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follow knowledge like a sinking star
MORE.
(I am in fact trying to power through season one as quickly as possible, so I can get to the Good Stuff. Although even s1 has some good stuff, scattered here and there.)
1x03, Born to the Purple
Oh, back in the days when men were men, Adira had lots of screentime, and G'Kar and Londo could have an electric blue drink together at a club and bond over how hot Centauri women are! I don't want them to just sit down and be friends, though; they haven't earned it.
Ko'Dath cracks me up. "I wasn't expecting you for several yea -- ah, days!" G'Kar says, in great consternation. It's played for laughs, of course, but I think there might be something genuinely awkward about being caught in a bar with Centauri by your new young aide. I am, however, fascinated by how ... caricature-y the Narns are, I suppose. They're almost buffoonishly aggressive. Of course, this is back in the days when men were men and lots of alien culture was played for laughs, so it's not too surprising. I'm glad they eased up on that later, though.
I forgot about how apparently Vir used to go to negotiations and bring along his Nintendo-esque game! This tells me that he already has Londo's number and also that he, like probably most Centauri, doesn't take this diplomacy-on-Babylon-5 thing very seriously. I also forgot that G'Kar then steals Vir's Nintendo-thing to play games on it. It's all very innocent and pigtail-pulling as of yet, isn't it.
Ohh, I want to dissect the entire little post-coital conversation between Londo and Adira. He hates it when she calls him Ambassador; she is Centauri, and his title pleases her, and it should please him too. Londo is self-admittedly washed up; these are Adira's better days. In a lot of ways Adira is really everything Londo's ever wanted: she respects his position, she doesn't think the Centauri have fallen, and of course most importantly of all she genuinely loves him, despite who he is and despite the predicament she's in. Incidentally, does anyone else find Adira absolutely gorgeous and awesome? I mean, in a lot of ways she's just a really extended fridging, but I love that along the way she's brave enough to try for what she wants, and she gets it, albeit briefly. In the end she probably has a better track record of happiness than Londo does.
When Vir contacts Londo to ask him to come to the negociations, Londo calls him a "moon-faced assassin of joy." I want to use that as an insult on people. I don't know who I'd use it on, though. On the other hand, when Vir fixes him hot jala, Londo calls him a treasure and chucks him under the chin, and Vir just laps it up. Give Vir your love and acceptance, Londo! He will later pay you back and then some.
"We Centauri live our lives for appearances: position, status, title. These are the things by which we define ourselves. But when I look beneath the mask I am forced to wear, I see only emptiness. And then I think of you. And I say, to hell with appearances." That, ladies and gentlemen? That is Londo Mollari. It's difficult to say what might have saved him, but he has all the tools he needs right here: he's self-aware, and he wants love so much more than he wants power or status. If he'd just been able to hang onto that somehow ... (But then, we wouldn't have a plot. Or we would've had Londo and G'Kar with reversed arcs, and G'Kar working with the Shadows is almost too horrible to contemplate.)
I love that when Londo assigns Vir ambassadorial authority for the day, he says, "Don't give away the Homeworld," and when G'Kar is affronted and gives Ko'Dath ambassadorial authority too, he says exactly the same thing. One of the best things about Londo and G'Kar is how incredibly similar they are, even when they don't want to be, even this early in the show.
Sinclair ships Londo/G'Kar! Observe:
SINCLAIR: Will you agree to my compromise on the Euphrates treaty?
LONDO: I'll even seal it with a kiss.
SINCLAIR: That should make G'Kar's day.
I also know that sometime later he's going to say that he didn't know Londo was G'Kar's type. I just -- what? Mind you, I love what they gave Sinclair to do in this episode; he really does enjoy fucking with people, especially people he doesn't much like, so I think he was having a ball messing around with Londo and G'Kar, and he got what he wanted out of treaty negotiations. He also got to use his knowing-everything-about-the-station skillz to get an audience with the Dark Star's dancers. I admit it: I'm actually hugely fond of Sinclair, especially when most of his scenes are with Londo, because I suspect that Jurasik forcibly drags O'Hare's acting up a few notches.
Londo and Adira's goodbye scene breaks my heart a little. "I am an old man," Londo tells her; "I have been in love many times, and I have been hurt many times. I'll survive." Except that of course Adira really is something special; for all that this is the last we see of her until her body in s3 and then her spirit in s5, she obviously takes up a lot of space in Londo's heart -- both Vir and G'Kar are more actively important to Londo's emotional life, but Adira's way up there in terms of importance too, because the show never lets you forget about her. And the really heartbreaking thing to me is that, when Adira says goodbye, she calls Londo my ambassador. She doesn't get it. Londo loves her more than anyone in the world, but she never really understands what he's about.
