truebloodwillpsychuout:

hsm7:

stillhidden:

exitpursuedbyasloth:

truebloodwillpsychuout:

exitpursuedbyasloth:

Heya, sunny!

I fear my wording on the other post was unintentionally misleading. A bomb (actually two) about Bill was planted in “One Word Answer”, but they were not exploded. One was eventually partially revealed (Bill being sent by the Queen, though this was alluded to in earlier books as well), but the other was, like most of Harris’s bombs, never exploded (unless DEA is going to be like one big Michael Bay movie or something).

“One Word Answer” was published about a year before Definitely Dead, which is the book where it is revealed that Bill was sent by the Queen to procure Sookie. In OWA, you can definitely see little hints of that scattered in the conversation between Bill and Cataliades/Waldo/Sophie-Anne.

Keep in mind that Cataliades is Sookie’s demon godfather, and is generally a friend to her (and this is one of the things I think CH may have actually planned, since he always was rather friendly and helpful to Sookie). He, knowing Waldo killed Hadley, deliberately steers the conversation so that Sookie would be able to figure it out and start asking questions to get Waldo to out himself. He also seems to do this, though much more subtly, in regards to Bill being sent to procure her. He doesn’t seem to care for Bill, as when Bill made his presence known (just as Sookie and Cataliades start talking about the Queen), a flash of displeasure crossed Cataliades’s face (they pretended not to know each other, but they HAD to have known each other, at the very least Cataliades had to know about him). Cataliades simply has a working relationship with vampires, but he’s neither overly fond of or intimidated by them, it’s just business. Sookie, however, is family. At one point, this happens (keep in mind Bill is trying to procure Sookie for Sophie-Anne at the time):

“Mr. Cataliades said, “The queen was pleased with Hadley’s enthusiasm and childlike ways. Hadley was only one of a series of favorites. Eventually, the queen’s favor would have fallen on someone else, and Hadley would have had to carve out another place in the queen’s entourage.”

Waldo looked quite pleased at that and nodded. “That’s the pattern.”

I couldn’t get why I was supposed to care, and Bill made a small movement that he instantly stilled. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and I realized Bill didn’t want me to speak.”

Mr. Cataliades is alluding to what is currently happening to Sookie (she’s the Queen’s latest fixation), and Bill get uncomfortable. He doesn’t want her to ask questions about that particular thing. Shortly after that, this happens:

““Pretty girls glut the market,” Waldo said. “Stupid humans. They don’t know what our queen can do to them.”

“If she wants to,” Bill murmured. “If this Hadley had a knack for delighting the queen, if she had Sookie’s charm, then she might have been happy and favored for many years.””

Bill is deluding himself into thinking that Sookie, with all her charm and delightful personality, could be a happy, pampered pet of the Queen’s for years, and therefor he’s not doing anything bad by her. Or, alternately, his possessive side is acting up and he’s warning himself about what’s to come, that the Queen is going to steal his favorite toy.

At the end, after Sookie shows just how clever she can be, and reveals she can sense the blank spots of vampires (and therefor knew Sophie-Anne was in the backseat of the limo), Bill is kind of pissy with her in that understated way he can be, and touches her a lot (this is after he raped her in the back of the Lincoln). Sookie also comments on how creepy and unsettling he can be. But this was still back when CH used negative language when referring to Bill the Rapist.

But, the other bomb was the implication that Bill may have procured Hadley for the Queen as well. When Waldo is trying to goad somebody into killing him (so he would escape the Queen’s torture), he says this to Sookie:

““Your cousin [Hadley] was a bitch and a whore,” Waldo said, unexpectedly.”

Then four lines later, referring to Bill:

““Get your whoremonger to do it, he’s more than willing.”

Bill was looking more vampiric by the second, and he tugged the stake from my fingers.”

I don’t think the use of the title of ‘whoremonger’ for Bill had no meaning. If the ‘whore’ he mongered wasn’t Hadley, then Waldo was referring to Sookie and how to Queen is trying to procure her. Don’t forget Waldo was trying to get Bill to kill him, and threatening to reveal a secret as big as that would probably do it.

