Random Ranting.
I do apologise.
I am alive. Really. And I'm relatively intact on top of that.
In fact, I've been feeling better lately than I have in years.
Now I will rant about something else... Uh, it's long, so you may not want to bother yourself with it.
Okay, so yes, Forever Knight obsession. From the intro to the show:
"He was brought across in 1228. Preyed on humans for their blood. Now he wants to be mortal again. To repay society for his sins. To emerge from his world of darkness... from his endless Forever Knight." - Lucien LaCroix, speaking about the main character.
So the main character's real name is Nicholas de Brabant, and I guess he's Belgian from before Belgium existed... He's an immortal vampire. He can fly, move faster than any human, be stronger than any human, hynotise most humans, et cetera. He'll go on fire in the sunlight, or if he gets too near to a religious symbol (mainly crosses, in the series. He used to be Christian, bu-ut he was in the Crusades and he kinda sorta lost all faith until he met Joan of Arc), food nauseates him and he has a severe reaction to garlic that resembles an allergy... So of course, he's trying to find a way to become human again, much to the exasperation of his vampiric sister Janette and father LaCroix. He's sworn off human blood, even the freely-donated, bottled stuff, and he drinks bovine blood instead. This leads most of the Torontonian vampires -- wow, show set in Toronto! o.o -- to mock him and treat him like a carouche (i.e. a lesser, weaker vampire whose first meal was animal blood) ... Nick being the son of the Toronto community's most powerful member doesn't help.
So the actual story. Nick's pseudonym for the 1990s period, when the show takes place, is Nicholas Knight, leading to endless knight/night puns. He's a homocide detective. His best mortal friend is one doctor Natalie Lambert, a coroner. Nat found out about him being a vampire after he showed up in her morgue and promptly sat up. Unfortunately for Nick, Nat is one of those humans resistant to being hypnotised. They fall in love, yay, but between Nick's vampiric nature, Nat's insistance that he can be human (leading him to weaken himself terribly by starving himself of blood), and Nick's vengeful, mortal-hating father... Nuh-uh. Not about to happen. When they actually do fall into bed, Nick loses control and drains her dry. Then he asks daddy dearest to kill him. All of the loose ends of an entire three-season program, ended in one episode. Well, except one. And that one happens to be my favourite.
This is the first series where my favourite character doesn't die. Two characters, out of the entire main- and secondary- cast survive. And one of them is my favourite.
O-kay! My favourite is Nicholas' vampire father, Lucien LaCroix. As Kim noted, 'light the cross', and I'm willing to bet anything that 'on fire' would be the next two words. See, LaCroix was alive when Christian-hunting was amusing. Idiot. -_- 79 A.D., to be exact. He was a Roman general living in Pompeii at the time when Vesuvius erupted. LaCroix was brought across (turned into a vmapire) by his own mortal daughter, teenage Divia, so she became his vampiric mother, and because they were vampires and didn't need to breath, they were able to escape the city of Pompeii before it got trashed. They traveled for twenty years, until they ended up in Egypt, where LaCroix found out Divia wanted to sleep with him. He told her she was depraved, beheaded her, and locked her in a sarcophagus for nigh on 1900 years.
Excerpt from episode 'Ashes to Ashes':
Divia: I've upset you. I didn't mean to.
LaCroix: Does it not trouble you to have killed your own master?
Divia: Why should I be?
LaCroix: He was an ancient. His knowledge of our past, our very beginnings,
was worthy of respect.
Divia: You think I was wrong. You think I'm cruel--unfeeling.
LaCroix: I didn't say that.
Divia: Yes, you did! I see the way you look at me. After all I've done for
you. How can you stand in judgement?
LaCroix: Divia, I know that I am here because of you, and I am eternally
greatful, but he made you.
Divia: He thought he could control me. He said he brought me across because
I was young, and my evil was purer than he'd ever seen. Then he tried to
harvest it. To make me in his image. After Pompeii, I would choose my
own way. I would do what I had to do to ensure that. [gently] Lucius, I
wanted so to explain everything that our nature offered. You understand,
don't you? We are free to do as we please. To kill as often as we
desire. Bathe in mortal flesh and blood. To do everything that is
forbidden. No one can stop us. Everything we lust after can be ours.
Including love. Let's do what must not be done. Make love to me, Father.
LaCroix: [repulsed] Divia, no!
Divia: [baring fangs] Come, Lucius. Do what I say!
LaCroix: You're my daughter!
