Mark said:
Cases in point: Avon could easily have taken advantage of Meegat (who he obviously found tiresome.)
I thought the whole episode was to his credit--and an early clue that Avon can never live down to his own publicity. If he were as crass and selfish as he proclaims, he would never have turned down a chance for a completely meaningless sexual encounter with an attractive woman.
The Avon/Pella kiss. I dislike this episode, but if it has to be analysed, Avon's treatment of Pella in that scene seems to point to the fact that
Avon
was able to make an immediate judgement of Pella, based on instinct - something none of the others could have done - and as a result, reacted outwardly to it. The kiss is pure bile, rather than an expression of
sexual
attraction.
Sort of the opposite of Soolin's reaction to Piri's staged hysterics ("There are two ways to deal with a hysterical woman...and you didn't expect me to kiss her, did you?")
Also, counting Avon's tenacity at resisting pain, (Hackers are almost as renowned for their stamina as they are their ability to survive on coffee) and his spite at women-in-general,
Oh, I don't know. I think he's rather egalitarian. He just doesn't like MOST people. It's a nice touch in PowerPlay, for instance, that he takes a look to see how Dayna is getting on climbing between levels of Liberator decks--when he sees she's OK, he just takes turns holding the gun and handing it to her, and doesn't fuss around in what Roger Ebert calls the "me push-pull you" trope in action movies.
On the subject of intellect over emotion, Avon's 'Brains but no heart'
quote
from 'Star One' is used in irony. [...]Avon is obviously proud of the fact that he's read this way,
Or then again, he's so bitter about everyone else's lack of perception that he won't stop bringing it up. As the lead casket in Merchant of Venice says, "If you do love me, you will find me out."
It's much more likely that Avon committed the crime as a challenge to
himself
- e.g. to see if he could. (Because it's there?)
I think he didn't want to encourage Anna to leave her husband until he could support her in the style she was accustomed to (and he wanted to be).
-(Y)