I love Avon. I admire his better qualities - particularly his steely nerve in a crisis, and his courage (being a wimpy sort myself) - and I find him attractive, but I frequently find him very difficult to like. Whereas I always liked Blake. I noticed this particularly during re-watching the whole series on video from start to finish after a long period of absence from B7. I found myself being more strongly drawn to Blake than I had been in the past while, fond of him though I am, occasionally wanting to slap Avon. 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. I got very angry with him, in fact. 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 ducks his responsibilities by calling the crew his 'associates', implying they are all free agents. Tarrant even goes along with this, in 'Assassin'. But Avon *is* their leader, the only one they've got, they're pretty well stuck with him, and he should at least make an effort to act like one. Blake always managed to draw people in, creating a workable team out of a group of misfits and oddballs. Avon does the opposite. It isn't entirely his fault, he's a loner, not really great leadership material despite his intelligence and resourcefulness, and he's been through some fairly hellish experiences losing Cally and Liberator, and finding Anna. But blake had lost everything, including quite possibly large parts of his memory, and still accepts that the other side of authority over others, however assumed, is a responsibility towards them. Blake's not as glamorous as Avon, and he's got the hardest job. He doesn't get it right all the time, but he keeps at it, and doesn't dodge the flak when it comes. I may not drool over him, but I like him and admire him.
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