Maybe I’m just a sucker for alpha male posturing but I’ll give Alan Ball kudos for this, and I’ll give it in spades.
The Eric/Bill dynamic on True Blood is way, way, WAY better than in the books.
This vid is a tribute the age old, time honoured, “mine is bigger than yours” contest that has formed the foundation of all male relationships – vampire and human – since Adam was a boy.
“Oh Billy. This paranoia….it’s really quite unbecoming. Has she…uh…mentioned me?”
Source – smvgrey74
“There is something I must tell you.”
Here came the Big Bad. His cool fingers twined with mine, and without wanting to, I held his hand hard.
I couldn’t think of a word to say, at least a word that was safe. My eyes fixed on his.
“Bill was summoned to Mississippi,” Eric told me, “by a vampire—a female—he’d known many years ago. I don’t know if you’ve realized that vampires almost never mate with other vampires, for any longer than a rare one-night affair. We don’t do this because it gives us power over each other forever, the mating and sharing of blood. This vampire…”
“Her name,” I said.
“Lorena,” he said reluctantly.– CLUB DEAD
And so begins the downhill slide of Bill Compton.
In the opening chapter of Club Dead Bill is withdrawn and secretive, spending more and more time on his computer and less and less time giving Sookie the attention she feels she deserves. Sookie is hurt and confused at this sudden change in his demeanour, wondering what could possibly be big enough to cause Bill to lose interest in having sex with her. As it turns out, Bill is slightly preoccupied with matters involving other women – Sophie Anne has him working on a secret database, secret even from his girlfriend and his boss. And Bill’s maker – a vampire with whom he had a long, intense and unusual relationship – is calling him to return to her. Sookie knows nothing of Bill’s maker, let alone the extent of their long history together or the power she still exerts over him.
Bill eventually goes to Lorena, and ends up kidnapped and held at Russell Edgington’s. Sookie turns to Eric for help finding him, and Eric calls in a favour from Alcide. Sookie’s horny hormones do what they do best..and you all know the rest.
Cut to True Blood, and things are decidedly screwy in Alan Ball’s alternaverse. Bill’s maker, Lorena has already made an appearance in Dallas. While she is still in love with Bill, her reappearance in Bill’s life is due to Eric’s intervention rather than any inclination of her own. Bill appears to loathe Lorena with a passion he never had in the books, and Lorena and Sookie have already faced off and are well and truly aware of eachother’s existence. Lorena has “released” Bill, though what that means exactly is yet to be explained. Such a concept does not exist in the books – maker and child are bound until final death. This makes alot of sense to me, but what the hell do I know.
Based on what has transpired between Lorena and Bill on True Blood so far, I had written off any hope that Bill would betray Sookie with Lorena as he did in the books.
But then…then Mariana Kloveno gave this interview.
First of all, there is this comment about Bill:
…the hardcore Sookie and Bill fans are going to have some rough road up ahead. Bill has an interesting arc this season, yeah, that’s all I’ll say, but you’ll see different shades of vampire Bill than what we’ve seen before.”
Pedestal, and Big Long Fall are the first things that come to mind. But since we’re all pretty much expecting that, this isn’t such big news.
What has really been driving me crazy about the beginning of season 3 is how Ball will have Sookie hook up with Alcide when there has been none of the set up with Bill that preceded this in the books. This is very risky territory for a TV series – if it’s not handled properly, the audience could very well end up viewing Sookie as cheating bitch and lose sympathy with her altogether. With Bill being held and no other factors in play, Sookie playing around with Alcide is flat out cheating. She doesn’t have the “get out jail free card” that Book Sookie had, namely that Bill had cheated on her and dumped her first.
Without any of that set up, Ball HAS to have Bill do something that will make Sookie and Alcide palatable to the audience.
So let’s go back a bit.
Back to the SFP in the season 2 finale. The SFP that seemed so random, ill-timed, and out of left field. Even if you’re a Bill lover, you cannot argue in any rational way that this marriage proposal made sense. I know this – I’ve read forums and Bill sites discussing the proposal, and when you scratch past the grand romantic gesture it represents, not even the most devout have any explanation that gels with the plot. They didn’t see it coming and even though it wets their panties no end, they’re as dumbfounded as we are as to how it fits into the story arc.
Bill was kidnapped thinking that Sookie was about to turn down his marriage proposal. I’m 100% sure that Lorena is behind the kidnapping, since Russell Edgington is appearing in season 3 and the suggestion in the books was that Edgington was behind the whole thing and Lorena was just his pawn.
