Sunday's post on Wednesday - because that's apparently the way I roll
I have missed a bunch of birthdays. Happy very belated birthday to _jems_, and belated birthday to sugargroupie. (sugargroupie, forgive me for not getting in touch with you while I was in Birmingham; on top of some airline shenanigans, I was sick. Maybe next time?) And happy slightly belated birthday to molly_may--I meant to post on Sunday and then got poleaxed by bad news, and I'm sorry I missed celebrating then!
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I thought it would be a good idea to post these before I get even more behind...
Babylon 5 3.17 - "War Without End Part 2"
Not only does this pair of episodes jump back and forth in time, but it does so in a way that makes sense of everything we've seen so far. I love that! So many mysterious little moments from the past get connected up here, all of Zathras's cryptic behavior in "Babylon Squared" suddenly explained, and to learn, after all, that Sinclair was Valen--that he underwent a parallel transformation to Delenn's, on the opposite site of the loop of time, and tipped the balance in the war with the Shadows both times. Who knew the Eyebrows had it in them? And the Vorlons were there to help everything along. Interesting.
It seems terribly grim that they could win the war with the Shadows--or at least, in Delenn's words, accomplish everything they set out to do--and still face so much darkness. It isn't a binary, though; before the Shadows came along, there were plenty of other problems and dark forces in the universe, and they didn't go away during the war, just receded into the background. It's encouraging, in a weird way, that Londo is still conscious of his own need for redemption, after all that time and all that destruction, and that he's still trying to find ways to trick circumstance into giving him what he wants, and that even so far ahead, his fate and G'Kar's are still so intertwined. (And it looks like Vir gets to be emperor after Londo after all, hopefully not with his own keeper.)
Babylon 5 3.18 - "Walkabout"
I had to watch large parts of this episode through my hands. I like Erica Gimpel, who will always be Wallace Fennel's mother to me; and I'm not that fond of Stephen. Watching Stephen go on the world's whiniest existential quest while everyone else around him sucked it up and pulled together to actually do something, and then listening to him get all sanctimonious about her potential drug problem when he's recovering from a stim addiction, and then to have it turn out that he was WRONG and she was dying and just trying to manage her pain was just--SHUT UP, STEPHEN.
But to balance that out was Garibaldi's excellent speech to G'Kar about what leadership means in a time of war. Our Heroes still have to scrape so hard to pull together the resources they need from their fractious coalition. But they manage to do it; to test the theory that telepaths are the key to defeating the shadows, and to defend themselves. I think it's the first time that they've had a really successful encounter with the Shadows that involved more than luck and a single ship, and it was by the seat of their pants, but it worked. And it only worked with all of them.
Babylon 5 3.19 - ""Grey 17 Is Missing"
I really loved this episode, probably far more than it objectively deserves. Although it sort of falls apart into nonsense and monsters by the end, the beginning--when Garibaldi realizes there's a floor nobody knows about, and does the grunt work to find it, and then there's a creepy ventriloquest's dummy and a crazy cult led by wild-eyed Robert Englund, is excellent. Garibaldi is, fundamentally, such a good cop, and I like that there's all kinds of flotsam and jetsam caught in the station's cracks, trying to find their own meaning from their isolation and the chaos around them.
I also liked the fact that Delenn's path to leadership isn't smooth--that on top of her own doubts about her fitness to command the Rangers, there is the issue of internal Minbari politics, the jockeying and rebalancing of the castes. It's a continuation of the shift that started when the warrior caste took the majority on the Gray Council; now the religious caste commands the Rangers. Huge events like the war with the Shadows tend to be hard on traditions; societies have to adapt. Neroon's description of Delenn as a religious zealout bent on fulfilling a prophecy and unbalancing Minbari society is harsh, but in its particulars, it's also accurate. It misses her intent, but it captures her actions, from a certain viewpoint; we know her, and attribute good intentions to her, but that's not necessarily true of Neroon. It is, then, fortunate that what Marcus's attack taught him was that the Rangers will die for Delenn in a way they would not for him, and that he is wise enough to recognize that that's an essential quality in Ranger One. It's an adaption, a sign of the kind of flexibility it takes to win.
Babylon 5 3.20 - "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"
Hey, it's Erick Avari! That guy gets around.
