Mel wrote: <When I got to the early part of S4, I not only wanted to slap him, I wanted to strangle him as well. I found myself a bit surprised at the strength of my reaction to his throwing his weight about, and behaving in a somewhat tyrannical manner, his general don't-care attitude.>
Oh but early S4 *is* a special case (now changing sides in order to defend Dark and Dysfunctional). Giving a damn about *anyone* else must seem even more like like crass stupidity after Anna/'Blake'/Cally ...
< I think one of Avon's problems is that he wants the privileges of command - giving the orders, the control over who does what and when, and not having to take orders himself - but refuses to accept the necessary responsibilies which come as part of the package.>
He certainly want not to have to take orders himself :-) but I doubt that he ever wanted any of the other aspects of being a leader, and he *certainly* never wanted to be leader himself, he does his level best to get out of it in S3, pointedly handing the job over to Tarrant, pointedly ceding to the everyone-votes business (till he got sick of being outvoted, of course). But Tarrant proved inadequate, Cally had gone all distant and deflated and wasn't up to it, Dayna was way too young and raw, and that left ... Vila. Or Orac.
Avon finds the constraints and pressures of leadership quite painful, I think - like a straightjacket that's three sizes too small - and over time, it gets worse. He's stifled and worn down by it in a way he never expected when he said he wanted the ship (though not the crew). Give him some credit for taking that straightjacket on at all (neither of the other long-time crewembers were even willing to try).
<But Avon *is* their leader, the only one they've got, they're pretty well stuck with him,>
That's as much their fault as his. If he's poor leadership material, they're all worse (it seems good leaders are thin on the ground in the Federation - remember Servalan, in charge of a *huge* military organisation - moaning that maniacal Travis 2 is so much better than anyone she's got left)
<and he should at least make an effort to act like one.>
It's no *good* saying he ought to care about their welfare before his own, or put the group first - that's like saying Vila ought to be honest, or Dayna ought to let the past go and, if not forgive, then forget where Servalan is concerned. He genuinely doesn't know how to, not for most of the human race, not even for most of the crew. That's what makes it the odd case where he does it by pure instinct so memorable.
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