Why did Eli sleep in blood?

[OskarTheArsonist]

Hi I have been thinking about LTROI, and specifically why exactly did Eli sleep in blood. I have not been able to think of a reason why and so i am wondering if you know why he dose it?

[SpartanAltego]

It was an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behavior. Eli had just finished being brutalized by Hakan's revenant, likely still somewhat weakened from bleeding out in Oskar's place despite replenishing some of the blood, and getting from the bunker to the apartment complex meant sunlight exposure.

The sun exposure burned him horrifically all over, and he only had enough energy to crawl into the bathtub before his brain shut off. It's fortunate he doesn't need to breathe or he'd have drowned in his own blood.

[OskarTheArsonist]

It was an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behavior. Eli had just finished being brutalized by Hakan's revenant, likely still somewhat weakened from bleeding out in Oskar's place despite replenishing some of the blood, and getting from the bunker to the apartment complex meant sunlight exposure.

The sun exposure burned him horrifically all over, and he only had enough energy to crawl into the bathtub before his brain shut off. It's fortunate he doesn't need to breathe or he'd have drowned in his own blood.

so your saying that it was Eli's blood? I thought it was the blood that Hakan had taken from that kid. The reason I think this is because there where a number of the same jugs that Hakan had used all over the bathroom floor. Also if Eli did regularly sleep in blood it would explain why Eli's hair was always matted with something before he started to shower regularly. "When he dared to take a closer look at her-she was completely absorbed by the Cube-he noticed that her hair was caked together and fell around her face in matted tufts and clumps. As if she had put glue or ...mud in it".

[SpartanAltego]

It was an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behavior. Eli had just finished being brutalized by Hakan's revenant, likely still somewhat weakened from bleeding out in Oskar's place despite replenishing some of the blood, and getting from the bunker to the apartment complex meant sunlight exposure.

The sun exposure burned him horrifically all over, and he only had enough energy to crawl into the bathtub before his brain shut off. It's fortunate he doesn't need to breathe or he'd have drowned in his own blood.

so your saying that it was Eli's blood? I thought it was the blood that Hakan had taken from that kid. The reason I think this is because there where a number of the same jugs that Hakan had used all over the bathroom floor. Also if Eli did regularly sleep in blood it would explain why Eli's hair was always matted with something before he started to shower regularly. "When he dared to take a closer look at her-she was completely absorbed by the Cube-he noticed that her hair was caked together and fell around her face in matted tufts and clumps. As if she had put glue or ...mud in it".

Hakan didn't successfully manage to obtain any blood for Eli while they were in Blackeberg, so it couldn't have been from any of his victims. Eli's hair being matted and greasy could be chalked up to a combination of malnourished from lack of blood as well as poor hygiene. Plus, one wonders what practical purpose sleeping in a pool of blood would serve for Eli - he clearly needs to feed on it directly, while 'fresh', to survive. Beyond that it wouldn't appear blood serves any other purpose for him.

Plus, the bathtub was empty when Eli crawled in and he didn't awaken until the break-in happened. When Lacke stumbled on Eli, the tub was filled with blood. The fact that it was Eli's blood also helps to justify his instantaneous feeding on Lacke upon waking - he's weak, bled-out, and extremely hungry.

[gkmoberg1]

It was an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behavior. Eli had just finished being brutalized by Hakan's revenant, likely still somewhat weakened from bleeding out in Oskar's place despite replenishing some of the blood, and getting from the bunker to the apartment complex meant sunlight exposure.

The sun exposure burned him horrifically all over, and he only had enough energy to crawl into the bathtub before his brain shut off. It's fortunate he doesn't need to breathe or he'd have drowned in his own blood.

so your saying that it was Eli's blood? I thought it was the blood that Hakan had taken from that kid. The reason I think this is because there where a number of the same jugs that Hakan had used all over the bathroom floor. Also if Eli did regularly sleep in blood it would explain why Eli's hair was always matted with something before he started to shower regularly. "When he dared to take a closer look at her-she was completely absorbed by the Cube-he noticed that her hair was caked together and fell around her face in matted tufts and clumps. As if she had put glue or ...mud in it".

