--- Neil Faulkner N.Faulkner@tesco.net wrote:
So how come Avon killing Blake is perceived as different, or at least more important, than all the other violent deaths that perforate the series? Because Blake is, well, Blake, of course. And Avon is obviously Avon. But if we dissociate ourselves from the emotional ties we have developed with these two characters, we might begin to see that who kills whom is considered more important than the fact that killing is taking place at all.
This isn't a question of moral defensibility in any one instance, it reaches deeper, to the (dare I say) ideological foundations of B7 itself. Within the B7 universe, violence is a fact of life (as it is, all too often, in the real world), and is accepted as such by, presumably, most viewers. So I find it disturbing that so much attention, if not outrage, should be directed at just one of a vast catalogue of violent actions. What is more important - the act, or the actors?
I think you are raising a valid point. However it is part of the function of drama to get you to identify with the protagonists - if we weren't emotionally involved then Chris Boucher would not have been doing his job correctly.
There is a scene in the film Trainspotting where Renton steals a large amount of money from his associates after a drug deal that they have pulled off together. Now broadly speaking, I disapprove of both betrayal and the traffic in Class A substances. However on one level I wanted Renton to get away with it. I agree that the whole phenomenon is disturbing. And in a sense you are right - a death is a death is a death. But I think it is not wholly surprising that people care about Blake's death to the extent of wanting to bring him back to life in PGP fiction, in a way that they are not concerned about Section Leader Smith and Trooper Jones, who were unfortunate enough to be serving a tour of duty on Saurian Major when the nuclear reactor blew up.
I think that Orwell made a simillar point when he said that the genius of Edgar Allan Poe made him feel, when reading "The Tell Tale Heart" that, under the circumstances, he might have done the same thing himself. As you say, it is quite disturbing.
Stephen.
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