But, however way you cut it, this is important information that really should have gone into one of the main novels (it’s not like there wasn’t room for it at the beginning of Definitely Dead). But, well, it’s all about sales, innit?

No, it’s about intelligent folks like Exit reading the books carefully, doing a critical analysis, and coming up with their own conclusions about what’s going on. SVM novels (just like True Blood) leave plenty of room for imagination, anticipation, speculation, and interpretation. Would we have such passionate debates about the books if CH served us everything up on a silver platter? If all actions had predictable consequences? If the motivation of every character was immediately discernible and never varied? If we knew who the killer was on page 15? I don’t think so. Arguing about what’s happening in the books is part of the reading experience. How about we stop bashing CH for not being obvious about her story and just enjoy the ride?

Uh, cause Charlaine herself has basically said she does things for book sales. So by spreading important information and key plot elements into a bunch of anthologies, there are more books to be sold.

Slow your roll, scooter.

And the tag:

Though seriously after 12 books if we can’t discern the motivations of the characters than CH is not doing her job

 This, this! This is one of my biggest problems. It’s not whether we can tell who Sookie will end up with (Though, frankly, if she suddenly develops deep romantic love for Sam in the last book, that’s not a good way to write anything). It’s that we can’t tell not just the motivations of ANY other characters — after all, we are in Sookie’s head, and for all her telepathy, she can’t tell much and often — it’s that we can’t tell what the hell HER intentions and motivations are. A book before last showed us Sookie coming to terms with a lot of things, moving past the “normal life with picked fences and babies,” etc. Then the last book reversed all that and now she’s all “but baaaabiiiiiessss!!!!” And that’s just one example. I get that characters can change their minds and that’s fine, but there’s usually a motivation and impetus to that. Random changes are just that: random. 

So yeah, the tag.

Oh, and this:

How about we stop bashing CH for not being obvious about her story and just enjoy the ride? 

How about no. I can’t enjoy something that isn’t enjoyable. I don’t know anyone who can. Pointing out problematic stuff isn’t “bashing,” it’s pointing out problematic stuff. That causes direct lack of enjoyment.

I figure it’s personal. There are those who enjoy these books and either don’t see the problems or don’t care, and that’s perfectly fine by me. I am not going to issue a decree for them to “NOT.” I’d prefer the same courtesy in return, though. As in, not to be told to “stop” and “enjoy.” 

Exactly! There is nothing wrong with people putting forth an argument — a valid, well though out and articulated argument, with examples, no less — supporting their views. I don’t understand the need to continually admonish others because there is a difference of opinion. Support your point of view, but give others the courtesy of allowing theirs. The arguments may or may not sway points of views, but that’s okay. We all like and value different things, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Assigning the words “bashing” or “bullying”, as was done by another blogger in an earlier post, just because someone puts forth a cogent dissenting opinion is lazy and cheapens the veracity of your position…which, by the way, started as a compliment praising the level of critical analysis by EPBAS and then turned, at the last moment, to an admonishment. Commanding people to “stop” their way of thinking and to “stop” sharing their thoughts and opinions is demeaning.

OK, first of all, I am not commanding anyone to do anything. I am not God. I don’t know why anyone thinks so and feels the need to tear me down for saying what I think. I thought tumblr was a free forum.

I do not disagree with Exit’s argument that there is a lot in the books that’s not obvious and is not disclosed. I look at the novels and the short stories as one long continuous story (possibly even one long mystery). I don’t expect CH to reveal everything, and I don’t have any trouble figuring out Sookie’s motivations. It’s possible to dissect the story into such small details that you lose track of the big picture and of who Sookie is. Nothing in the books, including her ambivalence and indecision is contrary to the personality that CH had been establishing over the years.

