Stephanie Meyer clears the air on one ridiculous speculation regarding Bella and Edward’s first meeting in the Twilight series.

Bella and Edward’s first meeting in Twilight has been a hot topic of discussion among fans for years. Not only because of the significance it has on the story but also because of the reaction Edward had on their first meeting.

Bella and Edward in Twilight | Credits: Summit Entertainment

Fans are aware that Bella’s blood seems particularly enticing to the vampire for a specific reason. Stephanie Meyer properly elaborated the whole thing in her book Midnight Sun through a monologue of Edward.

Moreover, she also debunked a myth many Twilight fans had held for years at the same time. That is, Edward’s visceral reaction to meeting Bella for the first time was due to her being on her period.

Fans were wrong about Edward’s visceral reaction to Bella being due to her being on her period in Twilight

Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight revolves around the story of high schoolers Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen’s romance. The twist, however, is that whereas Kristen Stewart’s Isabella is a regular 17-year-old girl, Robert Pattinson’s Edward is a 109-year-old vampire, whose main food source is, you guessed it, blood.

Robert Pattinson looking disgusted during his first meeting with Kristen Stewart in Twilight | Credits: Summit Entertainment

Their budding romance is further impacted by the fact that Bella’s blood has an unprecedented effect on Pattinson’s character that threatens to break his almost century-long resolve of not hunting humans anymore.

This fact is further cemented by the reaction he has to Bella, or rather her smell, on their first meeting. Like most high schoolers, they met in class.

However, unlike others, their first meet-cute resulted in Edward fighting for his life, not to kill the protagonist. The reaction was strong enough to make it seem like he was utterly disgusted by Isabella the first time they met.

As such, many fans inferred it to mean that Stewart’s character must be on her period at the time. This must have made the scent of her blood stronger to garner such a visceral reaction from the otherwise unflappable Edward.

In fact, this has been an established myth in the Twilight fandom for the longest time. It turns out, though, that they couldn’t be more wrong about it. In fact, this myth had been debunked by the author herself a long time ago.

Fans would remember in Midnight Sun, which is a retelling of the Twilight saga through Edward’s perspective, he noted,

They have a name for someone who smells the way Bella does to me. They call her my ‘singer’—because her blood sings for me.

Moreover, this was an occurrence that had previously happened to some other members of the Cullen coven as well. Unfortunately, those incidents didn’t end so well. Only this time, Edward and Bella end up falling in love, which complicates their situation further.

As such, it is clear that the reason he reacted so strongly to the teenager was because he was caught off guard by the force of it out of the blue. Especially since he was not used to experiencing such strong emotions ever since he became a vampire all those years ago.

Stephanie Meyer admitted that Edward and Bella’s first meeting wasn’t tainted by her being on her period

Stephanie Meyer released her book Midnight Sun back in 2020. As such, it has been five years since this theory of Isabella being on her period has been debunked. However, there are some people who still believe it to be true.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the Twilight movies | Credits: Summit Entertainment

This doesn’t really make sense because Stephanie Meyer has admitted various times in interviews (Twilight Lexicon) that a lot of the problems Edward faced were due to his uneasiness in being in the same room with flowing blood. Which was why he opted to bunk the biology class where they had to do blood typing.

A normal vampire can’t handle being in a room with flowing blood. Carlisle is a one-of-a-kind exception to that rule. Edward is better than an average vampire, and he could probably resist a lot of finger pricks, but why risk it, right?

This was also the reason why he never risked drinking a few drops of blood from Isabella now and again, in fear of losing control completely.

She also noted that menstruation did, in fact, increase the temptation for Edward due to the constant smell of blood accompanying Bella.

But [Edward] would never say anything about it–much too much of a gentleman. And Bella would be way too embarrassed to ask.

However, there is absolutely no confirmation from her end that Kristen Stewart’s character was on her period the first time they met. As such, it is nothing but an exercise in futility to go on about this topic.

The Twilight movies are available to stream on Peacock.