B7 Thoughts - Avon's Appeal, WTF?
Sep. 19th, 2006 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesI've been reading a rather good thread on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vilakins' journal which boils down to "Why on earth are some of you folks so bloody fascinated with Avon?" I mean the B7 character, obviously. Cosmetics are discussed elsewhere.
Vilakins has a point, y'know. I've got my reasons, but more to the point, I was quite impressed by comments made by various people on the thread. I'd like to quote the thread directly, but I think that might be bad netiquette so, here's an Inigo-Montoya-ish summary:
The character is contradictory, complex and occasionally unpredictable. (BTW, I applaud the contributors who made a point of noting whether that was attributable to brilliant writing/direction or lousy same is unknown and unknowable.)
Characters with a trainwreck of a life are just more interesting to watch than (general) one-note characters. I agree withvilakins that all of the B7 characters could be as engaging, but Avon's messiness was splatted all over the screen and viewers, bless them, can be a lazy bunch. We're not all ficcers who can stay up late creating inferring nifty backstories and psychological motivations. ;)
Paul Darrow's performance just screams for attention and is too hard to ignore - and yes, you can take that as a dig, imho.
Finally, there was a point made in several places that was a bit of a clue-by-four at my end of the net. Avon tries to be a badass, you can tell he really, really wants to be, but he isn't. He's not a political rebel motivated by some lofty goal of liberty for all. He's a profit-motivated computer hacker who happened to fall into the company of a political rebel and found it convenient to remain with him and his crew.
Not so deep-down inside, I think Avon's black (leatherette) soul seethes with jealousy that Blake's the Federation's Most Wanted and possesses something resembling a moral compass to guide him through the spirtual murkiness of everday life. And, of course, chicks dig the poli-sci majors. Avon constantly chafed at being a second banana, we see that throughout his interactions with Blake. But Avon's not cut out to be a brutally pragmatic leader-of-men type. Pragmatic? Only when it comes to number one. Brutal? See previous. Leader of men? Not a chance...
And all of this stuff, I need to keep in mind.
Oops, I need to get back to work. More later.
vilakins' journal which boils down to "Why on earth are some of you folks so bloody fascinated with Avon?" I mean the B7 character, obviously. Cosmetics are discussed elsewhere.Vilakins has a point, y'know. I've got my reasons, but more to the point, I was quite impressed by comments made by various people on the thread. I'd like to quote the thread directly, but I think that might be bad netiquette so, here's an Inigo-Montoya-ish summary:
The character is contradictory, complex and occasionally unpredictable. (BTW, I applaud the contributors who made a point of noting whether that was attributable to brilliant writing/direction or lousy same is unknown and unknowable.)
Characters with a trainwreck of a life are just more interesting to watch than (general) one-note characters. I agree with
vilakins that all of the B7 characters could be as engaging, but Avon's messiness was splatted all over the screen and viewers, bless them, can be a lazy bunch. We're not all ficcers who can stay up late creating inferring nifty backstories and psychological motivations. ;)Paul Darrow's performance just screams for attention and is too hard to ignore - and yes, you can take that as a dig, imho.
Finally, there was a point made in several places that was a bit of a clue-by-four at my end of the net. Avon tries to be a badass, you can tell he really, really wants to be, but he isn't. He's not a political rebel motivated by some lofty goal of liberty for all. He's a profit-motivated computer hacker who happened to fall into the company of a political rebel and found it convenient to remain with him and his crew.
Not so deep-down inside, I think Avon's black (leatherette) soul seethes with jealousy that Blake's the Federation's Most Wanted and possesses something resembling a moral compass to guide him through the spirtual murkiness of everday life. And, of course, chicks dig the poli-sci majors. Avon constantly chafed at being a second banana, we see that throughout his interactions with Blake. But Avon's not cut out to be a brutally pragmatic leader-of-men type. Pragmatic? Only when it comes to number one. Brutal? See previous. Leader of men? Not a chance...
And all of this stuff, I need to keep in mind.
Oops, I need to get back to work. More later.