For instance, how can Sookie not think about babies after attending a baby shower? What woman wouldn’t, even if she happens to be dating a vampire? The way I interpret such complaints is that the reader is frustrated because CH is not herding Sookie into a neat and tidy enclosure that the reader already set up for Sookie in her own mind. The one in which Bill is beaten to death with all the books, and Sookie somehow gets to live happily ever after with Eric. This is the reader’s personal fantasy. This is not CH’s or Sookie’s fantasy. Neither CH nor Sookie ever romanticized Eric or villified Bill because in real life people don’t think like that. We don’t label people we know personally as heroes or villains in our minds. We only see them as flawed individuals who do things we are OK with one day, and bad shit that makes us crazy the next day.

Sookie is a 28 y/o woman whose life only really started 3 years ago. She’s not ready to give up her hopes and dreams and settle for whatever Bill or Eric or Sam or Alcide or Quinn is offering. She wants the husband and the 2.5 kids and the picket fence. She wants personal and financial independence. She wants to be with someone who loves and respect her and gives her silence. She wants to be safe. She wants her life to have excitement. She wants to be needed and appreciated and put first. She wants it ALL. But all is not possible. That’s just a fantasy. So Sookie’s practical side and idealistic side are constantly in conflict with each other. Hence we get the ambivalence in the past few books.

CH is a mystery writer. She wrote conventional mysteries for years. She explained that she wanted to expand her audience, so when she wrote Dead Until Dark, she added the supernatural element for the Sci-fi/Fantasy fans and a romantic element for the romantic fiction fans. She is not a romance writer and doesn’t see her books as romance novels that have to have a predictable HEA ending. Southern Vampire Mysteries are exactly that—mysteries. The books are NOT a modern day love story between a girl and a vampire. Anyone who fails to take this into consideration when reading the books will be confused and frustrated.

I freely admit that I strongly dislike Exit’s very negative opinion of Charlaine Harris just because she said that she enjoys her financial success. I don’t think that anyone’s work should be devalued simply because they get paid for it. Alan Ball and the TB cast and crew don’t work for free either, but we are not judging them and their work on the basis of that. If CH wants to sell short stories for anthologies, why shouldn’t she do so? All writers do that. Those little side stories add to the narrative and let us spend some time with our beloved characters in between the novels. Yes, putting a major plotline into a short story and not in the novel was a mistake because not everyone got to read the short story, but CH recognized that and didn’t do that again. Writers are human; they make mistakes.

Oh, and by your own argument, I am just as entitled to have an opinion as you are, even if my opinion is that your opinion is inappropriate, and you should keep it to yourself. I have no issue with people criticizing the books, but any negative opinions about CH herself are something I don’t appreciate reading on my dash and will speak out against. And I would do the same for anyone criticized unfairly.

You know I have no problem with your opinion, whether I agree or not. Frankly, I enjoy your ideas, agree at times, and enjoy the discussion. What I have an issue with is that you feel the need to tell people to “stop” doing this or doing that. An opinion is an noun. What you add to your opinion is a verb. Just like when you told us to “stop with the fatalistic bullshit” right after you called us Tumblr drama queens yesterday. Regardless the legitimate ideas, thoughts, and examples you present to support your opinion, they are overshadowed by your rudeness and condescension. 

(via tbwillfuckwithurmind)

exitpursuedbyasloth:

Heya, sunny!

I fear my wording on the other post was unintentionally misleading. A bomb (actually two) about Bill was planted in “One Word Answer”, but they were not exploded. One was eventually partially revealed (Bill being sent by the Queen, though this was alluded to in earlier books as well), but the other was, like most of Harris’s bombs, never exploded (unless DEA is going to be like one big Michael Bay movie or something).

“One Word Answer” was published about a year before Definitely Dead, which is the book where it is revealed that Bill was sent by the Queen to procure Sookie. In OWA, you can definitely see little hints of that scattered in the conversation between Bill and Cataliades/Waldo/Sophie-Anne.

