Fanmix - Marcus and Ivanova - Star-Crossed
(I apologize for the somewhat slapdash nature of this year's contribution. Once again, I meant to vid, really I did. It's been a hell of a summer.)
First, a little introduction. I've been trying to figure out how to deal with my feelings about Marcus in fanworks for a couple of years. When I was in high school and first started watching B5, I was madly in love with Marcus. He was one of the things that convinced me to watch the show. He was a romantic, he was British, he believed that Kosh was Merlin, he was terribly dashing and charming and I did not see what Ivanova's problem was that she was not dating him. And, most of all, I thought his sacrificing his life for her in the end was incredibly romantic (and, naturally, tragic).
Well, I'm not in high school any more, or even in college, or even in graduate school, and I still kind of love Marcus, but I totally know why Ivanova was not dating him. For one thing, she's still getting over Talia, which had to be a horrible fucking blow. For another thing, Marcus's own issues are not insignificant, and unlike almost everyone else on this show, he's completely uninterested in dealing with them. He's the only person who completely avoids the rebirth ceremony in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark." He simply cannot cope, not with himself or with other people.
So what does he do? He retreats into courtly love. I despise courtly love like you have no idea. It's this awful medieval concept of romanticism based entirely around the idea that you can never, ever have what you want, and that is something worth celebrating. If you're a medieval noblewoman married off to someone twice your age for the sake of land deeds, that might be a practical solution to your problems. For everybody else, not so much.
When Marcus rattles off the Arthurian parallels on Babylon 5, he lists himself as Galahad and Ivanova as Gawain, which seems fair enough (for her at least), but he acts as though they're Lancelot and Guenevere, the lovers whose love will destroy Camelot. And it does, in a way, depending on what you see as the motivations for Ivanova leaving the station at last, but not because their love was consummated but because it wasn't. But at the same time, it doesn't, because Babylon 5 does not rest on the shoulders of one or two people.
Trading his life for hers is, in the end, the most outrageously selfish thing Marcus ever does. Ivanova has no say in how this is going to go; Marcus's dramatic unrequited love (which he never gives the opportunity to become anything else) has already made all the choices. What's more, she gets to live with the consequences, while he doesn't have to live with anything. Marcus takes the easy way out by choosing a noble gesture over an actual give-and-take relationship that may or may not have ever worked. And that's why the working title for this mix was "Marcus you kind of suck."
(Star-crossed is, of course, Shakespeare; it's the word he uses to describe Romeo and Juliet. A shallow reading of that play, the kind you tend to get when you're a high-school freshman being forced to read it for the first time in English class, sees the play as a romance, and thus the word has come to mean "destined." But Romeo & Juliet is in fact a tragedy, and "star-crossed" properly means "doomed." It seemed appropriate.)
star-crossed
Marcus Cole
Guillame de Mauchaut - Ay mi, dame de valour
[Noble lady, full of honour.
I am in distress;
For never did I seek dishonour
On you]
Lucy Kaplansky - Guinevere
all my honor and glory
will just be the story
of the fall of the crown
Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait
Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow
Cause I will wait, I will wait for you
Nickel Creek - Doubting Thomas
I'm a doubting thomas,
I'll take your promise,
Though I know nothin's safe,
Oh me of little faith
The Endless - The Ache
don't let's
ruin a good thing
Susan Ivanova
Tori Amos - China
You're right next to me
I think that you can hear me
Funny how the distance
Learns to grow
Carbon Leaf - The Boxer
She is the Boxer, she knows
when and where to strike
He is the Boxer, he knows,
no peaceful sleep tonight
Breaking Benjamin - So Cold
You're so cold, but you feel alive
Lay your hand on me one last time
John Gorka - Full Of Life
Life is full of disappointment
Yes and I am full of life
Josh Ritter - Snow is Gone
I'd rather be the one who loves
than to be loved and never even know
download
First, a little introduction. I've been trying to figure out how to deal with my feelings about Marcus in fanworks for a couple of years. When I was in high school and first started watching B5, I was madly in love with Marcus. He was one of the things that convinced me to watch the show. He was a romantic, he was British, he believed that Kosh was Merlin, he was terribly dashing and charming and I did not see what Ivanova's problem was that she was not dating him. And, most of all, I thought his sacrificing his life for her in the end was incredibly romantic (and, naturally, tragic).
Well, I'm not in high school any more, or even in college, or even in graduate school, and I still kind of love Marcus, but I totally know why Ivanova was not dating him. For one thing, she's still getting over Talia, which had to be a horrible fucking blow. For another thing, Marcus's own issues are not insignificant, and unlike almost everyone else on this show, he's completely uninterested in dealing with them. He's the only person who completely avoids the rebirth ceremony in "Ceremonies of Light and Dark." He simply cannot cope, not with himself or with other people.
So what does he do? He retreats into courtly love. I despise courtly love like you have no idea. It's this awful medieval concept of romanticism based entirely around the idea that you can never, ever have what you want, and that is something worth celebrating. If you're a medieval noblewoman married off to someone twice your age for the sake of land deeds, that might be a practical solution to your problems. For everybody else, not so much.
When Marcus rattles off the Arthurian parallels on Babylon 5, he lists himself as Galahad and Ivanova as Gawain, which seems fair enough (for her at least), but he acts as though they're Lancelot and Guenevere, the lovers whose love will destroy Camelot. And it does, in a way, depending on what you see as the motivations for Ivanova leaving the station at last, but not because their love was consummated but because it wasn't. But at the same time, it doesn't, because Babylon 5 does not rest on the shoulders of one or two people.
Trading his life for hers is, in the end, the most outrageously selfish thing Marcus ever does. Ivanova has no say in how this is going to go; Marcus's dramatic unrequited love (which he never gives the opportunity to become anything else) has already made all the choices. What's more, she gets to live with the consequences, while he doesn't have to live with anything. Marcus takes the easy way out by choosing a noble gesture over an actual give-and-take relationship that may or may not have ever worked. And that's why the working title for this mix was "Marcus you kind of suck."
(Star-crossed is, of course, Shakespeare; it's the word he uses to describe Romeo and Juliet. A shallow reading of that play, the kind you tend to get when you're a high-school freshman being forced to read it for the first time in English class, sees the play as a romance, and thus the word has come to mean "destined." But Romeo & Juliet is in fact a tragedy, and "star-crossed" properly means "doomed." It seemed appropriate.)
star-crossed
Marcus Cole
Guillame de Mauchaut - Ay mi, dame de valour
[Noble lady, full of honour.
I am in distress;
For never did I seek dishonour
On you]
Lucy Kaplansky - Guinevere
all my honor and glory
will just be the story
of the fall of the crown
Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait
Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow
Cause I will wait, I will wait for you
Nickel Creek - Doubting Thomas
I'm a doubting thomas,
I'll take your promise,
Though I know nothin's safe,
Oh me of little faith
The Endless - The Ache
don't let's
ruin a good thing
Susan Ivanova
Tori Amos - China
You're right next to me
I think that you can hear me
Funny how the distance
Learns to grow
Carbon Leaf - The Boxer
She is the Boxer, she knows
when and where to strike
He is the Boxer, he knows,
no peaceful sleep tonight
Breaking Benjamin - So Cold
You're so cold, but you feel alive
Lay your hand on me one last time
John Gorka - Full Of Life
Life is full of disappointment
Yes and I am full of life
Josh Ritter - Snow is Gone
I'd rather be the one who loves
than to be loved and never even know
download