Ficathons and the dominance of Avon

[vilakins]

Why did I take on two overlapping ficathons, I ask myself. OK, I know the answer: I've always written something for the Freedom City mailing list party, and the finish-a-thon is such a brilliant idea, I couldn't resist it. And I'm knocking off two unwritten stories this way too. The thing is though, I can't start the second one till I've written the first. I might 'see' scenes in any old order, but I write linearly.

Last year in the finish-a-thon, the story people voted for me to write was a little angst-fest (The Hand of Friendship) in which Vila had crippled hands and Avon had to provide the therapy needed. This year people have voted for a similar story, in which Vila withdraws from reality and Avon takes him to Kaarn. I was puzzled. I thought other stories I offered were a lot more fun. Do people like Vila to suffer, I wondered.

Then yesterday I got Paul Darrow's You're Him Aren't You? on the recommendation of alinewrites who told me it was full of interesting anecdotes about others. It is, though I have to say that I reel before the towering and massive structure that is Darrow's ego. Anyway, one point he says that the four years of his life playing Avon have coloured and dominated it despite 40 years of other roles. Then it hit me.

Both winning finish-a-thon stories have Avon in them.

This does not bode well for the FC one, which is an AU mostly about Dayna and the alien scientist Og.

Now although I enjoy Avon's wit in seasons 1 and 2, I never fell for him the way most fans did; in fact I downright dislike him in season 4. So, all you Avon fans out there, just what is it that fascinates you so about Avon, especially given his season 4 behaviour?

Comments

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

S4 has, in my mind, just about no redeeming features at all; I pretend the show ended at S3.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It was supposed to. I so wish it had. I only bought the DVD for completeness really.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

S4 isn't as good as 1 & 2, I'll agree... but I always have preferred it to the muddle-and-go-nowhere that was S3.

And I like Soolin better than Cally :)

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

It'd take me ages to say all the reasons why I love Avon (yes, even 4th season Avon) & I doubt that there'd be much overlap between my reasons and any other Avon-lover's reasons.

So I'll just give you one reason-- Avon's character was formed by at least three completely different opinions- Darrow's, Nation's, and the current director's (and sometimes other writers pulled him in yet another direction). This led to a character who not only doesn't understand himself, he doesn't know why he is compelled to do things he apparently honestly believes he has no intention of doing. I find him endlessly changeable and contradictory and intriguing.

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

And yes that was me, entropy-house, who should go to bed because I'm typoeing all over the place...:^)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's a well-reasoned answer. I like most of the characters for similar reasons: they're complex, often contradictory people who are usually fairly opaque to us so we've got lots of room for interpretation.

Is some of it Avon's looks, do you think? I admit he's attractive, but I've always gone for personality over looks. Conversely I can admire a person on screen without liking them.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was one of the interesting things about him; (t least in the three seasons I acknowledge) ;) you could see this internal tug-of-war in the character, an ethical conflict that truly had no clear winner. You genuinely didn't know if (or to what extent) you were going to get a redeemed character or a selfishly vicious one in any given episode, or ultimately overall. Photo-finishes make for an exciting race; people watch intently and become invested in the process.

I think Magneto in X-Men may work on the same sort of principle. Ostensibly, he's the villain, of course, but he's not a clear-cut one, quite aside from being a friend of the leader of the heroes; he has entirely understandable and sympathetic motives and psychological damage, and, except for the fact that he's becoming a very destructive force driven by a self-interest that's turning into a distrust of humanity, he's not a bad guy. And so you emotionally invest in the character, because you aren't sure whether you're watching a character struggle with redemption or fall beyond hope of it.

[shimere277.livejournal.com]

Uuuuh...his season four behavior?

I don't know that it's explainable. I mean, I like Vila. He's cute and sweet and funny etc. But Vila-love? Like molesting a stuffed toy. I guess I'm pretty extreme on this - snark is like - like a mating call. Like it isn't lust unless there are chew-marks on the furniture.

Unhelpful, I know. Probably as mystifying as I find women who marry men who actually like football.

