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Yet more thoughts on B5 5x17-18
Now that I've processed a bit, a few more random comments.
* Londo really does have more precog than your average male Centauri, doesn't he? His dream in the cell isn't exactly a true vision of the future the way his death-dream about G'Kar is, but it's definitely prophetic in a metaphorical way about what's going to happen to him. (It also looks like some of the imagery is similar to what happened to the experimented-upon telepaths back in season three, which is its own kind of telling about Londo's psychic sensitivity.)
Also, to the loooooong list of fanfic tropes that Londo and G'Kar have inflicted upon them in the series, ranging from "trapped in elevator" and "soulbond" to "bodyguard AU," I guess we can also add "finds out a person has nightmares by being trapped in a small space with them."
* Londo's determination to stay with G'Kar in the cell no matter what - even when he ought to be somewhere else, even when he'd be able to do more good somewhere else - is really adorable and touching, but G'Kar's equal determination to force him out of the cell by any means fair or foul if he won't go voluntarily is simply hilarious.
I love how sometimes Londo and G'Kar hit all the beats of star-crossed lovers and sometimes they're just bratty kids with each other. And as they do kind of end up in a well-intentioned brat-off in this episode (Londo: I'm staying right here and you can't make me move. G'Kar: oh really...) - sorry, Londo, you're going to lose that one.
* But their goodbye scene is really, truly lovely. I can't get over how soft and earnest they are with each other, compared to how guarded they often can be even when they're being sincere. There's still the prickly exchange of "I'm a better person than you are." / "You ingrate!" but I lovelovelove that all it really does is make them both laugh, at a time when not only do they really need it, but Londo would probably have said that nothing in the world could make him laugh. But G'Kar can. And you can see Londo relax a little through the early part of that conversation, just enjoying his rapport with G'Kar so much - only to tense up again when he gets to the worst part, the part that hurts the most, the fact that he's come here to push G'Kar away, reject him as his bodyguard, and force them into a goodbye. But even that doesn't seem to hurt or upset him; G'Kar doesn't get every part of it, but the part of it that he gets is that Londo's commitment to duty and Doing Things Properly is a Londo thing, and accepting that about him is part of caring about him. The whole scene is just about as soft and open as we've ever seen them (aside from "I'm sorry, G'Kar" most of a season earlier).
* Also, as they continue in their binary-stars orbits, continually echoing and reflecting each other, I love Londo telling G'Kar not to get up and pulling a chair over so he can talk to him and say goodbye to him on G'Kar's level, without G'Kar having to move too much because he's hurt - but then G'Kar goes ahead and stands up with his own offering of affection and forgiveness after Londo starts to walk away. Both of them reaching out, taking turns, trying to meet halfway in the best way they know how.
* I love that we get both the Centauri arm clasp and the Narn fist-to-chest salute between them this episode. (And from previous episodes I've gathered that using both fists for the Narn is a more respectful/affectionate gesture while using one is more formal, though it could just be down to actor choice. But I've always kind of gathered that the double-fist gesture is done only with people you really respect or feel great affection for; we saw him do it a couple of episodes ago with Delenn.)
I appreciate the self-doomed tragedy of Londo's ending and the tragically fated circularity of his and G'Kar's entwined destinies ... but I also feel like this is the first time that characters do have to carry the idiot ball, or at least the jerk ball, to make it happen. Fifteen years? Really??? I think this is one reason why I'm contemplating fixits, other than just wanting a better ending for him to exist in at least one version, because this actually does feel like twisting characterization and character behavior somewhat in order to make the ending go where it was destined to go, the characters becoming mouthpieces for narrative fate and theme, as much as fully realized people. I could believe they could be too busy with their lives to start putting the pieces together for a year or two. But fifteen?
* Edit: Also, you know what would make a great AU? It's already canon that G'Kar is trapped in the rubble of the collapsing palace dungeons and rescued by Londo ( ♥!! ), but all it would take for the Drakh plans to go completely sideways would be a direct strike on the palace, killing the Regent and the local Drakh. It would prevent Londo from being in place to stop the war, which means things are going to escalate disastrously, but this also leaves Londo and G'Kar stranded together in the rubble of the Centauri capital, during an aerial bombardment, with one of them canonically hurt, trying desperately to get a message out to try to end the war. I haven't seen anything like this in my preliminary explorations of AO3. I might have to write it.
* Londo really does have more precog than your average male Centauri, doesn't he? His dream in the cell isn't exactly a true vision of the future the way his death-dream about G'Kar is, but it's definitely prophetic in a metaphorical way about what's going to happen to him. (It also looks like some of the imagery is similar to what happened to the experimented-upon telepaths back in season three, which is its own kind of telling about Londo's psychic sensitivity.)
Also, to the loooooong list of fanfic tropes that Londo and G'Kar have inflicted upon them in the series, ranging from "trapped in elevator" and "soulbond" to "bodyguard AU," I guess we can also add "finds out a person has nightmares by being trapped in a small space with them."
