From: "Ellynne G." rilliara@juno.com

Oh, agreed on that point. Actually, I saw what was coming the first episode Tara showed up. In that sense, it was telegraphed. This is a side complaint not so much on the issue bur for how it was handled. That's why I compared it to the Blake episode. Avon made a choice I didn't agree with, but I saw how he made it.

Avon did make a choice, but ISTM it was made very quickly-- very shockingly so, actually. Not much chance to think it through.

Willow made a choice I, personally, didn't agree with. However, unlike "Blake," there wasn't an episode where I felt I'd seen her deal with the issues she should have been dealing with - a point where she said, "This is what I used to think, but-"

I thought the Oz-returns episode actually dealt with that to some extent-- she didn't come right out and say it, but there was visibly a lot of conflict regarding her being offered the more societally acceptable relationship and still choosing Tara.

Let me use a more positive comparison. In DS9, Gul Dukat originally went from villain to sympathetic character (then back again, but let's skip that). It didn't work for me because they never dealt with the all the negative things they'd established about him.

Actually, speaking as someone who watched DS9 from the beginning, lost interest for a while, and then came back, I actually quite liked that aspect of it. In RL, I have to work sometimes with Germans from the prewar generation, and I find myself often in conflict over the fact that many of them seem to me to be nice, civilised and very kind people-- and yet I also know that many of them have condoned if not actually performed horrifying actions during the Nazi period. So the fact that they presented Gul Dukat (and other Cardassians) in this very schizophrenic way appeals to me-- in my experience, the same person *can* incorporate very evil and very good aspects in their personalities, and often divorce the two in very schizophrenic ways.

ObB7: for the same reason, I've always been disappointed that Blake and Travis *didn't* join forces in Hostage. It would have been interesting.

Oh, and FWIW: Elynne, I definitely don't see eye to eye with you or Kathryn on some issues, especially homosexuality-- but I would never call either of you sick. If people are willing to carry on a discussion in a calm and rational way, I'll respect them, whatever their faith or background.

Fiona

The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net

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