100 Things: Susan Ivanova/Marcus Cole (Babylon 5)
This post is part of the 100 Things: A Blogging Challenge; please click here to learn more about the challenge and the full list of topics I've discussed.
(A bit late in posting this...meant to post this during Valentine's Day week...or on February 22nd to commemorate Babylon 5 hitting 20 years)
SUSAN IVANOVA/MARCUS COLE(BABYLON 5)
Aside from John Sheridan & Delenn ( entry), Susan Ivanova (entry) & Marcus Cole (entry) were my other favourite ship on the show <3 The course of their relationship was briefer given Marcus Cole's addition to the show in series 3 but it was nonetheless an interesting dynamic to watch on-screen (and one of the elements of the show where "All my feels" is a very apt expression).
The following contains spoilers concerning the course of their relationship throughout the series!
Marcus' introduction the series 3 premiere was a serious one given the mission on hand that Sheridan & co. had to fulfill but Marcus and Ivanova's first conversation was very interesting because it revealed that they shared some common traits: both don't speak unless they had something to say, both are serious when it comes to fulfilling their duties. Yet by episode 7 Marcus has become something of a pain to Ivanova. I'm not sure if it was the writing or there was a scene somewhere that was never revealed on-screen but something had happened and suddenly Ivanova was quite prickly when it came to Marcus. Maybe she knew early on that he set his eyes on her, I don't know.
But interestingly enough that doesn't stop him. As I mentioned in his character entry, he's quite the optimist, and he doesn't let Ivanova's snappishness towards him let him down. I love that we got that scene at the end of episode 9 where he tries to get her to laugh vis-a-vis his chart of Babylon 5's hierarchy. It's a sweet moment and I wish we had a few more of these scenes on-screen (my headcanon is that there were, we just never saw it given time constraints =P).
As a working team, they were pretty awesome and I'm glad they were paired together whenever there was a big battle ("War Without End", "Shadow Dancing", "The Summoning", "Between the Darkness and the Light") because it's not only in those moments were we see them working as a team but we also get a few moments of them interacting. Funny how most of my other favourite shippy moments between the two of them came from these very tense and serious episodes. You have Marcus being Marcus in those moments with the whole Vorlon god and the bucket on his head comment but you also have Ivanova opening up a bit in those moments. Pity the closest we got to an admission was when Marcus told Ivanova in Minbari that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen/known. Cute that she remembered a season later ;_;
And then came the tail end of season 4, "Between the Darkness and the Light", "Endgame", "Rising Star", otherwise known as the "Just kill my emotions, I don't need them" episodes. Aside from being stellar episodes all around, they're also quite cumulative episodes if you're an Ivanova/Marcus fan. Marcus was just absolutely distraught when Ivanova was critically injured after the battle against the Advanced EA destroyers; he's eerily quiet but the despair is written all over his face. Delenn had to practically nudge him out of the room for the medics to move Ivanova to a ship back to Babylon 5.
And then his decision at the end to go back and save her life with the alien healing machine...and then afterwards (see the second video below) ;_; It was quite a shock the first time I watched it that this was the way everything was going to play out between these two; I mean, Ivanova's record in relationships was pretty depressing but there was always that possibility that it was going to be different with Marcus, Marcus was different. But the devotion to save her life by giving his was perfect in showing how different he was from all her past lovers. Sad, but it made sense to his character. But it sucked that it left Ivanova the way she was at the end of season 4 (again, I refer to the second video), like it was the final nail to the coffin...I had mentioned it in her character post that I was glad she had left as well at the end of season 4, I felt it made sense for the character. Having heard what JMS initially had planned for Ivanova's story, it was just much too much. Also, hearing from JMS that had he heard that this was the case he would've changed the ending of their story doesn't help matters much, lol.
But then there was the short story "Space, Time and the Incurable Romantic" which is in a way a nice post-resolution to their story. As we saw in the series finale, Ivanova had requested that Marcus' body be placed in cryo should the day come that they can cure him from what the alien tech did. There's of course an ethical dilemma involved in the story but from an optimistic perspective, it's as best a happy ending we're ever going to get for these two characters. My personal favourite scene from that story was the mention that after Ivanova became Anla'shok Na and stayed on Minbar, she often visited Marcus' cryo tube and talked to him as though he was still alive. Right at the feels, dude, right at the feels.
Anyways, Marcus and Ivanova's story is obviously the flip of Sheridan and Delenn's story in that it was never fully realised and it ended very sadly. And yet I love it, because I love the characters and the dynamic they had.
