Unless you were living under a bridge ten years ago, without a cell phone or internet access, then maybe, just maybe, you were unaware of the international success of the book series about vampires and shape-shifters called Twilight. The books actually began coming out in 2005, with one book being released each year until 2008, which was the same year the film series began.

Even through Stephenie Meyer only wrote four books, there was five films. Twilight (2008,) New Moon (2009,) Eclipse (2010,) Breaking Dawn - Part One (2011,) and Breaking Dawn - Part Two (2012) combined for a box office total of $1.4 billion, making it the 16th highest grossing franchise of all time.

Its popularity continues to sparkle even today as the franchise has created an entire world of fan fiction and comic books starring their favorite Twilight characters. Any film series that has this kind of cult-like following is going to have fans that are very dedicated to the story and that kind of passion created the infamous Team Edward or Team Jacob debate.

That makes ranking the characters a very tough job for anyone, let alone us. So instead of creating a ranking system of random characters, we decided to stick to only the major characters, the ones that are not just the main cast, but are also important to the storyline of the entire series, and ranked them according to who is the most powerful.

Charlie Swan (Human)

Even without sharing any of the vampire, or shape-shifter, abilities, Charlie Swan comes in on our list of major characters because he is one of the most important ones in the franchise. But since he is only a human, he is the weakest, by far.

Charlie, as you already know, is the father of Bella Swan, the main character from the franchise, and is also a cop that has no clue his daughter is friends with, and married to, vampires. He is often left in the dark about the things Bella is doing but tries to do what is best for her since he is divorced from her mother and is left to raise her on his own the best way he can.

Rosalie Hale (Vampire)

Of all the Cullens, Rosalie Hale just so happens to be one of the most basic vampires of them all. Since she is a vampire, she does manage to possess all the basic abilities that a vampire has like immortality, incredible speed and quickness, impressive strength, and self-control.

One of the things she does have that a lot of other vampires do not is her beauty. Before she turned, Rosalie was already one of the most beautiful women in the world. So when she became a vampire, it enhanced that beauty and created someone who was so gorgeous, people took notice.

Carlisle Cullen (Vampire)

One of the most underrated powers that a vampire can possess is intelligence. They can use it to turn themselves into a finely tuned machine that excels in many different aspects of life. For Carlisle Cullen, he chose to become a doctor, after he turned into a vampire, and has spent centuries learning medicine and perfecting his talents.

However, his intelligence is not quite enough to put him higher on the list of Twilight characters. He might be able to develop special abilities if he decided to do so because of his higher level of intelligence than most other vampires but that can take some time, maybe even centuries to develop into anything that could move him up the list.

Esme Cullen (Vampire)

Esme Cullen is the wife of Carlisle and adopted mother of the rest of the Cullens. She is a vampire but she does not truly possess any kind of special ability, officially.

Unofficially, Esme has the ability to love those around her, and show compassion at a very high level. It is why she has become the mother of the family. Her loving nature has prevented her from becoming a very strong fighter, or an even more powerful vampire. Even knowing this, Esme has still shown the ability to hold her own in a fight, especially in Breaking Dawn: Part 2.

Emmett Cullen (Vampire)

The supernatural talents of the vampires in the Twilight movie franchise range from telepathy to inducing the illusion of pain. But since not all vampires end up with a special power, they can find themselves with an enhanced basic ability that tracks back to when they were still human.

For Emmett Cullen, he was a physical specimen as a human being and was already a very strong person before turning into a vampire. So when he became one, that physical strength was enhanced to become a big part of who he is. Although he is not the best fighter, his power, and physical strength, makes him one of the strongest vampires alive.

Jasper Hale (Vampire)

When you first look at the Cullen family, Jasper would not be the top pick for best fighter, but he is and has shown off that ability a few times throughout the series. That skillset comes from his days as a human, when he was in the military and was trained to fight on the front lines. Not only does he have power, he is a fast and smart fighter, making him one of the toughest fighters in the film series.

But he also possesses a special ability known as pathokinesis. This skill allows him to sense and change the moods of other vampires, even Bella, making him one of the very few vampires that can penetrate her mental shield. His power is such that he has to control it or he could abuse it and turn it into a power he uses for evil.

Alice Cullen (Vampire)

One of the most popular Twilight characters in the film saga, besides Edward, Jacob, or Bella, is Alice Cullen, the beautiful vampire that was able to protect the Cullen’s, specifically Renesmee’s life when she was being hunted by the Volturi, using her special gift of seeing into the future.

The subjective precognition ability allows Alice to be able to follow a person’s decision into the future and see the outcome. She would be the most powerful vampire but it has limitations and if a person changes their mind, the future she saw no longer will happen.