Hakan didn't successfully manage to obtain any blood for Eli while they were in Blackeberg, so it couldn't have been from any of his victims. Eli's hair being matted and greasy could be chalked up to a combination of malnourished from lack of blood as well as poor hygiene. Plus, one wonders what practical purpose sleeping in a pool of blood would serve for Eli - he clearly needs to feed on it directly, while 'fresh', to survive. Beyond that it wouldn't appear blood serves any other purpose for him.

Plus, the bathtub was empty when Eli crawled in and he didn't awaken until the break-in happened. When Lacke stumbled on Eli, the tub was filled with blood. The fact that it was Eli's blood also helps to justify his instantaneous feeding on Lacke upon waking - he's weak, bled-out, and extremely hungry.

This thread is in the novel section of the forum. So from that context I have to disagree with several items.

First is that yes Håkan did obtain blood for Eli while they lived in Blackeberg. This is true for the novel but not true for the film.

Also when Elias returned to his apartment on that final morning, daring the dash through the morning sunshine and clutching his three stolen plastic bottles of T-Röd, he ends up crawling down the hallway to the bathroom and curling into an already wet bathtub. As he comes across the bathroom floor, he knocks plastic jugs out the of the way.

The best way to interpret this is to say the bathtub already contained a good amount of blood and such had been delivered in the empty plastic jugs. Yes, then, Elias is "sleeping" under the level of the blood within the bathtub. (metoo has conjectured in the past the quantity it would take to provide this, btw.)

I don't think Elias was bleeding out from his injuries with either Håkan or the sun exposure. Rather, his skin was severely burned across many parts of this body. Had he been severely bleeding from his battle with Håkan, Elias could not have survived the run to the ICA and back. The assault from the sunlight was burns, not lacerations.

Now, I have read here good reasons why JAL chose to have a blood-filled bathtub. There is a nice literary nod going on here. Yet, it is a useful prop for the story at this point. While Elias cannot consume stale blood as nourishment we can make a conjecture that resting in a pool of such is nourishment for his overall body.

Well, that can be debated. Yet I hold the bathtub was already full when Elias crawled in. In many ways he was lucky that he had left it as such.

[OskarTheArsonist]

It was an isolated incident rather than a pattern of behavior. Eli had just finished being brutalized by Hakan's revenant, likely still somewhat weakened from bleeding out in Oskar's place despite replenishing some of the blood, and getting from the bunker to the apartment complex meant sunlight exposure.

The sun exposure burned him horrifically all over, and he only had enough energy to crawl into the bathtub before his brain shut off. It's fortunate he doesn't need to breathe or he'd have drowned in his own blood.

so your saying that it was Eli's blood? I thought it was the blood that Hakan had taken from that kid. The reason I think this is because there where a number of the same jugs that Hakan had used all over the bathroom floor. Also if Eli did regularly sleep in blood it would explain why Eli's hair was always matted with something before he started to shower regularly. "When he dared to take a closer look at her-she was completely absorbed by the Cube-he noticed that her hair was caked together and fell around her face in matted tufts and clumps. As if she had put glue or ...mud in it".

Hakan didn't successfully manage to obtain any blood for Eli while they were in Blackeberg, so it couldn't have been from any of his victims. Eli's hair being matted and greasy could be chalked up to a combination of malnourished from lack of blood as well as poor hygiene. Plus, one wonders what practical purpose sleeping in a pool of blood would serve for Eli - he clearly needs to feed on it directly, while 'fresh', to survive. Beyond that it wouldn't appear blood serves any other purpose for him.

Plus, the bathtub was empty when Eli crawled in and he didn't awaken until the break-in happened. When Lacke stumbled on Eli, the tub was filled with blood. The fact that it was Eli's blood also helps to justify his instantaneous feeding on Lacke upon waking - he's weak, bled-out, and extremely hungry.

