End of Shadow War = Lame

We need that on a T-Shirt!

 

If people wanted it to end with another shooting match, they've missed the point entirely.

 

Personally, I don't feel it comes down to different acting styles. I'm fine with that. I just don't feel she can act worth a dime. Granted, that's my personal judgement, and I'm by no means an expert.

I was always interested in the character of Delenn, for example, but it was a constant battle for me. Having to take her seriously meant filtering out big parts of Furlan's performance which I just found absolutely cringe worthy a lot of the time.

The interesting thing for me is that I CAN actually enjoy watching people who aren't what I consider good or great actors and enjoy myself anyway. Arnold is a great example of this, but he's got such good screen presence that I get a lot of fun out of his movies.

Furlan IMHO just doesn't have that. She basically lacks the skill AND the presence to pull off the Delenn part sufficiently.

I think it's to the show's credit that it works (for me) anyway. Delenn is well defined as a character. There's many different sides to her, and she has some darker qualites about her that I really like.

If people enjoy Furlan's performance, that's great. But personally, I don't see how one can even begin to compare her with the likes of Robinson or others. But then, such is life that we don't always understand the people around us .

That's a quibble I have with the show myself. It doesn't bother me as much today but I remember it really stood out to me during the original run.

One of the things I remember (and I know this is venturing into dangerous territoriy ) is that I found the Dominion threat on DS9 to be a lot more menacing for that reason precisely.
On B5, you'd have these spider-like Shadow ships appear, blast everything to bits and disappear. That's frightening on a rational level but not so much on an emotional one, I find.
On DS9, on the other hand, you were constantly confronted with the face of the enemy. The combination of cruelty, ruthlessness, intelligence, and charm that characterizes one Gul Dukat is IMHO a lot more menacing.
I think you can see this phenomenon if you watch the news. It's the close-up and personal tragedies that really move us, not the broad, sweeping disasters, I think.

Very true.

I've also found that it's a reminder to keep an open mind to new shows. Sometimes you'll see somebody react very negatively to a show, and you remember how negative you were before you really gave it a chance yourself.

 

There's a JMS post where he discusses showing vs not showing something that might be relevant to this.

As he indicated at times in the script books, sometimes he tried to convey a sense of something kind of subliminally rather than pointing a spotlight at it. That was behind his not giving Morden a first name, too, as I recall.

Jan

 

Like some of what is going on with Fringe. I suspect that show will be one of those which may turn out to be a genre classic, if not a phenomenon. But a pilot that had a show feeling it's way and seeking to differentiate itself from it's famous pod-brother, The X-Files, has some people writing it off right out the gate.

I'm one of those who is cautious about new shows, but I do have a few I'm looking forward to, mostly due to the pedigree of their creators (Abrams, Moore, Whedon). But I am open to others, and if the geek meter seems to tickle my genre sweet spots, I may give a gander.

 

I don't think anyone has said that they wanted that.

 

Just saying.

Personally I think it was a perfect resolution to that whole arc.

 

My favorite was how, whenever Delenn had to be profound or wise or all holy-like, she'd just raise her voice to a high whisper, and that's it. Or when she had to be serious or bad-ass, just make her voice real deep (to the point where she would actually croak out words), and that's it, no body inflection whatsoever.

Delenn had some powerful WRITTEN moments. Some of that stuff would be mind-blowing television with a truly great actress.

A lot of B5 actors though do get by out of sheer earnestness, though. You can just see and hear that Boxleitner isn't a praticularly good actor, but he does it with such gusto that its hard not like him, sort of like some of the dodgy but fun action in the original star wars movie.

 

Yep, it was terrible - bargain-basement "Captain Kirk," and it eliminated the last pretense the series had to complex and sophisticated storytelling.

 

I just found it rushed, like it was way too easy to convince the Vorlons and Shadows to leave, but I'm very okay with the idea behind it.

 

Lets not forget that Lorien was standing RIGHT there. Lorien being the closest thing to a living god in the eyes of the other first ones, that had to have factored into their acceptance. Also, being first ones I imagine they're a little quicker on the uptake than most so once it became clear they'd failed as guardians, what else could they do?

 

I dunno. I think just would have liked a little more time spent with the First Ones, instead of them just taking off.

 

The guy has spent the last million years sitting at the bottom of a pit. Time doesn't mean the same to him as it does to us.

Spoiler: Sleeping in Light

He also spent two decades waiting beyond the rim for Sheridan to croak.

 

I just mean "on screen" time. Have the next half of an episode deal with the departure of the First Ones, instead of them just being suddenly gone.

It's not a big deal, really. It's the storytelling, not the story itself, that felt rushed.

 

It's supposed to be sudden. Besides, I think it'd rather out of character for them to have a drawn out farewell. Silently sidling off, phasing out or zooming off is much more in keeping with what we've come to expect from them.

Of course all we saw was them all leaving Coriana VI space. it was at least several days before Z'ha'dum was fully evacuated and with Vorlon space sealed off there's no telling what went on when they left.

 

I just rewatched the scene that ended the Shadow War again and I have to say that it does appear that I may enjoy the series even more the second time through, knowing what I'll know. But after watching this scene again something jumped out at me very plainly. This whole scenario reminds me of our political scene. Conservative Republicans vs. Liberal Democrats. It seemed so obvious that I'm surprised it didn't jump out at me this plainly the first time. The Vorlons, order, obedience (religious), "of the past," Shadows, "of the future," chaos, Darwin's natural selection (science). But the thing that stuck out to me most in this comparison is the idea that, to the Vorlons and Shadows, it was no longer about helping the younger races (the people), it had become completely about which team wins and has bragging rights. Then, in the scene, the people step up to these two "parties" and say "Enough! We don't need you anymore. Get the hell out of our galaxy!"

Anyone else see it that way?

 

Well, I do now...

 

The conflict between order and chaos and the need to move out of your parents' influence is as old as the hills. It's just as relevant today as it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. As such you can find parallels in socio-political situations throughout history.