Betty Ragan wrote:
Nico Mody-Nikoloff wrote:
The Federation certainly seems to value viciousness, ruthlessness and a complete lack of affection or consideration for others, but given that
Vila
just doesn't fit that mould, where he came from can't have been too bad
or
he wouldn't have survived as long as he did with such lousy defences.
Oh, I think Vila's got excellent defenses. They're just of a different sort than everybody else's. Vila's philosophy seems to be: don't be percieved as a threat (and thus a target), but be likeable and funny enough (or useful enough!) that people bigger and badder than you will be willing to protect you, even if they're condescending about it. It does seem to work for him.
I agree those are Vila's defences ("I'm harmless"), and they've obviously served him very well up to 'The Way Back'. and continue to work well enough after that in that he's still alive in 'Blake', but by then he's very different from the start. In early season 1, certainly up to Seek-Locate-Destroy, he's nervous, yes, but relatively confident in action and around the others. He becomes more cowardly after that, the nadir being 'Hostage', and by season 3 he's not even useful (they just don't need locks picked). By season 4 he's so depressed he can hardly raise a smile.
This implies (to me anyway) that he found his past life a lot easier, for whatever reason (more accepted by others perhaps, treated as an equal?). Being harmless and amusing just don't work that well on the Liberator or Scorpio. Being despised and barely tolerated is hardly conducive to mental health--as Cally said once he might come to find it easier to just give up than go on, and I think that's the point he's reached by 'Blake'. So he'd have been much better off leaving and taking his chances elsewhere.
Nico