#Babylon 5: War Without End

[alphamecha-mkii]

#Babylon 5 #Babylon 5: War Without End #Homeworld 2 Mod #Minbari #Space Station #Sci-Fi #Mecha #Gaming #Video Games

[therighthandofvengeance]

#who are queue? what do queue want? #for once it’s not an incorrect quote #Babylon 5 meme #specifically in War Without End #delenn #john sheridan #jeffrey sinclair #The One #because ✨someone✨ just had to go and ruin his time stabilizer #zathras warn; but no one listen to zathras :(

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 S03E17 War Without End: Part Two previous episode - table of contents

Emperor Londo of the Great Victim Complex. 

And so the fall of Babylon 5 begins, with two idiots deciding to take on Ivanova! 

DUDE sick fight moves by Susan Ivanova. And Marcus  must be internally fist-pumping that he pulle off a drop-out-of-the-ceiling attack. Style points: 1 Marcus, 100 Susan.

Zathras sees all. Zathras knows all. Poor Zathras. 

Oooooooo. Future John and Delenn have a baby! How exciting. Delenn calls Sheridan's time "so many years ago" and references the "terrible, terrible price," That's something for me to chew on. I wonder if it will be revealed this episode or is foretelling for the season 3 finale or even later. I am really not sure how the pacing on B5 goes or if they'll still be fighting the Shadows into season 5. 

The Shadows are only visible when they sleep? That's cool and unsettling information, but I'm not sure how that tracks with Londo's next reveal, which is that he is also possessed? So perhaps Londo tries to turn on the Shadows at some point and is leashed instead. 

G'Kar!! Down an eye and plus a sick leather patch. Must be time for Londo's death vision! I hope G'Kar gets to live to enjoy it. Londo caused a lot of death for the universe and the Narnuan people. Aww and then he didn't. I am a bit bummed that G'Kar's end appears to be with Londo, dying together as the Shadow possessing Londo kills G'Kar back. It is pretty punk rock of G'Kar, though. Who else has choked a shadow-possessed Centauri emperor before?? No one except G'Kar of Narn.

Right before Sheridan is pulled away, she tells him not to go to Zha'dum, but all these prophecies seem to be self-fulfilling and an inescapable part of the paradox. 

Uh-oh, why's that spacesuit doin' stuff. Ah. Never mind, it's a "yeah, Sheridan's back!" Someone slap a time stabilizer on him before he gets yote into the timestream again. 

And there goes the theft of Babylon 4!! Time heist! 

There goes Sheridan. Shoulda put a time anchor on him! 

Revised Sinclair prediction: his aging as they move towards their own time aging him is the/a reason why he gets the ole Minbari physical transformation since Minbari live so much longer, to extend his lifespan. 

Oop, Sheridan's back again. Or the space suit he was wearing is, at least. 

Yeah Susan Ivanova. she can do anything. Ivanova has B4's command station. 

Delenn in the blue spacesuit?? Plot twist!!

Hmmm, so some of what I thought Sheridan was going to do (fight 1000 years in the past) is actually Sinclair's plot. That makes more sense, actually. 

Zathras makes it all very clear: "You (Sinclair) are the one who was. You (Delenn) are the one who is. You (Sheridan) are the one who will be." 

Babylon 4, A Thousand Years Ago

Valen?? Sinclair has always been the prophet Valen!! I did not see that coming. What an entrance! Appearing to Minbar flanked by two Vorlons, arriving in a vast space station in a flash of tachyons...Sinclair is Valen. fuck, that's cool. 

Next!

#jeffrey sinclair #war without end #minbari #delenn #john sheridan #susan ivanova #marcus cole #londo mollari #g'kar #woodsfae b5 #babylon 5

[bacchanal5]

#babylon 5 #breaking bad #The One #War Without End #memes

[claudia1829things]

“BABYLON 5″ - The One

#Babylon 5 #j. michael straczynski #jms #babylon 5 season 3 #war without end part 2 #zathras #jeffrey sinclair #john sheridan #delenn #tim choate #michael o'hare #bruce boxleitner #mira furlan #youtube

[galateaknife]

Supernatural Wincest Reclist:

All stories here are over (roughly) 30k words, written before 2020, not frequently recommended these days (as far as I can tell), unearthed from various storage areas on my computer, and end with Sam and Dean together.

Please mind any tags and author-written descriptions.

If a story says (podfic available) underneath it, that means that I have a copy of the podfic. Feel free to dm me for a file.

I hope you find something new to enjoy here!

Under my skin by yourkidney. ~31k words. Post-S1. Ghost-induced mind meld.

https://yourkidney.livejournal.com/27595.html

(podfic available)

Chains of Babylon by poisontaster. ~43k words. Post-S1 futurefic. Dean is trapped in an evil mental institution.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721952

(podfic available)

Turn of the Wheel series by gekizetsu. ~111k words. Vague S2. There’s a war between the elements, and Sam and Dean get caught in the crossfire.

https://amalthia.mediawood.org/ebooks/viewstory.php?sid=127

This is Ourselves (Under Pressure) by clex_monkie89. ~30k words. Post 2x12. On the run from the FBI.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/230040

(podfic available)

The Things We Carry With Us by lovesrain44. ~48k words. Late S2. Dean thinks that Sam needs to get laid.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/267862

(if anyone has a copy of this podfic lmk, I lost mine a couple laptops ago.)

Black Velocities and Shining Movements by dimeliora. ~40k words. Late S2 AU. Sam is seriously injured, and something is seriously wrong.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19454164

Swear By All Flowers by sweetestdrain. ~37k words. Post-S2. Sam’s out of the game, and Dean is cursed.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18507

(podfic available)

Crush by sonofabiscuit77. ~61k words. AU from mid S3. Partially outsider POV. Dean owns a mechanic shop and Sam teaches.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/826173

(if anyone has a copy of this podfic, I’ve lost mine)

Threefold Path series by rei_c. ~182k words. Alternate end to S3. Sam gets Dean out of his deal. It changes everything.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581844

I’d Gladly Lose Me To Find You by flawedamythyst. ~36k words. Post S3. Sam makes a vow of silence to save his brother.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2215497

(podfic available)

And So Awakens Devils by concernedlily. ~59k words. Alternate S4. Sam ends the world.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/190731

Not Time’s Fool by FayJay. ~58k words. Mid S4. Dean gets turned into a girl.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4720

(I’ve also lost my copy of this podfic and would appreciate another copy)

The incestuous courtship of the antichrist’s bride by fleshflutter. ~48k words. Post-S4 AU. A classic.

https://fleshflutter.livejournal.com/102268.html

(podfic available)

As Through a Glass and Darkly by lexicale. ~118k words. Preseries and S1-5 AU with Hindu mythology instead of Christian.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/524025/chapters/927238

Hidden by AxeMeAboutAxinomancy. ~79k words. S6 Daemon!AU. Sam’s back from hell but daemon is missing.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/9488537

(podfic available)

Tornado Warning by dear_tiger. ~28k words. Early S6. Sam is walking around without a soul, and a man with no memory gets a job at a butcher shop.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/475602