Kloveno has revealed in this interview that Lorena will show us she is capable of controlling herself and learning from her past behaviour:
“I think in this season … she may surprise you a bit. You’ll see, or you think you may, you think that she’ll do something horribly evil, and she chooses not to, which I really love, and I think it’ll maybe surprise people. Not as monstrous as maybe once perceived.”
It seems that Godric’s “Vampire Morals 101” lecture to Lorena in season two was anvil-style foreshadowing. Lorena may be about to see the light, realising that she will only ever have a chance with Bill if she changes her ways.
Retract...Your...Fangs.
So where do we find ourselves if Lorena starts showing a willingness to change because Bill has (and she has totally come off as desperate enough to do that, so far), while Bill is thinking that Sookie has rejected him?
Could Bill – who let’s face it, is not known for his ability to control himself in the face of temptation of any kind – end up having a moment of weakness just long enough to screw himself over?
Could that proposal have been nothing more than a plot device, designed to set up the kidnapping and create an emotional and physical separation between Sookie and Bill so that the playing field is left open for both of them?
I’m really starting to wonder now whether Bill and Lorena are the lost cause on True Blood that I thought they were. What we’ve seen from Ball so far is that he takes the basic premise of the book story and he twists it. Sometimes he strangles it beyond redemption, but sometimes he does get it right (Eric and Godric for example) and I’m prepared to give him credit when that happens. Lorena having an attack of conscience would be unpredictable – but not out of character. We only know Lorena through Sookie in the books, and Sookie was understandably hostile.
This could open the door for Bill’s betrayal and Sookie’s relationship with Alcide in a way that bookies wouldn’t expect. I really love Lorena on True Blood, and it would be great to see facets of her character that Charlaine couldn’t show us in the books because of Sookie’s feelings about her.
Ausiello is reporting today a confirmation from Alan Ball that Sam will face horrible consequences for drinking a gallon of Bill’s blood in the season 2 finale.
Sam shall be tormented and tortured in a hillbilly hotel room with Bill sex dreams!
Sucks to be you, Sam Merlotte.
Since my preferred slash coupling – Eric and Lafayette – don’t look like being realised on screen any time soon, this will just have to do for now.
I was utterly convinced that the consequences of Sam drinking from Bill would be completely ignored next season, with only Sookie and Laf enjoying the sleepy-time benefits of ingesting vampire blood. So I’m really pleased to see some attempt at continuity in this storyline.
But you know there’s a rant coming, and here it is.
After the finale (when I had calmed down enough to think rationally) I wondered if – and how – things would play out between Sam and Bill in the future. I’ve ripped this directly from my little notebook of conspiracy theories, written last September:
One of the following two scenarios must play out after Sam having Bill’s blood. Either:
Sam starts having sex dreams about Bill – since both Sookie and Lafayette are having them about Eric, while insisting that there is no sexual attraction at play. If it’s true there is no attraction (at least for Lafayette), Bill/Sam dreams must occur – since Sam definitely has no sexual attraction towards Bill whatsoever. This means the blood can cause attraction where there was none before.
OR
Sam has no sexy dreams about Bill. In this case, we should get a clearer indication that Lafayette does in fact have a boner for Eric, just as we all know Sookie does. Therefore the blood only intensifies feelings that already exist, either consciously or sub consciously.
So it appears we are getting the first scenario. In Ball’s world, the taking of blood can cause sexual attraction. This is a major departure from the books, where the blood can only intensify an attraction that already exists.
In Ball’s world, Eric (and Bill, for that matter) are manipulating thoughts and feelings, and by extension the actions, of others through their blood. This is so fucking stupid. It removes any genuine emotional conflict and complexity, and lays blame for what remains with the blood. The blood becomes a crutch. Feeling attraction for a vampire that isn’t your boyfriend? Oh don’t be stupid, it’s the blood. Feeling hot for a guy that locked you up in a basement for a few weeks? Nuh-uh silly, it’s just the blood. Suddenly having fantasies about the dude who is dating your crush? That damn blood again! This approach is significantly less interesting than forcing characters to face up to what may lie behind those feelings, and it treats the audience like idiots who need to be spoonfed. The issue of blood ties generally, and the blood bond between Sookie and Eric is sometimes frustrating for book readers. But it is also compelling and beautiful and filled with potential. It is complex, unpredictable and mysterious; we are never quite sure how it’s playing into the characters feelings and actions. This, on the other hand is Blood Ties For Dummies. Blood Bonds for the Masses. It’s insulting, actually.