P.S. I am perfectly capable of enjoying Dayna/Og. I like strawberry - but if chocolate is one of the choices, well...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

But Vila-love? Like molesting a stuffed toy

Do you mean you find him sexless, or the theoretical difference in relative power between you and him repellent? Or is he just helpless? I have to say that Vila in season 4 can be annoyingly passive and whiny--there are times I would like to slap him very hard--but he had a harder edge at the beginning. I admit that I didn't start by finding him sexually attractive. I vaguely remember loving him as a kid, as a sort of middle-aged rogue uncle. When I saw reruns a few years ago, my reaction was quite different: sympathetic and protective. And I assure you, I don't normally have a maternal instinct.

Oh, I'm with you on the snark. I love the snark. It was a site with B7 quotes, most by Avon, which convinced me to give the show another chance despite my blurred but bad memories of S4. I really enjoy writing Avonic put-downs and Vila usually comes off second-best in the exchanges. :-)

As for the Dayna and Og story, I originally thought up a comic storyline ending with Servalan skinning Justin to make a rug, but the characters had other ideas. Besides, I owe Dayna for killing her at GP so often and also I like the chance to write an alien.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Entropy_house has it dead on: there's a lot of satisfying depth precisely because a man who doesn't understand himself is being played by an actor who never understood the character. Sheer serendipity. Avon thinks he's a hard man; so does Darrow and they're both beautifully wrong.

I also think a lot of fans, however unwillingly, can identify with the character as he really is - geeky, socially awkward, always trying to look cool and being foiled either by his own ineptness or the slightest retort from Blake. "I left the room with dignity but caught my foot in the mat", says Mr Pooter. Avon, IMO, is the Mr Pooter of space in some ways.

OTOH, he is good-looking, but not consistently, that's another interesting aspect of him. His face comes alive when he speaks and moves, most of all when he smiles. And he does suffer beautifully, which is a plus for any angst fan. I'm not as Avon-centric as many, in fact in the last few years I suspect I've written far more Vila. But if i want angst or h/c I can't write it for Vila because no, I don't like seeing him suffer. Avon was made for it...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The only way I can see, or write, Vila suffering is if the outcome makes it--sorry--all worthwhile. Which is another worry about the finsh-a-thon story: I haven't thought up a satisfying ending yet.

I've read a few Vila suffering stories which I didn't like very much because he was so passive, and also didn't have his trademark sense of humour. I made him hit back at Avon--metaphorically--in 'The Hand of Friendship' so it wasn't so uneven, but I'm not looking forward to writing 'Silent and Alone'. I must have been depressed myself when I thought the thing up.

I don't think I can equate Avon with Pooter. Maybe in S1 and S2 where I do actually like him a lot, but later he has too much power to be a sympathetic character to me. Vulnerability is attractive (if not overdone) but Avon in S4 has nothing on screen that explains his coldness and cruelty. I have found reasons of my own which I use for him because I need to understand people at least a little to write them.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

(don't mind me, just reading the comments)

Avon thinks he's a hard man; so does Darrow and they're both beautifully wrong.

That's about as succinct a summary as I've come across in quite a while, and I find it very well-timed for personal reasons. Thank you for throwing a huge curve ball at my nascent fic (I'm not being sarcastic. You've whomped me over the head with an important point)

[kerravonsen]

Both winning stories have Avon and Vila in them. We know you write good Vila -- you are the queen of the Vila -- and, yes, many of us love Avon, but I think it's the combination of the two that made us vote for it, because, hey, Avon & Vila make a good team. And I think... see, you haven't fallen for Avon, no, but those plots make it clear that you don't think he's a total unredeemable bastard, either. And we know that any Vila that you write is going to be non-stupid and loving and worthy of respect, so it's all of the good.

Which could still possibly boil down to "because it had Avon in it", but, like, how many of your stories don't have Vila in them?

And I'm not at all fascinated by Avon's season 4 behaviour, I prefer season 3.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[grin] Thank you! Yes, all my stories have Vila in them, but many are ensembles. The Dayna and Og one doesn't have much of Vila; just a twist on the glycolene tank scene and a tactless comment at the end. There's more Tarrant, which worries me considering where it's going to be posted.

