Jackie wrote: <We already know Blake is capable of issuing threats in his own right. He threatened a surgeon into operating on Gan.>
Threats yes. Killing yes - which is why I'm not nearly as sure as some people that Blake wouldn't have let Avon kill Shrinker (though *not* in the way Avon did it). *Gratuitously* taunting a man who is about to die in a particularly cruel manner (the fact that he's killed others notwithstanding) for no earthly reason than to make the taunter feel superior and/or better ... no way.
As I said in the earlier post, there's that taint of shabby, mean-spirited cruelty that makes this scene peculiarly ugly, no matter how much Shrinker (BTW, does anyone else *really* find that name distractingly stupid?) deserves it. And that shabbiness is completely alien to Blake's brand of ruthlessness - his sins, like his virtues, are writ large (what *is* that Shakepearean quote about doing nothing mean? I'm at work and my Shakespeare - and my memory - aren't.)
Neither with Kayn nor with Sarkoff is there any indication that Blake - who understands creative coercion, true - is gloating over them (he comes closer once or twice with Travis, but that's personal and *only* with Travis). In fact, that wonderful last little bit in the teleport: Blake's utterly bland "is there any way we can thank you?" and Kayn's disgruntled "you could try to get yourselves caught" make me wish kayn had survived to tangle with them again :-)
<Would Blake have used a different approach if Kayn had been less of an antagonistic personality, and simply refused to operate as . . .a good loyal Fed citizen should?>
Blake would have used whatever method would work on the individual he was dealing with :-)
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