Divia: Daughter, mother, lover. Why can't I be all three? You need someone
to love, Lucius, and I need you. [Lucius bares his fangs. He grabs a
scythe and turns around quickly. The shadow on the wall shows that he
beheaded Divia.]
Divia escapes later, alive, and tries killing everybody close to Daddy dearest. Some site said it was an 'Electra complex', whatever that reference is to. She gets staked by Nick when she's about to kill LaCroix, and LaCroix sets her on fire, killing her permanently.
Enough about plot details.
Now, I guess that according to fandom-groups, I'm a Dark Knightie and an Unnamed Faction wannabe. That is, I'd rather Nick stops weakening himself by trying to be mortal, settles back into being a vampire, and goes on to be a sweetheart of a vampire rather than a sweetheart wannabe-mortal. Unnamed Faction people are the ones who are fans of the relationship between Nick and LaCroix in all of its forms. There's father/son, brothers, friends, mentor/student, master/slave (although who the slave is varies depending on which of the two you ask), lovers... It's generally very complicated. In fact, according to the guy who played LaCroix:
"It's more than being father/son, more than being brothers and more than being lovers. It's all in there in a multitude of ways, it's very muddy waters there. There is a certain love between them on many different levels." - Nigel Bennett on the Nick/LaCroix relationship, from 1998 interview for "In The Dark".
And according to Natalie:
"You’ve got a two-thousand year old girl [i.e. Divia] who’s out to kill anyone close to her Daddy and no one is closer than you." - Nat to Nick, 'Ashes To Ashes'
Well, it's loving when they aren't killing each other. -_- Nick stakes LaCroix at least twice during the series, but LaCroix is so old and powerful that he can't be killed that easily. But still, when LaCroix gets irritated at Nick refusing to listen to his advice (most of which is good, but LaCroix acts vaguely stalker-ish when finding Nick to deliver it to him), he doesn't give up. No, he starts a radio show! Nightwatch. As the radio personality 'the Nightcrawler', he goes on at length on various topics into the radio, which seem completely random to everyone except for the viewer, who has no problem relating LaCroix's monologue each night to the events in the episode it's in. Nick gets it too, occasionally. It irritates him to no end, but he usually refuses to let whoever is in his '62 Cadillac to turn off the radio when Nightwatch is on.
Excerpt from episode 'Blood Money,' where Nick's four hundred seventy eight-million dollar someodd fortune (complete with attached charity: the de Brabant Foundation) has been stolen by the greedy son of his financial advisor:
LaCroix, as 'the Nightcrawler': It is said that Nature will not tolerate excess. As in the case of those who take more than their fair share. They're dealt with accordingly. For when you have too much, there will always be someone wanting to take it away from you. So maybe you should ask yourself, has your blood money been a blessing or a curse?
In an unrelated note, Nicholas got this fortune several centuries before from kidnapping the crown prince of a country, ransoming him, and then killing him. Nick then kills his accomplice and takes all the money, making him richer than both LaCroix and Janette. Both of those two are appalled with Nick's obsession with that money -- perhaps the origin of LaCroix lecturing Nick over the air waves as above.
Excerpt from episode 'Dead of Night,' where Nick is being tormented by several ghosts chasing him in a literal haunted house:
LaCroix, as 'the Nightcrawler': A ghost is an hallucination of some famous regret, no more. Ghosts are mistakes that we've made. They come not from beyond the pale, but rise up from our gravest doubts about ourselves. Each ill-considered thing that we have done is a ghost that haunts us. If we let it. Regret is for the foolish, the weak, the tormented. Kill it before it bleeds you dry...
Excerpt from episode 'Father's Day,' in which LaCroix is being ignored:
LaCroix, as 'the Nightcrawler': So. It's question time on Night Watch, gentle listeners. I see by the old clock on the wall that it's very nearly Father's Day. So. Tonight's question is... what is a father? Ring! We have a caller, and the caller says that a father is... "altruistic." Bzzzt! Too bad. Thanks for playing, though. Every parent wants something in return. Love. Loyalty. Nothing... is... free. [bitterly] So, boys and girls, the Nightcrawler wants to know: what did your father promise you? Did he promise to take care of you? Did he keep his promise?
Excerpt from the end of the episode 'Father's Day,' before which LaCroix finally got a visit from Nick:
LaCroix: They say if you love someone, let them go. If they're really yours, they will learn their lessons and return. You will come back, Nicholas. [He clicks the watch open.] I can wait. [We see that the watch has been engraved with a single word--"Forever."] I have all the time in the world.
