#woodsfae b5

[woodsfae]

Showrunners in the year 2024: I only got 80 mil for the season, so best I can do is eight, thirty-minute episodes. and everything is greenscreen CGI. JMS in 1993: I'm gonna do 22 episode seasons with physical sets and practical effects that'll make you WEEP. and I'm gonna do it for less than you spent on groceries last year.

#babylon 5 #woodsfae b5 #j michael straczynski #jms

[an-s-sedai]

Edit: I will not re-post this to the correct blog, this just lives here as a monument to my glee!

B5 s02e19 Divided Loyalties Table of Contents • previous episode

Delenn: "I find the notion of the press a…fascinating, but sometimes troubling concept."

I find the notion that the Minbari don't have press to be a fascinating but potentially troubling concept!

The machine that dispenses Universe Today but requires that you confirm your identity to get a paper is wild. Does it give different papers to different people?

Delenn: "It is good to know what your people are thinking and saying about my people. And, uh, I often learn things about my own world before I'm told what I need to know and no more."

She is so cute!! And so crafty!! I liked Delenn from The Gathering, but I like her more and more whenever she appears.

A flood on a space station seems like it could get really really bad, really really fast.

I once read a hilarious fanfic where some Star Wars characters traveled to B5 and bought a shitload of data crystals, which turned out to be kyber, and this reminded me of that.

When I was looking up what the episode was called, I saw that Lyta-from-the-Gathering would be coming back and I'm so excited for this! I hope she and Talia get along.

asddkhfsdkfh what was that little shimmy?? Cool alien, hilarious shoulder wiggles.

Sheridan: "oh, I miss trees…." Garibaldi, from Mars: "……" *yeah, so anyway changing the subject now*

Talia: It's hard to believe it's taken us so long to get to this point. Two years. Susan: Well, you didn't exactly make it easy. Talia: Me? how 'bout you? Susan: I'll have you know I've been nothing but compassionate and understanding. I mean, all you had to do was admit that you were wrong and I was right and everything would be fine!

LMAO.

Sleepover? Sleepover!!! GAY GIRLS GO

Susan: "I'd like the company."

Yeah I'd like her company, too. *eyebrow waggle*

Wow, Lyta had a rough arrival! Maybe she can sleep over with Susan and Talia, too. *eyebrow waggle*

Go Lyta Go. I support unhinged women wielding surgical tools.

Poor Lyta has spent years being distrusted and interrogated by psicorps for what she saw in Kosh's mind. I'd be pretty twitchy after that, too! Their tender loving care seems like it would be the exact oppposite.

She is even hotter than she was in the Gathering.

OK, love the exposition about the fucked up things psi corps can do with people's brains. Fucking terrifying. Implant a personality below their personality, that emerges and destroys the original when the right time comes around. Moles that don't know they're moles. Very uncool of PsiCorps.

Lyta is SO paranoid, but I suspect she isn't being paranoid enough. She's shockingly tolerant of being placed in secure holding. I don't think I'd agree to be literally imprisoned that readily. She hasn't done anything but come out of anesthesia swinging surgical tools after being imprisoned by PsiCorps for two years.

Delenn!!!

Sheridan: Why is it every time you finally get things calmed down and everything's going great life decides to kick you in the butt? Delenn: …but what?

That really got me and I lol'ed. Good use of idioms and miscommunication! Love it. She wasn't taught slang because it was considered innapropriate for a member of the religious caste.

Delenn: I butt, you butt, he or she butts… Sheridan: NO. No, it's… Delenn: Butt-butt. Sheridan: you sound like a motorboat. Delenn: Motor butt?

I continue to cackle. OK, I finally ship them. They reeled me in!

Hold her hand back you fucking monkey!!

The debates and counter-intelligence and fact checking is A+. Damn you JMS for making me like Garibaldi via the excellent Garibaldi-Sheridan interactions. :|

Sleepover date!! I am so excited. Susan knows how to woo a woman: with a real, hot-water shower. It would work on me.

More good exposition. Talia knew Lyta, she was six months behind Talia at the academy. She was nice, sweet. They were close at one time. *eyebrow waggle*

It speaks very well of Lyta that she hated her PsiCop internship and went commercial instead.

"So I've come to the decision that there's only one person on this station that I can trust implicitly…" *gets in Susan's personal space and stares at her lips* "…you." *almost touches Susan with bare fingers* me: *goes absolutely fucking feral*

Why tf is Lyta a prisoner?! I ask a-fucking-gain. This is ridiculous, and exposes her and her mission to the goddamn EarthCorps brown shirts!

Yeah, well obviously someone wanted to shoot at her when she was being transferred! This is why she should be having a gay-ass sleepover with Talia and Susan right now!

At least they don't think Lyta instigated the attack on herself. They're ass-backwards about this. She shows up with news of a secret, they imprison her where any security staff could find out, including the goddamn leak she was talking about, and then Sheridan is mad and shocked someone knew she was there with critical info. C'mon, dude.

Also Susan, <3, Sheridan is right about one thing, this isn't a scan to object to, it's just her projecting a code word to see if anyone reacts.

Talia: "I woke up last night and you were gone." Me: [beast shaking toy in mouth.jpeg]

O.o WHAT IS SUSAN LYING ABOUT. Is she telepathic???? It's my long-running headcanon about her! Please be telepathic, please be. If we get to find out that her mom used her telepathy to hide Susan's powers that would be EVERYTHING to me.

If only Na'Toth and Laurel were in this episode also being badasses it would be the greatest of all time.

c'mon telepathic Susan! C'mon!! omfg I'm almost vibrating.

"…and then, every once in awhile, I was the one who touched her mind."

SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP FUCK YES I AM WELL FED THIS EPISODE

"…I'm a latent telepath."

FUCKING WINNING

Now Sheridan just needs to not be an idiot about this. Obviously she hid it, who wants to be fucking gangpressed into PsiCorps?!

Good job, Sheridan. Minimal shittiness achieved. And I know I'm completely fucking feral about Susan/Talia but it's so perfect that Susan is so close to Sheridan that he's the first person she tells about her hidden talent.

Smart of Garibaldi to hand over his piece before being not-scanned. What a fucker tho, faking them out. hahah.

also please don't be the mole, Ivanova. I don't want anything bad to have happened to her, ever, but since plenty has, I don't want any more!!

After all these people have been cleared, I think Ivanova will probably just agree to being cleared. She will want to know. Maybe she would let Lyta tell Talia the password and let Talia password her?

I do like Sheridan's theory earlier talking to Garibaldi that the second in command who shot Garibaldi in the back was the mole.

Ahhhh Ivanova did change her mind. And she's clean!

Lyta: I'm sorry Susan: Go to hell.

That's my girl.

Oh man!! I didn't even think to suspect Talia! Fuuuuuuuck, and she's all telekinetic'ed up, too!! Oh, damn it. I don't like this at all.

or do I? There's plenty of whump to be had. hm.

You know what I really don't like, this boys-only confab. Ivanova is the second in command of the entirety of B5 and she's not present for the strategy meeting. Uncool.

Ahhhh it's all coming together for Garibaldi. Wow, they really have been seeding this plotline for the whole show!! Cool Hat Man Mind Empty No Thoughts Only Hat wasn't just fun filler!

The Talia that Susan knew definitely has to be in there! They haven't kissed yet! And I need that!!

Oh, this is chilling!! The angst! The whump!! Susan!!!

I think it would be really funny if the sub-personality didn't understand homosexuality and therefore has no idea real!Talia was in love with Susan and vice versa.

OK now I weirdly ship Lyta/Kosh.

"I never told them, I never told anyone. I hid it all away in the smallest, tiniest corner of my mind. They could have killed me and they still wouldn't have found it. Only at night, alone, would I open that small door in my mind where I kept the memory of you and listened to your voice. Listened to you sing me to sleep. I hope I can come back again, but I don't know. Until then, Kosh, I want to see you again. Just one more time before I go."

Lyta's a bonafide monsterfucker. What a great note to end this on!

My thoughts right now are: "Hnnnnnngggggshshshcsagfjkaldsf yes." Good episode! My favorite of the season so far! I can't wait to see how all this plays out!! I may make some gifs and do a gif-post of this ep later. So many good shots!

this next one is posted to the correct blog, hah.

#babylon 5 #lyta alexander #susan ivanova #talia winters #susan ivanova x talia winters #screaming crying throwing up #an episode of all time #plot plot plot plot #woodsfae b5

[woodsfae]

Garibaldi: I think you should do less legal speed and sleep more. Dr Franklin: I'm going to do more legal speed and sleep less.