I do enjoy writing Avon and Vila because of the interplay and snark, and as I said somewhere else, Avon usually wins. :-)

I'm not sure why some people not only like S4, but like it best.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I think other people who have responded have it absolutely right. There is a weird, serendipitous concatenation of elements that makes Avon interesting. E.g., he says one thing, the plot requires him to behave in a way that's contradictory to that, and, by some miracle, that comes across as complex characterization, rather than bad characterization. It seems like there's some underlying sense there, if only you can get into his head far enough to figure it out, and that can be really compelling. (Honestly, I think it's very much the same kind of thing that makes me so fascinated with Stark, despite the fact that they're very different characters. The inconsistent way they're written makes me want to find the secret that makes sense of them.)

And complexity is interesting, in all kinds of ways. This is something I've just been thinking about, actually, after having indulged in some marathon binging on House. One of the really compelling things about House, to my mind, is that he'll say things, and you can never quite be sure how to take them. Is he saying that just to play up his "cynical bastard" image, or does he really believe it? Is he just yanking people's chains to get a reaction, or is he saying something that's actually true and covering it in camouflaging sarcasm? Does he even know? That's fascinating to wonder about. And I think you do get exactly the same thing with Avon, even if he's characterization is less careful and deliberate than House's.

I can say, from my perspective, that I was utterly and totally fascinated with Avon right up until the point where I decided I had him pretty much figured out to my own satisfaction, and then the interest started to wane pretty quickly. But there is enough complication there to keep a lot of people's interest, and to allow for a lot of different takes on him. I don't think it's at all surprising that he's a popular character in fic.

As for this:

This does not bode well for the FC one, which is an AU mostly about Dayna and the alien scientist Og.

I am befuddled. Why does the fact that stories about Avon are popular -- which I think is pretty indisputable -- imply anything at all about your Dayna story? I mean, donuts are popular, but that hardly bodes ill for the baking of croissants.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, I know Avon's the most popular character in B7 and he doesn't get many lines in this. Mind you, I never know what any of my stories are like till I get some feedback. As for me, I'll read any B7 story if it's well-written and doesn't contain a personal squick like character death, extreme violence, or porn.

I agree about the complexity, and that the challenge of explaining a character really is a lot of the attraction. I've even found explanations for S4 Avon, and once I developed a backstory for Soolin, I began to like her a lot. I suppose I just lost all my sympathy and liking for Avon in S4.

The other characters (Cally, Vila, and Blake in particular) are also complex and contradictory. Blake can be almost too soft (as when he consistently refuses to kill Servalan or Travis) but utterly ruthless (as in the attack on Space Fleet HQ and Star One. Cally is a mystery: a tough guerrilla, an outraged idealist, a detached observer, and she has a backstory which I can't begin to reconcile. Vila, like Avon, doesn't do what he says. He constantly talks about running, or leaving people, but never does when he gets the choice.

IOW I agree about Avon, but that also applies to other characters.

[megpie71.livejournal.com]

Okay, as someone who hasn't seen season 4 as an adult yet (last time I saw it was when it was on TV) I have to admit my attraction to the character of Avon is that he's an anti-hero. Blake is set up as the hero figure, with all the grand dreams and similar, but Avon is much more intriguing as the character who works against him from the *inside* than any of the Federation opponents manage to be. I'll also admit to a certain amount of fellow-feeling - whether by accident or design, Avon comes across as every long-suffering, cynical, bad-tempered computer tech I've ever shared an office with... including myself.

Avon is, as your icon says above, the deadliest geek in the galaxy. He gets to be the Bastard Operator from Hell that most of us in the tech support and system administration professions would love to be on occasions - he gets to *kill* things. He gets to play with systems that most of us would only dream of, and he gets frustrated by the ones which won't cooperate (I have a strong theory involving Zen being a rather well-tweaked Linux distro box, while Orac runs one of the more stubborn and unfriendly Unixen). He gets to get the girl (or at least smooch Servalan on occasion), and he gets to wear the leather and studs without having to tone it down for a dress code. Kerr Avon to me is a computer geek wish-fulfillment fantasy come true.

And he doesn't look bad in leather or thigh-high boots either.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm a geek too, and I'll usually go for any geek character in a series, with the very notable exception of Gaius Baltar whom I would personally space. I like Avon up to S4, when I dislike him hugely, but I think the best explanation I've seen so far, not for why people like him, but for his domination of the fandom, is that he stole every scene and was indubitably the star, especially after the nominal one left.

My few attempts at being the Bastard Operator from Hell did not go well, but yes, there's an attraction to watching someone else do it well. I have to say that's amost my sole reason for watching House. :-)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

It was the combination of his snark + leather outfits that made me fascinated by Avon (there's no hope for me).

