Alice Cullen
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Alice Cullen, Mary Alice Brandon (birthname), Alice Brandon |
| Occupation: | Perpetual student |
| Relationships: | Mr. & Mrs. Brandon (parents), Mrs. Brandon (stepmother), Cynthia Brandon (sister), Jasper Hale (husband), Carlisle Cullen (adoptive father), Esme Cullen (adoptive mother), Emmett Cullen (adoptive brother), Rosalie Hale (adoptive sister), Edward Cullen (adoptive brother), Bella Swan (sister-in-law), Renesmee Cullen (niece), unnamed niece via Cynthia |
| Fandom: | Twilight |
| Other: | Played by Ashley Greene Alice Cullen Painting by x-emerlilly-x (2012) |
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Alice Cullen, previously Mary Alice Brandon as a human, is one of the main vampire characters in the Twilight saga. She is the adoptive sister of Edward Cullen. Alice is described as graceful, petite and pixie-like, with short, black, spiky hair. Her special ability is to see the future, which is an enhanced version of her psychic abilities as a human. Her partner is Jasper Hale, whom she brought into the Cullen fold with her.
Canon
Alice (and through her, Jasper) is the only member of the Cullen family not directly adopted or "saved" by Carlisle Cullen. After she turned into a vampire, her first vision was of her future mate Jasper Whitlock and of the Cullen coven. She began her "vegeterian vampire" diet on her own and by the time she met Jasper in 1948, her self-control was comparable to the other Cullens.[1] In 1950, she and Jasper found and joined the Cullens. For the sake of the 'human' ruse, Alice adopted Cullen for her surname while Jasper took Rosalie's last name.[1] This supposedly implies to humans that she is Edward and Emmett's biological sister, while Jasper and Rosalie are biological siblings.
Alice's superpower or special ability is the ability to see the future through vivid visions, during which she becomes paralyzed (it is only a momentary thing). However, her power is limited in that she sees only the finite (but not fixed) future, after a decision had been made or changed. She cannot predict futures by choice. Due to this, decisions made in the spur of the moment cannot be foreseen. It is also limited by "species", as she can see visions and futures involving humans and vampires, but not werewolves or half-breeds. She gets migraines around Renesmee, her niece, because her half-vampirism causes havoc with Alice's psychic ability and she often uses Jacob Black as a painkiller as werewolves act as a silencer for her ability. Her theory about this, as explained in Breaking Dawn, is that she can only see futures of species she herself has been. Hence, her visions of human futures are foggy while visions of vampire futures are crystal clear.
Alice's favourite sibling is Edward Cullen and she is Bella Swan's best friend. She enjoys playing "Newcomb's paradox-chess" with her telepathic brother Edward.
Human origins
Mary Alice was born into a middle-class family in 1901 in Biloxi, Mississippi, and had a younger sister named Cynthia. Her father was a jeweler and pearl trader while her mother was a housewife. Because she had a psychic ability as a human, she had premonitions as a child. She was heralded as a "witch" and "changeling" by townsfolk after she predicted accidents accurately. She saw her mother's murder in a vision and tried to warn her in vain. After her father remarried, she suspected that her stepmother was the murderer. In a vision, she saw that her father and stepmother had collaborated on her mother's murder, and were planning to kill her as well. Though she tried to seek help from relatives and the town marshal, she was turned away and her father caught her and told the town that she had gone mad.
In 1920, her father had her committed to a mental asylum, where she was eventually turned by an old unnamed vampire who worked at the asylum, to protect her from the tracker vampire James. It was implied that the vampire would feed on Mary Alice, as the tracker James called her the "little victim". However, the vampire saved Alice by turning her and sacrificed himself in fighting James to protect her.
"You see, the vampire who was so stupidly fond of this little victim made the choice that your Edward was too weak to make. When the old one knew I was after his little friend, he stole her from the asylum where he worked — I never will understand the obsession some vampires seem to form with you humans — and as soon as he freed her he made her safe. She didn't even seem to notice the pain, poor little creature. She'd been stuck in that black hole of a cell for so long. A hundred years earlier and she would have been burned at the stake for her visions. In the nineteen-twenties it was the asylum and the shock treatments. When she opened her eyes, strong with her fresh youth, it was like she'd never seen the sun before. The old vampire made her a strong new vampire, and there was no reason for me to touch her then." He sighed. "I destroyed the old one in vengeance." — Chapter 22: Hide and Seek, Twilight.
The date on her tombstone matches the date of her admission to the asylum. Alice's human memories are near nonexistent because of the persistent electroshock therapy she underwent in the asylum. It caused her to forget her mother and the rest of her biological family. She re-discovered them through research, as a vampire.She discovered that her younger sister Cynthia's daughter, Alice's biological niece, is still alive in Biloxi. She makes the decision to stay out of her life to keep her safe and to avoid explaining her vampirism.[1]
Fandom
Alice is a fan-favourite character, among readers and viewers alike.
Shipping
- Alice/Jasper is her canon pairing and is rather popular, with fans liking the history and the dynamic they have and even wishing they could have their own story instead of being in the background of Bella and Edward.
- Alice/Bella is also a common ship.
- Alice/Edward
- Alice/Jacob
Common Tropes & Fanon
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfic
Fanart
Vids
Fannish Links
- Alice Cullen works at AO3
- Alice works at FFN
Resources
- Alice Cullen page on the Twilight Wiki