TR Fic "Infidel"

[clueless_02]

The first months outside of Section were easier than she had calculated.

While she had spent her whole life planning for her death, faked or otherwise, the latter had always been projected to be easier than the former since she was all too familiar with what hell felt like. But in the end, when the moment came, the epinephrine stayed with her long

Comments

[clueless_02]

When I was watching S5 and seeing Paul self-destruct, I always thought that Madeline would take the news that Section was destined for Nikita much worse than Paul would. Paul's motivations are wrapped up in power, where as Madeline's seem to be based on something deeper.

My next comment is based on the fact that I watched a show called Babylon 5 about two years ago and they had a totalitarian institution similar to Section called PsiCorps. Now, PsiCorps wasn't a anti-terrorist organization, but the same unforgiving structure was similar to Section.

Now that I have the context out of the way, the PsiCorps motto was 'Core is mother, Core is father.' And in a way that requires some stretching, I could see Madeline's devotion to Section based on Section accepting who she was inside and providing her the family structure that she was denied after her sister died.

The thing about Madeline is, her devotion could have been borne out of so many places that I even hesitate to speculate.

Okay, sorry for the long ramble, and thank you so much for the comment.

[nell65]

I watched most of the first three seasons of Babylon 5, and seen bits and pieces of the last two seasons. I've always meant to seriously watch it all, but kids, time, etc...!

As for Madeline, I've never been all that sure *what* she was devoted to, if anything at all.

I know Jaybee makes an excellent case for Madeline being devoted to Section, and that her animosity toward Niktia (and vis versa) in the later seasons is about that.... but I've wondered as well if, a bit like Michael, Madeline liked being good at her job, and Section gave her a hell of job to be good at -- but that this didn't really work out to being quite the same thing as being devoted to Section itself.... but my thoughts are half formed.

[clueless_02]

The quality of B5 drops right around the middle of S4. It is still a good show, but because they got canceled and then got renewed later on, the pace of show gets all wonky. Having said the series finale of the show, "Sleeping in the Light," has to be one of my favorite hours of Television ever.

Madeline liked being good at her job

I can see this argument and have seen others make this argument; but even Michael had an obsessive outlet outside of his job. First, Michael is all for Section even at the expense of using Nikita, and then he is obsessive about his son, then Nikita, then back to his son.

I really didn't see this from Madeline.... Well, okay, I guess it really depends on how you interpret TR. Would Madeline choose Operations over Section? I am kind of on the fence about this question, and the answer to this question really depends on whether Madeline can have perspective about Paul's role in Section versus Paul's role in her life.

She could have ran all the Sections but chose to remain loyal to Paul. Now, was that because she believed that she couldn't do the job as well as Paul or was it because she could not sacrifice Paul.

Wow, my head hurts now. All this circular logic and making me question my thesis frustrates me. I just things to be black and white. Shades of gray are evil! Bad show!