----- Original Message ----- From: Helen Krummenacker avona@jps.net
Interesting you should mention that. Is it common among fandom to prefer the supporting cast? I know I prefer Giles and Xander to Angel or Riley; Willow to Buffy. Blake's 7 did the unprecendented thing of removing Blake-- would Avon be nearly as popular in fandom if he'd led from the beginning? I doubt it.
Another note on these lines: secondary characters have more license to include "dark" and ambiguous traits than primary ones, making them more real and also someone whom normal human beings can at least recognise, if not identify with. I seem to recall Paul Darrow going on record saying that Avon was more interesting than Blake because Blake would never hit a woman, cheat, or do anything else that was overtly reprehensible, and that when he became leader in Series 3, the scriptwriters had an irritating tendency to try and make him more heroic.
Or, on a less moraly dubious note-- Willow, on Buffy, is allowed more in the way of moments of self-doubt, human failing etc. than Buffy is. Which allows the writers to use the character in very interesting ways-- if Buffy had developed a close same-sex relationship, for instance, the networks would have started pegging it as a "gay show," whereas Willow's relationship with Tara goes pretty much unchallenged.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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