From: Ashton7@aol.com
Myself, I always thought one of the most logical explanations of Avon
doing
what he did at Gauda Prime was that he had been programmed to do it when Servalan had him on Terminal. Not only does it explain Avon's itchy
trigger
finger, it also explains the look of total surprise he seems to have on
his
face as he fires over and over.
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.
There is also the problem of how thoroughly conditioned someone can be. Avon might be induced to come to Terminal, since that's not particularly contingent on anything, but Avon shooting Blake depends on him having a weapon with which to shoot. There are too many variables, too much that can go wrong, and that throws the meticulous planning implied by conditioning conspiracies right out of the airlock.
Neil