Anti-Rant

[kerravonsen]

Well, I've noticed this 'rant' meme going around, and while it's been entertaining, I don't want to participate myself, because (a) it is too hot and (b) I just got encouraged by my doctors today, and I don't want to squander my positive energy on something as negative as a rant.

So I propose a 'yay!' meme. Write something in the comments that you want me to enthuse about, and I shall do so.
Then go thou and do so likewise.

(oh, is that thunder I hear? It might be cooling down. Yay!)

Comments

[kerravonsen]

(grin) Vila it is.

Where would we be without Vila? He is the everyman, the normal soul, not one of the "clever" or driven people. Mind you, that actually fits Gan better, now that I think about it. But this is about Vila.

Sometimes, yes, Vila is the comic relief. But he isn't just the comic relief. And part of that comic-reliefness is because he does it deliberately to defuse the tension. That makes him a peacemaker in a way. He provides balance in the mix -- the Liberator isn't full of passionate deadly-serious Rebels (though I've read PGP fanfic that was -- save us from teh boredom!) and Vila is one of those non-Rebels.

He is, of course, very talented in his "field", which is a source of pride for him -- probably the majority of his self-esteem rests on his expertise with security systems. Yes, there's a bit of cognitive dissonance in admiring a thief, but one resolves it by saying, well, he's robbing the Bad Guys.

He's amazing in the way that his hard life doesn't seem to have hardened him -- and maybe some would say "yeah, but he's a coward!" but I wonder, if in a way that's him being true to himself -- in that he had two choices in the way he coped with his hard life: one would be to become hard and nasty himself, to hurt others; and the other would be to keep his head down and seek protectors, who could be tough on his behalf.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! That's lovely and very well-reasoned too. :-) The last point is an interesting one because I've always admired Vila's non-stereotypical softness as a criminal, and that's a very likely explanation.

[kerravonsen]

You're very welcome. That last point occurred to me as I was writing it, but it makes sense. There seems to be two major reactions to brutality: one is being brutal in return, and the other is swearing that one will never be brutal to others.

(grins at icon)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think he did that, no question (one of the many reasons I love him), but you provide a very good explanation for how he did it and survived.

Thanks! I had fun making it and may do some as cartoons for my site sometime.