I’m not really concerned about the implications for Sookie and Eric – her attraction to him was evident well before the bullet sucking in Dallas. And of course, Eric is still one up on Bill, having a genuine interest in Sookie without ever having tasted her. I think both of these factors support an argument for the tables being turned on Bill and Eric at some point down the line – the “evil” one genuinely loves her, the “noble” one turns out to have feet of clay.
You can be sure that as the first real clarification of how blood exchanges are going to work in True Blood, this will be jumped upon by certain sections of fandom to support the case that Eric is an evil, manipulative bastard. Nothing new there. Yet I would also point out that playing things this way has huge implications for Bill and Sookie too. While Sookie was interested in Bill before she had his blood, she went completely into overdrive immediately after the second night when he fed her after she was bashed. Masturbating on Bill’s porch? I don’t think she made a habit of self-pleasuring in public before that incident. Combined with Bill’s comments in Dallas about having “sexual feelings” for Eric after drinking his blood, surely Sookie is going to have to start joining the dots here?
Enjoy that pretty ring Sookie…I have a feeling it won’t be on your finger for long.
In the first of three posts looking at Bill and Eric’s sexual behaviour and what it may reveal about their character and their vampiric nature, we took apart the MO used by each vampire to initiate sex and noted several stark differences in their approaches.
Today in the second post I’m getting down and dirty. It’s time to get these vampires between the sheets to see what they can do.
I would like to state for the record that writing these posts has given me the best excuse ever to pore all over the steamy bits of my books again…as if I really needed an excuse. I did, however, need to explain to my husband why my whole SVM series is sprawled around my desk with all the sex scenes dog eared and notes scrawled through them. Being a dirty perv in the name of research certainly sounds better than being…well, just a dirty perv.
And on that note, we shall begin. With an apology for the epic length.
THE ACT – BILL
Bill and Sookie have a number of sexual encounters during which the tone of Sookie’s narration is generally…well, harrowing.
Dead Until Dark (graveyard scene)
..I could feel the turmoil in him, I could taste his rage.
Directing that energy in another way might save me. I leaned that inch, put my mouth on his chest…
The next moment his teeth grazed my shoulder, and his body, hard and rigid and ready, shoved me so forcefully I was suddenly on my back in the mud. He slid directly into me as if he were trying to reach through me to the soil…
I had thought he might kill me without meaning to.
Living Dead in Dallas
His hands were under my sweater and my bra was in two pieces. He was relentless. I almost collapsed after the first time I came. “No” he growled when I was flagging, and he kept pounding. Then he increased the pace until I was almost sobbing, my sweater tore and his teeth found my shoulder. He made a deep, awful sound, and then, after long seconds, it was over.”
The first passage above from DUD is borderline rape. Sookie initiates sex with Bill sensing that he has completely lost control and that she is in immediate and serious danger. This scene is actually an interesting precursor to the trunk rape. In the trunk rape scenario, the defence centres around the fact that Bill had been tortured and starved and that he never would have done it in his right mind. I call bullshit. In this scene we see a well fed, untortured Bill in his right mind on the verge of raping Sookie or worse, because he cannot control his urges. Naturally a tortured and starved Bill can control them even less, however this scene demonstrates that the issue exists long before Sookie ends up locked in a trunk with him. Bill has self control issues and Harris deliberately points it out, over and over again.
In the second passage, Sookie almost sounds like she is relaying her grocery list rather than describing an intimate interaction with her boyfriend. Her voice is detached and I think that is meant to clue us into where she is mentally. What is noteworthy is not just the fact that this is rough sex – since there are other times that Sookie enjoys Bill’s “intensity” and what goes on between consenting adults is their business. But what I notice about some of these scenes is how at first Sookie is generally consenting and comfortable with what’s happening, as she is in this scene until she orgasms. Then Bill crosses a line, and Sookie often doesn’t speak up. I wonder whether this is a combination of her sexual inexperience in these earlier books, and her history of sexual abuse. Regardless, Bill crosses her line…and then he just keeps right on going.
A common coping mechanism adopted by victims of sexual abuse is to “leave their bodies” during the experience. As a victim of childhood sexual abuse, it’s reasonable to assume that as an adult, Sookie’s response to aggressive sexual behaviour is to just “mentally check out” – and this perhaps goes some way to explain her tone in these scenes, and also why she doesn’t put up more of a fight when Bill loses control. Her fear, or discomfort about what is happening is easily detected by the reader through her narration, even when she isn’t verbalising it to Bill.