Choir of Furies by Atanih88. ~32k words. Late S6. Sam’s wall has sprung a leak.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/221544

(podfic available)

Another Brick in the Wall by road_rhythm. ~170k words. Late S6. Sam disappears. Dean searches for him. Sam tries to survive.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3207755

The Allegory of the Cave by Jay Tryfanstone. ~36k words. Post-S6. Memories and emotions and a hunt in New York City.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/488058

(podfic available)

Absolute Zero by pixymisa and selecasharp. ~61k words. Post-S8 AU. Sam closed the gates of Hell, and now he can’t die and can’t wake up.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4156011

Sam Winchester’s Guide to Blood Magic, or How the Rockies Were Made by badbastion, thursdaysisters. ~46k words. S9AU. The apocalypse everyone forgot.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/4147914

(podfic available)

The Partisan by nigeltde. ~39k words. Mid S9. Post-Gadreel claustrophobia and restlessness.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2049891

The Babel Fish Has Forsaken Us by orphan_account (indiachick). ~34k words. Late S9 AU. Phantasmagoria.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2146206

a long hard day, a long hard night by deadlybride. ~39k words. Post-S9. Dean’s body disappeared. Sam gets him back.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16475585

Apophenia by MeltinSkelton. ~149k words. S10 or thereabouts. There’s a hunt and human evil in a town by Austin. Mutual pining and fever dreams, with a side of pining Cas.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17274647/chapters/40624721

Baba O’Riley and Eleanor Rigby walk into a bar by thecapn. ~33k words. The only non-hunting AU I’m likely to ever recommend.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27906127

Captured by the Game by rivkat. ~54k words. Raised apart AU. Azazel sends Sam to gain the confidence of Dean Winchester.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1389

(podfic available)

#spn #supernatural #fanfic reclist #wincest #wincest recs #longfic recs

[conundrumoftime]

Fandom grandma tales: how I survived canon ruining two of the ships I liked.

(Written after a discussion with some of my TROP fan pals about how canon can break your heart re: shipping, and how fandom manages. There are spoilers here for the entire run of Babylon 5, and for one story JMS wrote after it. yes, that story. sorry.)

Babylon 5 was a sci-fi space opera show that ran from 1993 to 1998. It is sci-fi of the era of 22-episode seasons, of huge ensemble casts with characters who get their own B- and C-plots, with an effects and casting budget that doesn’t always match its ambition, and - something it was quite pioneering in, at the time - grand pre-planned story arcs. 

It’s the first fandom that I was involved with in internet spaces as it was running, or at least when its final season was (there’s Discourse and drama from earlier years that I missed). Its showrunner, J. Michael Straczynski - ‘JMS’ - was very active in (non-fanfic) fan community spaces, and you always knew exactly what he was thinking about things because he was part of the discussion around them. There was also fanfic, which he didn’t stop but didn’t go near on the grounds of legal liability for story ideas. 

Most of the fanfic in the early days as the show was airing was focused around two big ships, of which one was canon endgame (Delenn/Sheridan) and one was canon all-ends-in-despair (Marcus/Ivanova). I, as a teenager discovering a developing online fandom for the first time with all the overwhelm and excitement that causes (ask me anything about what reading fic was like before the days of tags/ratings/warnings!) got into Marcus/Ivanova and also into one of the minor ships, Delenn/Lennier.

Delenn/Lennier was never, ever going to happen in canon. This is obvious; it clashes with Delenn/Sheridan which was JMS’s baby darling OTP, the show’s big love story. Delenn is married for the later part of the show. Lennier is her diplomatic aide, is absolutely devoted to her, and they have a very intense mentor/student relationship, which it seems is kind of standard in their culture (when Delenn’s own mentor died she went briefly insane with grief and started a genocidal war over it) but is still Very Intense. He is canonically in love with her, but that’s as far as the explicit canon statements go.

However. HowEVER. Canon also gives us, for that relationship, some wonderful ship fuel. Lennier knows about every bad thing Delenn has done, including all the stuff she doesn’t/can’t tell her husband. He’s her link to her previous world and culture and stands by her even when they kick her out. She says at one point, “without him, I would stumble and fall and never get up again.” 

And then… we had Season 5, the final season.

Season 5, for various complicated production reasons, was operating a little outside of pre-planned story arcs and in this season the Delenn/Lennier stuff ramped up about three gears in one go. It was still very obviously never, ever going to be canon, and was almost certainly not intended by the creator (who wrote most of the episodes himself) to look like there was even anything there. At this point Delenn is married; any relationship with her aide would not only be going against the show’s OTP, but going against it in the sense where she’s cheating on her husband, and there is Just No Way JMS would have gone there. And yet! Season 5 gave us:

A scene where Lennier says he can’t stay, it’s too painful to be around her now she’s married, and she’s devastated and has the following conversation with her husband about it:

S: I got your message about Lennier. Is there anything I can do?

D [snapping]: Almost certainly not.

S: Is it because of me?

D: In part, I think so.

S: Yeah, I was afraid of that. Well, as we say back on Earth, three’s a crowd.

D: On Minbar, three is sacred.

S [slightly uncomfortable laugh]: Well, I don’t think I’m ready to handle that one, Delenn.

Delenn then calling Lennier back to the station to do some secret mission thing for her, which involves her sneaking out of her bed while her husband sleeps to meet Lennier in a darkened alley behind a bar, where she tenderly strokes his face and they have a whole conversation about whether her husband understands her or not.

A scene where Lennier comes back from his secret mission to meet both Delenn and Sheridan, Delenn goes to greet him with a hug, and Lennier does this very pointed step back and nod in the direction of her husband, and she pulls back and just sort of pats him on the arms instead. 

I MEAN.

But, the issue here is not what fans did about it but what canon did about it. Canon did the canon equivalent of dragging that ship outside and shooting it in the head. 

In the final few episodes of the entire series, Lennier tries to kill Sheridan, runs away in shame, and then someone finds his diary in which he’d been writing for ages about what a bad decision he thought Delenn had made and how her whole marriage was an awful idea. Even to this day, it’s fun/awful watching people go through a first-time watch when they get to season 5 and hit that. ‘Character assassination in the form of a diary’ was a whole thing for a while. It’s been 20+ years and the actor who played Lennier is stilll mad about it (not because of shippy stuff, but because he - correctly! - thinks Lennier absolutely would not have done that). 

What *fandom* did, on the other hand, was Fixed The Problem.

Delenn/Lennier was not at all a big ship when the series was airing, and for a few years after. Then the fandom dynamics started to change. With less pressure on what canon was going to do, it felt like fandom had more space to play around with things it didn’t do. Fanfic got less interested in trying to fit within the overall story being told and started spinning off in all its own directions. And *this* ship started getting bigger and bigger. People did really interesting things with it, canon divergence went in all directions, everyone wrote a fix-it story of some variety, some authors did a great series of connected stories based on an idea that Minbari have three genders, the quality of the writing has been brilliant. And I think without that absolute whiplash feeling of what happened in canon, there would never have been this feeling of “well I’m not having THAT” which led to all this.