* Londo's determination to stay with G'Kar in the cell no matter what - even when he ought to be somewhere else, even when he'd be able to do more good somewhere else - is really adorable and touching, but G'Kar's equal determination to force him out of the cell by any means fair or foul if he won't go voluntarily is simply hilarious.
mild tw vomit
I wonder if all Narns can vomit on cue as an evolutionary thing, like buzzards can, or if this is just G'Kar being a giant weirdo as usual.I love how sometimes Londo and G'Kar hit all the beats of star-crossed lovers and sometimes they're just bratty kids with each other. And as they do kind of end up in a well-intentioned brat-off in this episode (Londo: I'm staying right here and you can't make me move. G'Kar: oh really...) - sorry, Londo, you're going to lose that one.
* But their goodbye scene is really, truly lovely. I can't get over how soft and earnest they are with each other, compared to how guarded they often can be even when they're being sincere. There's still the prickly exchange of "I'm a better person than you are." / "You ingrate!" but I lovelovelove that all it really does is make them both laugh, at a time when not only do they really need it, but Londo would probably have said that nothing in the world could make him laugh. But G'Kar can. And you can see Londo relax a little through the early part of that conversation, just enjoying his rapport with G'Kar so much - only to tense up again when he gets to the worst part, the part that hurts the most, the fact that he's come here to push G'Kar away, reject him as his bodyguard, and force them into a goodbye. But even that doesn't seem to hurt or upset him; G'Kar doesn't get every part of it, but the part of it that he gets is that Londo's commitment to duty and Doing Things Properly is a Londo thing, and accepting that about him is part of caring about him. The whole scene is just about as soft and open as we've ever seen them (aside from "I'm sorry, G'Kar" most of a season earlier).
* Also, as they continue in their binary-stars orbits, continually echoing and reflecting each other, I love Londo telling G'Kar not to get up and pulling a chair over so he can talk to him and say goodbye to him on G'Kar's level, without G'Kar having to move too much because he's hurt - but then G'Kar goes ahead and stands up with his own offering of affection and forgiveness after Londo starts to walk away. Both of them reaching out, taking turns, trying to meet halfway in the best way they know how.
* I love that we get both the Centauri arm clasp and the Narn fist-to-chest salute between them this episode. (And from previous episodes I've gathered that using both fists for the Narn is a more respectful/affectionate gesture while using one is more formal, though it could just be down to actor choice. But I've always kind of gathered that the double-fist gesture is done only with people you really respect or feel great affection for; we saw him do it a couple of episodes ago with Delenn.)
* Complaint and negativity
If I have one big problem with Londo's ending, it's that it's the first time in the entire series that I have really felt like the narrative was twisting itself into pretzels to get to the deterministic ending. And the reason is Sheridan, who not only knows about the keepers but literally saw one on Londo and yet apparently doesn't make that connection for fifteen years of Londo acting like an erratic, drunken maniac?? I feel like the original timeline that we saw in season three *has* to go differently in a version of reality in which Sheridan saw where they were headed, and what it takes in order for it to stay the same is all of Londo's friends basically giving up on him the instant he starts to cool off towards them even though one of them has all the pieces of information that could save his life. (One and a half including Franklin, who also saw a keeper on Mars and learned something of how they work, and is a doctor to boot.) And add that to the fact that they now know the Centauri were in fact telling the truth - for the most part - about not knowing about the raids! So blindsiding Londo with the evidence and effectively betraying him is something they now know was a mistake on their part - I mean, Londo doubled down, but he and his government were both telling the truth about knowing nothing - and they ... just let that stand, I guess?I appreciate the self-doomed tragedy of Londo's ending and the tragically fated circularity of his and G'Kar's entwined destinies ... but I also feel like this is the first time that characters do have to carry the idiot ball, or at least the jerk ball, to make it happen. Fifteen years? Really??? I think this is one reason why I'm contemplating fixits, other than just wanting a better ending for him to exist in at least one version, because this actually does feel like twisting characterization and character behavior somewhat in order to make the ending go where it was destined to go, the characters becoming mouthpieces for narrative fate and theme, as much as fully realized people. I could believe they could be too busy with their lives to start putting the pieces together for a year or two. But fifteen?
* Edit: Also, you know what would make a great AU? It's already canon that G'Kar is trapped in the rubble of the collapsing palace dungeons and rescued by Londo ( ♥!! ), but all it would take for the Drakh plans to go completely sideways would be a direct strike on the palace, killing the Regent and the local Drakh. It would prevent Londo from being in place to stop the war, which means things are going to escalate disastrously, but this also leaves Londo and G'Kar stranded together in the rubble of the Centauri capital, during an aerial bombardment, with one of them canonically hurt, trying desperately to get a message out to try to end the war. I haven't seen anything like this in my preliminary explorations of AO3. I might have to write it.
