#ambassador delenn

[maliwart]

Another little Minvember sketch its been fun using limited colors. And i might have a soft spot for Delenn's profile >_>

[Image ID: A digital painting of Delenn from Babylon 5. She is in profile looking up to the left. She has a contemplative expression, her gaze facing upward. Her hair is flowing around her shoulders in an art nouveau-esque style. The colors are limited to a few purples and oranges. the highlights are acid green and the background is a light blue color. There are lots of sketch lines still visible. End ID]

[yumyumpod]

[iambic-stan]

last book read + last stethoscope used, part 14

The stethoscope: MDF Instruments' Procardial Titantium in Starry Night/Capridium. Lovely look and sound. Love everything about this one.

The book: Late Babylon 5 actress Mira Furlan's memoir, Love Me More Than Anything in the World. I started this book just before I lost someone close to me, and considering how much it concerns grief, I wasn't sure that finishing it was wise in the state that I'm currently in. I don't regret it, though, and no state of mind is ideal to read about how Furlan lost her childhood friend to suicide, as well as her parents, friends, and many others, before her untimely death and this posthumous publication. It seems inevitable, in a tragic Shakespearean kind of way, that a woman hailing from the former Yugoslavia, whose family history involves multiple horrific stories of imprisonment in concentration camps, would continue to see unjust ends for the rest of her life. But her ability to find joy in what a lot of people take for granted is one thing that staved off some of my own despair. In one chapter, she writes with great detail and affection about how she accidentally came to be owned by a cat. Anyone who loves them will understand her devotion, and knows how they capture us so quickly and without warning. I became interested in Furlan after watching her character, the Minbari Ambassador Delenn, fiercely commanding fleets, doling out wisdom for the ages, and still being an advocate for nonviolence until all of its options have been exhausted, but this memoir is about much more than how the actress immigrated to the U.S. to eventually star in a science fiction series. I think it was just what I needed, too.

[walks-the-ages]

[ID: a photo edit of the original version of Ambassador Delenn from Babylon 5 pilot/movie 'The Gathering' so that she has the trans pride flag overlaid over her. She is an alien with pale, spotted, wrinkled skin, a large yellow-white bone crest over the back of her head that resembles a seashell, and is wearing multi-layered robes. end ID]

Delenn was going to be canonically, literally transgender (instead of being a very pointed metaphor/analogy), but unfortunately the heavy prosthetics and voice work were too much for Mira Furlan, so the initial explicit transgender concept was scrapped.... but we still got her absolutely fantastic transition :)

Honestly, trans Delenn still works perfectly in canon, if you realize she's simply socially transitioned before medically transitioning ;)

Maybe even Commander Sinclair used his position to help stop any transphobes on the station from causing a problem, and this was one of the things that cemented their Old Friendship :)

[narnia-and-the-north]

"And my thoughts will ever be with him.

I hope that he can hear them."

Babylon 5: Season 1, Episode 19 - "A Voice in the Wilderness: Part II"

Screencaps from cap-that.com

[therighthandofvengeance]

Delenn: I girlbossed too close to the sun.

Lennier: so now you’re going to gaslight yourself too close to the sea?

Delenn: yes, and I’m going to gatekeep all of this from John the entire time.

[aforgottenthing]

Alien Girlbosses and their human Malewives

[yumyumpod]

RIP to John's last remaining brain cell.

[iamthespineofmybook]

The universe puts us into places where we can learn. They are never easy places, but they are right. Wherever we are is the right place and the right time. The pain that sometimes comes is part of the process of constantly being born.

Ambassador Delenn, Babylon 5, Season 2 Episode 4 “A Distant Star”

[ddagent]

Ambassadors G’Kar, Delenn, and Londo Mollari in 1.05 The Parliament of Dreams

[thirddoctor]

Best Babylon 5 Character

Best B5 Character Contest

[mari-beau]

Never Forget that Delenn (Satai, Ambassador, Entil'Zha, The One) said WORKERS RIGHTS!

[tenderspaces]

and you don't seem the lying kind

minvember 2023 palette prompt 2: lie

tempted as i was to draw londo for this prompt, this really is the minbari color palette! a certain flashback about delenn's role in the earth-minbari war was on my mind while drawing this, and how much that added to her moral complexity (not that the ambassadors as a trio and as a rule aren't morally complex enough, but still - what a reveal).

pose referenced from (completely unrelated media property) hsr imbibitor lunae's ultimate attack, as well as an actual profile shot of delenn.

[therighthandofvengeance]

Delenn is eating cereal for the first time, so all of the humans are gathered around her to see if she puts the milk or the cereal first. Franklin has his charts all ready to log her actions. Garibaldi is trying to not bore his eyes into the back of her head. Ivanova and Sheridan are whispering to each other as Ivanova tries to comfort Sheridan that she'll make the right choice. Marcus looking everywhere in the room that isn't towards Delenn out of the uncontrollable fear of Entil'Zha making a choice that violates his moral compass. Alongside them is Lennier, desperately trying to figure out why this all matters to them so much and getting nowhere.