Of course this episode isn't just All Londo All The Time; there's also the B plot, concerning Ivanova and Garibaldi and the gremlin in the comm system. I think it's played excellently; it doesn't take up much screen time at all, but we still learn so much about both of them. Ivanova wants to be incredibly quiet about her personal life; she has whole entire family issues to go with her mommy ones; and she obviously doesn't want pity for it, and is a complete professional -- even in front of her dying father, which is a bit awful. Meanwhile Garibaldi is tenacious and clever, and figures out how to hack Ivanova's code like a good security chief does -- but he's also smart about people, so that even though he hasn't known Ivanova that well yet, he still gets what she's up to. This episode kind of makes me ship them a little.
There is not really any Bechdel-test-passing this episode, excepting a thirty-second scene where Adira asks one of her dancer friends for asylum before she can escape off the station. So I suppose it counts, but only very marginally.
1x04, Infection
I will occasionally skip episodes, particularly this season. This episode is one of the skippable. My basic rule is that if at least the B plot doesn't have at least one of my three favourite aliens, there's not much point. But your Babylon 5 is not necessarily my Babylon 5, and it is a decent Franklin episode.
It is also the first episode where we see JMS's reporter hate-on. Why does he dislike reporters? I am unsure! But ISN is never good news.
1x05, The Parliament of Dreams
This episode, on the other hand, is one of my favourites of season one. It introduces Na'Toth and Lennier and Catherine Sakai, all of whom are dear to my heart (even if Catherine and, alas, Na'Toth, are both fairly short-lived characters); it balances the ensemble feel of the show probably better than any other episode of first season does, because we get to spend at least a little time with nearly everyone.
This episode also marks the first time we see a Drazi! I kind of like the Drazi. They're cute, in a gray and slightly insane way.
Apparently at this point, G'Kar singing silly love songs (so many fishes left in the sea, so many fishes, but no one for me) whilst preparing dinner makes me squeak and laugh and clutch at my face. One of my favourite things about G'Kar really is the way he will sing with little to no provocation.
I love Londo's Centauri religious ceremony. I mean, it's so obviously a Roman feast that it's just hilarious. I love that, out of all the guests, Ivanova seems to be having a grand old time. I love all the household gods -- and either Li, the goddess of love, is hermaphroditic as some gods tend to be, or female Centauri also have tentacles. Do female Centauri also have tentacles?? Inquiring minds are spending too much time worrying about Centauri biology lately. I also love that Londo seems to genuinely enjoy his party, and I love watching Londo be happy, even when he's doing it in an obnoxious, drunk sort of way. (Incidentally, the blue stuff he's drinking also seems to be in front of Garibaldi and Delenn, which means, in-continuity, that the blue stuff must be non-alcoholic, and there's also alcoholic drinks of some sort to go round. I'm sure the real explanation is that the production hadn't yet decided Garibaldi was an alcoholic or Minbari couldn't drink, but we'll pretend anyway.) And speaking of Garibaldi and Delenn, I love how Londo crawls along the table to tell them that they are, respectively, "very cute for a Minbari" and "cute too, in an annoying sort of way." Londo's sexuality: kind of awesome when he's drunk enough to pass out five seconds later.
Things that are excellent about the Catherine Sakai plotline: 1. Garibaldi being Sinclair's wingman on this. I friendship them really hard, actually. 2. The fact that Carolyn Sykes didn't just get written out and replaced (much the same way I appreciate the mention of what happened to Ben Kyle, and the later explanation about Lyta -- do we ever find out what happened to Lt. Commander Takashima?); instead, Catherine is an on-and-off thing that happens a lot, and Carolyn was a semi-serious thing that happened during one of Sinclair's off-agains. It's refreshingly believable. 3. Catherine herself! Despite the fact that we never get to know her very well, I do quite like her; she's sensible, she's up-front about things, and she exudes quiet awesome. I think there's a mention somewhere in season ... four? possibly? that Catherine disappeared mysteriously sometime last year. Considering that Valen apparently had children, I'd sort of dig Catherine being Valen's time-traveling wife of awesome, especially if she went through with marrying Sinclair even after he was transferred to Minbar. Who knows.
Na'Toth is so delightfully dry-witted and sensible! which is, weirdly, what G'Kar needs right now. Early G'Kar is interesting: he jumps to conclusions, distrusts everyone, and has a huge flair for dramatics (witness his yelling bloody murder when he discovers the assassin's calling-card death blossom on his pillow -- which is an understandable reaction, of course). But the delightful thing is that the G'Kar we come to know and love later is in there, because he'll scream as much as he likes when there's a flower in his bed, but if someone's actually torturing him, there's not a sound. ("I would die before giving you the satisfaction.") When it comes to the important things, G'Kar has whole boatloads of pride. "I fight my own battles! I survived our war of independence, five years on the Council, and two prior assassination attempts! I can survive this!" As indeed he can, but it's only really at the end of the episode that the audience believes it.
