Owen and Abby - What Next?

[DavidZahir]

Within the last few weeks I've read quite a bit of fanfiction inspired by Let Me In. Most deal with the inevitably unanswered question--what happened next? Frankly, apart from the relative lack of writing skill involved (hey, a lot of these folks are beginners, and many have a nice turn of phrase) my biggest criticism of them are twofold. Most don't allow Owen and Abby to seem like twelve-year-olds. And most come up with what seems to me unrealistic extrapolations of what became of these two characters. For example, I have to believe Abby had already tried drinking animal blood and found out the hard way it doesn't work. If not, she'd be killing animals like the Cullens. She evidently makes no effort to steal blood from hospitals--with her powers that shouldn't be too difficult. So it seems to me she needs human blood direct from the source, or no more than an hour or so from same (since stuff taken from Thomas' victims evidently nourished her).

So some of the nicer versions of an epilogue are inconsistent with canon.

On the other hand I rather enjoyed the one where an undead Owen and Abby started finding the child molesters and murderers and sociopaths of the world and getting rid of them (shades of Dexter).

But how do you see the story continuing? How would two children manage to live on their own in early 1980s America? Would Abby infect Owen? If so, when? Does he object? If not, what might happen to make him accept becoming what Abby is?

[ColBlair]

Within the last few weeks I've read quite a bit of fanfiction inspired by Let Me In. Most deal with the inevitably unanswered question--what happened next? Frankly, apart from the relative lack of writing skill involved (hey, a lot of these folks are beginners, and many have a nice turn of phrase) my biggest criticism of them are twofold. Most don't allow Owen and Abby to seem like twelve-year-olds. And most come up with what seems to me unrealistic extrapolations of what became of these two characters. For example, I have to believe Abby had already tried drinking animal blood and found out the hard way it doesn't work. If not, she'd be killing animals like the Cullens. She evidently makes no effort to steal blood from hospitals--with her powers that shouldn't be too difficult. So it seems to me she needs human blood direct from the source, or no more than an hour or so from same (since stuff taken from Thomas' victims evidently nourished her).

So some of the nicer versions of an epilogue are inconsistent with canon.

On the other hand I rather enjoyed the one where an undead Owen and Abby started finding the child molesters and murderers and sociopaths of the world and getting rid of them (shades of Dexter).

But how do you see the story continuing? How would two children manage to live on their own in early 1980s America? Would Abby infect Owen? If so, when? Does he object? If not, what might happen to make him accept becoming what Abby is?

By Dexter, you mean the fan fiction called Owen and Abby? That one was good. The way I see Abby in my fan fiction Lines of Blood is that maybe she didn't drink every animal. But things will change in my story, I"m constantly coming up with new ideas. I had one idea where they were heroes and they would stop the villians between 1984 and now. Someone recommended that I fuse True Blood with LMI which I have a part written where it's set in the year 2077. Heck, I would love to see someone do a futuristic fan fic of Let Me In.

But still, even if they are together as vampires, I like to think of them as a married couple who agree and disagree. That's where I stand on that. They are still living in happiness, but they still have their bad days.

[PeteMork]

Within the last few weeks I've read quite a bit of fanfiction inspired by Let Me In. Most deal with the inevitably unanswered question--what happened next? Frankly, apart from the relative lack of writing skill involved (hey, a lot of these folks are beginners, and many have a nice turn of phrase) my biggest criticism of them are twofold. Most don't allow Owen and Abby to seem like twelve-year-olds. And most come up with what seems to me unrealistic extrapolations of what became of these two characters. For example, I have to believe Abby had already tried drinking animal blood and found out the hard way it doesn't work. If not, she'd be killing animals like the Cullens. She evidently makes no effort to steal blood from hospitals--with her powers that shouldn't be too difficult. So it seems to me she needs human blood direct from the source, or no more than an hour or so from same (since stuff taken from Thomas' victims evidently nourished her).

So some of the nicer versions of an epilogue are inconsistent with canon.

