Sfdebris.net

http://www.sfdebris.com/videos/babylon5/b5s2e03.php

The only way this Drazi custom makes any sort of sense is if the Drazi breed like rabbits, so every five years they need to cull half the population to keep themselves at sustainable levels.

Ironically they are comparable to the Daleks.

They will kill each other when the other is even just slightly different.

Though, to be fair, in real life when people fight over ideology or whatever it sometimes really is just an excuse.

They are probably most comparable to an entire race of football hooligans.

The second technomage trilogy novel "Summoning Light", by Jeanne Cavelos based on JMS outlines, actually attributes it to the Shadows. Their agents caused the "beat the shit out of each other every five years" cultural practice to come into play.

YES! IT'S HERE! TIME TO CHECK IT OUT!

Awwww. No more intros before the music!

This episode reminds me why I loved B5 so much - little character interactions like Garibaldi wondering if he has a place on B5 anymore, since it was his old friend Sinclair that put him on B5, when no one else had faith in him. I wish more stories in today's entertainment era put focus on the character rather than spectacle.

Ah, Lord Refa. Again, it's weird going back to these earlier episodes given how far I've advanced into B5, and I know his fate - pummeled to death by angry Narns as G'Kar tells them to "save the head for identification." At least I can't say the bastard didn't deserve it. XD

"Make the Centauri Great Again!" Sorry, I HAD to. Ahem. Moving on.

Hey, I read in EU materials, the Technomages were created by the Shadows, and that the telepaths were created by the Vorlons to use against each other, and when viewed in that context, well suddenly this episode makes a lot more sense, especially given the Shadows' weakness to telepaths. And it also makes sense because the Technomages didn't want to be used in the upcoming war by the Shadows. Will they go over all this on screen?

Ah, Susan is promoted. She's been a commander for so long, I've taken it for granted this was the episode where that became true. Can't say she didn't deserve it.

Yeah, the Drazi election process seems like just a more honest version of our election process. Yeah, I went there. Got a problem with that?

"Of blackjack and hookers!" Okay, sorry, just goofing off.

Wow. In retrospect, hearing that the first Centauri Emperor was blessed by the Technomages, and given the Centauri's later association with the Shadows, that was a stroke of pure brilliance on the part of JMS. It just reminds me once again why I love this show. It's very TIGHT and consistent. Well done.

Yeah, sorry, no man-on-man action, ladies.

I'll actually defend the two-party system. I know Chuck was making a joke, but to those young third-party dreamers (like Sanders voters), parliamentary systems have their flaws the same as we do, and a large establishment like the United States, I think, could not support the same number of parties that other countries do. Look at some places that have seven or eight parties taking part in civic affairs. Part of that, of course, has to do with the sheer size of the United States. Another would be that with more parties taking part, there's more division, because different parties will have different agendas, and the lower their count is, the better chance you have of getting something done. At least in theory.

I hear this scene was written in because Claudia Christian had actually broken her leg. Clever, but in-universe, I was a bit surprised that Ivanova didn't put up a better fight, given how badass she is, and that she's a Russian - you know what tough warriors they are.

You know... between this and Vir's comments to Mr. Morden that he just wants to see his head on a pike as a warning to others (and it was sooooo satisfying to see that wish come true in Season 4!), I gotta say, Vir is a lot more hardcore than you'd first suspect.

It's amusing to me Elric is played by the same guy who was Jeyal on DS9. There was a lot of crossover between those two series.

Actually, weren't the Nazis the ones who said they wanted to bring peace by exterminating anyone who would disagree with them? Not so farfetched as Chuck makes it sound.

... the way Chuck lays it down, now I think I know why Londo ended up on B5...

It hit me. They really do love to resort to spacing a lot in B5, don't they? But then again, past the whole "treason" thing, a lot of the uses are realistic. Like that alien race who vented their prisoners into space because they didn't wanna give them up.

RIP Jerry Doyle. I can't believe half the cast is dead. At least it meant the true story about Michael O'Hare could be told. Wouldn't it be tragic if JMS had died before him? Then we'd have never known.

Ah, the first use of trolling on TV, I believe! XD

As a Russian with their long line of history, I think Ivanova could understand how stupid it is not to fight for something you don't believe in. I think an American could understand it too. I mean, we may have flaws as a country, but... still. That was a nice moment in the show. Just reminds me why B5 is a classic.

Always love that foreshadowing to the bombardment of the Narn homeworld. Damn.

Except the US is perpetually gridlocked and the 2 party system has led to huge extremes, especially on the right.

To be fair to Ivanova, she was prepared to mediate some sort of dispute between rival ideologies, whether religious, territory, politics, tradition of warring clans, or some other factor. Being gobsmacked by this essentially being one huge randomly assigned nationwide paintball game would throw most people for a loop.

Where she failed was in not asking for the cause of this tradition, and trying to see if she could accommodate them by having all the fights in an empty cargo bay with medical personnel on standby, or by forcing them to fight via a game of dodgeball or an epic tournament of Magic the Gathering. Since it is so arbitrary, that could be a potential acceptable solution.

Then again, that would really depend on how intrinsic this is to their culture, and why. Ivanova was never able to get to the root of that.

And you think parliaments worldwide can't be gridlocked?

Very true.

But then again, she's not a diplomat. She's always with this tough "no-nonsense" attitude. That's who she is.

I loved this episode, mostly I really dig Michael Ansara. He really had that "wise and mysterious stranger" role down. The Firefly incorporated gag gets me everytime.

Is it just me, or is Chuck putting musical montages more and more often now? I like them overall don't get me wrong, but I like them to feel unique.

He plays Jeyal? If so, yeah, he's a good actor. I loved his performance as Jeyal, even if he was a patriarchal jerk, he at least had layers to him.