FORKNI-L
Digest - 29 Jun 2013 to 30 Jun 2013 (#2013-99)
Sun, 30 Jun 2013
There are 2 messages totaling 133 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Looking for (more) stories...
2. Discussing "For I have Sinned"
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Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 07:05:58 -0400
From: Greer Watson <gwatson2@r.......>
Subject: Looking for (more) stories...
First off, I'd like to thank Cheryl and Desiree, both of whom sent me copies
of the Light Cousins' stories I was missing.
However, checking through the site (and then going back and combing the War
9 archive), I find that I'm also missing two of their war posts. There were
some posting mix-ups that war--I think maybe some posts went to the wrong
list, and hence didn't get tucked in the archive.
Is there anyone who kept a file of War 9 posts? The two I'm missing are
both by Nancy Debretsion:
- "Baby, I War Born to Run"
- "Scent of a Woman"
probably with the title prefixed by LCL, which was the abbrev. for the
faction.
Greer
gwatson2@r.......
http://www.foreverknight.org/FK4/
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Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 16:52:57 -0400
From: Greer Watson <gwatson2@r.......>
Subject: Discussing "For I have Sinned"
Although we saw the Raven in the series premiere, it is with "For I have
Sinned" that we *really* get it presented as a vampire hang-out--and in a
way that we never really see again, even though vampires do turn up at the
club in later episodes.
I think this is because, in that first scene when Nick goes to the club to
see if Janette knows anything about the case, he speaks so openly (granted
on a loud dance floor) to that young vampire guy. You know the line:
"Immortality is no excuse not to floss." It's obviously funny; but it's
also confrontational. This is a young buck challenging Nick, who simply
puts him down in one flattening phrase. Then, only minutes later, Janette
refers to Myra ("binging and purging"). She seems to be dancing with the
young male vampire: is that the reason he was antagonistic to Nick? did he
think the older vampire intended to cut in? And then, of course, there's
Alma, who is the only one of the three to have a significant role to play in
the rest of the episode.
I don't think we ever again get to see so many vampires at the Raven--two of
whom are merely throw-away colour! It does, however, immediately establish
it as more than simply a Goth club owned by Janette. It is Toronto's
premiere vampire hang-out.
Of course, "For I have Sinned" is the third episode of the series. As such,
the writers are still in the position of establishing FK's version of
vampires in the eyes of the viewer. I remember, when I was writing my
virtual season, FK4, having the same need to write things into the third
episode to mop up odd bits of lore that people would need to know. In "For
I have Sinned", for example, we have the scene where Nick takes a garlic
pill. We never see him do this ever again, nor (as far as I recall) is it
referred to. It's there for only one *real* reason: to establish for
viewers that the vampires of FK have the usual garlic allergy.
More significant to the plot, of course, is the allergy to crosses.
Almost immediately, when Nick and Schanke go to the crime scene, we are
shown how he jibs at the crucified body and wants it covered up. In the
morgue, he shies from the little silver cross that the victim had been
wearing. And, in a slightly later scene, he tests himself by taking it out
of the evidence bag and putting it in his palm. Now that's quite a graphic
scene: unusually shocking, I think, for the time, especially in a PG-rated
show. They not only used a bit of smoke and sizzle (in the sound effects),
but also had very realistic make-up on the hand to show us the serious burn
that he suffered.
At the end of the episode, of course, Nick is able to hold the same cross
without burning himself. That is highly significant in the context of "For
I have Sinned", of course; but, as an evolution in his salvation, it is
belied by many later episodes. Though the writers never showed him testing
himself on a cross again in the same way, they certainly had him demonstrate
an identical fear-response. (In "Bad Blood", for instance, he nearly causes
an accident when shown a cross while driving.) This sort of inconsistency
is very common in the series. The allergy that vampires have to crosses, in
FK as elsewhere, is simply too good--and too familiar--a thing to drop.
Indeed, if they were to make Nick different, it would puzzle new viewers any
time he were able to be around religious objects without consequence,
wouldn't it?
Nearly always crosses, mind: this is the first, but hardly the last episode
to give the impression that FK is not only Christian-focused but,
specifically, rather than have a more varied selection of sects, tends to a
Catholic orientation. However (if only ex post facto), one mustn't forget
that obsidian raven dagger in "Blackwing". Nick found that painful to touch
even before he knew it had religious significance.
An inability to tolerate proximity to religious objects is just too
*useful*, dramatically speaking, to drop from the show. Nevertheless, even
if only from the perspective of the episode itself, the writer did have a
nice bit of character development there, by having Nick's braving the cross
to save a life curing his allergy.
Greer
gwatson2@r.......
http://www.foreverknight.org/FK4/
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End of FORKNI-L Digest - 29 Jun 2013 to 30 Jun 2013 (#2013-99)
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