Re Betty's suggestons on why Blake shouldn't be dead ... <I don't want Blake to be dead!>

<grin> that's me all right. Liking him as I do (okay, okay, loving him as I do) I simply enjoy stories with Blake far more than without. 'Tis rather harder to have him in the story if he's dead (it has been done, as I recall ...)

<A dead Blake may make for a lot of Avon-angst, but a Blake who managed to survive can make for even *more* (with the added extra bonus of Blake-angst!). Not only does the poor bastard have to deal with the fact that he killed Blake (or tried to), but he has to deal with it *in Blake's presence*. >

There is also the fact that, for those of us who found the original relationship so fascinating, there are *such* possibilities in the changes that both men have gone through. Avon with his now lethally hard edges, Blake clearly battered and more dangerous than before ... it's got a lot of potential for darkness, but there's still (from the way both act in the tracking gallery) a bond there, even if badly fractured by the shooting ... the possibilities are quite fascinating. One thing that disappoints me about some PGP stories is the way Blake is portrayed as *exactly* the same as he was before (and in some cases taken right back to early first season), instead of the still good but darker and different man on Gauda Prime.

And add the sourer, post-Orbit Vila at the side, and you have such a rich playground for people like me.

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