fannish5: Memorable Lines

[selenak]

Five favorite (or most memorable) lines of dialogue.

Five? Only five? I'm a Joss Whedon fan. And a Blake's 7 fan. And - okay. Five.

1) "I can't be the first person who has trouble taking you seriously, can I?" Arvin Sloane, to McKennas Cole (Quentin Tarantino) while the later is giving him a typical Tarantino-style pop culture rant while torturing him; Alias. What makes the scene is that Sloane isn't a tough action hero; in fact, he's the villain of the show. It's not that he doesn't feel fear and pain, either. (He shows them later once the ordeal is over, but to his frenemy, Jack Bristow, and only to Jack. Certainly not to Cole.) But with that once sentence, he gains the upper hand in a situation where the odds are completely against him.

2) "Also, I can kill you with my brain." It's the "also" that makes it; River Tam, in Firefly, being hilarious and scary and sincere in the way Whedonian creations can be.

3) "Did it occur to you, mother, that it might be you they hate, rather than me?" "Nothing occurs to you that didn't occur to me first. That is the affliction with which I live." Tiberius and Livia in I, Claudius. Livia: still ruling supreme among ruthless, cruel and witty matriarchs.

4) Darla, pressing a cross into Angel's flesh and burning him with it: "No matter how good a boy you are, God doesn't want you!" He backs off. "But I still do." In one sentence, you have the Darla/Angel (without - us) relationship and my favourite arc until Connor came back from Quor'toth. And it was a last minute rewrite of the original script, too. Darla in Angel: The Series.

5) "I never wanted you to… I remember when you first arrived on Babylon 5. You were so full of life... innocent. I was not kind to you. I treated you poorly. I think that I did that because I was... envious of you. Envious that you had come so far and yet were still... innocent, in your way. You still believed. I, on the other hand... I cannot tell you that your pain will ever go away. I cannot tell you that you will ever forget his face. I can only tell you that it was necessary. You may have helped to save our people. You did a hard thing... but you still have your heart, and your heart is a good one. You would not be in such great pain otherwise. It means there is still hope for you. And for that... I find I still envy you." - Londo Mollari to Vir Cotto, in Babylon 5. Londo has so many funny lines, and so many moving lines; it's incredibly hard to pick one bit of dialogue and interaction. But this is my choice, because the scene it is from is outstanding in many ways. Through a variety of circumstances, Vir has just killed for the first time. The man he killed was one of the vilest villains of the show, but Babylon 5 still doesn't treat this as an easy thing, and shows the aftermath on Vir, whom Londo finds drunk. Londo's attempt to comfort Vir here sums up the depth of emotion between them and the self awareness of Londo in one swoop.

Comments

[wondygal.livejournal.com]

Seeing Jack and Sloane described as "frenemies" cracks me up so much. I can't help imagining their faces if they heard this. Hee! Also, yes, I LOVE that scene - like many other people (I would imagine), that is where I started loving Sloane.

And the Angel quote! That was the first episode of Angel I saw, and I fell in love with people left and right that day.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Jack and Sloane: Well, they are.*g* Also, the description "my best enemy" was already taken. *veg*

Dear Boy was definitely was the the episode where I fell in love with Darla (as I was in love with the other characters before already), and it never went away...

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

JMS tells the story of writing the scene where Cartagia is murdered - Londo was going to do it, but in the middle of writing, Vir stepped up and did the deed. JMS surprised himself with that one - and makes the whole scene much more powerful. Leading to the great quote above.

And, yes, the Darla line - a perfect summation of their relationship. Tim Minear?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Nope. David Greenwalt wrote the original script - which was online for a while, back when shooting scripts were - and Marti Noxon did an uncredited rewrite on the entire final Darla and Angel scene, making it that much more powerful. That line was entirely hers, according to Greenwalt, Joss, Tim M. et all.

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

Marti Noxon did an uncredited rewrite on the entire final Darla and Angel scene, making it that much more powerful. That line was entirely hers, according to Greenwalt, Joss, Tim M. et all.

