Natasa wrote: <Still, I'd say he displays some Byronic traits even earlier. He has a weekness for beautiful women (Cally in Web),>

True, though one must admit he's not inclined to let said weakness run away with him (well, not yet :-)). Interesting that he shows absolutely *no* interest in the more conventionally-pretty Jenna (that dour "not wasting your time on frivolities is gorgeous, as is his offputting stiffness in the cell in Redemption when she's sitting soooo close).

<he's "capable of deep and strong affection" (to quote Macaulay) although obviously not capable of communicating it (the famous "you don't have to become irrational to prove that you care" speech in Duel),>

Not capable of *verbalising* it, true ("I could never say it" to Anna), but for anyone who's listening the right way, actions don't just speak louder than words with our Avon, they yell at the top of their figurative voices (which is of course one of the joyous things about watching and listening him). Because of course, if Avon *was* the cold, callous human computer, *without* the capacity for deep emotion we can see in his relationships with at least Anna and Blake, he'd be so much less interesting. (The strong, intense but secretive Byronic hero is veeerrry romantic, after all, and I do recall reading that PD's fan mail went up - quite a lot - after RoD).

<women find him beautiful and are attracted to him (Meegat in Deliverance and Dayna at the very beginning of S3).>

And the whole thing with Servalan (though I'm always amused by the fact that they appear to have been *totally* blind to each other's sex appeal right up until the minute Blake and Travis aren't there to distract their attention).

<Besides, the development re Anna Grant (hero feeling responsible for the death of his darling summons her ghost from the dead - a motif from "Manfred", IIRC) starts as early as Countdown.>

True again, the sad love affair is there, it just turns all dark and gothically twisted and *really* tragic in Rumours.

<It goes without saying, I think, that we can rightfully claim to have found in a work of art more than the artist(s) consciously intended to put there.>

Absolutely, and even more so when there's several artists not necessarily working in the same direction, since it creates more tension that give me more room to play. It would IMO be a very poor and bald work that *didn't* let the reader/viewer do some of the work and discover their own ideas and resonances within it, and one of the joys of the mailing lists is finding and trying out other people's finds as well as my own.

<For instance, Terry Nation acknowledged the influence of Dirty Dozen, but I'm sure the legends of Robin Hood also played a part in creating B7, and it's not difficult to prove.>

I'd be absolutely astonished if they hadn't, especially with the character of Blake himself, the Alpha outlaw (aka nobleman) fighting for the rights of the 'rabble' (stealing power from the rich to give to the poor? :-)). And the costumers definitely were pushing in that direction (the greens and browns, and that nice little pseudo-medieval chainmail decoration in S1).

I'm inclined to think any story about an 'outlaw band' is liable to pick up echoes of the Robin Hood story, because of the latter's influence on culture for hundreds of years - it'd be bloody hard work keeping it *out*. What we have is Robin and his Dirty Half-Dozen - who, the BBC being what it is, are not all *that* dirty (there aren't a *lot* of crime sprees in the series, even after Blake takes his Cause and disappears, just enough to remind us that these are supposed to be crooks as well as rebels).

Then there's Vila, and his alter-ego as the Court Jester (both on the Liberator and on Goth) - the jokes, the magic tricks, and *his* S1 costume all patches and bright colours ... like Avon/Byron and Blake/Robin, there isn't *too* much of it, but it's fun to play with (and probably does have an influence on the 'Wise Fool' aspect of some Vila-ish fanfic).

And then mixed in is the influences from Brave New World (not the least of which are the grade system and Vila's favourite drink :-) and Metropolis ... and there's the bald-faced thefts like Duel and Rescue.

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