And here comes young earnest Lennier, already set to hero-worship Satai Delenn. "You can look up, Lennier of the Third Fane of Chudomo. I cannot have an aide who will not look up. You will be forever walking into things." I now RETROACTIVELY TEAR UP. Damn yoooou, season four! And, understanding is not required, only obedience; oh Lennier. He's so sweet, and also probably the posterchild for a good member of the religious caste, but I still have a difficult time reading him as anything besides sort of borderline sociopathic, in a sweet, earnest, Minbari sort of way.
Sinclair should pay more attention at the Minbari religious ceremony! After all, those are probably his teachings Delenn is reciting. I mostly ignore the marriage ceremony garbage, if only because I imagine Minbari marriage rituals involve, y'know, so much preparation, and I don't think Delenn would non-con shotgun-wedding Sinclair. On the other hand, when Sinclair hears that it might've been a marriage ceremony, his rejoiner is "Maybe that's why G'Kar's smiling. Funny; I didn't think Londo was his type." Why are you shipping them, Sinclair?
"Yours?" Garibaldi asks, discovering a pair of panties in G'Kar's rooms. G'Kar snatches them affrontedly and spends the rest of the conversation gesturing emphatically with them. I want a billion scenes of G'Kar waving around lacy red panties. But I've been in fandom for nearly a decade; of course I love scenes like that. "And let me say, Ambassador, from the bottom of my heart: hot pink is definitely your color." Garibaldi is wrong, as clearly G'Kar would look quite striking in green, but I do like that Garibaldi and I could sit around watching cartoons and talking about G'Kar in women's underwear.
Hey, I wouldn't be talking about any of this if it wasn't right there in the show. There are times when I say "How is this show REAL?" and this is one of those times.
I love how this show is also often English major porn. Yeah, Catherine, recite that Tennyson at me! (Another reason Sinclair and Sheridan should be friends: they both like to recite Ulysses.)
I am not quite sure how I feel about the end of the episode. I mean, I like the acknowledgement that Earth has a billionty different faiths, and I like that technically no one is erased, but on the other hand from a storytelling standpoint it makes the alien cultures seem monolithic in a way they definitely aren't. I dunno.
No Bechdel-test-passing in this one either. I want Na'Toth and Ivanova to hang out.
(I am in fact trying to power through season one as quickly as possible, so I can get to the Good Stuff. Although even s1 has some good stuff, scattered here and there.)
1x03, Born to the Purple
Oh, back in the days when men were men, Adira had lots of screentime, and G'Kar and Londo could have an electric blue drink together at a club and bond over how hot Centauri women are! I don't want them to just sit down and be friends, though; they haven't earned it.
Ko'Dath cracks me up. "I wasn't expecting you for several yea -- ah, days!" G'Kar says, in great consternation. It's played for laughs, of course, but I think there might be something genuinely awkward about being caught in a bar with Centauri by your new young aide. I am, however, fascinated by how ... caricature-y the Narns are, I suppose. They're almost buffoonishly aggressive. Of course, this is back in the days when men were men and lots of alien culture was played for laughs, so it's not too surprising. I'm glad they eased up on that later, though.
I forgot about how apparently Vir used to go to negotiations and bring along his Nintendo-esque game! This tells me that he already has Londo's number and also that he, like probably most Centauri, doesn't take this diplomacy-on-Babylon-5 thing very seriously. I also forgot that G'Kar then steals Vir's Nintendo-thing to play games on it. It's all very innocent and pigtail-pulling as of yet, isn't it.
Ohh, I want to dissect the entire little post-coital conversation between Londo and Adira. He hates it when she calls him Ambassador; she is Centauri, and his title pleases her, and it should please him too. Londo is self-admittedly washed up; these are Adira's better days. In a lot of ways Adira is really everything Londo's ever wanted: she respects his position, she doesn't think the Centauri have fallen, and of course most importantly of all she genuinely loves him, despite who he is and despite the predicament she's in. Incidentally, does anyone else find Adira absolutely gorgeous and awesome? I mean, in a lot of ways she's just a really extended fridging, but I love that along the way she's brave enough to try for what she wants, and she gets it, albeit briefly. In the end she probably has a better track record of happiness than Londo does.
When Vir contacts Londo to ask him to come to the negociations, Londo calls him a "moon-faced assassin of joy." I want to use that as an insult on people. I don't know who I'd use it on, though. On the other hand, when Vir fixes him hot jala, Londo calls him a treasure and chucks him under the chin, and Vir just laps it up. Give Vir your love and acceptance, Londo! He will later pay you back and then some.
