Date Posted:Tuesday, June 27, 01:40:11pm Author: JayBee Subject: Re: One more thing In reply to:
Nell
's message, "Re: One more thing" on Tuesday, June 27, 12:51:38pm
Well...I was careful to say "almost all" the criticism of Nikita came from a motivation entirely separate from genuine approval of Paul. You've zeroed in here on probably the most significant exception.
I would point out, however, that the story you're referring to was posted quite a long time after the end of S5, and that the fannish consensus on Nikita's competence (or lack thereof) was *long* settled by then. I might also add that the story was posted at a time when the vast majority of stories on the boards were extremely idealistically HR in nature, and the author in question has a rather, uh, provocative streak. (And I mean that in a good way! LOL.) So...there was a certain desire to stir up reaction/discussion in the posting, I believe. I have to confess, I kind of felt a bit that way myself at the time.
Still, having said all of the above, I'm quite confident when I say that yes, this particular author would definitely argue (and argue pretty vehemently) that Paul was a far better leader than Nikita, and her opinion would have nothing to do with how she felt about Michael. So you've got me on this one. :-)
I would argue, however, that TR criticism of Nikita almost always takes the form of Nikita versus Madeline rather than Nikita versus Paul. That's certainly my own bias (and yes, I admit it's a bias). The author you mentioned tends toward that stance as well. And yet you don't seem to react the same way against Madeline as you do against Paul. So this makes me wonder if maybe there's something *else* going on in your reaction to him as a character. ?
In any event, this is really an interesting discussion.
