gkmoberg1 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:49 am
...I, by comparison, have not considered that the depth of Abby's love for Owen to be stronger than what she ever felt for Thomas. My view has been that she was once just as much committed to young Thomas as she is now to Owen. In LMI, there is a very short view of a strip of picture film negatives in which we see Abby sitting next to a young boy. While the movie does not explain this image, I think the negatives show Thomas when he was much younger, almost Owen's age. "Why should Thomas not have at that age been just as much a friend & love of Abby as Owen is now?" is what I take away from this.
Last night, I re-watched LMI for the first time in years. The impression I get is that Abby doesn't
want another Thomas. They loved each other, but the relationship couldn't work. As Thomas got older, they couldn't match each other's psychological needs. Abby needs someone to be 12 with her while Thomas needs someone to grow with her. He would have wanted a job, wife, children, and remembrance, which Abby precluded him from having. She's grieved to kill him. Coming to Owen's bed immediately afterward, she wants to "keep things the way they are" with him because she doesn't want to repeat the way they went with Thomas.
Another element is that she doesn't want Owen involved in her vampirism, but he has to be involved anyway, even as a mortal. The tragedy is that he has to spend the rest of his life as a murderer. Depending on what he and Abby do, that could be decades, centuries, or even millennia. The short route condemns them to another failed relationship and isolation until Owen's death. The long route is heavier, but they would always have each other to bear them through it.
Both partners would be initially reluctant to turn Owen. Abby, however, had decades to deal with the consequences of her "reluctance" with Thomas, hence she is likely to turn Owen as Eli turns Oskar. Owen, willing to bear anything for Abby, would accept her decision.