What do you think Eric or Dylan would feel if one of them survived their su

I know this is a strange question and can be answered easily with "They would've been arrested forever." But I'm looking for a discussion based on your opinion of how they would have reacted to being arrested and surviving their suicides. This question is directed toward Dylan as he was the most likely to survive. (Pretty damn hard to survive a shotgun blast to the face in Eric's case.)
(Apologies if this question is worded strangely ).

I think Dylan would feel shame and sorrow. I'd imagine it would be like nikolas cruz when he saw his brother after he was taken into custody. I'd imagine Eric would have been quiet, probably feeling a wave of terrible emotions. I think it's easy to say "they planned this, they wanted this, they're psychopaths", but I really do think that this was fueled in part by delusion and being in an "echo chamber", since (as far as we know) neither ever really stopped and asked the other one to really think about what they were about to do. People can come up with some crazy stuff when they're never really given a dissenting opinion.

I agree with properground. Even in jail, Dylan would finally get the mental help he needed and meds for his depression. Once his head cleared up, he would feel terrible. And probably be very confused as to why he did it in the first place.

I agree. As with many people who enter jail with a murder charge, I do believe he would have remorse at some point. I’m unsure if at first that would happen. I would assume he would still be angry due to humiliation and failure when first caught. He would def need mental health evaluation and help for sure. But in many cases the perpetrator has a lot of time to reflect, understand and feel remorse for the crime they’ve committed. I’d like to hope he would be one of those people due to the senseless act it was and for how young he was. Being sent to jail for life (or even death row) at 17/18 years old is an eye opener to say the least.

Dylan I would say would have (eventually) gotten remorse. He was far gone, but he wasn’t far enough gone that, after so long, it wouldn’t make him feel remorseful. And I can’t bring myself to budge on that one.

Eric, on the other hand. Well...there’s no way he’d have survived his suicide attempt. It just can’t be done. But, for the hypothetical let’s just say he did survive it: I honestly don’t think he’d give a damn. I really think the only thing Eric would feel remorse about is either a) not successfully pulling the bombing off or, b) not killing anymore than he did. So, no remorse...but probably disgust that he wasn’t anywhere near as successful as he had hoped he would’ve been.

People here have some wild imaginations. Dylan was so far gone I highly doubt he would've cried over committing his horrific acts. That kid happily blew a survivor's jaw off at point blank range, and pretty much taunting him telling him that he'll "Help him" by blowing his jaw out. Not to mention in the Basement Tapes, Eric was the one stalling while Dylan was hurrying him up to get it over with. 4/20 was the day he wanted to die. If he cried for any reason it would've been because he was still alive in this world. Neither would've shown much remorse either.

Yeah...these two were extremely fucked up in the head that no meds would've saved them either. They both acted very normal even the week before they committed the shooting. They had friends. They weren't your typical isolated social anxiety school shooter. These kids had friends. They were involved in activities with others. They had jobs. One of them was promoted to Shift Manager a few days before he committed the massacre as well.

With how much they planned, and how they act on the Cafeteria Tapes even after the Library Massacre leaves no doubt in my mind that these two would've shown zero remorse for their actions.

We'll never know how they would truly feel. Neither of them didn't plan on staying alive or going to prison/death sentence

I think the question leads to a paradox. I don't think they wanted to live for much longer than their victims. Not having to face (even) the (emotional) consequence was part of the plan. Had they known they would survive, they would have never done it. I also believe that to them, knowing they were gonna die themselves at least partly justified taking the lives of others and acting so cruel doing so. We're all gonna die was their mantra. We don't give a shit cause we're gonna die doing this.

They were never directly confronted with the misery they inflicted on their parents, friends or even families of their victims. So it's not really possible to just state 'they would have never felt remorse'. They felt remorse even before committing it. It wasn't enough to stop them because misery they knew they were gonna cause was not real yet. It was just imagined.

Had they survived, they both would have committed suicide later because I believe seeing what they actually caused would have far exceeded their wildest imagination. If they couldn't live with all that relatively simple shit surrounding them, how the fuck were they gonna live with the world pointing at them and cursing 'murderers', and seeing their own parents (they loved) broken and shattered.

I say an unbearable shitload of remorse.

patogen wrote:

I think the question leads to a paradox. I don't think they wanted to live for much longer than their victims. Not having to face (even) the (emotional) consequence was part of the plan. Had they known they would survive, they would have never done it. I also believe that to them, knowing they were gonna die themselves at least partly justified taking the lives of others and acting so cruel doing so. We're all gonna die was their mantra. We don't give a shit cause we're gonna die doing this.

