Another LTROI Review

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metoo
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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by metoo » Thu May 18, 2017 6:01 am

cmfireflies wrote: Well the bullies' deaths wasn't his problem. He played no part in it. As for leaving with Eli, it's pretty brave, heading into the unknown, leaving everything behind, accepting Eli at the cost of the rest of the world and all of that.
Yes, of course. Heading into the unknown takes courage, but still - so does staying put.
cmfireflies wrote:I'm sure Eli wasn't expecting Oskar to do that for her when she came back to him.
Personally, I'm wondering what Eli's plan was when he decided to return to Blackeberg. There are several possibilities:
  • Eli returned to meet Oskar, to try to talk him into becoming "like me".
  • Eli returned to have a last glance of Oskar (without actually meeting him), before greeting the morning sun on some desolate skerry in the Stockholm archipelago.
  • Eli had no plan at all.
  • All at once.
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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sauvin
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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by sauvin » Thu May 18, 2017 7:19 am

metoo wrote:
cmfireflies wrote: Well the bullies' deaths wasn't his problem. He played no part in it. As for leaving with Eli, it's pretty brave, heading into the unknown, leaving everything behind, accepting Eli at the cost of the rest of the world and all of that.
Yes, of course. Heading into the unknown takes courage, but still - so does staying put.
cmfireflies wrote:I'm sure Eli wasn't expecting Oskar to do that for her when she came back to him.
Personally, I'm wondering what Eli's plan was when he decided to return to Blackeberg. There are several possibilities:
  • Eli returned to meet Oskar, to try to talk him into becoming "like me".
  • Eli returned to have a last glance of Oskar (without actually meeting him), before greeting the morning sun on some desolate skerry in the Stockholm archipelago.
  • Eli had no plan at all.
  • All at once.
  • Eli simply forgot her Captain America secret decoder ring and had to come back and get it.
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metoo
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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by metoo » Thu May 18, 2017 4:37 pm

sauvin wrote:
  • Eli simply forgot her Captain America secret decoder ring and had to come back and get it.
Perhaps. If so, it would have been in the box full of toys. Obviously.
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by dongregg » Thu May 18, 2017 5:05 pm

metoo wrote: Personally, I'm wondering what Eli's plan was when he decided to return to Blackeberg. There are several possibilities:
  • Eli returned to meet Oskar, to try to talk him into becoming "like me".
  • Eli returned to have a last glance of Oskar (without actually meeting him), before greeting the morning sun on some desolate skerry in the Stockholm archipelago.
  • Eli had no plan at all.
  • All at once.
As I wrote in When I Am with You, I favor a combination of your options 1 and 2:

"Eli has every reason to believe that her life will go on as it always has. Things happen and she has to move, right?"

"Not this time. Eli realizes she is no longer willing to go back to her old life of mere survival. Being with Oskar has awakened feelings that Eli had forgotten she ever had, and the best of those feelings is joy. Without Oskar, there is no joy."

"Eli makes up her mind – It's Oskar and Eli, or it's nothing. If Oskar doesn't want to be with her, this will be her last night on earth."

:)
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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sauvin
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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by sauvin » Thu May 18, 2017 6:26 pm

I can't speak for "plan" when it comes to Eli's having returned to rescue Oskar from the pool.

Were his training sessions on a regular schedule? We know from the movie that Eli knew about them because we saw her waiting for him (on the outside, looking in) shortly after he'd split Conny's ear, but we don't necessarily know that Eli knew he'd be at the pool that final night. If she hadn't, then she'd been watching, and it would be clear enough that she came back for him, even if just to catch a last glimpse or two. If she had known, then she dropped by, even if just to catch a last glimpse or two. Either way, all I can say with any reasonable confidence is that she did come back at least partly for him before scampering off tend to her "real" reason for coming back (to look for her forgotten or misplaced decoder ring, maybe).