I don't agree at all with your conclusion concerning human blood and it's viability for Abby. One of the strengths of JAL's story, is it's adherence to reality (with the exception of the very existence of vampires, of course). Since human blood is viable for transfusion for days, there's no scientific reason why Abby couldn't make use of it herself. And there's nothing in the book or film to indicate otherwise. I see no ‘canon’ to support such a conclusion; only speculation. In fact, only if we look at vampire legend, independent of JAL's book, do we find any such ideas, and they're rooted mainly in superstition and folklore...and the supernatural. In my opinion, JAL's tale takes place in the real world; the world of science. And remember, there’s a big difference between the longevity of blood gathered in dirty plastic jugs and transported unrefrigerated even for a few hours, and blood gathered in a germ-free environment, stored in sterilized containers, cooled to the proper temperature for maximum viability, and distributed with the same care.

And Abby is only 12 years old. If she is immature enough to leave the jogger's body in plain sight for Thomas to have to deal with, careless enough to drop out of a tree onto Virginia with her husband 10ft behind her, and, in the book, careless enough to not make sure the old lady with cancer didn't make her escape, resulting in all the questions that raised with the police, I don't find it a stretch at all that raiding a blood bank wouldn't have crossed her mind (she’s just a child, remember ). After all, related to how long she had lived already, blood banks are a very recent development.

My point is: There is not nearly enough evidence to rule out Abby's ability to survive on well-preserved blood. Fan Fiction that makes use of this possibility is not far-fetched at all. (And as you’ve probably guessed by now, I DO have a dog in that race)

[DavidZahir]

A well-argued case! You've made your point, although I wonder why Thomas didn't try and steal blood from a hospital? Or suggest that Abby do so? Then again, how mature or well-educated was Thomas when you think about it?

Just to play devil's advocate, I'll also point out that sunlight as well as moonlight is also sunlight, yet did Abby no harm. So there's some inconsistency. Yet--destroying my own case--we know diffused sunlight was also harmless. She stood there unflinchingly in the apartment when the sun was up, creating a visible glow through the transluscent window coverings. Hence that isn't inconsistent at all.

However, I will address another point. When she fed on the jogger she was still relatively weak, hence what is probably an inability to dispose of the jogger's body. Later, after feeding on the jogger and Virginia and Thomas, Abby evidently had no difficulty picking up almost full-grown kids (like Kenny) and flying across the room with them, rending along the way. My point is that I don't think she could dispose of the jogger's body at that point, whereas the attack on Virginia seemed more like a frenzied reaction to Owen's blood and Abby's own effort not to feed on him right then.

This makes it more likely, imho, that Owen might persuade Abby to start stealing from hospitals.

[PeteMork]

A well-argued case! You've made your point, although I wonder why Thomas didn't try and steal blood from a hospital? Or suggest that Abby do so? Then again, how mature or well-educated was Thomas when you think about it?

Just to play devil's advocate, I'll also point out that sunlight as well as moonlight is also sunlight, yet did Abby no harm. So there's some inconsistency. Yet--destroying my own case--we know diffused sunlight was also harmless. She stood there unflinchingly in the apartment when the sun was up, creating a visible glow through the transluscent window coverings. Hence that isn't inconsistent at all.

However, I will address another point. When she fed on the jogger she was still relatively weak, hence what is probably an inability to dispose of the jogger's body. Later, after feeding on the jogger and Virginia and Thomas, Abby evidently had no difficulty picking up almost full-grown kids (like Kenny) and flying across the room with them, rending along the way. My point is that I don't think she could dispose of the jogger's body at that point, whereas the attack on Virginia seemed more like a frenzied reaction to Owen's blood and Abby's own effort not to feed on him right then.

This makes it more likely, imho, that Owen might persuade Abby to start stealing from hospitals.

My take on the "sunlight" effect is that if the sunlight is capable of giving a normal person a sunburn, it will burn Abby (To my knowledge no one has ever suffered a “Moonburn.” ) Indirect sunlight, while not burning her, could possibly just make her feel uncomfortable. Intensity would probably be the governing factor. There has to be a threshold, or else she could only survive in limited types of artificial light. In the real world, tests could probably be run that would tell her exactly which light frequencies did the job on her.

On the topic of LMI fan fiction here, Naitouk has begun some nicely done FF on LMI here http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... =12&t=2368, and I'm sure others will follow soon. I think there's a lot of potential here, as you've pointed out in other threads when speculating on the different interprtations of Owen's relationship with Abby, as opposed to Oskar's with Eli.

