My Journey Through Babylon 5

[Yukaphile]

Oh I see what people mean about how Delenn is sometimes the damsel. She was held hostage by a Soul Hunter, and then by Nightwatch. There's... not going to be a third time, is there?

[Cassandra]

There's... not going to be a third time, is there?

I have bad news for you....

[Durandal_1707]

I mean, she's badass enough in "Severed Dreams" to make up for an awful lot of damseling.

Heck, everyone other than Delenn is more or less the damsel in that one.

[MissKittyFantastico]

To be fair to her she's never really set up to be any kind of fighter in a physical sense (aside from that thing in the pilot with the gravity rings, which I believe they just decided to quietly retcon out by never mentioning it again), off the top of my head I don't remember any glaring instances of her plot-forgetting the skills she has just to make it easier for her to be captured. And over the course of the show she definitely makes other people need rescuing far more than she herself does, so there's that.

I miss the full Minbari prosthetics though, I never entirely cottoned to her hybrid look. Not that she looks bad by any stretch, but Mira really brought the season one look to life as a complete alien character, I missed that once she made the switch to your more 90s-sci-fi-typical Basically Human Alien design. Plot reasons of course, but still. (There's an anecdote somewhere from season five, where there are some newly-filmed flashbacks in which she's in the full makeup again, where when she showed up on set JMS, on instinct, greeted her like she'd been away for years.)

[FaxModem1]

So, we know Ivanova is your favorite. What are your thoughts on the rest of the characters? What do you think of what's going on with the Earth Alliance? And the Shadow War?

[Yukaphile]

I never said she was my favorite, but she's not my least favorite, if that makes sense. I just said I've grown to value her as a character, and that I had a "sexy dream" about her, lol. My favorite would actually be Jeff Sinclair. Don't get me wrong. I like Sheridan, a lot. But Sinclair resonates more with me, somehow. He seems to have a kind of deliberate slowness I find refreshing, like he's out of step with the world around him, which ties into his "man lost in the world and struggling to find his destiny after suffering so much in war" theme Season 1 painted him as.

I'm also fond of Garibaldi and all his little quirks. Franklin's stim addiction was rather surprising, but... well, he did the right thing and resigned. That was good. I think it's interesting how Londo and G'Kar's roles were kind of reversed as time went on, if you really think about it, with Londo being the imperialist dictator with an evil cartoonish scheme and G'Kar being the sincere, earnest one fighting for the right cause. I also think it's perhaps a bit too... easy? How Clark seized power? Maybe they should have focused more on that? It's implied he got help from outside, but... I dunno. I also think that for a worldwide organization, it's... mostly centered on the Commonwealth or similar Western-type structures in appearance. There's ministries, sure, but there's also the Joint Chiefs, the President's Office, the Earth Senate, and it's really like the American government. That feels a bit lazy to me. Just my thoughts.

[Riedquat]

I miss the full Minbari prosthetics though, I never entirely cottoned to her hybrid look.

It looked a bit odd too because the prosthetic seemed to go over her hair.

[Yukaphile]

Oh wow! So a piece of Kosh lives inside someone else? Probably Sheridan.

HOLY SHIT, A WHITE STAR FLEET?! EPIC.

[Yukaphile]

HOLY FUCK! SHERIDAN'S WIFE?! Oh no, don't tell me! Is she a traitor like Morden? No wonder he goes to Z'ha'dum...

[PerrySimm]

Welcome to the wonderful world of WHAM!