Would you let Eli in?

[Robin]

To those who would let Eli in with or without condition... I am curious as to why.

personally, if she did knock at my door and it was undoubtedly Eli, it would mean accepting firstly, the existence of a fictional character from a book/film, and secondly the existence of a mythical being. If she knocked at my door I wouldn't have a choice but to let him/her in, I'd need to know how and why s/he exists, even if s/he couldn't answer, it would be worth it for just to ask the question. I'd definitely offer him/her a litre of blood for free too, mainly cause she's a little girl/boy and I have that kind of compassion, and secondly, you couldn't hate him/her for it. You wouldn't hate a lion, tiger or wolf just because they hunt and eat other animals and indulge in cannibalism, same should be said for Eli.

[God of Vampires]

I do not really know why, exactly like I don't really know why I like Eli as much as I do. Though I am clearly not alone about liking her. If Eli did show up, I would be at first speachless. I would probably invite her at an impulse, thinking about whenever this was a good idea afterwards. You probably will have heard that I probably would try to bargain with her. I would gladly give my life for her if neccesary, maybe because I feel a ltlle suicidal, but I hope we would find a way to work it out, but in worst case scenario, I would be happier dying for Eli's hand then to die of cancer in an old hospital. I am sure she would accept a weekly supply of a litre of my blood instead.

As to helping Eli being morally dubious, I do agree with Robin, I cannot blame her for something she has to do to survive. That does not mean that I take killing lightely, I would only kill reluctantly if it is completely neccesary, and in this day and age, it should not be that hard to get some blood without casualties.

[OUTSIDER]

Perhaps I would open the door and give her a head movement signaling to come right on in. She would then tell me that I must invite her in. I'd say "why, is there something in the way" and then I'd make a clicking noise while bending my index finger again signaling her to come right on in.
Then I would see if she trusted me .... and if she did .... I'd know I could trust her.

[TΛPETRVE]

Believe me, if you did this to her, she'd most probably freak out. I don't think she will ever forget what brought Oskar and her together.

[Xassandra]

no....i have some kind of thing... so i wouldn't let her in.. i even have problems with letting just people in my house

so sorry i can't let her in

[Klesk]

It would be fine if she had a crate of beer to offer. Then I would probably let her in and the whole thing would not be so stressful for me.
I think this would be a very promising tactic, especially in Sweden.

[DMt.]

To those who would let Eli in with or without condition... I am curious as to why.

Is it compassion? Curiosity? Kindness? Do you want to help her? And if you want to help, how much? Reality is you could never be completely sure what a 12 year old girl will do, promise or not. And of course, morally, helping her also means you (worse case) or someone else (best case) has to be ... Well, you know.

Is it love? Because we all love Eli that we are all willing to ignore the risk and dubious morality of helping her?

One of Eli's outstanding characteristics is to cause a grave moral crisis of exactly this sort in everyone s/he encounters.

I suppose anyone's actions in this interesting hypothetical situation would depend on whether they primarily saw the monster or the child.

Conventional morality is not really very useful here.

[ykeleven]

To me, there is no moral ambuguity about helping Eli. To me, it is wrong to help her. I agree that Eli herself is blameless because of her age and her nature. But as an adult and a human being, helping her is wrong.

Moral Imperative: All the man, women and children who were and will be killed by Eli will want us to contain her or stop her. Utilitarianism: In her 200 years of life as a vampire, she was active for 100 years (she slept the other 100 years). Let's say she fed once every 5 days. She has killed 7,300 people. The need of the many outweight the need of the few.

I want to emphasize that Eli herself is blameless. Virginia who become infected chooses a different solution because she is an adult.

As an adult, if I help Eli, I know the consequence of that action to myself and to other human being. To take a lion or tiger analogy, if I was to help a man-eating lion or tiger, knowing full well that she is going to get healthy and eat more people, am I not partially repsonsible for their death?

If Hakan was not a pedophile, and he wanted nothing but Eli's well being, and he went out and kill people, is Hakan still morally right? I do not think so.

What fascinates me the most about Eli is my own reaction to her. I find it almost impossible to do the right thing which to me is to contain her or to destroy her. Just like one of the topic says... I love Eli. That is why she is currently my all time favorite vampire.

[TΛPETRVE]

Well, I guess the best thing would be trying to reason her into pulling the plug herself. Maybe donate her enough red stuff for a few days, spend some time with her (but not so much that she all of a sudden wants to live among people again!) and eventually put her to rest.

[DMt.]

There is no real need to suffer moral agonies over a fictional creature.

Suffice it to say that if Eli WERE real, my concern would be to implement what many of the FF authors have arrived at as a solution; find her a supply of blood. That makes killing people as unnecessary for Eli as the butcher's shop makes it unnecessary to kill for our meat.