- “I was just freaking out like honestly I am having a proper full-on gay crisis!”
- ―Nick, to Charlie Spring
Nicholas "Nick" Luke Nelson, portrayed by Kit Connor, is one of the two protagonists of Heartstopper and Nick and Charlie, and is a main character in Solitaire. He is the boyfriend of Charlie Spring, and is best friends with Elle Argent, Aled Last, Isaac Henderson, Tara Jones, Darcy Olsson, Tao Xu, Imogen Heaney, and Sahar Zahid.
Appearance
Within the comics, Nick is extremely tall and strong for his age, standing at 6'1", and having a bulky, husky build. His strong stature is something many characters - especially Charlie - have noted, as he often picks up Charlie with ease whether he's injured or just for fun. He has dirty blonde hair shaved to the side and longer at the top, brown eyes, and a round face. His attire is usually derived of sweatshirts, hoodies, joggers, patterned socks, and low-top Vans sneakers. In the future, he is shown to have grown more athletic and has grown a beard.
Within the television series, Nick's height has been slightly shortened to 5'11", though he remains taller and more larger than his peers. His attire has more branded logos on them, mostly from Vans or Adidas.
Personality
Due to both his appearance and his participation in rugby, Nick was initially stereotyped as nothing more than a rude, abrasive, and empty-minded rugby lad. However, upon Charlie becoming best friends with him, Nick is shown to be extremely kind, sweet, patient, goofy, and open-minded to everyone, which soon causes Charlie to grow romantic feelings for him. Unlike his teammates, Nick doesn't stereotype Charlie for being gay and slim, believing he was just as good at rugby as anyone else. Nick is quick to protect people, pulling Ben off of Charlie as he sexually assaulted him, checking up on Charlie afterward via texting, and punching Harry in the face after he referred to Charlie using a homophobic slur.
Nick is initially confused and scared upon realizing he had feelings for Charlie, and became overwhelmed when finding unhelpful results on the Internet. His pining erupts when he kisses Charlie at Harry's birthday party, before leaving in embarrassment when hearing Sai calling for him. After leaving, Nick immediately regrets it and comes to Charlie's house in the morning to apologize, explaining in tears that he does like Charlie, but needs more time understanding who he is before he can admit it the public. Charlie comforts Nick by explaining that he possibly was bisexual, and following some research, Nick agrees that the term is the one he's the most comfortable with. Despite some teasing from his peers and even his older brother, Nick finds support in Charlie, their friends and his mother. He eventually tells off both his brother and estranged father for not caring what they think of him.
Nick is incredibly loving and flirtatious, especially with Charlie, often holding him, picking him up, and kissing him on his cheeks. A flaw of Nick is his need to fix things. When discovering Charlie's eating disorder and his plethora of mental health problems, Nick attempts to coax Charlie to speak to his parents and tries having him eat alone from their friends. But when Charlie speaking to his parents fails, Nick becomes overwhelmed emotionally due to not knowing what to do and believes he's not a good boyfriend. His mother comforts him and tells him that while love is so beneficial, it can't cure someone's mental illness alone. Soon after, he talks to Charlie and admits that he can't make Charlie's problems go away, but he'll be by his side wherever he needs to go. He's shown to be extremely patient and understanding with Charlie as he recovers from his mental health issues.
Due to being nearly two years older than Charlie, Nick has to worry about graduating and what university to go to. He believes he should choose a university that is close to Charlie, but his friends question if that's what he wants and if it's for the better. Nick and Charlie have also begun struggling to be sexual with one another, having difficulty finding a private area and also Charlie dealing with body dysmorphia, freezing when Nick attempts taking off his clothes (though Nick is understanding and immediately stops).
Sexuality
Nick is openly bisexual. He references during a Q&A in 2018 that he had a crush on a Year 8 boy while he was in Year 7, and that he became flustered every time he was near him. However, he initially dismissed it as admiration rather than a crush. It's been mentioned that he had a crush on a girl named Tara Jones throughout Year 7 and 8, and the two kissed during the Year 8 Higgs-Truham Disco. However, the relationship never came to fruition, as Tara discovered she was a lesbian and began dating Darcy Olsson. The beginning of Heartstopper focuses on Nick discovering his sexuality when he begins to have feelings for Charlie. After kissing Charlie, Nick is initially fearful and flees the scene. The next morning, however, he returns to apologize and Charlie comforts him, explaining that he's possibly bisexual. Nick, liking the term, does his research and concludes that is the sexuality he is the most comfortable with. In the mini-comic, The Ethics of Infatuation Dynamics[2], Nick mentions having celebrity crushes on Zooey Deschanel and Ariana Grande, but quickly finds himself sharing Charlie's celebrity crush on the in-universe classicist, Henry Maddox.
Trivia
- Nick's Hogwarts house is Gryffindor.
- His MBTI type is ESFJ/The Caregiver.[3]
- He likes the way fountain pens make handwriting look.
- In the Heartstopper mini-comic 'Boyband Crush', he says the best looking The Ark member is Jimmy Kaga-Ricci.
- He likes watching the FA Cup, Six Nations and Family Guy (Solitaire).
- His first kiss was with Tara Jones.
- His dad lives in France.
- He is fluent in both English and French.
- In his character profile he is described as "great at baking cakes".
- His favourite film is The Avengers,[4] and his favourite character is Iron Man.[5]
- His Instagram handle, as shown in the comics, is @nicholaszzzzz and in the television series, is @nick_nzzzz.
- His favourite bands include The Maccabees, Vampire Weekend, Alt-J, and The Vaccines. He is also a fan of the music of Taylor Swift.
Gallery
References
- ↑ In "Meet", the date is 4th January 2022 (the year the show premiered, and if you calculate the dates, you get 2005.
- ↑ Mini Comic: The Ethics of Infatuation Dynamics
- ↑ Heartstopper Character Profiles
- ↑ Heartstopper 2020 Q&A, Part 2
- ↑ Alice Oseman's Tumblr blog