"We Centauri live our lives for appearances: position, status, title. These are the things by which we define ourselves. But when I look beneath the mask I am forced to wear, I see only emptiness. And then I think of you. And I say, to hell with appearances." That, ladies and gentlemen? That is Londo Mollari. It's difficult to say what might have saved him, but he has all the tools he needs right here: he's self-aware, and he wants love so much more than he wants power or status. If he'd just been able to hang onto that somehow ... (But then, we wouldn't have a plot. Or we would've had Londo and G'Kar with reversed arcs, and G'Kar working with the Shadows is almost too horrible to contemplate.)
I love that when Londo assigns Vir ambassadorial authority for the day, he says, "Don't give away the Homeworld," and when G'Kar is affronted and gives Ko'Dath ambassadorial authority too, he says exactly the same thing. One of the best things about Londo and G'Kar is how incredibly similar they are, even when they don't want to be, even this early in the show.
Sinclair ships Londo/G'Kar! Observe:
SINCLAIR: Will you agree to my compromise on the Euphrates treaty?
LONDO: I'll even seal it with a kiss.
SINCLAIR: That should make G'Kar's day.
I also know that sometime later he's going to say that he didn't know Londo was G'Kar's type. I just -- what? Mind you, I love what they gave Sinclair to do in this episode; he really does enjoy fucking with people, especially people he doesn't much like, so I think he was having a ball messing around with Londo and G'Kar, and he got what he wanted out of treaty negotiations. He also got to use his knowing-everything-about-the-station skillz to get an audience with the Dark Star's dancers. I admit it: I'm actually hugely fond of Sinclair, especially when most of his scenes are with Londo, because I suspect that Jurasik forcibly drags O'Hare's acting up a few notches.
Londo and Adira's goodbye scene breaks my heart a little. "I am an old man," Londo tells her; "I have been in love many times, and I have been hurt many times. I'll survive." Except that of course Adira really is something special; for all that this is the last we see of her until her body in s3 and then her spirit in s5, she obviously takes up a lot of space in Londo's heart -- both Vir and G'Kar are more actively important to Londo's emotional life, but Adira's way up there in terms of importance too, because the show never lets you forget about her. And the really heartbreaking thing to me is that, when Adira says goodbye, she calls Londo my ambassador. She doesn't get it. Londo loves her more than anyone in the world, but she never really understands what he's about.
Of course this episode isn't just All Londo All The Time; there's also the B plot, concerning Ivanova and Garibaldi and the gremlin in the comm system. I think it's played excellently; it doesn't take up much screen time at all, but we still learn so much about both of them. Ivanova wants to be incredibly quiet about her personal life; she has whole entire family issues to go with her mommy ones; and she obviously doesn't want pity for it, and is a complete professional -- even in front of her dying father, which is a bit awful. Meanwhile Garibaldi is tenacious and clever, and figures out how to hack Ivanova's code like a good security chief does -- but he's also smart about people, so that even though he hasn't known Ivanova that well yet, he still gets what she's up to. This episode kind of makes me ship them a little.
There is not really any Bechdel-test-passing this episode, excepting a thirty-second scene where Adira asks one of her dancer friends for asylum before she can escape off the station. So I suppose it counts, but only very marginally.
1x04, Infection
I will occasionally skip episodes, particularly this season. This episode is one of the skippable. My basic rule is that if at least the B plot doesn't have at least one of my three favourite aliens, there's not much point. But your Babylon 5 is not necessarily my Babylon 5, and it is a decent Franklin episode.
It is also the first episode where we see JMS's reporter hate-on. Why does he dislike reporters? I am unsure! But ISN is never good news.
1x05, The Parliament of Dreams
This episode, on the other hand, is one of my favourites of season one. It introduces Na'Toth and Lennier and Catherine Sakai, all of whom are dear to my heart (even if Catherine and, alas, Na'Toth, are both fairly short-lived characters); it balances the ensemble feel of the show probably better than any other episode of first season does, because we get to spend at least a little time with nearly everyone.
This episode also marks the first time we see a Drazi! I kind of like the Drazi. They're cute, in a gray and slightly insane way.
Apparently at this point, G'Kar singing silly love songs (so many fishes left in the sea, so many fishes, but no one for me) whilst preparing dinner makes me squeak and laugh and clutch at my face. One of my favourite things about G'Kar really is the way he will sing with little to no provocation.
I love Londo's Centauri religious ceremony. I mean, it's so obviously a Roman feast that it's just hilarious. I love that, out of all the guests, Ivanova seems to be having a grand old time. I love all the household gods -- and either Li, the goddess of love, is hermaphroditic as some gods tend to be, or female Centauri also have tentacles. Do female Centauri also have tentacles?? Inquiring minds are spending too much time worrying about Centauri biology lately. I also love that Londo seems to genuinely enjoy his party, and I love watching Londo be happy, even when he's doing it in an obnoxious, drunk sort of way. (Incidentally, the blue stuff he's drinking also seems to be in front of Garibaldi and Delenn, which means, in-continuity, that the blue stuff must be non-alcoholic, and there's also alcoholic drinks of some sort to go round. I'm sure the real explanation is that the production hadn't yet decided Garibaldi was an alcoholic or Minbari couldn't drink, but we'll pretend anyway.) And speaking of Garibaldi and Delenn, I love how Londo crawls along the table to tell them that they are, respectively, "very cute for a Minbari" and "cute too, in an annoying sort of way." Londo's sexuality: kind of awesome when he's drunk enough to pass out five seconds later.
