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Just finished the Babylon 5 series run, some random observations

Likewise, when Londo leaves a Keeper in the jar for David Sheridan, and the camera lingers on the object with ominous music, it feels more like a cliffhanger than an indication that things will happen after the series has finished.
The result of this one was shown, in season three in War Without End. Keeper controlled by the Drakh on Centauri Prime given to David -> leads to Sheridan coming to Centauri Prime -> leads to Sheridan and Delenn being in a Centauri Prime prison cell -> Londo lets Sheridan & Delenn escape when the Keeper is asleep.

I don't want to have to go read three Psi Corps novels to find out when & if Garbaldi ever got to even the score with Bester.
Garibaldi made the deal with Lyta to remove Bester's blocks and Garibaldi is alive and happy in 2281. The conclusion should be apparent even without the details from the books.

I have a feeling the show would've been much better-balanced overall if the Season Five renewal had come sooner. That would've allowed JMS to extend a few of the Earth War plot threads into the next year
The plan was to have the Earth and Minbari Civil wars flow into season five, but the second half of season five likely would have been pretty much the same.
 
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The G'kar/Londo relationship seems unrealistic to us, since it involves a perspective that many people lack. G'kar as of Season 4 cannot forgive Londo, yet even then Londo's words reveal that he is genuinely contrite and G'kar gives him a sharp glance when he says "I do know who my friends are, and that I have not done as well by them as I should". The seeds are laid fairly early on - Londo is a victim of the Shadows' manipulation - that speaks to a flaw in his character but not any genuine malice towards the Narns.

G'kar, in the meantime, has been manipulated by the Vorlons, but in a very positive way (since the Vorlon involved was Kosh)... he has realised that only letting go of hatred and vengeance will end the war - exactly what one or both sides need to learn in the Israel/Palestine conflict. It's hard for him to do, but he is open to the idea of forgiveness. Londo's own horror concerning just how close to the abyss he came completes the circle, and yet G'kar still gets his "revenge" by helping Londo cheat the will of his Keeper.

It only seems odd because it's the sort of enlightened thinking that very few people are actually capable of. Think of Ghandi when you think of G'kar... Ghandi preached non-violent resistance and could meet and talk amicably with British officials, even though they were oppressing his people.

It wasn't entirely enlightened. There was a rather huge element of Stockholm syndrome, there. First, Londo and G'Kar were trapped together in an elevator. Then, G'Kar kidnapped and raped Londo while Kosh watched.

Stolkholm syndrome works both ways. When faced with high stress situations, people tend to default to bonding with whomever is nearby. I imagine that this is true of any social species. Bonds form quickly quickly in such situations and they form despite all common sense and logic and even hate. Kosh's manipulations didn't hurt, either.
 
Likewise, when Londo leaves a Keeper in the jar for David Sheridan, and the camera lingers on the object with ominous music, it feels more like a cliffhanger than an indication that things will happen after the series has finished.
The result of this one was shown, in season three in War Without End. Keeper controlled by the Drakh on Centauri Prime given to David -> leads to Sheridan coming to Centauri Prime -> leads to Sheridan and Delenn being in a Centauri Prime prison cell -> Londo lets Sheridan & Delenn escape when the Keeper is asleep.

Well, sure. But you won't know that unless you've read "Legions of Fire" (besides a few bits that can be intuited from "War Without End"). I can't complain too loudly about that, since they're terrific for media tie-in novels (alas, the third volume is out-of-print), but it would have been nice to see that material covered on screen. I particularly lament the movies "River of Souls" and, to a lesser extent, "Thirdspace." It seems like they could have covered some pretty interesting ground that was more arc-related.

Garibaldi made the deal with Lyta to remove Bester's blocks and Garibaldi is alive and happy in 2281. The conclusion should be apparent even without the details from the books.

That conclusion hardly contains the same satisfaction derived by Garibaldi's chase of Bester at the end of the third Psi-Corp book. The key here is the Bester-Garibaldi dynamic, which is totally ignored by the answers the show provides.

The plan was to have the Earth and Minbari Civil wars flow into season five, but the second half of season five likely would have been pretty much the same.

Well, there's no way to know for sure, since JMS lost his season five outline notes, but it seems like most of the pieces are there, yes.
 
It's nice to see some back-up from others on the Lennier character assasination thing. It was like the idea was "well, two episodes until the end here folks, let's ruin Lennier's character by making him do something that he wouldn't really do."
 
It's true that a lot of series finales don't spell out the fates of some major characters. However, most of those finales DON'T take the trouble of setting those episodes TWENTY YEARS IN THE FUTURE. That setting alone would usually indicate that it would be taken advantage of to show what happens in the intervening period. Other than for the group seen on-screen in "Sleeping In Light" this doesn't apply.

But the intervening period is completely irrelevant to the story being told. They didn't set the episode 20 years later to show what everybody had been up to. They set it 20 years later to show that, even though they've all gone on to live their own lives, they would all come together to say goodbye to their friend.
 
Keeper controlled by the Drakh on Centauri Prime given to David -> leads to Sheridan coming to Centauri Prime -> leads to Sheridan and Delenn being in a Centauri Prime prison cell -> Londo lets Sheridan & Delenn escape when the Keeper is asleep.