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what it takes in order for it to stay the same is all of Londo's friends basically giving up on him the instant he starts to cool off towards them
As we talked, THIS is what basically made me go NO in S5. I just want them all to not give up on each other to the end T.T Even if it's a tragic end!
ALL THE FIXITS
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Oh, interesting! I interpreted it at the time as an actual abduction—a preliminary examination preparatory to the implantation of the Keeper—but it might actually be more compelling to me as foresight on the traditional slant mixed with a nightmare translation of the palace's truly rancid vibes. I have no difficulty accepting further evidence of Londo's out-of-the-ordinary psi.
(Crumbs: I just wondered for the first time in twenty-seven years about the Regent's death-dream. I don't have time to be in additional pain!)
I wonder if all Narns can vomit on cue as an evolutionary thing, like buzzards can, or if this is just G'Kar being a giant weirdo as usual.
I assumed it was a Narn thing, but G'Kar deciding to pull it out as a trump card at this particular moment is in fact enormously weird of him. Considered practically, it's another extraordinary willingness to be seen as the animalistic Narn in order to give the civilized Centauri an out. Considered in light of their years (I love your characterization of this dynamic) as star-crossed brats, sometimes your conscience just upchucks on you. "I think my buttons are melting!"
There's still the prickly exchange of "I'm a better person than you are." / "You ingrate!" but I lovelovelove that all it really does is make them both laugh, at a time when not only do they really need it, but Londo would probably have said that nothing in the world could make him laugh.
Yes! Londo just cracks up and isn't expecting it. And it recovers him enough to joke in turn about keeping his promise to free G'Kar when intervention by orbital bombardment was definitely not in his plan. It's like the flipside of the elevator episode—everything around them is literally on fire and just for these few moments while the two of them are still together, everything is all right.
Both of them reaching out, taking turns, trying to meet halfway in the best way they know how.
YES.
I love that we get both the Centauri arm clasp and the Narn fist-to-chest salute between them this episode.
Yes! And when G'Kar gives him the latter, Londo bows to him in return. To Delenn and Sheridan, he just gave that curt, almost dismissive nod, still playing the hard man. He can't do it with G'Kar. Even with his devil on his shoulder, even as the Emperor of Centauri Prime. He does him honor.
even though one of them has all the pieces of information that could save his life. (One and a half including Franklin, who also saw a keeper on Mars and learned something of how they work, and is a doctor to boot.)
YES GODDAMN IT. I get that there may be nothing to do about it if Centauri Prime withdraws into the isolationism promised by Londo-at-the-behest-of-the-Drakh. But unless everyone just stopped talking to one another a full season ago, the minute Franklin started to describe the weird parasite he shot off a member of the Mars Resistance—which I can't imagine him not doing, not only because it was strategically relevant to the Clark government's collaboration with the Shadows and their allies, but also because what the fuck—Sheridan should have made the connection with the thing he saw in 2278. It's not audience-privileged information.
It would prevent Londo from being in place to stop the war, which means things are going to escalate disastrously, but this also leaves Londo and G'Kar stranded together in the rubble of the Centauri capital, during an aerial bombardment, with one of them canonically hurt, trying desperately to get a message out to try to end the war. I haven't seen anything like this in my preliminary explorations of AO3. I might have to write it.
Do it!
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He does.
And the reason is Sheridan, who not only knows about the keepers but literally saw one on Londo and yet apparently doesn't make that connection for fifteen years of Londo acting like an erratic, drunken maniac??
Yes, that's one of my pet peeves as well, upon every single rewatch. I mean, you can fanwank that resurrected!Sheridan post Z'ha'dum returned with a convenient plot hole in his memories, but still.
As for everyone else not figuring it out in the intervening years even without that information anyway: I will say that between the end of B5 and Londo's (and G'Kar's) death, there is the Drakh Plague which forms the backstory of the aborted B5 spin-off Crusade, which among other things ensures Franklin can't leave Earth for years and has a mighty pandemic on his hand, and he's not the only one busy that way.
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[rot13 for what spoilers remain of the show] Naq gung ur frrf guvatf orlbaq gur fpbcr bs uvf bja yvsr. V unir arire tbggra bire gur snpg gung qhevat gurve pbairefngvba nf cneg bs uvf irel ybat avtug, Ybaqb frrf Furevqna'f crefbany shgher (uvf freivpr nf Ragvy'Mun, uvf svany qvfnccrnenapr vagb yvtug) juvpu zrgbalzvpnyyl frrzf gb qbhoyr sbe gur shgher bs uhznavgl nf frra va "Gur Qrpbafgehpgvba bs Snyyvat Fgnef." Sbergryyvat sbe bgure crbcyr vf frre-tenqr. Sbergryyvat sbe na ragver fcrpvrf, rira ba gur qrrc fynag bs cebcurpl, vf ahgf. V ybir vg.
(I spend too much time thinking about Centauri telepathy.)