On Fri, 15 Jun 2001 21:47:36 -0400 "Dana Shilling" dshilling@worldnet.att.net writes:
Is too! Is too! The next guy probably won't have as much personal interest, and may be from the first team or the Junior Varsity. Besides, Travis is a willing participant in Federation tyranny, not just some poor bastard of a draftee (a faceless group that Blake seems to have *no* problem about killing).
Oh, now here's room for thought - what reasons might Blake have that he either doesn't realize he has or doesn't want to admit to for not killing _Travis_?
1) Class prejudice? an Alpha not wanting to kill an Alpha?
2) Leftover conditioning? It seems like it would easier to make him gun shy towards something real he could actually remember (nearly killing a specific Federation officer) than abstract, faceless troopers he hadn't fought against at that time.
3) The hard fact that Blake knows this is something he _can't_ do, not and remain true to himself? He wants to kill Travis almost as badly as Travis wants to kill him. Maybe it's necessary and maybe it's smart - and maybe it shouldn't cost more than any of the other deaths, but it does. Like when Travis let go his concern for Maryatt, a man who was already dead when he got the news and who would have been beyond his power to save. Nothing he could do would make a difference, yet it made him different to choose to do nothing.
4) Some kind of guilt? What if, somewhere in his lost memories, Blake had been friends with Travis? A sort of Avon and Blake friendship, perhaps, the two of them always arguing and never agreeing, but it all seemed to have an underlying respect. Until. Blake may have been conditioned to forget it but, somewhere inside him, he still knows.
For this to work, I'd guess both of them have either been a bit confused about what actually happened or are not mentioning parts (quite possible in both cases). After all, Travis seemed uninterested in hunting down Citizen Blake when he was a good and law abiding zombie. Hmm.
OK, it's a stretch, but just because of the new wrench it throws into Blake's relationship with Avon, I'm going to think about it.
5) I know this is another stretch, but what if Travis isn't Travis but somebody they conditioned to _believe_ he's Travis? Hence, the injuries that don't quite fit the story. Blake, with his swiss cheese memory, may not consciously know - but this does put him and Travis in a very exclusive club. Maybe he unconsciously recognizes the symptoms.
Oh, speaking of swiss cheese memories, for anyone who hasn't read Anne Perry's Monk books, the main character is an amnesiac who had the great disadvantage of knowing exactly who he is - sort of. As the author put it, we judge ourselves more harshly than we would other people. That's how Monk judges himself but without remembering the reasons and justifications for the actions (in the first story, he's investigating a murder and starts building a case against himself). I wonder if Blake ever does that? Condemns himself for the things he did and didn't do without knowing why he made those decisions?
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"Ellynne G." wrote:
Oh, now here's room for thought - what reasons might Blake have that he either doesn't realize he has or doesn't want to admit to for not killing _Travis_?
- Class prejudice? an Alpha not wanting to kill an Alpha?
Blake seemed willing enough to threaten the hands of another Alpha, Kayn ("Breakdown"). I shouldn't think actually killing one would present much of a problem for him.
I don't think Blake responds to classes of people as such, anyway.
- Leftover conditioning? It seems like it would easier to make him gun
shy towards something real he could actually remember (nearly killing a specific Federation officer) than abstract, faceless troopers he hadn't fought against at that time.
He was painfully law-abiding in "The Way Back" and rife with leftover conditioning in "Voices From the Past." So why couldn't the two collide at some point?
Which raises another point, Blake's whole crusade against the Federation would fall under the category of *not* law-abiding behaviour. He went the other extreme, didn't he?, became a whole different Blake, one much more exciting to watch. Of course how much of law-abiding Blake was actual conditioning and how much of it was sheer drugged stupor, anyway?