Hakan was actually able to successfully get blood for Eli once in the beginning. There is a part where Tommy is with his friends and he is telling them about the murder. "But the ground underneath . . . where the guy was hanging. There was almost no blood at all. Just a few drops. And he must have gushed out several liters, hanging up like that". besides that we know the reason why Hakan killed the kid Tommy even thinks so. "I think he was after the blood". also it is confirmed that there was blood already inside the bathtub before he got in."He stretched his arm out, opened the bathroom door, and crawled into the compact darkness. He pushed a couple of plastic jugs out of the way, closed the door, and locked it". The reason I think there are plastic jugs in the bathroom is because Hakan left them there after he poured the blood into the bathtub. also there is a little more concrete proof that there was blood in the bathtub before Eli got in. "Rest turned him off at the same moment as he sank down into the wet darkness". "the wet darkness" I think should be taken literally hear like she is submerging herself. I also to came to the realization that it doesn't make sense for Eli to sleep in blood since it seems clear that it is only a food source, and this is also the reason why I made the topic in the first place.

[SpartanAltego]

Interesting...my knowledge of the novel and film often bleed together, so I'd forgotten that Hakan succeeeded in blood procurement at least once in the novel. I'd always operated under the assumption that Eli being in a tub of blood was from his wounds, but if it indeed was a procedure of theirs...

Fascinating. And important to know for my own work, because that will be fun to play around with. Considering the necessity of fresh blood for nourishment, the blood-bath's presence implies that Eli maintains overall health through immersion as well. Perhaps that immersion process is part of his Eli is eased back into awakening from hibernation (and/or general sleep, possibly) and revitalized to some extent. A Lazarus bath.

Whatever the case, thanks for posing that question OtA! The answers we both got benefited us both, I think.

[gkmoberg1]

We can infer from what happens next that Elias' body recovers well during this immersion. When Lacke gets to the bathtub and drains away the blood there is a clear description of what appears before him. What I notice in this is there is no mention of the prior burns. Elias is "slimy like a newborn" but Lacke does not mention burn marks. It must be, then, that the hours have let Elias' body heal. The immersion likely assisted towards this.

[OskarTheArsonist]

We can infer from what happens next that Elias' body recovers well during this immersion. When Lacke gets to the bathtub and drains away the blood there is a clear description of what appears before him. What I notice in this is there is no mention of the prior burns. Elias is "slimy like a newborn" but Lacke does not mention burn marks. It must be, then, that the hours have let Elias' body heal. The immersion likely assisted towards this.

The reason why Lacke did not see any burn marks was because they where on his back and Eli was laying on his back. Oskar did see the burn marks though. "From the bathroom doorway Oskar could only see the back of his body. The hair was plastered against the back of his head and his back was one big open wound". Im not sure why they filled the bath with blood because it is undeniable that the best thing for Eli is to drink it. And it dose not seem that Hakan was trying to collect blood for any other purpose but for Eli to eat.

[metoo]

The issue has (of course) been discussed before on this forum, e.g. here.

The blod bath is a nod to Carmilla, a classic vampire novel.

In my opinion, Novel Eli always rested in the blood bath. He at least was there when Oskar woke up the morning after having ran away from his dad, a time when Eli was in full health. This suggests that the bath was Eli’s normal resting place.

As gkmoberg mentions, I have discussed the volume of blood required to fill a bathtub sufficiently to allow Eli to be totally submerged. A standard Swedish tub holds about 200 litres, but plausibly it would only need to be half full to hide slim Eli. That’s still one hundred litres of blood that someone have had to bring there. Quite a task, I’d say.

Anyway, the sheer amount disqualifies human blood, but animal blood is readily available at slaughter houses (or butcher shops). Håkan could concievably have bought it under the pretence to make blodpudding, a traditional Swedish dish equivalent to black pudding. He would have had to explain why he needed such large quantities, even if he got it from several sources, but that could be done. Still, bringing all those canisters into the apartment without raising suspicions among neighbours would not have been easy.

Regrettably, the blood bath creates a problem for fan fiction writers. Therefore I have deviated from the novel here, and in my particular version of the LtROI universe there is no blood bath (and never was one), but for one story.