Avalon (Blake's 7 character)

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Character
Name: Avalon
Occupation: rebel leader
Relationships:
Fandom: Blake's 7
Other:
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Avalon is a character from Blake's 7 episode Project Avalon.

Canon

Dissident leader who had started resistance movements on over a dozen worlds. She called on Blake's help for transport to a safer planet, but was betrayed by Terloc and captured by Travis.

She was duplicated in android form and planted on the Liberator, a plan known as "Project Avalon". Jenna had met her at some previous, unspecified, time before escaping with Blake to the Liberator (the android failed to recognise Jenna, and Jenna made no comment on this), and Cally said she had admired Avalon's work "for a long time". Avalon left the unnamed planet in the episode with Blake but was not seen or referred to at any later time. [1]

New Big Finish audios, Avalon Volume 01 and Avalon Volume 02, available in May and June of 2021, respectively, will probably be focused on Avalon.

Fannish Reactions

Fashion model by day, rebel by night: I like the idea of Avalon very much but find the execution somewhat wanting. Kasabi is much better. I do wish we'd seen the follow-up scenes that beg to be written where she expresses her gratitude to Blake and they talk about being rebels. How big is she? Her capture, although important, is not as important as Blake's, yet I would think that her work is equally significant. Avalon is setting up the grass-roots resistance while Blake is making use of his windfall, Liberator, to carry out classic hit and run guerilla missions. Both are necessary but both Travis and Servalan clearly place more emphasis on Blake's capture. Part of it is the value of the ship, but Blake's activities are also meant to be high impact while Avalon's are meant to be covert. Blake is simultaneously hurting the Federation by disrupting its functioning, making the Federation look bad by evading capture, and spreading hope that resistance is possible. So while both he and Avalon are contributing to the eventual destruction of the Federation, Blake's activities are more embarrassing than hers. [2]

I forget why, something to do with information from Avalon, a rebel who certainly gets around, at least in fandom. [snipped] Avalon is there, too. The woman is indispensable. [3]

I find it amazing that so little fiction has been written about Jenna, Carnell (except by me, but most of mine still isn't printed yet), Avalon (I find her boring but a good fan story could convert me) [4]

My problem with the fan fascination for extrapolating on the potentials of both Del Grant and Avalon is that both characters were such... well... whims. I've yet to read a fan story that did anything really memorable with them, I'm sorry to say. Female characters in B7 were all too often afterthoughts: the series was written and crated by males to be primarily about males, so not surprisingly, Avalon, Servalan, Kasabi, Klyn, Dr. Paxton and a number of others were all originally written as male characters [in the original scripts]. The sexism of the 20th century is hard to escape, even when you're writing about the future. [5]

Avalon's name alludes to a mythical realm – an island where Arthur retreated to heal his wounds after the battle of Camlann and where, according to legend, he still abides until the time comes for his messianic return to Britain. At some critical moment, Arthur will return from Avalon to save his people and lead them in a struggle against their enemies. The name Avalon (possibly not this character’s real name, but just her nom de guerre) could therefore imply hope that a righteous ruler, or a righteous social order, will return.

Avalon is quite young, but this does not necessarily make her unrealistic as a rebel leader. There are real-life examples of young, fragile-looking girls who were prominent political activists or took part in revolutions. Sophie Scholl was a student when she founded the White Rose movement in opposition to the Nazi regime in Germany. Rachel Corrie was 23 when she was killed by an Israeli military caterpillar, while defending the home of a Palestinian family from demolition. Asmaa Mahfouz was 26 when she became one of the leaders of the Egyptian revolution in 2011. [6]

In Fandom

Avalon is one of the most popular one-episode characters in the B7 fandom. Her popularity is often noted on in meta essays and fan polls. For example, the essay Recurring Themes in Blake's 7 Fan Fiction lists her among "the most popular one-time characters to work into a story", together with Del Grant, Tynus, Anna Grant and Carnell. She was included in the group "the most popular non-crew characters to appear [in fanfiction]" in Let Me Count The Ways The World Ends, according to which she appears in 3.6% of the stories. Avalon often features in fanfiction, though her roles there are usually small. She is the character of choice when fanwriters need a rebel leader for their plot. Some stories also feature or mention Avalon android. Sometimes she is paired with other characters, but usually as a background pairing. A few PGP fics have her become the president after the rebels win.

Several Blake's 7 fanzines were named after Avalon:

Fanfiction

Gen

Pairings

Avalon as the president

References

  1. ^ The Sevencyclopaedia entry on Avalon
  2. ^ From the review of Project Avalon by Sue Clerc
  3. ^ From the review of Southern Seven #3 by CB at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site
  4. ^ A comment from Horizon Letterzine #2
  5. ^ A comment from The Neutral Arbiter #4
  6. ^ Episode analysis: Project Avalon in Roj Blake group on Facebook, July 30, 2016
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