Witnessing Eli's brutality in the pool

[Milkman]

So, in the end how many people witnessed Eli ripping Johnny and Jimmy's heads off?

I'm awfull with remembering names. I'm reading the book right now to try to understand it better. Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, we have Micke, that's the most obvious person who saw it and lived to tell the tale.
We also know through him that Patrik did not see anything, since he had gone back to the shower rooms to get Mr.Ávila.

Micke looked up at the shower rooms. Why the hell wasn't the teacher back yet? Patrik had run to get him, why wasn't he coming?

Then, we have Roger and Prebbe. Prebbe was basically just at the ready in case Mr. Ávila woke up. And Roger was searching the office for money and whatnot. I don't think it mentions if they left the office to go check on the rest of the gang.

The rest of the people who saw Eli were the other boys who were either swimming or working out and had to stop after Jimmy screamed at them.

Ok, my objective with this is to understand how many people managed to describe Eli to the authorities. It may be an important factor if in the future there is indeed a sequel.
I'm assuming that at least more that 7 people have seen what happened (Not counting with the 2 decapitaded individuals). Clearly not all of them would be able to describe Eli, all they saw was probably black hair and wings.
Micke is a different case though, all he has to do is connect the dots and boom, he eventually could relate the "angel" with the girl he spoke to through the window (which he probably did immediatly afterwards).

By the end, it is said that everything seemed to back up the story they all told, relating to the angel (the blood present in places of the building where it should not have been). Do you think all this could be of major importance in a possible sequel?
Also, personally, I think Micke would be an interesting character to mantain in the next one. Not constantly, obviously. But it would be cool to get a glimpse of what he would think of that moment, years later.

[Siggdalos]

As far as I can tell, the book never gives any clues on exactly how many boys attended the workout sessions in either of the two chapters that feature them (Thursday 5 November and Thursday 12 November+the epilogue). The only participant who gets named other than the ones you mentioned is Hasse (a nickname for Hans), a boy from the same class as Patrik.

Oskar changed his clothes. When he was finished Patrik and Hasse arrived, two guys from 6a.

Later in the chapter it's mentioned that the boys, excluding Micke, have started playing "some kind of volleyball". Real volleyball is played with six people on each team, for what that's worth. Then you have Gunnar's notes from his conversations with the boys. Eight phrases are mentioned, but he surely had more and no indication is given on whether or not each quote is from a different witness. Probably not, I'd say.

angel ... wings ... the head exploded ... the stiletto ... trying to drown Oskar ... Oskar was completely blue ... the kind of teeth like a lion ... picked Oskar up ...

I have no idea how many sixth-graders the Blackeberg School had in 1981, nor what percentage of boys from those classes could be expected to go to the workout sessions. My gut feeling is that there probably wouldn't be more than ten or so in total, including Oskar and Micke, but that's just a guess.

Do you think all this could be of major importance in a possible sequel?

Definitely, but it depends on what kind of route JAL would want to go with a sequel if he ever writes one. He could probably get away with having a sequel set somewhere completely different with no involvement from Blackeberg or any of LTROI's other characters, which I guess would be in line with one of the themes of LTODD (to let the past rest and dream new dreams instead), but I think it'd be more interesting if he involved, say, one of the witnesses of the Pool Massacre or some of the people who have a relation to one of Håkan/Eli's victims (Virginia's daughter Lena, for example). Similar to how he took a character who is only mentioned once in Handling the Undead and made her half-brother the main character of The Final Handling. I guess an issue would be that it could feel too similar to LTODD, since that story already gave the same treatment to Stefan and the ticket collector from LTROI.

Either way, I doubt a sequel would put much emphasis on the police side of things. LTODD paints a picture of the investigation pretty much having been put on ice and Karin being the only one to still be interested (until the photo from Barcelona shows up, that is). JAL also mentions in Misslyckas igen, misslyckas bättre that he's not interested in writing about police work and that LTROI is the only exception to this ("If I was keen on depicting police [characters] I'd be writing crime novels. I am not keen").[1]

Also, personally, I think Micke would be an interesting character to mantain in the next one. Not constantly, obviously. But it would be cool to get a glimpse of what he would think of that moment, years later.

For sure. Coincidentally, I've been working on and off over the past year on a long fan fiction where an adult Micke is one of the main POV characters.

[1]Misslyckas igen, misslyckas bättre, pg. 40.

[Milkman]

Great answer!!

I totally forgot about Hasse. How did I even miss him.

I absolutely agree. I don't think It would be the best choice to make the plot some sort of manhunt or something of the sort. I'm no writer, but that's my take.

You seriously are?? I recently read metoo's fan fiction, so far I've only read the first series but I loved it. I would love to read yours! Once it is finished will you let us know? Either by private message or by posting a warning?
You've peaked my curiosity, I feel that that character in specific could be used in a lot of interesting and creative ways.
I wish you the best of luck writing it!