Keep in mind that Cataliades is Sookie’s demon godfather, and is generally a friend to her (and this is one of the things I think CH may have actually planned, since he always was rather friendly and helpful to Sookie). He, knowing Waldo killed Hadley, deliberately steers the conversation so that Sookie would be able to figure it out and start asking questions to get Waldo to out himself. He also seems to do this, though much more subtly, in regards to Bill being sent to procure her. He doesn’t seem to care for Bill, as when Bill made his presence known (just as Sookie and Cataliades start talking about the Queen), a flash of displeasure crossed Cataliades’s face (they pretended not to know each other, but they HAD to have known each other, at the very least Cataliades had to know about him). Cataliades simply has a working relationship with vampires, but he’s neither overly fond of or intimidated by them, it’s just business. Sookie, however, is family. At one point, this happens (keep in mind Bill is trying to procure Sookie for Sophie-Anne at the time):

“Mr. Cataliades said, “The queen was pleased with Hadley’s enthusiasm and childlike ways. Hadley was only one of a series of favorites. Eventually, the queen’s favor would have fallen on someone else, and Hadley would have had to carve out another place in the queen’s entourage.”

Waldo looked quite pleased at that and nodded. “That’s the pattern.”

I couldn’t get why I was supposed to care, and Bill made a small movement that he instantly stilled. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and I realized Bill didn’t want me to speak.”

Mr. Cataliades is alluding to what is currently happening to Sookie (she’s the Queen’s latest fixation), and Bill get uncomfortable. He doesn’t want her to ask questions about that particular thing. Shortly after that, this happens:

““Pretty girls glut the market,” Waldo said. “Stupid humans. They don’t know what our queen can do to them.”

“If she wants to,” Bill murmured. “If this Hadley had a knack for delighting the queen, if she had Sookie’s charm, then she might have been happy and favored for many years.””

Bill is deluding himself into thinking that Sookie, with all her charm and delightful personality, could be a happy, pampered pet of the Queen’s for years, and therefor he’s not doing anything bad by her. Or, alternately, his possessive side is acting up and he’s warning himself about what’s to come, that the Queen is going to steal his favorite toy.

At the end, after Sookie shows just how clever she can be, and reveals she can sense the blank spots of vampires (and therefor knew Sophie-Anne was in the backseat of the limo), Bill is kind of pissy with her in that understated way he can be, and touches her a lot (this is after he raped her in the back of the Lincoln). Sookie also comments on how creepy and unsettling he can be. But this was still back when CH used negative language when referring to Bill the Rapist.

But, the other bomb was the implication that Bill may have procured Hadley for the Queen as well. When Waldo is trying to goad somebody into killing him (so he would escape the Queen’s torture), he says this to Sookie:

““Your cousin [Hadley] was a bitch and a whore,” Waldo said, unexpectedly.”

Then four lines later, referring to Bill:

““Get your whoremonger to do it, he’s more than willing.”

Bill was looking more vampiric by the second, and he tugged the stake from my fingers.”

I don’t think the use of the title of ‘whoremonger’ for Bill had no meaning. If the ‘whore’ he mongered wasn’t Hadley, then Waldo was referring to Sookie and how to Queen is trying to procure her. Don’t forget Waldo was trying to get Bill to kill him, and threatening to reveal a secret as big as that would probably do it.

But, however way you cut it, this is important information that really should have gone into one of the main novels (it’s not like there wasn’t room for it at the beginning of Definitely Dead). But, well, it’s all about sales, innit?

stillhidden:

unreconstructedfangirl:

exitpursuedbyasloth:

truebloodwillpsychuout:

proud-trookies:

