Fun topic though this is, it does raise a rather more serious point in the
way Our Heroes' family bonds in the series seem to be almost completely
absent, strangely sterile, or violently fractured. Yes, they are probably
an atypical group - mostly criminals, misfits and outsiders - but it's still
striking how rare the 'normal' bonds that make up families (both of blood
and of choice) are ...
Deeta and Del Tarrant seem to be attached to one another, but at no stage
during their long separation does it appear that either make the slightest
effort to keep contact with or locate the other. This is echoed in Blake,
who was fond enough of Inga to risk his life for her, but never tried to
contact Ushton, for many years having thought he was dead (we don't find out
why he thought this). His brother and sister, whom he cared about enough to
break conditioning to get news of them, he believed to be on the Outer
Planets and sending news a couple of times a year; he obviously lives alone
(something that appears to be true for Avon, at least, as well).
Jenna's mother, Blake's siblings, Gan's partner, Avon's brother - none of
them are mentioned more than once, not even mentioned by name *that* once.
Chatterbox Vila never mentions a single family tie; in fact, from the
admittedly-to-be-treated-with-caution evidence he gives, he seems to have
been pretty much alone and involved in crime from a young age.
Then there is the violence. Blake's family was murdered, then falsely
reincarnated by the state. Cally came from a background where cloning was
combined with a family unit (she mentions her mother and father in Harvest
of Kairos) but is isolated from them by her 'banishment', then loses her
entire people in Children of Auron, including the one she was clearly
closest to (Cally's reaction to Zelda's death is a small but beautifully
understated moment). Then there are the two with families - Dayna and
Soolin - who lose them in violence, as Blake unknowingly did. This trend is
echoed in the number of broken families (the Tarrants being another one,
with no mention of why they separated or what if anything happened to their
parents) we see.
The combined image is one of an enclosed society of people living in
isolation from others, without partners, children or families, or with
fragile or broken ties to the families they do have. Which may impact on
the question of what sort of parents/partners they would be - if they have
lived all their lives in a society where normal family relationships are
almost *ab*normal, would those they form themselves be somehow twisted by
it?
One gets the feeling that perhaps the group would work as a family with someone saying to the children (preferrably old enough to be 'of use and practical with it.') 'just because they don't say they care doesn't mean that they do'
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