Soolin

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Character
Name: Soolin
Occupation: Gunfighter, Rebel
Relationships: possible former relationship with Dorian (deceased)
Fandom: Blake's 7
Other: Played by Glynis Barber
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from B7 Complex #2, artist is Mary D. Bloemker. A quote by Dorian in the episode "Rescue": "She's very formidable with a gun..."

Soolin meets the survivors of the Liberator on their return from Terminal at the beginning of series 4 of Blake's 7. Dorian's companion and lover, she is a skilled gunfighter. She learnt her trade at a young age after her parents were murdered by hired mercenaries on Gauda Prime (the setting for the final episode of the series, and the location of Blake's base). Learning how to be proficient with a gun, she tracked down the killers and avenged her parents' deaths. After Dorian's failed attempt to murder her along with Avon and the others, she offers to join the crew as a mercenary ("I don't give my allegiance at all. I sell my skill." N.B. it seems highly unlikely Avon ever paid her). Along with the rest of the Scorpio crew, she is seen to be shot down at the end of the final episode, and presumably dies.

Prone to sarcasm and highly suspicious, she is nevertheless loyal to the crew. Fannish opinion is generally positive, though many have described her as being difficult character to get to know/rather a blank slate. The Recurring Themes in Blake's 7 Fan Fiction note that:

Soolin is 'just like Avon': She regularly gets compared to him for her coolness and unapproachability. This doesn't mean they ever end up in bed together, although they do occasionally; in fact, it often seems like she is being criticized for sharing certain attributes with him, rather than made mysterious and sexy, as we all know Avon is....But this may be just the usual phenomenon of female characters getting bashed more than male characters (with the exception of Blake!) in fanfic.[1]

Fan Reactions

Oh! What a pleasant surprise she was! While she shows up pretty late in the series and is undeveloped compared to a lot of the others, Soolin is made of awesome. She gets some of the best lines of the girls, and she has an occasional detached badassery that is very fun to watch. Most of the girls were strong, but had some greater involvement with other people emotionally/innocence, Soolin doesn't really, which is pretty cool. At first you see her, this long haired blonde cute pretty thing, and expect her to just be a ass-kicking Mary Sue of some sort, but she isn't really. She's closer to behaving like the guys than any of the other females got to. Soolin is a mercenary, and you learn a bit about her past near the end.[2]

I've never understood fannish dislike of Soolin -- the Brits are especially hard on her. And over here there's always this casual dismissal of her because she's a cipher. Compared to who? We know she was raised on Gauda Prime; that her parents wee murdered when she was eight; that she set out to mete out justice, and acquired the skills necessary. Compared to Vila we practically have an encyclopedia on Soolin. (Vila says a lot, but how much is true -- and which part?) Anyway I'm finding Soolin is the most fun to write, of the B7 women. Cally remains the most frustrating.[3]

Soolin in Fandom

Soolin depicted on the cover of The Other Side 1, image by Lana Brown
Soolin's portrait by Whitby27 in Deadlier Than the Male

Like Dayna (also a woman who joins the series late into its run), Soolin is not a particularly popular character in Blake's 7 fanfiction. She does usually feature as part of the Post Gauda Prime ensemble, in stories where the crew are only stunned or otherwise recover, but she is generally a background character in such fics, despite GP being her home planet! Beloved Adversary is a good example of a PGP fic where she has a more significant role (though Blake and Avon are the protagonists).

Stories that feature Soolin as a major character tend to focus on her GP backstory. Some stories also explore the fact that of the mutoids from Project Avalon was played by Glynis Barber, the same actress that later played Soolin; several authors speculated that that mutoid was her twin sister, or even Soolin herself. In shippy fic, she is most often paired with Fandom Bicycle Avon, or Dayna (which may either be the main pairing or a background pairing). There are also a few Vila/Soolin fics, most of them written by Nicola Mody who was fond of this pairing. Interestingly, Glynis Barber was dating Steven Pacey (Tarrant during filming, but this has not had an affect on fanfiction. She is generally depicted as very in-control and confident in sexual encounters, either as a result of her experiences on her home planet, or her experiences with Dorian who (like his namesake Dorian Grey) is generally believed to have been depraved.

Soolin is depicted in some fanart, generally alone, often with a gun.

Example Fanfiction

Gen

Back cover of B7 Complex #3. The artist Deb Walsh commented: "The theme of the silk-screened art in the zine was the four elements. Jenna was wind, Cally was fire, Dayna was water, and Soolin was earth (and the back cover)." [4]

Pairing fic

Fanart Gallery

Other Fanworks

Fanvids

References

  1. ^ PART VII. Getting to Know You, of the Recurring Themes in Blake's 7 Fan Fiction
  2. ^ an overview of Blake's 7 in popcorn-oracle lifejournal
  3. ^ Rallying Call #12
  4. ^ "Deb Walsh's Zine Cover Gallery".
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