#babylon 5 #babylon 5 season 3 #michael garibaldi #stephen franklin #incorrect quotes #incorrect b5 quotes #woodsfae b5

[woodsfae]

B5 S03E19 Grey 17 Is Missing previous episode - table of contents

I'm not sure how this episode is going to go, because prior to this I have always watched B5 high (I started this saga while taking hydrocodone pain meds I was allergic to post-wisdom teeth removal) or sober (which I quickly stopped doing, because the recaps were a dry and stale recounting of the plot in a most unpleasant way), but now I can't have THC for awhile (pre-op instructions for what will hopefully be my last surgery for awhile) and so I am experimenting with liveblogging while tipsy. 

So far I thimk that tipsy b5 blogging may be the era of run-on sentences. play video. 

Harry Sanders says in response to the question "are you a telepath,": "sure." 

I am guessing that Mr Sanders is not a telepath. But I am a huge fan of people fucking with Zack Allen. Queer icon Harry Sanders tries to flirt his way into the job. sadly, he fails.

Unnamed maintenance worker gets sucked into a maintenance tunnel with random wires trailing out of it. That probably won't be relevant later :)

Someone, I am assuming Sinclair, spoke of Delenn "with great reverence" to his Minbari friend regularly. I LOVE THAT OMG. *shipping intensifies* 

Harlan Ellison consulted on this one, too?? That's so cool. My Eepectations just went up. Minbari With The Nose thinks that Delenn should take over as Ranger One. Are they going out of their way to not say his name? 

Calling a gun with bullets a slugthrower is a pretty amusing thing to share with Star Wars. I once read a crossover fic where Han Solo (iirc) went on smuggling runs to B5 to pick up kyber crystals, which the B5 people have been using for mere data storage. 

"I swear it's like the Centauri triangle in there - something's always going wrong."

I only support Garibaldi's casual racism because actually, everything IS always going wrong with the Centauri....but has the Bermuda Triangle myth been supplanted with a centauri space equivalent?? And what makes it a triangle in 3d space?

Stephen Franklin is looking rough. Withdrawl. Withdrawal? Sad plotline. Space AA is not my favorite plotline. Also, Mr Dr Franklin, maybe don't compain about people following you around when you haven't even left Babylon Five???? That's a cry for help if ever I saw one in metaphor. If you wanna be alone like...barter some medical attention for a ride to an abandoned planetoid. 

Gray 17 is a level of b5? Cool. I thought it was going to be a person that disappeared. And it is several of them at least. But there's also thirty official grey levels but only 29 accessible. I like it. 

Delenn looks extra pretty today. 

Why does this Minbari know about siren songs? Convergent cultural evolution, or does this guy like Earth ancient-greek sailor myths? 

It's genuinly hilarious (and apropos) for a Minbari Ranger to think it pollutes the rangers for humans to be admitted. This warrior class Minbari thinks it's heretical for Delenn-of-the-clerics to consider taking command of the Rangers, which he thinks are the rightful domain of the warrior caste. 

hm. Where'd he go. That won't come up later, either. 

Garibaldi is leaning into one of his strengths: investigation. He's counting the seconds the elevator takes between Grey levels. Grey  like the grey council, or pure coincidence?

ALSO. no minbari has killed another minbari for a thousand years?? I find that very hard to believe. Domestic violence? manslaughter?? What kind of statistical fuckery are they employing to make that something Delenn can say without winking??

Delenn: "I want your word that you will not tell [Sheridan] about [the warrior class dick threatening to kill me]. Your. Word." 

*cue Lennier hinting unsubtly about Delenn's life being in danger*

I did not expect Level 17 Grey to come up. Where is the missing number if Grey 17 is missing, it goes to Grey 30, but there's only 29 levels? This mystery is deeper than I expected it to be!

 The missing floor, once Garibaldi rules-lawyers the lift into stopping there, is trashed. And it says Grey 17 in a different place than the other floors. AND there's what looks like a technical diagram for a trash can where the other floors have their designation signs. Idk what this means, but it's a data point!! 

Well. I would drop kick that puppet if it talked to me on a trashed level. But Michael Garibaldi let it DART him. like a SCHMUCK. Don't let it do that. hit the follow button for more HOT TIPS FROM MICHAL. (pronounced like McCalll, not like Michael).

Lennier!!!! YES HE IS TELLING SOMEONE. But not Sheridan. Love his rules-lawyering. Super cute. My guy. Lancelot (purely platonic version).

I would kiss Lennier all over his sweet face. And he would not like it. I am sure. 

Garibaldi has recovered-ish from his darting of unknown substance. FUCK THAT PUPPET. burn it with fire or smth. 

Who is this council of lost persons?? Jim Henson's dream?????!

"My name is Jeremiah. Welcome to the end of the world." 

YES PLEASE. This is good plot, and I like it. 

Delenn is really beautiful this episode. I think the red/blue rich, saturated colors particularly flatter her. But she is always unfairly pretty and generally lickable.

Delenn's mother entered the sisters of valeria soon after Delenn was born, and she's only seen her twice. TWICE. And Delenn's father died ten years ago. She does not mention siblings. How old is Delenn? If it isn't a plot-relevant spoiler, please let me know if you know it. 

Her thoughts on missing her father are both relatable and wistful. It made me thoughtful about the same topic. 

Jeremiah says the reason the Minbari almost defeated the humans in the war was because the Minbari are closer to the truth than humans. AND we have learned that the people on Grey Level 17 is because they hacked the system and detached themselves from the rest of B5. Isolationists being isolationist on a tiny little level of a space station is illogical and funny and very, very human.

The Minbari offended by Delenn running the Rangers is called Neroon! That's super familiar and I think I've met him before. He says "During the war I killed fifty thousand of you....what's one more?" Well my dude. I bet you didn't kill fifty thousand humans in one-on-one combat. And I'm gonna go ahead and bet on Marcus's staff-fighting prowess over his. 

GET 'IM MARCUS.

This is a well-choreographed and filmed staff fight. 

Jeremiah on Grey Level 17 actually is super aligned with Delenn's philosophy on the universe. But is far more freaky about the practical side of the philosophy. tbh. I think Jeremiah did LSD one too many times. 

Garibaldi isn't super serious about his threat because his choke hold lacks a fulcrum...Jeremiah could break it anytime he liked if he knew how to identify what wrestling hold he was in....signed...someone whose father wrestled in highschool and taught them from a young age to identify and break choke holds by neck-feel....

GO MARCUS GO GET NEROON. 

Neroon: "Why? You must have known you could not win....so why do it?" Marcus: "For [Delenn]. [...] In Valen's name." 

LANCELOT MOVE OVER, GALAHAD HAS ARRIVED

Jeremiah: "Listen. Listen. The only way out is-is to find a purity of thought. A purity of belief! That is the door! The door of the mind." 

Hm. This dude is craycray. And his further speech does nothing to dispel the notion. What is screeching?? 

If Sinclair was Entil'Zha, wthen what was this Minbari Ranger going to designate Delenn?

Damn it, Neroon lives. Bring! Back! Galahad! fuck u neroon. You don't deserve a capitalized proper noun name.

wtf is this thing hunting on level 17 grey?? I don't recognize its silhouette. 

Michael Garibaldi (paraphrased): HOW DO WE HURT THIS THING??? *looks at .38 bullets in hand*

Me, reliving my misspent youth: IF YOU GRAB THE SHELL OF THOSE .38s WITH PLIERS THEN HIT THE PRIMER WITH A BALLPEEN HAMMER U CAN SHOOT IT

(yes I did this shit for fun as a child and I am EXTREMELY LUCKY I did not have a mishap of a permanent injury variety)

hmm. Garibaldi sorta used my childhood fun trick but with a pipe to protect his fragile hands.. UNLIKE ME AND MY PLAIN PLIERS AND HAMMER

Neroon kicked Marcus's ass but Marcus is going to recover -a relief. But Neroon!! FUCK OFF. 

"you are more noble than I" - Neroon (paraphrased)

THAT'S A GALAHAD MOVE. psych. Marcus got you with his ideological purity and ironic wit!!

The murderous thing on Grey level 17 was a "zarg." OK. Please, if it isn't spoilery, remind me what that is. 

This episode feels a bit more disjointed than they usually are, but I liked it. And fuck Neroon!!! Get behind Delenn or shut the fuck up. 

*a perfectly good episode. but also. GET BEHIND DELENN OR STFU!!

onward

#woodsfae b5 #delenn

[woodsfae]

B5 S03E22 Z'Ha'Dum previous episode - table of contents

Flashback central - Anna talking about signing onto the Icarus. Kosh saying "Z'Ha'Dum," Delenn and Sheridan talking about the Icarus landing on Z'Ha'Dum, Morden being a dickbag. 

Anna doesn't seem very sincere, and I don't buy her "I'm an open book, but DELENN didn't tell you...no, I shan't say..." schtick. 

I know I made all those predictions about how this will play out, but I really don't know how this is going to play out. Will the future be subverted and the prophecies less than self-fulfilling? I don't know! 

Partner: "Do you think these guys did like, late-night interviews in the 90s or was it not popular enough?" Me: "Hm let me consult my extensive memories of being 0-6 years old in an anti-technology cult in the 1990s." 

