Been thinking about the recent discussion on Cally's withdrawal in RoD and how Cally seems to become more passive in the third season.

Cally seems to be pretty good at tasks that only require action. Plan a one woman mission on a heavily armed base? Attack anyone who gets in her way? She's up to it. She also seems to be good at chosing how to interact with people when she's not depedent on how they respond. For example, she can treat Shrinker the way she does because she _doesn't_ expect any particular response. Treating him like a human being isn't directly tied to whether or not he acts like one.

However, when she needs to act or speak with someone to get a desired response, she's doomed to frustration, especially in the third season. With the exception of getting them to got to Auron, she's rarely (if ever) able to persuade them to change their minds and follow a course of action she outlines.

At first, this seems ironic since Cally is one of the more sociable members of the crew, but that may be the heart of the problem. True, she has a very different background from the others and is rarely able to phrase an argument in terms they find meaningful. But she also rarely prepared to take actions that would put her solidly against them. Avon may be perfectly capable of taking Liberator off to Terminal without asking the others and holding them off at gunpoint if necessary, but Cally's not.

Granted, people in groups have been known to bow to invisible pressures (the story of the friends who all go off to the beach without protest when none of them, individually, wanted to because 'the group' wanted to), but this seems a bit much. Of course, the cultural thing could be two way. Just as Cally may be unable to argue her position persuasively to the others, they may find themselves exerting pressures on her without realizing that's how it comes across to her (I'm pulling blank for examples, but it's the only arguement that makes sense [well, as a telepath cut off from supports she took for granted, a group she had somewhat bonded with might have been more important than they realized]).

Hmm, makes me wonder if there was something else going on in Avon's mind when he criticized Aurons for always conforming to the group.

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/.