James (Vampire)

When it comes to major characters in the Twilight series, James is the one that has the ability to track better than just about every other vampire in the world. It was even mentioned in the movies about how lethal his senses are compared to other vampires. But it is his tracking ability that puts him high atop our list.

He is not the greatest tracker in all of the world, but he is the second best, behind a Volturi guard named Demetri. James is limited to distance when tracking someone while Demetri can track anyone from any location on the planet. He was a skilled outdoorsman before turning into a vampire and it helped him to become this powerful character.

Victoria (Vampire)

Not every special power is about reading minds or physical contact. Victoria has a very special ability of enhanced self-preservation and can hide from other vampires to avoid very dangerous situations that could arise.

This power is all about surviving. When she senses danger, she has the ability to protect herself by quickly figuring out where to go to evade her enemy’s and get away. Since she was determined to destroy the Cullens and expose Bella, she was the biggest threat to Bella because she was almost impossible to find.

Edward Cullen (Vampire)

Telepathy is a formidable gift to possess because it allows a vampire the ability to know exactly what everyone is thinking and to be ready for anything that could happen. When Bella asks him about his gift, he tells her, “I can read every mind in this room. Apart from yours.”

His ability gets stronger the more he knows a person so he can read their minds as they get further away from him than anyone else. He uses it to keep people who are attracted to him in order to remain anonymous and continue being a vampire without anyone noticing his skin sparkling. (Sorry, we just had to bring up the sparkling skin effect.)

Jane (Volturi)

One of the worst things that can happen to a vampire is to be burnt to a crisp from direct sunlight. It does not take very long to eliminate a vampire using sunlight and it is known to be one of the most painful ends  they can endure.

Jane, one of the highest ranking members of the Volturi guard, has a gift that makes her the most feared vampires alive. She has the ability to induce pain on another person, even a vampire. Although she cannot actually physically do much against another vampire, she does not have to. She can make the victim feel crippling pain that incapacitates them while other vampires can take care of business.

The power isn’t the strongest but when you consider how feared she is amongst the vampires, it makes that ability more powerful than almost all the rest.

Alec (Volturi)

Alec is a Volturi guard member and is the twin brother of another guard, Jane, who helps his ability grow even stronger when used together. Jane has the power of inducing the illusion of pain on someone while he has the ability to numb the senses and paralyze multiple people at one time, allowing the Volturi a chance to take them out with ease.

His talents are considered stronger than Jane’s because he can basically pause several people at once, making them an easy target for anyone else nearby. Aro takes full advantage of his gifts throughout the entire film series.

Aro (Volturi)

Considered the overall leader of the most powerful coven of vampires known as the Volturi, Aro has the ability to read someone’s mind with nothing more than physical contact. He normally removes his gloves and touches the person he wants to read so the amount of physical contact is as easy as a touch.

His power is far greater than Edward’s because it can penetrate the mind much further than he can. He can see a person’s feelings and memories from someone’s entire life, from the day they were born, if need be. His ability lets him read a person’s mind like you would use Google Maps. He finds what he wants and goes as far as he can to find out everything about that memory.

Bella Swan (Vampire)

As you have already read about, not all vampires possess a special ability. They all have the same basic powers like super speed, immortality, enhanced senses, amazing strength, and unnatural healing. Then there are the ones that also have that one special ability that turns them into a special type of vampire.

Bella Swan has a mental shield that is known to be the most powerful special ability known to vampires. It can block any psychic powers that try to enter your mind. In other words, she can use her mental shield to protect others while they use their special powers, making her very dangerous.

Jacob (Shape-Shifter)

Even though we are nearly 12 years since the first film came out, there is still an ongoing debate in the Twilight series. The argument over who would win in a fight between Jacob, the shape-shifter, and Edward, a vampire who eventually marries Bella and is the father of Renessee.

The debate is much bigger than who would win in a fight between these two men. It is more about vampires versus shape-shifters. In the world of fictional stories, werewolves are more powerful than vampires, and always have been. But in the Twilight series, they are not.

Jacob is the exception and has more abilities, and powers, than almost all the other shape-shifters in his pack.

Renesmee Cullen (Half-Vampire)

Although the films did not cover the full extent of Renesmee Cullen’s powers, it did showcase her ability to penetrate Bella’s mental shield by touching her and being able to communicate with her using her mind. Does that make her the most powerful? No, not at all. But it does help.

The best reason we think that would help secure her spot on the top of our list is that she was born from two vampires, Edward and Bella, who have very strong abilities themselves. She is also a rare breed of half-vampire and half-human.

She also has Jacob, who imprinted on her at birth, to protect her for the rest of her life. Which is not her own power, but having our second strongest character around her, protecting her all the time, certainly helps.