#babylon fiveblogging

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sometimes Babylon 5 episodes are great because there are two equally low stakes subplots, e.g. Ivanova’s rabbi helps her process her feelings around the death of her father while a character we’ve never met before desegregates an alien fight club that won’t let humans fight. and sometimes Babylon 5 is great because the main plot is that a corrupt military officer is trying to use a telepathic tribunal to take over the station, and the B plot is that Lennier is building a motorcycle because he is bored.

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G'Kar is by far my favorite character on Babylon 5, which of course means that the episodes I look forward to most are the ones where his planet gets invaded and he loses his position as ambassador, or he's captured and tortured, or he almost dies trapped in an elevator. you know how it is with blorbos.

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oh so we're supposed to believe that the Narns (who have been canonically obsessed with the idea of telepaths for years) just didn't notice the passage in one of their most famous holy texts that referred to telepaths until Garibaldi found it while READING IT IN TRANSLATION??? honestly Babylon 5 does so many television hate crimes against the Narn I have trouble remembering that they're not a real racial minority from Earth

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Stephen Franklin should have lost his medical license after ‘Believers’. Religion is irrelevant. If you perform a medical procedure on a patient through subterfuge, against their will, without the consent of their legal guardians, you don’t get to be a doctor anymore. It’s not an unforgivable sin narratively on a show full of war criminals, but from a licensing standpoint it’s not acceptable. I lost interest in the character when the show refused to give him believable consequences for that decision.

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I would never in my life fuck Londo Mollari, but I am morally obligated to vote “smash” on offputting aliens in hotness polls.

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I cannot comprehend the B5 time travel plots, I just stare blankly at the screen and let Zathras wash over me

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meanwhile, Dr. Franklin is pushing diets on the whole crew because he’s a control freak and a busybody, and the show has been trying and failing to make Sheridan interesting for three episodes in a row. love Babylon 5, except for all the characters.

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oh, I forgot that Londo was genuinely surprised and upset about Morden's destruction of the Narn outpost at the end of season 1. I think I misremembered him as having a little more agency in that situation, rather than mostly being their stooge/patsy.

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my favorite season one Babylon 5 side character is that one senator they assigned to give Sinclair bad news. He only shows up on screen to say things like "So, Jeff, the senate still hates your guts and won't help you do anything. Just thought you should know. Hidoshi out."

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brb just adding Where I Want to Be from Chess to the secret Londo Mollari character playlist in my mind

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I miss Sinclair immediately. His solution to every problem was staying up all night on Space Wikipedia looking for a loophole to wiggle through. Love that in a commanding officer.

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I am a shameless Narn partisan. It it fully illegal to possess a G’Quan Eth for anything other than religious purposes and Sinclair can therefore just confiscate it, but he made G’Kar pay Londo full price for it anyway??? And don’t even get me started on the first episode where Delenn is like “If someone stole land from you long enough ago, they get to keep it forever.” What kind of fucking colonizer logic…

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it’s very good to see all of my little Babylon 5 guys again…Lennier walked on screen for the first time clutching his little bag and said “understanding is not required, only obedience” and I turned to my partner and said “he’s a good boy” with sincere warmth, because he is