They were never directly confronted with the misery they inflicted on their parents, friends or even families of their victims. So it's not really possible to just state 'they would have never felt remorse'. They felt remorse even before committing it. It wasn't enough to stop them because misery they knew they were gonna cause was not real yet. It was just imagined.

Had they survived, they both would have committed suicide later because I believe seeing what they actually caused would have far exceeded their wildest imagination. If they couldn't live with all that relatively simple shit surrounding them, how the fuck were they gonna live with the world pointing at them and cursing 'murderers', and seeing their own parents (they loved) broken and shattered.

I say an unbearable shitload of remorse.

Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

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Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

patogen wrote:

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Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

None. Once you commit murder, and then you blow your brains out like a bunch of cowards in order to not face the consequences for your own actions, there is no remorse.

I don't care for their petty apologies of them stating "We're sorry we're doing this, but we have to". No they didn't have to do anything. These two piss-ants chose to piss away their own lives because of their massive hatred towards humanity as a whole. Don't even get me started on the whole bullying wasn't even the main factor of their actions. These two kids weren't treated any worse than anyone who experienced bullying at Columbine High School. The TCM actually were treated far worse than them.

Their apologies in the end mean nothing. They were willing to kill their own friends. They had no remorse, or else they wouldn't have done it, or blown their brains out. And even after the Library Massacre was over, make no mistake they were still taunting at students in classrooms, because they knew they were there. They were still trying to detonate the propane bomb in order to kill everyone there including themselves, and right before they died, they still had a last shoot-out with police trying to kill them, paramedics, and civilians. Remember they had their car bombs ready to go too.

Fuck them.

lol wrote:

patogen wrote:

Quote :

Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

None. Once you commit murder, and then you blow your brains out like a bunch of cowards in order to not face the consequences for your own actions, there is no remorse.

I don't care for their petty apologies of them stating "We're sorry we're doing this, but we have to". No they didn't have to do anything. These two piss-ants chose to piss away their own lives because of their massive hatred towards humanity as a whole. Don't even get me started on the whole bullying wasn't even the main factor of their actions. These two kids weren't treated any worse than anyone who experienced bullying at Columbine High School. The TCM actually were treated far worse than them.

Their apologies in the end mean nothing. They were willing to kill their own friends. They had no remorse, or else they wouldn't have done it, or blown their brains out. And even after the Library Massacre was over, make no mistake they were still taunting at students in classrooms,  because they knew they were there. They were still trying to detonate the propane bomb in order to kill everyone there including themselves, and right before they died, they still had a last shoot-out with police trying to kill them, paramedics, and civilians. Remember they had their car bombs ready to go too.

Fuck them.

Thank you. Thank you so much for saying it.

Nobody made them commit the action(s). Nobody made them commit suicide. They wanted to kill their friends, they didn’t care, let alone the rest of the school with it. And anybody else that stood in their way (even if you could, to be fair, check that with teenage angst and fantasy, they still said it and really believed that they were that God like). It was all them.

That alone took any kind of fake goodbye or whatever away.

I don’t think either of them, to answer the original question, would’ve cared. If anything (maybe Eric more than Dylan here, but both of them), they would’ve been beyond pissed that they didn’t accomplish their ultimate mission in taking the whole school and everybody in it (and outside of it) down.

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I don’t think either of them, to answer the original question, would’ve cared. If anything (maybe Eric more than Dylan here, but both of them), they would’ve been beyond pissed that they didn’t accomplish their ultimate mission in taking the whole school and everybody in it (and outside of it) down.

Based on the fact they did something you consider unimaginably cruel, you just deny them a basic human quality such as the ability to feel remorse?

This is not the way we work. They were humans. Had they ended up in prison, do you really believe they would have felt nothing but anger they didn't kill everyone for the rest of their lives?

Not even killers are emotionally monochromatic. Otherwise they would just kill, kill, kill -- like fucking Michael Myers.

patogen wrote:

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I don’t think either of them, to answer the original question, would’ve cared. If anything (maybe Eric more than Dylan here, but both of them), they would’ve been beyond pissed that they didn’t accomplish their ultimate mission in taking the whole school and everybody in it (and outside of it) down.

Based on the fact they did something you consider unimaginably cruel, you just deny them a basic human quality such as the ability to feel remorse?

This is not the way we work. They were humans. Had they ended up in prison, do you really believe they would have felt nothing but anger they didn't kill everyone for the rest of their lives?

Not even killers are emotionally monochromatic. Otherwise they would just kill, kill, kill -- like fucking Michael Myers.

If one of them would have felt remorse, as I said earlier in the thread, it would be Dylan. But, even then, that may be a stretch. He very well, much like the diversion program, could be “playing the whole thing,” so to speak. I mean, to be honest...it WAS pretty easy for both of them to fool people.
So...like I said a few posts ago...yeah, maybe Dylan might have felt remorse about the whole thing.