Things that are excellent about the Catherine Sakai plotline: 1. Garibaldi being Sinclair's wingman on this. I friendship them really hard, actually. 2. The fact that Carolyn Sykes didn't just get written out and replaced (much the same way I appreciate the mention of what happened to Ben Kyle, and the later explanation about Lyta -- do we ever find out what happened to Lt. Commander Takashima?); instead, Catherine is an on-and-off thing that happens a lot, and Carolyn was a semi-serious thing that happened during one of Sinclair's off-agains. It's refreshingly believable. 3. Catherine herself! Despite the fact that we never get to know her very well, I do quite like her; she's sensible, she's up-front about things, and she exudes quiet awesome. I think there's a mention somewhere in season ... four? possibly? that Catherine disappeared mysteriously sometime last year. Considering that Valen apparently had children, I'd sort of dig Catherine being Valen's time-traveling wife of awesome, especially if she went through with marrying Sinclair even after he was transferred to Minbar. Who knows.
Na'Toth is so delightfully dry-witted and sensible! which is, weirdly, what G'Kar needs right now. Early G'Kar is interesting: he jumps to conclusions, distrusts everyone, and has a huge flair for dramatics (witness his yelling bloody murder when he discovers the assassin's calling-card death blossom on his pillow -- which is an understandable reaction, of course). But the delightful thing is that the G'Kar we come to know and love later is in there, because he'll scream as much as he likes when there's a flower in his bed, but if someone's actually torturing him, there's not a sound. ("I would die before giving you the satisfaction.") When it comes to the important things, G'Kar has whole boatloads of pride. "I fight my own battles! I survived our war of independence, five years on the Council, and two prior assassination attempts! I can survive this!" As indeed he can, but it's only really at the end of the episode that the audience believes it.
And here comes young earnest Lennier, already set to hero-worship Satai Delenn. "You can look up, Lennier of the Third Fane of Chudomo. I cannot have an aide who will not look up. You will be forever walking into things." I now RETROACTIVELY TEAR UP. Damn yoooou, season four! And, understanding is not required, only obedience; oh Lennier. He's so sweet, and also probably the posterchild for a good member of the religious caste, but I still have a difficult time reading him as anything besides sort of borderline sociopathic, in a sweet, earnest, Minbari sort of way.
Sinclair should pay more attention at the Minbari religious ceremony! After all, those are probably his teachings Delenn is reciting. I mostly ignore the marriage ceremony garbage, if only because I imagine Minbari marriage rituals involve, y'know, so much preparation, and I don't think Delenn would non-con shotgun-wedding Sinclair. On the other hand, when Sinclair hears that it might've been a marriage ceremony, his rejoiner is "Maybe that's why G'Kar's smiling. Funny; I didn't think Londo was his type." Why are you shipping them, Sinclair?
"Yours?" Garibaldi asks, discovering a pair of panties in G'Kar's rooms. G'Kar snatches them affrontedly and spends the rest of the conversation gesturing emphatically with them. I want a billion scenes of G'Kar waving around lacy red panties. But I've been in fandom for nearly a decade; of course I love scenes like that. "And let me say, Ambassador, from the bottom of my heart: hot pink is definitely your color." Garibaldi is wrong, as clearly G'Kar would look quite striking in green, but I do like that Garibaldi and I could sit around watching cartoons and talking about G'Kar in women's underwear.
Hey, I wouldn't be talking about any of this if it wasn't right there in the show. There are times when I say "How is this show REAL?" and this is one of those times.
I love how this show is also often English major porn. Yeah, Catherine, recite that Tennyson at me! (Another reason Sinclair and Sheridan should be friends: they both like to recite Ulysses.)
I am not quite sure how I feel about the end of the episode. I mean, I like the acknowledgement that Earth has a billionty different faiths, and I like that technically no one is erased, but on the other hand from a storytelling standpoint it makes the alien cultures seem monolithic in a way they definitely aren't. I dunno.
No Bechdel-test-passing in this one either. I want Na'Toth and Ivanova to hang out.
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This! This times a million! *hearts her little OTP* (There's a moment in "Soul Hunter," which I just watched, where they and Sinclair are all sitting around a table talking, and Garibaldi has his arm slung over the back of Ivanova's chair for pretty much the whole scene. It totally made my eyebrows go up and wheels in my brain start turning.)
