#when you unpack the context of his backstory it is actually absolutely tragic and heartwrenching

[terrence-silver]

Do you have any insights into Valek that you'd like to share? We know so little about his character in that movie.

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Well, I think, as a human, he lived a sheltered life to the point that in a way, there's not much to know, if that makes sense. By that I mean that it wasn't an existence fraught with controversies.

He was a medieval Bohemian. Undoubtedly dedicated his life to the cloth very early on (might've come from a numerous family too, with many siblings and relatives to the point having one son dedicate himself to the cloth exclusively was a sacrifice (and privilege) this household could very well make or maybe even had to, for reasons of practicality and to have one less mouth to feed; something that was also a thing people commonly practiced back then and part of me wouldn't be surprised if Jan himself volunteered for the duty to alleviate the burden from his parents because he just has this odd streak of nobility to him) --- doing so as young as an adolescent or even as a child, perhaps, going from the apprenticeship of being an Altar boy to Priesthood with nothing in between because this was always the way it was always intended to be for him and it was a quiet way to be alive. One of prayer. Servitude. Piety. Temperance. Honor. Certainty. Life back then moved slower. Was infinitely simpler. Years and years could pass without change. Without ups and downs. I think Jan Valek took great joy in being a priest, or at least, to phrase myself better, he took profound solace in the duty. I think he took profound solace in the duty of helping his flock. Helping his congregation. Those in need. People in general.

I think he genuinely took the tenants of Catholicism to heart in very legitimate sense.

How do I know this?

Well, we're told that somehow, this man ended up being the leader of a Bohemian peasant's uprising at one point in time, which can only lead me to believe that he not only took the tenants of Catholicism and the whole 'help and love thyne neighbor' fully to heart, but that his continued dedication to said creed possibly amassed a following so large that he either ended up being placed at the head of this revolution or simply poised himself as a leader personally. Which means, somewhere along the way, his helpful and perhaps kind, justice loving nature in the face of inequality, poverty, abuses and aiding the 'downtrodden who would inherit heaven' has been inspirational enough to a large quantity of people that they all looked for Father Valek for guidance in their cause --- as such, I imagine that as a priest, in his human life, it is reasonable to assume he was very charitable. Something of a local patriot and the champion of the unchampioned. Feeding the poor. Helping those without help. Giving voice to the voiceless. Doing so continually and purely because he felt that's what Christianity is all about. Being kind enough to the point where it might've started becoming a thorn in the eye of the higher ups in the very church he was serving. Thing is, Father Valek was here emboldening the serfs to stand up to their god ordained lords and masters --- an idea that was, when push came to shove, extremely modern and extremely threatening considering the time period. I think this idea set the Bohemian countryside ablaze, literally and figuratively and that Jan Valek, becoming somewhat legendary among the small folk of the land, had to be pegged down a notch to avoid massive civil unrest.

Which is how this story ends.

With his execution.

Tried and burned for heresy (under what I consider are extremely trumped up, fraudulent charges and more a political tactical move to quickly and very messily silence opposition and kill the morale of the uprising than anything heretical or truly transgressive) Jan Valek found himself betrayed by the very church he sought to serve with the very tenants he was idealistically and full heartedly upholding --- namely, helping those in need. Which is exactly what led to his downfall. Ironically, if Jan was a worse man, he might've had a long and prosperous human life. And to add insult to injury he wasn't just betrayed in any ordinary fashion. He was undoubtedly imprisoned, paraded, made an example of, humiliated, abused for months, deemed to be possessed by evil spirits and demons to appeal to the superstitious mentality of the era, stripped of all his honors, subjugated to an exorcism (which is really just elaborate torture) and only then, finally, executed in an extremely and unbelievably painful way in the town of Berziers where his trial was observed, so everyone who previously followed him would see that this is what happens when you neglect your god-ordained lot in life and play revolution.

The echo of this message whimpered across Europe.

In the aftermath of his horrible treatment, his body remained destroyed, charred, mutilated, broken and massacred --- possibly even displayed somewhere publically, to drill the point home. Both fortunately and unfortunately, though, the incident led to the opposite effect the church intended and all they achieved was making Jan Valek into both a literal and metaphorical martyr who died for a cause, which only made his teachings stronger and more alluring until they grew into something of a sect. A cult germinating larger and larger around the scope of sadism Father Valek suffered and continued suffering, even as his posthumous remains were mishandled.

Jan went from a once-upon-a-time Bohemian priest of unusual kindness, a helper of the disenfranchised, someone teaching and encouraging the said disenfranchised to stand up to their oppressors because that's exactly what Christ himself taught too, to the enemy of the established order, to someone accused and trial as a criminal to a near saintly figure in the local folklores of the neighboring peoples. The Catholic church made Jan Valek into a priest and a man of the cloth. Then they've made and assigned him a traitor when he led a people's rebellion against the Holy Seat's and the local aristocracy's interests. They've made him into a criminal. A martyr when they've condemned, botched his exorcism and executed him. And then ironically, a saint when they canonized the very man they've had killed (possibly to cover up, for the lack of a better word, the scale of their cruel screw up). They've also made him a Vampire with a failed exorcism. Everything he is because the church itself has made him so. Perhaps, the first thing Jan Valek had agency in making himself was when he became the Father of all Vampires, taking on everyone who was ever like him a creating a great many all on his own, forming a new community as a reflection of his old congregations. No wonder he is so protective of his brood and children. They're the extension of a divinely given free will that persists even into his unlife.

The severity of the betrayal the church, though, and by extension, a God he felt abandoned him all those centuries ago in his hour of dire need when all he did was serve his community the way God himself ordained it was grand enough to not grant him peace, ensuring he rises from the brutal condition of his death and wonder the land like a blight for six centuries, feeding and making himself strong, draining others and infecting a great many, creating his own new community, following --- coven, if you will --- becoming what he is now. A Vampire. Accursed. Forsaken. Soulless. When that was the very opposite of everything Jan Valek initially was. He was simply a kind man who had good principles. Who got embroidered in a cause greater than himself because he wanted to help people --- truly and genuinely --- paying the ultimate price for it and ending up unjustly and unfairly punished for it forevermore.

#when you unpack the context of his backstory it is actually absolutely tragic and heartwrenching #the objective of jan valek seeking out the cross of berziers so he could walk in sunlight again? #he feels he's justly owed that privilege because he feels he's done nothing wrong and was if anything wrongly accused #jan feels god quite literally OWES it to him #owes him some sunlight #some semblance of normality after so much suffering #jan valek #vampires #john carpenter's vampires #backstory #character analysis