Pamela Swynford De Beaufort

Pamela Ravenscroft, also known as Pamela Swynford De Beaufort, is a fictional character from the television series True Blood. The series was created by Alan Ball, and based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries by author Charlaine Harris. Portrayed by actress Kristin Bauer van Straten, Pam is a vampire sired by Eric Northman. She is the co-owner of Fangtasia, a vampire bar. Her age is never referenced in True Blood. In the short story "Two Blondes," it is revealed that she is approximately 160 years old.

Backstory
Pam's human life is rarely referenced in the novels until the seventh book in the series, All Together Dead, in which Pam tells Sookie Stackhouse that she lived in London with her parents during the Victorian era. As a human, Pam is characterised as being romantic and bold. At the age of 19, while traveling at night to see a friend's cousin with whom she had a romantic relationship, she encounters vampire Eric Northman, who changes her into a vampire.

In the fifth season of the television series, Pam is described as a madam during her human life in a Barbary Coast (San Francisco) brothel in 1905.  However, the season five finale makes a reference to her human history in England.

Physical description

Harris describes Pam as looking like a young, middle-class, suburban housewife; she also describes Pam as "Alice in Wonderland with fangs". Pam is described as being round-faced with a chalky pale complexion, and has dark blue eyes and straight blond hair "white as a magnolia petal". She is also described as being shorter than Sookie, who is 5 feet 6 inches tall. In an internal monologue, Sookie describes her as "ethereally lovely, with a kind of deadly edge."

Personality and traits
Pam is characterised as possessing a morbid sense of humour. Pam believes that vampires are superior to humans, and states that she was quite happy to be turned into a vampire, feeling that she would have quickly grown into a frustrated, bitter, and ultimately cruel person due to the limited opportunities accorded to a human woman of her time. She is portrayed as a callous, amoral, and self-centered individual. She takes joy in teasing and provoking others, such as Fellowship of the Sun members Sookie, Felicia, and especially Eric. When Sookie first enters Fangtasia, Pam reveals that she "never forgets a face"; when Jessica calls Pam later in the series, Pam responds by saying, "Yes, I remember you perfectly." Pam uses Sookie's entrance into Fangtasia as ammunition to tease Eric. Like Eric, Pam is violent and vengeful, although she often expresses her wit through dry humour. Pam normally speaks with an American accent but is shown to slip into a slightly old English accent when excited. She is skilled in combat and confident in her ability to overcome most foes and survive most attacks, even from other supernaturals.

Relationships
In the book series, Pam is portrayed as bisexual and is more fond of women. In From Dead to Worse, she dates Amelia Broadway, Sookie's roommate and a witch.

Pam can often be seen beside Eric, whom she is bound to obey. She has been in love with Eric since she first met him, and often displays concern for Eric's happiness and well-being. She is friends with Sookie, whom she sometimes calls her "telepathic friend" and her "favorite breather". Sookie rescues Pam twice in the series: in Dead to the World during the battle with the witches and in All Together Dead from a collapsing hotel. Pam advises Sookie to be more selective in picking her friends in reference to Arlene. It was revealed in Dead to the World that she shared a nest with Clancy and Chow.

Work and position within the vampire hierarchy
Harris introduces Pam as the co-owner of Fangtasia and Eric's second-in-command. Later in the books, it is revealed that Eric asked Pam to leave Minnesota and move to Louisiana to help him run the bar. Pam is based at the bar as a bouncer and co-owner but has other duties in Eric's various business dealings. Pam takes a more prominent role in the plot of the fourth book, Dead to the World, when Eric has memory loss.

After Eric marries Freyda, the Queen of Oklahoma, in Dead Ever After, Pam becomes the new vampire sheriff of area 5 in Louisiana.

Television portrayal
In True Blood, the HBO television series based on the books, Pam (renamed Pamela Swynford De Beaufort) is portrayed by Kristin Bauer van Straten, who first appeared in a BloodCopy.com video called “The Vampire in Baton Rouge”. In the True Blood series, Bill mentions that she was turned 100 years ago during the old west period. Pam is shown to occasionally speak Swedish. She is portrayed as a strong and hard-natured character who is sarcastic and callous and feels little for anyone but Eric. However, she is shown to put aside her personal feelings towards Sookie in Season 4, when Eric loses his memory, and asks Sookie to look after him. In "Authority Always Wins", an episode from Season 5, Pam experiences flashbacks to 1905 when she worked as the madam of a brothel. It is revealed that Eric saved her from a man who wished to kill her. In this storyline, Eric only turned Pam, who feared the life of an old ex-prostitute, after she threatened suicide. At the end of True Blood, she and Eric are getting rich from New Blood, the cure for "Hep V", and are happily living with each other again.

References

Fictional vampires
Fictional bisexual women
Fictional characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
Fictional characters with superhuman strength
Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Fictional characters with accelerated healing
Fictional people from London
Fictional prostitutes
Literary characters introduced in 2001
The Southern Vampire Mysteries characters