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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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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.)
no subject
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. :)