Memes, and more reviewing thoughts

[selenak]

Firstly, meme gakked from hobsonphile, honorh and lots of other people on my friends list:

Invent a fanfiction I wrote and post about it in the comments. It can be anything you want, so long as it is something that I never wrote. Give me feedback! Mention your favorite quote! Flame me! Illustrate it! You know you want to.


Secondly, an old meme making the rounds again, but since I didn't play the last time: ask a character from any (fanfic) story I wrote a question, and I'll let her or him answer.


Thirdly, more B5 season 4 thoughts.



Atonement, Rumours, Bargains and Lies, and Moments of Transition: And here's why I don't have any problems with later season Delenn... when she's with other Minbari. The Minbari civil war storyline might have been inspired by actress Mira Furlan's country Yugoslavia breaking up in several nation-states at the time, but it works beautifully with past seasons. Neroon taking Delenn's place in the Grey Council in season 2, upsetting the warrior caste/religious caste balance, is echoes by Neroon taking Delenn's place in a the starfire circle and dying both for her and for the restoration of Minbar, with his last "but the calling of my heart is...religous" declaration completing the circle. Delenn breaking up the Council in season 3 - which as it turned out was an even stronger trigger to the civil war than Neroon taking her place - is echoed by Delenn creating a new Council, this time with a new balance. Giving the worker caste four voices by taking one away from both religious and warrior caste is an acknowledgement that both sides were at fault as well as an attempt to elevate the previously ignored workers and thus prevent future strife between warrior and religious caste.

(Shallow side thought: also, Neroon and Delenn have fabulous chemistry. Ever since I saw their "was that a compliment?" "After a fashion" scene, I wanted someone to write a Neroon/Delenn story, and the Minbari aren't my favourite or second favourite race in the B5verse.)

If Rumours and Moments feature Delenn's and the Minbari's present, and let her work for the future, Atonement concentrates on her past. Incidentally, given Delenn's empathic denial that her relationship with John Sheridan is motivated by her guilt over her "no mercy" order at the start of the Earth/Minbari war, the title is interesting, for what else could it refer to? In any case, the Sheridan/Delenn relationship is pushed to the background here anyway; this episode deals with Delenn and her past, Delenn and Dukhat, and Delenn and Lennier. That the two mentor/aide relationships are paralleled is obvious, and JMS puts an extra hint in for any viewers who might have missed it by giving Dukhat and Delenn the same "look up... I cannot have an aide who will be eternally walking into things" dialogue that Delenn and Lennier have in Born to the Purple. Whether the parallels mean that young Delenn had at the very least a crush on her mentor is probably in the eyes of the viewer; personally, I think she had. (I also think Dukhat never would have done anything about it.) Delenn's love for Dukhat, whether it was solely the one of a student for a mentor or also romantic in nature both helped her and drove her to contribute to a terrible war - and I always thought that Delenn's attempt to bring Londo to the ceremony in season 3, as well as her admittance of fondness in season 5, her fixing him up with G'Kar as a bodyguard and that last, silent hug which for Delenn who never to my knowledge hugged anyone of the B5 command staff - except Sheridan, of course - all of whom were far closer to her than Londo - is an extraordinary emotional gesture - that all of this was motivated by her knowledge of what it was like to have the blood of millions on one's hands and live with it, something which no other character could have.

Lennier becoming Delenn's "guide" in this episode is pre-shadowed visually by the way he takes her hand early on. Now it would be interesting to debate at which point Delenn became aware that Lennier loves her as more than a mentor. (At the start of season 5, she knows, but when did she realize?) In any case, she does accept and depend on his unquestioning loyalty and affection in a way that sets up the bond between them as something as strong as the one between her and Sheridan. (It also carries more trust - Delenn never tells Sheridan about her part in the war.) Which isn't exactly good for Lennier, as things will turn out. And yet, I have to confess I enjoy the scenes between them too much to wish for Delenn to do the sensible thing and send Lennier away for his own good.

Meanwhile, my favourite telepath comes a' calling again, and shamelessly manipulates my second favourite telepath and good old Garibaldi. Which is awful for Lyta and Garibaldi, but is fun to watch. Also, Bester is just so eminently quotable: "Being a freedom fighter, a force for good, is a wonderful thing. You get to make your own hours, looks good on the resume... but the pay sucks." Plus the fact that he's in a position to cajole Lyta back into the Corps is, for once, not his fault. It's the B5 command staff's. (And might I add - poor Zack ALWAYS gets the thankless job of giving other people the bad news from Sheridan. He had to tell Garibaldi to give up his ID card, badge and weapon as well some episodes earlier.) That Bester notices Lyta's increasingly desperate situation, whereas her "friends" do not, also says something about her status on the station.