[ColBlair]

A well-argued case! You've made your point, although I wonder why Thomas didn't try and steal blood from a hospital? Or suggest that Abby do so? Then again, how mature or well-educated was Thomas when you think about it?

Just to play devil's advocate, I'll also point out that sunlight as well as moonlight is also sunlight, yet did Abby no harm. So there's some inconsistency. Yet--destroying my own case--we know diffused sunlight was also harmless. She stood there unflinchingly in the apartment when the sun was up, creating a visible glow through the transluscent window coverings. Hence that isn't inconsistent at all.

However, I will address another point. When she fed on the jogger she was still relatively weak, hence what is probably an inability to dispose of the jogger's body. Later, after feeding on the jogger and Virginia and Thomas, Abby evidently had no difficulty picking up almost full-grown kids (like Kenny) and flying across the room with them, rending along the way. My point is that I don't think she could dispose of the jogger's body at that point, whereas the attack on Virginia seemed more like a frenzied reaction to Owen's blood and Abby's own effort not to feed on him right then.

This makes it more likely, imho, that Owen might persuade Abby to start stealing from hospitals.

Interesting point there David. I never thought about Abby's progression of strength throughout the movie. I believe Thomas was still a child too in an elderly man's body, so he pretty much didn't know much about blood banks. I do think that Abby's attack on Virginia was mainly due to the fact she couldn't get herself to kill Owen at all. I do believe that direct sunlight would harm but not the diffused sunlight.

[ColBlair]

I don't agree at all with your conclusion concerning human blood and it's viability for Abby. One of the strengths of JAL's story, is it's adherence to reality (with the exception of the very existence of vampires, of course). Since human blood is viable for transfusion for days, there's no scientific reason why Abby couldn't make use of it herself. And there's nothing in the book or film to indicate otherwise. I see no ‘canon’ to support such a conclusion; only speculation. In fact, only if we look at vampire legend, independent of JAL's book, do we find any such ideas, and they're rooted mainly in superstition and folklore...and the supernatural. In my opinion, JAL's tale takes place in the real world; the world of science. And remember, there’s a big difference between the longevity of blood gathered in dirty plastic jugs and transported unrefrigerated even for a few hours, and blood gathered in a germ-free environment, stored in sterilized containers, cooled to the proper temperature for maximum viability, and distributed with the same care.

And Abby is only 12 years old. If she is immature enough to leave the jogger's body in plain sight for Thomas to have to deal with, careless enough to drop out of a tree onto Virginia with her husband 10ft behind her, and, in the book, careless enough to not make sure the old lady with cancer didn't make her escape, resulting in all the questions that raised with the police, I don't find it a stretch at all that raiding a blood bank wouldn't have crossed her mind (she’s just a child, remember ). After all, related to how long she had lived already, blood banks are a very recent development.

My point is: There is not nearly enough evidence to rule out Abby's ability to survive on well-preserved blood. Fan Fiction that makes use of this possibility is not far-fetched at all. (And as you’ve probably guessed by now, I DO have a dog in that race)

Well said Pete. I believe that Abby wasn't able to try out everything when it came to feeding on blood. Human blood seemed to give her more life and maybe didn't try every other creature that is out there. She probably chose one animal and then decided to rule out animal blood for good. here's another theory that I had, if Thomas was with Abby for all those years, did he live with someone other than Abby? (I know I mentioned that before.)

[DavidZahir]

...another theory that I had, if Thomas was with Abby for all those years, did he live with someone other than Abby?

Color me intrigued. What do you mean?

[ColBlair]

...another theory that I had, if Thomas was with Abby for all those years, did he live with someone other than Abby?

Color me intrigued. What do you mean?

I think Abby had a caretaker when Thomas left with her. In my mind, Thomas's family may have gotten killed by the mob. That's how I seen it cause I'm guessing Thomas met Abby around 1937 or 1938. So maybe the caretaker was an adult who took care of Abby and he had to take care of Thomas. This caretaker also probably taught Thomas how to hunt as well.

[DavidZahir]

Hmmmm...that does make sense. Which naturally brings up the question of how Owen can function as Abby's caretaker?