One of the best things about Londo and G'Kar is how incredibly similar they are, even when they don't want to be, even this early in the show.
I know! I love that parallel. Also, NARN GILBERT AND SULLIVAN. And then he talks to his food, which is trying to escape. Bwahahaha. (And then that song comes back so sadly in that episode in...S2? where he and Londo are trapped together in the elevator. "Not many fishies, just Londo and me...")
I love Delenn and Lennier together so much, and I adore their first scene together. I have eradicated much of "Objects at Rest" from my personal canon of the show, so I tend not to think of Lennier as a sociopath, but he is a good deal more innocent in S1, yes. (Is there an episode in S4 where he's evil that I'm just not remembering?)
I want Na'Toth and Ivanova to hang out.
Oh, god, I want this so badly I can taste it. I want them to just sit in the Zocalo and snark on everyone and everything for hooooouuuurrrs.
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NARN GILBERT AND SULLIVAN. <333 Actually, that entire SCENE; I think it's one of the first times I honestly love G'Kar for what he's being right then, rather than what he'll become.
And I am pretty sure that the majority of the reason I think at all badly of Lennier is just because of Objects at Rest, not because of anything he does in s4. Although I did want to punch him for most of s5, because he just got ... steadily less zen about Delenn/Sheridan, until I wanted to smack him.
I am not sure Na'Toth and Ivanova would snark for hours, seeing as they're too busy being actively awesome, but even just five minutes of that would be absolutely golden.
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I have to admit that I ship Delenn/Lennier more than I do Delenn/Sheridan. I only really warmed up to them about halfway through S5. So I was kind of on Lennier's side, at least until OaR, and then I was like, "I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT WAS CANON." (And once I saw Sleeping in Light, I realized that I ship Delenn/Ivanova LIKE BURNING.)
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I actually shipped Delenn/Sheridan before I knew it was going to be canon, so ... I always felt for Lennier, but he put Delenn on a pedestal in a way that made me a bit uncomfortable, so that pairing never quite clicked for me.
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The sexual organs of the Centauri are quite different than those of humans, and they are in a different location than the human sex organs. Male Centauri have six tentacles (jokingly called "tentesticles") along the sides of their bodies. The males can stretch the tentacles out to several feet. Females have six orifices along the sides of their bodies. The male places the tentacles in the female orifices individually. Each additional tentacle the male places in a female orifice brings an additional level of pleasure for both partners. Only one tentacle is necessary to inseminate, however.
So I guess that the goddess is intersexed.
Why are you shipping them, Sinclair?
Clearly Sinclair writes Real People Slash and is shipping Londo and G'Kar all over his universe's equivalent of the Interwebs.
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I love the idea of Sinclair writing RPS in his spare time. <333
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>:[ BARROWMAN!!!
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(that was the sound of me eating your brain. um, lovingly.)
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I love how, retrospectively, it's obvious that a lot of the religious rituals Valen "created" were cribbed from his Catholic upbringing. One day I shall write fic about Delenn meeting the Pope.
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I think that, in-universe, someone who is not in the know about the Sinclair-Valen connection should write a serious sociology paper on the ways in which Minbari religion is astonishingly like certain Earth religions, and how this proves something deep and meaningful about the universe and consciousness across species.
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YES. I feel like there's a lot to be made of parallels between Buddhism and the Minbari religion as well. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, re: Sheridan's youthful obsession with the Dalai Lama.
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Heeeee, it's so true. ♥
And Lennier. Ohhhhh, Lennier. I love him like mad, so I'm probably not a good judge, but I don't think he's crazy so much as... very Minbari. I mean, it seems like every time we see them they're doing something wacky like starting a war out of grief and rage, nearly going to war again over a missing body, or trying to commit mass suicide to prevent Delenn from doing something she wasn't going to do in the first place. They're clearly very passionate people... and, you know, ever so slightly unhinged. Bless them.
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Re: Adira: I love her, too. (Which resulted in two fanfics.) And yes, technically she's a girl of the week, but the way the show handles it is different, because she keeps getting referenced, all the way through "Movement of Fire and Shadow" when Londo while anaesthesized murmurs her name. (BTW, when asked why in Day of the Dead Londo isn't the one to encounter Morden, Neil Gaiman said that a) it was effective to use Morden with the one character who until this point had remained innocent, i.e. Lennier, and b) given what was in store for Londo later on, JMS wanted give him one night of happiness instead.) Check out
Re: that post-coital conversation, it's one of the definite Londo character scenes. In addition to what you said: because the way thing that allows for his relationship with Adira is also the thing that makes him a candidate for Morden to pick; he's a somewhat soured romantic. (Londo's glorification of a great Centauri past he never experienced himself, the idea of dragging it into the present is romanticism, as surely as falling in love with a dancer instead of seeing it as "just" sex is.)
