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fangrrl_squeesDoncha love that icon? Emo-Avon! Yes, sweetie, it's all about you. More on that in a moment.
(Someday soon, I'll share all of the names I've created for various manifestations of Mr. Avon - suffice it to say that some of them aren't terribly kind. I love the show but I frequently laugh at it, too)
For the first few days, I thought I could get out of writing anything, really, because I could not figure out, for the freaking life of me, why on earth would Avon go along with, well, anything suggested by another human being. I mean, really... the lad's already teetering on fucking nuts and has just killed the closest ersatz he ever had to a conscience/moral compass, etc.
The final episode of B7 might as well have been named A Very Bad Day For Almost Everyone, But Especially Avon. And Blake.
I thought that I could save myself some heartbreak by neatly concluding that anything after that which didn't feature Avon going down in a blaze of glory himself and/or eating the business end of a blaster simply wouldn't be plausible and therefore I shouldn't drive myself spare trying to write anything. I like even my silliest of sillyfics to have a wee bit of plausibility in it. It's a bit of necessary leavening.
Then I got vexed at not being able to craft a reason for the character to go on. If nothing else, I'm fond of the fella (ain't nothing like seeing leather and studs at a young age and thinking "Hm. I rather like that look, although I'm not sure why. And I definitely like how he's getting on with that Servalan chica, although I'm definitely not sure why...") and getting him out of that Butch-and-Sundance situation in a manner that I find palatable would be nice. Besides, it gave me something to think about during my commute.
Finding a reason for Avon to continue living isn't too tricky - once you get him past the initial shock/trauma of Blake's death. Finding a reason for him to do anything other than crawl into a hole and pull it shut behind him because a leet haxxor can look after himself quite nicely in such a situation, thankyouverymuch, is another matter entirely. Such a scenario is plausible, but not so hot from the fanficcy perspective. "And then Avon finally succeeded in fleecing the galactic banks and lived happily ever after as a filthy rich recluse on a non-extradition planetoid" doesn't make for a very satisfying story.
Hmm, thought I. He's arrogant, egocentric and, until very recently, quite overconfident - at least when it comes to his abilities. Paranoid? Almost certainly? Schizophrenic? Not really.
(Tangent: Schizophrenia is such a misunderstood and mis-used plot device by some writers that I tend to froth at the mouth when I see it applied to characters willy-nilly. An argument might be made for Avon having Borderline Personality Disorder, or possibly even being schizotypal, but full-blown schizophrenia? I'm not buying it. Nor are such characters likely to play well with others, if at all. A pox on trendy mental disorders, I say!)
Hmm... Ego and arrogance are going to have to stop this guy from chewing on a gun. Hmm... Oh wait! Vengeance!
Good ol' revenge.
Big ego + displaced guilt + refusal to believe he got played like a hick come to town with the seed money = One character hellbent on really overblown revenge.
Thank god for the opera in space opera
To hell with just finding Sleer and putting a bullet in her head. That's just, y'know, one homicide and besides, you tell me Avon doesn't still carry a torch for her in his weird and twisted way, I'll laugh up a lung. No, no, mere tit-for-tat ain't going to salve Avon's ego (and misplaced guilt, and sheer effin' humiliation), not at all. He's going to Destroy The Federation! (cue: dramatic chord).
Not that he would articulate it quite that way, even if he could, which he can't, but you get the gist.
And how is just one man going to Destroy the Federation? By using every singlesucker well-meaning revolutionary minded patsy person he can lay hands on. He might not be much in the team player department, but he's no fool, either.
Immediately upon reaching this conclusion, I realized that life just got lots worse for Kara and Andriss. Between that and the nascent plot I've got in mind, it's quite likely that I'm going to have at least one dead primary character by the end of it. Hint: it won't be Avon. Or Vila.
And what about Vila, huh? The gods look after fools and little children, so to speak, although I doubt Vila will see it that way. Vila is going to be a monumental pain in Avon's ass1 because as soon as two-and-two are put together early in the story, Vila's going to be very much waving the flag for going after Tarrant, Dayna and Soolin. They were all stunned and being transported, ergo, the Feds weren't planning to execute anyone - not immediately, at least. In fact, knowing the Federation's ongoing need for propaganda, it's entirely likely that a well-publicized show-trial awaits the trio and, hell, I've got to refer to that much-needed continuity guide to see if the Feds even make use of capital punishment - judicially, that is. They seem quite keen on gunning people down in general. Vila, having better-developed sense of loyalty is going to be rather put out by the idea of leaving the rest of the gang to their fate.