Well, sure. But you won't know that unless you've read "Legions of Fire"
We know from the show that David's getting a keeper, that Londo has a keeper, and when Sheridan & Delenn are in the cell Delenn says "David is safe." The details of the books are interesting but the major points are mentioned in the show.

Garibaldi made the deal with Lyta to remove Bester's blocks and Garibaldi is alive and happy in 2281. The conclusion should be apparent even without the details from the books.

That conclusion hardly contains the same satisfaction derived by Garibaldi's chase of Bester at the end of the third Psi-Corp book. The key here is the Bester-Garibaldi dynamic, which is totally ignored by the answers the show provides.
The point of the other post seemed to be that it wasn't clear if Garibaldi got revenge on Bester. The result of it can be deduced from the show though, since Garibaldi makes it to Sheridan's farewell and seems to be quite well off. The details of the final chase of Garibaldi after Bester is interesting but it should be clear who came out on top even without reading that.

The plan was to have the Earth and Minbari Civil wars flow into season five, but the second half of season five likely would have been pretty much the same.

Well, there's no way to know for sure, since JMS lost his season five outline notes, but it seems like most of the pieces are there, yes.
What was lost were the detailed episode notecards that had episode titles, dialogue, and key scenes, but the overall arc document was still there and Joe has said it was the first half of the season five notecards that were thrown out:

jms said:
My detailed notes on the first half of the season were tossed out by the hotel staff

sonak said:
It's nice to see some back-up from others on the Lennier character assasination thing. It was like the idea was "well, two episodes until the end here folks, let's ruin Lennier's character by making him do something that he wouldn't really do."
I don't understand the "a character would never do that" complaint. *Any* character can have dark sides, even if they mostly do good. Lennier's obsession with Delenn was set up in several episodes, and obsession can drive dark behaviors.
 
I don't understand the "a character would never do that" complaint. *Any* character can have dark sides, even if they mostly do good. Lennier's obsession with Delenn was set up in several episodes, and obsession can drive dark behaviors.

While I don't disagree that obsession can make people do dark things, Lennier's behavior really did seem to come out of nowhere. Yeah, I knew he loved Delenn, but I never ever thought that he would become a murderer for it.
 
I don't understand the "a character would never do that" complaint. *Any* character can have dark sides, even if they mostly do good. Lennier's obsession with Delenn was set up in several episodes, and obsession can drive dark behaviors.

While I don't disagree that obsession can make people do dark things, Lennier's behavior really did seem to come out of nowhere. Yeah, I knew he loved Delenn, but I never ever thought that he would become a murderer for it.

But it wasn't a murder plot on his part. It was a moment when he realised that all he had to do to get Sheridan out of his way was 'nothing'. It was a moment of insanity, it's the same little voice that everyone has that most people ignore 99.9999% of the time. Just this once, he listened to that voice and almost instantly regretted it.

Was it out of character? Of course it was, that was the whole point.
 
Yeah, the Lennier "twist" is nothing that hasn't been done in literature before, nor is it particularly unrealistic.

Aside from the more drastic consequences it's rather akin to posting something unfortunate here and realizing ten seconds later, but after it's already been seen, "Crap, I really shouldn't have posted that."

In short - sometimes people do things without fully thinking them out.
 
Indeed. Lennier would have rescued Sheridan but, by the time he got back there, Sheridan had already rescued himself. It was one moment of unthinking stupidity based on jealousy, it could happen to a lot of us.
 
whatever happened to Lt. Commander Takashima >.>

I think JMS said she was transferred to some remote posting out on the rim.

Early in the production of the first season, JMS (in Cinefantastique, iirc) said he wanted to do an episode where Takashima returns to Babylon 5 from the Rim and something was chasing her. He said the teaser would involve a damaged ship that the crew would have to tow into the docking bay. The ship doors open to reveal a bloody Takashima, who'd collapse — fade to black.
 
^Sounds pretty much how he ended up re-introducing Lyta. It is a shame that Takashima never got to come back. I'll assume it was down to a combination of the actress's busy workload and the lack of a fully realised story. In the very least she would have been a good candidate for one of the series of Short Stories they were publishing back in '98/'99-ish. Hell, that annoying telepath girl from 'Legacies' got one, why not Laurel? ;)

While we're playing the "what-if" game, I could see her making a return in Crusade given her background on Mars and the direction the plot of that show was really headed. I not TGB is watching so I shan't elaborate on that. :p
 
Indeed. Lennier would have rescued Sheridan but, by the time he got back there, Sheridan had already rescued himself. It was one moment of unthinking stupidity based on jealousy, it could happen to a lot of us.

Possibly, but I still didn't like it. I guess I just didn't quite see the point of them doing it.
 
What made it unrealistic was changing it from his pining after Delenn to actually (however briefly) desiring harm to come to Sheridan. That had been an aspect never seen before. Delenn even mentions that although she knew of his feelings for her,(obviously since he literally spells it out when he thinks they're going to die) there's NEVER been an indication that Lennier wished for violence toward Sheridan.


That skips a level. Unrequited love is very different from someone wanting to see a "rival" dead. Lennier had never shown anger or resentment toward Sheridan before.

That part just really bugged me for some reason. It was like the show was sticking it to Lennier for some nebulous purpose.
 
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