We did not need canon! Canon had done its thing. And canon had broken our hearts enough ways with many of the other stories it told (entirely on purpose) and we weren’t just going to sit back and let it ruin us forever.

By comparison, the other ship I was into was Marcus/Ivanova. This is entirely doomed. Susan Ivanova’s love life is just perpetually doomed. The first partner of hers we meet is an ex who’s interested in getting back together, but then it turns out he’s just using her to infiltrate the station for the fascist terrorist group he’s secretly joined. Then she falls for an archrival of hers, Talia, who works for Psi Corps, the organisation she loathes most of all things - but it’s okay because it turns out Talia is starting to question them too! Maybe these crazy kids can make it work! They have one night together and then OOPS turns out Talia was being secretly controlled by a sleeper personality implanted in her by Psi Corps the whole time. Ivanova’s love life is doomed. 

So for two seasons, she has this sort-of-flirty, sort-of-bickery, sort-of-friendship going with Marcus, who is on the surface of it very much “why not fall in love at first sight like a true romantic, YOLO!” but it turns out is actually deeply messed up himself and full of survivor’s guilt and pain and, you get the clear impression, would have died of shock if she’d actually called his bluff on the OTT flirting and said “yeah, let’s go for it”. And then he sacrifices himself to save her life. It is a very tragic ending, it is absolutely the way he would have wanted to go, she wakes up both furious and absolutely distraught, says that the last thing she heard was him saying “I love you”, says she wishes she’d at least slept with him once, and says that in a way all love is unrequited. PAIN. 

So, lots of fix-it fanfic, lots of ‘Marcus comes back to life’, lots of canon divergence AUs where he doesn’t die and they live happily ever after and both get over their huge levels of unresolved pain. Pretty standard for that kind of pairing. And as a pairing it doesn’t get in the way of any big canon pairings, it doesn’t imply anything icky like mentor/student power imbalances or adultery. And JMS clearly quite liked it. So that’s better, right?

NO. It was WORSE.

JMS wrote an Marcus/Ivanova story himself, published in one of the sci-fi magazines, to try to give them a happy ending. This happy ending involves Marcus, many many years in the future, waking up from the cryogenic suspension he’s in (it’s sci-fi, keep up, keep up). Ivanova is long dead, but he isn’t about to let this get in the way, so what he does is to *create a new Ivanova* by getting some kind of DNA + computerised memory/personality bank thing, finding a doctor who will clone her, putting himself back into animated sleep until the clone reaches the age Ivanova was when she died, then - THEN, I’M STILL GOING - takes her to a distant planet where, with her memories wiped and their spaceship having deliberately been crashed BY HIM so there’s no way back, they live out their lives in peace.

WHAT.

That pairing still does okay in fandom but it’s not really taken on a post-show world of headcanons and riffing on other people’s ideas and tropes in the way that Delenn/Lennier has (and we all just pretend that story never existed). 

So! This has been my experiences in the field of What We Do When The Show Has Thoughts On That Non-Endgame Ship We’re Into. Fandom manages. Fandom will see you through. And in the words of Susan Ivanova:

Babylon Five was the last of the Babylon stations; there would never be another. It changed the future, and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future, or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, for if we don’t, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly though, I think it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings - even for people like us.

#fandom grandma #fandom history #non-endgame ships #shipping #canon and non-canon ships #babylon 5 #delenn x lennier #marcus x ivanova #that story's not canon if I say it's not canon #b5 #what in the actual hell was that diary anyway #snarky bill mumy interview forever in our hearts #never have I seen a more perfect ot3 setup and YET

[davidcgc]

I've gone through The Road Home and compared the recreated shots from the original series (and a couple of other scenes that were more "loosely evocative" than direct remakes). I also cataloged all the shots seen in thumbnail on the display screen on Epsilon III (I skipped the ones that were scenes from elsewhere in the TRH itself, which were 15 of the 29 images show).

Some interesting choices in the montage. In series order:

"Signs and Portents" has two scenes, the first of which is Londo and G'Kar are arguing in front of a transport tube. Interestingly, the human caught between them is replaced by a Llort, of all things (pretty much all the other discrepancies are down to the redesigned sets, or not making alternate character models with different clothes for two seconds of postage-stamp-sized footage). Then there's a selection of shots from the battle scene later on, with Garibaldi flying against the Raiders, Sinclair giving orders from CnC, and Kosh confronting Morden for the first time. There are a few other sequences that are re-edited for recognizability as a quick flash, but this was the most egregious.

Two sequences from "Babylon Squared," first where Sinclair, Garibaldi, and Zathras see "the One" appearing in the corridor, and when Sinclair tries to free Zathras after he's pinned under some debris, but Zathras tells him he has a destiny and should leave him to die.

Sheridan and Ivanova talking in the corridor just after he first arrives on Babylon 5 in "Points of Departure." Fun fact, the reason he's pointing emphatically at that moment is that he's asserting which color of plum is the good kind. Sheridan is such a foodie.

From "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Delenn and Kosh explaining to Sheridan what really happened to the Icarus.

Three scenes from "The Fall of Night," Sheridan telling G'Kar about the Narn ship hiding behind Epsilon III, Sheridan and Ivanova warning the Narns they've got to leave, and Sheridan activating the defense grid after the Centauri ship shows up.

Garibaldi flying to the time-rift in a Starfury in "War Without End, Part I"

Delenn meets Sheridan in his quarters to talk about how many ships they have for their first attack on the Shadows from "Shadow Dancing"

G'Kar and Ivanova discuss the fusion mines they've just received in "Z'ha'dum."

Two scenes from "Into the Fire," one of Marcus and Lyta talking with Sheridan on the bridge of the White Star, and another of the final confrontation with the Vorlons and Shadows. These are different shots than were used for the newscast at the beginning of the film, it seems to specifically be the exchange where the Vorlons and Shadows decide that they can put a stop to everything just by killing Sheridan and Delenn in front of everyone else, and then are humiliated by the other ships protecting them.

From "Movements of Fire and Shadow," Sheridan and Lochley discuss the possibility of a Centauri attack on Babylon 5's jumpgate.

#babylon 5 #babylon 5: the road home #animation #reference #cgi #Vimeo

[ddagent]

Babylon 5: The Road Home

So, it's been well over a week since I was able to watch The Road Home and these thoughts are still living rent free in my brain:

One of the Minbari refers to Delenn as Satai Delenn. Now, this could very well be a slip on JMS' part, but maybe like presidents, Delenn is always referred to as Satai? Or - even better - is The Road Home actually an AU to the actual series and in this version, Delenn is still Satai Delenn?

John Sheridan, zipping through time, ends up on Z'ha'dum with the Icarus and we do not even get a mention of Anna. Now, I know this is most likely JMS' attempts to placate new fans without the mention of John's other wives but come on. John spent two years fighting off a part of himself every time he thought about Delenn due to Anna Keller. This just makes me so happy and I hope John has since had therapy about the damage that marriage did because jfc.