Anna: "I'm your wife." Dr Franklin: "That's your wife." Sheridan: "If that's my wife, then what was all my years of grief-processing for?" 

Excuse me Sheridan, take your hands off Delenn. Don't shake her just because you're emotionally overwrought. 

I am on Delenn's side in this argument. Delenn said clearly that anyone who wouldn't have served the Shadows would have been killed. Therefore, Anna was either dead, or completely opposed to the life and wellbeing of every living thing in the galaxy. 

yeah yeah Sheridan, you have big emotions. But don't be a dick.

Londo's political maneuvering has resulted in a promotion and he's bummed because he can't be satisfied with anything. He's a voracious pit of longing that can never be filled. When he's made an ambassador, he rages because they're sending him away. When he's given a prestigious advisor position, he's mad because he deserved it twenty years ago. 

Mr Morden Jr is here. Sounds like there's about to be an attack on B5. 

Looks like Dr Franklin just found something in his scans on Anna Sheridan. 

Anna is refusing to answer any questions about anything unless John goes with her to Z'Ha'Dum to hear the answers there. Not even why she stayed and let herself be declared dead and all her loved ones grieve her death. 

Aaaan he agrees to go to Z'Ha'Dum if she explains why she stayed. Against future!Delenn's pleas. 

Anna says - IPX found a Shadows ship buried under the surface of Mars. As soon as they unearthed it, it sent a message. IPX took some parts and put a homing device inside. When another ship turned up and took the first one, they tracked it. (didn't the second ship also kill a fuckload of people? She doesn't mention anything about that.)

The Icarus went to the coordinates and found the Shadows. In a pit. Very foreboding. She says it was an accident that the crew was killed, and also destroyed the comm system. She says they portrayed themselves as vunerable coming out of hibernation and cut a deal that they could stay and study their tech if they didn't try to contact their homeworld(s). 

It would be a cool plot twist if Anna was telling the truth and he really was about to find out he's been on the wrong side this entire time. However, I don't think that's the case. The Shadows haven't been taking out governmental heads, they've been displacing populations, causing genocides, anmd spreading suffering. 

I do wonder what this secret task he's given Garibaldi is. 

It's incredibly foolish to run off to the ACTUAL HOMEWORLD of your mortal enemies. But there goes John Sheridan! trot trot. Well, they did hit him where he's most vulnerable. The wound of losing a loved one never really goes away. 

They're taking the White Star - what a fucking security vulnerability! Also, so funny that Sheridan is taking the White Star when he's only SEEN the Minbari pilot it. Aviation law must have gotten lax in the future. 

Z'Ha'Dum doesn't have a breathable atmosphere. He goes off, alone, with his formerly-dead wife. To the enemy's planet. With no breathable atmosphere. And just nods and hands over his gun. And doesn't even keep his oxygen mask at hand! 

Dummy.

And Morden's here. AND Anna gives HIM John's gun! goddddddddddd

Poor Delenn, she looks wrecked. John's message to her talks about his time jump and Delenn's plea to not go to Z'Ha'Dum. He says he went because maybe in that future, he listened to her and DIDN'T go, so he's going in case it changes the future. 

Well. 

ok

Justin on Z'Ha'Dum says that most of the higher races left this part of the universe, and the Vorlons stuck around to be parents. Clean your room, behave, etc. The Shadows, though, want to release their potentials...through conflict. "Those who survive are strong, better," Justin says. And Morden says if you knock over an anthill, the future generations get better at building anthills. 

hm. 

"...but I love my mom and dad," - noted parents-guy John Sheridan, hopefully. 

"A few get lost along the way," Justin says. Yeah. Like the Narn got directly targeted and attacked repeatedly until they lost their telepaths, then almost lost everything? Literally they were T A R G E T E D. It isn't a neutral "they got lost," they were pummeled into near-oblivion. 

Oop, the Shadows have arrived at B5. 

Morden would have us believe that sonnets came from wars. Bullshit - sonnets came from the Italian courtly style and was developed in order to flirt better.  (per Partner's masters of poetry)

Ahhh, the Shadows are hanging out over B5 as the hammer over Sheridan's head. Sheridan's too good at diplomacy, so he's preventing the species' growth through warfare. boooooo.

I could go through and rebut the things they're saying point by point but ehhh. It's a lot. But it's 99% bullshit and 1% mispresented.

Sheridan drops a bomb: Anna has been altered in the same way as the people who were being sent to become components in the Shadows ships. 

Whoop, Shadow incoming. And gun incoming! John Sheridan had TWO GUNS. badadadada

oof, poor Sheridan. He's arming the White Star to detonate, and Anna's turned up saying that Anna is dead, but she can love John as well as Anna ever did. 

"I want you to know that I love you, Delenn. Bye." he says, in the video message. 

And there's the Kosh fragment! Sheridan jumps into the pit of doom in the center of Z'Ha Dum as the White Star bursts through the central dome. 

Anna didn't like that!

Kosh said he couldn't help Sheridan if he helped then. And then he helped anyway. lol

I like the G'Kar voice-over. Andreas has such a marvelous voice and he really knows how to use it. 

One of the fighters is missing - piloted by Garibaldi! And the marvelous CGI depicts it floating in a Shadows ship. Well. At least we won't run out of plot anytime soon. :P

#woodsfae b5 #john sheridan #anna sheridan #delenn

[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

[woodsfae]

The past few years to a decade or so, I've seen newer shows praised for their innovations in storytelling. Things like, having an overarching plotline that spans a season instead of being purely episodic. Or choosing to be progressive, and show platonic cross-gender relationships, non-xtian religions, and things of that sort.

But I never, ever saw anyone (except @ladymegana who persuaded me to give b5 a try and tell her how I liked it…thus leading to my starting to liveblog it) mention Babylon 5! Babylon 5 has all those crazy innovations and progressive choices that people praise much, much later shows for creating those innovations! It's straight up wild! Apparently B5 was so far ahead of its time that people just don't remember what it did, huh?

Also. I can understand the B5 cast's lines! They fucking enunciate!

New shows would do well to take some notes.

#babylon 5 #woodsfae b5

[woodsfae]

B5 S03e15 Interludes and Examinations  previous episode - table of contents 

I don't think we've heard from Ivanova's personal diary before....it's totally possible that I'm forgetting one, but still! Exciting! Hearing a personal entry isn't common on B5 iirc. I will never turn down a peek into Susan Ivanova's head. 

And it's factual, bad news. The shadows have been attacking openly for ten days, randomly, all over the place. And there's an older guy looking suspicious on B5! The younger guy he's talking to I thought was Morden The Asshole at first, but that was just my moderate faceblindness tricking me, I think. 

Ooooo I am excited for the return of Adira! I'm tired, very very tired, of sad genocide Londo. Let's get some character arc in here, and I liked Adira. 

Wait no it is Mordan! Ah! That asshole! 

There's a new alien species reaching out for aid that Sheridan isn't giving much inspiration or help to. Well, I typed too soon: he has contacts and negotiations in his toolkit of resources. 

"I'm not questioning you, I'm saying you're flat wrong!"

is a great line. 

Dr Franklin is definitely still on the sims, but Garibaldi should have been yelled at. The security chief has no place tyring to talk to the emergency room doctors trying to save a patient's life. Get out of there Michael Garibaldi. No room for cops in the operating room, scoot. 

Morden: make your government start more wars or else Londo: I have stared death in the face and said "meh"

Elsewhere...

Garibaldi: I think you should do less legal speed and sleep more. Dr Franklin: I'm going to do more legal speed and sleep less, actually. 

Delenn and Sheridan's interaction made me laugh. And perhaps it foretells of the return of Kosh to the main storyline? 

This Garibaldi/Sheridan foreplay is getting intense. Garibaldi is staging a full-on intervention on the legal level. The hamfisted AA commerical is a little dull for me but could be way more annoying, as far as a storyline goes. 

Morden the asshole is continuing to be an asshole, charming the caterer slash personal shopped Vir was meeting with on Londo's behalf. 

lmao dr franklin. staring into the cold abyss of realizing you really really like coke. 

So Sheridan slash humans see an angelic, glowing figure when they see Kosh. Which doesn't explain why the original doctor from the pilot movie was so affected by a glimpse. Me, I'd be more "huh, glowing kinda looks like an angel...the universe is weird. Stitch him up!"

"You said you wanted to teach me to fight legends? Well you're a legend too." 

LEGENDARY. So legendary that's Sheridan's going to have to fight himself. 

"You do not understand. But you will."

Yeah I wouldn't like to hear that after making a bargain with an inexplicable and incomprehensible higher being. 

I'm too high to follow this space battle at all so it's great to hear Ivanova report that the Vorlons engaged the Shadows and were winning. 

o.O they brought back Adira just long enough to have her killed before she arrived! Morden, you asshole. 

