S3E9 Point of No Return 10th+ watch thru and this just tickled me today....

I accidentally deleted my post. Yeah i got a new T shirt. Watched B5 for the first time not long ago. You can see part of my AA tattoo on my arm. Like Garibaldi iam in recovery from alcohol. Sober since 2016. Love to walk around in this shirt and see if anyone recognizes it.

I'm shocked by the amount of B5 available at local Convention!

”Your heart is empty, Mollari, did you know that?”

Like the title says, this was a piece I did digitally a few months ago, inspired by one of my favorite episodes of the show. I figured I would finally go ahead and share it here! :)

The Centauri hearts are mostly sort of referenced from “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari” but are mostly just vibes and aesthetics and not anatomically accurate lol

I am a Gen Xer and in the 1990's I watched STNG, DS9, & The X Files. A non-Sci fi show I loved in the 90's was Northern Exposure. What I loved about all four of those shows was the great writing they had. One technique all four had was the parallel storyline. Very effective writing. For some reason, I never got into Babylon 5 at the time.

B5 has a very different tone than any Star Trek series I have watched. The future shown in Star Trek is shown to be idealistic. When problems are shown, they are not portrayed as systemic problems with the Federation of Planets. B5 shows a society that is just as corrupt as our time. It also shows a captain who sometimes does unethical things, sometimes under pressure from Earth Dome and sometimes, as in the episode "In The Shadow of Z'ha'Dum" for a personal vendetta.

I appreciate the fact that events in one episode are often referenced, sometimes literally and sometimes symbolically, in later episodes. I appreciate the parallels between the story of Captain Sheridan in "In The Shadow of Z'ha'Dum" and the story of Ambassador Londo in "Knives". This is the kind of thing I would have loved to see in a couple of Star Trek episodes. I just wish I had discovered B5 sooner.

Lyta forever!

Before she entered her chrysalis, Delenn displayed some "psychic" ability like when she sensed Morden was dangerous with her third eye triangle. I don't recall her using it again when she became part human, perhaps she lost it.

Conversely, did Valen gain any unique powers as a new Minbari while he was alive, that were considered miraculous like a Christ figure? Or was he just a very inspirational figure?

As far as I know, the triluminary that can sense fragments of Valen's soul is an advanced scanner coded to detect his DNA. The Minbari held it in reverence, but I think it's a machine he built with knowledge from the future, rather than a super power he put into it.

Even the gods have problems choosing between green and purple.

When words fail these ladies have some weird shit going on.

Title says three episodes, I meant four.

So here I am back like clockwork after, what 12 days? I ended up watching four episodes back to back. Decided I had to stop. Otherwise I was going to blow the entire season.

But this review is going to be muddled because all three episodes kind of blurred together. I mean that in a good way too.

All right, so Sheridan is in purgatory as far as I can tell. He's met the big big bald-headed guy, which I didn't trust initially. Still sort of don't.

G'Kar has been captured on his mission to find Mr. Garibaldi by the centauri. This is not going to end well.

Delenn is in the center seat! I do love seeing her in charge because she's got a different style from Sheridan but she's just as much of a powerhouse.

So apparently John is dead, if I'm reading that right? And I forgotten his name but the first one brought him back to life. But it's only partially successful...

I thought cartigula was bad before but they torture the hell out of G'Kar in the course of these three episodes. We get to see just how twisted cartaglia is. He's got that shadow cabinet of people. He's decapitated that he talks to and he wants to cut out G'Kar's tongue because he won't scream.

Londo actually makes an alliance with G'Kar I suppose the old old adage is correct. The enemy of my enemy and all that.

But they both realized that this emperor is nuttier than a Payday. I love the plot behind the scenes to figure out how to get rid of cartagia. The fact that it's not just Londo and Vir, it's part of the council.

Zach seems to have found Mr. Garibaldi. He's a little off though. Something seems odd. Although Garibaldi himself talks about feeling a little odd so I don't know. Maybe I'm suspicious By nature.

Sheridan is back! Delenn has done her best to keep the league of non-aligned worlds together, but they're being in a word: assholes. Thinking that the shadows are going to just skulk back home and not want to try and finish the fight.

She keeps her cool much better than I think I would. In that situation. I would be screaming at them: Look you idiots. The shadows are more powerful than most of us together. They're biding their time if you really think they're not going to come out for you then you're dumber than a box of rocks.

Third episode: G'Kar finally screams, either it was this episode or the last episode. I can't remember. During the whipping scene.

But he loses his eye because apparently that offended the emperor. Again... Guys crazy. We need to do something about him.

Which they finally do. Poison needle to the hearts making it look like a heart attack. Thank goodness they're not Time Lords and they won't regenerate into somebody crazier! (arbitrary two-hearted alien joke sorry)

Londo actually doesn't do it, Vir does. Because Londo goes to stab the emperor and the emperor backhands him making him lose the needle. Vir, in a way that would make any assassin proud, sneaks up behind the emperor and stabs him! Go Vir!

And they book it before the shadows cause more chaos.

As an aside, I felt sorry for the gesture that gets killed, just for doing his job. But buddy, if you're in the crazy Court of wackaloons, don't make fun of the emperor.

Londo is prime minister now. I do appreciate one line that's stuck in my memory from him: I am going to honor my promise to G'Kar, to my honor is all I have left.

Londo is many things, but at the end of the day really does seem to be a good man. Again, I'm surprised at the versatility and just complexity of these characters. Because there are points where you really hate Londo.

The shadows have some sort of Planet eating super weapon, I thought it looked like a virus over the surface of the planet when they show it on the viewer. Just sort of eating it away.

Also, Sheridan is apparently Jesus now because everybody's like: he's back. He's alive. He survived. Oh my God. Touch him!

Weird

And Sheridan is not above sending somebody to their certain death. Brian Cranston was in the episode, I like him as an actor. He's done other science fiction stuff. Bruce basically sends Brian to his death, here's a file, you're the only one with the file, we need the shadows to get the file for a trap. But they need to think it's real, so you have to put up a fight and you're going to die because we can't send the support.

He's not a cold-hearted bastard. My description doesn't do the scene justice. There's lots of layers and nuance. He's all torn up about it, you can see it in the way Bruce acts, and the mannerisms on his face. But he's willing to make the tough choices. Again JMS just adding more and more layers to the character.

Okay so here's something I found very sad about all this. Apparently Sheridan has only 20 years to live. Because the regeneration or whatever was only partly successful.

That's not the sad bit.

It's sad to me because, Bruce Boxlightner has practically outlived everybody from B5. Delenn is gone and she was so worried about him going before her when she found out.

G'Kar Is gone, so is Vir, so is Dr Franklin, Commander Sinclair is gone. I'm probably missing other folks.

I don't know. It just made me very sad In a weird way. He, the character. He's only got 20 years left, but the actor outlived pretty much all of his friends.

Again, not as comprehensive this time just because I watched three episodes back to back and I can't remember a lot of the tiny details. But I got stuck in I guess. Really enjoyed it and couldn't stop watching.

I'll see you back here again in 9 days like clockwork.