Well I saw the end of Eric and Sookie coming. I feared it for a long time even though they are my favorite “ship”, and Charlaine Harris was asked before book 12 came out two very important questions that all Sooric fans should’ve paid attention to. Or at least her answers. She was asked if Sookie would end up with a man. She said yes she would. She was asked if she knew the ending. She answered yes, and that she always had the ending in her mind and she imagined it ending right where it began. And some Bill fans probably concluded she meant with Bill. But when she answered that I knew it wouldn’t be with Bill. Bill was NOT the beginning. Read between the lines. There was a man before Bill that loved her and she cared for him back. To me her saying she’d end up with a man and it’d end where it started meant it HAD to be Sam. There was no other start besides Sam Merlotte the best friend and Sookie Stackhouse. And to be honest this makes me happy. I always knew if I Couldn’t get a Sooric happy ending, then I would settle for a Merlotte/Stackhouse Wedding. Besides Sookie Merlotte sounds more realistic than Sookie Northman. Mostly because I think the only person she’d actually change the Stackhouse name for would be Sam :)

Sookie is not in love with Sam Merlotte. He’s her best friend in the books. Personally, I was not surprised that she saved him at the end of book 12. I expected nothing less of Sookie Stackhouse. But that doesn’t mean that Sookie’s relationship with Sam will suddenly change into a romantic one when it hadn’t over the past 3 years. I don’t know exactly what CH has planned for Sookie, but I don’t think it will be anything this simple.

I too think she intends to have Sookie get with Sam, if for no other reason than she has said that in the beginning that her readers unexpectedly responded to Eric, she did not understand Eric’s appeal because he was pretty much an asshole, she hadn’t counted on readers responding so favorably to him, and that he ended up getting more and more complex which she hadn’t intended.

(You can watch the video here, start around the 25:00 minute mark, and wait for an audience members’ huff of disbelief when CH say she ‘didn’t see [Eric’s] charm at all’.)

And none of that bodes well for a Sookie/Eric ending, nor, for that matter, Charlaine’s judgement/perspective/story-telling skills (seriously, people finding Eric charming surprises you? He’s a sassy asshole who actually helps Sookie out from time to time, people always love the occasionally helpful sassy asshole character…tell me Charlaine, did people finding you abusive, controlling, total-wet-blanket RAPIST charming surprise you, or did you understand Bill’s appeal?).

Charlaine Harris had a rapist give relationship advice to his rape victim and had her listen to it, a rapist have a Naked Basement Tickle Fight with his rape victim (complete with boner and fondling), and had a rapist pop a boner and make sexual comments to his rape victim right after he made her dress up like a stripper at Captain America’s bachelor party, and had the rape victim totally not mind, so, y’know, not to put too fine a point on it, but fuck whatever bullshit she spits out. Sam and Sookie getting married and spitting out fairy puppies and farting rainbows as they sling beers the rest of their livelong days is trite, narratively-cheating, cliched bullshit from a story-telling perspective, but it’s nothing compared to the massive pallet of Costco Brand Variety Pack Bullshit that’s fallen off her forklift and onto the upturned faces of her horrified audience.

Clean-up on aisle 7, a motherfucking clean-up is needed on aisle 7. Can we get a motherfucking mop all up in that shit?

The Bold.

I would laugh if I didn’t essentially fucking agree so hard. I’ve gone back and re-read some of the books that I only skimmed for Eric’s name in the past, and I have to say that there is a pretty fucking clear and present trail of breadcrumbs for Sam. 

And, in conclusion, let me make my opinion perfectly clear: Charlaine Harris is a 5th rate writer who doesn’t understand her own story, as the details cited by EPBAS above so clearly illustrate.

Tags kept.

I’ll keep the tags, too. 

I want to address the bolded:

If Sookie ends up with Sam, it will absolutely be cheating the narrative. Breadcrumbs or not (And narratively speaking, if there is a need for breadcrumbs, it’s not doing its job).

I have not skimmed the books. I read them all, carefully. I even liked them. I even loved some things in them. And I saw a lot of infuriating stuff in them, too (namely, what EPBAS so justly points out). 

Here’s what I didn’t see in these books: Sookie and Sam love story. During the span of 12 books we have been shown a growth and development of one specific romantic relationship: Eric and Sookie. We see it build, we see it stumble, we see it struggle, we see it grow, we see it being questioned by everyone and by Sookie herself, and we see it fully accepted and acknowledged after a lot of obstacles. While the last book leaves it in precarious place, it sure as hell doesn’t leave it resolved, ended, or reaching any kind of a closure.

