why didnt dylan continue

So when Eric killed himself first, I don't find it surprising that Dylan killed himself right after. But why don't you think Dylan didn't just continue shooting at people, etc? He just gave up when he was all alone.

Dylan was not good at doing things on his own. He liked the comfort of a group. Which is why despite his rantings and ravings he always wanted a partner for his plans. He was very codependent.

I think personally once they saw the cops closing in they thought the end was near. And then boom Eric was dead. I don't know if Dylan knew Eric was going to shoot himself then and there but I think once he saw that Eric was dead he realized there wasn't anything else to do but kill himself.

I imagine the lonely feeling after Eric died was huge for Dylan.

ChaotixBoy wrote:

So when Eric killed himself first, I don't find it surprising that Dylan killed himself right after. But why don't you think Dylan didn't just continue shooting at people, etc? He just gave up when he was all alone.

There was nobody left to shoot at, except cops outside. None of his weapons was of much use to shoot distant targets.
Maybe he could have taken Eric's Hi-Point, gather the remaining 9mm rounds (BTW, does anyone remember how many 9mm bullets they jointly still had left at the time?) load one or maybe 2 clips maximum and fire them at the police.

Plus I think for Dylan the whole massacre was just an addendum to the suicide. I think the fact taht Eric didn't shoot at the cops until he almost ran out of ammo is more puzzling.

ChaotixBoy wrote:

So when Eric killed himself first, I don't find it surprising that Dylan killed himself right after. But why don't you think Dylan didn't just continue shooting at people, etc? He just gave up when he was all alone.

To be honest I think they were both done they were coming down from the high. Also remember at the beginning of the massacre Dylan was screaming how he wanted to kill himself and today was the day he was going to die. Dylan was ready to die finally

Dylan went into the attack knowing his death would be coming at the end. But just as he wanted death, he also seemed to need something on a HUGE scale to finally make it possible for him to follow through with his long talked about suicide.

His participation in NBK provided the push he needed to actually do it.

I still find it odd that he put in the effort to go to prom and Arizona to pick out his dorm even though he and Eric already planned the massacre.

novaprospekt wrote:

I still find it odd that he put in the effort to go to prom and Arizona to pick out his dorm even though he and Eric already planned the massacre.

It was to provide cover. He was making it seem like nothing was wrong. 

Lurk moar.

Well, you gotta put the fact that his partner in crime just blew his head off in front of him. He probably had thoughts while seeing Eric's bloody corpse like "It has all come down to this, I'm alone." Also it has been like 50 minutes, he wasn't exactly feeling the thrill of it anymore. He has gunned down dozens of people and the police have him surrounded, the fire alarms are going off, dead bodies are around him including his best friend's, and there's smoke all over. Dylan was very sentimental and this made him do what he wanted to do: die.

his guns were shit and he was a bad shot

I think they both decided to stop and kill themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong but Eric probably didn't just shoot himself without telling anything to Dylan. It was probably a mutual decision and Eric simply did it first. And I don't even see the point for Dylan to keep the shooting. Together in the killing, together in death. But I don't know if they decided that Eric do it first or if it was just that he was quicker than Dylan.

There is one more thing that I did not mention. I don't believe in the leader-follower thing, but I think (and Krabbe makes a good point to that extent as well), that by the time April arrived it was Dylan that needed Eric more than the other way around.

Dylan needed Eric to be with him to go on with the suicide. Krabbe refers to that he needed Eric as a "halcyon guide". I believe in a similar, though less earthy explanation: Dylan was too afraid to stand at the gates of death alone. He wouldn't be able to pull himself to suicide without knowing Eric went in first.

That's imho why he waited for Eric to do it first, but them almost instantly went as well.

Neah wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong but Eric probably didn't just shoot himself without telling anything to Dylan.

Nobody knows for sure, as there were no conscious witnesses. But I think its entirely unlikely for them to do it without some sort of final goodbye, especially Eric. Eric was an extravert. In his diary you can find the term "me and V" far more often than any mention of Eric in Dylan's diary.

For Eric this was a joint operation, I'm pretty sure up till the end he felt like that till the end. Plus I also think his ego wouldn't allow him to just randomly shoot himself like its some afterthought or something he needs to hide with. I'm sure he wanted to appear "in control" up till to the end and see it all through.

Dylan, as mentioned above, wanted to imho wait for Eric to "lead the way". He was much more afraid of being left alone than vice versa. That's the way I see it, but I think this speculation is well substantiated by their writings.

Simply almost out of ammo, he probably got scared seeing how big the Police force was outside.