Cassandra (Blake's 7 story)

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Fanfiction
Title: Cassandra
Author(s): Emily Ross
Date(s): 1987
Length:
Genre(s):
Fandom(s): Blake's 7
Relationship(s):
External Links:

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Cassandra is a Blake's 7 story by Emily Ross.

It was published in Powerplay #1.

Reactions and Reviews

The two stories by Emily Ross could easily ooze over into something slashy-- especially "Once More," in which Blake is sold in a slave market. The description of the battered-but-attractive body is suggestive of London Bates. There's an equally suggestive illo by TACS. "Cassandra" has A & V in prison together PWB.[1]

even though in some ways it goes against what we know of the blake's 7 universe, the sense of inevitable tragedy that lingers over everything in B7 sort of makes me feel like... yes, a fortune teller who isn't believed is a good addition to the fray.

i think this story goes on a bit long, and also that we could play the fortune teller/and the consequences of what she says thing a bit harder. in the cells before transportation to cygnus alpha, avon's told he will 'get what he wants', which he eventually concludes (after a brief flirtation with the idea of wealth and a yaught) could easily be 'someone to love, to trust, to believe in...'

don't make me bring the seal out again.

that's basically the end and i find this a little disappointing, but what i'm thinking now i'm writing this review, is that... this could easily be a good START for a fic. so avon believes he'll get what he wants based on this fortune teller - so then you play the whole of blake's 7 as a quest for avon to get money and freedom, and he's utterly convinced that this is what he wants an that he's going to get it IT'S DESTINY, OK? but then later he realises that it was some tricksy fortune teller bullshit and what he wanted was someone to believe in...

OR he wants to know that blake loves him or something. and he finally realises that this is true as blake says 'avon' and dies in his arms. so he gets what he wanted but in the wrong way.

that's how we play greek tragedy. not just pointing at avon and yelling 'GAAAY', although that too has its appeal.

btw, i am mentally remixing this fic in my head, even as we speak. it'd go something like this... [see review] [2]

"There are two short stories by Emily Ross:'Cassandra' is an equally clean-lined incident, though it's more a vignette than a plotted story: Cassandra was a prophet, and Avon gets his fortune told. In the best tradition of prognostication, it doesn't mean quite what he thinks it does, whether he chooses to believe it or not. Judging by these two examples, Ross is a talent to watch. The TACS illos are germane and enjoyable."[3]

References

  1. ^ from Sarah Thompson at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site
  2. ^ aralias reviewed this zine in 2013 on Dreamwidth, Archived version
  3. ^ Pressure Point no.2