B5 Season 3 Character Ruminations
Dec. 15th, 2006 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mllelaurelHaving just finished off Season 3, last night...
- Three seasons in (plus "The Gathering"), and I've yet to find a single reason to give half a damn about Lyta Alexander. I know she'll become more prominent in the coming seasons, but with her screen time and interest value so far, they might as well have put Bester on the DVD cover. At least he's interesting.
(Before anyone asks, no, I don't dislike her because she's sort of replaced Talia, whom I've liked from day one. I've actually considered this and come to the conclusion that 1) her role on the station and toward the other characters is nothing like Talia's, so no replacement occured, and 2) I don't actually dislike her, merely have no interest in her whatsoever.)
- Speaking of Bester, I so didn't expect to like him, even a little bit. And I still don't, mostly, but I'll admit to his moments of cool, and even his moments of sympathetic. Plus, you know, he's interesting.
- Morden on the other hand...Well, let's just say Vir had the right idea in replying to Morden's "What do you want?" with "Your head on a pole." Sounds good to me.
- Another thing I didn't expect was for Kosh's death to upset me as much as it did. I think it was the way he took the shape of Sheridan's father in Sheridan's dream that finally got me, and the way "Interludes and Examinations" (was that the episode?) set him up totally unsympathetic, only to twist everything we knew, with that ending.
- Ok, fine, I'll admit it. Lyta's reaction in the Shadow battle after Kosh's death got through to me as well. But that's like the only bit of genuine emotion we've seen from her yet.
- Moving on to other characters: Marcus Cole is cool, and I enjoy his screen time. I'm not going to fangirl him, the way much of the fandom does, but he's cool. I don't particularly want Ivanova to return his feelings, but thus far she hasn't and they still have an excellent platonic chemistry.
- On that note, without spoiling me, have we seen any on-screen evidence of Ivanova being attracted to men? I have this feeling I've forgotten something.
- I was a little hesitant about the Sheridan/Delenn pairing, as major pairings tend to suck out the characters' individuality (particularly in the case of the female character). However, that hasn't happened so far. Both Sheridan and Delenn have non-romantic scenes with each other, and plenty of scenes with other people. Yay! Plus they've been actually cute, instead of gooshy or disturbingly codependent. Very yay!
- I'd be remiss now if I didn't mention Delenn's moment of unmitigated badassery in "Severed Dreams." In fact, if I had to site a single episode that made me jump up and cheer over all, this is it. Any of the misgivings I had about Sheridan in Season 2 are pretty much gone now. He grew into the leader shoes nicely.
- I've been musing for a while now that, no matter now fabulous the other characters are, Londo and G'Kar are really the ones at the heart of the story. It was "War Without End" that finally convinced me all the way. They are easily the best-developed, and with this cast, that's saying something. I've never met two characters who walked so fine a line between me wanting to hug either or both, or wanting to strangle them, and have it be due to point of view and story development, rather than inconsistent writing (Gwen Cooper, I'm looking at you here...). One thing that's managed to impress the hell out of me is the way JMS, Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas get right into their heads, so that even if they're doing something screamingly, horribly wrong, you still know why they do it, and never quite lose the precarious sympathy. Their logic may not be our Earth logic, but considering they're not from Earth, that's as it should be.
- I'm noticing a cliffhanger pattern forming: "It's the last episode - let's do something bad to Garibaldi." Somehow, I don't think they'd kill off either him or Sheridan just like that, but what do I know? Either way, Season 4 can't get here soon enough.
- Three seasons in (plus "The Gathering"), and I've yet to find a single reason to give half a damn about Lyta Alexander. I know she'll become more prominent in the coming seasons, but with her screen time and interest value so far, they might as well have put Bester on the DVD cover. At least he's interesting.
(Before anyone asks, no, I don't dislike her because she's sort of replaced Talia, whom I've liked from day one. I've actually considered this and come to the conclusion that 1) her role on the station and toward the other characters is nothing like Talia's, so no replacement occured, and 2) I don't actually dislike her, merely have no interest in her whatsoever.)
- Speaking of Bester, I so didn't expect to like him, even a little bit. And I still don't, mostly, but I'll admit to his moments of cool, and even his moments of sympathetic. Plus, you know, he's interesting.
