In a message dated 2/28/01 10:06:38 AM Eastern Standard Time, N.Faulkner@tesco.net writes:
<< I don't go along with this at all. It seems too convenient, a way of letting Avon off the hook, and more importantly a convenient way of relieving Avon groupies of the problematic reconciliation of their groupiedom with the cold, hard fact that Avon shot the shit out of Blake. It wasn't his fault, it was all Servalan's doing, Blake is dead and Avon is innocent, hurrah!
Also, I am less than impressed by the perennial fannish obsession with 'conditioning' as a cop out explanation for anything in the series that they're less than happy with. There are examples of such conditioning in the series, of course, most notably in VftP and Terminal, but they are made explicit and are plot-specific. >>
Well, I don't think I said that Avon should be "let off the hook." I'm not really a proponent overall of the "Avon is innocent" theory. In fact, Leah and I have both long pointed out that it is ridiculous to constantly blame *Blake* for what Avon did. And a lot of fan fiction does some to do that. I can't count the number of times I've read fanfic where Blake survives Gauda Prime and spends all of his time *apologizing* to Avon for *making* him shoot him. And worries about Avon. And so on. I'm probably even guilty of writing a few stories like that myself in my early days of writing way back when.
I was simply pointing out that is a completely valid possibility, especially what we SAW happening on Terminal, that Avon had been conditioned to kill Blake the moment he finally found him/saw him. And that is what happened, with apparently little rhyme or reason. Perhaps others don't agree with me that Avon seems startled when he pulls the trigger?
Annie