By: PacManFan4evr.

Should we label the character of Nolan Campbell from Clock Tower 2 / USA as a pedophile? He is indeed a 26 year old man who is in love with the young 15 year old Jennifer Simpson; a girl who is 11 years younger than him. Is their relationship wrong? Or maybe we misinterpreted it?

According to Dictionary.Com, a pedophile is "an adult who is sexually attracted to a child or children." The American Psychiatric Association defines a pedophile as "a person who over at least a 6 month period has recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (age 13 years or younger)." Now let's look at the whole picture here and ask ourselves was Nolan ever sexually attracted to Jennifer? If anything, he was more physically attracted to her. We do know that he is attracted to her when he told Jennifer that he was interested in her, then he asked her out on an interview and date:

NOLAN: "And I'm interested in you too..."
JENNIFER: "...."
NOLAN: "Hey, what do you say to having dinner with me? I don't care what you tell me, I just want you to talk."
JENNIFER: "Are you asking me for an interview, or for a date?"
NOLAN: "Uh... well, uhh..."
JENNIFER: "...."
NOLAN: "Uhhh... That's it! Both! Yes, both, an interview and a date!"
JENNIFER: "All right then (tee hee)... let's go."

He does show that he is taking his job seriously and want to get as much information about the "Clock Tower Murders" from Jennifer, but also he did felt some chemistry from her. Which would later develop after their date, before Scenario-1. Their date is also heard in the Clock Tower 2 Drama CD and it seems that their date went really well, they flirted for a while. I believe that when Nolan was assigned to write about the "Clock Tower Murders", he wouldn't thought much of it had he not met Jennifer eye-to-eye at the first floor of the Laboratory. That was when Nolan fell in love with Jennifer, love at first sight.

Nolan also did not have any sexual encounters with Jennifer during the course of the games and Drama CDs, nor do we see or hear him having fantasies about her. The only encounter they both had was a kiss on the lips as shown in Jennifer's A Ending, but we have to realize that it was Jennifer who initialized the kiss. Her reasoning for kissing him was that they were at desperation after figuring out that they were going to be stuck underneath the Burroughsclan's Mansion. So Jennifer wanted to spend her final moments with the man she loved. It's clichéd, but Jennifer is a romantic girl!

Now why would Jennifer fall in love with a man who is way older than her? That can be best explained if we put psychology into this, meaning we have to look at her past relationship with men. Jennifer never did have the chance to bond with her birth father, Walter Simpson; she was only 5 years old when he died. Jennifer had spent most of her years inside the Granite Orphanage, without a concrete father figure in her life. I believe she is trying to fill that empty void in her life through Nolan. It is not unusual for most girls who tend to date older men when they have a father figure absent from their life, since they never had that kind of attention from a father and are desperate to receive it from an older man. In Jennifer's case, it is her way of masking the pain of missing her father.

Now we can argue that what Nolan did to Jennifer would be accounted for "statutory rape", which according to Dictionary.Com means when a person has "sexual relations with a person who has not reached the statutory age of consent." Let's ask ourselves, what is the statutory age of consent for Jennifer? Considering that they live in Norway, the age of consent there is 16 years of age. The Norwegian General Civil Code §196 states, "any person who commits or is accessory to another person's committing an act of indecency with any person who is under 16 years of age shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years." I trust that Nolan is smart enough to not try anything with Jennifer until she is legal, which would be a year after the event of Clock Tower 2 / USA. As of now, they are both a blossoming couple with a consenting relationship.

I see here that we should not label him as a pedophile if the definition doesn't even apply to him.

Now if the real pedophile would stand up? That would be Harris Chapman, a man who we clearly see has a warped infactuation with Jennifer. We do know that he does collect clipped out articles about the "Clock Tower Murders" scattered about his desk and ask about her whereabouts in the Prologue. Not only that, but he also keeps a picture of her on his desk! This obsession of his pushed Harris as far as making a truce with Edward:

CLOCK TOWER 2 (SECOND):
HARRIS: "Jennifer, don't be scared. It's me..."
JENNIFER: "Where on earth are we? Where are the others? And... why do you look like--"
HARRIS: "He told me to. He said if I kidnap you, you would be mine. He told me to dress as the Scissor Man and kill people. Jennifer?"
JENNIFER: "Keep away from me!"

CLOCK TOWER USA:
HARRIS: "Don't be afraid, Jennifer, it's me Harris!"
JENNIFER: "Harris?"
HARRIS: "Poor girl. Don't worry, I'll help now."
JENNIFER: "Where are we? Where is everyone? What's that costume?"
HARRIS: "He told me. He told me that if I kidnap you, he would give you to me. He told me to dress up like Scissorman and kill people. Jennifer!"
JENNIFER: "No, no, no! Don't come any closer!"

You can see through the dialogue, Harris was influenced by the Scissorman who used Jennifer as his prize; he will be awarded for her if he went ahead and kill people! Seeing this evidence, it's obvious that the only thing common between Nolan and Harris is that they both like Jennifer. But Nolan is NO WHERE near the pedophile Harris is!

In conclusion, by definition it is wrong to call Nolan a pedophile. We have to accept the fact that if Jennifer and Nolan are in love, their relationship would be considered legal in the country of Norway after the events of Clock Tower 2 / USA.

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