I was less surprised than Vir was that Londo could lure G'Kar to his death in order to further his own political advancement, so I was probably more surprised than Vir that it was all a trick to lure Refa to his death. It accomplished two things: avenging Adira's death and removing a rival. And sure, Refa was technically responsible for ordering the destruction of Narn, even if Londo was the one who actually made it possible. I think it's incredibly telling that the Centauri soldiers who were supposedly there to guard Refa gave him up to a mob of Narn because they were loyal to House Molari instead; this is a nation, a planet, that is supposed to be at war, but it's so bloated and corrupt and preoccupied with Byzantine infighting that there's no inherent sense of us versus them, of internal versus external enemies, just loyalty to the house that looks like it's going to get ahead, through any means necessary. So while I was pleased that G'Kar got out of the trap, I was also a little shocked that the Centauri are so willing to turn on each other, in front of their supposed enemies, using their supposed enemies as tools in their infighting.
(The intercutting between the joyous religious celebration on Babylon 5 and Refa getting torn apart by angry Narn seemed like it was supposed to be some kind of "up from bondage" montage, but instead it was just weird. Whatever they were going for, I don't think it worked.)
I'm glad to hear that everyone on Earth isn't submitting unquestioningly to Clark's coup; that there's an organized resistance, and that religious leaders--with the respect, the infrastructure, and the (albeit limited) protection and freedom to move around they command--play an important part.
Babylon 5 3.21 - "Shadow Dancing"
To my utter and complete astonishment, Richard Biggs sold the hell out of Stephen's confrontation with himself, and I was so pleased to see that what I had taken to be my own inability to deal with bad characterization was a deliberate move on the part of the writers. Stephen was insufferable; he was too preoccupied with his own doubts and fears and sense of inadequacy to acknowledge the people around him who cared about him and rise to the momentous occasion he's found himself in the middle of. Everyone around him has been running toward the fight; he's been running away. And while that often made me want to reach through the screen and strangle him, I was wrong to think the writers were endorsing his self-indulgence as an admirable reaction; it was human, and faulty, and in the end it wasn't something he could sustain, in the face of the struggles of his friends. It wasn't the most smoothly executed character arc I've ever seen, but it has an internal logic, and I feel much better about Stephen now.
The battle between the coalition force and the Shadows was exciting and visually very pretty; Our Heroes are as strong as they've ever been, and it's still barely enough as they hang on by their fingernails. Still, they've gone on the offense, to try to disrupt the Shadows' plans to kill everyone they've herded into that one sector of space, and it's the first time they've acted rather than reacting in this war, and that's huge.
I was somewhat confused about where Sheridan and Delenn were in their relationship, since at times they have seemed quite close, and the show has been pretty coy about physical relations; so I'd thought they'd actually gotten to the point of intimacy before this. I find the idea of being watched while I sleep deeply creepy, but I guess that's the point--you're so vulnerable. It's a nice way of opening things up between them, having them take a step that is a little more complicated and unusual than just sex; here they are, on the cusp of something new, and of course it can't go smoothly. I can't say I was suprised to see Sheridan's wife; I've suspected since finding out that Morden was part of her missing expedition that she's also out there, also working for the Shadows. But I didn't realize that she was Laura Ingalls Wilder*, so that was a surprise.
*Not really, since the books are where it is at, and the television show was a weak and inaccurate apostasy that should not be regarded as part of canon. Do not even get me started on Nellie Olsen!
Babylon 5 3.22 - "Z'ha'dum"
I have to say that Anna interrupting Delenn and Sheridan's little watching-him-while-he-sleeps ritual ranks up there as one of the more awkward romantic snafus I've seen on television. Yikes! But of course, Delenn is completely awesome about the whole thing--she never thought Anna would make the choice she did, so she assumed she was dead; since she's not, Delenn steps back and gives Sheridan the space to figure out how he feels about it, and about the fact that she didn't say something earlier. The show has set up Sheridan's regrets and longing for his dead wife well enough that it survives Melissa Gilbert's crazy-eyed performance; more than that, Sheridan's trip to Z'ha'dum takes on the dreamlike quality of someone who is following a path he knows he needs to take, even though it will probably all end in tears. He's not dumb enough to believe that Anna's soul is still in one piece, but he has to find out the when and where and why of it all, and it's pretty clear he doesn't think he's coming back.
And there, we finally get to find out what motivates the Shadows. They have literally been dark, lightless figures in the show so far, so it's both interesting and pleasing that they are acting on the basis of a philosophy that, while repugnant, has a lot of internal consistency and logic: the winner-take-all theory of evolution, the exact opposite of the enlightenment and cooperation that the Vorlons seem to advocate, and that Babylon 5 was created to promote.
