This is an old thread, I know, but I'm catching up on a lot of older posts.

I think that there are multiple answers to the question of why Avon is such a popular subject for hurt-comfort stories. It's certainly been a prominent theme throughout the entire history of B7 fanfic; when I was cataloguing zine contents I found that the very first B7 zines ever published, back in 1978, already included get-Avon stories.

One reason that I don't think anyone suggested, and that applies especially to the early material, is that in some ways it is suggested by the show itself and by Avon's initial role as "hero's sidekick." One of the functions of the sidekick is to be injured or put in jeopardy and be succored or rescued by the hero. Examples that come to mind are "The Web" and "Hostage." When the hero himself is in trouble, e.g. Blake being tortured in "Cygnus Alpha," he's more often expected to rescue himself.

Sidekicks are often the geeky, nerdy, hyper-intellectual type, since those qualities are interesting to viewers but not acceptable in a conventional hero. IMO the fannish tendency to torture geeks is an accidental result of this situation. Of course, the roles get all confused in the later seasons, when the nerdly sidekick becomes the hero; but then that sort of flouting of expectations is a big part of what makes B7 so special.

Another reason is that many female fans like to hurt the male character they find most attractive. I think the reason for this is explained in one of my favorite books, Michael Malone's =Heroes of Eros=, which is about Hollywood stars but can certainly apply to British television as well. Malone says: "In the fiction of romantic films, something always shifts the weight away from male supremacy in sex. Something is done to reduce the traditional advantages of sex role our society grants to men." (p. 11) <various examples of wounded heroes deleted> "By so handicapping the male half of the couple, movies tilt the sexual scale into a momentary equilibrium between the male and female." (p. 12) Since Avon is the most widely admired, he is the most likely to be hurt in fan fiction. There need not even be an overt romantic element within the story, given the romance between the author and her character in the meta-universe.

A third reason, as one person already pointed out (sorry-- I can't remember who it was), is that Avon =does= suffer beautifully; you just can't discount that as a factor in why Avon, more than any of the others, is The Man We Love to Hurt (as the eloquent Barbara Tennison once put it). Or, to give an external reason, one of Paul Darrow's special strengths as an actor is that he does "pain" very convincingly and somehow manages to go on looking good while he does it. Strictly speaking, this is not very realistic, since most people look awful when they're seriously hurt or upset; but when he does it, it's convincing and effective.

And I think Mr. D. knows very well that he's good at that. To my mind the most interesting thing about =Avon: A Terrible Aspect= was that Avon got beaten up so much in it. I just bet that as he wrote the book, PD was imagining himself acting out the role, and so he put in plenty of what he knew he'd be good at. Avon also gets beaten up in the "Man of Iron" script, and there is a scene of Servalan gloating over him that I would dearly have loved to see acted out. Hey, if he does it himself, no wonder fans do it so much!

Sarah T.