As for No Surrender, No Retreat: sorry to echo andrastewhite and hobsonphile as well as my earlier remark, but really. I mean, I try to see it as thematically important that several Earth Force captains get persuaded that if the orders you have are against your own conscience, then to hell with the government that gave them, and to hell with what we call "cadaver obedience" in German. That's important. Yeah. But... I still skip almost the entire episode in favour of three scenes: Vir talking to Garibaldi (poor Vir, obviously still haunted by Cartagia; and hey, look, Garibaldi came by to ask Londo for a favour, which is a nice echo of their lost friendship), Londo and G'Kar in G'Kar's quarters, and Londo and G'Kar at the bar later. If I had to demonstrate the amazingness of how personal arcs get developed on this show, picking a collection of Londo & G'Kar scenes would be perfect: take your avarage mutual hositility one from season 1, then go to The Coming of Shadows (both the bar scene and G'Kar's later "he knew!" as well as "Mollariiiii!", then go to Dust to Dust, then go to one of the prison scenes from early season 4, then go to this: who, at first time watching the start of this show, would have thought that Londo would tell G'Kar, completely without irony - "that was unkind of you" and "at first it was sympathy... then respect..."? (And there's more goodness to come in season 5, of course.)

Excuse me while I hop over to Andraste's journal to revel in some more unabashed Londo & G'Kar gushing now...

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Quark's Day has to be one of my favourite DS9 short stories, as we see the lives and loves of the rest of the station through the eyes of its best-placed and shrewdest observer. Surely this story would persuade any doubter of the extent of Quark's worth. But you have to settle it once and for all - is the richly-dressed alien visitor propping up the bar and pouring out his life story to Morn for the whole day meant to be Londo Mollari or not?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You are clearly a woman of taste, but then I always knew that.*g* I meant for that fic to convert all the Quark-haters of the universe!

And yes, you've seen through the not so careful veneer - the visitor was indeed Londo.

...and I really have to write that story now. What a very cool idea!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I was hoping this would be a cunning way to set new fic ideas on people! :-D

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Hiya.
I was wondering, if you have many non-native speakers on your flist, could you please have a look at the following site and maybe give it a quick pimp?
http://www.writers-ink.de/html/daniil_pashkoff_prize.html

The submission date is 1st of May, but it's handled leniently (and that's straight from the horse's mouth).

[muffinmonster.livejournal.com]

Too bad I didn't hear about this earlier, or I might have participated. Or how leniently exactly are you handling this?

Is this an annual event, btw? Parts of the website won't load for me, so I have no idea what exactly is hidden behind "DPP 2001", "DPP 2002", or "Publication".

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's an annual event.
The other pages are about the winners of past events.
As for the leniency. If it arrives up to one week later it will still be taken into consideration. We will start reading the submitted texts about 4 days after the deadline... Hope that helps.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow I'll include it in my post, promised.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

thank you very much.
I*d wanted to ask you earlier but I got terribly sidetracked.

I am writing an original vampire story and it keeps my brain fully occupied. :-)

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

I recall the sweeet Babylon 5 Post-Season 5 story you wrote to highlight some of the period between the last two episodes. Such sweet emotion and powerful scenes between G'Kar and Londo!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was ever so difficult to wrote h/c set in this particular period, but the muses called, and I obeyed!

[muffinmonster.livejournal.com]

For me, my personal favorite will always be the wonderful story you wrote about Bester's childhood hero John Trakker. I absolutely loved the scene when little Alfie actually got to meet him in person, and how John gave him his Psi Corps badge as a gift! My favorite quote is related to this (sorry it's so long, but I just had to quote it all, it's so great!): "As Al sat on the tree that had always been his favorite spot whenever he wanted to be alone, he felt the cold metal warm up in his small hand. He opened his fist to look at it, and saw the night sky and the stars reflected on the silver Psi symbol. For a moment he looked up and stared at the tiny lights. When he closed his eyes, still facing the sky, he almost - almost! - could see the faces of his parents. They were the Corps, and he wouldn't disappoint them. He was going to be the best, just like John Trakker; he was going to be a Psi Cop." So touching!

*L*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Does that mean you'll sign on to the John Trakker ficathon?

[muffinmonster.livejournal.com]

John Trakker ficathon?

*blinks*

(A while ago my LARP group actually wanted to do a John Trakker fanfilm, but sadly it never happened. I think I still have my notes saved somewhere on my comp, though... ;))

[selenak.livejournal.com]

'Twas a jest, dear.

(But I'm not surprised that there were plans for such a fanfilm...*g*)

[muffinmonster.livejournal.com]

'Twas a jest, dear.

*sigh* I knew it! You're so cruel!

...

;p

(But I'm not surprised that there were plans for such a fanfilm...*g*)

And we had such a wonderful idea for the script, really - let's just describe it as "T.J. Hooker meets Babylon 5" ;)

Re: Equilibrium

[bimo.livejournal.com]

Hi Selena,

I just dropped by to let you know how much I enjoyed your short excursion into one of Farscape's more tormented places. Scorpius' characterisation is really spot on and the same also goes for my favourite Kalish.

Portraying their relationship from Scorpius'POV and not from Sikozu's must have been one difficult walk on the tightrope. I like how you managed to keep the delicate balance between insecurity, attraction and the darker, more cruel aspects of Scorpius' nature.

Your conclusion that he, of all people aboard Moya must have at least suspected Sikozu's true nature, due to his special sensory perception abilities, is only logical; his barely hidden suprise about Sikuzo's blunt reply, however, totally priceless.

