Do any of the Cullens actually care about Bella? Short answer: no. But it’s a little more complicated than that, and it varies by each of them. They don’t care about her in the way we’re led to believe, or even the way Bella believes they do. Instead, they care about her only insofar as she serves their interests. From the moment Bella enters their orbit, she’s a demonstration of how little the Cullens actually value human life.
The text makes this clear, and Midnight Sun outright spells it out: the Cullens are inherently selfish. Human life is disposable to them. The difference between them and other vampires is that they cosplay as humans, pretending to care while masking their predatory nature. We’re supposed to think they’re “better” than regular vampires, but they’re not. And honestly? That’s what makes them creepy. None of them cared about Bella as a person. Most of them were fine with her being killed if it came to that.
Edward sums this up perfectly in Midnight Sun when he considers what everyone would think if he drained Bella. Rosalie and Jasper wouldn’t care—if anything, they’d feel smug for being right about Edward’s inability to resist. Esme’s concern would be for Edward’s well-being, not Bella’s life. Carlisle would be disappointed but ultimately forgiving. Emmett? He’d shrug it off. Alice might be upset about losing a potential friend, but even that’s questionable. None of them cared enough to oppose the idea strongly; they were just going along with what suited them.
Rosalie, in particular, gets villainized for not liking Bella, but she’s not any worse than the others. The difference is that Rosalie doesn’t lie about her indifference. She doesn’t play mind games or pretend to care. She wasn’t plotting against Bella she just didn’t want Edward’s fixation to endanger the family. Jasper and Emmett, on the other hand, were fine with Edward killing Bella. Rosalie only got involved when Edward started implicating them in his reckless behavior. Even then, she relented when Carlisle insisted they play nice.
Esme, meanwhile, cared more about Edward’s happiness than Bella’s life. If killing Bella made Edward happy, Esme would’ve supported it. If dating her and dooming her to vampirism made Edward happy, Esme welcomed her. Alice? Alice was less concerned about Bella as a person and more about the idea of her as a new “friend” and human Barbie doll. She orchestrated the relationship, fully aware of the danger Bella faced, because she wanted Bella close. She doesn’t care about Bella’s safety; she cares about her own desires.
Jasper? He doesn’t care about Bella as a person. To him, she’s a tantalizing temptation a challenge to overcome and a new ear to hear his Civil War stories. Emmett? He’s just along for the ride. He didn’t think twice about Bella until the family decided to include her. Then she became “Edward’s human,” and that was that. Carlisle? He cared about Bella in the abstract as an innocent girl who didn’t “deserve” to die but his actions show his selfishness. He made vampires without their consent, knowing they’d kill humans, and let Edward pursue Bella, fully aware of the danger. Carlisle’s priority has always been maintaining his moral high ground while indulging his family’s selfish desires.
Ultimately, none of the Cullens cared about Bella beyond what she represented to them: Edward’s pet project, Alice’s new toy, or Carlisle’s opportunity to preach about self-control. They proved this when they abandoned her without a second thought, leaving her unprotected from the supernatural chaos they brought into her life just because Edward said so.
They’re selfish, manipulative predators who pretend to be human for their own twisted reasons. They don’t care about humans, and Bella was no exception. The outrage over Rosalie’s indifference feels hypocritical when none of the Cullens actually cared about Bella either. At least Rosalie was honest about it. She didn’t have a vendetta against Bella she was just upfront about her priorities. Compared to the others, Rosalie’s selfishness is almost refreshing.
