Risky Business?

[ltroifanatic]

It seems to be the general consensus that Eli's helpers are mostly scum of the earth.Homicidal weirdos.But how would Eli know who to pick?..Seems very risky to trust them,especially when he's so vulnerable.My wife suggested he only picks ones that love him,but again,how would he know?I have a theory (please be gentle if you shoot me down in flames)..that good people vastly outnumber the bad.As evidenced in this forum,once good people grasp the scope of tragedy that this poor child has had to endure and will endure forever,who wouldn't want to help ?..We wouldn't go and kill for her but surely we would give her money,jewelry,puzzles and things to at least try to help.When her hunger grows too much,they the helpers are there to be eaten.Sort of like "hamburger helper"..lol

[Drakeule]

I have a feeling Eli would "recruit" his helpers based on what type a person it was and what would they want in return. He must have watched Håkan for awhile to know he was a pedophile; the way he just walks over and sits next to him instead of engaging in conversation shows he knew what he was doing. I'd bet he would at least stalk his would be helpers (or maybe prey) before approaching.

[Ash]

I have a feeling Eli would "recruit" his helpers based on what type a person it was and what would they want in return. He must have watched Håkan for awhile to know he was a pedophile; the way he just walks over and sits next to him instead of engaging in conversation shows he knew what he was doing. I'd bet he would at least stalk his would be helpers (or maybe prey) before approaching.

That's a quite depressing prospect, as by extension suggests that Eli would more often than not seek out helpers who would be interested in what he had to offer in return. And ltroifanatic, I'm not sure if you could call anybody who harbours a homicidal vampire as a particularly "good" person. As sad as it seems, I reckon these helpers would be mostly pedophiles or those who helped him only for the valuables stolen from his dead victims. So little wonder Eli hit it off with Oskar, who was probably the only companion she even had that was neither.

[metoo]

Good people would likely be of little help to Eli, given his particular needs. He would get love and sympathy, but not food. No good people would kill for him, and very few would die for him. Eli needs more blood than a single person, or even a small group of people can provide in the long run. (How do I know this? Well, if it wasn't so, a precondition of the story would be lost. Killing is necessary.) A large group of people, though, is a different thing. Alas, a large group of blood donors is most likely very difficult to summon. What would you tell to persuade them, especially in the old days?

However, there is a way out. One of Eli's helpers through the times might have been a barber. In the old days, in addition to shave people and cut their hairs, barbers would practice bloodletting. This particular barber would bring the blood home, to give it to Eli. Alas, bloodletting went out of fashion somewhere in the 19th century, so Eli never found another barber to help him when the first one died from natural causes. And he was very lucky to find the first one, too. Watching him drink human blood isn't something most people would do gladly.

[ltroifanatic]

Thank you all for your thoughts.So glad I joined this forum.P.S. Showed the movie to my daughter and she loved it.Wants to read the book.She couldn't get over Lina.Kept saying what a good actress she was.Thanks again.

[sauvin]

It's a mystery to me how she survived her first few years or decades out on her own. Others in the forum have suggested there was a training period while she remained with the creatures who turned her, but I don't remember anything explicitly suggesting this in the novel. If there'd been no such training, and she had simply somehow fled, it's a testament to her intelligence, sensitivity (powers of observation) and agility that she did survive her first years, given that the only food that can sustain her is the deadliest, least predictable and arguably wildest animal on the planet. Fangs, wings, night vision, super speed and strength don't mean a thing when the bathtub you're using for a bed is in a bathroom going up in flames at high noon.

Check out how she hunted Jocke. Looks to me like she scouted around a bit, found a relatively secluded spot where she'd likely run into only a single person sooner or later, and waited. One of the functional beauties of this kind of hunting is that if the circumstances should prove somehow discouraging (too many people around, the potential victim too large or too strong or too loud), she can always just scamper away and try again later or somewhere else. No harm done, no alarms raised. Otherwise, if somebody like Jocke would come along who doesn't look like too much trouble, she can reel the victim in, good and close, take care of business the fastest and quietest way possible, and likely be gone before anybody else can happen along and raise any alarms.

Even if she's not well socialised, she's still a predator with two centuries of experience distinguishing people who'll be missed from people who won't - people who'll be easy to catch, and people who won't. I believe canids and felids do this: they chase after the very young who happen to be beyond their parents' reach, or the very old or the lame who can't run as fast. They go after the outliers. In terms of simple physics (expenditure of energy), this is what makes sense, and in terms of safety, it makes better sense to take prey down away the prey herd's centre of mass because it means reduced vulnerability to possible defensive action.

Except in extreme circumstances (being attacked in her own bathroom, fleeing the emotional turmoil of a basement clubhouse scene), I have a very strong suspicion this is how she'll tend to hunt, and she'll tend to see people through these kinds of lenses whether she's actively hunting or not: easy prey, not so easy prey. After two centuries, it'd be hard to believe she wouldn't have developed a kind of instinct for it.