Again, it's ultra difficult to find some of the best moments between them on YouTube but here's what I managed to find:
From episode 4.19; Marcus' sense of despair as he wanders around the destroyed command centre and eventually finds Ivanova was just D=
From episode 4.21; this kills me every time, Claudia Christian's performance was amazing here
This entry was originally posted at http://caffeinatedlife.dreamwidth.org/400307.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
(A bit late in posting this...meant to post this during Valentine's Day week...or on February 22nd to commemorate Babylon 5 hitting 20 years)
SUSAN IVANOVA/MARCUS COLE(BABYLON 5)
Aside from John Sheridan & Delenn ( entry), Susan Ivanova (entry) & Marcus Cole (entry) were my other favourite ship on the show <3 The course of their relationship was briefer given Marcus Cole's addition to the show in series 3 but it was nonetheless an interesting dynamic to watch on-screen (and one of the elements of the show where "All my feels" is a very apt expression).
The following contains spoilers concerning the course of their relationship throughout the series!
Marcus' introduction the series 3 premiere was a serious one given the mission on hand that Sheridan & co. had to fulfill but Marcus and Ivanova's first conversation was very interesting because it revealed that they shared some common traits: both don't speak unless they had something to say, both are serious when it comes to fulfilling their duties. Yet by episode 7 Marcus has become something of a pain to Ivanova. I'm not sure if it was the writing or there was a scene somewhere that was never revealed on-screen but something had happened and suddenly Ivanova was quite prickly when it came to Marcus. Maybe she knew early on that he set his eyes on her, I don't know.
But interestingly enough that doesn't stop him. As I mentioned in his character entry, he's quite the optimist, and he doesn't let Ivanova's snappishness towards him let him down. I love that we got that scene at the end of episode 9 where he tries to get her to laugh vis-a-vis his chart of Babylon 5's hierarchy. It's a sweet moment and I wish we had a few more of these scenes on-screen (my headcanon is that there were, we just never saw it given time constraints =P).
As a working team, they were pretty awesome and I'm glad they were paired together whenever there was a big battle ("War Without End", "Shadow Dancing", "The Summoning", "Between the Darkness and the Light") because it's not only in those moments were we see them working as a team but we also get a few moments of them interacting. Funny how most of my other favourite shippy moments between the two of them came from these very tense and serious episodes. You have Marcus being Marcus in those moments with the whole Vorlon god and the bucket on his head comment but you also have Ivanova opening up a bit in those moments. Pity the closest we got to an admission was when Marcus told Ivanova in Minbari that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen/known. Cute that she remembered a season later ;_;
And then came the tail end of season 4, "Between the Darkness and the Light", "Endgame", "Rising Star", otherwise known as the "Just kill my emotions, I don't need them" episodes. Aside from being stellar episodes all around, they're also quite cumulative episodes if you're an Ivanova/Marcus fan. Marcus was just absolutely distraught when Ivanova was critically injured after the battle against the Advanced EA destroyers; he's eerily quiet but the despair is written all over his face. Delenn had to practically nudge him out of the room for the medics to move Ivanova to a ship back to Babylon 5.
And then his decision at the end to go back and save her life with the alien healing machine...and then afterwards (see the second video below) ;_; It was quite a shock the first time I watched it that this was the way everything was going to play out between these two; I mean, Ivanova's record in relationships was pretty depressing but there was always that possibility that it was going to be different with Marcus, Marcus was different. But the devotion to save her life by giving his was perfect in showing how different he was from all her past lovers. Sad, but it made sense to his character. But it sucked that it left Ivanova the way she was at the end of season 4 (again, I refer to the second video), like it was the final nail to the coffin...I had mentioned it in her character post that I was glad she had left as well at the end of season 4, I felt it made sense for the character. Having heard what JMS initially had planned for Ivanova's story, it was just much too much. Also, hearing from JMS that had he heard that this was the case he would've changed the ending of their story doesn't help matters much, lol.
But then there was the short story "Space, Time and the Incurable Romantic" which is in a way a nice post-resolution to their story. As we saw in the series finale, Ivanova had requested that Marcus' body be placed in cryo should the day come that they can cure him from what the alien tech did. There's of course an ethical dilemma involved in the story but from an optimistic perspective, it's as best a happy ending we're ever going to get for these two characters. My personal favourite scene from that story was the mention that after Ivanova became Anla'shok Na and stayed on Minbar, she often visited Marcus' cryo tube and talked to him as though he was still alive. Right at the feels, dude, right at the feels.
Anyways, Marcus and Ivanova's story is obviously the flip of Sheridan and Delenn's story in that it was never fully realised and it ended very sadly. And yet I love it, because I love the characters and the dynamic they had.
Again, it's ultra difficult to find some of the best moments between them on YouTube but here's what I managed to find:
Click to viewFrom episode 4.19; Marcus' sense of despair as he wanders around the destroyed command centre and eventually finds Ivanova was just D=
From episode 4.21; this kills me every time, Claudia Christian's performance was amazing here
This entry was originally posted at http://caffeinatedlife.dreamwidth.org/400307.html. Please comment there using OpenID.