The lack of dialogue noted between Sookie and Bill in the initiation stage continues through the act itself. Unless they’re communicating immediate physical needs, they use only their bodies to communicate during sex. The act is often brief, intense…and mostly silent. Kind of like Bill. Bill/Sookie sex involves very little eye contact, however Bill’s penchant for taking her from behind, bent over something or in darkened cars, porches and graveyards would seem to make eye contact a challenge.
Look behind you Sookie! He's BEHIND YOU! And what's with the arm grabbing? We CU Beel...
Now I do realise that Sookie and Bill have a couple of sex scenes during which Bill manages to behave himself – they aren’t all as dark as the examples above. But even in their “lighter” scenes, I still feel a vibe from Bill that I just find unsettling. Witness his vengeful fit killing of Uncle Bartlett after Sookie shared something private with him in her post coital glow. Sookie is not very impressed with this and she dumps him. No sooner are the words out of her mouth and he’s trying to have sex with her. Again. Really, Bill?
It was at about this point I realised I was utterly and completely over Bill Compton.
Interestingly, there aren’t any dark sex scenes with Eric. Could it be that Harris doesn’t really want us to think he’s the bad guy, after all?
THE ACT – ERIC
Ladies, hold onto your panties. Gentlemen, you may wish to take notes.
Dead to the World
I was so on fire for him I was surprised that flames didn’t flicker out of my fingertips. I curled my fingers around him and stroked.
Suddenly Eric was on top of me, about to enter. I was exhilarated and very ready. I reached between us to put him at just the right spot, rubbing the tip of him over my nub as I did so.
“My lover,” he said hoarsely, and pushed.
Though I’d been sure I was prepared, and I ached with wanting him, I cried out with the shock of it.
After a moment, he said, “Don’t close your eyes. Look at me, lover.”
The way he said “lover” was like a caress, like he was calling me by a name no other man had ever used before or ever would after.
His fangs were completely extended and I stretched up to run my tongue over them.
Fangs....so pretty....sigh...what was I saying? Oh yes - I hold some hope for True Blood watching the two dream sequences. They captured the spirit of E/S perfectly.
Dead and Gone
His jeans were off, and his shirt, too, and my panties vanished. His long cool body pressed full length against my warm one. He kissed me over and over in a kind of frenzy. He made a hungry noise, and I echoed it. His fingers probed me, fluttering against the hard nub in a way that made me squirm.
“Eric,” I said, trying to position myself underneath him. “Now.”
He said, “Oh, yes.” He slid inside as if he’d never been gone, as if we’d made love every night for the past year.
“This is best,” he whispered, and his voice had that accent I caught occasionally, that hint of a time and place that were so far distant I could not imagine them.
“This is best ,” he said again. “This is right .”
I rose and fell faster and faster, and then I took his wrist, and I bit with all my strength, sucked on the wound. He yelled, an incoherent sound of release and relief. That was enough to finish me, and I collapsed on top of him. I licked his wrist lazily, though I didn’t have the coagulant in my saliva that he possessed.
“Perfect,” he said. “Perfect.”
Let us take a moment to collect ourselves before continuing.
Because I am very fucking distracted.
.
.
.
Okay then.
The first thing I notice about Eric and Sookie’s sex scenes is the complete change of tone in Sookie’s narration. She is very much present, physically and emotionally in every scene and there is not a hint of the mental detachment so often evident with Bill. The Eric scenes are quite long – the DTTW scene runs for 8 pages, and the scene in DAG for 15 pages. In contrast to the Bill/Sookie scenes, none of which are anywhere near as lengthy, Sookie describes the actual events, what is said, what she’s thinking, how Eric is reacting, and her feelings in great detail. You certainly don’t feel as though she’s rattling off her grocery list when she’s relating sex with Eric. Sookie (*ahem* Charlaine) makes sure we get every…single…juicy…detail. I wonder why she thinks we’d need to know all of that about Eric, but not about Bill? Or Quinn for that matter.
Just as we saw in the initiation post, as they move onto the act itself E/S remain physically on level with each other, they are always face to face, always in eye contact, and they are talking to each other throughout. No one partner is ever dominant – in both scenes, they make love twice. The first time is more intense and Eric takes the lead. The second time is always slower, with Eric noticeably stepping back and encouraging Sookie to take things where she wants to. Sookie tends to play a wait and see game a little in bed with Eric. She takes her cues from him – then she responds fully when she’s confident she’s not misreading him. I think this springs from her still not understanding what he might see in her beyond her telepathy and fae blood, and her intimidation by the extent of his experience over hers – something she comments on often. He seems to be aware of these feelings, and appears to be trying to encourage her.