THE PARALLELS BETWEEN YOUNG JOHN AND YOUNG DELENN. Both getting lost at such formative ages. John was able to return home through his faith in love and his family. Delenn, instead, was left cold and alone and open to being manipulated by the Vorlons through her faith. Yet it is this faith that allows the Vorlons to manipulate them both into their roles as the One: sacrifices to the greater good.

I am also insanely excited for this backdoor pilot towards the end of the movie. I have long been fascinated by a world where the Shadows didn't exist or the Shadow War didn't happen. I love that John is crushing on his own actual wife - that makes me so happy. As for whether Anna exists - how far do we unspool this reel? IPX didn't wake up the Shadows - great. Now Delenn is not transformed, which likely means she hasn't gone to Kosh to ask about the Shadows (in fact, do we see Kosh at all). Which could mean that the Shadows are not waking up, so the Minbari don't go to Z'ha'dum, which means the war doesn't happen and John doesn't gain an emotional support wife.

Overall, I would rather have a 1000 of these movies than the live action reboot (unless JMS goes back on re-casting Delenn, G'Kar, etc.). So much fic inspo!

#babylon 5 #john x delenn #babylon 5 the road home #spoilers #tv: babylon 5 #ship: john x delenn

[thegeminisage]

as someone who wasn't around in 2014....can you tell me what it was like? (stucky) can you give me a taste of the gardens of babylon etc

what was it like...this is such a fun question i want you to know i gave serious thought to my answer and also discussed it at length with my 2014 friend last night and i know already it's gonna be so long. sorry that i answered your ask at fuck o clock in the morning i am scheduling it to go up later and also at the time you sent the ask in to make sure you see it

ok so like. i mean, you're on the fandom website, right, so i assume youve been in fandoms. idk if youve ever been in a really, REALLY big fandom, at the same time that said fandom was also producing content (even if the source material was not). think d*stiel post nov 5, or undert*le circa late 2015/early 2016, or z*lda after totk came out, or h*rry p*tter as the seventh book was being released. (i'm censoring to avoid a false positive of anybody's blacklist except in the case of the last one, which i am censoring out of <3 disrespect.) like there's something REALLY luxurious about being in ANY large and active fandom and it's mostly the power of crowdsourcing. st*r tr*k 2009's tarsus iv headcanons. the storm trooper lore re: the f*rce awakens before the second two movies came out. everyone just kind of agreeing that dean w*nchester was a teenage hooker. you know?

like, that's "just fanon," sure, but part of the beauty of it is that no one person makes up fanon, we all gather in the biggest writing group in the world and collectively go insane and bat ideas back and forth. there are a hundred THOUSAND fics about bucky barnes on ao3 and that's just the people who were writing, not even counting artists and gifmakers and meta-writers and people who just reblog stuff. i can't possibly begin to put an accurate number to how many people are in any given fandom at any given time, but imagine (on the low end, i'm sure) there are THOUSANDS, perhaps tens of thousands, of people going nuts about stevebucky at all times. tens of THOUSANDS people doing "yes and" with each other on the internet 24 hours a day seven days a week. it's just like being in any fandom, you log on to your dash and see what the mewchies posted while you were gone, but in a fandom so huge and so active you were getting bombarded with idea after idea after idea every single second, so if you don't like one you're spoiled for choice in what you engage with next. it didn't even matter that cap3 was two years away or that it sucked when it finally got here because we collectively wrote cap3 a million times over. like, genuinely, it was a mass creative exercise. it's the biggest writing group in the world. for better or worse, we were shaping our own version of that universe, without any input from or regard to the people who actually created the characters and movie, in a way that compelled most strongly to our own tastes and demographic.

what made this particular movie/fandom special though was a few things. firstly i still genuinely believe it was ahead of its time...marvel shit pre disney was allowed to be political in ways it is ABSOLUTELY not now. like, cap2 could say "the government is secretly full of nazis and they all need to burn" in 2014 two years before the 2016 election and 7 years before jan 6. like you just couldn't say that now. "war bad" is an oldie but goodie, but "our entire government is corrupt and needs to be torn into flaming pieces and cast into the potomac" is um. pretty radical. so is, by the way, "men as victims" and "men having emotions" etcetc. like, not in fandom, fandom all but invented that shit, but as far as dumb superhero movies go. i can't tell you the number of metas i read AND WROTE discussing steve rogers and masculinity and how all that was portrayed, intentionally or not, in that fucking film. i had entire separate universes built up in my head for steve who was born a cis girl and steve who decided later in life that "nonbinary" or "trans woman" was a better fit and then steve who was born as a cis boy and remained a man his whole life but felt weird and different ways about being queer which clashed with the weird and different ways BARNES felt about being queer. i'm not saying the film (or the fandom! good lord) was perfect, it was a product of its time, but it was also WAY ahead of its time too. it was weird to expect the next film to come out and actually, like, be good. it wasnt, but we fully believed it would be and that wasn't delusional behavior because the last one had been. i would never have that kind of faith in a marvel project now because they've been bought by disney.

oh yeah and that's the other thing too like. speaking of queer people. gay marriage wasn't legal in the US on a federal level until 2015, and you couldn't just flip on your TV and see them whenever you wanted. ten years doesn't seem like that long ago in the grand scheme of things but like, we lived on glee and cw/mtv queerbait (disclaimer that i personally only participated in cw queerbait) and that was it. we had crumbs. and like when people write gay characters theyre Just Gay, but if you decide to be crazy stupid in a slash fandom you can decide these layered characters are gay and that's even better rep than um whatever was going on in other pieces of media. these guys are both so lonely and out of step with time and lack other people with "shared life experiences" (girl what the hell was that) and their connection w each other keeps them afloat in a world that doesn't want them so like of COURSE it seems like it's supposed to be romantic. and like, i could and did make myself and my tumblr buds crrrazy (and got made crazy by them) thinking about:

how steve's size when small and again when big interacted w his gender identity and his sexuality and how that sexuality manifested. barnes's identity As A Man hinging on his ability to go to war for his country bc Thats What Men Did but now he's no longer fit because theres worms in his brain. loss of bodily autonomy which usually happens to women and natasha being later in that journey than steve and bucky are and so close to being at peace with it but not there yet. stigmatization of seeking treatment for mental health issues lessened by the presence of sam who could have been a Macho Tough Guy but actually gives off strong Talk About Our Feelings And Be Soft vibes. don't even get me started on the relationship (predatory) between steve and rumlow and how it parallels the one between barnes and pierce (and if any of you motherfuckers BREATHE a word of that h*dra tr*sh p*rty shit in my direction i will END you) and the stigma that comes from being preyed on when vulnerable As Men. steve's depression and ptsd and him getting triggered by, yes, the fucking ALS ice bucket challenge. the collective belief that he was conscious when he was frozen even though nobody said that so that he and barnes could have that in common too. the headcanon about barnes having roma heritage - shoutout to not easily conquered my beloved, and the 14k smut coda i wrote for it✌ speaking of smut, i would be remiss also not to mention there was a STRONG element of collective lust involved. i'm immune to 99% of it bc im ace but the winter soldier was uh. VERY graceful. you know? i didn't write 14k of porn because i was uncompelled. we were on one. we went fucking crazy. fandom in general but especially big fandoms have a kind of nonstop endless well of creative energy born from obsession that is the absolute envy of people like my mortal enemy grrm. we NEVER quit.