Did you notice: Londo's (never named) first wife was also a dancer. That bit of backstory is also fascinating in what it says about Londo, because when he tells it to Garibaldi in "Voice in the Wilderness" to cheer Garibaldi up, he ends it as a comedy, with the dancer turning out to be a shrew, so he divorced her, but in "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari", when he's speaking with Imaginary Sheridan, he reveals that actually he divorced her because his family made him choose between them & status on the one hand and the dancer on the other, and that he had truly loved her. It's the first time Londo made the wrong choice, and I think the awareness of this feeds into his relationship with Adira.
Sinclair definitely ships Londo/G'Kar. Also JMS never passes an opportunity for a slash reference about these two. *g*
Parliament of Dreams is an early standout and one of my overall show favourites.
Re: the goddess Li, no, female Centauri don't have tentacles, and Li is meant to have attributes of both genders. (Which is I think even mentioned on screen in Quality of Mercy by Londo to Lennier. When I wrote my B5/Sandman crossover, that of course meant I already had a given look for Desire. *g*
G'Kar singing: love that about him, too, love the awesome continuity of him using that same song in s3 when locked with Londo in a turbo lift even more. (That's also the only time we hear G'Kar call Londo "Londo" on screen, and he does it in song.)
I love Na'Toth and G'Kar together, and shall always regret Julie Caitlin Brown didn't take to the make-up and left the show.
Catherine Sakai: in the novels, she did end up with Valen, but even that aside, she escaped a horrible fate when the network insisted on a change of leading man, because clearly Catherine was set up for the role Anna Sheridan plays, i.e. she would have disappeared at the start of s2, having found Z'ha'dum, and would have reappeared, Shadow-fied, at the end of s3. Her relationship with Sinclair always struck me as a refreshing example of a melodramatics-free adult romance/friendship, and I like her a lot.
Re: Garibaldi and Sinclair - as someone recently on
No probably about it: Delenn is reciting Valen's words to the Grey Council "will you follow me into the fire" etc., so yes, she's reciting Sinclair to himself. *g*
And speaking of Garibaldi and Delenn, I love how Londo crawls along the table to tell them that they are, respectively, "very cute for a Minbari" and "cute too, in an annoying sort of way." Londo's sexuality: kind of awesome when he's drunk enough to pass out five seconds later.
Absolutely. :) I, err, might have written Londo/Delenn as part of a
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Re: Day of the Dead: oh, that's awesome. I really loved Morden saying hello to Lennier, actually, because it was so unexpected and awful, and because, besides his hopeless unrequited thing for Delenn, the universe hadn't yet done something really awful to Lennier, so he was sort of due. I love even more the notion that they consciously decided to give Londo a night of happiness, because -- one, that's lovely, and two, wow, I think my heart just broke again. (I think that I'm going to be a sobbing mess for most of s5. And probably s4. And, to be honest, probably the whole rest of the show, once Morden turns up.)
JMS never passes an opportunity for a slash reference about these two. *g*
Speaking of, I've now heard quite a few mentions of the joke script where JMS wrote them actually getting together, but none of these mentions came with specific citations. Do you know where that's story's from? I'd love to verify it
and get my hands on it.Re: Catherine Sakai: oh my god, of course she was going to be the Anna Sheridan role. It even jives perfectly with her job. Gah. Anna Sheridan upsets me lots even when all we know about her is a few vid recordings and Sheridan's epic love for her; having actually known Catherine for a season before seeing that happen to her would have been gut-punchingly awful. Which is par the course for B5, obviously, but still. I'm glad she got to go be Valen's wife instead.
Sinclair, along with alcohol and Lise Hampton, is one of the three great loves of Garibaldi's life.
Awww. <3 I think Sinclair is my favourite of the three things on that list, too. (I'm constantly sad that I just don't like Lise Hampton, and I still can't decide if she's badly written, or the actress just doesn't carry it, or what.) I'm so happy that Sinclair left Garibaldi that recording, and even though I just mostly friendship them in s1, in War Without End I ship them for reals like whoa.
I hugely approve of Londo/Delenn! I am sure Delenn does not, though. I also hugely approve of Londo/Garibaldi, but I basically approve of everyone/Garibaldi. XD
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Re: Anna Sheridan - she and Talia are basically the only characters who got screwed over by fate without their own choices having contributed to this. Yes, awful things happen to other characters as well, but they also get to make decisions that play into this, and get the chance to do something about it. Whereas Anna simply wanted to explore and in no way chose to become Shadow cannon fodder and be used against her husband.