In Dead to the World, Sookie reflects on her first time with Eric: “It wasn’t just the dynamic sex that had given me so much pleasure (though that had contained moments I’d remember till the day I died); it was the companionship. Actually, the intimacy”. In contrast to Bill, Eric actually initiates a lot of the more intimate aspects of their encounters – asking her to look him at him rather than close her eyes, asking her to bite him just because it feels good, asking her to tell him about their history when he lost his memory. These behaviours indicate to me that Eric understands women. Not only does he understand them, but he genuinely likes women. He chose to turn a woman as his companion in Pam, after all. While I’m under no illusions that he doesn’t rate himself in the sack, I think it’s clear from these scenes that sex for him is as much about making Sookie happy as it is about his own satisfaction. I don’t feel this is necessarily the norm for him anymore – vampire that he is – which makes it even more fascinating to see this side of him reawakened through her.
Far beyond two people having sex, Eric and Sookie are most certainly making love.
VERBS AND ADJECTIVES
Eric scenes: fire, stroked, exhilarated, ready, lover, pushed, ached, wanting, shock, caress, stretched, kissed, frenzy, hungry, probed, fluttering, squirm, made love, best, right, whispered, release, relief, bit, kissed, licked, lazily, perfect.
Bill scenes: relentless, collapsed, growled, came, no, flagging, pounded, sobbing, tore, awful, turmoil, rage, grazed, hard, rigid, shoved, forcefully, slid, kill.
So are we seeing a pattern here yet?
NEXT POST: Loved by a Vampire – The Afterglow
For nine books now, most of us have probably argued the suitor pros and cons back and forth on forums, made lists, traded insults and experienced dark moments of doubt in the great “Suitor Debate”.
Personality flaws and attributes have been endlessly dissected in an effort to determine the best partner for Sookie. Sexual behaviour is a reflection of personality, and we can tell a great deal about a person – and a relationship – from what goes down in the bedroom.
With that in mind, I thought it could be interesting to compare Bill and Eric’s sexual behaviour and the way they relate to Sookie in bed. One way to do this is to break the sex scenes down into phases – the initiation, the act, and the afterglow.
INITIATION – BILL
As the younger vampire, Bill has more issues with self control [both in and out of bed] than Eric does, but I don’t think this is solely due to his age. His personality is generally dark, secretive and more introverted than Eric’s and I think this is expressed most clearly in the way he relates to Sookie sexually.
From the outset it is clear that Bill has alot of trouble reigning himself in when it comes to sex. His approach to initiating it is often intense and very physical:
Dead Until Dark:
He scooted across the seat towards me, his arms scooping me up before I could say anything else. Then his mouth was on mine and after a second his tongue began licking the blood from my face.
I was really scared. I was also really angry. I grabbed his ears and pulled his head away from mine using every ounce of strength I possessed…
His eyes were like caves with ghosts dwelling in their depths.
“Bill!” I shrieked. I shook him. “Snap out of it!”
Living Dead in Dallas:
“As I unlocked the front door, Bill came out of the darkness. Without a word he grabbed my arm and turned me to him…we stumbled into the house and he turned me to face the couch. I gripped it with my hands and, just as I’d imagined, he pulled down my pants and then he was in me.”
The Mood tends to take Bill quite suddenly, it overwhelms him often, and he really does have trouble controlling his urges. This would seem to be partly because he doesn’t really understand why he should have to. There is usually very little dialogue between him and Sookie – Bill is an Action Man – and sex is not usually preceeded by conversation or intimacy. A notable exception is the very first time when Bill shows up the evening of Gran’s funeral and proceeds to brush her hair like his dolly and talk with her a little about his human life. The time he chose to make his move, and the fact that Sookie gave it up to him that night makes the motivation for his sharing [which incidentally, never happens again] dubious. Although this scene appeared intimate on the surface I think it’s reasonable to question it, given that it doesn’t gel with his sexual behaviour thereafter.
Foreplay for Bill often includes a bit of underwear ripping and “manhandling”. I can think of at least three instances where Sookie’s underwear/clothing is ripped by Bill, and many more where he has physically handled her person. This happens both in and out of the bedroom.
And notice that I haven’t even mentioned the OTHER incident. Interestingly, it’s not even necessary to refer to that in order to flesh out Bill’s self control issues. They clearly still exist, even outside the gray area of the trunk.