Pray tell, why doesn't Avon start the post-traumatic killing spree with Vila? Two reasons immediately came to mind: Avon's not used to this whole guilt thing and doesn't want to risk incurring any more. More to the point, deep down in Avon's cold, black (probably studded leather) heart, he sorta needs Vila around. He's a surrogate conscience (not very often, but it does happen), a useful tool (Vila is, after all, a very good thief) and, oh, alright, maybe he sorta likes having the company and isn't quite the lone wolf he makes out to be. Besides, who could he snark at and verbally abuse all day long, otherwise?
The second reason's short and sweet: Kara took one look at Avon's bloodwork (performed whilst still unconscious from Stunapalooza on Guada Prime) and immediately whacked him up with this and that to keep him somewhat docile during the immediate post-trauma period. Naturally, that's going to go over like the proverbial lead balloon with Avon and that's fine by me.
And I really like Vila a lot, too. So there. My world2, my rules.
Tarrant's out of it for now because, I'm sorry, Avon might not put a bullet in Vila's head right away, but Tarrant would be hitting the ground as soon as he opened his mouth in Avon's vicinity. Some people are just that irritating, y'know? Besides, I betcha that Tarrant would be really insufferable in the immediate aftermath of Blake's death - even more so than Vila, despite the fact that Vila knew Blake far better. There's something in that that merits further poking - probably tied in with the probability that Tarrant wasn't nearly as scared of Avon as Vila was/is (and speculation as to how much Avon dug that fear is and continues to need it is fodder for another entry) and would therefore give Avon a hell of a lot more flak about his actions. But I digress... Dayna and Soolin were, in my opinion, total ciphers - designed by committee out of an obligation to keep the crew numbers up, the realization that a larger ensemble provides more plot fodder and, oh yeah, we need some eye candy for the viewers. Total contribution to the dynamic of the story: a very small amount indeed.
Although I'll concede that when I was ten years old, I thought they were the kewlest chicks evar - even if Soolin totally hit like a girl, despite being ostensibly badass.
So there's a variety of pushes and pulls going on with my merry little crew. Determining who lives to the end of this story is going to be interesting. I think I can get them all through it pretty much intact, but I don't think they're going to be very happy.
I've more to dump, but it's 11PM, I have to work in the morning, and I'm recovering from Far Too Much Fun (tm) over the three-day weekend.
Footnotes
1 - Not in a slashy way, either. Just because one could get all slashoriffic doesn't mean that one should
2 - Bits owned by the Beeb and the Nation estate, aside.
(Someday soon, I'll share all of the names I've created for various manifestations of Mr. Avon - suffice it to say that some of them aren't terribly kind. I love the show but I frequently laugh at it, too)
For the first few days, I thought I could get out of writing anything, really, because I could not figure out, for the freaking life of me, why on earth would Avon go along with, well, anything suggested by another human being. I mean, really... the lad's already teetering on fucking nuts and has just killed the closest ersatz he ever had to a conscience/moral compass, etc.
The final episode of B7 might as well have been named A Very Bad Day For Almost Everyone, But Especially Avon. And Blake.
I thought that I could save myself some heartbreak by neatly concluding that anything after that which didn't feature Avon going down in a blaze of glory himself and/or eating the business end of a blaster simply wouldn't be plausible and therefore I shouldn't drive myself spare trying to write anything. I like even my silliest of sillyfics to have a wee bit of plausibility in it. It's a bit of necessary leavening.
Then I got vexed at not being able to craft a reason for the character to go on. If nothing else, I'm fond of the fella (ain't nothing like seeing leather and studs at a young age and thinking "Hm. I rather like that look, although I'm not sure why. And I definitely like how he's getting on with that Servalan chica, although I'm definitely not sure why...") and getting him out of that Butch-and-Sundance situation in a manner that I find palatable would be nice. Besides, it gave me something to think about during my commute.
Finding a reason for Avon to continue living isn't too tricky - once you get him past the initial shock/trauma of Blake's death. Finding a reason for him to do anything other than crawl into a hole and pull it shut behind him because a leet haxxor can look after himself quite nicely in such a situation, thankyouverymuch, is another matter entirely. Such a scenario is plausible, but not so hot from the fanficcy perspective. "And then Avon finally succeeded in fleecing the galactic banks and lived happily ever after as a filthy rich recluse on a non-extradition planetoid" doesn't make for a very satisfying story.
Hmm, thought I. He's arrogant, egocentric and, until very recently, quite overconfident - at least when it comes to his abilities. Paranoid? Almost certainly? Schizophrenic? Not really.
