White Knight

**White Knight** is an internet term for someone who passionately defends another person online, whether it is warranted or not. It usually refers to a male who vehemently defends a woman online against her critics (even if said criticism is valid), but has come to refer to any such defensiveness.

White Knighting is often seen as the polar opposite of trolling. While defending someone online is not in and of itself bad, White Knights often compartmentalize or refuse to accept facts about their target when making their defense.

Despite all his antics and craziness, even Norman Boutin has discovered people who will defend him online.

## Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson is an Amazon reviewer who was initially hostile to Norman Boutin and wrote a bad review of *Empress Theresa*. Norman, being Norman, started to write in the comment section attacking the review. Wilson was initially hostile towards Norman, insulting him and making *ad hominems* (much like Norman does to his critics). He even told Norman that his sister had gotten him banned from CAF, and was laughing at his "pathetic book."

Suddenly, in August of 2014, Wilson completely changed his tone. He rewrote his review to give it five stars and called it the next *Ulysses*. He said in the comment section, "I've revised my review. I think I was just too jealous to give the book a fair reading, but when I saw the beautiful new cover, my eyes were opened." He began to continually give encouragement to Norman. He also began to attack Norman's critics, saying: "You just be all upset because Norman wroted [*SIC*] a great book and you've spent like six months trying to tear it down but you have yet to touch it." He became so supportive of Norman that some critics began to accuse him of being a sockpuppet account.

The honesty of Wilson's intents, however, seems questionable. At times, it's quite obvious that he's exaggerating and being sarcastic. For example, in his review he states: "The only book that rival Empress Theresa is the Bible, and I think Empress Theresa might nose it out." He has also said that Norman is "the true heir of Nabokov." It is also noted how in many posts Wilson will make the same grammar and spelling mistakes as Norman, perhaps intentionally. He also sometimes makes the exact same arguments against critics, or against his former opinion, as Norman does against his critics (see the examples above).

It seems more than likely that Wilson is a troll pretending to like *Empress Theresa* in order to get Norman to do things and tell him information. Even more amazing, however, is that Norman *absolutely believes* Wilson's character change. In Norman's mind, it seems perfectly natural that someone would realize just how wonderful his book really is. Even other reviewers began laughing at that fact.

## Mike Ingram and Tom McAllister

Mike Ingram and Tom McAllisters are authors and the hosts of the Book Fight Podcast. In April of 2015, they decided to do an extra episode, and offered listeners a chance to vote on which book they would read and review. Somehow, *Empress Theresa* made it on the list. Amazingly, due to an extensive online campaign on Twitter and other forms of social media, *Empress Theresa* made it to the top, beating even more well known books like *Fifty Shades of Grey*.

However, Ingram and McAllister found out about the campaign, then removed *Empress Theresa* from the list and had another vote. They stated that they had no interest in joining the "extended online bullying campaign" against Norman. This forgets a few things:

* Bullies tend to go after people weaker than themselves. Norman calls other people weak, and goes after them.
* Norman is criticized and attacked for his disrespectful attitude and immense ego, which gives authors (and especially indie authors) a bad name.
* Virtually every criticism or so-called "attack" Norman has received has been because of his own actions and his own irrational behavior. Norman was not an innocent author who just happened to write a poor book people then overreacted to - he created a persona around that book that gave it unwanted attention and infamy.

Norman's critics are not bullies. Rather, Norman is the bully.

In case this wasn't affirmed, Norman continually showed Ingram and McAllister disrespect, both before and after their decision to pull his book from the poll. He called Ingram a poor writer, and called their show an internet obscurity. This showed that Norman despises and attacks even those who show some level of generosity, which again calls into question just who the real bully is.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=White+Knight&defid=5511399
2. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AZA03HL54WWUG/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detpdp
3. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BJISRVGWZ8OV/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00BSGHLWU&cdForum=Fx1CN883JMVGE8&cdMsgID=Mx2L9FGG5SQF74O&cdMsgNo=137&cdPage=14&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3IQL443WBJL14&store=digital-text#Mx2L9FGG5SQF74O
4. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BJISRVGWZ8OV/ref=cm\_cr\_rdp\_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00BSGHLWU
5. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BJISRVGWZ8OV/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00BSGHLWU&cdForum=Fx1CN883JMVGE8&cdMsgID=Mx3MXFG4RCM43XE&cdMsgNo=162&cdPage=17&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3IQL443WBJL14&store=digital-text#Mx3MXFG4RCM43XE
6. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U460R88DR2E2/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00MJPIX26&cdForum=Fx32NQR1MUHPCVO&cdMsgID=Mx3FC02XQE0X17U&cdMsgNo=1047&cdPage=105&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxQA03WM82RZXF&store=digital-text#Mx3FC02XQE0X17U
7. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U460R88DR2E2/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00MJPIX26&cdForum=Fx32NQR1MUHPCVO&cdMsgID=MxAMDFGLEU7TED&cdMsgNo=1039&cdPage=104&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxQA03WM82RZXF&store=digital-text#MxAMDFGLEU7TED
8. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BJISRVGWZ8OV/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00BSGHLWU&cdForum=Fx1CN883JMVGE8&cdMsgID=Mx1NBGVS7XA8EPA&cdMsgNo=165&cdPage=17&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3IQL443WBJL14&store=digital-text#Mx1NBGVS7XA8EPA
9. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R3BJISRVGWZ8OV/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00BSGHLWU&cdForum=Fx1CN883JMVGE8&cdMsgID=Mx2SQ8ABJDPIG3K&cdMsgNo=163&cdPage=17&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3IQL443WBJL14&store=digital-text#Mx2SQ8ABJDPIG3K
10. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U460R88DR2E2/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00MJPIX26&cdForum=Fx32NQR1MUHPCVO&cdMsgID=Mx3IQI1Y5KCQCWC&cdMsgNo=1003&cdPage=101&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxQA03WM82RZXF&store=digital-text#Mx3IQI1Y5KCQCWC
11. ↑ http://bookfightpod.com/2015/04/06/bonus-episode-2015-listeners-choice/
12. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U460R88DR2E2/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00MJPIX26&cdForum=Fx32NQR1MUHPCVO&cdMsgID=Mx3E0M5J3XAK4R8&cdMsgNo=1008&cdPage=101&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxQA03WM82RZXF&store=digital-text#Mx3E0M5J3XAK4R8
13. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U460R88DR2E2/ref=cm\_cr\_rev\_detmd\_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=B00MJPIX26&cdForum=Fx32NQR1MUHPCVO&cdMsgID=Mx2OVDM0GGKA1QF&cdMsgNo=1027&cdPage=103&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxQA03WM82RZXF&store=digital-text#Mx2OVDM0GGKA1QF