Anna's expedition to Z'ha'dum was ordered by EarthForce; it all ties back to the ship on Mars, and to the foolishness of people who think they can control a force like the Shadows and use it as a tool. Londo was such a fool, and now it looks like his chickens are coming home to roost: the Centauri empire wants to hold him close enough to strangle if necessary, and Morden's associates are warning him off the station, and he's got nobody to blame but himself.
I was 99% sure that Kosh never really died before he told Sheridan to take a swan dive, and now I'm 99.9% sure.
* * * * *
Thanks to everyone who offered condolences for the puppydog's passing. I'm over the shock, and just miss him terribly; he was a good friend, the way dogs sometimes are. This story about a dog and an elephant who are friends made me smile when I read it, and remember him fondly.
Another thing that made me smile this week was this clip of the orchestra of Great Britain performing "Shaft". With singing! Sublime and ridiculous in equal parts.
And a PSA to tea-drinkers: the Republic of Tea is selling its seasonal rose petal tea right now. It's lovely; I highly recommend it if you're into that sort of thing.
* * * * *
Although it's always good practice to back up your journal, I'm not really concerned about LJ disappearing overnight based on news of the layoffs yesterday. I've already said it a couple of places in comments, but I think it bears repeating: Silicon Valley is in the midst of what is probably the first of several waves of massive layoffs; companies are consolidating operations, cutting to (and sometimes through) the bone; funding has dried up. LJ's San Francisco presence is expensive. So while I feel awful for the employees who lost their jobs, I'm not surprised, after the Russian buy-out and the Montana server farm move, so see more cuts to the San Francisco operation. I have a ton of concerns about the direction SUP is going to take the site in, and the long-term viability of the service, but I don't think this particular layoff is a sign that the site is going to disappear in a puff of smoke. Or maybe I'm just overdosing on layoff news. (Seriously, I've been working in high tech for 10 years and have been laid off 3 times; it's not a stable workplace. And despite Valleywag's snide inaccuracies, I would be very, very surprised if Facebook doesn't have a layoff by the end of the year.)
So that's just my $.02, which is actually worth about $.02 less than that. I'm danceswithwords on insanejournal and journalfen too, but until a more viable service appears and/or LJ finally bites the dust, I don't see myself going anywhere.
* * * * *
I thought it would be a good idea to post these before I get even more behind...
Babylon 5 3.17 - "War Without End Part 2"
Not only does this pair of episodes jump back and forth in time, but it does so in a way that makes sense of everything we've seen so far. I love that! So many mysterious little moments from the past get connected up here, all of Zathras's cryptic behavior in "Babylon Squared" suddenly explained, and to learn, after all, that Sinclair was Valen--that he underwent a parallel transformation to Delenn's, on the opposite site of the loop of time, and tipped the balance in the war with the Shadows both times. Who knew the Eyebrows had it in them? And the Vorlons were there to help everything along. Interesting.
It seems terribly grim that they could win the war with the Shadows--or at least, in Delenn's words, accomplish everything they set out to do--and still face so much darkness. It isn't a binary, though; before the Shadows came along, there were plenty of other problems and dark forces in the universe, and they didn't go away during the war, just receded into the background. It's encouraging, in a weird way, that Londo is still conscious of his own need for redemption, after all that time and all that destruction, and that he's still trying to find ways to trick circumstance into giving him what he wants, and that even so far ahead, his fate and G'Kar's are still so intertwined. (And it looks like Vir gets to be emperor after Londo after all, hopefully not with his own keeper.)
Babylon 5 3.18 - "Walkabout"
I had to watch large parts of this episode through my hands. I like Erica Gimpel, who will always be Wallace Fennel's mother to me; and I'm not that fond of Stephen. Watching Stephen go on the world's whiniest existential quest while everyone else around him sucked it up and pulled together to actually do something, and then listening to him get all sanctimonious about her potential drug problem when he's recovering from a stim addiction, and then to have it turn out that he was WRONG and she was dying and just trying to manage her pain was just--SHUT UP, STEPHEN.