Well, Lord whatshisface of Centaur who Londo half-poisoned. But Morden, ultimately, I'm sure. 

Bye Adira, sorry you got fridged. 

Sheridan's bargain with Kosh paid off, and now he will be alone and without Kosh's help when he goes to die on Z'ha'dum. 

Which is almost as ominous as Sheridan's dream vision. Seeing Kosh, Shadows appearing and disappearing, and then his father-bit-actually-Kosh apologizing for not believing him and ...dying? Seems like if Kosh could see this coming, then he could also arrange for some like, shielding, or some other Vorlon tech for protection. But it is about time for the stakes to be raised and the mentor figure to be killed off in this hero's quest, I suppose! 

The Vorlons think it's a bad idea to announce that Kosh slash a Vorlon? has died. So they're going to send a new Vorlon to replace him?? new character alert! I look forward to meeting Kosh-notKosh-Kosh. 

Londo still buying Morden's shit! Londo's revenge arc is, I glumly foresee, going to include more war crimes, and continue to be sad.  

Hmmm. I didn't expect Dr Franklin to resign! I'll be interested in finding out what he gets up to while he tries to do less speed. 

But not in the next!

#babylon 5 #woodsfae b5 #stephen franklin

[woodsfae]

Character/arc predictions made after watching s03e17 War Without End Part One. First time watcher, please don't spoil me. :) Putting these down for posterity before I watch War Without End Part Two!

Garibaldi: He's been the reseach guy, and has been learning Narnuan and studying the Book of G'Quan so I think he's going to be vital to tracking down Sheridan unmoored in time, likely while Sheridan is in the past liberating Narn from the Shadows. I don't think Garibaldi going to die. I think they're setting up the narrative to make the viewers think he's going to die on B5, so when he does his final stand, or heroic staying behind the cut the wire or whatever it'll really tug everyone's heartstrings and he'll be "dead" for awhile. But then he'll be back with...

Stephen Franklin: Dr Franklin, while trying quit space cocaine and recover from the stressful life of a space station CMO is going to thrive in the more laidback environment which is Space Doctors Without Borders slash working with the human psi escape network. He, the psi underground, and Garibaldi (somehow...Garibaldi has had a lot of screen time researching PsiCorps) are going to come in clutch against the Shadows. He's also going to bring Sheridan back to life on Zha'dum with his medical knowledge and primitive/no medical tech/supplies. 

Susan Ivanova: will also be involved in the Psi plots. Obviously, she is a telepath. Her mother taught her good enough shielding/repressing that she has been able to slip beneath PsiCorps' notice all this time. But she's going to have to accept that she's a telepath (if she hasn't already...she plays her cards close to the vest) and learn to use it. She will also be an ace against the Shadows. I think she's going to be put into a situation where she is being pressured into letting other telepaths into her mind. Bester is my first guess. Then another PsiCorps telepath. She hates and fears PsiCorps and so that would be high stakes. But it might also be any telepath/s from any species. Maybe she'll be involved with an alien, league, and/or narn telepath/s. They've been teasing her being in danger on Babylon 5 and I don't have any firm predictions about how she moves from Babylon 5 but it might have something to do with Talia.

Talia Winters: I don't know if Talia is actually dead or not. Or if her body lived along with the personality construct PsiCorps trapped her with. Or if her personality will be assumed to be dead but resurface at some point. Or if they're gonna do an endgame of Bury Your Gays. My heart says sadly that I think Talia is either dead, or will end the series dead. But I HOPE something like this (or better!) happens for her. I hope she comes back to Babylon 5 in the nick of time. Her real personality or not. She and Susan escape the Shadows' attack. This will probably be after Garibaldi is assumed dead. Babylon 5 is lost, probably destroyed. Susan and Talia work together, have sparks. If Talia has been the construct, she gets sparks of memory back. But I think she dies, maybe saving Susan. Amd leaving Susan brokenhearted having never been public about their affection. Secret love and secret loss. Worst case scenario she lives, gets her memories back, survives, and then goes back to her ex, Matt Stoner and moves into his mom's basement to support his burgeoning career as a holostreamer.

John Sheridan: He is going to walk across time, learning and fighting the war across the universe. He's going to be perhaps the most famous warrior ever, with his legend echoing from a hundred points across thousands of years of history. He saved the Babylon 4 crew from Babylon 4. He traveled forward in time to save Babylon 5. I think he's going to make more stops before/after the war against the Shadows in the far past. I think he helped drive the Shadows off Narn, when they were there something like 500 years ago. Garibaldi might discover he was mentioned in G'Kar's book of G'Quan or something like that. Then, after all his timewalking, there's going to be a final showdown at Zha'dum in the main Babylon 5 timeline. And he's going to win. And die. And Stephen Franklin, bereft of his modern medical devices is going to keep him alive with 23rd century field medicine and possibly good old fashioned CPR. So Sheridan will die at Zha'dum and also live. And I'm certain Kosh is dead-but-not-gone, and will be either haunting Sheridan in specific, or Sheridan will have a packet of his memories or instincts or something like that. 

Delenn: She's gonna live. She's got to settle down with her all-american, corn-fed, iowan side of beef. She better have a crazy legend, too. I think she's going to have to steal Babylon 4 without Sheridan, because Sheridan is time walking uncontrollably. But she's gonna catch him with Babylon 4 somewhere or when. It's going to be very romantic. And she'd better get a legend of her own on the goddess level. I think that as she has yet to really explore the humanity in herself, she may have to dig deep into humanity's best and worst to think like the kind of human (Sheridan) that can out-tactics the Shadow, sacrificing her Minbari identity even more in order to become who she needs to be to succeed in catching Sheridan out of time and defeating the Shadows in past/present/future.

Lennier: He is the archetype of chivalry, specifically platonic ideals of a knight serving a lady. He's Lancelot from the older stories where he and Guinevere don't fuck. I think he will follow that archetype quietly, firmly, joyfully, to the end. I think he is going to die with the pure heart and diamond convictions he has demonstrated throughout the show. But that's as his eventual fate, which I hope doesn't end with season three. They may explore him creating his own legend and walking away from Delenn for a bit, but if they do, I think he will return to being her loyal aide until death do them part. Platonically. 

The show has made a point of saying that Narns aren't telepaths and having G'Kar imply that his telepathy was only temporarily induced by the drugs, but I'm not sure that's going to end up to be true. They've (imho) treated the Narns shamefully, and thematically the Narns OUGHT to be the ultimate aces in the hole. The alliance and rangers which have kept the Narns out of the loop, because of prejudice and pity, ought to realize that they cannot succeed without the Narns and they were wrong to assume the Narns didn't have necessary skills and information to allow them to succeed against the Shadows. And G'Kar ought to be recognized as a great leader of his people, a legendary ambassador working against impossible odds, and a hero. But idk if they're going to give the G'Kar and the Narns the props they deserve. I hope so, though. 

Londo Mollari: Aftering choosing the grasping, short-sighting path to power and influence every single time, and deeply regretting his youthful forays into the unCentauri vices of empathy and equity, Londo steers Centaur into falling into the Shadows' hands as Emperor. He blames everyone else around him till the bitter end. He might do something redemptive, like voluntarily clear the way for Vir the Reformer or something. But I expect him to choose miserably poorly for the rest of his life.

Vir Cotto: Emperor Vir the Reformer! He's definitely going to be legendary! And known for his reforms! I expect he'll spend his time till then being browbeaten by Londo by day, and helping Narns fake their deaths and escape the murder regime by night. No idea if his murderer wife is going to turn up again. I imagine...so...? But I can't imagine it ending well for either of them. 

Zack Allen: If he survives, he better be conscious for the rest of his life about his tendencies to fall in line with fascist elements and work to instead choose liberation. He seriously failed every moral checkpoint and then only chose the B5 alliance because it was getting pretty uncomfortable being one of the regime's bootlickers and enforcers. I've got my eye on him. 

Bester: My best guy is going to survive, do some very morally black shit, be my special, ominous little fellow, and trot off at the end to go found a psi-only colony/future superpower in an undisclosed location.

Sheridan's Dead Wife: Isn't actually dead now, but might be actually dead by the end of the show. 

My prediction for Sinclair is a separate post - see here.

#woodsfae b5 #b5 season 3 #i expect a lot of this wrong #but I think it's based off solid narrative clues

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 S03E20 And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place previous episode - table of contents

It's kinda wild how much b5 is exactly to my tastes. Take this (and many other!) episode titles for example. Pretentious? Maybe. Poetic? Certainly. Full of allusion? Definitely. Makes me get shivers? Absolutely.  They even give me things to complain about. I'm well settled into complaining loudly about Londo bullshit.

Last episode's beverage (for data point purposes) was straight tequila with pepsi chaser. The hangover was vile and I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep for three hours. Today's beverage - Bitterroot Brewing Co "Dirt Church" ipa. It's alright for an IPA.

"Z MINUS 14 DAYS"

I see we've moved several letters on from "t."