This one's amusing, given that LaCroix is generally very opposed to Nick having a very public job, and especially Nick being a cop:
LaCroix: [gleefully] ... You know, for all that I dislike
what you do, it does appear to have some advantages. Murder
scenes and all that.
But they really are close. And there are some awesome lines.
From the script for the finale:
LaCroix: Don't be foolish, Nicholas.
Life is a gift.
As sweet as the freshest peach.
As precious as the guilded jewel.
I have never understood the logic,
Of willfully surrendering such a treasure.
What is there to gain?
How dark can your existence be?
When compared to an eternal void.
Or do you have faith?
That there is something beyond.
What do you see from where you are?
A bright light at the end of the tunnel?
Is it a ray of hope?
A glimmer of something better?
Or will it burn you like the morning sun?
Are the sound you hear, the trumpeting of
St. Peter's angels?
Or the screams of men's lost tortured souls?
You can't answer that. Can you?
Because you will never know the answer,
Till after the deed is done.
And is your faith really that strong?
LaCroix: And so. In your eyes, I'm the devil.
Nick: No... Not the devil.
LaCroix: What, then?
Nick: You are {in tears} my closest friend.
Nick hands the stake to LaCroix. He then kneels over Nat and takes
her hand in his.
LaCroix: Damn you, Nicholas!
As LaCroix raises the stake over Nicholas, the scene changes to the
outside of the loft and the sun rising to bring ...
THE END OF THE LAST KNIGHT
Cue me, in wide-eyed awe, fangirling the two of them like crazy.
Another random observation: French vampire cliche is running rampant. Nick's first language is French, LaCroix is Roman but he adapts the Frenchman bit easily (Nicholas endures about a dozen amusing French epithets ranging from 'mon fils' to 'mon protege'), Janette is French and she uses it a lot, the Spanish vampire Javier Vachon speaks French, the carouche Screed understands it, several other minor characters are fluent....
I do so adore this show. :)
Links:
Wikipedia: Forever Knight
Forever Knight Character Guide
Another Forever Knight Character Guide; more detailed, fewer characters.
Forever Knight Episode Guide
Forever Knight Episode Transcripts
Fanfic of Coolness (probably R for torture... but that part's not dwelled on.)
Ransomed Knight, by J.L. Kerr: Part One
Ransomed Knight, by J.L. Kerr: Part Two
I am alive. Really. And I'm relatively intact on top of that.
In fact, I've been feeling better lately than I have in years.
Now I will rant about something else... Uh, it's long, so you may not want to bother yourself with it.
Okay, so yes, Forever Knight obsession. From the intro to the show:
"He was brought across in 1228. Preyed on humans for their blood. Now he wants to be mortal again. To repay society for his sins. To emerge from his world of darkness... from his endless Forever Knight." - Lucien LaCroix, speaking about the main character.
So the main character's real name is Nicholas de Brabant, and I guess he's Belgian from before Belgium existed... He's an immortal vampire. He can fly, move faster than any human, be stronger than any human, hynotise most humans, et cetera. He'll go on fire in the sunlight, or if he gets too near to a religious symbol (mainly crosses, in the series. He used to be Christian, bu-ut he was in the Crusades and he kinda sorta lost all faith until he met Joan of Arc), food nauseates him and he has a severe reaction to garlic that resembles an allergy... So of course, he's trying to find a way to become human again, much to the exasperation of his vampiric sister Janette and father LaCroix. He's sworn off human blood, even the freely-donated, bottled stuff, and he drinks bovine blood instead. This leads most of the Torontonian vampires -- wow, show set in Toronto! o.o -- to mock him and treat him like a carouche (i.e. a lesser, weaker vampire whose first meal was animal blood) ... Nick being the son of the Toronto community's most powerful member doesn't help.
So the actual story. Nick's pseudonym for the 1990s period, when the show takes place, is Nicholas Knight, leading to endless knight/night puns. He's a homocide detective. His best mortal friend is one doctor Natalie Lambert, a coroner. Nat found out about him being a vampire after he showed up in her morgue and promptly sat up. Unfortunately for Nick, Nat is one of those humans resistant to being hypnotised. They fall in love, yay, but between Nick's vampiric nature, Nat's insistance that he can be human (leading him to weaken himself terribly by starving himself of blood), and Nick's vengeful, mortal-hating father... Nuh-uh. Not about to happen. When they actually do fall into bed, Nick loses control and drains her dry. Then he asks daddy dearest to kill him. All of the loose ends of an entire three-season program, ended in one episode. Well, except one. And that one happens to be my favourite.
