Just started re-watching one of my oldest fandom sources, the 1990s Canadian vampire show Forever Knight. It's still fantastic and alluring, but one of the things that really has changed for me is my view of Dr. Natalie Lambert, the human coroner for the City of Toronto who is attempting to find a cure for vampirism for the eponymous character, Nick Knight, a 13th century vampire who wallows in Romantic agonies for the thousands of people he's killed.
Now, when I was a teenager, I hated Natalie. There are a couple of reasons for this, but mostly I shipped Nick and Lucien Lacroix, his vampire maker/master/father, who the show very clearly sets up as both a familial *and* romantic match to Nick (in a subtextual 90s kind of way), as well as his frequent foe and foil. Lacroix was a 2000 year old former Roman General with a very sexy voice and a thorough obsession for his vampiric progeny. He was fascinating and exciting, while Natalie was frankly a bit of a nag who nagged more frequently as the show progressed.
Watching it now, though.... Natalie is clever and funny, with an engaging scientific curiosity. Most significantly, she is clearly working at a disadvantage because Nick only ever claims to want a cure for his state, while often working at cross purposes with her efforts to help him. She spends most of her (very scarce) free time engineering dietary supplements for Nick while attempting to formulate a kind of vampire vaccine. Nick spends half of his time spitting out what she makes him, and when he does take her concoctions, he often ignores her detailed instructions on how to safely act with his altered or reduced abilities. He also frequently goes back to his vampire sister/lover Janette, while concealing this from Natalie. As for his relationship with Lacroix, he interacts with him frequently, going to him for help and support, while only conveying the worst of their relationship to Natalie, leading her to believe that he hates his maker unequivocally, when that clearly isn't the case.
As for the aforementioned nagging, Natalie had a right to it! Nick frankly leads her on for the majority of the series, whether consciously or unconsciously, with the notion that someday they can be together. Meanwhile she gets older and older, and has to demand more attention from a man who is so ambivalent and perpetually dissatisfied that he eventually finds fault with everyone close to him.
Poor Nat. You didn't deserve your...Last Knight.
