Victoria

Background

Victoria Sutherland was born in London, England in the 1550's. She was the daughter of a wealthy man who had an affair with the scullery maid; she also has a sister, Anne. From very early on in their childhood, the sisters both worked as maids in a mansion where they were repeatedly abused by the master of the house. The two escaped the house and ended up working as prostitutes in order to keep themselves fed, but on one night on the job, Anne never returned, leaving Victoria helpless and alone. She now had to evade pursuers and those who wish to do her harm, leading to her developing a natural skill for avoiding dangerous people and staying alive.

Years passed and Anne returned to Victoria, revealing herself to be a vampire. Initially shocked, Victoria was also turned into a vampire by her sister and the two

"I'm the one with the wicked curve ball"

were reunited. Over time they were joined by Heidi, Mary and Noela. The newly-made coven had drawn too much attention to itself and were slaughtered for their crimes by the Volturi coven. Heidi was recruited into the Volturi, leaving Victoria as the only known survivor upon discovering her special ability of self-preservation.

She was once again under someone's radar, James, whose special tracking ability rivalled that of Victoria's powers of evasion. For months the two had a cat-and-mouse chase before falling madly in love and forming a coven along with Laurent.

Twilight

Victoria, James and Laurent are involved in the slayings of several Forks residents and draw attention to themselves; Victoria distracts the investigation by creating footprints leading out of the town to cover their tracks. She first met the Cullen's at a secluded baseball game and assisted James in tracking Bella by finding out information about her old hometown, Phoenix. In the movie, Victoria is seen at the

Prom Night

Forks High prom, glaring down at Bella and Edward as they dance; plotting her revenge against Edward after he killed James.

New Moon

She sent Laurent back to Forks to spy on Bella, seeing if she was still under protection from the Cullen's. Victoria unintentionally killed Harry Clearwater by scaring him into having a heart-attack. She returned in hopes of killing Bella

upon discovering Edward had left Forks. However, her plan failed when she is chased out of the woods by the Quileute wolf pack; she manages to avoid them with help from her ability and dives off the cliff straight in the water. Bella, having jumped into the sea herself, sees what she believes to be a 'wild fire' in the water, but it turns out it was Victoria who was swimming towards her. Bella is quickly snatched out of the water and saved by Jacob.

Eclipse

Her final plan comes into action. Victoria hunted down Riley, a former Forks local who was a student in Seattle and turned him into a vampire. She seduces Riley and becomes his mate; although it is revealed that she was simply using him for her plan to work. Riley, under Victoria's control, was in-charge of her Newborn Army, that she plans to use to kill the whole Coven clan as a final act of revenge. She hides

Seducing Riley.

behind Riley so that her intentions cannot be revealed through Alice's visions.

Victoria arrived at the war between her Army and the Cullens, who were surprisingly joined by the Quileute wolves. She figured out that Edward and Bella were absent and tracked them down to the forrest. Riley and Victoria were ambushed by Seth, who was fought off temporarily, giving Victoria a chance to escape. While almost making it away from the fight, Edward taunted her by using James' death as a way to lure her back into the fight. A brutal fight took place, Riley called out to Victoria for help, who simply ignored him and proceeded to fight

Victoria defeated.

Edward. The two fought a vicious battle which ended up in Victoria's defeat; Seth killed Riley and the two were dismembered and the remaining pieces were burnt.

Appearance

Victoria's main feature is her long, curly hair that was described as being "more like a flame .. as if it were alive" and was a brilliant orange colour. She had sparkling green eyes and the typical pale skin of a vampire. Her beauty was fierce and elegant that contrasted with her high-pitched, girly voice. Her moves were very cat-like; her

footsteps being perfectly precise and very graceful. She was able to easily outrun the shape-shifters and dodge their attacks fluently; her moves described as being very much like a 'dance' due to her effortless flow of movements.

Powers and Abilities

Like all vampires, Victoria is gifted with incredible strength and speed; the latter being a lot more enhanced than most vampires. Her senses are all heightened, allowing her to smell and see things that an ordinary human cannot. She is described as being a strong fighter and was able to fight off Edwards attacks.

Self-Preservation

Fleeing from the wolves

Her special ability is 'self-preservation' which is the instinctive need to survive, it is said that her feet would literally 'guide her out of harms way', which is how she was able to avoid the shape-shifters and the Cullen's for so long. This ability gives her a mild danger sense; allowing her to mentally predict danger just before it happens. This power was an enhancement from her characteristics as a human, since she was very skilled at evading pursuers and hiding.

In Other Media

Twilight

In Twilight, Victoria is portrayed by Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre, who strongly pursued the role and wrote a letter to the director, Catherine Hardwicke which contained the reasons why the character was so important to her. Hardwicke was impressed and casted her in the role. To prepare for the villainous character, Rachelle Lefevre watched several videos on Youtube that contained clips of lions and tigers in order to genuinely portray Victoria's feline characteristics.

Rachelle Lefevre reprised her role in the sequel, New Moon, who dyed her hair a deeper orange-red to more resemble the book description.

In Eclipse, Lefevre is replaced by actress Bryce Dallas Howard (who was approached for the same role in the first Twilight movie, but turned it down since she

Eclipse

thought the part was 'too small') The reason for the casting change was due to scheduling conflicts on Lefevre's part; she later tweeted she was 'deeply saddened' by the replacement. The change has sparked outraged from the fans.