*boggles* Marti Noxon? *boggles some more*

My worldview is spinning.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Rather than repeat my impassioned Marti defense which points out how crucial she was to the success of the show from season 2 onwards, I shall link to the original, which was one of my first lj posts, and lists all the classic episodes she wrote (as well as the rewrites we know of):

http://selenak.livejournal.com/5462.html

And then we have Joss himself, who said it best, when there was yet another anti Marti-Noxon rant at Whedonesque, at which point he wrote:

How sick am I of Noxon-bashing? Enough to break my rule of silence, certainly. I've had so many people rag on her for aspects of the show I developed, or praise me for things she came up with. She's been a vital part of everything people love about Buffy since she overhauled the halloween script in season two. She's as good a story-breaker as I've ever worked with. And she's a leader.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, Vmars. You are uninformed and rude. That's mine.

(the link so Joss' comment and what he commented on is here:

http://whedonesque.com/comments/12711#166136

ETA because no sooner did I post it do I realize it could come off wrong: I'm not surprised you are boggled because MN's image in fandom is lousy, I'm just linking because I've written about it before, and the Joss quote in full was Joss, not self!

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

No worries! I'm intrigued to see what you and Joss have to say in Marti's defense; it might well be that I've been judging her unfairly.

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that Marti rewrote that scene; that was excellent work, and now that I think about it, it does sound like her style actually. And I always thought she took unnecessary fandom bashing for things that Joss was in charge of. *member of the Forever is a better portrayal of grief than The Body club*

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't already been convinced Arvin was made of pure WIN by that point, that would have convinced me.

And # five just makes me sniffle.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

#5 is one of those scenes I just can't get through without a constricted throat - Stephen Furst and Peter Jurasik are just so good in it, and my heart breaks for Vir and Londo both, and I just want to hug them.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have that reaction too.

But I don't think there's a single scene with Vir that I don't want to hug him...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Vir does have that effect!

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

Londo's line is one of the best in all of television. It talks about death in a way that I don't think any other series ever did.

And you're right. There were far too many great lines form that series. I currently on season five of my rewatch (which will get tougher now that the fall season has started).

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that the last part of s5 is the one guaranteed to reduce me into a sobbing wreck every single time, and I really don't cry often on tv. Londo, Londo, Londo. Also the station in the series finale, but that's crying in a good way. "The last of the Babylon stations. There will not be another." And Christopher Franke's soundtrack...

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Frenemy is my new favorite word.

And I still believe that Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike have nothing on Darla/Angel as a compelling romance. 150 years with somebody means something, you know.

I love that speech of Londo's. It's so full of love and regret and respect for the kindness and purity of Vir. For all that Londo did unbelievably wrong things, there was still a kernel of gret guy in there.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I can't claim "frenemy" as an invention - I've heard it, err, read it several times in various ljs and liked it enough to adopt.*g*

Darla/Angel is my favourite m/f pairing in both shows, too, oh yes.

Londo and Vir, and Londo himself: yes. That. *flails again*

[by7the7sea.livejournal.com]

Well you could always make it 5 Favorite Memorable Lines for each fandom/show.

[kakodaimon.livejournal.com]

I just (today) saw I, Claudius again, and enjoyed Livia a world more than last time. The rewatch, however, was spurred by reading a surprisingly cute/sad anecdote about Herod Agrippa (in which he reads this week's Torah portion! continuity is scary) and thinking "Wait a minute! Wasn't he in the miniseries...?" But left without any strong opinion of the character from the show, of course my first thought was to wonder what you thought of Herod, if you remember.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*is in awe of your Peter Lorre icon*

As I recall, Herod Agrippa in the show was presented as charming and likeable, a wanderer between two worlds, with the tragedy of awareness that if he did make a choice, it would set him against Claudius. Which in the end it did. Mind you, the show mostly used him in a Greek Chorus function, offering sardonic if affectionate comments on the goings-on with the Julians; he didn't become active as a character until the last third when Claudius became Emperor, and then it was, after his goodbye from Claudius, of screen.