On Tue, 27 Nov 2001 10:00:34 +1300 Nicola Mody-Nikoloff mody-nikoloffn@axis-intermodal.co.nz writes:
I think the worst B7 example of what I call the 'tinkly bits' (based on the tinkly music that Star Trek TOS used to indicate a bit of comic relief) is at the end of 'Children of Auron'. An entire race has been almost destroyed and Avon cracks that terrible joke and they all laugh. I just cringed.
Perhaps I'm just trying to excuse their bad behavior but I think it's more a case of their being subject to weird bursts of gallows humor under high stress. The more terrible the situation, the more likely they are to make a biting joke at someone else's expense. So, if Avon is terribly relieved that they managed to keep one crew member among the living (and that this person seems unlikely to act quite so suicidally the next time they aren't watching him like a hawk), he makes jokes discounting another crew member. If Blake's heart is still beating a little too fast at the idea of how suicidal that burst of depression and selfdoubt almost became - and how bad it would have been without the efforts of some others - he finds himself likely to laugh at the first dumb joke one of those others makes putting them down.
If Avon has just had a remarkably bad day that _started_ with losing Blake and ended with him nearly getting himself killed while retaking his ship while trying to keep his new allies alive at the same time - and then finds out that, while he was wasting time doing this (no matter what he says, and I somehow think that would be his first gut reaction), the only two friends he's been able to locate so far were nearly murdered - he tries to deal with whatever he's feeling as that realization sinks in by looking at one of the almost murdered types and joking that this is really an optimum first meeting.
Same way, if they have barely managed to save anyone or anything from an entire planet and race, he immediately points out what a handful that small victory is - and says, with perhaps forced certainty (is he trying to convince himself or her?) that they (or is it he?) won't lose Cally over this.
I'm just going by my own experience with high stress situations. A lot of awful, I-can't-believe-I-said-that jokes get made. But you'd fall apart completely if you didn't.
Ellynne ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.