Bill puts on his moves. On the porch, in the dark...as is his habit. Nice t-shirt Sook - that colour suits you very well...
INITIATION – ERIC
Eric approaches sex in a very different way to Bill, and his approach is consistent. Vampire he may be, but he demonstrates patience and self control that Bill either cannot muster, or has no desire to.
Club Dead
[Sookie wakes after the staking with Eric already in the bed beside her]
“Thank you Eric” I didn’t care for how shaky I sounded but an obligation was an obligation.
“For what?” His hand stroked my stomach.
“For standing by me in the club. For coming here with me. For not leaving me alone with all these people”.
“How grateful are you?” he whispered, his mouth hovering over mine. His eyes were very alert now, and his gaze was boring into mine….
“That kind of ruins it, when you say something like that,” I said, trying to keep my voice gentle. “You shouldn’t want me to have sex with you just because I owe you,”
“I don’t really care why you have sex with me, as long as you do it,” he said, equally gently.
…His mouth was on mine then…
Dead to the World:
“I’ll do that for you,” Eric said, pulling back the curtain to step into the shower with me…
…While I stood stock-still, paralyzed by conflicting waves of emotion, Eric took the soap out of my hands and lathered up his own…
“Have we ever made love?” he asked.
I shook my head, still unable to speak.
“Then I was a fool,” he said, moving one hand in a circular motion over my stomach. “Turn around, lover.”
Dead and Gone:
Then he got under the blanket with me and propped himself up on an elbow. He was looking down at me…
[Conversation about Quinn and Nevada]
“Then I am high handed.” Eric said with no shame whatsoever. “I’m also very . . .” He dipped his head and kissed me slowly, leisurely.
“Horny,” I said.
“Exactly,” he said, and kissed me again. …”It’s time I claimed what is mine.”
Reading these passages together, a pattern emerges. Eric has always initiated with Sookie in the same way. First, he makes his physical presence equal to hers [lying down in bed with her, lying down on the floor, getting into the shower with her]. This might be to make himself less physically threatening, or perhaps just a reflection of his desire for them to be on an even footing. It’s an interesting contrast to Bill – rather than using his body to put her at ease as Eric does, Bill uses his physical strength to dominate her and maneuver her body for his satisfaction. I always get the sense that Bill’s determination to satisfy Sookie is rooted in the desire to satisfy himself.
Eric’s next move is to emotionally engage through conversation. The talking leads into the sex and even though Eric initiates, Sookie is always in control of how far it goes. When she says stop, he does – without hesitation or sulking [recall CD when they are interrupted by Bubba, and LDID – “Yield to me, Sookie” and she says no.] He always initiates in a slow, non threatening way. He always makes sure that she knows she is in control. He always makes sure that she can see him coming.
He behaves as though he knows about Sookie’s childhood sexual abuse. But he doesn’t know. We also have no evidence that he knows about the rape – they have never discussed it on the page and while he would have seen that she’d been drained after getting her out of the trunk, it would not have been obvious that she had been raped. So we can only assume that Eric’s behaviour speaks of the man, rather than the circumstances.
From the small taste we’ve had of Dead in the Family, Sookie is physically battered and psychologically traumatised. Eric is continuing to show an awareness that Sookie needs to be the one to set the parameters of their sexual relationship. Sookie tells Amelia he had asked her several times if she was sure she wanted to engage in sex.
Compare Eric’s self restraint to this Bill/Sookie exchange in LDID:
He was ready again, and he was rough with it, as if he were trying to prove something.
“Be sweet,” I said, the first time I had spoken.
“I can’t. It’s been too long, next time I’ll be sweet, I swear”.
This is one of a number of examples of Sookie telling Bill no, slow down, stop, or be gentle and he is unable or unwilling to comply. He is VAMPIRE. He relishes his nature because it gives him an excuse to behave like an oaf. He constantly uses it to defend himself when his self control is lacking.
Eric makes a move. And look! They're holding hands and smiling! There's connection, there's intimacy...there's talking! OK it's a dream, but we all know that this was major foreshadowing. This is how Real Eric rolls.
It’s also interesting to compare the verbs and adjectives used in the selection of passages above, which are taken from different scenes and books.
Bill scenes: scooted, scooping, licking, scared, angry, grabbed, pulled, shrieked, shook, snap, stumble, gripped.
Eric scenes: stroked, whispered, hovering, gaze, gently, emotion, made love, lover, kissed, slowly, leisurely, mine.
