Avon/Tarrant

== Important Canon Interactions ==
The Tarrant Nostra has a page devoted to "Favorite Tarrant Moments." The page reproduces only four exchanges between Avon and Tarrant, three of which come from Tarrant's introductory episode, "Powerplay." This episode presents Tarrant as Avon's equal in cunning and ruthlessness, and more than willing to cut him down to size. The following conversation comes first on the Tarrant Nostra's page, and exemplifies the pairing's dynamic in this episode:
 
Much later, in the episode Traitor, Avon says to Soolin:
This quote is widely repeated, though not always as evidence for Avon's attraction to Tarrant.For non ship oriented repetitions of the phrase, see Willa Shakespeare's gen story "Three Good Reasons' and the youtube video A Compilation of Avon's Insults and Jibes
==Pairing History==
===Licence===
Avon/Tarrant is arguably the first B7 slash pairing to feature in a zine. According to the author Oriole T: 
Though the story focuses primarily on Tarrant's sexual relationship with Jarvik, the story heavily implies that Tarrant is presently Avon's lover.
Despite this early start, according to the Hermit Library's inventory of zine published Avon/Tarrant fics, very few Avon/Tarrant fics appeared in zines until the late eighties.
===Bondmate===
Hermit's list of favorite Avon/Tarrant stories refers to Bondmate, by Dorian Gale as 
The story was published in 1991. Like many later Avon/Tarrant stories, the fic acknowledges the close relationship between Avon and Blake and treats Blake sympathetically. It is perhaps the originator of this trope (For comparison, see Paula's "Night Discord," another popular Avon/Tarrant story, published 8 years later in 1999 Southern Comfort 10.5) which portrays a remarkably similar Avon/Blake/Tarrant dynamic)
==="Duty" and Pat Jacquerie===
Pat Jacquerie's Duty is among the most influential Avon/Tarrant stories, and Jacquerie herself was extremely influential in promoting the pairing. She died tragically before producing an all Avon/Tarrant zine, but the A/T zine Angelfood was published in her honor.
Jacquerie was not always an Avon/Tarrant fan, or even a slash fan. Her work then is not only notable for turning many people onto the pairing, but also for embodying the spirit of try-anything-twice experimentation that pervades Avon/Tarrant slash. One friend of Jacquerie writes:
Another friend says:
Jacquerie's Duty is set on Fargone, a matriarchal planet on which men under the age of 25 are treated as property of older men. Originally intended as a plot device to force intimacy between Avon and Tarrant, the world on which Jacquerie set the story took on a life of its own, and she and Lexa Reiss created a website for lore and stories set on that world.
== Notable trends ==
===Avon/Tarrant Defined in Opposition to Other Pairings===
The Tarrant Nostra's rather tongue in cheek "List of 10 Reasons Avon and Tarrant Make A Good Couple" suggests that in many respects Avon/Tarrant is a pairing defined in opposition to other, more popular ships, particularly Blake/Avon, as well as in opposition to canon het pairings Avon/Anna and Tarrant/Zeeona: 
Shimere's fic provides a more serious example of this tendency to examine exactly where Tarrant and Blake differ as (potential) lovers. As Avon and Tarrant become telepathically linked, Tarrant hears Avon thinking the following thoughts:
"Bondmate" and "Night Discord," cited in the Pairing History section, also participate in this trend.
===Egalitarianism===
As reason #6 suggests, the pairing is arguably the most egalitarian in the fandom. A survey of the fics on TarrantNostra.com bears this out, showing an almost perfectly even split between stories where Avon 'tops' and stories where Tarrant 'tops,' as well a tendency within individual fics to portray neither topping or both getting a turn Both Tarrant and Avon get a turn on top in Prisoners, the Shattering by Kai Aurelius,
A Marketable Commodity by Pat Jacquerie and Change of Pace by Paula
===Fannish Treatment of Tarrant===
Tarrant himself is not a universally well liked character within the fandom. The collaboratively compiled Recurring Themes in B7 has this to say on the matter:
Lillian Shepherd's The Machiavelli Factor is a notable example of a popular fic that treats Tarrant (and Tarrant alone) unsympathetically. Helen Patrick's comments on Judith Seaman's fic Oblivion show a sensitivity to the rift between the Tarrant Nostra and everyone else:
When he is not being portrayed in earnest as a reckless fool, arrogant, unfeeling, and a danger to his crewmates, Tarrant is often sent up and/or treated comically.For examples, see executrix's A Federation Officer, aralias's D(ams)el in Distress and Carnella & Comatose, "Tarrant the Terrific" (In Southern Comfort 6.5)
However, where Avon/Blake fics commonly portray Blake at his worst, Avon/Tarrant shippers are overwhelmingly fans of Tarrant and tend to treat Tarrant sympathetically, often portraying him as capable of greater maturity and emotional depth than he demonstrates in the course of the show. A classic example is Paula's "Night" series, published entirely in Southern Comfort (with the exception of the gen first installment, "Night Winds"," which was published in Gambit). "Nightmusic" (Issue 6.5) and "Nightsongs" (Issue 9.5), the middle installments of the series, appear on Hermit's list of "favorite Avon/Tarrant stories",
Avon, on the other hand, is allowed to be harder and colder than he is with Blake For an extreme example see Randym's "Commitment," in Southern Comfort 6.5. See also Calico's Snatch here or here and Cami's Strange Interlude
===Optimism===
Avon/Tarrant stories are often optimistic, featuring moments of camaraderie or understanding see "Getting Lucky" by Willa Shakespeare, in Resistance (8), Null G, Change of Pace A Gift to the Gods and Thinking of You Perhaps not coincidentally, fans have also noted the contrast between the positive arc of the canonical relationship between Avon and Tarrant and the bleaker arc of the show as a whole. As Marian de Haan writes, in her essay on Avon and Tarrant,
==Sample Fanworks==
===Fiction===
* Dorian Gale's Bondmate (Not available on line, published in Southern Comfort 6.5)
* Paula's Night series (Not available on line, published in Southern Comfort 6.5, 9.5, and 10.5)
* Pat Jacquerie's Duty, also in 2 parts here and here (previously hosted here)
* Manna's And What Happened After series and its novella length sequel Solitaire
* Salome's Blood and Shadows (novella first published in Dark Fantasies #2; 1994)
===Fanart===
File:Rebeldesiresback.jpg|by Randym, from Rebel Desires (1995) 
File:Angelfood3.jpg| by Randym in Angelfood (2002)
==Archives==
* TarrantNostra.com, founded 1997
* An Avon/Tarrant Online Fiction Archive: A/T & a little Tarrant/Vila; founded by 1999
==Meta/Further Reading==
* Avon and Tarrant, essay by By Marian de Haan
==References==
Category:Slash Pairings
Category:Blake's 7 Relationships