Uh, I kind of liked the Branson/Sybil stuff? Not because I approve of his behavior, because he certainly was awful, but because it shows an interesting thing. Branson is a communist, so at first we perceive him as a freedom fighter and we sort of sympathize with him, because we feel he is "on our side of the fence", against the old order. And that's who he is, to some extent. But communism is not liberalism, and it's not feminism. Most of the communists back then just thought they knew better than other people, and that they had a right to tell others what to do. The communists were going to make the people happy, whether those people liked it or not; they assumed on principle that others were wrong should be taught how to think properly (of course it's a horrible generalization, but there were many people like that, and Branson certainly fits the pattern; he is a "stereotypical" communist). And that's EXACTLY what Branson does with Sybil!

So of course I'm sorry on Sybil's behalf that a guy she's in love with (is she?) turned out to be such a jerk, but my first reaction was: "SQUEEEEE! HOW WONDERFULLY IN CHARACTER!". I'm so glad they don't idealize Branson, that they show all those shades of gray! Because, obviously, both Sybil and Branson are freedom fighters, but her background is liberal democracy (of sort), and his background is the social revolution. And it turns out that when we take that into account, "freedom" may mean quite contradictory things.

I need to go now (real life sucks...), but I'll be back to talk about other characters if you don't mind :).