Faith manages
When someone in a story says, "If you go here, you will die," you know that one thing is certain: that person is going to go, and they're going to go knowing full well the risk, because it's worse that way, and it's going to hurt more because you've seen it coming.
When the one giving this warning, this prophesy, is known for ominous and vague declarations and this one seems disturbingly straightforward, you need to understand that this is because it is disturbingly straightforward, and therefore going to come true, but also, not the whole story.
Stories having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sometimes, they loop in on themselves, the end leading to the beginning. They can split themselves in two, and the symmetry can be so beautiful it makes you cry. Good storytellers can start at the middle and let you fill in the brush strokes of the the beginning and keep you from guessing the end. Better storytellers can show you a hint of the end while you're still in the middle and still not give anything away.
Foreshadowing is not just dropping hints of what's to come. It's lighting up one streetlight out of ten, showing the way enough so that you're curious what's down the path but you don't know how to get there, and even if you think you know where you're going, it's not going to be what you think when you get there, but the joy will be in the puzzle coming together, the big picture revealing itself while you stand back in awe, like you're looking down at the city of lights, at the whole world from a distance, the whirl of the galaxy, pointing, always back to you.
If you go, you will die. That's the truth, and still, not the whole story.
This show is completely amazing. I had to watch War Without End twice in a row before I could even process the story's arc, and now, having seen the end of the season, I'll watch it with new eyes, because the future I've seen might not be the one that's coming. I watched John lose his mind in Ceremonies of Dark and Light and then ever so tenderly tell Delenn he can't imagine his world without her in it. The writers not only know how to tell the big story, the epic of war and time and destiny, but they know how to let the characters find their own way. It isn't all portents and mytharc; these characters come alive with one another, and so when Marcus tells Ivanova in Minbari she's the most beautiful woman he's ever met, when Lennier tells Marcus his love for Delenn is pure, when Delenn looks up the definition of cranky and finds the language barrier broken by John's expression, when John calls home to speak to his father, we open our hearts to them all, and take their hand on this journey.
Relationships you thought were ended come back at the beginning to new relationships. Snow globes of lighthouses fall from your hands in exactly the same way the fragile thing you thought you were building with your friend, your partner, cracks into a hundred sharp pieces. You get cut, and you bleed, and you mourn.
Sometimes, you also get reborn. You wear a new uniform. You show your true face in your sleep, and when you dream, you dream of your father, and he speaks the words of your friend, the friend whose name sounds a lot like God.
Gospel songs play out opposite scenes of murder. You can love someone even when you know she is destined for another. Your enemy will come to your aid if it means in the end he is aiding himself. Enemies always have symmetry, and sometimes it appears that they are so enmeshed in each others' lives that they seem to be friends. If you walk long enough, you'll eventually meet yourself.
Time is a game of Pete and Repeat. You have always been here. He will take the ship back in time because he has always taken the ship back in time. You are three as you are one. There is symmetry. Joy and heartbreak. Victory and loss. The world moves forward, and backward at the same time, until it loops back in on itself, until the story becomes the circle completing itself.
Sometimes you scream at the television, "No, don't go, don't go!" even though you know the decision as already been made, was made months ago, was made by destiny. He will go because he always went. You must give up something that matters to you, and tell someone a secret you've never told anyone else before. You will cry because this story always makes you cry.
Sometimes you blow up the ship of hope, the ship created for you by the one you love, and sometimes your path takes you to the edge of doom, and the voice of Kosh tells you to jump, and so you jump.
Sheridan goes to Z'Ha'Dum, and he dies, and Delenn breaks, and the war goes on, the war against chaos, against the dark within our soul. Faith manages. You light the candle, you keep a vigil, you ask the universe to help you understand what it cannot understand itself. The universe is you, trying to understand.
When the one giving this warning, this prophesy, is known for ominous and vague declarations and this one seems disturbingly straightforward, you need to understand that this is because it is disturbingly straightforward, and therefore going to come true, but also, not the whole story.
Stories having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sometimes, they loop in on themselves, the end leading to the beginning. They can split themselves in two, and the symmetry can be so beautiful it makes you cry. Good storytellers can start at the middle and let you fill in the brush strokes of the the beginning and keep you from guessing the end. Better storytellers can show you a hint of the end while you're still in the middle and still not give anything away.
Foreshadowing is not just dropping hints of what's to come. It's lighting up one streetlight out of ten, showing the way enough so that you're curious what's down the path but you don't know how to get there, and even if you think you know where you're going, it's not going to be what you think when you get there, but the joy will be in the puzzle coming together, the big picture revealing itself while you stand back in awe, like you're looking down at the city of lights, at the whole world from a distance, the whirl of the galaxy, pointing, always back to you.
If you go, you will die. That's the truth, and still, not the whole story.
This show is completely amazing. I had to watch War Without End twice in a row before I could even process the story's arc, and now, having seen the end of the season, I'll watch it with new eyes, because the future I've seen might not be the one that's coming. I watched John lose his mind in Ceremonies of Dark and Light and then ever so tenderly tell Delenn he can't imagine his world without her in it. The writers not only know how to tell the big story, the epic of war and time and destiny, but they know how to let the characters find their own way. It isn't all portents and mytharc; these characters come alive with one another, and so when Marcus tells Ivanova in Minbari she's the most beautiful woman he's ever met, when Lennier tells Marcus his love for Delenn is pure, when Delenn looks up the definition of cranky and finds the language barrier broken by John's expression, when John calls home to speak to his father, we open our hearts to them all, and take their hand on this journey.
Relationships you thought were ended come back at the beginning to new relationships. Snow globes of lighthouses fall from your hands in exactly the same way the fragile thing you thought you were building with your friend, your partner, cracks into a hundred sharp pieces. You get cut, and you bleed, and you mourn.
Sometimes, you also get reborn. You wear a new uniform. You show your true face in your sleep, and when you dream, you dream of your father, and he speaks the words of your friend, the friend whose name sounds a lot like God.
Gospel songs play out opposite scenes of murder. You can love someone even when you know she is destined for another. Your enemy will come to your aid if it means in the end he is aiding himself. Enemies always have symmetry, and sometimes it appears that they are so enmeshed in each others' lives that they seem to be friends. If you walk long enough, you'll eventually meet yourself.
Time is a game of Pete and Repeat. You have always been here. He will take the ship back in time because he has always taken the ship back in time. You are three as you are one. There is symmetry. Joy and heartbreak. Victory and loss. The world moves forward, and backward at the same time, until it loops back in on itself, until the story becomes the circle completing itself.
Sometimes you scream at the television, "No, don't go, don't go!" even though you know the decision as already been made, was made months ago, was made by destiny. He will go because he always went. You must give up something that matters to you, and tell someone a secret you've never told anyone else before. You will cry because this story always makes you cry.
Sometimes you blow up the ship of hope, the ship created for you by the one you love, and sometimes your path takes you to the edge of doom, and the voice of Kosh tells you to jump, and so you jump.
Sheridan goes to Z'Ha'Dum, and he dies, and Delenn breaks, and the war goes on, the war against chaos, against the dark within our soul. Faith manages. You light the candle, you keep a vigil, you ask the universe to help you understand what it cannot understand itself. The universe is you, trying to understand.