I don't recall that any clear indication was made of how she spotted Haakan, but it is clear the blood she needed from him isn't the kind that lub-dubs mechanically through a beating heart. She'd have to reel him in, let him get really close, and be vulnerable to him for long periods of time every day, but there's no possibility of it being a "fast, efficient" process. In her place, I'd have to be sure, so I'd have hung out and watched the man for a few nights, even if it's just to make sure the self-destructive behaviours the man was evincing weren't just some kind of short-lived episode. You can never tell; a man sitting on the park bench drinking gasoline and paint thinner might just be on a three- or four-day bender after having a fight with his wife before deciding to shuck it, go back home, and fight some more.

[metoo]

Others in the forum have suggested there was a training period while she remained with the creatures who turned her, but I don't remember anything explicitly suggesting this in the novel.

There isn't anything explicit, but in the paragraphs where Oskar receives the memory of Eli's turning, there is a part that says:
More time … Infinite time. Imprisoned. The man bites. And drinks. Bites. And drinks. My translation.

This suggests that Eli was at the castle for a long time, during which the vampire lord bit him many times. Since Eli would have become infected at the first bite, he would have had to be provided human blood after that. Thus, Eli's first helper would have been the vampire lord himself (through one of his servants, most likely). Whether the vampire lord actually taught Eli anything remains an open question, though. However, my favourite idea about this is that the Lord kept Eli as a pet, dressed up in the finest clothes of the time. Part of the parcel would have been Eli being taught manners and things an aristocrat of that era was expected to know, such as how to read and write, foreign languages, etc. But perhaps he was also taught how to be a vampire.

I don't recall that any clear indication was made of how she spotted Haakan, but it is clear the blood she needed from him isn't the kind that lub-dubs mechanically through a beating heart. She'd have to reel him in, let him get really close, and be vulnerable to him for long periods of time every day, but there's no possibility of it being a "fast, efficient" process. In her place, I'd have to be sure, so I'd have hung out and watched the man for a few nights, even if it's just to make sure the self-destructive behaviours the man was evincing weren't just some kind of short-lived episode. You can never tell; a man sitting on the park bench drinking gasoline and paint thinner might just be on a three- or four-day bender after having a fight with his wife before deciding to shuck it, go back home, and fight some more.

The novel says that Håkan was sitting on a bench outside a playground when Eli approached him. The text doesn't tell whether there were any children in the playground, but if there were, Eli might have been able to deduce Håkan's perversion rather quickly by the way he was watching the kids. Still, Eli might have followed Håkan for a couple of days before he finally approached him.

Now, the novel says nothing about what steps Eli took to make Håkan kill for him. However, when we meet Håkan in the novel he is very troubled by what he is required to do. Thus, Eli must have done something to make Håkan do it. Most of all talking, I think. Leading Håkan down that slippery slope, until he was where Eli wanted him. I guess most people on this forum wouldn't have liked witnessing it. Eli might be adorable, but he certainly isn't nice.

But, to be true, the helper concept in the novel really is a stretch. I don't think it is easy to find people who are willing to do what Håkan did. In fact, I think such people are exceedingly rare, and the likelihood that Eli would find one at all is very, very small.

[ltroifanatic]

We know that Eli can transmit thoughts,images and feelings to Oskar.Is it plausible that she can also receive these things from her victims or helpers?..Would make picking them easier.She could "feel"that she could trust them when she was resting and also that they would kill for her.

[Ash]

I really don't think there's much mystery about how Eli enticed Hakan into being his provider. It would only seem logical that Hakan, who wanted only one thing as my mum would say, was offered by Eli this one thing, as we saw play out in the novel, and to a lesser extent in the film. I really can't see Hakan lifting a finger otherwise to go off with Eli.
I suppose that raises the whole issue of a "manipulative" Eli, which causes much distaste on this forum. But I don't think that Eli's revulsion of the details of such an arrangement outweighed his desire to stay alive. And Hakan must have thought all his Christmases had come at once, regardless of the murders he had to commit. Basically a win-win situation.

[ltroifanatic]

I really don't think there's much mystery about how Eli enticed Hakan into being his provider. It would only seem logical that Hakan, who wanted only one thing as my mum would say, was offered by Eli this one thing, as we saw play out in the novel, and to a lesser extent in the film. I really can't see Hakan lifting a finger otherwise to go off with Eli.
I suppose that raises the whole issue of a "manipulative" Eli, which causes much distaste on this forum. But I don't think that Eli's revulsion of the details of such an arrangement outweighed his desire to stay alive. And Hakan must have thought all his Christmases had come at once, regardless of the murders he had to commit. Basically a win-win situation.

Yes I can see why it would upset some people (my self included) but it seems to be the inevitable conclusion.Eli's done terrible things in the past and will do terrible things in the future because he has to.Then along comes Oskar.Another troubled soul and they find hope and love in each other.Such a beautiful,tragic story.I like to think that when Eli is trying to explain to Oskar what he is and says.."be me for a little while"..that he can also be Oskar for a little while too.To see the sun,play and laugh and just be a normal child again.BTW good to see an ozzie in here and thanks for your thoughts.