Eric though? Not a chance. Eric, if anything, would’ve been even more angry than he already was that he didn’t succeed (in his mind, it would’ve been a failure). Humans or not, Eric was just so full of anger, disdain, and disgust for everyone and everything, especially himself, that I think Eric would be pissed he survived.
Reading some of Dylan’s writings (at least what’s been made available to us normal, every day people), I have a feeling he would’ve been the same if he’d have somehow, someway survived.

lol wrote:

patogen wrote:

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Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

None. Once you commit murder, and then you blow your brains out like a bunch of cowards in order to not face the consequences for your own actions, there is no remorse.

I don't care for their petty apologies of them stating "We're sorry we're doing this, but we have to". No they didn't have to do anything. These two piss-ants chose to piss away their own lives because of their massive hatred towards humanity as a whole. Don't even get me started on the whole bullying wasn't even the main factor of their actions. These two kids weren't treated any worse than anyone who experienced bullying at Columbine High School. The TCM actually were treated far worse than them.

Their apologies in the end mean nothing. They were willing to kill their own friends. They had no remorse, or else they wouldn't have done it, or blown their brains out. And even after the Library Massacre was over, make no mistake they were still taunting at students in classrooms,  because they knew they were there. They were still trying to detonate the propane bomb in order to kill everyone there including themselves, and right before they died, they still had a last shoot-out with police trying to kill them, paramedics, and civilians. Remember they had their car bombs ready to go too.

Fuck them.

This seems more like a list of “reason why you don’t like them”. That’s okay; you don’t need to like them, or forgive them, or feel any kind of sympathy for them… but can you at least consider the possibility that they were not just two “killing machines” who were just “evil for the sake of been evil”? That they were just people, with doubts, contradictions and mixed feelings?
The fact that they actually did the shooting doesn’t prove that they felt no remorse… just that they didn’t felt enough to stop themselves.

lol wrote:

patogen wrote:

Quote :

Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

None. Once you commit murder, and then you blow your brains out like a bunch of cowards in order to not face the consequences for your own actions, there is no remorse.

I don't think committing suicide makes them cowardly. It strikes me as smart, since they avoided being trapped in a concrete box for the rest of their lives going crazy, or being executed anyway.

sympathyforEandD wrote:

lol wrote:

patogen wrote:

Quote :

Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

None. Once you commit murder, and then you blow your brains out like a bunch of cowards in order to not face the consequences for your own actions, there is no remorse.

I don't think committing suicide makes them cowardly. It strikes me as smart, since they avoided being trapped in a concrete box for the rest of their lives going crazy, or being executed anyway.

Of course you would think that, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

patogen wrote:

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I don’t think either of them, to answer the original question, would’ve cared. If anything (maybe Eric more than Dylan here, but both of them), they would’ve been beyond pissed that they didn’t accomplish their ultimate mission in taking the whole school and everybody in it (and outside of it) down.

Based on the fact they did something you consider unimaginably cruel, you just deny them a basic human quality such as the ability to feel remorse?

This is not the way we work. They were humans. Had they ended up in prison, do you really believe they would have felt nothing but anger they didn't kill everyone for the rest of their lives?

Not even killers are emotionally monochromatic. Otherwise they would just kill, kill, kill -- like fucking Michael Myers.

Yeah, you know what? I would deny both of them of being able to feel any sort of remorse. Both of these punks wanted to be infamous. They got their wish. They would've 100% received fan letters from all their little fangirls who wish to marry them, and both of them would've had a riot with it. Neither would've felt any remorse, and if anything would be pissed off that they failed at killing the 250+ people that they wanted to, and in their mind "only" able to kill 13. Fuck Eric and Dylan.

Alex213 wrote:

lol wrote:

patogen wrote:

Quote :

Remorse? What remorse did they have before committing it? A fake shed of tears? Or how about Dylan snapping his fingers at Eric, basically telling him to hurry the hell up, and let's get this over with, and his BS "goodbye" to his parents, where he basically gave them the finger?

They had no remorse, because they did it anyway. They even believed their friends were going to die in the attack. They didn't give a shit.

Well, if you dismiss every sign of remorse as faux, then of course to you, they had none.

None. Once you commit murder, and then you blow your brains out like a bunch of cowards in order to not face the consequences for your own actions, there is no remorse.

I don't care for their petty apologies of them stating "We're sorry we're doing this, but we have to". No they didn't have to do anything. These two piss-ants chose to piss away their own lives because of their massive hatred towards humanity as a whole. Don't even get me started on the whole bullying wasn't even the main factor of their actions. These two kids weren't treated any worse than anyone who experienced bullying at Columbine High School. The TCM actually were treated far worse than them.