CH’s choice of words sets the tone of the scenes, and sheds light on the nature of the relationships. Bill’s words convey the physicality and urgency of the sex and are a reflection of the essentially physical nature of he and Sookie’s relationship, and Bill’s lack of self control. Eric’s words are “relationship” words. They are words you find in love scenes, as opposed to sex scenes – and this is the case even as far back as Club Dead, before love was ever part of the equation for either of them.
Get set for more toe curling fashion disasters! It’s day 2 of the “Fashion Hell in Sookieverse” poll and today’s nominee is….
Bill – Grateful Gran’s Dead (Dead Until Dark)
So you show up at your girlfriends house in a Grateful Dead t-shirt and jeans. What’s so bad about that, right? It’s actually kind of funny for a vampire right? Bill, this was your big chance to show us that you actually do have a sense of humour. And then you walked inside, wearing that t-shirt to find your girlfriend screaming over HER GRANDMA’S MUTILATED DEAD BODY.
Fashion fail Bill. EPIC FAIL.
So does Mr Sensitive, New Age Boyfriend apologise to Sookie for his grossly inappropriate casual wear? Erm…no. Does he remove this shirt that went from slightly daggy to outright offensive in a matter of moments? Nuh-uh. Does he even acknowledge his monumental fashion faux pas? HELL no. No interest in redemption, our Bill. For anything really.
To be fair, Bill can’t be held entirely responsible since he had just gone home to get changed and didn’t know at the time Gran was dead (or at least I don’t think he knew…). But I will whip him for it anyway.
Bill listens to Kenny G in his car so he deserves what he gets.
Highly inappropriate attire for finding dead grandmothers
Tomorrow’s Victim: Eric
Previous Noms
#1 – Sookie: When Maenads Attack
Probably not.
Nonetheless I’m kicking this question around during the break. Ball cares enough about Bill to make his fate the season cliffhanger. I guess we’re supposed to care about finding Bill too. So here is me, mustering up some “care”. For Bill.
I’m trying hard.
OK.
So bring in the suspects.
Eric
Groan….hiss…spit….ugh.
The last two episodes of Season 2 certainly set Eric up to take the fall. Since TB Eric is responsible for everything from kittens stuck in trees to global warming, there are no surprises here. But I’m about 95% convinced that he won’t be the culprit with the set up being so obvious. “I will take care of Bill Compton?” OK Eric, just smack me over the head with a dried red herring while you’re at it. If it does turn out to be Eric I will flail and gag and swear, and quite possibly be done with Ball’s fanfic. I’ve forgiven and overlooked a lot, but Eric kidnapping a poor victim-of-circumstance Bill is a dealbreaker. The only thing worse would be Bill giving Sookie a new driveway and Eric raping Sookie in a trunk. And the way things are going with this character schizophrenia, I haven’t completely written off the possibility of those things happening in season 3 either.
At any rate, Eric just isn’t this stupid. He already let Lafayette go when he realised that Sookie actually cared what happened to him. Kidnapping Bill, especially after the Stupid Fucking Proposal (to be known hereafter as the SFP…and don’t even get me started on it. No, don’t), would be ten times worse and would put him in Sookie’s doghouse forever.
Lorena
Bill dumped her and told her he never wanted to see her again. EVER. Big words considering they’re both going to live forever. Lorena “wishes he never said that” and vamps off into the night. Ooooh. And we just know that crazy bitch will be back trying to drag Bill off to some bloodbath/orgy in the very near future.
So Lorena was responsible for Bill being “detained” in the books – but Book Bill also became “enthralled” with Lorena and conducted a brief affair with her prior to his being kidnapped. Hell will freeze over before TB Bill would behave like a sex crazed vampire… and we also have no database as a motive since TB Bill is a bum who doesn’t have a job or legitimate source of income. So I’m not feeling this will play out too closely to the books in terms of motive.
If it is Lorena, it’s going to come down to good old fashioned woman scorned stuff, probably tied in with a bit of….
Russell Edgington
Now here’s where things get interesting. In Club Dead we are left thinking that the King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington had no idea that Bill was being held at his mansion by Lorena, or that Sookie staked Lorena and stuffed her carcass under the pool blanket. It’s not until much later in the series when Russell reappears, that we get an inkling that he actually did know all along and there is a vague suggestion that he may have even been in on it.
With Ball’s tendency to mix up events from the books, I’m wondering if we are going to see that Russell is involved in the kidnapping from the start.
