tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post2014751066480271484..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Babylon 5 #72: The Long NightSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-77678416680165491762014-09-18T15:59:58.581-03:002014-09-18T15:59:58.581-03:00My take on the scenes with Sheridan sending Ericss...My take on the scenes with Sheridan sending Ericsson on a suicide mission was that it was putting a face to the cost everyone was making. It's true that we didn't get time to know him (and in a universe where we weren't trying to cram too seasons into one, maybe he could have been built up a bit), but it was still A face, rather than just a number. And showing the League was good too. Far too often the heroes do their big sacrificial bits and the other races don't see the cost. It's nice to show them once in a while what Sheridan and co are willing to do.<br /><br />For some reason, the end music goes back to the season 3 version with this episode. I'm quite happy about that, as I love the third season theme.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-43814333832359352852014-09-18T15:14:21.486-03:002014-09-18T15:14:21.486-03:00If one of Londo's 3 chances for redemption was...If one of Londo's 3 chances for redemption was saving G'Kar's eye, that seems really harsh. Londo is actively trying to make up for past mistakes at this point. He has enlisted G'Kar's help and promised to free his people, and G'Kar went into this knowing full well it would probably involve unbelievable levels of torture. The fact that Londo didn't come up with an alternative when Cartagia was annoyed by G'Kar's staring is pretty low down on the list of bad things Mollari has done.LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-61142425512350138282014-09-18T09:10:49.367-03:002014-09-18T09:10:49.367-03:00Does it go into slightly too much detail about the...Does it go into slightly too much detail about the tentacles and the slots?LiamKavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01996095233681105682noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-22824432537597494152014-09-17T14:05:04.596-03:002014-09-17T14:05:04.596-03:00Wormhole Anonymous: GASP!Wormhole Anonymous: GASP!Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-45511655068229012502014-09-17T13:11:22.726-03:002014-09-17T13:11:22.726-03:00COME, READ MY EMPEROR CARTAGIA PREQUEL FAN FICTION...COME, READ MY EMPEROR CARTAGIA PREQUEL FAN FICTIONMadeleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-26648578156252321782014-09-17T13:11:01.960-03:002014-09-17T13:11:01.960-03:00"he doesn't have to hide the psychopathy ..."he doesn't have to hide the psychopathy he's probably been concealing all his life anymore"<br /><br />About this: it's unclear how many of us are psychopaths at heart, or at the very least, how much we would try to get away with if we were sure we could. The entire point of society is to make some activities too costly to perform, and almost all of us are so used to societal limitations, it's hard to say where our consciences stop and fear of consequences begin. Something like a dog who had been on an Invisible Fence for a long time; take the collar off him and he's still going to stick to his "safe" zone.<br /><br />I've talked to people who had served in Iraq, and they report that the people who turn into power-mad assholes (to whatever extent they can exert their power) are quite often the people you wouldn't have expected it from.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-25716361846692503262014-09-17T13:05:05.377-03:002014-09-17T13:05:05.377-03:00Oooh, I've got an Other Side of the Wormhole f...Oooh, I've got an Other Side of the Wormhole for you: late in season 7 of DS9, the usually practical Gowron turned stupid and vain, jeopardizing the Klingon Empire. He too needed to be put down, was put down by someone with no imperial ambitions, and replaced by ... a one-eyed Klingon.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-5434599420253044232014-09-17T11:16:42.624-03:002014-09-17T11:16:42.624-03:00Madeley: You go a long way redeeming Cartagia ther...Madeley: You go a long way redeeming Cartagia there, but as much as I've also been guilty of trying to get a No-Prize from time to time, if this had been all intended, there would be more dialog to support it.<br /><br />Anon: Break out the biggest barrel of acid anyone's ever seen.<br /><br />Ryan: Damn, I didn't catch the link to the prophecy, I was too distracted by the Sauronic "Eye" of the Shadows referenced elsewhere.