, Jodelle Ferland and Xavier Samuel to read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner during filming, to allow them to get a better idea of their characters and to allow them to portray them in a better way. After reading this, all copies were burnt.

Prior to appearing in Eclipse, Jodelle 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 trippled; scaling up to 40,000 or more.

Appearances

 * Eclipse (First appearance)
 * Eclipse film
 * The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

Etymology
Bree's name is derived from Irish brígh meaning "power, high". Sometimes Bree is short for Brianna, derived from the male form Brian and meaning "brave and strong". It can also mean "hill", the place where the vampire army fought.

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.