(Tangent: Schizophrenia is such a misunderstood and mis-used plot device by some writers that I tend to froth at the mouth when I see it applied to characters willy-nilly. An argument might be made for Avon having Borderline Personality Disorder, or possibly even being schizotypal, but full-blown schizophrenia? I'm not buying it. Nor are such characters likely to play well with others, if at all. A pox on trendy mental disorders, I say!)
Hmm... Ego and arrogance are going to have to stop this guy from chewing on a gun. Hmm... Oh wait! Vengeance!
Good ol' revenge.
Big ego + displaced guilt + refusal to believe he got played like a hick come to town with the seed money = One character hellbent on really overblown revenge.
Thank god for the opera in space opera
To hell with just finding Sleer and putting a bullet in her head. That's just, y'know, one homicide and besides, you tell me Avon doesn't still carry a torch for her in his weird and twisted way, I'll laugh up a lung. No, no, mere tit-for-tat ain't going to salve Avon's ego (and misplaced guilt, and sheer effin' humiliation), not at all. He's going to Destroy The Federation! (cue: dramatic chord).
Not that he would articulate it quite that way, even if he could, which he can't, but you get the gist.
And how is just one man going to Destroy the Federation? By using every single
Immediately upon reaching this conclusion, I realized that life just got lots worse for Kara and Andriss. Between that and the nascent plot I've got in mind, it's quite likely that I'm going to have at least one dead primary character by the end of it. Hint: it won't be Avon. Or Vila.
And what about Vila, huh? The gods look after fools and little children, so to speak, although I doubt Vila will see it that way. Vila is going to be a monumental pain in Avon's ass1 because as soon as two-and-two are put together early in the story, Vila's going to be very much waving the flag for going after Tarrant, Dayna and Soolin. They were all stunned and being transported, ergo, the Feds weren't planning to execute anyone - not immediately, at least. In fact, knowing the Federation's ongoing need for propaganda, it's entirely likely that a well-publicized show-trial awaits the trio and, hell, I've got to refer to that much-needed continuity guide to see if the Feds even make use of capital punishment - judicially, that is. They seem quite keen on gunning people down in general. Vila, having better-developed sense of loyalty is going to be rather put out by the idea of leaving the rest of the gang to their fate.
Pray tell, why doesn't Avon start the post-traumatic killing spree with Vila? Two reasons immediately came to mind: Avon's not used to this whole guilt thing and doesn't want to risk incurring any more. More to the point, deep down in Avon's cold, black (probably studded leather) heart, he sorta needs Vila around. He's a surrogate conscience (not very often, but it does happen), a useful tool (Vila is, after all, a very good thief) and, oh, alright, maybe he sorta likes having the company and isn't quite the lone wolf he makes out to be. Besides, who could he snark at and verbally abuse all day long, otherwise?
The second reason's short and sweet: Kara took one look at Avon's bloodwork (performed whilst still unconscious from Stunapalooza on Guada Prime) and immediately whacked him up with this and that to keep him somewhat docile during the immediate post-trauma period. Naturally, that's going to go over like the proverbial lead balloon with Avon and that's fine by me.
And I really like Vila a lot, too. So there. My world2, my rules.
Tarrant's out of it for now because, I'm sorry, Avon might not put a bullet in Vila's head right away, but Tarrant would be hitting the ground as soon as he opened his mouth in Avon's vicinity. Some people are just that irritating, y'know? Besides, I betcha that Tarrant would be really insufferable in the immediate aftermath of Blake's death - even more so than Vila, despite the fact that Vila knew Blake far better. There's something in that that merits further poking - probably tied in with the probability that Tarrant wasn't nearly as scared of Avon as Vila was/is (and speculation as to how much Avon dug that fear is and continues to need it is fodder for another entry) and would therefore give Avon a hell of a lot more flak about his actions. But I digress... Dayna and Soolin were, in my opinion, total ciphers - designed by committee out of an obligation to keep the crew numbers up, the realization that a larger ensemble provides more plot fodder and, oh yeah, we need some eye candy for the viewers. Total contribution to the dynamic of the story: a very small amount indeed.
Although I'll concede that when I was ten years old, I thought they were the kewlest chicks evar - even if Soolin totally hit like a girl, despite being ostensibly badass.
So there's a variety of pushes and pulls going on with my merry little crew. Determining who lives to the end of this story is going to be interesting. I think I can get them all through it pretty much intact, but I don't think they're going to be very happy.
I've more to dump, but it's 11PM, I have to work in the morning, and I'm recovering from Far Too Much Fun (tm) over the three-day weekend.
Footnotes
1 - Not in a slashy way, either. Just because one could get all slashoriffic doesn't mean that one should
2 - Bits owned by the Beeb and the Nation estate, aside.