Yeah!! It's another Susan Ivanova personal log episode. The telepaths they've recruited are being dispersed. Sheridan is tired, and Franklin is still pacing the halls. 

All the telepaths are being accompanied by a single Narn bodyguard. Fingers crossed for some of those bodyguards to start developing some telepathy of their own after spending a long time in close quarters with a telepath!!

Londo thinks it's time to "take care of" G'Kar?? FUCK OFF.  He wants G'Kar tricked back to Narn and executed. Thanks to the previous flashbacks, I am well aware that this plot won't play out with G'Kar's actual death. But I still want to strangle Londo. Can I isekai into B5 just long enough to goddamn murder that man?? 

Religious Theo of the religious group whatevever is being highlighted this episode. In theory I appreciate how diverse B5 is, religiously speaking. In practice....ehhh. At least when it comes to people quoting the KJV and referring to "the lord" every other sentence. 

Sheridan does look rough. And there's Delenn!!! Pretty in pink. 

"[Ivanova] said you were carrying on cranky. I looked up cranky, it said grouchy. I looked up grouchy, it said crochetly. No wonder you have such an eccentric culture. None of your words have their own meaning!" 

LOL!! Delenn is so cute. Also, very seriously, I apologize to every person who needs to learn English as an adult. It's a mess. 

Once I saw a gif of Delenn propping herself up on a elbow in bed with Sheridan and I have been FERAL to see that scene ever since. Maybe today will be the episode? Delenn climbs in bed with Sheridan to make him sleep??

Na'Toth might be alive. Or her name might simply be a trap for G'Kar. I don't think Londo's plan is going to work out. If he didn't go back to Narn for literally every other Narnuan, I'm not sure he'd go back for his aide who is probably dead. Also I 100% have more faith in Vir than this. Idk where he got them, but he has a surprisingly well-developed set of morals and empathy. 

Vir: "I won't. I won't go. I won't do it."

VIR BABY. Just say you'll do it, then go and collude and G'Kar. Londo is unhinged, threatening to have Vir's family stripped naked and whipped through the streets of Centaur's capital. What a fuck. He ought to be directing his energies towards getting back Lord Whatshisface who killed Adira on behalf of the Shadows. Refa. The show reminds me in a timely manner. 

Speaking of Refa, he's giving very desperate vibes. Trying too hard to suck up, and that puts blood in the water for the sharks to scent!!

Well. Hopefully even if Vir gives into Londo's threat and tries to trick G'Kar, his obvious nerves give away that something's wrong. 

Back to Londo and the Centauri court shenanigans. Londo is, undeniably, good at putting on the type of political front that works well on Centaur. 

Susan's blowout is so good every day I have to assume it's part of the high-tech auto-dryer when you step out of the shower...or something. Because there's no way that SUSAN IVANOVA is spending twenty minutes every day achieving the most ideal blowout that has ever been hair-dried into existence. 

OK I like the religious cabal a bit better now that I know they're smuggling up-to-date information about Earth politics into Bably 5. 

GODDANG IT. G'Kar is trying to sneak back onto Narn. Well. At least I know he lives to die another day. 

Vir, I am disappointed in. 

Centaur attack on Vir!! He lives to become Emperor another day as well. Stakes drop considerably when you know certain characters' ultimate fates. 

You know who I'd love to see again? AUNT PROPHETESS! Majel!! 

Lord Refa's eyebrows deserve their own acting credit. 

oooh, Centauri telepathy attack!! 

Poor Vir. If only he had been able to keep his position on Minbar. He looked less stressed-out when he was spending most of his time surrounded by a tranquil environment. 

The Baptist pastor is hanging out with Sheridan, who is struggling to relax enough to fall asleep while also doing paperwork. Maybe. don't do paperwork while getting ready for bed. Which the pastor is also bringing up, more delicately than I would. 

the Pastor: DELEGATE IDIOT.

OK he can stay. He is speaking common sense. 

"When youre worry tank gets full people stop coming to you, because they don't want to add to it." 

Smart. "figure out how to relax or your people will stop reading you in in an attempt to protect you." 

"Z MINUS 13 DAYS"

Zha'ha'dum minus 13 days?? 

G'Kar made it to Narn. There's climate change from the orbital bombardment. Constant wind, particulate coming down from the upper atmosphere, poor air quality. And I doubt they had recovered from the previous Centauri occupation, and possibly not even the Shadows' occupation before that! 

Emperor Cartagia is going to be traveling to B5: that seems like a significant security risk! Maybe he'll get nerfed and we'll see the glorious ascension on Emperor Londo. 

Refa's plot is to capture G'Kar instead of letting Londo do it. Fingers crossed for neither of them getting that glory. 

Delenn says there's no pattern to the Shadows' attacks. The lack of pattern is probably the point - all over the place and unpredictable so the united forces are spread as thin and widely as possible. And the tactical data sorta supports that! They haven't attacked anything in the center of the sector, so refugees are going there. And Sheridan is picking this up now, too. They could nail all the refugees at once. 

"I think this is as much about terror as it is about territory." 

Yeah. 

Hm, Delenn is horrified by Sheridan saying he needs to think like them to beat them. Unless she has a really compelling argument against it, I'm going to have to disagree. How can you counter a tactic unless you understand it? 

Londo just knocked out a Centauri guard with a punch to rescue Vir. He gets no points from me, because he put Vir in that position. 

Unfortunately G'Kar won't get to kill Londo for quite a few years, but maybe he and the resistance will get to kill Refa and his goon squad instead. 

Damn it, Londo was two steps ahead of Refa this whole time. f.ucking annoying. Well. all Centauri warmongering genocidal politics are annoying. Refa being personally in charge of the bombardment of Narn is backfiring on his right now. 

Oh so this means that Vir was an unwitting stooge in the plot all along, and that's extra scummy, considering it resulted in Vir being mindraped and made to believe he'd just given up his mentor and employer. Very very cutthroat politics. No wonder Londo didn't name the embarassment he was planning to remove on behalf of the emperor to prove House Mollari's value. 

Baptist Pastor brought a gospel singer along with him, lol. That's very on brand. And super fucking amusing juxtaposition between her music and Refa being pursued and killed. "There's no hiding place down here." Refa being beaten to death. 

Buuuut as much as I dislike Londo, I am a fan of the person responsible for untold suffering and death getting a tiny fraction of that delivered back to them. So...annoyingly... *sigh* go Londo...

It's so fucking funny that Londo had the ability to slip refa the other half of the two-part poison all along but instead he had him beaten to death for political purposes. 

Vir is angry, but probably not enough to make him break from Londo entirely. 

Delenn has a surprise for Sheridan - "the White Star was never intended to be one of a kind, only the first..." and now there's a whole fleet. 

Hm. As far as first kisses on screen go, that one was pretty dated. I'm happy for them, but the "smear your face against the other person's face" is a style I'm glad has mostly gone away. It doesn't look very pleasant, hahah. 

Mrs Sheridan, I presume?

#woodsfae b5 #g'kar #londo mollari

[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

[woodsfae]

B5 s03e12 Sic Transit Vir table of contents - previous chapter

A two month break isn't too bad compared to my seven month break last year, right? hah

Ivanova seems to be having a naked-at-work dream?? Lol, yes it was. I am actually amused that even in her dream the staff had the nerve to act like anything was out of the ordinary.

Vir checking out his future throne! Get it.

Was Vir also having a dream? Interesting way to open an episode, if so.

Londo having a totally normal reaction to having a bug buzzing around your apartment. Maybe going after a bug with a sword is actually good enrichment for him? I'm impressed that he got it.

"Do you know that you are smaller than I thought you were?"

LOL

Ah, Londo's second-greatest weakness, a beautiful Centauri woman. (his first greatest weakness is someone offering to commit war crimes to elevate his political standing.)

Awww, Sheridan and Delenn are so cute nowadays I can hardly stand it. Just…oozing adorableness at each other at all times.

VIR. You are an ambassador in your own right. Don't be so deferent to Londo!!! You are peers!!

Who tf arranged this marriage?? I hope Lyndisty is nice if they do get married. Ah, answered immediately. One of Vir's uncles, and Lyndisty's mother.

She seems nice. I tentatively like her. And it seems that Vir does, too!

"If you give me a chance, I promise you: when we cross beneath the swords and boughs…it will be for love."

I hope so!! I don't like it when bad things happen to Vir. He takes it like a champ but it's like watching someone kick a puppy.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" "Oh, deliriously! But I always associated delirium with fever. So…there you are."

Wow! I feel like that was definitely his first kiss.

"If kisses could kill, that one would have flattened several small towns."

Lyndisty is coming on SO strong it worries me that she's going to be nefarious. But Vir probably would need any partner to be much more….bold than he is.

Sheridan made Delenn a Minbari dish!

Not well it seems. Their courtship COULD be so rocky, but both of them are so determined to be genial it's actually so smooth!

Well Sheridan did say that nothing stays calm on B5 forever. What instigated this attack, though?! And Zack Allen, if you wanted the attacker to survive, maybe don't shoot them in the head??

Personal grudge against Vir seems…unlikely. And makes me way more suspicious of Lyndisty.

As horrified as Ivanova is to be asked what ladies like in bed, she's definitely a better option to ask than Londo, Vir is right.

Well now idk what Vir is talking about and also don't want to know! Keep that cursed Centauri sexcapades knowledge away from me please.

Delenn is wildly good at speaking indirectly but completely clearly. Wow! If she flirted with me like that I would simply perish.

All two thousand Narns that Vir got off Narn are dead! That's a hell of a motivation for a revenge killing. And the immediate cut to Lyndisty, again, makes me very suspicious of her.

FUCK YOU LONDO. ugh. gross fucker.

Ahhh, Vir faked killing them. Good for him! But maybe he faked their deaths too well, since there's assassins after him now. Vir has been doing so much good work, wow!!

FUCK YOU LONDO. why does he always have to be such a nasty, power-climbing, fascist dick?

"They're Narns, Captain, they don't need a reason for murder." goddamn shut up.

Lyndisty is a "nice" racist. It isn't their fault they're an inferior species, but their inferiority is justification to genocide them!

oh god.

not such a "nice" racist after all, though none of them are, really.

Wow B5 always goes hard. this is dark as fuck. Lyndisty helped murder entire Narnuan villages to "curb aggression," She might be one of the most gleefully murderous characters that's appeared on the show so far. Perhaps second only to that panacea episode with the war criminal.

Here's the puppy-kicking. Stop, Londo. Fuck.

Someone else to be sad for Vir about! No more vacation on Minbar, and emotionally attached to genocidal fascist who has personally murdered hundreds of Narns with her bare hands. Yikes.

And we never found out what happened to the Narn that Lyndisty captured! Hopefully he got free and then snuck into her shuttle back to Narn so Vir can be a widower. He'd get over it.

time for some arthuriana

#babylon 5 #woodsfae b5 #vir cotto

[woodsfae]

B5 s02e22 The Fall of Night table of contents • previous episode

Wow, the season finale of another season! That's 44 episodes and the Gathering in eleven months! Or a year? With the little break I took shortly into season one, and the big break I took in season two, I'm actually surprised that averages out to one every week and a bit. It's been a riot, but I'm beginning to suspect that they aren't going to fight the great war by the end of season two….a few episodes ago Lord Refa told Londo it had been six months since the war with the Narns began, and Sheridan says in the credits it's the year the great war began. So there's another six months to fill before the all-out war begins?

I cannot believe that last episode, Jack the Ripper from 1888 London tortured Delenn half to death. that. That was wild. But it only makes me more stoked to see what they do next, for the season finale! No, really, how are they going to top the whole season so far?

I'm just picturing Bruce Boxleitner sitting in a little set and his plastic helmet acting earnestly into the studio lights for some reason.

Huh, Lennier and Vir have a lot in common. And they meet every to gripe about their ambassadors. So cute. Lennier plus anyone is a winning strategy.

The Centauri arm of colonialism is spreading again, and it's been less than an episode since they took the Narn homeworld! They're doing 90% of the shadows' job for them.

B5, over and over again: "Imperialism is - hey, look at me. Imperialism is bad. Say it with me: "Imperialism is bad." It's not a good thing, only bad."

Hm, Garibaldi's take on Londo that he's holding on for dear life as the situation spins wildly out of control, since he has no fall-back plan or safe harbor that he knows of, gives him more credit than I had been.

There's more sightings of the shadows now, passed off as scary stories pilots tell each other half joking, half warning.

EarthCorps is here to meddle and get direct reports from their fashy spies.

There's pilot elitism!

"A spider big as death and twice as ugly. When it flies past, it's like you hear a scream in your mind. I saw it too."

They really must exude a visceral wrongness. Natural, or cultivated? Lt Keffer (?) is a little batshit to want to find one again. But all pilots are a little nuts (I say as someone about halfway to a pilot's license)

Hm, Ivanova sort of gets along with this EarthForce guy. Or she's charming him on purpose? She's usually blunt or bluntly professional.

A Narn war cruiser survived! Help them, Sheridan! It'll flare tensions like crazy, bring war to Babylon 5 almost certainly. But it's also the right thing to do.

Hm, the other Earthforce guy is also making an effort to get along with Ivanova. Deal with the devil shit. Join our political faction and add your rising star of influence to our cause. And oh, also spy for us and send us information on everything and everyone on B5.

Ivanova gives an excellent, very civil smack-down. Booo fascist faction in the already fascist government.

Lovely. A meeting of everyone who signed up to be spies, and they all get grilled and criticized in front of each other about the quality and quantity of the information they reported. And there are informants who inform on the informants. This isn't concerning at all.

Wasn't Lt Keffer banned from going out and doing sweeps looking for the shadows in hyperspace? This man cannot be stopped by mere orders.

Going by EarthForce Guy's mien, Earth isn't interested in supporting the Narn. Lame. And an Earth-Centauri Alliance! Terrible! Typical!

"A non-aggressive treaty with the Centauri? That's like trying to make nice with a piranha."

A great simile, Sheridan. And awww, he's having baby's first shame over one's totalitarian and morally bankrupt government.

Sheridan and Ivanova's relationship warms me heart. She got him a piece of the Black Star, the Minbari warcruiser which he defeated, to remind him that the impossible is within reach.

Way too many fucking spies on this station. Earth Force does not need to find things out this quickly, and it's disastrous that the Centauri have.

Yeah, go Sheridan! EarchForce is going to be PISSED, but he's defending B5 space. It can't be a neutral station if they bow to whomever shows up with a big warship. Plus, he's the Captain, and he hasn't gotten any direct orders from his superiors, so it is his decision!

There is tension! I feel tense! Wow! What a space battle! They do well at those. Love that Zeta Squadron went and escorted the Narn ship into hyperspace. Good relations being established there!

Sheridan: "[The Centauri ship] fired first, Mr Lantz. I have an obligation to protect this stations." Mr Lantz: "You had no business helping a Narn cruiser." Sheridan: "Are you telling me to disobey regulations?" Mr Lantz: "What regulations?" Sheridan: "General Order 47. EarthForce personnel are required to answer distress calls and assist any vessels not currently involved in hostilities against Earth. Now, it may not have been politically convenient, but legally and morally it was the right decision."

That it was. No matter the amount of Centauri blustering. It is 100% bullshit of these people to be catering to the Centauri so much. Sheridan is ordered, on pain of losing his position, to apologize to the Centauri, which is super lame.

Lt Keffer's computer's voice is fantastic. Good job, human voice actor playing a computer voice!

Sheridan's practicing his apology in the mirror is excellent.

Londo being a sad outcast in the middle of parties because no one wants to associate with his shitty ass is also excellent.

Awwww, Lt Keffer. Excellent work tracking down a shadow ship, brave and quick thinking saving the information, but bad death.

Whoa!!!! Sheridan just jumped out of the shuttle! But Kosh pulls a Dues Ex Machina! And everyone recognizes him with a local name or designation. Has this actor been in the encounter suit all along?

Huh, the inside of the shell of B5, an interesting view.

Sheridan really keeps it together. His calm acknowledgement in just saying "Kosh."

Hmmmmm. Good Vorlon lore.

A Narn in speaking with another being agrees that seeing the being of light was a good omen. Londo claims he saw nothing. I wonder how much truth there is to that.

Ivanova voice-over! We started the season with her voiceover, and I'm glad to end it the same way.

"…[Babylon 5] became our last, best hope for victory. Because sometimes peace is another word for surrender, and because secrets have a way of getting out."

At least there's a publicly released footage of the Shadows now!

This episode did a really good job of making me want to immediately watch another! Season one was great. Season two was better, and with this finale, I'm completely invested in where Season three will take me!

this just in! my top five from s02 and final thoughts before starting s03!

#babylon 5 #john sheridan #kosh: angel mode #woodsfae b5

[woodsfae]

B5 03e14 Ship of Tears previous episode • table of contents

The news from Earth is back, but it's fully propaganda now. 

I'm glad Sheridan's getting to play in the starfuries for a bit. He definitely needs some chill, fun, flying time. 

Dang, it's Walter Koenig! My guy, Bester. Can't wait to see what evil shenanigans he's up to now! 

He's such a good villain. So reasonable. So...off. 

I don't get why the gang are still stonewalling G'Kar...it's ever more fucked up the longer they keep doing it. C'mon, be better. 

I forgot about the new uniforms for a bit but I like them. Looking snazzy! I like the lines and random patch of color. 

I genuinely wonder if Bester intentionally goaded her into hitting him. Glad PsiCorps are against the Shadows...it's a low bar to clear, since the Shadows are against life, but still glad. 

This is a huge enemy-of-my-enemy stretch, though, considering elements within PsiCorps have been directly enemies with B5 interests themselves. Still, cooperation has got to be key against the shadows. 

Wow, this is the biggest fight I've seen Delenn and John have! But seriously for the best to read G'Kar in on all the intel. He brought his intel to them! it's insulting they haven't read him in to their own intel.

Oh shit, they disclosed the existence of the Secret Ship to Bester! That's a hell of a move, as is it for Bester to just plop into the Captain's chair on the bridge. Is that a Star Trek nod? Chekov never commanded the Enterprise in any of the episodes and never sat in the chair, so Bester steals the chair for a second in B5? Cute. 

I gotta pay close attention to Delenn and G'Kar's talk. Delenn's decision to obsfucate was directly because of the Grey Council's decision not to share any info. Delenn's arguing it was a good decision, because if they'd allied openly with the Narns from the beginning, the Shadows would have wiped out the Narns entirely instead of only enabling the Centauri to genocide and oppress them. 

I find G'Kar's reaction a bit...odd. He talks himself around to agreeing with her, which I find a bit shameful of the writers. It cannot ever be a good thing that a people were wiped out without any foreknowledge from supposed allies. Maybe it wouldn't have changed the outcome in terms of life, but who could say what they may have done? 

They have a sort of tractor beam and caught a ship, cool. Weapon's supplies, but it seems to be a person in pained stasis. Dun dun dun.

It's so wild that they took Bester into their confidence enough to take him on the White Star when they're known G'Kar all along and he still doesn't know it exists! Wild, wild set of priorities on information sharing. Bester has been a literally mortal threat to them all, G'Kar has never been a threat to any of them but Londo. And that was fair anyhow. 

A shadow body? Or a different species that's allied? I thought the shadows were multi-limbed, spindly things.

Not just one person in a tube, but over a  hundred! Ivanova called them sleeper tubes, but Dr Franklin calls them cryotubes. 

They have impants on either side of their cerebral cortexes, the lady they were waking up slowly came to screaming and asking why they were doing this. Bester identifies her as "a blip," a telepath who refused to take suppressants or join the corps. This lady is P-11 or P-12. 

And she has a terrible nightmare/flashback to what looks to be three individuals, the same species as the unidentified body they found earlier. Leaning towards species allied with the shadows. 

P-12 lady made herself a nest of wires? And first thing she tries to do is lure Bester in and attack him. Good instincts, lol. And she's in pain, she says. Bester claims she has no reason attack him or sabotage the station by ripping out all the wires, and she automatically shoots at Bester's PsiCorps broach. 

Her name is Carolyn - I guess the shadows already got their hands on her and into her brain? Well that's harrowing. idk what her shared telepathy with Bester was about, even with Bester's explanation. He met her when she was caught and sent to the re-education center, and immediately fell in love with her. Tried to make her experience in the center better...I guess? Bigger quarters and more food. Yikes. And then he knocked her up. No mention of if she had anything to say about that?? jesus. 

Hm, Shadows use people as processing for their ships? They are acting like they've talked about it before, but it's new info to me, and horrifying info at that. 

Bester says his promise to keep her and their baby safe is the only promise he's ever made that he meant a damn. And that if they can help her, he's 100% on Sheridan's side. Handy! If they can pull it off and get those next level impants out of her or something. 

Ivanova says he'll turn on them the second it's all over and I'm inclined to believe her. Maybe he'd play nicer for longer if he achieved some of his goals for telepaths - they are the future, he says. 

Did Garibaldi finally teach himself enough Narn to read some of G'Kar's book? Good for him. 

The Shadows are weak to telepaths, hence probably the 100+ telepaths being made into ship components. And this info is so timely, because the Shadows are attacking a place right now! Telepaths! We ride at space dawn!

Kosh...

#woodsfae b5 #g'kar #delenn #john sheridan #susan ivanova #alfred bester

[woodsfae]

B5 s03e21 Shadow Dancing previous episode - table of contents

I see the next episode is called z'ha'dum (dang I have been mis-spelling that a dozen different ways) so the "z-minus" must be referring to that. This coming at the end of season 3 also affirms for me that Sheridan must survive z'ha'dum despite the prophecy of death. Some heart-stopped-but-he-survived pedantry. I still think Dr Franklin is going to be pivotal. But that's next episode! 

Delenn is speaking before the League of Aligned Worlds or whatever their acronym is. She and Lennier are wearing somber brown and green-grey, as opposed to their usual jewel-tones. Are they trying to dress down to fit in with the lower species? LOL. 

Delenn is asking for more ships than the individual worlds feel they can risk, and is promising that the Minbari are commiting considerable forces as well. 

The Shadows have been driving refugees into sector 83 for months, and Sheridan thinks an attack on the corralled population is imminent. 

It's funny, I used to think Marcus looked annoying but now I'm always so happy to see him. He seems to have recovered from Neroon beating his face in. 

THE PLAN: Ivanova and Marcus are going to sector 83, going completely dark, and are waiting for the Shadows to turn up. Then they're getting out ASAP without engaging them, at any cost. Presumably to summon the rest of the waiting forces that Delenn has just negotiated to be waiting. 

The League is acquiescing to Delenn's request and lending the alliance all their spare ships and then some. Ivanova is in command of the White Star with Marcus as her leal interpreter and they're off! I'm not sure if I think this is going to work, or if it's going to be a miscalculation and they're going to be in a really bad position coming into the season finale. 

"Sometimes people walk away because they want to be alone. Sometimes people walk away because they want to see if you'll folllow them into hell."

Uncharacteristically insightful for Garibaldi, but also, don't play those games. You can't walk yourself into hell on the slim chance that the person you're chasing is hoping to be caught. 

Guest Star Barbara is not making a good impression on me, but we are also shown that Stephen Franklin is looking a little less rough than in his last appearance. 

Z MINUS SIX DAYS

I'm absolutely positive that's counting down to Z'ha'dum now. 

Minbari beds are...not ideal. And it would be pretty strange to wake up to another person at a 45 degree angle staring you (or not) straight in the face. 

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met," says Marcus, then claims it's just a greeting. 

"It meants...my words are inadequate to the burden of my heart."

"That's an unusual greeting."

"They're an unusual people."

Fingers crossed that Susan will remember the pronounciation and repeat it to some unsuspecting Minbari man. 

Fingers also crossed that Susan never ever dates Marcus.

LOL the Minbari beds' feet tip up enough to be almost flat. And then some. asdfkljahf. So you can angle towards either bulkhead based on preference? hah.

Minbari continue to be hilariouly bizarre. Delenn shares a Minbari custom that, when a couple has been flirting as long as they have been, they spend three nights together while the man sleeps and the woman observes his sleeping face. If she likes it, cool. If not, they're finished. 

Stephen Franklin just tried to intervene in a mugging and got a gut-stab for his trouble. Perhaps this will be how he finally meets himself. 

Rough stuff. He's dragging himself along in bloody handprints to try to find help. 

I guess I'd say I've met myself through injuries, but the end result has been me fixing myself up the vast majority of the time, and I'm not even a doctor. Though granted, the injuries have never been a gut stab.

Susan has finally got comfortable, by stealing all the pillows from the beds to make a pallet, and immediately gets an urgent page to the bridge. That tracks!!

The White Star has picked up a signature that's probably-definitely a Shadow ship, and they've come out of the moon-shadow they've been hidden in at the same time. badadadadada tension! 

In the splotchlights Delenn brought Sheridan to keep track of the battles, it looks like Sheridan's going extremely grey. Stress grey. 

Dr Franklin is chillin in a pool of his own blood, chatting with a hallucination of himself. Finally! Space AA can come to a conclusion and Stephen's final form can appear. 

I like how the Shadows' ships move in space. It's quite unlike anything else I've seen. 

Ivanova is returning fire on the Shadows ship, despite the direct orders to escape and not engage for any reason. 

And a whole fleet of Shadows ships are coming into view! Dozens, perhaps even a hundred or more. 

"Well, who wants to live forever?" Ivanova says, and they send the signal to the rest of the fleet. I continue to like her more and more. 

Hmmm. Hallucination!Stephen is a lot harder on Stepehn than I think is fair. This is a really harsh internal dialogue. And uncomfortably relatable? But this kind of negative self-talk can be really improved by finding a good therapist. 

Ahh, so the Grey Council's dramatic spot-lighting has a practical effect! It's also a holographic war-room. Sheridan directs the Minbari telepaths to jam the Shadows' capital ships, and deploys the waiting fleet. They got the message! The White Star's backup is on the way. 

"Don't you go passing out on me - that's just another kind of running away."

I BARKED with laughter at that line. Internal!Stephen is a dick. 

Hmm in the war room lighting, Delenn also looks like she's going grey, so I'm not sure if it's a stress-grey thing or a lighting thing. 

The battle continues. The CGI has noticably improved from s01 and s02. 