Scorpius' final closing sentence ("But in the end, the robot dreams of perfection.") not only strikes me as an utterly desillusioned yet oddly playful remark, since it combines both; the long overcome wish for acceptance as well as his cold, mostly scientific curiosity.

Oh, and from one Blade Runner fan to the other: of course the idea of a dreaming robot also is a very nice allusion to Philip K.Dick ;-)

Re: Equilibrium

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I feared the Philip K. Dick allusion might have been too pretentious, so your feedback really sets my heart at ease - thank you!*g*

[kathyh]

I just had to tell you how much I enjoyed your human Darla/Principal Snyder AU. Taking the Catholic schoolgirl that Darla portrayed in the first episode of BtVS was a true inspiration and the ups and downs of her forbidden relationship with Snyder were truly moving. I think you may have made a new Snarla shipper here. I have to say that your story wasn't something I would normally have read but your opening line It was his ears that first made Darla aware of Principal Snyder as a man was sufficiently unexpected to completely hook me.

For a long time I thought the story was going to come to an unhappy ending and tears were pouring down my cheeks as Darla and Snyder said farewell on the convent steps. Her last minute change of heart and headlong rush into his arms made me a very happy Snarla. Thanks so much for an amazing read.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No longer am I the sole proponent for Snarla! Your feedback makes me happy indeed...

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Ever since I saw their "was that a compliment?" "After a fashion" scene, I wanted someone to write a Neroon/Delenn story

It was put on the backburner to make way for the ficathon stuff, but I do still have one in the works - thanks, in part, to you convincing me it's not a completely weird and freakish idea that I'm alone in fandom for seeing ;)

I'm still not quite sure which interpretation of Neroon's death I believe in - that he truly did believe the calling of his heart was religious, or that he said so only because he knew it would end the war. (Not that the one rules out the other, of course.) I'd prefer the second, because the first seems to undermine a lot of his conviction that acting honourably and for all Minbari is not the domain of the religious caste alone. I'm tempted to think Delenn's "Only the warrior caste would do such a thing" speech on the White Star after the religious caste almost kill everyone on board supports that view, but... well. Maybe.

Now it would be interesting to debate at which point Delenn became aware that Lennier loves her as more than a mentor.

I think it's relatively early on, when their relationship reaches a level of - well, not equality, but something beyond hero worship - that hers with Dukhat never had the chance to get to. It's interesting how that change is emphasised in Atonement, too, with Lennier asking "Can understanding be a greater danger?" instead of falling back on the "Understanding is not required" line from when they first meet.

And yet, I have to confess I enjoy the scenes between them too much to wish for Delenn to do the sensible thing and send Lennier away for his own good.

I don't think she's ever able to, either, which is another interesting comparison between her and Londo. Even in All Alone in the Night, when she comes closest to sending him away, she only does it after he's made it clear he'll stay with her regardless. I think Lennier knows that, although I'm not sure how much she realises it herself.

Oh, and I have a question for Timov from Not In Words: If you ever had truly answered that mysterious man's "What do you want?" question, what would your answer have been?

[betareject.livejournal.com]

Really off subject but if you do ever finish writing the Neroon/Delenn tale could you pass me a link to it?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to the Neroon/Delenn from you, then.

Regarding Neroon's last words: I tend towards the second interpretation as well. It was necessary to end the war in a balanced fashion, and Shakiri might just have found a way to twist Neroon's death into "well, a Warrior Caste representative died, so clearly, we have won the right to rule Minbar now" otherwise.

Timov: Madam, it was a foolish question to begin with. What do any of us ever want? To be happy, and to see those dear to us happy as well. None of which can be provided by untrustworthy strangers; one has to work for it, which I would have told my husband if he had ever been in a mood to listen to me.

Maybe sensitised to this by recent S1 viewing...

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

But I'm wondering now if Neroon is meant to balance out Branmer, Delenn's dead friend in Legacies, who went from Religious to Warrior.

Re: Maybe sensitised to this by recent S1 viewing...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, good point. Yes. Could be. And that was the episode where we meet Neroon for the first time, right?

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was. And Neroon and Branmer both die with the same rank, Shai Alyt.

Amazed. Absolutely amazed.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Your B5/LotR crossover is everything one could hope for in a fanfic. Particularly touching was the Delenn/Sam bonding--who'd have thought they'd be so similar? Of course, you kind of fudged the language barrier, but I can accept that for a good story. Oh, and the scene where Londo and Legolas mutually frighten each other? Priceless! Especially when Gimli comes to the rescue. You are so cool!

Re: Amazed. Absolutely amazed.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I try my humble best...

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

I especially enjoyed your Londo/G'kar wedding fic (the one set a few years before Londo's death, not the AU from 'Fall of Centauri Prime'). It was great the way you mixed G'kar's sarcastic mysticism with Londo's ceremonial boisterousness to create a ritual that would make sense for both of them. And only you could write that romantc a wedding scene for the two of them without it getting sappy. My favorite part was when, in the midst of all the romance, G'kar sees the Keeper. That was just eerie.