This section is about the movie, because it's (theoretically) about a review about the movie. In other news, topic drift is a fact of life on WTI.

I don't remember the novel well, probably been a few years since I've last even seen it, but one scene in it was memorable because it spoke more to me about her character than anything else I remember from it. She was thinking she had cash, could jump in a taxi and go just about anywhere.

"I don't want to! Why can't I have anything!?"

(because you should be dead)

This, coupled with the responsibility Eli solidly assumed for disposing of what remained of Haakan, tells me she's still human, and still identifies as human, and doesn't lie to herself about anything that matters about herself or her existence. Together with finding it strange that she never grew up inside her head, that she's still only twelve, suggests to me that what came back for Oskar wasn't a girl with what any reasonable adult might call a "plan".

She was just a child not wanting to let go of something she found good, and was dithering with herself when the bullies showed up.
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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by PeteMork » Thu May 18, 2017 9:39 pm

sauvin wrote:...This, coupled with the responsibility Eli solidly assumed for disposing of what remained of Haakan, tells me she's still human, and still identifies as human, and doesn't lie to herself about anything that matters about herself or her existence. Together with finding it strange that she never grew up inside her head, that she's still only twelve, suggests to me that what came back for Oskar wasn't a girl with what any reasonable adult might call a "plan".

She was just a child not wanting to let go of something she found good, and was dithering with herself when the bullies showed up.
I agree. This is the most likely reason she came back, in my opinion. We have no idea where she went first; perhaps to his home, then the kiosk, then the pool. And I'm pretty sure that if she had gotten there when the kerfuffle first started, she wouldn't have waited until he was almost dead before she intervened. :twisted:
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. (Roberto Bolaño)

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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by a_contemplative_life » Fri May 19, 2017 2:42 am

This is starting to feel like an old school thread :D
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metoo
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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by metoo » Fri May 19, 2017 4:04 am

sauvin wrote: can't speak for "plan" when it comes to Eli's having returned to rescue Oskar from the pool.
So let's use a word that fits a twelve year old instead. Thoughts, perhaps? But I agree, Eli probably had no proper "plan". I think he acted without thinking much when he started on his journey back. Still, he must have had some thoughts around it.
sauvin wrote:She was just a child not wanting to let go of something she found good, and was dithering with herself when the bullies showed up.
PeteMork wrote: I agree. This is the most likely reason she came back, in my opinion. We have no idea where she went first; perhaps to his home, then the kiosk, then the pool. And I'm pretty sure that if she had gotten there when the kerfuffle first started, she wouldn't have waited until he was almost dead before she intervened.
I agree, to the not wanting as well as to the not waiting.
a_contemplative_life wrote:This is starting to feel like an old school thread
Let's hope for the best!
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by cmfireflies » Fri May 19, 2017 4:34 am

Geeze you guys need to lighten up. Eli's not going to kill herself if Oskar didn't come with...she's stronger than that. Plus being suicidal is not a healthy basis for a relationship. All she did was stick around and follow Oskar to keep her promise. I prefer to think that her delayed entrance was due to the fact that Eli was finagling an invitation from the kid she didn't kill. That's all. If Oskar was fine, she'd would have left. If Oskar didn't want to leave with her, that'll be sad, but she understands.
"When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it."

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Re: Another LTROI Review

Post by sauvin » Fri May 19, 2017 5:50 am

cmfireflies wrote:Geeze you guys need to lighten up. Eli's not going to kill herself if Oskar didn't come with...she's stronger than that. Plus being suicidal is not a healthy basis for a relationship. All she did was stick around and follow Oskar to keep her promise. I prefer to think that her delayed entrance was due to the fact that Eli was finagling an invitation from the kid she didn't kill. That's all. If Oskar was fine, she'd would have left. If Oskar didn't want to leave with her, that'll be sad, but she understands.
What, prey tell (heh, heh, heh) is a "healthy" basis for a relationship with a vampire?
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