From: "Marian de Haan" maya@multiweb.nl
Fiona wrote:
True, but what happens is, he comes in and finds Mellanby dead, and upon
ascertaining that this is so, his first response is to shout "Orac!"-- he seems more concerned about getting Orac back than taken aback at Mellanby's death.<
Considering that Orac is his only means of getting back to Liberator,
Avon's
priorities here don't strike me as out of character. He must be kicking himself for having let Orac out of his sight. :-)
It's still a bit self-centred of him, and if he did like the fellow, it's a bit strange-- I mean, he just says "Servalan. Orac!" Not "Mellanby! Servalan! Orac!" Which still suggests to me that his death affected him no more than death usually does (i.e. not at all).
It's him leaving Orac for Servalan to grab in the first place that I find hard to credit.
To be fair, she wouldn't have had a go at all if Mellanby (or Dayna?) hadn't left the gun lying around in the first place.
His one comment on Mellanby is "He got away from here after all"--
which is a little bit sarcastic under the circumstances (frankly, I'm surprised Dayna didn't clock him one for that).<
I didn't interpret that as sarcasm but as a clumsy consolation attempt. :-)
Perhaps not sarcastic, but still, it's an odd thing to say when someone you like dies. It's also a line that needs unpacking. If Mellanby had been fretting in exile, longing to get off Sarran, the line would have made a lot of sense: in death, Mellanby finally escapes his exile--and in that sense, his words might be a comfort to Dayna (although a consolation attempt is rather out of character for Avon-- and Avon's never clumsy, he's always very precise). However, Mellanby, even when he finds out he is free to go, doesn't seem to be in a hurry to leave, and says he'd like to stay for a while even if he goes later-- he isn't longing to get away.
But if Avon has picked up to some extent on Mellanby's hypocrisy, it does make sense-- Mellanby, running away from his past, has effectively trapped *himself* on Sarran, reliving the past over and over in his undersea base, but failing to learn any lessons from it. In that sense, Avon's words can be taken to suggest that Mellanby's death has finally broken this cycle: Mellanby "gets away," not from Sarran, but from his own hypocrisy and guilt, killed by his own weapon.
Additionally, it is worth noting how Mellanby's death happens: at the hands of the Federation, in the person of Servalan. The Federation let him go from Earth; now, when they return, they end his exile on Sarran in another way. The only way for Mellanby to ultimately escape the Federation is for them to kill him.
Avon's in a hurry to go after Servalan, but seems not to want to leave
Dayna
behind. Does he feel responsible for her out of guilt because he didn't prevent Servalan from killing her father?
I kind of doubt it, knowing Avon :). Dayna expresses anger and rage at Servalan and wants to kill her-- I think it's more likely that Avon, as always, is pursuing his own agenda (getting Orac back) and if Dayna wants to come along for her own reasons (revenge) then fair enough. And after all, Dayna knows the territory, and he doesn't, so it makes perfect sense to bring her along.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Vengeance is mine, saith http://nyder.r67.net
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