- Morden on the other hand...Well, let's just say Vir had the right idea in replying to Morden's "What do you want?" with "Your head on a pole." Sounds good to me.
- Another thing I didn't expect was for Kosh's death to upset me as much as it did. I think it was the way he took the shape of Sheridan's father in Sheridan's dream that finally got me, and the way "Interludes and Examinations" (was that the episode?) set him up totally unsympathetic, only to twist everything we knew, with that ending.
- Ok, fine, I'll admit it. Lyta's reaction in the Shadow battle after Kosh's death got through to me as well. But that's like the only bit of genuine emotion we've seen from her yet.
- Moving on to other characters: Marcus Cole is cool, and I enjoy his screen time. I'm not going to fangirl him, the way much of the fandom does, but he's cool. I don't particularly want Ivanova to return his feelings, but thus far she hasn't and they still have an excellent platonic chemistry.
- On that note, without spoiling me, have we seen any on-screen evidence of Ivanova being attracted to men? I have this feeling I've forgotten something.
- I was a little hesitant about the Sheridan/Delenn pairing, as major pairings tend to suck out the characters' individuality (particularly in the case of the female character). However, that hasn't happened so far. Both Sheridan and Delenn have non-romantic scenes with each other, and plenty of scenes with other people. Yay! Plus they've been actually cute, instead of gooshy or disturbingly codependent. Very yay!
- I'd be remiss now if I didn't mention Delenn's moment of unmitigated badassery in "Severed Dreams." In fact, if I had to site a single episode that made me jump up and cheer over all, this is it. Any of the misgivings I had about Sheridan in Season 2 are pretty much gone now. He grew into the leader shoes nicely.
- I've been musing for a while now that, no matter now fabulous the other characters are, Londo and G'Kar are really the ones at the heart of the story. It was "War Without End" that finally convinced me all the way. They are easily the best-developed, and with this cast, that's saying something. I've never met two characters who walked so fine a line between me wanting to hug either or both, or wanting to strangle them, and have it be due to point of view and story development, rather than inconsistent writing (Gwen Cooper, I'm looking at you here...). One thing that's managed to impress the hell out of me is the way JMS, Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas get right into their heads, so that even if they're doing something screamingly, horribly wrong, you still know why they do it, and never quite lose the precarious sympathy. Their logic may not be our Earth logic, but considering they're not from Earth, that's as it should be.
- I'm noticing a cliffhanger pattern forming: "It's the last episode - let's do something bad to Garibaldi." Somehow, I don't think they'd kill off either him or Sheridan just like that, but what do I know? Either way, Season 4 can't get here soon enough.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-15 10:00 pm (UTC)Sheridan/Delenn is a well-done canon 'ship imo, for exactly that reason. They still have their own plots and things to do. They're both leaders and the 'ship doesn't take away from that.
Severed Dreams is all kinds of awesome. Rawr.
Londo and G'Kar are great. The way individual character arcs and overarching story run parallel and cross over and move around each other are part of the reason Babylon 5 is so amazing. The whole thing's so carefull constructed and there's really nothing there as filler. It's all plot and foreshadowing and character development, and I love it.
Lyta isn't a character I loved either. She has moments of great, and she's there as a hook into bits of the plot, and I went from liking her to not caring and back again, but she's got some interesting moments coming up.
I love love love that you're so happy over B5.
Meanwhile I've got back into Who and started watching Torchwood. Ha.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-15 10:21 pm (UTC)I am so, so glad Delenn was not only developed into a leader in her own right, but was a leader well before Sheridan even came into the picture. They stand on equal ground and respect one another. Something many ships could take a lesson from.
Take the story interconnectedness. Now take JMS claiming that he doesn't do outlines. I'm officially scared of the organizational power in that man's brain.
Glad to hear Lyta's going to be doing cool stuff soon. I look forward to it.
B5 is one of those shows that just. Fills me with joy. It works on technical levels. It works on emotional levels. It really is love, for me.
*dances* Mwahaha, another convert!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-15 10:26 pm (UTC)I completely agree. It gives them all kinds of problems and time apart but they work around it and accept it. It's good.
JMS did plan the story arc. B5 was always meant to be 5 years long if they could manage it. That said, a lot of the detail came as they went along I think. So yeah, wow brain.
YES. That's exactly why I love B5.
And DW owns me. Wibble.