But to balance that out was Garibaldi's excellent speech to G'Kar about what leadership means in a time of war. Our Heroes still have to scrape so hard to pull together the resources they need from their fractious coalition. But they manage to do it; to test the theory that telepaths are the key to defeating the shadows, and to defend themselves. I think it's the first time that they've had a really successful encounter with the Shadows that involved more than luck and a single ship, and it was by the seat of their pants, but it worked. And it only worked with all of them.
Babylon 5 3.19 - ""Grey 17 Is Missing"
I really loved this episode, probably far more than it objectively deserves. Although it sort of falls apart into nonsense and monsters by the end, the beginning--when Garibaldi realizes there's a floor nobody knows about, and does the grunt work to find it, and then there's a creepy ventriloquest's dummy and a crazy cult led by wild-eyed Robert Englund, is excellent. Garibaldi is, fundamentally, such a good cop, and I like that there's all kinds of flotsam and jetsam caught in the station's cracks, trying to find their own meaning from their isolation and the chaos around them.
I also liked the fact that Delenn's path to leadership isn't smooth--that on top of her own doubts about her fitness to command the Rangers, there is the issue of internal Minbari politics, the jockeying and rebalancing of the castes. It's a continuation of the shift that started when the warrior caste took the majority on the Gray Council; now the religious caste commands the Rangers. Huge events like the war with the Shadows tend to be hard on traditions; societies have to adapt. Neroon's description of Delenn as a religious zealout bent on fulfilling a prophecy and unbalancing Minbari society is harsh, but in its particulars, it's also accurate. It misses her intent, but it captures her actions, from a certain viewpoint; we know her, and attribute good intentions to her, but that's not necessarily true of Neroon. It is, then, fortunate that what Marcus's attack taught him was that the Rangers will die for Delenn in a way they would not for him, and that he is wise enough to recognize that that's an essential quality in Ranger One. It's an adaption, a sign of the kind of flexibility it takes to win.
Babylon 5 3.20 - "And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"
Hey, it's Erick Avari! That guy gets around.
I was less surprised than Vir was that Londo could lure G'Kar to his death in order to further his own political advancement, so I was probably more surprised than Vir that it was all a trick to lure Refa to his death. It accomplished two things: avenging Adira's death and removing a rival. And sure, Refa was technically responsible for ordering the destruction of Narn, even if Londo was the one who actually made it possible. I think it's incredibly telling that the Centauri soldiers who were supposedly there to guard Refa gave him up to a mob of Narn because they were loyal to House Molari instead; this is a nation, a planet, that is supposed to be at war, but it's so bloated and corrupt and preoccupied with Byzantine infighting that there's no inherent sense of us versus them, of internal versus external enemies, just loyalty to the house that looks like it's going to get ahead, through any means necessary. So while I was pleased that G'Kar got out of the trap, I was also a little shocked that the Centauri are so willing to turn on each other, in front of their supposed enemies, using their supposed enemies as tools in their infighting.
(The intercutting between the joyous religious celebration on Babylon 5 and Refa getting torn apart by angry Narn seemed like it was supposed to be some kind of "up from bondage" montage, but instead it was just weird. Whatever they were going for, I don't think it worked.)
I'm glad to hear that everyone on Earth isn't submitting unquestioningly to Clark's coup; that there's an organized resistance, and that religious leaders--with the respect, the infrastructure, and the (albeit limited) protection and freedom to move around they command--play an important part.
Babylon 5 3.21 - "Shadow Dancing"
To my utter and complete astonishment, Richard Biggs sold the hell out of Stephen's confrontation with himself, and I was so pleased to see that what I had taken to be my own inability to deal with bad characterization was a deliberate move on the part of the writers. Stephen was insufferable; he was too preoccupied with his own doubts and fears and sense of inadequacy to acknowledge the people around him who cared about him and rise to the momentous occasion he's found himself in the middle of. Everyone around him has been running toward the fight; he's been running away. And while that often made me want to reach through the screen and strangle him, I was wrong to think the writers were endorsing his self-indulgence as an admirable reaction; it was human, and faulty, and in the end it wasn't something he could sustain, in the face of the struggles of his friends. It wasn't the most smoothly executed character arc I've ever seen, but it has an internal logic, and I feel much better about Stephen now.
The battle between the coalition force and the Shadows was exciting and visually very pretty; Our Heroes are as strong as they've ever been, and it's still barely enough as they hang on by their fingernails. Still, they've gone on the offense, to try to disrupt the Shadows' plans to kill everyone they've herded into that one sector of space, and it's the first time they've acted rather than reacting in this war, and that's huge.
