Head in Hands

Fanfiction
Title:	Head in Hands
Author(s):	M. Fae Glasgow
Date(s):	1993
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Blake's 7
External Links:	online here
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Head in Hands is a Blake's 7 Blake/Avon story by M. Fae Glasgow.

It was published in Pæan to Priapus #5 and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

WHY ARE BLAKE AND AVON DOOMED THIS WEEK? Blake’s aged and lost all his vim, etc. Now, I was never in Star Gate, but one of their characterisation guides taught me something mighty important. It was about writing Jack/Daniel, and it said something along the lines of–Jack does not have an IMMENSE breakdown because Daniel cheated on him. The worst thing that can happen to Jack has already happened: his young son has shot himself with Jack’s own weapon, and his marriage, career/way of life and health have crumbled as a result. Jack has already been through his personal hell.

I like to bear this in mind for Blake. Because he does get worn as the series progresses, and there are betrayals, and things get bad. But even in “Blake”, Blake is still, when not in character as a bounty-hunter, largely himself: we see glints of humour, warmth and leadership. He is still animated by a deep sense of purpose. Else why all this? He doesn’t have to like it (did he ever?), but he is doing it. In part this is because the worst things that can happen to Blake have already happened. We’ve seen them happen. Blake’s lost his entire family, his friends, his well-performing Party, his job, his planet, his life, his sanity, and his very sense of self. He’s gone through torture and trauma. And after his mindwipe, Blake still recovered himself, starting to display signs of his old personality fairly quickly and then fully getting a grip after his PTSD was triggered.

So, do I particularly believe that S3 is going to be the thing to make Blake weary of rebellion, weary of life? You can make an argument for the sum total of bullshit starting to weigh him down, and another for needing a break, and another for ‘going to bounce back, but in a bad place right now’, but fundamentally: nah, I don’t. The WORST shit that can happen to Blake has happened a few times over, so probably he’s not going to hang it all up and need Avon to take the reigns and bully him back into rebellion/deal with his ennui. It’s also such an easy, dull fic trope, to rhyme with Mad Star One Blake. It throws Blake into an extreme mental state which it doesn’t much care about inhabiting in order to make Avon react, so we can focus on his feelings. It’s over-done, and it was always about producing the signature Oblique sense-of-doom rather than bringing about any given plot development or character relationship.

So yeah, Blake’s Done With Revolution, but also no, he has An Alternate Plan. This part of the story is a bit confused.

[snipped, read the rest at the original site]