[unearthlytraveller]

Babylon 5 Rewatch: Chrysalis

30 years ago, fans of B5 had to wait three months for the first season finale. I'm not willing to do that.

I'm going to break here, because if there is any episode from season 1 that should not be spoiled, it's this one. And I'm going to spoil it below.

I remembered this as the best episode of the season. And, it is. It's not even close. Everything the season has been putting into place comes together, and the world falls apart. That moment when Garibaldi manages to give that warning from sickbay, and the crew rush to warn about the assassination attempt... only to find they are too late. It still gives me chills all these years and rewatches later.

I was unsure how I was going to feel about this episode. Part of the reason for that is because I last watched this in 2010 or 2011. Back then, the idea of a return to fascism seemed laughable. Today... it does not. And I can't deny that real-world context changes things. It's hard to enjoy the sci-fi drama when it doesn't feel all that speculative. But there's a line Sinclair says that struck me.

"Just that I've had this feeling lately that we're standing at a crossroads, and I don't like where we're going. But there's still time to choose another path. You can be part of that process"

The first sentence I remembered from before. The second two... I did not. And as small as it seems, it actually made me feel more hopeful to hear it.

Another thing that struck me on this watch was Londo. Signs and Portents was his first step down the path to darkness; this is his second. And yet, he is genuinely shocked by the consequences of his actions; and we end with him keeping vigil with Ivanova. It won't last, of course, but it's a reminder that he's not an intrinsically or purely evil character; there is much good in him. That's why we like him, and why he is tragic despite all he will do.

G'Kar gets to really show the range of his character. He starts in strutting villain mode, and the scene were his latest sexual partners leave his quarters is one of the funnier moments of a generally dark episode. But as the episode progresses, we see his other side. He seems far less keen in his government's aggression when talking in his chambers; he immediately understands the implications of the attack on Quadrant 37; and in the shuttle scene, it is Na'Toth who speaks of retaliation while G'Kar offers Ivanova condolences and is more reflective.

Garibaldi has come under criticism in recent episodes for his actions, and justifiably so. So it's interesting that we start this episode with Petrov, who Garibaldi was apparently willing to help get a second chance. We also get to see both his investigative chops, figuring out the assassination plot... but also his blind spots. Or as Walker Smith said back in TKO,

"One of these days, Garibaldi, you're going to learn to watch your back."

Delenn starts a change that is in both the biggest and smallest of the ambassadors. I, of course, know what will come out of the titular chrysalis. And yet while the physical changes will be dramatic, Delenn as a person arguably changes the least among the main cast. A little something I've always found amusingly ironic.

Sinclair has a pretty rough time of it. He makes a pretty awful proposal, fails to save the president, fails to meet with Delenn and get the answers he wants... He gets the last line of the season, though, and it's a great one.

"Nothing's the same any more."

This is the season finale, and so we say goodbye to a lot of things. The last time that Mira Furlan will wear that specific make up as Delenn, for one. But we also say goodbye to Caitlin Brown's Na'Toth, Michael O'Hare's Sinclair, and Julia Nickson's Catherine Sakai. Some of these actors will make guest appearances, but even now I feel somewhat sad about these departures.

Caitlin Brown's decision not to return is understandable based on what I've read; that she only came on as a favour when the actress who played Ko'Dath developed an allergic reaction to the makeup, and would never normally be stuck in such a low-profile role. Still, I enjoy season one where her and Andreas Katsulas give such great presence to the Narn. I don't think they ever fully replaced her.

Michael O'Hare's departure is bigger, since he was the star of the show. And, of course, there was that scene in Babylon Squared. It's amazing that JMS made such a big deal about how B5 was planned in advance, and yet was able to handle this and still make a show with such compelling foreshadowing. Sure, there are places were things don't quite line up that the obsessive fan can see, but they're easy to overlook. As for O'Hare himself, I hope he acheived some respite from the mental illness that forced his departure before his tragic early death.

Least important to the show was the character of Cathering Sakai; Nickson only had three appearances this season, the last of which before Chrysalis was 16 episodes ago. I mostly just want to mention that, if you want to know her character's fate, read To Dream in the City of Sorrows. It's a good book; not great, not really able to stand by itself aside from the show, but certainly better than most of the tie-in novels.

With season 1 over, will I continue to season 2? Not immediately. The real-world connections will only get stronger, and I'm not ready for that right now. Later? Maybe; we'll see.

Finally, I've been adding my CCG cards, and let's do that one more time. What choice could there be, but this one: