Ellynne wrote: <Skipping Avon's ability to endure torture for four days and his desire too off and enjoy possible death from radiation WITHOUT a group bonding experience, I think he'd make an awful patient.>
<gurgle> couldn't agree with you more, and in quite a few stories he *is*, he *is* (one of the most unlikely - to *me* - ones was with Avon ill and Gan playing nurse - and mollycoddling him. And Avon liked it. Oh dear oh dear oh dear ...)
Thinking about this, I got to thinking some more about the actual stories - among those I love - that I *would* say carried a strong (not necessarily sole) h/c thread. After all, it doesn't have to be h/c and nothing else - and in a good story, often isn't.
My taste is mostly A-B (bet that all surprised you <g>) and includes slash, so perhaps my impressions would be different to someone who only read/enjoyed gen. But I did come up with a few suggestions that maybe can help explain ... or not.
Anyway.
The Macchiavelli Factor - the central part of this involves a thread of pure, classic A-B hurt comfort with all the trappings: Avon near death but hanging on by sheer will, Avon being a <ahem> difficult if not impossible patient, lots of fireworks with Blake enforcing the care and comfort and Avon getting narky about it, the odd and very breif moments when Avon lets his vulnerability/well-hidden feelings show (he's usually barely conscious <g>), a big blow-up and the obligatory working it all out emotional bit. Lovely: and a good illustration *of* the point I made about Blake being a good comfortee because Avon can't bullock him.
The Thousandth Man - lots of hurt and plenty of guilt-laced angst (Avon's being torured, Blake's forced to watch); Avon's too badly hurt to let the emotions out *verbally*, so there's a reliance on him instinctive (semi-consciously) turning to Blake for the help he needs. Well, that's the way *I* read it ...
The Road to Hell - I don't know if anyone else would call this one h/c, but I would argue it belongs in there. Blake's suffering, Avon's as guilty as hell and is *trying* (in a perfectly Avonish way) to help and atone for it, while trying to appear his normal stand-offish self.
A/B does have one element to up the angst level that others don't manage as well - the guilt factor. Since it's so easy to propose that whatever HORRIBLE THINGS are happening to Avon, they're probably a result of his less-than-wholehearted involvement in Blake's rebellion, there's a perfect (and seldom overlooked) way to [a] turn the emotional thumbscrews up a notch on Fearless Leader and [b] provide more fireworks if Avon then turns on *him* over it. Making one of the others 'at fault' for everything takes considerably more work.
One more think I just thunk - the wonderful world of PGPs. From my reading, one has to say that hurt-comfort is a common element in most of the non-tragic ones; possibly not deliberate, but it's almost inherent in the setup, Blake shot, Avon the guilty party, their lives in shambles. The h/c element is *especially* prevalent in the subset that Susan Beth wonderfully labelled "Avon shot Blake, poor Avon ..."
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