The Art of Falling Apart
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| Title: | The Art of Falling Apart |
| Creator: | Neil Faulkner |
| Date(s): | 1996 |
| Medium: | print, then online |
| Fandom: | Blake's 7 |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | at AO3 [http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/Essays/AZ-Cally.html at Hermit |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Art of Falling Apart is a 1996 Blake's 7 essay by Neil Faulkner.
It was originally printed in Altazine #1, archived online at Hermit.org, and is now on Archive of Our Own.
Some Topics Discussed
- evidence for the Avon/Cally relationship
- extrapolated specific moments in various episodes
Excerpts
The match-making game is a common one amongst fans. Top of the list for inter-character relationships of a more than platonic nature is probably that of Avon and Cally. (Although it might be Avon and Blake if we're talking wordcount.) Did they or didn't they? Paul Darrow and Jan Chappell insist not, but what do *they* know? Fanfic has set Cally against Blake to rescue Avon from certain death, sent Avon down into the bowels of Terminal to declare his unrequited love for Cally, had him say likewise to Cally's ghost, had Cally's ghost say likewise to him, and that's just some of the gen stories.
The evidence from the series is, as usual on such matters, vague, ambiguous and contradictory.
The actual conclusions you can draw from all this are flexible, but the overall impression I get is that they did not have a serious ongoing relationship. On the other hand, I can quite believe they might have explored the possibility, probably in the 2nd Season, and then decided it wasn't going to work. For one thing, Cally's clear support for Blake's cause stood to get in the way. Avon might have begrudgingly backed Blake and sniped away to make out he didn't, but I'm convinced he considered Blake's political agenda to be naive, unrealistic and generally contemptible. Cally didn't. Plenty of scope for long arguments there. In the 3rd Season, they've backed off, each acknowledging the other's capabilities. I can see grounds for supposing that they might each have individually worked hard to maintain that measure of distance between them, and Children/Rumours represents a crack in the wall. It's then sealed up again by mutual agreement, and I can regard the cabin chat at the start of Sarcophagus as Avon dropping in on his ex to reassure her that, yes, he still cares about her and all that, but they really are just good friends and nothing more. It's possible to envisage a situation where each party, perhaps Cally more than Avon, wanted something more, but also only wanted it if it could work and knew it couldn't. Since Blake was no longer present, and Cally's revolutionary commitment had (at least as I believe) lost its focus, it's tempting to conclude that there were insuperable personality differences between them that neither was prepared to reconcile. Perhaps because each was 'alien' to the other. Or maybe one of them was into something really kinky that turned the other's stomach. Or Avon liked to chew his toenails, or something. Divorces have been filed for less.