Sympathetic Questions
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sympathetic Questions |
| Creator: | Elise Deal |
| Date(s): | |
| Medium: | essay |
| Fandom: | Forever Knight |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Sympathetic Questions |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
"Sympathetic Questions" is an essay by Elise Deal, written as a series of questions about the reasons fans are attracted to the vampire characters in Forever Knight, particularly the hero, Nick Knight.
The author quickly dismisses the idea that the character's appeal is simply the sexual attractiveness of the star, suggesting instead that fans feel a kinship with Nick. However, she queries the morality of feeling sympathy for a vampire, especially since (through flashbacks in most episodes) it is clear that Nick has an admittedly dark past. She concludes that we see ourselves in him:
He is too much like us, and if we condemn him, we must condemn ourselves. His character is a symbol for our own daily struggles to do what is right. We see him as a man who made an inconceivably horrendous mistake- but still just a mistake. Knight deeply regrets his past actions and continually strives to atone for his sins. He yearns for forgiveness and does everything in his power to find his path back to grace. That is what makes him human.
The discussion couches Nick's conflict in religious terms of salvation/damnation. The names of the characters are interpreted to support this. Thus, not only is Lucien LaCroix compared to "a devil sitting on [Nick's] shoulder whispering impure thoughts in his ear", but his name makes him "a facsimile of Lucifer". Natalie not only plays the role of his "super-ego", but "since her name means 'the birth of the lamb,' [she is] there to lead Nick back to the salvation promised by Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God".
Having suggested that "[p]erhaps this whole television show is a Christian parable attempting to lead us back to the church," Elise then concludes "I have no answers for the questions I have asked, nor do I pretend to have them. I raise them because I feel there must be something deeper, or a semblance of something deeper, within the premise of Forever Knight."