All during the series’ run we see Sookie/Sam friendship/relationship/whatever stay absolutely the same, with some minor adjustments. It starts off as Sookie feeling friendship (with a vague attraction but not strong enough to take it anywhere), and Sam feeling attraction (with friendship not vague enough to really push for more). Sam lurks in the periphery of the story pretty much for all 12 books. He pops in and out with some mysteries, and he is there to be a sounding board on occasion, or to help resolve some shit or other that either happens to Sookie or to him. 

What he isn’t there for is any kind of real, meaningful sexual or romantic tension. 

Yes, Sookie used that CV thing to save his life. A natural thing to do when a friend is dying. Does this mean she loves Sam? Sure. Does this mean she is in love with him? Not at all.

Now, I have no idea what CH is planning to do with that last book. For all I know, EPBAS, the confessor, and everyone else who says so is right, and Sookie and Sam will end up married with business, and breeding puppies together. But it will negate the 12 books’ worth of the story development. It would make the journey a one long jog in place. If the point was for Sookie to come full circle to her tepid, vaguely-defined, puppy-esque thing with Sam, then what have we been reading all those years? 

And again, sure, sometimes that’s the point of the story: A girl comes full circle, realizing that her “search for herself” leads her right back to the starting point. There are stories like that, and they have their own merit, but this series never, not even for a single book, had a wiff of that. All those “bread crumbs” of Sam? They felt like reminders. “Look! Look! There’s Sam! Still here! Remember Sam?” While the real heart, the real relationship development, the real growth was happening elsewhere. 

So this Sam/Sookie thing may happen, but it will feel false, because the narrative renders it false. Because never in this entire series thus far has Sookie been feeling, thinking, longing, desiring, striving for, really, truly conflicted about Sam above all else. An 11th hour realization is a cop out. And no amount of “But I always intended it to be this way” will help CH sell it to the majority of her readers.

Because this is not what she has been writing for 12 years. What she has been writing is Sookie and Eric. And if her goal was always Sam, she has missed it by miles and miles. 

***

Having said all that, I am still not 100% convinced that it will be Sam. I still think it will be Eric or no one. Of course I don’t know any more than anyone else. I am not holding my breath for anything, that’s for sure. I’m just not quite ready to abandon all hope. :)

I have to say I’ll be completely surprised if Sam is Sookie’s HEA for all of the reasons Alla has stated above. He has seemed like a side note at times, especially as he relates to Sookie, so whatever breadcrumbs have been left have not lead me to a Sookie/Sam ending.

In thinking back on all of the books, not one of them reminds me of Sam. There’s Bill, Quinn, and Eric. Sam just floats in and out of the narrative and not always in a significant way, so if Sookie ends up with Sam, it will feel like wrong. CH has not written the books to support a Sookie/Sam ending. She hasn’t taken any real time developing them as a viable couple, and if her intent all along has been to put them together at the very end, then she’s created a failure. She’s lead a huge percentage of the fandom down the Sookie/Eric path. She’s created the world that makes us love them as a couple, and throwing in a suitor who could hardly be considered waiting in the wings at the last moment will feel like a cheat.

I’d also question the things she says in interviews. What she’s written contradicts what’s she says. Eric is her creation, she controls his characterization, and she has written him in a way that is appealing irrespective of the degree of assholeness he has. Regardless of what she says, she continues to write him that way and she continues to give him a significant place in Sookie’s life. Even if Eric’s place in Sookie’s story took on an unexpected life of its own, she could have changed it, but she didn’t. The fact that she didn’t and she let the story go where it naturally flowed would suggest that she would continue in that same vein and not force an ending that she had stuck in her mind 12 books ago. In the end, Sookie and Sam are not believable. Sookie and Bill are not believable. Sookie and Quinn are not believable. Sookie and Eric are.  I’ll go sit in the corner now. :)