This is the first series where my favourite character doesn't die. Two characters, out of the entire main- and secondary- cast survive. And one of them is my favourite.
O-kay! My favourite is Nicholas' vampire father, Lucien LaCroix. As Kim noted, 'light the cross', and I'm willing to bet anything that 'on fire' would be the next two words. See, LaCroix was alive when Christian-hunting was amusing. Idiot. -_- 79 A.D., to be exact. He was a Roman general living in Pompeii at the time when Vesuvius erupted. LaCroix was brought across (turned into a vmapire) by his own mortal daughter, teenage Divia, so she became his vampiric mother, and because they were vampires and didn't need to breath, they were able to escape the city of Pompeii before it got trashed. They traveled for twenty years, until they ended up in Egypt, where LaCroix found out Divia wanted to sleep with him. He told her she was depraved, beheaded her, and locked her in a sarcophagus for nigh on 1900 years.
Excerpt from episode 'Ashes to Ashes':
Divia: I've upset you. I didn't mean to.
LaCroix: Does it not trouble you to have killed your own master?
Divia: Why should I be?
LaCroix: He was an ancient. His knowledge of our past, our very beginnings,
was worthy of respect.
Divia: You think I was wrong. You think I'm cruel--unfeeling.
LaCroix: I didn't say that.
Divia: Yes, you did! I see the way you look at me. After all I've done for
you. How can you stand in judgement?
LaCroix: Divia, I know that I am here because of you, and I am eternally
greatful, but he made you.
Divia: He thought he could control me. He said he brought me across because
I was young, and my evil was purer than he'd ever seen. Then he tried to
harvest it. To make me in his image. After Pompeii, I would choose my
own way. I would do what I had to do to ensure that. [gently] Lucius, I
wanted so to explain everything that our nature offered. You understand,
don't you? We are free to do as we please. To kill as often as we
desire. Bathe in mortal flesh and blood. To do everything that is
forbidden. No one can stop us. Everything we lust after can be ours.
Including love. Let's do what must not be done. Make love to me, Father.
LaCroix: [repulsed] Divia, no!
Divia: [baring fangs] Come, Lucius. Do what I say!
LaCroix: You're my daughter!
Divia: Daughter, mother, lover. Why can't I be all three? You need someone
to love, Lucius, and I need you. [Lucius bares his fangs. He grabs a
scythe and turns around quickly. The shadow on the wall shows that he
beheaded Divia.]
Divia escapes later, alive, and tries killing everybody close to Daddy dearest. Some site said it was an 'Electra complex', whatever that reference is to. She gets staked by Nick when she's about to kill LaCroix, and LaCroix sets her on fire, killing her permanently.
Enough about plot details.
Now, I guess that according to fandom-groups, I'm a Dark Knightie and an Unnamed Faction wannabe. That is, I'd rather Nick stops weakening himself by trying to be mortal, settles back into being a vampire, and goes on to be a sweetheart of a vampire rather than a sweetheart wannabe-mortal. Unnamed Faction people are the ones who are fans of the relationship between Nick and LaCroix in all of its forms. There's father/son, brothers, friends, mentor/student, master/slave (although who the slave is varies depending on which of the two you ask), lovers... It's generally very complicated. In fact, according to the guy who played LaCroix:
"It's more than being father/son, more than being brothers and more than being lovers. It's all in there in a multitude of ways, it's very muddy waters there. There is a certain love between them on many different levels." - Nigel Bennett on the Nick/LaCroix relationship, from 1998 interview for "In The Dark".
And according to Natalie:
"You’ve got a two-thousand year old girl [i.e. Divia] who’s out to kill anyone close to her Daddy and no one is closer than you." - Nat to Nick, 'Ashes To Ashes'
Well, it's loving when they aren't killing each other. -_- Nick stakes LaCroix at least twice during the series, but LaCroix is so old and powerful that he can't be killed that easily. But still, when LaCroix gets irritated at Nick refusing to listen to his advice (most of which is good, but LaCroix acts vaguely stalker-ish when finding Nick to deliver it to him), he doesn't give up. No, he starts a radio show! Nightwatch. As the radio personality 'the Nightcrawler', he goes on at length on various topics into the radio, which seem completely random to everyone except for the viewer, who has no problem relating LaCroix's monologue each night to the events in the episode it's in. Nick gets it too, occasionally. It irritates him to no end, but he usually refuses to let whoever is in his '62 Cadillac to turn off the radio when Nightwatch is on.