[Siggdalos]

You seriously are?? I recently read metoo's fan fiction, so far I've only read the first series but I loved it. I would love to read yours! Once it is finished will you let us know? Either by private message or by posting a warning?
You've peaked my curiosity, I feel that that character in specific could be used in a lot of interesting and creative ways.
I wish you the best of luck writing it!

Thanks. I'm still a long way off from being able to post the first part, but I'll try to remember to send you a PM when I do. I'm admittedly going about writing it in a pretty stupid way in that I just come up with scenes and insert them without having a clear idea of the overall chronology or what the ending is going to be. For example, I have fairly detailed scenes from the middle of the plot but only a rough sketch of the beginning, which is... a problem. I expect I'll have to spend a lot of time on editing it in order to make it work.

In the meantime, I've posted some shorter pieces (both pretty meh if you ask me) and one slightly longer horror-style one (that I'm really satisfied with for the most part). I also have a fairly long in-progress Christmas story that I think could end up being pretty good, assuming I get my finger out and finish it on time.

[Milkman]

Yees please do. No problem if you forget though, I'll try to pay attention as well.

Mmm, yeah, that could turn out to be complicated. But whatever happens during editing, don't completely edit without saving what you have already written. Who knows someday you decide to make a story including what you've already written in the middle of the plot.
Either way, I'm sure it'll turn out fine! It takes time, you'll get there. Inspiration will come, which will bring new ideas. You'll find a way to unite everything together.

Well, I'd love to wake up on Christmas day and read that story as well ahah. I love everything Christmas related!

About the Fan Fiction you've already written. I'll definitely read it tomorrow as soon as possible. I read just enough to get a small taste, I liked it! Won't read more right now so I don't get spoiled xD

[Jameron]

Great answer!!

I totally forgot about Hasse. How did I even miss him.

I absolutely agree. I don't think It would be the best choice to make the plot some sort of manhunt or something of the sort. I'm no writer, but that's my take.

You seriously are?? I recently read metoo's fan fiction, so far I've only read the first series but I loved it. I would love to read yours! Once it is finished will you let us know? Either by private message or by posting a warning?
You've peaked my curiosity, I feel that that character in specific could be used in a lot of interesting and creative ways.
I wish you the best of luck writing it!

Hi, When you've finished with Metoo's fanfiction I seriously recommend ACL's stories. It's best to read them in order of creation.

[Milkman]

Hello!

As "ACL" you mean "A_contemplative_life" correct? I didn't know him up until searching "acl" on the search bar xD

Could you give me some pointers? Which one should I read first? I noticed that on the 17th of October of 2009 he wrote his first one. Is that the first one I should read, should I read the exact order according to the dates? Or is it in a specific order?

I'm going to read first the already written fan fictions of Siggdalos. After that I'll go to ACL, since I've read a lot of compliments while I was searching for ACL on the search bar. And after that I'll continue with Metoo's projects.

[Jameron]

Hello!

As "ACL" you mean "A_contemplative_life" correct? I didn't know him up until searching "acl" on the search bar xD

Could you give me some pointers? Which one should I read first? I noticed that on the 17th of October of 2009 he wrote his first one. Is that the first one I should read, should I read the exact order according to the dates? Or is it in a specific order?

I'm going to read first the already written fan fictions of Siggdalos. After that I'll go to ACL, since I've read a lot of compliments while I was searching for ACL on the search bar. And after that I'll continue with Metoo's projects.

Yes, A_contemplative_life, sorry about that.

They are in order as they appear in the list that I can see here http://let-the-right-one-in.com/fancont ... =10&page=0. I don't think the dates are accurate, the fanfiction section has been rebuilt more than once iirc and so these "errors" creep in...

Reflections at Dawn
Norrköping
Redemption from Darkness
Once Bitten
An Essay Regarding Love in Let the Right One In <-- not a fanfiction but interesting nonetheless
The Hunters

Anyone feel free to correct me if I remembered that wrong.

.

[Milkman]

Thank you so much!
Already saved the link, will definitely read it as soon as I finish the rest!

[Ash]

Oh boy! I can't believe (and so happy) this site is still up and running after so many years after leaving it.
Hi Jameron, cmflirelies, metoo, long time no see. Is intrige still active? She was so insightful.
I suppose it's like in Terminator 2, not being trite here, anyone who posed a treat to Oskar was targeted and those not were left alone like Micke who's heart wasn't in it.
And no doubt Ávila would have been spared too if he came back in during/after the fire. Being an adult witness, having more weight over the kids present, he would have strengthened the police case of what actually happened. Other kids present would not have returned after being intimated by Jimmy. I suppose anyone else outside the pool windows might have witnessed the event, but Sweden in winter being as it is, most people would be tucked away in their homes.
Eli, being intensely practical and logistically minded, the reason he survived so long, would see no reason to act beyond immediate events, in this case saving Oskar. It's his moving beyond the pure self-survival instinct after finding love that makes the novel so appealing for me. Perhaps a completely stupid move.... but then again....