Lise: I'm Lise-neutral in that she does nothing for me, but neither does she make me throw things on the screen. I had a secret hope that Garibaldi would have at least a stormy affair with Lochley in s5, but given her own issues, it was probably better they didn't and she became his sort of AA sponsor instead.:) But yes, Sinclair is definitely my favourite on that list, too. And I can see the relationship as utterly platonic and fraternal or as subtext-ridden, but there's no question Garibaldi really loved him.
I hugely approve of Londo/Delenn! I am sure Delenn does not, though.
LOL. "I have even liked him from time to time, as much as I didn't want to, but I have never pitied him - until now". Actually, I always regret we didn't get more Londo and Delenn interaction - not THAT way - because there are some fascinating parallels there (they both started a war, they both ended up
in lovehaving an intense relationship with a leader of the people they wronged), as well as differences - everyone on B5 knows what Londo did and is responsible for by s3, whereas no one except later Lennier knows what Delenn did. And let's not forget, Delenn evidently thinks what worked for her and Sheridan should work for Londo and G'Kar as well, given she fixes them up with her bodyguard idea. I always suspect that the reason why Delenn wanted Londo at her renewal ceremony mid-s3 wasn't just for his spiritual benefit but because she wanted to tell a secret as well, and if you want to confess a genocidal war, well, there's one person on the station in no position to judge you. (By In the Beginning Londo does know; the novelization has Delenn telling him during her captivity on Centauri Prime, but if you go by on screen canon only, you can imagine her telling him at any other point.) And then there is her silent, fierce hug of him which is sort of like Buffy kissing comatose Faith on the head in Graduation Day II in that Delenn does it after they have decided to accuse the Centauri of the attacks the Drakh have framed them for; I don't think we see Delenn hug anyone else (embraces for Sheridan and cheek stroking for Lennier are something different).no subject
Re: Anna & Talia -- in a lot of ways, Anna bothers me much less than she might, because while I hate fridged women, I sort of liked it from a storytelling point of view; it made Sheridan's determination to go to Za'ha'dum less completely boneheaded, anyway, and the fact of Delenn withholding the information made her that much more complex, too. Talia's fate, on the other hand, makes me kind of furious. I know Andrea Thompson got pregnant and they had to write her off the show, but I wish that, say, the Psi Corps caught on to what she was up to with the rogue telepaths, and she had to escape Babylon 5 and join the resistance movement. She'd still be written off the show, and Ivanova could even still have her abandonment issues, but at least there would be no evil dead lesbians and Talia would keep her agency. [/soapbox]
I just wish Lise was more interesting! I'm just ... bored when she's on screen, and I don't know if Garibaldi could do better, but he could at least do more interesting. Although, yeah, Lochley would've been a terrible idea, and I sort of love her being his de facto AA sponsor. :)
NOW I WANT A MILLION STORIES ABOUT LONDO AND DELENN. I am enough of a sucker for the Londo-G'Kar parallels; now I want the Londo-Delenn ones too! (...Also, the image of Delenn as Buffy and Londo as Faith is amazing, in a cracky sort of way; and I love the analogy.)
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Re: Talia - actually the way she was written of would have allowed for a return (Kosh had that recording of real Talia's mind, remember? also, while Bester in Dust To Dust implies she's dead, he clearly just does so to get a reaction from Garibaldi, which doesn't mean anything about whether it's true either way)), if a) Andrea Thompson had wanted to come back and b) Pat Tallman hadn't been able to handle a regular role, but yes, that could have been accomplished with Talia going underground or something like that as well. Still, there is a lot for fanfiction to work with. Most stories are straightforward fix-its, but my own two main ideas about Talia post-Divided Loyalties, which are mutually exclusive, I used here:
Family Business, which is about her and Bester, and
I have become (death) , which is mainly about Lyta, but also deals with what happened to Talia (and also co-stars G'Kar, and Bester).
Londo and Delenn stories: there aren't many, but here are:
Mercy, by yours truly, just a drabble, and
A Lesson in Charity, by
We're both big with the parallels. :)
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I love, love, love that G'kar and Sinclair go to find Londo in the club and then sit down and join him. In my head, G'kar and Londo often have similar taste in women if for very different reasons (and Sinclair, well, he just finds the two of them hilarious).
Garibaldi and Ivanova's B plot was happy making and I love that you can see their relation starting to form.
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In my head, G'kar and Londo often have similar taste in women if for very different reasons
I suspect that Londo and G'Kar are very much alike in about a thousand more ways than either of them would ever admit to. :D (And of course Sinclair already knows this. This is why he has that sort of all-knowing smirk whenever he hangs out with them. It is also why he ships them.)
I love Garibaldi and Ivanova's relationship! (One of the things that most shattered me about the rushed ending of s4 is that the last we hear Ivanova on Garibaldi, she still thinks he betrayed Sheridan and she wants to kill him. Of course I'm sure she learns the truth and forgives him, but it breaks my heart that we never get to see it.)
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