Twilight: 5 Ways Bella Was A Great Friend (& 5 Ways She Was Terrible)

While the Twilight series might be a romance, there are also many other kinds of relationships that play a role over the four books and five films. As the main character and protagonist, Bella’s relationships with her friends and family are also explored in the saga.

Bella probably isn’t a character that many people associate with being a great friend, but she does have moments where she’s very caring and selfless. On the other hand, there are some things she does that make her an awful friend.

10 Great: She wasn’t prone to starting drama

One thing that makes many people, both in real life and in fiction, horrible friends is being in love with drama and always starting fights. Bella definitely wasn’t this kind of person.

She didn’t talk bad about her friends or say mean things behind their backs. She definitely wasn’t interested in participating in or causing typical high school drama.

9 Terrible: She mostly kept to herself

While Bella didn’t start drama or cause problems in her friend group in Forks, the flip side of this was that she really didn’t try that hard to make friends at all.

As the new girl in a small high school, she actually did make friends right away and cause a lot of interest. However, she often was mostly just on her own and didn’t really try to reach out to others in return.

8 Great: She would risk her life to save the people she loved

One of the things that made Bella a great friend, lover, and family member is that she was willing to put her own life on the line to save the people she loved. This was the case for Edward, for her mother, and also for close friends like Jacob.

So, while it did take her a while to open up to people and she didn’t have a lot of friends, the people she was close to got to see how loyal she is.

7 Terrible: She seemed to think she was not like other high schoolers

One issue that many fans and critics of the series have pointed out is that Bella is a protagonist who seems to think she is better than the others around her.

While she isn’t mean or judgemental, she has a little bit of “not like other girls” syndrome. She seems to think she’s not quite like others her age and sort of writes off the other people around her because of this.

6 Great: She always stuck up for her friends

Bella didn’t have a lot of friends by any means, and most of her high school buddies she considered on just a surface level. Her closest friend was Jacob Black and that relationship ended up being very complicated.

However, she did often stick up for Jacob, even to Edward, and tried to be on all of her friends’ side whenever she could.

5 Terrible: She used Jacob

Bella’s friendship with Jacob was pretty complex given their romantic feelings for each other at certain points. So, while Jacob wasn’t always the best friend to her either, she definitely had times where she should have treated him better.

This is especially true during New Moon when she mostly just used Jacob as a balm to help her feel better after Edward broke up with her.

4 Great: When she wasn’t preoccupied, she was a good listener

Bella was pretty introverted and overall a quiet person. So, when she was paying attention to others around her, she was a good listener and offered good advice.

This could even be true of her high school friends like Jessica. However, she did spend a lot of time thinking about her own issues and her relationship with Edward, so these moments were a bit spread out.

3 Terrible: She could be pretty selfish and made it all about her

Bella might seem like a fairly innocent, wholesome person, and while she was in many ways, she was also self-absorbed at times. Her romantic dramas with Edward were what preoccupied her the most, and this made her feel like her problems were more important than others around her.

She also couldn’t be very open with her high school friends because of the things she knew about vampires and werewolves.

2 Great: She wouldn’t give up on her friendship with Jacob

While Jacob and Bella both did some things to each other that weren’t so great, they did care about each other. They did have a friendship that they both valued.

So, even though Bella cared about Edward’s opinion a lot, the fact that she insisted on keeping her friendship with Jacob was a big deal. This showed that she wasn’t willing to give friends up even when things got hard.

1 Terrible: She was willing to leave all her human friends behind to become a vampire

In order to become a vampire, Bella had to be willing to leave her human life behind completely, and this meant losing all of her family and friends in order to be with Edward. She would lose her parents and Jacob as well as everyone else.

So, while she might have cared about them, the fact that she was willing to do this is kind of awful for many reasons and makes her a not so great friend.

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