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Another thought about B5 5x18
I will be going back to answer recent comments, but first, one more stray B5 thought with spoilers through 5x18.
The thing I've been thinking about off and on all day is how season 5 repeatedly sends Londo and G'Kar through cycles of being forced to deal with the personal repercussions of the Centauri bombardment of the Narn homeworld, in ways that push them further apart by very validly bringing up Londo's/his people's culpability and G'Kar's equally valid anger about it (the fight in the bomb shelter on B5, and then the even more serious rift when Na'Toth is describing her own much more recent experiences in the assault on Narn; you can almost feel the distance between them throughout that episode).
But I can't help feeling like, as well as giving them opportunities to work through their checkered and bloody history one painful argument at a time, all of that helps set up the eventual denouement when they are both caught in the bombardment of Centauri Prime by the Narns and allies.
Because the circle finally closes there, and rather than being pushed apart, they're brought together by shared sympathy, friendship, and worry, completely apart from loyalty to their people, their history, or the various fighting factions. (Which obviously are still important, to both of them; just not in that moment.) G'Kar is there under the orbital bombardment by his own side because he's chosen to be there, to protect his friend. And Londo, whose role in the earlier episodes dealing with this motif has been much more ambiguous (ally and enemy both, at times), doesn't even hesitate before diving in and saving him; regardless of whatever else is going on, he doesn't pause and he's not afraid and he has no other priorities before that one. He shows up so quickly in G'Kar's cell that he must have headed there when the ships first started firing, realizing that G'Kar would be helpless - before looking after his own people, before doing anything else to try to stop it; he implicitly promised that nothing bad was going to happen to G'Kar in that cell, and he'll be there to stop it even if it means a few tons of rocks falling on his head.
The way that the last few episodes in the season bring out their personal loyalty above all else just kills me, especially since it has such a sharply truncated and painful ending when Londo is forced back, in the worst possible way, into the straitjacket of duty, planet, and Imperial throne. But before that, they get this. (And G'Kar's quietly wondering, "I would be dead if not for you. You risked your life to save mine.") And I feel like it's set up by those early episodes that remind us, and them, how far apart they are, how different their experiences are up to this point - none of which matters when there are bombs falling on both their heads.
It might be their last close orbit before spiraling much further apart, but it's such a good one.
The thing I've been thinking about off and on all day is how season 5 repeatedly sends Londo and G'Kar through cycles of being forced to deal with the personal repercussions of the Centauri bombardment of the Narn homeworld, in ways that push them further apart by very validly bringing up Londo's/his people's culpability and G'Kar's equally valid anger about it (the fight in the bomb shelter on B5, and then the even more serious rift when Na'Toth is describing her own much more recent experiences in the assault on Narn; you can almost feel the distance between them throughout that episode).
But I can't help feeling like, as well as giving them opportunities to work through their checkered and bloody history one painful argument at a time, all of that helps set up the eventual denouement when they are both caught in the bombardment of Centauri Prime by the Narns and allies.
Because the circle finally closes there, and rather than being pushed apart, they're brought together by shared sympathy, friendship, and worry, completely apart from loyalty to their people, their history, or the various fighting factions. (Which obviously are still important, to both of them; just not in that moment.) G'Kar is there under the orbital bombardment by his own side because he's chosen to be there, to protect his friend. And Londo, whose role in the earlier episodes dealing with this motif has been much more ambiguous (ally and enemy both, at times), doesn't even hesitate before diving in and saving him; regardless of whatever else is going on, he doesn't pause and he's not afraid and he has no other priorities before that one. He shows up so quickly in G'Kar's cell that he must have headed there when the ships first started firing, realizing that G'Kar would be helpless - before looking after his own people, before doing anything else to try to stop it; he implicitly promised that nothing bad was going to happen to G'Kar in that cell, and he'll be there to stop it even if it means a few tons of rocks falling on his head.
The way that the last few episodes in the season bring out their personal loyalty above all else just kills me, especially since it has such a sharply truncated and painful ending when Londo is forced back, in the worst possible way, into the straitjacket of duty, planet, and Imperial throne. But before that, they get this. (And G'Kar's quietly wondering, "I would be dead if not for you. You risked your life to save mine.") And I feel like it's set up by those early episodes that remind us, and them, how far apart they are, how different their experiences are up to this point - none of which matters when there are bombs falling on both their heads.
It might be their last close orbit before spiraling much further apart, but it's such a good one.