also, HISTORY (and other vaguely educational subjects). we were all so desperate to know how steve and bucky would have lived in the years we couldn't see them it sparked a sitewide interest in 1940s american history. there was a thing about bananas tasting different now because of a plague. m&ms being invented as wartime candy. stuff about how shoebox apartments looked and how rations worked. 1940s recipes and radio shows. the 1940s queer movement and how it interacted with ballroom dancing and private drag get-togethers. how amputations work and how prosthetic limbs work in real life so we could extrapolate it to fantasy. how to hand-draw that fucking arm in photoshop. why soldiers are trained to say their serial numbers when captured. what ww2 was like. what dog tags are for. what did they get in the ration packs. what brand of cigarettes did they smoke. what brand (and i am being so serious, i STILL own a tube) of LIPSTICK did peggy carter use. caloric intake of someone with a 4x speed metabolism and how much famine peanut butter he'd need to eat daily to keep from starving to death. oppression of irish immigrants and their children/grandchildren back in the 1940s. the difference between conservatives and fascists, back when there was a difference. what activities generally took place on these mysterious but ever-present new york city docks. just exactly HOW many terrible movies and tv shows has sebastian stan been in ranked by his resemblance to james buchanan barnes in each one. (i personally went through his entire imdb list at the time and then made a venn diagram.) electroswing! teachers and professors would have killed for their classes to have the kind of enthusiasm a bunch of mentally ill teenagers and 20-somethings on tunglr dot edu were showing about this one very specific set of subjects. this film also sparked my love of fight scenes. if you've read this fic or this fic and liked the Big Fight Scenes in them, you can thank cap2 for leading me down that path.

and then yes there was also discourse. my personal most hated thing was the above mentioned h*dra tr*sh p*rty (DO NOT GOOGLE THAT, i will just tell you it's nazi rape porn🤢 and i hope everyone involved is having a bad day today) and also the fact that SOME FUCKING PEOPLE can't understand "don't be shitheads about a fanfic where the author can see you doing it." but then ofc people were also sexist about nat and racist about sam and minimalizing those guys (and every other character besides tony really but sometimes him too) for the two white male leads was a whole thing. and on the funnier side of things you had (justifiably, i suppose) bitter st*ny fans who HATED what those two got in avengers and got real mad when stucky started outpacing them on ao3. and people complaining about the characters being too uwu soft. and then other people arguing whether or not barnes counted as disabled when he was missing a Whole arm. and THEN discourse about was it ethical to remove the arm and build him a new one ESPECIALLY without his consent (if people don't know they're being ableist in their fanfics hypothetically is it still ok to kill them with hammers?) and why was tony doing it if that guy killed his parents and is it ok that we keep making tony not that mad about his dead parents is it not enough that barnes stole his limelight as the guy who gets shipped with steve but what if all three of them fucked but can you really fuck the guy who offed your folks but ACTUALLY isn't it cringe to like tony anyway since RDJ and gwenyth paltrow are bad people and who says chris evans are sebastian stan are such good people etcetcetc. and let us not even get started on the plausibility of the avengers tower fanon after age of ultron came out and it turns out nobody became friends and they all still hated and mistrusted each other. and whether or not the avengers could be considered found family if the other characters were constantly getting shafted into being barnes's little support animals. and then ofc every once in awhile one of the actors of people involved creatively would say something ranging from mildly controversial to absolutely horrible on the internet and we'd all fight about THAT for awhile like a dog with a bone. i mean. typical infighting of any fandom tbh.

but i was very happy. it was all the most enormous thought experiment and creative endeavor (and semi-educational adventure??) that we all participated in daily for like two-ish years without stopping ever. i loved doing it. AND, when you click with a piece of media like that, you also click with other people who clicked with that same piece of media, so in addition to the sheer level of dopamine going into my brain at all times i also formed decade-long friendships that will certainly last the entirety of my lifetime, and when we're in our 90s in nursing homes i will be able to say, "we are friends because i wrote 14k of smut for your fanfic" or "we are friends because i couldn't get enough of your gifsets" or whatever because you know, we quite literally went to stucky together.

#liz answers asks #anonymous #personal

[terrible-titles]

A Hodepodge of Older Shows to Watch During the Strike

We support the writer’s strike here, and in a Culture of New, TV execs are going to use the “impact” to currently running shows in order to try to shift your support to them. But here in Tumblr we have revived century-old novels and put them firmly in the mainstream by having a Tumblr-wide bookclub, so I think we can do the same to older shows--not only to keep ourselves entertained, but to remind us all why writers are so important to begin with. Now that AI is coming dangerously close to replacing writers’ work (and is indeed one of the issues the writers are striking over), I think it’s important to remember that our favorite lines (one of mine is “Everything is confetti” from Haunting of Hill House) couldn’t have happened without a writer creating and then fighting for it. Writers deserve healthy workplaces, fair compensation, and recognition for their talent.

Disclaimers: 1. As with all shows, but especially older ones, there will be problematic content. 2. I will try to avoid obvious recs that still have an active fanbase like Star Trek or Buffy, but I don’t have my finger on the pulse of pop culture so maybe I rec something that’s still pretty popular and I don’t realize it. I’m also not necessarily going for “obscure” or “you’ve never heard of this,” but just shows people might have overlooked. Yes, I’m from the US (sorry!) and yes, I would love to hear from non-US people about the best shows from your country that I’m missing out on! Please feel free to reblog and add your favorites to this!   3. Maybe my taste doesn’t align with yours and you disagree. Maybe I missed something because I didn’t want this to be 500 pages long. That’s fine! Again, reblog with your own recs. The more, the better! 4. Genres are weird. I tried. 5. I chose not to add where you could find these series because it can vary country to country, but if all else fails, check your local library’s media collection! (And if that fails, you might sail the seas...) 6. Please be cool... please. 

Comedies

Better Off Ted (2009, 2 seasons) A workplace comedy in an evil corporation. Perfect for fans of The Office or Arrested Development. Happy Endings (2011, 3 seasons) It’s like if Friends was just every so slightly more diverse. Takes place in Chicago, which is cool.

M*A*S*H (1972, 11 seasons) You’ve probably heard of this comedy/drama that stars cultural icon Alan Alda as a cynical army medic just trying to survive the Korean War, but have you watched it yet? You should.

NewsRadio (1995, 5 seasons) A workplace comedy in a news radio station starring Phil Hartman. A less cringy Office and a less sophisticated Frasier. Vicar of Dibley (1994, 3 series + specials) Dawn French plays the first-ever female vicar in a small English village. Watch out for an utterly amazing Spice Girls reference and Richard Armitage. Keeping Up Appearances (1990, 5 series) A British woman from a lower class family attempts to social climb to predictably hilarious results. Was apparently one of the Queen Mother’s favorite shows though I can’t for the life of me figure out what she got from it.

