pbt1:
hsm7:
“After shipping them for first 3 years, the relationship between Sookie and Eric in season 4 was the exact opposite of what I wanted.”
That’s a shame, because their relationship surpassed anything I could have ever hoped for in that short period of time.
I’m not surprised considering some of the ‘confessions’ I’ve seen recently.
Most of these “confessions” are ridiculous.
That’s another thing I don’t get. Why the need for an anonymous confession here?
Whose mind do they think they are blowing with this “staggering” revelation? Honestly, if someone confessed their undying love for Joe Lee Mickens and his crusty underwear, that would be confession-worthy, and it would have to be anonymous, because … really.
But stuff like this? Dude, you are not confessing, you are expressing an opinion. Why bother with the cloak-and-dagger format? Say it, sign your screen name to it, and go listen to the world’s tiniest violin playing just for you.
In all honesty I can’t blame the anon confessor. After season 4, I was left with the same bitter aftertaste that I had after reading book 4: I wasn’t craving for more. Maybe it’s the overall cheesiness of AmnesiaEric, maybe it was the fact that everything was so rushed, after waiting for 3 years. Or the fact that their love was consumed in almost complete isolation, far away from the action and the adventure. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m certainly not shipping Eric and Sookie like I was before. I mean, I’m still rooting for them, and I’m certainly rooting for Eric, but I hardly “ship” them like I did 1 year ago. Maybe I’m just a fan of the potential. Maybe something had been really poorly played. I don’t know. And I don’t need to be anonymous to admit it ;)
I sincerely hope the upcoming season will add more fuel to my shipper heart, but I’m not holding my breath for it.
The bolded parts. ITA with him-e. I think you know it already how i feel after S4. I’m hoping to really like S5 (i didn’t hate S4 at all, i actually loved it till the last 3 episodes which were a big “WTF did you smoke AB & Co?”. I still see the potential of their relationship but i just don’t know how and if AB is interested in this anymore. I think he might be, there are signs all over the seasons but still a part of me refuses to allow to believe it because doesn’t want to get burned. I think S5 will clarify many doubts and put things in a new prospective (a one i hope to like) :)
pbt: Kumbya folks. I think we are ever pushing forward to the “True Blood” to be revealed fully. The “Bad Blood” has been revealed drop by drop. Biel’s kingdom will fall this season and I suspect that Alan Ball is combining Quinn and Alcide’s characters. Sookie will realize that Eric is the vampire who has had her back since the beginning. Not because of the blood, but because their is connection is so much more. I get mad with Alan Ball just like all of the rest of us out here. I still think that he will be revealing even more “evil deeds” this season that our “humanitarian” has been involved in. Jason is hunting down the deaths. I foresee a column full of them for Queen Biel.
I don’t get mad with Alan Ball, so its probably best not to speak on behalf of us all.
I understand ( I think) what this confessor is complaining about. During season 4 there was a huge change in Eric. I think viewers expected Sookie to get tougher and darker and harder, to be with Eric, but instead Eric got softer and sweeter and more gentle to be with Sookie.
This is not what most viewers anticipated. It runs counter to the whole trend in current “quality” programming and a lot of contemporary culture. We are not living in an age that is tolerant of sentiment. We are living in an age that embraces snark, looks down on weakness, and enjoys shock and gore. Viewers have embraced shows with dark themes and storylines, from incest to murder. Look at other shows that are water cooler fodder—Game of Thrones, Dexter, Spartacus, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, and Sons of Anarchy. I’m not criticizing these shows—they’re very entertaining and well-done—I’m simply saying that a genuinely sweet love story is bucking the prevailing cultural trends. Current tastes are not in harmony with this sort of romance.
Season 1-3 Eric and Sookie, in contrast, WAS in line with these cultural trends. Before season 4, what was between Sookie and Eric was, by very definition, illicit. She was in a committed relationship with someone else. She thought he was a bad guy, and he was certainly an opportunistic, ruthless, blood-thirsty character. To have Sookie fall for real Eric, while she still felt he was an evil bastard, would have been much more in keeping with current tastes.
So why soften Eric at all? Why have him confront moral issues? Why not let Sookie have an illicit romance?
Because Sookie and Eric’s relationship is not a fling, or a bad idea that Sookie’s doing because she misses Bill and Eric looks good half-naked. The show takes their relationship very seriously. It isn’t going to portray their coupling as shameful.
As a Buffy fan, I keep thinking of how Buffy started sleeping with Spike because she felt alienated from everyone she actually cared about when she was resurrected. Their relationship was written as shameful, even degrading.
True Blood isn’t writing Eric and Sookie like that. There’s something redemptive—for both characters—in their relationship. Eric’s not dragging Sookie down to his level, mechanical fucking in a filthy basement, she’s dragging him up to the (literal) sunlight and fresh air. Eric isn’t lying to Sookie while claiming to love her, and Sookie isn’t choking and fucking him simultaneously, trying to express the twisted mixture of love and hate she feels for him. Those toxic behaviors are left to Bill and Sookie with Bill. Instead of darkness, and twisted sex, and shameful depravity, we’re given honesty, tenderness, compassion, and love.
But, again, current tastes don’t always favor healthy relationships. One web reviewer rated Bill and Sookie’s hate sex at the end of season 3 the hottest sex scene ever shown on True Blood. Bill twisting Lorena’s head around while raping her came in third. I won’t name the reviewer (go to UGO if you want to see more of the list), but when I read that I realized that tastes vary WILDLY. Not everyone wants tenderness or sweetness, especially in fictional characters. In fiction, people often want to explore what they can’t or won’t do in real life. They want to vicariously experience extreme behavior safely. That’s not why I watch or read, though, so that doesn’t appeal to me. I ship Sookie and Eric because they literally bring out the best in each other.
