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A couple more things about B5 5x02
Will I ever stop talking about this episode? Unclear!
This was the first one that actually made me require fic on AO3 (there's a tag for the episode, so relatively easy to find missing scenes and whatnot without spoiling myself for everything else).
I loved this very sweet missing scene in the medbay with Londo, G'Kar, and Vir, and the same author also has this post-episode scene with Londo and G'Kar talking about religion, and Londo trying to put some of his newfound urge to make amends into effect.
Thinking about it further:
I love how the episode leaves it open to interpretation how much of the dreamworld sequences are actually something numinous, or simply a dying Londo arguing with his subconscious. Parts of it definitely are that; the whole "you had a responsibility to speak up" conversation is definitely Londo talking to himself, his own guilt personified as G'Kar. He knew, and he knows that he knows, even if he wouldn't admit it.
But I feel like there's reason to think that the Delenn manifestation with the bloody tarot cards is something else. For one thing, it looks like the same black-veiled Delenn that Sheridan also hallucinated a couple of seasons ago. And that conversation is just different from the others, the "I can only ask three times" and the general sense that this part of the dream isn't just Londo struggling with himself, it's actually something beyond himself intruding into his dream world. A gatekeeper of sorts, with its own laws and rules, redirecting him towards the path he has to take if he's going to get out of this place.
As with the conversation about souls at the end, the show doesn't clearly tell you whether or not any of that is true, and I like that it doesn't - but also that if you want to think about it that way, the hints are there.
This was the first one that actually made me require fic on AO3 (there's a tag for the episode, so relatively easy to find missing scenes and whatnot without spoiling myself for everything else).
I loved this very sweet missing scene in the medbay with Londo, G'Kar, and Vir, and the same author also has this post-episode scene with Londo and G'Kar talking about religion, and Londo trying to put some of his newfound urge to make amends into effect.
Thinking about it further:
I love how the episode leaves it open to interpretation how much of the dreamworld sequences are actually something numinous, or simply a dying Londo arguing with his subconscious. Parts of it definitely are that; the whole "you had a responsibility to speak up" conversation is definitely Londo talking to himself, his own guilt personified as G'Kar. He knew, and he knows that he knows, even if he wouldn't admit it.
But I feel like there's reason to think that the Delenn manifestation with the bloody tarot cards is something else. For one thing, it looks like the same black-veiled Delenn that Sheridan also hallucinated a couple of seasons ago. And that conversation is just different from the others, the "I can only ask three times" and the general sense that this part of the dream isn't just Londo struggling with himself, it's actually something beyond himself intruding into his dream world. A gatekeeper of sorts, with its own laws and rules, redirecting him towards the path he has to take if he's going to get out of this place.
As with the conversation about souls at the end, the show doesn't clearly tell you whether or not any of that is true, and I like that it doesn't - but also that if you want to think about it that way, the hints are there.
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Yes. I actually believe that if he had answered that he didn't want to live, he wouldn't have.
As with the conversation about souls at the end, the show doesn't clearly tell you whether or not any of that is true, and I like that it doesn't - but also that if you want to think about it that way, the hints are there.
I love that that conversation establishes that Londo had never encountered that particular story before his heart attack, so could not possibly have been playing out a version of it in his own mind: it wasn't a shape of making sense of the experience that he could fall back on. It was either happening or it wasn't.
(Will now check out fic, but will also look hopefully in your direction of writing some.)
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Yes, that's a good point! (But also, his actual experiences track with the folklore in a way that is once again plausibly deniable; it's reflective of the story, but it's not specific enough that it could only be the story. Again, very nicely done.)
I do think it's an interesting touch that Vir was aware of the story and apparently had it as an integral childhood experience, but Londo didn't. I like it as a realistic take on how unevenly folklore is distributed within a society (not everyone will have heard all the cultural stories!), and also a character detail as well, since I expect that young Londo was a lot less interested in paying attention to that sort of thing than geekier young Vir would have been.
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Absolutely. Near-death experiences attract narratives. It's really well balanced.
I like it as a realistic take on how unevenly folklore is distributed within a society (not everyone will have heard all the cultural stories!)
Yes! Like the mention in the previous episode of the different Narn belief systems, which had not gotten very much air time since we mostly hear about the one that G'Kar follows. I am delighted any time sff remembers that planetary cultures should not be monolithic unless they have some Camazotz reason for it.
and also a character detail as well, since I expect that young Londo was a lot less interested in paying attention to that sort of thing than geekier young Vir would have been.
Yes! It is really is not that difficult to picture the young Londo as kind of a jock.
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