I would be happy to read your story if it was Avon-taking-Vila-to-Kaarn. It's not that I would love to see Vila suffer, of course, but it would be great to have Avon feel the need to help Vila (though he would deny this, of course).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he's not the stranger to guilt he claims. And also he might see it was a sort of reparation for killing Blake. This story, unfortunately, isn't as clear in my mind as others and I wish I knew how it ends.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

I now feel a need to apologise for the fact that my FC story does, as it happens, centre on Avon! I don't think he's especially likeable in it though...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, why apologise? I look forward to reading it. I enjoy your stories and you usually have a very different slant on characters. And as it happens, I like writing Avon. He appears in the vast majority of my stories.

It's just that I wondered what made him the way-out-front favourite.

[alinewrites.livejournal.com]

Guilty as charged: I only read B7 when there's Avon in it. I'll pair it with anyone (mostly male). So I guess I'm the real Avon-centric. I fell in love with him through the fics, so I didn't really know what he was like. WHen I did, I fell hard.

Now why, I'm not sure. THe snark, and the leather, of course. The intensity, above all -it's why I don't care if Darrow has an ego the size of the Eiffel Tower (actually, I'm happy he does), because the fact that he threw all of it in Avon's character turns Avon into one of the most compelling characters I ever saw. (And the voice? Did I mention the voice? "I did, didn't I" in Countdown is the most sexy thing I heard in my life.

The ambiguity, too. Darrow thinks Avon is a hard man, but Darrow himself has mannerisms, and a physique, that contradict the assertion, so I constantly have this feeling that I'm watching a very closeted gay hero playing macho and it's just... fascinating. Plus the inteaction with Blake is great. And the madness in Season 4 makes me love him more. And of course, there's the ending, that belongs to Darrow, IMO, and that he plays so very well.

Now Vila. I love Vila, I read all your fics because you write him so well -and he interacts with Avon very beautifully. But to me, in the series, he's more like ... a kid, I think. Sexless. It's not that he's not attractive; I just can't quite reconcile the idea of Vila and anything involving sexuality.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can either. Vila has never quite grown up; he's a big kid a bit lost in an adult world. I can't quite put my finger on why I love him so. It was only gradually that I found him physically attractive, but I think that's more Michael Keating than Vila. He has a subtly lovely and expressive face. Yes, Avon is much more overpowering but I think that watching it with my strong memory of the last scene from when I saw it as a kid stopped me falling for him as I might have had I seen the series as an unspoiled adult.

Actually I enjoy writing Avon. I love his snark and in the Vila-Avon interaction in my stories, he almost always wins. I just don't like him as much as others do, but I may have hit on an explanation here.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'm slightly puzzled by your original puzzlement, because, although I don't have the list of finishathon alternatives to hand, I thought the vast majority of your stories were Vila-and-Avon, so it doesn't strike me as odd that those would win. People do tend to vote for what they know and like.

As for Avon's popularity - well, I think of him as a phase one has to go through. Like that bit in The Alexandrian Quartet when someone explains to the hero that sex with Justine is just this tired old gate everyone has to pass through as some point - can't find the exact quote. I adored him as a teenager (I still think that for the first three seasons he's easily the best-looking man in Blake's 7 with the possible exception of the second-in-command in the Helot resistance - Avandir? - yes, I know Avandir is fourth-season, but Avon's out of contention by then, anyway, because of his ghastly hairstyle. My jaw is dropping at the suggestion above that Jarvik is conventionally good-looking. So many of your human conventions make no sense to me). I was briefly re-fascinated by him when I entered online fandom ten years ago. But I found total immersion in B7 fandom a quick cure for Avon-love. There's far too much of him, I hate SuperAvon, and I got bored. And, yes, Paul Darrow helped to put me off, whereas Gareth Thomas increased my tolerance of Blake, whom I disliked in pre-political days. I think one of the big problems with Season Four is that Darrow got far more control over Avon's portrayal, and as we know his interpretation isn't very popular with the fans. I'd accept your proposal that we ditch the whole of Season Four, always provided that we could keep Blake instead of Terminal, which I find half-hearted. I love Blake, apart from Darrow's hamming up his final scene, which I re-edit in my mind so that Avon responds to Blake in something closer to the way he does in the final scene of Star One, when Darrow says he wasn't sure what emotion to play so he left it blank, and the fans filled it in.