- The hard fact that Blake knows this is something he _can't_ do, not
and remain true to himself? He wants to kill Travis almost as badly as Travis wants to kill him. Maybe it's necessary and maybe it's smart - and maybe it shouldn't cost more than any of the other deaths, but it does. Like when Travis let go his concern for Maryatt, a man who was already dead when he got the news and who would have been beyond his power to save. Nothing he could do would make a difference, yet it made him different to choose to do nothing.
I don't agree that Blake wants to kill Travis almost as badly as Travis wants to kill him. I recognize your qualifier, "almost", but the tone of Blake's response toward Travis feels different to me. Blake's withering scorn ("You don't matter enough to kill") to Travis's rabid foaming fury. They hate each other but, temperamentally, appear to be complete opposites.
Which is funny, portraying Blake as liquid nitrogen cold, when, compared to Avon, Blake is usually characterized as warm.
- Some kind of guilt? What if, somewhere in his lost memories, Blake
had been friends with Travis? A sort of Avon and Blake friendship, perhaps, the two of them always arguing and never agreeing, but it all seemed to have an underlying respect. Until. Blake may have been conditioned to forget it but, somewhere inside him, he still knows.
Friends with Travis? And in "Duel," Travis is so conspicuously bereft of friends, too. Too bad those aliens in "Duel" couldn't do a time travel thing and whiz back Travis's friend, an early Blake, from the past. The look of horror on both their faces . . .
Seriously, I don't see Travis as the sort to fraternize with the non-military. There would be no opportunity for their paths to even intersect outside of Blake's dissident activities bringing them together. Pre-loathing, they don't share a shred of commonality.
There is something driving Travis. Neither revenge nor an obsession to bring Blake to justice. Travis seemed more interested in killing Blake than acquiring him for the purposes of justice. It was personal, must have started even before Blake inflicted the maiming injuries upon him . . .
For this to work, I'd guess both of them have either been a bit confused about what actually happened or are not mentioning parts (quite possible in both cases). After all, Travis seemed uninterested in hunting down Citizen Blake when he was a good and law abiding zombie. Hmm.
Good point. The zombie Blake was of no interest to him. It was only when Blake came to life, so did he.
OK, it's a stretch, but just because of the new wrench it throws into Blake's relationship with Avon, I'm going to think about it.
- I know this is another stretch, but what if Travis isn't Travis but
somebody they conditioned to _believe_ he's Travis? Hence, the injuries that don't quite fit the story. Blake, with his swiss cheese memory, may not consciously know - but this does put him and Travis in a very exclusive club. Maybe he unconsciously recognizes the symptoms.
There isn't a shred of canon proof for any on this. Though we can never know anything for sure, it's fun to think about.
Ellynne
Jackie
jstaylor wrote:
I don't agree that Blake wants to kill Travis almost as badly as Travis wants to kill him. I recognize your qualifier, "almost", but the tone of Blake's response toward Travis feels different to me. Blake's withering scorn ("You don't matter enough to kill") to Travis's rabid foaming fury. They hate each other but, temperamentally, appear to be complete opposites.
Which is funny, portraying Blake as liquid nitrogen cold, when, compared to Avon, Blake is usually characterized as warm.
Actually, that doesn't strike me as cold-person behaviour at all. It's the kind of cruelty that only a people-aware (warm, F-type) person indulges in when not under attack himself - knowing that this dismissal of Travis will hurt him far more than gunning him down. Cruelty isn't dispassionate (unless one happens to be a sociopath, which Blake is IMO not); it's very interpersonal. A cold, rational person would pull the trigger.
JMHO, Mistral
Ellynne G. said:
- Class prejudice? an Alpha not wanting to kill an Alpha?
Travis II is definitely no Alpha, and I'm not too sure about Travis I either.
- I know this is another stretch, but what if Travis isn't Travis but
somebody they conditioned to _believe_ he's Travis? Hence, the injuries that don't quite fit the story.
It certainly explains Travis II--the Federation just has lots of Traves and took another one out of inventory.
-(Y)
-
Dana Shilling -
Ellynne G. -
jstaylor -
Mistral