Their apologies in the end mean nothing. They were willing to kill their own friends. They had no remorse, or else they wouldn't have done it, or blown their brains out. And even after the Library Massacre was over, make no mistake they were still taunting at students in classrooms,  because they knew they were there. They were still trying to detonate the propane bomb in order to kill everyone there including themselves, and right before they died, they still had a last shoot-out with police trying to kill them, paramedics, and civilians. Remember they had their car bombs ready to go too.

Fuck them.

This seems more like a list of “reason why you don’t like them”. That’s okay; you don’t need to like them, or forgive them, or feel any kind of sympathy for them… but can you at least consider the possibility that they were not just two “killing machines” who were just “evil for the sake of been evil”? That they were just people, with doubts, contradictions and mixed feelings?
The fact that they actually did the shooting doesn’t prove that they felt no remorse… just that they didn’t felt enough to stop themselves.

In the end that's who they are. They will go down in life whether anyone likes it or not as two murderous scumbag teenagers who wanted to be known for something, and always be talked about for the rest of existence. 20 years later...they're still being talked about as if it was just one day after the shooting. Eric and Dylan in this case won. They got exactly what they wanted.

I can have empathy, but no way in hell will I ever have sympathy for those two who killed innocent people who had nothing to do with their delusional mindsets. That is why they will never be portrayed as victims. Those two went into school that day knowing they were going to die. Those 13 victims that they took away? They had no idea.

Not everyone in this world can be cured. Some people are just beyond mentally incapable of living in this world. It's just the way it is. It's not going to change. None of this will ever change.

They sure didn’t show any remorse on April 20th. But they expressed remorse beforehand.

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Yeah, you know what? I would deny both of them of being able to feel any sort of remorse. Both of these punks wanted to be infamous. They got their wish. They would've 100% received fan letters from all their little fangirls who wish to marry them, and both of them would've had a riot with it. Neither would've felt any remorse, and if anything would be pissed off that they failed at killing the 250+ people that they wanted to, and in their mind "only" able to kill 13. Fuck Eric and Dylan.

I'm not sure you realize they wouldn't be receiving much of a fan mail had they survived. Not back in the early 00s, let alone these days. They get romanticized precisely because they died and they're forever 17.

It would be interesting if Dylan did not choke in his own blood but survived in a vegetative state due to head injuries. What a trial that would be!

lol wrote:

Not everyone in this world can be cured. Some people are just beyond mentally incapable of living in this world. It's just the way it is. It's not going to change. None of this will ever change.

Hopeful, aren't we? I personally agree with one of the posts above. If Dylan survived, he most likely would've gotten the help he needed. Also, just because they didn't show remorse on the 20th doesn't mean they never felt any.

Onyx wrote:

if Dylan did not choke in his own blood

If I shoot myself in the head, I want to be dead instantly and do not choke on my blood for a few minutes. Awful

Jaymie wrote:

Onyx wrote:

if Dylan did not choke in his own blood

If I shoot myself in the head, I want to be dead instantly and do not choke on my blood for a few minutes. Awful

Yes, his death was really horrible. Ugh.

Not much on how they themselves would feel, but I think there would be an even larger fan base for them, creating a similar experience as with Ted Bundy, Anders Breivik, Nikolas Cruz and several others, where they receive fan mail and probably also marriage proposals. Makes me shiver, actually.

Onyx wrote:

It would be interesting if Dylan did not choke in his own blood but survived in a vegetative state due to head injuries. What a trial that would be!

I'm sure that fit under "not competent to stand trial"

(Deleted)

I think if Dylan survived he would have realized everything he did. Or, he could have slipped into an even worse depression seeing the damage he did to everyone and his family and ending up with his life soon after. It would be hell.

If Dylan had survived he’d most likely have been a vegetable so I guess he was lucky not to survive.

If Dylan had survived or not been turned into a vegetable then I think he would show remorse for what he did (think Barry Loukaitis' feelings on what he did) or probably kill himself in prison. If Eric had survived which is near impossible, then I think that he would try and act tough in the trial (think TJ Lane's statement in his trial) but also show remorse after seeing the effects of what he had done.

lognifiiskurk wrote:

If Dylan had survived or not been turned into a vegetable then I think he would show remorse for what he did (think Barry Loukaitis' feelings on what he did) or probably kill himself in prison. If Eric had survived which is near impossible, then I think that he would try and act tough in the trial (think TJ Lane's statement in his trial) but also show remorse after seeing the effects of what he had done.

It's interesting to think how Eric's family would react if he had survived.  If they had stayed by his side or walked away...