You’re the Worst (2014, 5 seasons) Just two really toxic people in a relationship trying to make it work. Definitely has dramatic undertones in addition to being pretty funny.

Side note: If you like comedy, get a subscription to Dropout TV. I’m not a shill. Nobody’s paying me to say this. I just really love it and they’re a great company to support.  Science Fiction/Supernatural

Babylon 5 (1994, 5 seasons) Was Deep Space Nine your favorite Star Trek series? Watch this. (Watch it even if it wasn’t.)

Sliders (1995, 5 seasons) An updated Quantum Leap. Jerry O’Connell and John Rhys-Davies star. A couple of scientists and their unfortunate friends are stuck sliding between alternate universes trying to find their way home.

Wynonna Earp (2016, 4 seasons) The great-great granddaughter of Wyatt Earp is tasked with sending reincarnated outlaws back to Hell. Often called the spiritual successor to Buffy, this is a real campy adventure in the Wild West and everything Supernatural wished it could be. 

Lost Girl (2010, 5 seasons) This show is about a bisexual succubus named Bo. I don’t know what else you need to watch this.

Drama

The Darling Buds of May (1991, 3 series) The British Little House on the Prairie if Pa were a con man you like to root for. An early Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as the oldest daughter who kidnaps and marries a tax inspector in order to avoid paying taxes. Incredible. Icon.  

Midsomer Murders (1997, 24+ series) Technically, this one is still going (and I’m sure everyone’s heard of it), but there’s so many back episodes to get through, I still feel okay recommending it because it’s great for binge-watching when you’re sick. You’ll never run out of episodes. Cozy murder mysteries that take place in England’s most deadly village. Joyce deserves better.

In the Heat of the Night (1988, 7 seasons + films) A crime procedural in the Deep South in the US, a big city Black detective is hired as the head detective in a small town in rural Mississippi. Progressive (for its time), this show dealt with racial issues, police corruption, poverty, and more.

Six Feet Under (2001, 5 seasons) Two brothers work together to run the family business, a funeral home, in the wake of their father’s death. The show’s finale is considered one of the greatest of all time, so you can go in having confidence in a satisfying conclusion.

Historical Fiction/Fantasy

Rome (2005, 2 seasons) A collaboration between HBO and BBC, one of the most expensive series of its time. Has so many incredible character actors. You will constantly be on your phone asking where you recognize That Guy from. Polly Walker was instrumental in my discovering my sexuality. 

Xena: Warrior Princess (1995, 6 seasons) Okay, I know this is another popular one, but it also feels like a show people have heard of and never watched, so this is your reminder to do so. Brideshead Revisited (1981, 1 series) British schoolboys doing what schoolboys do best (falling in love with each other). Adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel by the same name. Galavant (2015, 2 seasons) Hilarious musical comedy about a downtrodden knight trying to rescue his girlfriend from King Richard, even though she is actually pretty happy being Queen. Catchiest theme ever. SUPPORT WRITERS.

#wga strike #writers strike #tv recommendations #what to watch #long post

[gayemeralds]

TIME LINE…

Unknown Time (millions of years ago?)

gaia forms the earth, the master emerald is there (chicken or the egg?)

probably at least one or two gaia awakenings- the master emerald is used by light gaia to put dark gaia back to sleep

100,000 years ago (give or take)

after a large war, and several failed attempts to seal the end away, the ancients flee their home world and arrive on earth

likely, the ancients build the gaia temples across the world, either seeing the event of gaia coming to life first hand, or hearing about it from the natives on the planet

the end chases them and kills a very large chunk before being successfully sealed away

the ancients move to angel island, and bring the emeralds and a few koco with them

20 to 10,000 years ago

the babylons arrive on earth and are unable to fix their ark of the cosmos

the babylons use their technology to try to conquer the world and pillage and steal from other emerging civilizations

by this point, the ancients are near extinct. koco have begun to mutate into chao from the chaos energy

the babylons steal the emeralds from the ancients and use them to fuel their conquests

the babylons create babylon

within the millennia, the ancients manage to strike back. they use the chaos emeralds to seal the babylons in a pocket dimension they once tried to seal the end in- the twilight cage, guarded by the ancient argus

babylon falls and becomes buried, the ancients return to angel island

4 to 5 thousand years ago

the echidna clan splits- the knuckles tribe and the nocturnus clan. the knuckles clan moves on to be peaceful and nomadic- the nocturnus clan waged conquest after conquest

the babylons use the resources of the twilight cage to construct ring transporters- the babylons are able to escape from the twilight cage, leaving behind a civilization others call the “precursors”

the babylons find their home missing and that the world moved in without them. they swear to find their missing artifacts and babylon once more

4 thousand years ago

pachacamac’s mother dies and he takes charge; the echidnas become a warmongering tribe, mimicking the nocturnus clan, and have several scuffles with their sister tribe

while they travel, tikal finds the shrine of the emeralds and befriends the very last of the ancients, named chaos

pachacamac seizes the temple, attacks the chao, and chaos lashed out. using the seven emeralds, chaos becomes perfect chaos and attempts to end the world. tikal manages to seal him away, and sends angel island floating to the sky, in hopes of keeping the emeralds away from other hands

the nocturnus clan were assumed to have perished during the event, but were in fact not involved. after pachacamac’s demise, the nocturnus clan manages to conquer a large chunk of the world through their superior technology, and the creation of the gizoid.

argus, who had noticed the babylons escape, comes back to earth to find them. instead, argus finds a new race who has conquered the world out of greed, and takes them to the twilight cage in the “argus event”

the knuckles clan sets up on angel island

50 years ago

gerald robotnik becomes embroiled in a government project to create the ultimate lifeform. implied to have visited angel island, gerald manages to find all seven emeralds and a gizoid. he creates the biolizard and eventually shadow, and uses the chaos emeralds to create the eclipse canon

the raid occurs. gerald sends six of the emeralds back to earth, where they fall on to south island. their energy over time warps south island and causes strange artifacts to show up

gerald used the seventh emerald to finish project shadow. once he does, he seals shadow away and sends the seventh emerald across the world, where it lands on christmas island

gerald is executed

5 years ago

gerald robotnik’s grandson, dr ivo robotnik, gives up his teaching career and decided to become an evil dictator. he develops “badniks” and decides to test them out on christmas island, presumed to be abandoned

ivo crosses paths with a blue hedgehog while he tests out his machines. ivo names the creature sonic…

… and the rest is history

#ALRIGHT……………… #sega official speaks #the idea is that sonic finds the emerald on Christmas Island #but when Eggman reveals that he’s actually a bad guy #sonic sends the emerald away to west side island #which is why the emeralds remain split up in the first few games

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 S03E16 War Without End: Part One previous episode - table of contents

From the preview image that Tubi chose for the episode I see that Sinclair's back?? My old friend!! As well as our first glimpse at Minbar outside the Grey Council chambers, I believe! It's beautiful: very sculpted in a sort of sci-fi Rivendell way which fits the Minbari's space elf vibe. 

