Who is Avon?
This is a complex question and requires a complex answer. Fitting for Avon.
Was he a hero? A nasty anti-hero? Or a villain? A mixture? No one can tell? There are legions of people who would argue quite firmly for any one of these.
How is it possible to have such a wide range of views for the same character? The definitive answer is, he's Avon. That's why.
He was designed that way. He has a proverbial rainbow of character traits. There are clear instances where Avon is being good. In others he is clearly, and quite disturbingly bad. But in most cases, Avon is frustratingly ambiguous, and very decidedly so. Avon prefers it that way, and it seems, so do the writers.
There are just as many flavours of Avon fans and detractors as there are Avon character traits.
They range from 'Meegats' who determinedly interpret everything that Avon does as good, even the clearly bad things. They have the ability to twist everything to paint Avon as an angel. They will give excuses for all manner of things including blaming others for Avon's clearly bad actions and decisions.
There are those who are 'Avon Bashers'. These people are the direct opposite of the 'Meegats.' They interpret everything that Avon does as bad, even the clearly good things. They have the ability to twist everything to paint Avon as a devil and use descriptions of him that remind you of some kind of rabid animal. Such saying he snarls, or has a twisted smile, or has a sickeningly sweet smile, etc. Or my favourite, some of them insist on saying that Avon killed the only two people he loved, Anna and Blake, and act very surprised when people point out that Anna had a gun and was about to shoot him in the back and that was the only reason he shot her.
Then there are those who are biased about Avon. These I call the negative-Avon people and or the positive-Avon people. These people are extinguished from the Meegats and Bashers. These people do not blindly twist everything to justify or vilify Avon. Instead, they see the clearly bad things as bad and good things as good. Where they differ is in how they interpret the massive majority of ambiguous actions. Meaning that the negative-Avon people will interpret most of Avon's ambiguity as bad and the positive-Avon people as good. These are clearly biased opinions of Avon's character, but they are equally as valid and can be supported from facts in the series. This has the advantage of having a coherent character who has intriguingly positive or negative moments; making him a fascinating character.
I suppose it is possible to have a completely balanced view of Avon if you interpret half of his ambiguous actions as good and half as bad. But I haven't seen that done successfully or coherently yet.
For the purposes of this evaluation of Avon, I am clearly an Avon-positive fan. I will look at all the facts as they are without twisting them. But I will create my own coherent understanding of Avon, by interpreting many of his ambiguous actions as good. I also recognize that Avon does do some things that are clearly bad, but I will attempt to explain them without excusing them.
I will examine his character by presenting what I believe are his primary characteristics and modus operandi. Then I will go through each episode and interpret his actions using this profile of Avon in order to show that this profile does give a good coherent view of Avon with very few moments that will make you wonder “Huh? Where'd that action/attitude come from?
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Also, if I can stomach it, I will attempt to do the same with Blake's character. And just to warn you, I am an unabashedly negative-Blake person so this will also figure in my evaluation of Avon; as a large part of the series, especially in seasons 1 and 2, is about the relationship between these two men.
This series of Avon looks at the character of Avon in all his glory.