I wonder if, perhaps, I'm almost out of this fandom; I've been thinking of leaving Freedom City. These days, it's chiefly minor or original characters that interest me. So Dayna/Og's probably the best draw you can offer me...

[hafren.livejournal.com]

for the first three seasons he's easily the best-looking man in Blake's 7

Surely you jest, O Contrary One? For is it not written (well, if not, it should be) that Vinni, Renor and Carnell, for starters, outshine him even as the desert moon the eye of the camel?

I don't get much out of FC these days, but I think that's because no one is posting fic right now. Wait for the party...

[spacefall.livejournal.com]

I just enjoy characters who're repressed, obsessive, clever-clogs types, preferably with added snark. If I weren't into B7, you could probably use Avon as a pimping point to sell it to me. It's just the way I am. Still, as a minor character junkie I say bring on Doctor Og. :)

PS: Re: Vila, I'm not into fic where he suffers greatly, because of the way he reacts to pain in canon. A small amount of Vila suffering goes a long way. A bit of melancholy and loss/regret is more my line.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I like the snark too. House is the sole reason I watch House (OK, maybe a Wilson too). House and Avon may fascinate and entertain, but I'm not sure I like them. Actually, House is a good analogy. I'd read about him and/or Wilson but I'm not sure the others interest me enough. Perhaps that's the way it is for some B7 fans. With B7 though, I find all of the characters interesting to some degree. :-)

A bit of melancholy and loss/regret is more my line.

I agree. That's how I usually make Vila suffer and that's the theme of the winning finish-a-thon one. I'm just not sure where I'm going with it.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I reel before the towering and massive structure that is Darrow's ego

I think I've heard that from every single person who's read the book. I'm tempted to pick it up for sheer entertainment value 'cos I sometimes find egomania exceedingly amusing.

BTW, Sorry I forgot to get back to you yesterday. I had a complete mood collapse. However, in the middle of my wallow-in-grumpiness, a certain blonde gunslinger started talking, so I'll let you know when the journal's created. ;)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

YAY! I'll try to get our present flashback tidied up with Cally sometime this week and we can set up introducing the new Avon and Dayna with an active Soolin in play. :-D

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

..oh, and to answer your question (sorry, rushing out the door to work), let me think. I was 7 years old when I first watched B7 and I dug Avon because:

- He got to snark at everyone and not get in any (real) trouble over it (that's impressive to a well behaved kid, methinks!)

- He was a computer geek (my family was an early-adopted, geek-culture-wise)

- Er, interesting costumes that I found strangely intriguing for reasons I ouldn't articlate at the time (seems that kink's another one of those things kids are aware of far earlier than the experts are willing to admit)

- He got the gal (sort of)

Nowadays, I find Avon entertainin because his life is HUGE trainwreck, and trainwrecks make for interesting characters - okay, I'll admit I have a thing for completely insane characters. It's a weakness of mine tied in with 'digging stuff one will never understand', I think. Also, Darrow's performance throughout makes me laugh until I hiccup - especially the last two seasons.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hehehe, you and several others! I like hafren's comment above where she found it so amusing that a homophobic actor turned in the most camp performance. Avon starts off the geek, but Darrow does take over and make him larger than life. I have to say that the costumes helped; Avon and Servalan really stood out in my memory from watching as a kid, along with my S4 memories which left me with such a lingering dislike of Avon that I was surprised to find I liked him in the first two seasons. I thought I'd remembered him wrongly, but I hadn't. It's a pity they gave Darrow his head in S4.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I had (have) a thing for Second Heroes, Ilya in Man from Uncle, Toby in Doomwatch, etc. So Avon was an obvious addition (which only goes to show that Tarrant should have been in charge). And by S4 Vila was too much of a wimp and a whiner. However, I only started watching at the beginning of S3, I've not watched S4 since first broadcast and caught S1 and S2 on video later.

Now I'm older I find I'm liking the less "heroic" characters more, so early Vila is now more of an attractive proposition.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Illya was a total git too, but sooo beautiful! I think the young D McC was the loveliest thing I ever saw on a screen. It's his 73rd birthday today....