Eric is So Tortured. Well, is he - or not?

Well, somehow my last post really gave way for a lot of discussion. Some of you have been disappointed that I didn’t include Eric in this post. But I had my reasons. I didn´t consider Eric being one of those tortured Vampires because he obviously loves being a Vampire. He never had problems killing humans or taking their blood.

But I’ll let someone speak for Eric, so here is what FireCrotch from WeBitePrettyHard has to say ( you will find everything from FireCrotch in black and my thoughts in red :

(**I’m going to try and do this without spoilers from the books (which makes things awfully difficult because that’s how I fell in love), but if you haven’t finished season 2 of True Blood, you should finish and then read this post.**)

I know I know…people are still so Team Bill.  And you are all still probably sobbing uncontrollably wondering what happened to Bill after he proposed to Sookie in the season finale.  Yes, I understand the Bill love, truly I do, because I too cared for Bill…but the adoration has waned and now I only have eyes for Mr. Northman.  “Why?” you may ask.  I know he seems like a BAMF and up to no good (case in point, chaining a bunch of peeps up in the basement of Fangtasia including our beloved Lafayette). Yes this is a good point, Bill would have never done that and this was really mean and so bad-vampy like.  He has been around for a thousand years and there is very little humanity left in him.  He doesn’t have a problem killing or drinking from humans (unlike Bill).  He seemingly gets off on the power he wields being sheriff (especially over Bill).  But let me count the ways that I heart Eric:

1.      He can fly and he likes teacup humans. (I hope we will see him flying in the next season! But yeah Fire this is really really a reasonable reason for loving him …;) )

2.     He doesn’t take crap from anyone (well except for the Queen…Yahtzee anyone?).  He was a warrior, and a good one at that.  He was so good that on his deathbed, his maker asked him to stay with him forever because he was impressed with his mad battle skills.

3.     He’s a tricky bastard.  Yup, he totally tricked Sookie into drinking his blood so that they would be bonded together.  And then we all (ok, all of us minus Betti) got the treat of a totally erotic dream with Eric. If only the camera man could have swooped a little further down and to the left. *sigh* (Gosh this scene was awesome and seeing him smiling was so wonderful)

4.    He is loyal.  See number 5 below for my comments about Eric’s loyalty to Godric.  Have you noticed how close he and Pam are?  I could say so much on this subject from the books, but I won’t, except that Eric is Pam’s maker.  And Pam colors and styles his hair.  ‘Nuff said.

5.     He loves deeply.  Raise of hands for those who teared up when Eric pleaded with Godric not to leave him. (I cried like hell and even watched it again… ) Yup, that’s what I thought, you can put your hands down.  For a thousand years Godric and Eric raped, looted, pillaged, and plundered their way through the world.  Godric taught Eric everything he knew about his new life in death.  We are only left to wonder at their close relationship, but doesn’t this picture really say it all?

Just for the record, I love him too! While I was definitely Team Bill in the beginning, Eric gained a lot of profile in Season 2 – and the haircut finally made him sexy! Reading the books made me love him even more. He is the more interesting character, he´s conflicted and not knowing what goes on in his head makes him even more fascinating.

But coming back to what FireCrotch has to say about Eric being tortured:

So why do I say that Eric is tortured?  Because he has loved and lost.  And there is something about Sookie that he is drawn to whether he wants to admit it or not.  He has lived for centuries, and yes, very little of his humanity is left, but in those moments with Godric, I think we got a glimpse of Eric’s former life.  He is a deeply private man who is now facing the rest of his life without his maker.  Has he lived long enough?  Does he still have purpose?  And what of Sookie?  Why does he continue to pursue her?  Eric has a lot on his emotional plate right now. 

This is totally true, he starts realizing that his feelings for Sookie are much more than just the wish to have sex with her or  taste her blood. But does this makes him tortured? I would rather say confused. It´s been a long time since he felt something close to Love and that´s maybe why he simply doesn´t recognize the feeling for what it is. Seeing Eric crying in this episode really showed that Eric is a lot mor than just the bad Vampire who owns a bar and likes to frighten some humans. Also, I guess it is hard  for him to admit these feelings to himself.

In comparison, Bill had to leave his wife and children behind, but he’s only had to deal with the loss for 150 years or so.  And maybe he still has some living relatives…who knows?   Yes, he is determined to mainstream, and no he didn’t really want to turn Jessica, but really, why is he such a pussy when it comes to protecting Sookie from Eric?  Bill feels that he was cheated out of his life with his family and death, but it certainly didn’t stop him from living it up with his maker Lorena for decades.  So tortured, perhaps…totally whipped, absolutely. 

Whatever he has done during the time with Lorena, at some point he stopped it because he hated the “life” they were living. You remember the episode where he visited his remaining family? There he realized that this life is gone and he can never have it back. He lived the life Lorena showed him and at that point he simply didn´t know any better. He would do everything to be back human again, do you think Eric would give his Vampire life for a human mortal life? I guess not.

I disagree…I think that Eric would give his life…he did save Sookie during the bombing (even though he tricked her into sucking the bullets out of him and thus ingested his blood, hehe).  But if he had not covered her, she probably would have died.  And for those of you who say Eric wasn’t in danger of dying from his wounds, I say to you that vampires did die in the blast, so potentially he could have died saving her.  I think this was where we finally got to see Sookie’s importance to Eric (even if he did act like a total ass after the fact).

Oh yes you are totally right, this was an important scene and definitely showed how much Eric cared for her. But I still believe he did that with the knowledge he wouldn´t die. I know some of them died, but still I think he cares more for his own life than for a human’s. I mean, yes he wants to have Sookie, but he still doesn´t know that he loves her.

One part for Eric I want to add. It was the episode before the bombing, where Sookie was captured and he came to rescue her and Godric. He handed himself to Fellowship so that Godric and Sookie could go. This scene showed a lot of his character, when I saw it I couldn´t believe what he was doing. I loved him a bit more after this episode and it made me forget the fact that he called Lorena to get Bill out of the way so that he could get closer to Sookie… 

It seems that Mrs. V and I have different views on the subject of Eric being a tortured soul, erm, man, erm, vampire.  What do you think? Yeah, tell us - what do you think??