I was somewhat confused about where Sheridan and Delenn were in their relationship, since at times they have seemed quite close, and the show has been pretty coy about physical relations; so I'd thought they'd actually gotten to the point of intimacy before this. I find the idea of being watched while I sleep deeply creepy, but I guess that's the point--you're so vulnerable. It's a nice way of opening things up between them, having them take a step that is a little more complicated and unusual than just sex; here they are, on the cusp of something new, and of course it can't go smoothly. I can't say I was suprised to see Sheridan's wife; I've suspected since finding out that Morden was part of her missing expedition that she's also out there, also working for the Shadows. But I didn't realize that she was Laura Ingalls Wilder*, so that was a surprise.
*Not really, since the books are where it is at, and the television show was a weak and inaccurate apostasy that should not be regarded as part of canon. Do not even get me started on Nellie Olsen!
Babylon 5 3.22 - "Z'ha'dum"
I have to say that Anna interrupting Delenn and Sheridan's little watching-him-while-he-sleeps ritual ranks up there as one of the more awkward romantic snafus I've seen on television. Yikes! But of course, Delenn is completely awesome about the whole thing--she never thought Anna would make the choice she did, so she assumed she was dead; since she's not, Delenn steps back and gives Sheridan the space to figure out how he feels about it, and about the fact that she didn't say something earlier. The show has set up Sheridan's regrets and longing for his dead wife well enough that it survives Melissa Gilbert's crazy-eyed performance; more than that, Sheridan's trip to Z'ha'dum takes on the dreamlike quality of someone who is following a path he knows he needs to take, even though it will probably all end in tears. He's not dumb enough to believe that Anna's soul is still in one piece, but he has to find out the when and where and why of it all, and it's pretty clear he doesn't think he's coming back.
And there, we finally get to find out what motivates the Shadows. They have literally been dark, lightless figures in the show so far, so it's both interesting and pleasing that they are acting on the basis of a philosophy that, while repugnant, has a lot of internal consistency and logic: the winner-take-all theory of evolution, the exact opposite of the enlightenment and cooperation that the Vorlons seem to advocate, and that Babylon 5 was created to promote.
Anna's expedition to Z'ha'dum was ordered by EarthForce; it all ties back to the ship on Mars, and to the foolishness of people who think they can control a force like the Shadows and use it as a tool. Londo was such a fool, and now it looks like his chickens are coming home to roost: the Centauri empire wants to hold him close enough to strangle if necessary, and Morden's associates are warning him off the station, and he's got nobody to blame but himself.
I was 99% sure that Kosh never really died before he told Sheridan to take a swan dive, and now I'm 99.9% sure.
* * * * *
Thanks to everyone who offered condolences for the puppydog's passing. I'm over the shock, and just miss him terribly; he was a good friend, the way dogs sometimes are. This story about a dog and an elephant who are friends made me smile when I read it, and remember him fondly.
Another thing that made me smile this week was this clip of the orchestra of Great Britain performing "Shaft". With singing! Sublime and ridiculous in equal parts.
And a PSA to tea-drinkers: the Republic of Tea is selling its seasonal rose petal tea right now. It's lovely; I highly recommend it if you're into that sort of thing.
* * * * *
Although it's always good practice to back up your journal, I'm not really concerned about LJ disappearing overnight based on news of the layoffs yesterday. I've already said it a couple of places in comments, but I think it bears repeating: Silicon Valley is in the midst of what is probably the first of several waves of massive layoffs; companies are consolidating operations, cutting to (and sometimes through) the bone; funding has dried up. LJ's San Francisco presence is expensive. So while I feel awful for the employees who lost their jobs, I'm not surprised, after the Russian buy-out and the Montana server farm move, so see more cuts to the San Francisco operation. I have a ton of concerns about the direction SUP is going to take the site in, and the long-term viability of the service, but I don't think this particular layoff is a sign that the site is going to disappear in a puff of smoke. Or maybe I'm just overdosing on layoff news. (Seriously, I've been working in high tech for 10 years and have been laid off 3 times; it's not a stable workplace. And despite Valleywag's snide inaccuracies, I would be very, very surprised if Facebook doesn't have a layoff by the end of the year.)
So that's just my $.02, which is actually worth about $.02 less than that. I'm danceswithwords on insanejournal and journalfen too, but until a more viable service appears and/or LJ finally bites the dust, I don't see myself going anywhere.