--- Mistral mistral@centurytel.net wrote:
Picking up the rest of Mistral's points here (truncated before by Yahoo) :-).
Hang on, if Meegat never suggests such a thing, how come *you're* assuming she thinks he's God?
I'm not; it's mentioned in the last scene by Cally and Avon. And a correction; it's Gan who brings it up, then Avon later, in response to a comment from Vila. See, I had double-checked it and still made a mistake.
So the idea that Meegat thought Avon was a God was not mentioned on the planet by her or anyone to here, but was a later interpretiation made on board Liberator. Interesting.
[7] She picked Avon - perceptive of her. How long would you have to be
in a room with those three to decide which was the
dominant male? Not
long, I'll wager.
And so she naturally has to prostrate herself in
front
of the dominant male? Sounds like you're recognising that there's a sexual(/sexist?) element to all this, even while you're denying it.
:) Sorry, but that's just a reference to 'Sand', for my own amusement. As several people have pointed out, this is a religious dynamic, not a sexual one.
No. It is a sexual one under the guise of a religious dynamic.
And the final scene makes it quite clear that Meegat's incorrect impressions were cleared
up
before they left.
Erm, which scene was this then?
As I said, the last one:
CALLY: Did she really think you were a god? AVON: For a while.
Which IMO clearly implies _not permanently_.
But as we have already discoved, the reference to Avon being a God is made by the crew not directly by her. Lord doesn't only refer to God. As for Avon's reply "For a while" well, that's fairly ambiguous. It could mean that her regard for him fell markedly when he told her that now he'd shot his bolt, he was going to leave her to die :-)
But we *don't* know how her people felt. All we deal with is one bloody character. Let's say aliens come
to
this planet and the first political figure they make contact with, who they then take as spokesperson for the entire species, is the Pope. He's not going to
be
representing *my* feelings, for a start.
An absurd comparison. Meegat was chosen to represent her hundred-or-so people to the strangers from the stars. That was what she was waiting to do.
That's what Meegat says, but we only have her word for that!
The Pope has not been chosen to represent the several billion inhabitants of Earth to alien visitors.
He's been chosen to represent all Catholic people on earth, a number of which undoubtedly disagree with him on certain issues at least. Should Aliens ever visit the Earth I'm sure the Pope would expect to "represent" these people to the Aliens.
Quite apart from that, if a political spokesperson has to represent the feelings or opinions of everyone for whom he speaks, you've just thrown democracy right out the window - along with pretty much every other form of government.
But isn't that exactly what Meegat's doing?
As for Blake, he never even met her. How do you know that, had Blake been in that situation, he wouldn't have extended the offer?
<sigh> Here you go assuming your inferences as fact again. We don't know that Blake didn't meet her, that Avon didn't invite Meegat to go with them, that Blake didn't deliver an impassioned speech to the entire race, and the scavengers as well, pleading with tears in his eyes and a tremulous voice, begging them to let Liberator carry them away. There is no information either way, and your interpretation that they weren't asked is no more inherently valid than another fan's interpretation that they were. If you want to be convincing, you need to present some _evidence_ from within the series, either episodic or character-centric, that supports your interpretation. So far, you're making baseless claims
You're right, we don't know what went on off stage, but if you take the script at face value then it's a fact that they didn't go back as there is no indication in the script that they did. If an event had taken place on the scale that you described then surley there would have been some evidence of it.
Anyway, without all these complex and elaborate rationalisations, the story stands: A woman needs a man to fire off her rocket and fertilise her race. A man comes along, fulfils this need, then smegs off, leaving her on a radiation-soaked planet without
even
asking if she, or anyone else she knows for that matter, wants his number. And then he has the gall
to
go on about the responsibility of leadership afterwards. Really sensitive, Avon.
No, that's an interpretation of the story. The facts of the story are closer to this: a technologically collapsed race needs a member of a technologically advanced race to launch a rocket which their ancestors built and seeded. A rather self-important (male) member
Interesting choice of words here :-)
of a technologically advanced race comes along and agrees to push the buttons when asked by a (female) member of the technologically collapsed race. No information is given about what happened to any of the members of the technologically collapsed race afterwards. (And even with my sincere effort to be factual, the above undoubtedly contains some interpretative bias; that's the nature of the observation.)
Fair enough, that is a clinical, stripped down synopsis of the episode, but it's not that that's interesting here, it's the layers of metaphor and the diverse interpretations that can be placed on it, that are interesting.
Avon does NOT go on about the responsibility of leadership afterward. That is MY interpretation of the subtext of the final scene.
That is your interpretation, but unfortunatly is doesn't match with what happens later in the series.
But since you don't want me imposing my opinions on you (when did I? grumble grumble), this is my last word on the subject.
Wendy
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