But I think anti-idealistic attitudes are pretty strong nowadays too, or at least the protagonist as Damaged Anti-Social Loner who doesn't care whom he offends is; I saw a theory which hypothesised that the current popularity of the trope was the Revenge of the Nerds, because that generation of computer geeks who couldn't get a girlfriend are now the rich and successful entrepreneurs that popular culture looks up to. On the other hand, the trope arguably goes back to the brooding Byronic hero who is mad, bad and dangerous to know, but strangely charismatic :-p
I have a certain suspicion that dislike of Blake is the *result of* passion for Avon -- firstly a desire to make Avon look better by bashing Blake (whose existence threatens not only his place in the limelight but his whole worldview) and secondly an identification with Avon so strong that it involves seeing everything through the character's (somewhat distorted) perspective. If Avon resents Blake, then Blake must therefore be deserving of resentment -- or else Avon might be Wrong, which heaven forfend.
I know when I first saw the show I quickly found myself looking out eagerly for Avon's appearances, because he got all the best lines. It wasn't a sexual attraction, obviously, although a lot of the fandom proudly proclaims itself undying in its weakness at the knees where Avon/Paul Darrow is concerned, but he was certainly my favourite character at that point. And maybe... I just went over to Blake when I found out that despite being the title character and the designated hero figure, he *wasn't* the one most people liked best? I don't remember, but I'm entirely capable of being both that contrary and that shallow.
But by the time we got to "Star One", I'm pretty sure I was not on Avon's side; I certainly wasn't going 'Blake is a fanatical terrorist and we have to stop him', and the final Blake/Avon exchange is powerful precisely because it's not at all a foregone conclusion that Avon will do the right thing -- if the viewer were as sure as Blake claims to be, then there would be no poignancy to the exchange.
And of course, seeing fandom bias in favour of a self-justificatory and author-worshipped Avon would have been enough to put me very firmly in the opposing camp, as it did with the Phantom (for whose unhappy situation I had a lot more sympathy before I read the fan-fic). I don't dislike Avon, but I do consciously enjoy seeing him taken down a peg or two by his crewmates in fan-fiction (which is true to canon -- even Gan is capable of scoring a quiet point against Avon on occasion) rather than being endlessly elevated as the one who is Right when everyone else is unrealistic and wrong. And I'm not particularly comfortable about stories that try to get him to Show His Pain and be Healed (either by his crewmates or by a female love-interest), which frankly seems degrading and cruel to a stoical and self-contained character -- perhaps I do identify with him myself after all ;-)
I certainly admire Blake for the things that he has got that I haven't; charisma, warmth, certainty, the skills to draw together a crew and defuse an angry situation, and the confidence to stand up for what he believes in. Blake is, basically, unselfish and generous. Avon is not instinctively either of those things. I had rather be Blake then be Avon, and I would... I suppose I would like to hope that Blake could draw out of me those qualities that he manages to evoke in others, and even in Avon, whom I find myself to resemble rather too closely for comfort.
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But I think anti-idealistic attitudes are pretty strong nowadays too, or at least the protagonist as Damaged Anti-Social Loner who doesn't care whom he offends is; I saw a theory which hypothesised that the current popularity of the trope was the Revenge of the Nerds, because that generation of computer geeks who couldn't get a girlfriend are now the rich and successful entrepreneurs that popular culture looks up to.
On the other hand, the trope arguably goes back to the brooding Byronic hero who is mad, bad and dangerous to know, but strangely charismatic :-p
I have a certain suspicion that dislike of Blake is the *result of* passion for Avon -- firstly a desire to make Avon look better by bashing Blake (whose existence threatens not only his place in the limelight but his whole worldview) and secondly an identification with Avon so strong that it involves seeing everything through the character's (somewhat distorted) perspective. If Avon resents Blake, then Blake must therefore be deserving of resentment -- or else Avon might be Wrong, which heaven forfend.
I know when I first saw the show I quickly found myself looking out eagerly for Avon's appearances, because he got all the best lines. It wasn't a sexual attraction, obviously, although a lot of the fandom proudly proclaims itself undying in its weakness at the knees where Avon/Paul Darrow is concerned, but he was certainly my favourite character at that point. And maybe... I just went over to Blake when I found out that despite being the title character and the designated hero figure, he *wasn't* the one most people liked best? I don't remember, but I'm entirely capable of being both that contrary and that shallow.
But by the time we got to "Star One", I'm pretty sure I was not on Avon's side; I certainly wasn't going 'Blake is a fanatical terrorist and we have to stop him', and the final Blake/Avon exchange is powerful precisely because it's not at all a foregone conclusion that Avon will do the right thing -- if the viewer were as sure as Blake claims to be, then there would be no poignancy to the exchange.
And of course, seeing fandom bias in favour of a self-justificatory and author-worshipped Avon would have been enough to put me very firmly in the opposing camp, as it did with the Phantom (for whose unhappy situation I had a lot more sympathy before I read the fan-fic). I don't dislike Avon, but I do consciously enjoy seeing him taken down a peg or two by his crewmates in fan-fiction (which is true to canon -- even Gan is capable of scoring a quiet point against Avon on occasion) rather than being endlessly elevated as the one who is Right when everyone else is unrealistic and wrong. And I'm not particularly comfortable about stories that try to get him to Show His Pain and be Healed (either by his crewmates or by a female love-interest), which frankly seems degrading and cruel to a stoical and self-contained character -- perhaps I do identify with him myself after all ;-)
I certainly admire Blake for the things that he has got that I haven't; charisma, warmth, certainty, the skills to draw together a crew and defuse an angry situation, and the confidence to stand up for what he believes in. Blake is, basically, unselfish and generous. Avon is not instinctively either of those things. I had rather be Blake then be Avon, and I would... I suppose I would like to hope that Blake could draw out of me those qualities that he manages to evoke in others, and even in Avon, whom I find myself to resemble rather too closely for comfort.