--- Sally wrote:
<Avon isn't very good at cutting people slack for their mistakes.>
Oh agreed, but there's a big difference between a real betrayal and breaking under pressure. And actually, unless his own loyalties or emotions are involved (as with Blake, Anna and maybe Tynus) he tends to view shades of 'betrayal' rather more dispassionately than it seems at first (and at this stage, he's *not* very emotionally connected to Cally). Look at the lack of reaction to the way Tarrant and Soolin go behind his back, risking the Warlord plan; in Headhunter, he loses his temper at the end over the others' actions (and whether or not one thinks they were right, I doubt Avon ever did, or that they had the right to deceive him) but by Assassin he shows no sign of mistrust - well, no more than usual :-). Vila cracks under Travis's interrogation in Hostage - sure, he gets a knee in the groin from a guilt-affected Avon, but there's again no later sign that Avon or any of the others still resent it , *and* he's still taking Vila with him on missions both official and extremely *un*official, as in Gambit. (Hostage is interesting because of Avon's position as seeing what *he* did as a betrayal
- albeit with good intentions - and the mess it
makes of his detachment.)
I could have quoted your entire post but for reasons of space I'll stick to this bit as it tends to sum up Avon's reactions to other peoples failings - his initial reaction is to lash out at them (and Blake if he's around) and then to make the best of the situation. So I think if Cally had given away any information we should have seen a scene where Avon bites her head off (and Blake sticks up for her) followed by a scene where they all work out the best damage limitation strategy - possibly with Avon volunteering for the dangerous bit but for purely logical, rational reasons, or because he's the only one supremely talented enough to pull it off.
Actually, the thing that strikes me about the Liberator/ Scorpio crews is how terribly forgiving they all are. Last weekend when I was out shopping with my other half I decided to duck out of the boring bits and potter around Waterstones instead. We agreed to meet outside Debenhams and, of course, I spent half an hour hanging round outside House of Fraser before I realised I was in the wrong place. I know that I will never be allowed to forget this.
Avon, on the other hand, gets the Liberator blown up on a wild goose chase and half an hour later Dayna's asking him "Don't you get tired of always being right ?" To which he has the mortal impudence to respond "Only with the rest of you being wrong". If I tried being this cocky IRL someone would shoot me.
In fact I can only think of three incidents where a character gets reminded of his failings in a previous episode. Trial, obviously. The Keeper, in which Blake alludes to Avon's unfortunate phone call to Space Command HQ. And Blake when Tarrant reminds Avon that he took them into Terminal blind. There you have it - The B7 crew, an example to us all.
Stephen.
____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie