Natasa wrote: <I'm grappling with Child Harold these days and so it occured to me that Avon is in a way akin to Byron's heroes. Pale, attractive to women, high-born(possibly), educated, world-weary, cynical, and as a rule there's a hint that behind this mask of disinterest and cold disdain some secret past woe is deeply buried...>

I have to doubt that Avon's Byronic aura would be nearly as noticable were it not for mid-to-late S3 - the start of Children of Auron, and all of Rumours of Death and Sarcophagus are the most Tortured-Hero episodes (am still trying to decide about Terminal). In S1-2, he's got more varied shading of light and dark, and there's the streak of pure brattishness (not normally a trait of the species :-)), and in S4 it gets *too* harsh and a bit skewed (mind you, *that* scene in Power is pure old-fashioned-bodice-ripper IMO :-)).

Would this be one of the things that attracts Avon-lovers (well, apart from me) to S3?

It's interesting, however, that neither the writers (Nation or Boucher) nor PD seem to have had any intention of investing him with *any* Byronic or Wromantic overtones (maybe Tanith Lee did, of course). In some ways Avon puts me in mind of a pushme-pullyou from Dr Doolittle - there's writers pushing him on one direction - the cold computer genius/'psychopath' (CB's word, not mine!), Darrow pulling him in another (Dirty Harry, not that I can see it) and the fans standing to each side poking and pulling in all different ways. And again, it makes for a much richer, more interesting character; had PD seen him and *played* him as Byronic Doomed Hero, I can't help feeling it wouldn't have worked nearly so well.

JMO.

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