— Day 5: Favourite Male Character

… Well now, that was surprisingly pain free. Pull up a chair while I pontificate needlessly about how much I love him.

Cut for ~*~FEELINGS~*~ and gratuitous word vomit that none of you should read because I suck and cannot seem to shut up lately.

Where to start? He’s cold, calculating and cynical. He sees the world in shades of dark grey to black. There’s no trust or faith in Avon. No sentimentality. No nonsense. Except that there is isn’t there? Hidden in every brief smile or mocking comment that shows that he cares.

This brings me to reason 1: Ambiguity in regards to the whole logic vs sentiment vs practicality debate. I’m willing to bet money that we all see Avon in a different light on this and I think that’s awesome. He’s a man of many and varying contradictions, you’re never quite sure if you’re reading him correctly. Every time I watch a particular scene that focuses heavily on him I tend to come away with a different opinion about it each time. Like, to put forth an example, that fantastically ambiguous bit of dialogue from Duel (lol guess what I re-watched earlier?) where Vila and Gan have a dig at him for not caring about anyone, his response is pure Avon gold. (and one of my favourite scenes in the entire show.)

“I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it at all.”

Best line ever tbqh. Complete genius really. I mean he could be getting in a dig at the fact that Vila & Gan’s useless display of solidarity to Blake by staying up late, depriving themselves of sleep and being able to do exactly nothing for him anyway is not only useless but irrational. Which it is. The other side to it is that he in fact DOES care and is stung by the accusation that he should have to prove it to anybody. (For those interested I think he leans towards the latter personally. Though I think he got a fair bit of satisfaction by phrasing it as a possible insult also. It’s so wonderfully and uniquely him.) You can pick almost any line that comes out of his mouth and come up with several different ways to interpret it and most of them will be valid. This is the main reason why I love him and to a greater extent B7 as a whole so much. He’s, I hate to use the word “complex” because it gets flung around so often that it’s become something of a buzzword but, well…He is.

He’s as fallible as he is brilliant. As arrogant as he is honest. There are so many different sides to his character that it would be ridiculous to try and list them all here. But I can list the second main reason he’s my favourite because I don’t feel like shutting up yet… (this is your cue to click repeatedly on the back button before I bore you to death.)

To me, the witty comebacks and delightfully tight red-leather trousers aside (obviously), the most interesting thing about Avon, and therefore the aspect of his personality that appeals to me more than the other characters, is his huge issues regarding trust and betrayal.

Now most of the B7 gang have the same problem to some degree, I’m pretty sure they’ve all felt the stab of a knife to the back at some point in their lives before we ever met them. But Avon in particular takes suspicion and distrust of people to crazy new heights. He’s learned to only trust himself and almost every episode of the series tells him that this is a smart move. He watches people die because of their sentiment. He sees betrayal everywhere because it’s actually THERE. (his paranoia and subsequent decent into madness is all the more tragic because, well, he was kind of right. They live in a fucked up world.) He trusted Anna and it cost him. He wants to trust Blake but he can’t because ISSUES and, frankly, he never gave him enough reason to. I mean he was within earshot of Blake commenting that he doesn’t trust him alone on the ship with Jenna. From Avon’s point of view I guess it would be pretty difficult to trust somebody you know doesn’t trust you. Which is why he felt prompted to ask for said trust in Star One I think. Blake’s “I’ve always trusted you” line comes across as a little heartbreaking. It’s a lovely sentiment Blake but no, you didn’t. You do now but you certainly didn’t back then and who could blame you? Why would you? You barely knew him ffs and Avon can come across as pretty darn shifty! (oh god I love Blake sfm and could probably write epic poetry about why. He’s also flawed and contradictory as hell and subtly manipulative but also lovely and awesome and ajkdjfafkk♥. DAMMIT I LOVE ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THIS PROGRAMME STOP MAKING ME CHOOSE BETWEEN MY BBS! *creys*.)

Then again there’s also the flip side to this which brings us nicely to Thing I Love About Him The Third: He takes the phrase “morally grey” to new and exciting, sometimes depressing as fuck, extremes. Can Avon himself be trusted or is he even worthy of it? I’d say yes. You can trust him to keep his word at least. (A trait among many that he shares with Jenna and one day I will most probably write a massive drunken thesis on why they are twins separated at birth. Look forward to that… Not.) You can trust him to do what he says he will. You just won’t always like what he’s saying. You can also trust in his insistence from day one that he will do whatever it takes to look after number 1. He will do ANYTHING to ensure that he survives. He’d kill you if he had to and he’d tell you as much to your face and mean it. As Vila found out to his, and the audience’s, horror. That’s bloody dark territory for our (in Blake’s absence) shall we say “hero” of the story to wander into. Not to mention damn ballsy writing. How many other characters of Avon’s ilk in television would you believe would go through with a lot of the horrible crap that they say? Not many. Avon would and often did.

You never knew quite what to expect of Avon at any given moment. He should be predictable, logical and easy to read but he’s not. He’s compelling because of this. He’s still likable and sympathetic even when he shouldn’t be. He’s done some terrible, nigh on unforgivable shit and yet we still care what happens to this arsehole! He’s amazing. As is Terry Nation for dreaming him up, Chris Boucher for adding that little bit extra and of course the magnificent Mr. Darrow, who gave him subtleties and nuances all his own and whom I suspect is guilty of loving him just as much as we do. ;)

And last but not least and for lack of a better word...UNF!