Billution and Billsorbency
There's a serious problem with Billution and Billsorbency going on in this Eric-centric SVM fan community.
Bill is creeping into everything - even into Eric - and not in a slash kinda way. It's ruining Eric for those of us that well...love Eric.
Think you love Eric? Well, some people do too - but they can't seem to tell the difference. So I've made a handy dandy quiz to see if peeps can in fact, tell the difference between the two. Fear not - I have page numbers and quotes to back up my questions:
Quizzes by Quibblo.com
Linky to the Quiz if it doesn't load
Now, if you happened to mark answers that have you down as a Bill babe, when you think you're an Eric fan, then feel free to complain to me at the bottom. At which point I will tell you that you should re-read your fucking books....and think about coming to terms with the idea that you are in fact, a Bill babe - trunk incident or no trunk incident.
Unfortunately, like the avatar says, "Dark" Eric most often tends to be Bill - or failing that he's Andre or possibly Mickey. He's certainly not any shade of fucking Eric. "Dark" Eric [read Bill] tries to control every minute of Sookie's life, gives a shit about her clothing and looks, tells her what to do all the time, and flies into jealous rages. They're actually all Bill traits - things he does in the books. In fact, in one popular "Dark" Eric [read Bill] fic, he spent time playing Scrabble with Sookie - one of the things Bill often did with Sookie. That's not an Eric thing. I don't think we've seen any evidence in the books or the show that Eric is into board games in any way. But, nevertheless, fans cheered it on as "So Eric" when it is in fact, Bill calling himself Eric.
But Billution is also part of the Sappy Eric type too. Bill tells Sookie how he feels all the time. I think in every single book he's told her he loves her and he bangs on all the time about how he feels about her. Bill is very big on talking about himself and his human past - we don't know much about his life as a vampire, but I know all about his human family, what his house looked like, and how he planned to decorate his house. Eric mentioned these things after they got married - that's how much of a sharer he is. Think about what you actually know about Eric that he's said - not what you infer. Most often when Eric's in the room, we get lots of information about Sookie and Sookie's feelings and activities, but not about Eric's.
Sappy Eric cannot stand to be apart from Sookie, and would die without her. Yeeeaaah...that's still Bill. Bill is the one who sees her every day - not Eric. Eric can go whole months without seeing her. Notice who you see wandering around her woods and coming to Merlotte's - cause that's not fucking Eric either.
I think it's further exacerbated by True Blood. Now, don't think that this is just because Alan Ball "got it wrong". I disagree with his portrayal of Sookie, but Bill and Eric, he got their essences pretty much down - probably because he's a guy and he's used to guys being in charge, but not the little lady. So he changed the girl and did nothing about the boys.
But that produces the problem - we have TB Eric with his very visible basement and overwhelming general scariness that readers haven't been able to imagine or worse, consciously ignore and downplay. All the readers that have wondered why book Sookie is unwilling to just let Eric ride roughshod over her in his need for orgasms and control are now able to see how damn scary Eric can be, and think he's automatically different as TB Eric. Maybe it's because Sookie was well aware that Eric could in fact torture her, and didn't need the visuals of his sex/torture basement. Bill meanwhile is constantly banging on about how he feels about Sookie and his concern with keeping her safe.
Here's a great example - Eric, while Sookie is crying, expresses that it makes him feel disturbingly human in True Blood. Now, Book Eric expressed distaste with crying too. It's been turned into some secret declaration of love in the show, but it really isn't that. He's pretty cold overall - and not particularly concerned with the safety and comfort thing that Bill is. Eric really doesn't mind putting Sookie in harms' way, no matter the fangirl's protestation that finding money missing at Fangtasia was really for Sookie's benefit. TB Eric doesn't dream about how he will force Sookie into anything - his desire is to be wanted by Sookie - not to force her. TB Bill tells Sookie all the time how much he loves her - just like Book Bill does. Book Bill is concerned with how having Sookie will reflect on him - and in the show, he is again concerned with how other vampires will see him. Book Bill primes up to fight Eric, but show Bill actually does it.
There's somewhat of a fracturing of the perception of Eric too. He's seen as sweet and constantly attentive...despite the fact that he went two months pre-Dead and Gone without seeing Sookie. Let me tell you - Eric is so busy that even if he showed an interest in being involved in the minutiae of what Sookie wears, where she works, what she does all day, he just wouldn't have the time to do it. He has a fucking job that has set hours and is quite the challenge. If you are for the attentive vampire suitor, then I would suggest Bill, who hangs around all the time to provide comfort - cause that's not Eric.
Combined with that is the fact that Eric fangirls take Bill at his word (you fucking chumps), but not Eric. After all, it's Bill's line that vampires are predators - not Eric's. Bill plants that line with likening vampires to leopards in LDID, but Eric pooh poohs that one in DTTW when Sookie suggests they're like lions. I certainly can't picture Pam for example, getting any trim from Amelia - who doesn't have to worry about silent minds and has a wider pool of potential bed partners - with some of the crap Bill said Sookie had to deal with as part of his nature. Eric completely fails to almost kill Sookie when he notices that Chow is dead, or Clancy - he has control over his actions, and so does Pam. Bill goes ballistic at the thought of the deaths of Malcolm, Liam and Diane.
People are often surprised when I say that I will read Bill fic, and have in the past. That's cause I already read Bill fic - just for some unfathomable reason, they call him Eric. I would rather read genuine Bill fic than Bill fic where he's called Eric - because at least with the Bill fic I know what I'm getting into. Bill is apparently hated, Eric-fandom wide, but still, I read about Bill calling himself Eric all the time, with endless declarations of love or failing that, orders on how "Dark" Eric [read Bill] would like to see things done. It is truly surprising to me how often I see him dressed up as Eric.
The more Bill is lambasted, seen as pathetic in all ways and manners, the more Billsorbency will become a problem. Bill creeps into every single incidence of Eric because if you're a Bill fangirl, you're nuts - and they don't want to be nuts, so they make Eric into Bill. There are toxic levels of Billution in Eric fic now - so much so that it's killing the women who like to read Eric based fic.