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Babylon 5

I feel that watching G'Kar's arc in B5 perhaps made me a bit of a wiser person than I was before.

"If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth, for understanding. Too often, we assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search – who does not bring a lantern – sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light… pure and unblemished… not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe – God looks astonishingly like we do – or we turn to look at our shadow and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world around us."
 
I've never personally been that big of a fan of G'Kar, although I recognize why he appeals so much to other fans.

Londo is the character I gravitate more towards, from the insults to the tragic nature of the Faustian bargain he makes.
 
Just for the record, my favorite B5 characters are, in no real order, Sheridan, Delenn, Londo, Ivanova, Kosh, and Lochley (which is why it bugs me so much from a purely narrative standpoint that Sleeping in Light was used as the series finale without being edited to include either an appearance from her or a mention of her).
 
Both very good characters, and anytime you had the two of them together was pure gold.

Absolutely. The acting from both actors was phenomenal. And they had some great writing to work with. They were the best frenemies, hating each other because of the war between their two respective civilizations but also growing to respect each other as individuals by the end. These two scenes illustrate this character development perfectly, I think. My two favorite scenese with Londo and G'Kar.

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I've been trying to find TV series and podcasts to occupy my work-week, and this B5 talk has inspired me to do a rewatch.

I also just added the Movies collection to my B5 DVD library in preparation (it'll get here Tuesday), which'll let me follow the Lurker's Guide Master List once I start my rewatch.
 
I tend to think that preferring Londo over G'Kar, or G'Kar over Londo to be a rather strange attitude that rather misses the point of both of their arcs. Neither works without the other. They're entirely interdependent. Two sides of the same coin. They drag each other down and lift each other up. In all of genre fiction the only "frienemy duo" that even comes close is Xavier and Magneto.

Still a ways to go yet so I won't comment on how their arcs end up (beyond what's already been seen in the 'War Without End' flash forward) but just consider how both of them started in season one. Both blustery, often comically ineffectual, petty and a little bit sad; Londo consumed by nostalgia for lost glories, resigned to the inevitable decline of his culture; G'Kar consumed by ambition and self-importance, desperate to have his people as feared and respected as any of the other major players. No two characters have come as far or have changed as much.
 
Just for the record, my favorite B5 characters are, in no real order, Sheridan, Delenn, Londo, Ivanova, Kosh, and Lochley (which is why it bugs me so much from a purely narrative standpoint that Sleeping in Light was used as the series finale without being edited to include either an appearance from her or a mention of her).

Things went downhill for Liz after she got an apocalypse box in her second divorce.
 
Londo and G'Kar were my favorite characters on the show, I thought they both had the most fascinating arcs on the show, and were even better when you looked at the way they paralleled each other.
 
Absolutely. The acting from both actors was phenomenal. And they had some great writing to work with. They were the best frenemies, hating each other because of the war between their two respective civilizations but also growing to respect each other as individuals by the end. These two scenes illustrate this character development perfectly, I think. My two favorite scenese with Londo and G'Kar.

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I think what I've come to like most about that bit from "Long, Twilight Struggle", on a subtle level, is that Londo's blink-and-you-miss-it cough is no accident.
 
The scene is great, but I also like the later repercussions of it. Avoiding spoilers since it's not clear to me whether anyone's currently doing a first watch.
 
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