Sally's Rules of Blakes 7
I've been asked by a couple of people on the lists about posting my Rules of Blakes 7. I have - as you may have noticed - a large number of opinions, but only seven actual rules (the the number is sheer coincidence, truly) of varying degrees of seriousness. So in the interests of pure fun, I'm putting them up for anyone who wants to have a read.
Please note the *reason* I call them Sally's Rules - not because I am trying to lay down the law for people who've been in fandom waaaay longer than I have or anyone else, but because they spring from the way *I personally* look at the series - a character junkie's heaven with an amazingly complex and turbulent central core, a feast of moral and dramatic ambiguity, a gloom-n-doom fest lavishly leavened with the most delicious sense of the ridiculous. You will also notice that there is precious little of the political/sociological/technological/etc side of things in this list; I seldom feel strongly enough about the 'hard' side of things to have a Firm Opinion.
These are after all rules for Sally and Sally's playground only, and all in fun; no one else should pay the slightest attention to them unless they like to :-).
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Rule One - Blake and Avon Actually Like Each Other. Just Don't Ask Either of Them Why.
Not all the time, of course. Sometimes it's like, sometimes it's love, sometimes it's even wistful thoughts of the other and an open airlock. My own opinion is, that when Blake say "You really do hate me, don't you?" Avon's *truthful* answer should have to be "Of course. At times." It's a complicated friendship, with many thorns and precious few roses, but from the evidence of the series (The Web, Duel, Breakdown, Shadow, Pressure Point, Voice from the Past, Countdown, Star One ) there *is* real liking - rather bemused, methinks, on both sides and decidedly reluctant on Avon's - at the bedrock of the whole delicious, stormy kit and kaboodle
Rule Two - By the Time He's Hurt Enough to Cry, He's Far Too Hurt to Cry.
Avon of course, and this is one of my biggest bugbears in fanfic - the Avon In Floods of Tears scenes. I can see any of the others breaking down in tears if they hurt enough, even Blake, but it just is not Avon's style to me (this has nothing to do with what swollen eyes and a red nose does to the fantasy. Nothing at all).
Rule Three - Blake Would Never, Ever, Ever so much as Raise a Hand to Avon. And Avon Knows It.
This one is probably the hardest and fastest. Even after PGP, I can't see it. Blake *can* be violent, but he is invariably quite dispassionate about it - he doesn't physically lash out in temper. And never at the people he cares about.
Rule Four - You Cannot Fight for Freedom in Sensible Flat Shoes.
Really serious stuff, this one :-) but *look* at Our Heroines, will you? All of them. Kasabi was the only one who wore sensible shoes, and look what happened to her ...
Actually, one of the things the frivolous part of me most loves about Blake's 7 *is* its sense of the ridiculous mentioned above, and the beautiful way it fits in alongside the irony and angst. It first appeared for me with the Wardrobe Room, an insane idea purely there so that Our Heroes could dress up to the completely impractical nines to commit mayhem. (Can anyone see Avon's face if Star Trek-type uniforms had been in that room instead???) Then there's the whole business of the Liberator, a star-going five-star hotel for them to commit their mayhem from.
Rule Five - Blake Is Right About Star One - and Avon Knows That, Too.
I've argued this one up hill and down dale for the Lyst, and I can do it again (but I won't right now, so don't try and make me :-)). There's no proof that Cally's 'many many people' equalled millions, there's no proof that controlling Star One would have worked at all, there's lots of reason to believe that destroying Star One, while it might not have knocked the Federation out with one blow, would have given the resistance its best chance of actually orchestrating the downfall of a brutal and savage regime. Blake may not have liked what he was doing, but he knew what he was doing.
Rule Six - Wear Black Leather, Have a Killer Smile and Get Away with (Literally) Murder...
Born of the undeniable fact that Avon *is* a (gorgeous, sexy and entertaining) bastard and gets forgiven (or completely exculpated) by fans for acts that Blake or Tarrant would and do get dumped on for it's unfair. It's unjust. It's B7.
I do it myself.
Rule Seven - An Introvert Would *Not* Be Wearing Those Boots!
And I do mean the eye-popping thigh-length ones from Shadow <gurgle> It's symbolic - a reaction to the irresistable but dangerous temptation to force the characters into pigeonholes (introvert, fanatic, earth-mother-alien :-)) when the onscreen evidence is that they don't fit that well*. Avon certainly has introvert tendencies, but some fairly obvious extrovert ones (such as the more spectacular sartorial developments, and the fact that he's so comfortable in other people's right-up-close-and-personal space. Especially you-know-who's). Blake, a very driven man, certainly has a leaning towards obsession, but that doesn't explain how even towards the end of the Star One arc, he's still so easily distracted by any metaphorical lame dog that crosses his path. Vila's a coward, but can ditch the cowardice like a discarded overcoat when his survival is better served by something else.
Susan Beth's fascinating list of classical 'types' - and Terry Nation's own statement that he drew his characters in broad strokes** - notwithstanding, there's a great deal of ambiguity and inconsistency in all of them. That's a lot of the charm, IMO.
*Yes, yes, this could be anything from PD's version of the character clashing with Chris Boucher's *and* mine, to them hiring an actor ten years younger than the role, or just Bad Writer Syndrome, but that's not Playing The Game.
**IMO a very very good move on his part, since it did leave a lot of room for the actors/directors/other writers/viewers to fill in the detail.
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