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-18078921076495209022014-09-17T09:34:29.125-03:002014-09-17T09:34:29.125-03:00"I was to be a god" is the line I mistak..."I was to be a god" is the line I mistakenly remembered as coming from John Hurt's Caligula. And for quite a while, JMS had planned to do the scene with no twist at all. Then as he describes it, he heard Vir's voice in his head saying that he should do it, since it would be a great new development for the character. His top piece of advice for aspiring writers is to listen to your characters, and let them become real enough to you that this kind of thing can happen. This is also how we got the beautiful closing narration of season 3; after struggling with it for a day, he suddenly heard G'Kar's voice say the whole thing while he was trying to get what little sleep he was managing, and raced to write it down.<br /><br />Londo was given three chances to avoid damnation, and from his line in War Without End that letting Sheridan and Delenn go was his final chance at redemption, it seemed he blew two of them. And here we see the first one, "You must save the eye that does not see." He left Cartagia to his own devices on what to do about G'Kar's glare at him, and afterwards G'Kar talks about how much more an empty eye can see of a person's soul.<br /><br />The second shot of G'Kar's hand grabbing his chains to break them is simply a sideways flip of the first, as JMS saw it as the best way to make a big moment out of it. I like to imagine the cuff-breaking music from The Matrix over it.Ryan Lohnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-84817066440295860092014-09-17T07:27:37.731-03:002014-09-17T07:27:37.731-03:00Caligula wasn't crazy on day one of emperorhoo...Caligula wasn't crazy on day one of emperorhood either; after some time he suddenly snapped and went full John Hurt.<br /><br />As a viewer, I cannot buy that Sheridan threw mf-ing Heisenberg at the Shadows and they're still around next episode. I fully expect B5 to receive an audio-only communication: "It's over. I won."<br /><br />Translated from the Shadows' language, where everything is 10000 times more complicated than it needs to be:<br /><br />"Only one White Star vessel left; disintegrator beams locking on."<br /><br />"Sir, one human has emerged from the White Star vessel."<br /><br />"Dead?"<br /><br />"No, alive but very weak; apparently old and damaged by standards of the human species. Seated in a chair fitted with wheels and ... ringing a bell?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-4079468382415202372014-09-17T06:40:24.364-03:002014-09-17T06:40:24.364-03:00So there goes Cartagia, mad as a bag of badgers, a...So there goes Cartagia, mad as a bag of badgers, and I think my opinion of him is slightly different to the prevailing feeling here in the comment section regarding his madness. Bear in mind, though, that I always like my bad guys when they're raving, swivel-eyed loons with improbable agendas and a tendency to laugh maniacally.<br /><br />I've always suspected that Cartagia's apparent voyage from easily controlled puppet to screaming nutcase could be put down to a number of possibilities, not least that perhaps the Shadows' influence drove him mad, or exacerbated what was there already. Maybe it was the Shadows who, in some way, allowed Refa to control him, but the damage remained after Refa's death.<br /><br />Having never seen Cartagia before series 4, we've only heard stories that make him APPEAR to be a meek puppet. As Babylon 5's main idea is that no-one is what they initially seem to be, it isn't without precedent.<br /><br />Also, when he was only Emperor Turhan's nephew, with no clear claim on the throne, he was probably keeping his proclivities under wraps. When he first became Emperor, with Refa keeping a strong hand on his shoulder, perhaps he didn't realise quite how much power he had. Maybe he DIDN'T have that much power initially- I mean, if you're a member of the Imperial Guard, who are you going to take your orders from? The guy who's been Emperor for five minutes who could find himself knocked off in a counter-coup, or Lord Refa, a man with powerful allies who's probably the one paying you?<br /><br />But then Refa's taken out of the picture, Cartagia's had a year or so to acclimatise to the role and its possibilities, and on top of that Refa's godlike allies knock on HIS door offering ultimate power, is it any wonder THAT'S when he snaps? Someone's taken all the brakes off, there's no-one left to be accountable to, he doesn't have to hide the psychopathy he's probably been concealing all his life anymore. Hell, maybe Refa was the one who was taking steps to conceal the madness, too, because it was the thing he held over Cartagia in some way. <br /><br />If anything, the unpredictable planet-threatening insanity is an extreme way to highlight another one of Babylon 5's themes: every action has a consequence, even a seemingly "good" action like killing Refa. And it makes Londo even more complicit in everything that comes after. Madeleynoreply@blogger.com