Mel Saxby wrote:

As far as leadership goes, given he's so bad at it, I do think it's a tribute to his guts that he keeps going by S4, when everything has fallen apart around him so often, and it's a weight he's carrying that he clearly doesn't want. And yes, the rest of the crew, in both S3 and S4, don't always help to make the burden lighter. But he might have made his own life a little less fraught if he'd tried a bit harder. He's intelligent enough to realise that, however he hates it, the position he's in means he has to accept or at least acknowledge a certain amount of responsibility. But, as you rightly point out, he never will - his own nature is too much against him. And if he allows himself to care, he knows he's likely to get hurt again, which is another dis-incentive.

I've always thought that's exactly why he was so cruel to Vila in season 4. Vila was the last of the original crew, and Avon was trying to make himself not care about him, to really despise him so that it won't hurt if something happens to him; to drive Vila away. It mostly works; Avon's taunts are very nasty in comparison to other seasons, and Vila is no longer the resilient fun guy he was. You can see Avon very much *not* caring in 'Sand' when he sneers twice at Vila while he's near death.

Nico

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