Russell Edgington has been cast for season three (it’s that guy up there ^), and a casting call a couple of weeks back for the part of Talbot (Russell’s boyfriend) mentions Bill being shown around a mansion after his kidnapping. So Bill is obviously going to be held at Russell’s.
In the books Russell was interested in a share of Bill’s database. Again, TB Bum!Bill has no database and nothing else of value worth kidnapping him for, that we know of. Maybe Russell wants his Wii…I don’t know.
I have my money on Lorena being responsible for taking Bill, under direction from Russell. I’m still tossing around motives. I just know that the SFP is tied to this in some way. And Bill’s big dirty secret. Today’s theory is that Bill has been kidnapped to get at Sophie Anne. I will most likely change my mind about that tomorrow but let’s run with it. Political takeover by Mississippi in the wind possibly? What does Bill know that could help bring her down? Ball has already hinted that her character won’t be around as long as she was in the books, is this how he plans to get rid of her? Bill and queenie were very cosy when he paid her a visit. Perhaps there is more going on here than Bill acting as her telepath recruitment agent. That may explain Sophie Anne’s little freak out over Bill – who is supposed to be her subordinate – finding out about her drug dealing.
Bill’s proposal was just so far out of left field, and reeked of desperation that I don’t feel had anything to do with Eric’s designs on Sookie. Something is spooking Bill, something even bigger than that great big viking.
Preface: I have edited this post after a couple of days of stewing over what went down at Paley. In it’s original form I was so gobsmacked by the implications for the story that I overlooked alot of other things. Things that I am not so happy about any more.
It’s certainly been an interesting day in Sookieverse! Well online, anyway.
Answering a question at yesterday’s Paley panel regarding how the True Blood writers will handle Bill’s diminished role in future seasons (if they are to follow Charlaine Harris’ books), Ball dropped a pearler.
I know in the book world that Charlaine had to be talked out of killing Bill in the last book but I’m saying in our world Sookie and Bill have a connection that will not die.
Rumors have abounded since the release of Dead and Gone that this was the case, however Harris has refused until now to confirm it. Ball’s remarks have forced Harris to take to her website today in full damage control – mostly to allay the inevitable hysteria that will ensue on her very pro-Bill forums, I presume. Her confirmation that she did entertain this idea means that she considers Bill expendable at this point in the story. To be forced to come out and admit that will alienate the proportion of her book following who are still rooting for him to be Sookie’s happy ending. It’s not at all a good position to be forced into if you want to maintain reader interest and continue to sell books.
Which brings us to the obvious question. Why would Alan Ball – a man who is notorious for his ability to manipulate his meaning, skirt the question, and keep audiences guessing for years on end – make a gaff as monumental as this? I don’t believe for a second that this was a slip of the tongue. Ball doesn’t screw up like that. Especially in a room full of rabid fans, who he knows full well will dissect and critique every syllable that comes out of his mouth.
Along with many book readers, I am livid at Ball for interfering with the books in this way. My inner cynic wonders if he thought it might force Harris’ hand. He would obviously prefer not to see the main character of his fanfic killed off in the source material – if he blurts out at a writer’s panel that the author considered doing just that, is he hoping that a premature reveal will force her to change her mind? A number of Trubie Bill fans have commented in various blogs that since DAG has already been published and she didn’t kill him, this is all a moot point. NO IT IS NOT. Just because Harris decided to let Bill live in DAG, that does NOT mean that she doesn’t have plans to see him bite the dust in a future book. Is Ball’s big mouth going to cause yet another rethink?
And what of Charlaine Harris, who has spent years keeping her intentions for the Bill/Sookie/Eric triangle tantamount to a state secret? Charlaine has said multiple times that the final scene of the books is written in her head, and that she has known who Sookie would be with since the second book. If Bill was involved in this ending in any way, she’d hardly consider killing him off in Book 9. So now we know that Bill is more than likely not “the one”. While I firmly believe that Eric is the HEA, I still don’t want to be told that Bill definitely isn’t – even though I’ve suspected that was the case for quite some time. There is a difference between suspecting something and knowing for certain that it is true. By removing a major player in the suitor race, Alan Ball has ruined this aspect of the series for book readers. In my opinion, Charlaine Harris should damn well sue him. She has been nothing but respectful when discussing his treatment of her world and her characters (when surely, there have been times where she must have uttered a “what the FUCK is he thinking?!”…as we all have). For him to throw her under a bus like this is really bloody shameful.
And an apology is rather conspicuous by its absence too. Surely if he hadn’t meant to do it he would have commented by now. I hope that he saw fit to at least do so in private.
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