Excerpt from episode 'Blood Money,' where Nick's four hundred seventy eight-million dollar someodd fortune (complete with attached charity: the de Brabant Foundation) has been stolen by the greedy son of his financial advisor:
LaCroix, as 'the Nightcrawler': It is said that Nature will not tolerate excess. As in the case of those who take more than their fair share. They're dealt with accordingly. For when you have too much, there will always be someone wanting to take it away from you. So maybe you should ask yourself, has your blood money been a blessing or a curse?
In an unrelated note, Nicholas got this fortune several centuries before from kidnapping the crown prince of a country, ransoming him, and then killing him. Nick then kills his accomplice and takes all the money, making him richer than both LaCroix and Janette. Both of those two are appalled with Nick's obsession with that money -- perhaps the origin of LaCroix lecturing Nick over the air waves as above.
Excerpt from episode 'Dead of Night,' where Nick is being tormented by several ghosts chasing him in a literal haunted house:
LaCroix, as 'the Nightcrawler': A ghost is an hallucination of some famous regret, no more. Ghosts are mistakes that we've made. They come not from beyond the pale, but rise up from our gravest doubts about ourselves. Each ill-considered thing that we have done is a ghost that haunts us. If we let it. Regret is for the foolish, the weak, the tormented. Kill it before it bleeds you dry...
Excerpt from episode 'Father's Day,' in which LaCroix is being ignored:
LaCroix, as 'the Nightcrawler': So. It's question time on Night Watch, gentle listeners. I see by the old clock on the wall that it's very nearly Father's Day. So. Tonight's question is... what is a father? Ring! We have a caller, and the caller says that a father is... "altruistic." Bzzzt! Too bad. Thanks for playing, though. Every parent wants something in return. Love. Loyalty. Nothing... is... free. [bitterly] So, boys and girls, the Nightcrawler wants to know: what did your father promise you? Did he promise to take care of you? Did he keep his promise?
Excerpt from the end of the episode 'Father's Day,' before which LaCroix finally got a visit from Nick:
LaCroix: They say if you love someone, let them go. If they're really yours, they will learn their lessons and return. You will come back, Nicholas. [He clicks the watch open.] I can wait. [We see that the watch has been engraved with a single word--"Forever."] I have all the time in the world.
This one's amusing, given that LaCroix is generally very opposed to Nick having a very public job, and especially Nick being a cop:
LaCroix: [gleefully] ... You know, for all that I dislike
what you do, it does appear to have some advantages. Murder
scenes and all that.
But they really are close. And there are some awesome lines.
From the script for the finale:
LaCroix: Don't be foolish, Nicholas.
Life is a gift.
As sweet as the freshest peach.
As precious as the guilded jewel.
I have never understood the logic,
Of willfully surrendering such a treasure.
What is there to gain?
How dark can your existence be?
When compared to an eternal void.
Or do you have faith?
That there is something beyond.
What do you see from where you are?
A bright light at the end of the tunnel?
Is it a ray of hope?
A glimmer of something better?
Or will it burn you like the morning sun?
Are the sound you hear, the trumpeting of
St. Peter's angels?
Or the screams of men's lost tortured souls?
You can't answer that. Can you?
Because you will never know the answer,
Till after the deed is done.
And is your faith really that strong?
LaCroix: And so. In your eyes, I'm the devil.
Nick: No... Not the devil.
LaCroix: What, then?
Nick: You are {in tears} my closest friend.
Nick hands the stake to LaCroix. He then kneels over Nat and takes
her hand in his.
LaCroix: Damn you, Nicholas!
As LaCroix raises the stake over Nicholas, the scene changes to the
outside of the loft and the sun rising to bring ...
THE END OF THE LAST KNIGHT
Cue me, in wide-eyed awe, fangirling the two of them like crazy.
Another random observation: French vampire cliche is running rampant. Nick's first language is French, LaCroix is Roman but he adapts the Frenchman bit easily (Nicholas endures about a dozen amusing French epithets ranging from 'mon fils' to 'mon protege'), Janette is French and she uses it a lot, the Spanish vampire Javier Vachon speaks French, the carouche Screed understands it, several other minor characters are fluent....
I do so adore this show. :)
Links:
Wikipedia: Forever Knight
Forever Knight Character Guide
Another Forever Knight Character Guide; more detailed, fewer characters.
Forever Knight Episode Guide
Forever Knight Episode Transcripts
Fanfic of Coolness (probably R for torture... but that part's not dwelled on.)
Ransomed Knight, by J.L. Kerr: Part One
Ransomed Knight, by J.L. Kerr: Part Two