The Minbari beds make more sense when they're full of telepaths at work than full of humans failing to fall asleep. 

It appears that the League fleet has driven off the Shadows, but the music and Delenn and Sheridan's mien is somber. Injured personel from the fleet are coming in at the same time as Franklin is getting medical attention. 

"We did ok. Not great, but ok," Sheridan says. Frame it as a victory!! As Ivanova points out, it's the first time they pulled together the League. And they drove them off!! 

Z MINUS 4 DAYS

Garibaldi watches Franklin sleep. I ought to write the fic I have floating around in my head where they get together and only inflict their emotional idiocy on each other.

Garibaldi: "Don't ever do this to me again."

Well that isn't a deterrent. to me.

Delenn is out of the brown-and-green and back into her jewel tones. 

Ivanova thinks the Shadows have been deliberately leaving Babylon 5 alone and hearing this, Sheridan has a flashback to his vision of Ivanova, with a raven on her shoulder, asking "Do you know who I am?" 

Working out the vision - Susan is a latent telepath and said (irl) she doesn't know who she is sometimes. Sheridan also saw himself in a PsiCorps uniform, and Ivanova again in all-black with a veil saying "yuou are the hand." I remember this, but it's handy that they're recapping this because I didn't remember the exact specifics. But they haven't figured out what they think it means. But they better hurry up because a Shadow vessel is in hyperspace going places to do things!

Franklin is the CMO again. Apparently. Unofficial up to the point that Sheridan walked in and offered it to him again. 

Stephen's personal revelations are good - it's important to know yourself. And I like that he's realized he's always defined himsef by what he isn't, and how that didn't serve him well. Psychologically speaking.

hmmm cute. Sheridan's sleeping, and Delenn's watching him with a little smile. And danger is afoot on b5, going by the ominous music and shots of various humans and aliens. Zack Allen wakes up Ivanova to tell her someone's coming on board.

SHERIDAN'S WIFE. fuck yeah

But now I have a new question, considering the multiple shots of a shadow shuttle flying around: is she herself, or is she a puppet of the Shadows? 

Z MINUS 2 DAYS

*definitely not making high pitched noises right now*

Who in the fuck gave Anna the codes to Sheridan's quarters? Like. She's been declared dead and everything. I blame Zack.

z'ha'dum alert

#two in one day - I'm surprised too #babylon 5 #woodsfae b5 #delenn: “my relationship is in danger!” #anna: *shadows programming beep boop*

[woodsfae]

B5 s03e09 Point of No Return table of contents • previous chapter

Londo demonstrating some politic thinking and also 

"Intelligence has nothing to do with politics!"

True and depressing. Poor Vir. Is he getting that nap or not? The Emperor's third wife, Lady Morella is coming for a visit!

President Clark just pulled a coup! Fired the senate, arrested a bunch of them. 

"Everything's gone to hell, John. God help us all; you're on your own." 

How promising! 

The communications blackout of Babylon 5 is an incredibly intelligent move. Removes the possibilities of moles. Or at least makes the moles' tasks harder. Reduces misinformation. Clarifies chain of command on Babylon 5 and distances Earth. 

A General Hague has gone rogue and wants to do a counter strike, but needs to gather military allies. And he's Sheridan's contact in the military. He might be coming near Babylon 5. dun dun! 

Zack Allen is pushing back a little tiny bit against the Nightwatch guy calling a meeting tonight. hooray *waves world's tiniest "you only collaborated a medium amount" flag*

Lady Morella, the Centauri is a seer, and Londo reeeallly wants her to visit so he can ask her about the future, and to assure him he's made the right choice. 

But as a seer, she seems pretty surprised at the unusual circumstances she's walked into. No pomp, no ceremony, no Earth officials to greet her. 

Sheridan and Babylon 5 are getting their official orders from the President's staff. And they're terrible. All of Sheridan's security staff must be Nightwatch. 

Meanwhile, Zealous Nightwatch Guy is giving a terrible speech. 

"From this moment...Babylon 5 belongs to the nightwatch."

Please let them overthrow the nightwatch this episode. Extended spying and counter-intelligence sounds stressful. 

G'Kar, who is free three weeks early, thanks to Garibaldi preferring to assign his security staff to more useful activities than guarding G'Kar in prison, has plot! His allies stand ready, and G'Kar has plans, it seems!

Zack Allen. is failing his moral checkpoints again. He's trying to convince nightwatch people from resigning from the nightwatch. Garibaldi is going to physically fight them, right as Lady Morella is about to take her tour with Londo! Should be fun.

Ah, Lady Morella is the widow of the late Emperor. The one who died and told Londo with his last words that they were basically doomed, and Londo unfaithfully repeated as the empire will be glorious or something. 

Will this, finally, be a turning point for Londo? He wants to see if he has any choices left, and if they're worth choosing. And Lady Morella has agreed to give him a reading! Exciting. 

Jerry Doyle just gave Zack Allen a speech! And now he's giving the nightwatch a speech, but they're not buying it like Zack Allen, who seemed to waver a bit. fucking Zack is the new security head. laaaaaame. He's so laaaame. 

G'Kar is all into transformative meditations to turn himself into a calm being right now. The telepathy drug experience did a number on him. Gave him a fervor with a directed clarity. Ta'Lon is not impressed. 

Humanity is the key, and G'Kar and others will turn the key. And on the other side is "salvation for all of us." 

Sheridan, stop going along with this. Just go overthrow the nightwatch. Garibaldi will be working it from one end, to be sure. 

Londo!! The audacity! He took Lady Morella's arm and tried to stop her from going to where she was going (to see the human breaking news). General Hague the rogue general has had a daring escape and the nightwatch broke up the cheering crowd. Cue citizens vs nightwatch brawl!  

Great work putting Sheridan's calm announcement of martial law over the brawl. With Zack Allen standing uselessly by as nightwatch fascists beat civilians with batons. 

Dr Franklin thinks that going along with the orders will help buy enough time for General Hague to gather allies, the Senate to reconvene, and "beat this whole thing."

Sheridan's attention to detail and rules-lawyering is coming into play! The orders he got came from "the political office" but Sheridan is only obliged to obey orders from the Commander-in-Chief. Which is the President Wanna-Be-Dictator. So his orders would be bad. But the orders didn't come from him, they came from "the political office."

Lady Morella had a vision while doing Vir's hair! It appeared to be Londo, old, and slumped on a throne-like ornate chair. 

Zack Allen is reporting that Babylon 5 staff are bringing a ship of Narns in to replace the nightwatch. I wonder if this is a play. I'm hoping that Sheridan et al is running a play on him and the nightwatch. Because if they decided to trust in his moral fiber, they're bound to be sadly disappointed. He's cosmically bound to always make the worst choice. 

G'Kar has a plan, and plea to his Narn network. Can't wait to see how that plays out. 

John Sheridan is getting ready for something Very Srsly. And he's already up and ready to go when his alarm went off at 2:30 am so I'm taking it as proof of the Sheridan et al are playing the nightwatch theory. Zack could be acting shady because he's in on it, or...ope, he was in on it! What a dive out the gate. He landed on the right side at the eleventh hour. Now lovebomb him so he doesn't falter, I guess? 

Sheridan's stalling, more or less per Franklin's advice. The information about the Narns was real! Sort of. The Narns were already on board! This must be G'Kar's plan blooming? Cool! 

Londo has three opportunities to avoid the fire that awaits him at the end of his journey, and has already missed two. And a lot of other things I'll need to look up and copy at some point. 

Lady Morella: "You will be Emperor. That part of your destiny cannot be avoided. You will also be emperor. Why are you laughing?" Vir: "I thought you were joking." Lady Morella: "We do not laugh in the face of prophecy, Vir."

ominous! And Vir will be Emperor, huh? That's wild. And Londo will be Emperor! That's interesting. He fails upwardly so hard he eventually lands in the hot seat he doesn't know he doesn't want, eh? I never knew that. Y'all are really good at keeping spoilers secret.

Oh dang!! She's sharing the lift with Ta'Lon, who smiles so politely at her! Adorable. She is not impressed in the slightest. 

Yeah, G'Kar! He wants in. Sheridan playing dumb is honestly so disingenuous. Their anti-Shadow alliance has been so dismissive of the Narn and G'Kar, but they're literally the best allies the humans could be making right now. Because like Zack Allen, human earth command has been making all the worst decisions and backing the wrong ponies. 

And now Londo doesn't trust Vir to not be trying to kill him all the time! Vir is hilarious teasing him about it. At least, I think he's teasing. 

General Hague is in a bad way. Four out of five of his ships have been shot down and he's fleeing in the last one. Humanity's not making awesome decisions, ongoing. Well, the high political offices, anyway. I can't blame the future's citizens for their dystopia from my position in my dystopia too harshly.

vamanos

#woodsfae b5 #john sheridan #g'kar #londo mollari #vir cotto #babylon 5