Ever notice how when justifying a child’s misbehavior no one ever says stuff like “girls will be girls” or “she’s a girl”, but the list of things a “young lady” can’t do is almost endless?
You learn from a young age that masculinity comes with freedom; femininity comes with restrictions.
[I think the writers didn’t know what to do with Ziyal and she died too soon. She was an interesting character and she deserved so much better. There aren’t many things I dislike about the overall plot of DS9, but Ziyal’s death is one of them.]
lithrael asked: Huh. Weird to hear that the novels suck. I have a couple of them lying around somewhere unread, I got them at a library sale yonks ago cause I usually like Peter David's books and I figured I'd read them if I ever got into B5. I'll probably read them eventually anyway! XD He does have a pretty, IDK, immature and relatively shallow style? But I've always liked it. "Space Cases" was his and Bill Mumy's gig, for example.
How is it that I went approximately 20 years without a single other soul mentioning Space Cases to me after it stopped airing and I had to find something people had heard of to talk about and now two people have talked to me about it in 24 hours?
Most of the negative comments I’ve heard about these books come from the people on tumblr who are heavily invested in Londo Mollari, and so I am more inclined to side with them than random Amazon reviews.
You know how when you get super into something, you Really Get Into something? You know it inside and out and you know all these obsessive details and if someone gets things wrong, you’re just like, ‘Ugh, come on, this is basic shit, get it together, you have ruined my reading experience by not knowing this’. I had some of those with several of the Second Doctor Doctor Who novels. One of them had a specific plot point hinge around Jamie being able to reach something that the Doctor couldn’t, because he was taller.
Except you and I know they’re the same height, because of course we fucking do, we are Those People on the Jamie McCrimmon front. I’m also the woman who groans when she sees Jamie fanart that is not using the proper regulation kilt length. Because I am That Person.
So it may be sort of passable as a generic science fiction book, or even as a generic non-obsessive attempt at Babylon 5, but if everyone that I talk to on here, who are clearly just as far gone about this man as I am, say that it’s no bueno? Then I’m just accepting the little tidbits I heard (Vir commissioning statues of Londo and G’Kar to watch over Centauri Prime and each other? Yes, thank you, I’ll take a dozen.), and largely pretending they don’t exist otherwise.
I know very little of what they contain, so this is very easy, really, haha. I may someday swipe a PDF just to see what horrors I’m missing, and I’d probably grab them if I found them for two or three dollars at a used book store, but as I freely admitted some weeks ago in my asexual post, I don’t bother reading even gen fanfiction, and fanfic is almost always done with extreme love. So this stuff’s only virtue essentially just being that it was published (and apparently taken from JMS’s outlines) is not terribly motivating. Plus it’s reported little investment in the characters does not inspire me to spend money on it either!
All that said! I think we’d all be interested to see what you had to say if you ever start making your way through the books!
Oh abso-fucking-lutely. I need therapy for how much I’m choking on this bitter pill. I was so afraid I’d be the only one to feel upset.
Hey, there’s a reason we’re having crying over Londo Mollari parties and not crying over Sheridan ones. You go through my live blog of this show and the entire last few episodes are just ‘Londo? ? Mollari? ? ! ? Also I guess this thing with Sheridan is happening.’
Hey hey hey we can have a party with you now, you have to come and scream with us, do you want to come? I can do one tonight, we can scream and throw comforting fannish tidbits at you and I will make colors or makeup or pixels or whatever will make it feel better.
I freaking NEED a crying over Londo Mollari party. Or twenty. (Thousand). Like I’m in SUCH a ridiculous state over this that if I don’t find a fix-it that fixes it, I will fucking WRITE one. Even though it almost certainly means writing a fair amount of Sheridan and the others who aren’t Londo, Vir and G’Kar. I even have this thought already of how to make a pretty cool choose your adventure type thing where you follow different timeline AUs for how happy or fucked up you want to watch Londo’s life get. And it would all make some kind of sense by overwriting MorallyForgetfulAsshole!Sheridan. I’m kind of ashamed of myself, but I am actually noticeably *physically* ill from my emotional reaction. I’m pretty sure I’ve aggravated an ulcer. I barely slept and when I did I had frustrangry dreams.
UNFORTUNATELY, Monday nights not good.
They are literally the only regular appointment I ever have and it’s my weekly D&D game. I’d honestly rather cry over Londo right now but it’s probably the last or next to last game of the campaign and… I’m the kind, moral dwarven cleric who heals and rescues and soaks damage so others don’t have to. Can’t pull a Sheridan on these people when I’m literally grinding my teeth off over that exact thing.
Other than Monday evening, I am available to cry over Londo Mollari any hour or any day for the rest of my life (and I’ll eventually get the Mondays back).
On the upside, I WILL be wearing my snazzy new Londo and G’Kar t-shirt that finally arrived thanks to a kind neighbour and no thanks to USPS
Okay, but choose your own adventure/choose your degree of Londo suffering is hilarious to me for all that it pains me. I’ve been spending a long time in a nebulous time line because the reality of the show was not compatible with my heart. I’m glad I was that devastated over Londo because wow, character development, Batman, but I’m devastated about shit that is not his fault too, and that’s maybe the worse of it.
Fandom is most assuredly the soothing balm to apply to the wounds this show leaves, you’re on the right track. When I finished, I was fucked up for days. My performance at work suffered to the point that my supervisor asked about it, and I also slept poorly if at all, I was just so goddamn wrecked over Londo.
I feel so, ‘come here and let Lady make it better’ about this. Like giving you little bandaids with G'Kar on them.
No problem, we will find another night to cry. All nights are good to cry. I actually have a standing Babylon 5 watching date with tinsnip on Tuesdays, and general bullshit with her on Thursdays, but I’m good for tomorrow if you can’t wait till Friday to scream. I know I couldn’t when it was that raw. My insides were churning constantly with how upset I was and there was no outlet when and how I required it.
I’m so happy you are at the crying party stage, honestly. We’ve been eager to have you along, and you seem just as terminally wordy as me, so we’ll have a great time. Plus, my followers are lovely and thoughtful people, so our discussions on the streams are very frequently about representation and writing conventions and feminism at the same time that we are making mindless cute silliness and throwing furniture because Londo Mollari.