Entil'Zha is being presented with a sacred box, which has waited for over 900 years..in which there is a letter for Jeffrey David Sinclair! Dun dun dun. Prophecy is real, Babylon 5 is a high fantasy as much as it is sci-fi. 

Another prophecy, this one of the sci-fi variety: Babylon 5 gets a transmission of Ivanova calling for help, saying "they're killing us." 

This show gives me so many fanfic ideas and I haven't looked to see if anyone else has done them yet, because I'm avoiding spoilers. So I really don't go looking for info on B5 or interact with fandom works much. But this episode reminds me that I keep toying with the idea of an AU where Sinclair never leaves at the end of s01 and the whole plot plays out with him. I miss him, he got into my heart so fast and I had no inkling he was leaving the show till well after I was attached. 

It's nice to see Sinclair has had Minbari friends in his time running/recruiting/training the Rangers from Minbar. 

Partner just asked me what my predictions were for Sinclair and then when I went on a ramble just stared at me and told me to write it down. So here: my prediction of Sinclair's fate. In a separate post, because it's a bit too much of a tangent.

I've paused for long enough for only being six minutes into, so we're going to move on now, but if you wanna hear meta thoughts on what I think might happen with other characters end games, I could ramble about it.

Ivanova: this recording is fake. my analysis is based on logic: I didn't do it, ergo it is fake. Garibaldi, living for some sci-fi shenanigans: what if it's time travel.

They have Garibaldi positioned poorly before a dark path in the backdrop and it looks like he has one, huge pouf of hair sticking out one side of his head, lol.

Sinclair's back on Babylon 5! Zack Allen is in plainclothes, so perhaps all staff have the option? Or Zack wasn't invited to their special senior staff matching uniforms? 

Delenn being a drama queen. It's one of the qualities they hire for on the Grey Council. 

Lennier: "It must be done or the dream will die, and countless others will die."

o m in o u s

Eight days since the last Vorlon attack, per Marcus. 

Sinclair looks so good in Sci-Fi Rivendell clothes. Eeeek, I missed him, I love it. 

Oh it's Zak? Zap? Zathras? Yes! Zathras! Wow, I wasn't sre he'd be back, let alone that he'd be in shenanigans with DraalPlanet, OR that DraalPlanet would be doing something with time travel! 

And Sheridan! Is also wearing Minbari fashion! Some very snazzy robes over his uniform. 

Ivanova's message from the future is so grim. The captain is dead. "They" are coming in all over the place. External cams: Shadows. The Shadows have weapons lock. Explosions. Seems pretty straightforward and I bet it'll play out exactly like that with no twists. :P /hah

As Sheridan is doubtlessly about to find out, it's always going to be a normal evening when you are asked to swear you trust someone with your life before events can commence. 

Delenn has a powerpoint presentation about the Shadows. And a battle where the shadows were driven from their home, Zha'Dum. But the Minbari were losing at the time. Until Babylon 4 appeared! Delenn says without Babylon 4, they would have lost the war. 

Even while Babylon 4 was in construction, the Shadows attacked to destroy it. And the White Star was there! Delenn says they must go through the temporal rift that Draal is widening, protect B4, steal B4, and send B4 around in time. End Presentation! Everyone agrees with her flawless logic. And because she brought receipts in the form of video archival footage from DraalPlanet's surveillance system: Epsilon 3. 

That I didn't see coming, either. But like Garibaldi, I am so on board for the sci-fi hijinks. 

Oh, Delenn's plan goes farther! She and Sheridan will take B4 on the entire time travel trip and personally fight in the historical fight against the Shadows. Ten thousand years ago, right??? Damn, Sheridan and Delenn are going to stride through time and strike titanic, decisive blows in a war that felled entire species of sci-fi space gods!! That's so fucking epic. 

Ivanova is floating the idea that she was calling for help from an alternate timeline. But Garibaldi thinks it's the timeline they're planning now, where they take B4. 

I'm sure that SInclair's quippy references to Sheridan are super funny, but sadly I do not get the references. 

Zathras is here again. I...don't get Zathras. He's ehh funny. But extremely plot useful! Sinclair is meeting Zathras for the second time, but for Zathras it's the first time. But Zathras is well-informed, because he's very super honored to meet Sinclair and Sheridan, but also that's on the list of things Draal told him not to mention. 

Ahh, this Sinclair has already lived through the destruction of Babylon 5! He's already experiencing the world nonlinearly and is trying to do differently on this loop - damn! Or he's having visions from an alternate timeline but at some point you gotta agreee those are almost the sme thing, structurally, experientially, and thematically.

Time travel requires the use of devices that act as anchors. Zathras is handing them out and they're all being clipped visibly on a belt or sash, thus guaranteeing that someone will lose theirs. Sinclair? 

Aww, Sinclair sees Delenn and Sheridan holding hands and smiled. That makes me wistful for the Sinclair/Delenn endgame that exists in my personal, unwritten AU. 

Garibaldi is due an arc of making good, upstanding decisions and not doing police brutality so it hits extra hard when he blows up with Babylon 5. Or he makes it two more seasons, idk. I wouldn't mind if they lost a few characters and he was one of them.

Especially not if we could swap him for Talia back. I can't decide if I think she (or her personality that got overwritten) will be back or not. 

The White Star has been ugraded with Vorlon skin, so it deflects attacks better, which Sheridan affects to be unimpressed by.

Garibaldi guesses "Hello, old friend," as the password which Sinclair used to lock a goodbye/sorry video Sinclair left for him. Which makes me softer for Garibaldi. That's what I think of when I think of Sinclair, too! 

Oooo, Sheridan's time stabilizer got hit and now he's unstuck in time. Space is big. Hope he lands on something with an atmosphere. Delenn can pick him up later, I'm sure.

Sheridan always automatically turns to Delenn for backup, but Sinclair automatically turns to Ivanova, and I love that. 

Sheridan just time traveled to the future where Londo is the Emperor of Centaur! And it's "just in time to die."

Are they currently losing a war in the future? Perhaps Centaur is now a holdout in the war for existence against the Shadows in an alternate future and Sheridan will be meant to save the future as well as the past? 

So funny how taken aback Delenn is that Sinclair speaks Minbari now. He lived there! Marcus, who was being trained as a Ranger there learned Minbari as what he implied was a necessity. But Delenn is so surprised. Their heart to heart is so sweet. *shipping intensifies*

Back to the future! Sheridan and Londo seems like he's blaming other people for his own support of the Shadows' agenda coming back to bite Londo and Centaur in the ass. "Ohhh if only you'd joined me in collaborating I wouldn't have had to face any consequences!" He'll get everything he ever thought he wanted and learned that being Emperor lost him everything he'd ever cared loved.

That's a pretty good hook and a cliffhanger. And a ton of interesting information was revealed! It's too late for Part Two tonight but I pinky-promise I will watch it tomorrow. I wrote up some predictions after I did a Sinclair one and an other-characters one before I watched...

War Without End: Part Two

#babylon 5 #woodsfae b5 #jeffrey sinclair #john sheridan #delenn #susan ivanova #michael garibaldi #londo mollari #zack allen

[scifi-polls]

The Final Round!

Babylon 5 Favorite Episode - Final Rounds

3x10 Severed Dreams 3x16/3x17 War Without End

#babylon 5 #b5 favorite episode poll #poll

[swedebeast]

What are the most important video games, books, movies, and/or tv shows that really shaped your taste today?

Oh man, the problem here is not just in remembering which ones that fit the bill but also reducing the numbers so this doesn't become a bloated mess of an answer.

Howevah, I will try.

Video games: I've played most genres growing up and it was a bit of console but gravitated towards PC pretty much by my mid teens. I really thing it was Civilization III that solidified by taste for strategy games after being exposed to Civ II in a bootleg CD game pack, but Red Alert really did a number on me as well - especially Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun. But I cannot lie, Fallout 2 and Fallout: Tactics were instrumental in developing my taste for RPG's and my borderline obsession with the post-apoc genres which I carry with me 25 years later.

I read much more when I was younger, but I only recently had a rediscovery of the earliest science fiction novels I read that without a doubt set the first brick on the road that I would go, and it was the Swedish YA Science Fiction series "Andromeda" published 1979-1986 (I even made a post about it earlier). I am sure it lead me to other classics like War of the Worlds which remain a favourite for me. That, and I think graphic novels might fit - and then Tintin, Spirou, Asterix & Obelix fit as formative. But also the more adult ones like Buddy Longway.

And movies.... man, apart from 1980's and 1990's Disney animated movies that I devoured, I have to say that monster movies of the same time remain close to my heart. Aliens, Predator remain favourites. Jurassic Park was fundamentally formative for a lot of kids of the time, but I also consider Tremors (one and two anyway) to be one of the most fun monster movies out there. In general though, I also think the bad movies that came out were also formative in developing my tastes. Everyone saw the Star Wars prequels - being any kind of sci fi fan meant that they were mandatory viewing - but they never *wowed* me. So, I knew I loved the originals more. Not fanatically so, that is more reserved to-

Jumping into TV-shows specifically, I can't understate how much Star Trek blew my goddamn mind. I have no idea where it started - I remember seeing mid-90's on Swedish Kanal 5 around noon on weekends re-runs of Star Trek TOS, later also DS9, I remember some of the earliest shows I pirated was TNG, AND also religiously watched Babylon 5 also on Kanal 5 when it was a new show, and I followed Voyager -and- Enterprise when they first ran on... SVT 1 or 2, 19:00.

And on that, I just remembered how much I followed ANYTHING Star Trek in the video game space as well. Starfleet Command, Bridge Commander, Klingon Academy, Elite Force, New Worlds, even games that were supposed to come out but never did (Like, Star Trek Borg or whatever the fuck).

But on the note of TV-shows and my youth, I would be remiss if I also did not give a shout-out to Babylon 5. I have a sweet spot for space operas, very much due to this show - and together with TNG it has made me a very, very picky fucker with my science fiction writing. It set a high bar for me. Thanks, btw.

In general, I can remember movies, shows, books and games I grew up with or at least had exposure to, but it takes some introspection to realize which ones actually influenced by - and then by how large of a degree. I still remember the ending scene from the "Death of Computers" Swedish cyberpunk novel nearly 30 years ago when I was not even 10 years old reading it - but did it really shape my taste in fiction? Did reading the follow-up novel give me a love for language, when a space traveler killing a giant alien bird with a laser knife on its last powerpack - but to avoid culturally contaminating the strange human cave men - at the end he just picked up a rock and gesticulated smashing the bird on the head - later on having his partner deliver her baby and the caveman midwife saying "flekka" - and it was strangely similar to the Swedish word girl - "flicka"? And this gave rise to a theory that these people were transplanted by some alien force?

No idea, man. But what I do now is that every so often I see if Good Old Games have released Klingom Academy yet - 23 years after its initial release - and I know that the main composers were two people collaborating, one is the original composer for TNG and also worked on several Star Trek game projects, and the other is Inon Zur - who later worked on Bethesda's Fallout games?

If these games and showes are not influences, I sure do think a lot about them.

#good ask #ask #movies #shows #games #books

[depizan]

On TV shows and planning

It's all Lost's fault. Okay, that's probably unfair. Lost wasn't the first plotted (or "plotted") TV show to air, and it may be the first example rather than the true start of "forget episodic television, everything must (pretend to) have a plot!"

Let me just quickly say that this isn't an episodic vs on-going plot argument. It's an argument that both have their place in television storytelling, and that forgetting that causes problems. It's also an argument that I think creators forgot what episodic television (at least in the hour long drama or comedy-drama format) actually looked like, or could look like.

Sometimes, things are vastly improved by having an on-going plot. I would say that the first season* of Legend of Vox Machina improved dramatically when the plot showed up. I think an episodic show about those characters would have likely leaned into everything I didn't like about the first two episodes. Having a plot pulled things away from "ooh, we're a cartoon with blood and fuck. aren't we edgy and mature. *fart joke*"

On the flip side, I think a more episodic format makes it easier for characters to have backstories that aren't also current stories. Jim Rockford could be a pardoned ex-con without The Rockford Files turning into The Count of Monte Cristo. Did it come up? Yes. Did it cause problems at times? Yes. But those things could be true without a background revenge plot or "clear my name" plot or the like.

And, just from a creator standpoint, sometimes a creator has an overarching plot they want to tell (see: Babylon 5) and sometimes they don't. If they don't, it makes far more sense to go the more episodic route. The episodic route can also be an advantage if you don't know how many seasons of a show you'll have. (Though the 1 season = 1 plot route can also work there, as long as you have a situation where adding more seasons doesn't fuck something else up.)

An episodic show can also be a great way to expand a fictional world. I have very mixed feelings about The Clone Wars, but its episodic nature was very good for giving a broad picture of what was going on in the galaxy. And seeing lots of different things happening in lots of different places makes a fictional world feel big.

I'd also say that either kind of show can be artificially unchanging or not. An episodic show can have evolving relationships, or show characters becoming more successful at their profession, or other things that aren't an overarching plot and don't change the premise, but still give the show a sense of reality. Conversely, a show with an on-going plot can be so desperate to maintain that it starts to feel artificial that the characters can't find a solution to the plot.

I look at things like that quote I reblogged about there not being a planned ending to The Mandalorian and think we really need to get back to a point where creators are comfortable doing more episodic shows and owning that. You don't need to have an overarching plot to have a satisfying show, and you shouldn't try to force it if you don't have one in mind. That's where unsatisfying television comes from.

*I did end up liking it well enough to watch season two, I just haven't yet.

#Mac vs fiction #Mac vs television #mildly critical of Legend of Vox Machina #the mandalorian adjacent