Anonymous asked: Londo in 13, if it's not too much trouble
Decided I’d done a lot of happy Londo lately and had to shake it up a little. You guys sure like palette 13.
High Society Art Dolls by Alexandra Koukinova
Exquisitely detailed brocade patterning and rich costume fabrics are joined together in these elegant art dolls by Russian artisan Alexandra Koukinova.
These ladies have been attired in striking early art deco fashion style, something you’ll hardly expect to encounter these days! The look gives me a strong nostalgic feeling, similar to the kind you get when you see old black and white films with flickering noise and a staccato framerate.
Alas, the male fashion of that period appears to be of the more mundane suit and optional hat variety, which leaves the exhibition here exclusive to the fairer sex. One final note – the source for the specimens featured here is not readily apparent, but you can find their section tucked away in the Museum section
(via haldora)
Sorry I’m so late with this! Here’s the least blurry version I could find of our traditional Space Wives portrait. My darlings carolsusanjanedanvers and ladyyatexel from Gally.
Look how fucking cute we are~~! <3
lycantherous asked: The color meme with garak in 1? (Mostly because its the most watermelon-y)
Rampaging through the palace on Centauri Prime in a transparent gif, for reasons.
I really wanted to re-draw that doodle from the other day.
I will forgive tumblr mobile for reblogging a post a month late because it’s spawned all this discussion.
BUT JUST THIS ONCE, TUMBLR MOBILE. After today, get your shit together.
starforgedsteelreplied to your post“Someone explain Narn pregnancy to me”I’m pretty sure the females carry the baby to term and then the males carry them around in their pouches?? Apparently the Babylon 5 magazine that came out way back when has more info? I think??But no species would actually evolve like that, that’s ridiculously impractical.
I think of it like some kind of fucked up hybrid of kangaroos and seahorses.
I’m no evolutionary biologist, but it’s always made a sort of sense to me? Splitting the reproductive burden between the pregnant parent and the nursing parent frees up a lot of time for both parties to attend to other needs of the group/clan/family unit and to their own wellbeing.
Theoretically, a shorter pregnancy with smaller babies would reduce the energy expenditure of the pregnant parent and make for safer deliveries. It also ensures that when the baby (or number of babies — it’s never stated how many kids Narns typically have at one time) is born, there’s no need for the inseminating parent to still be in the picture as long as the pregnant parent is part of a group containing members with functioning pouches who could take on the responsibility for nursing. (G’Kar and other Narns use the term ‘pouchbrother’ sometimes, which leads me to believe that infants from different parents could still have shared a pouch, and that this is regarded as a common and acceptable practice).
That actually seems like a decent strategy for fostering great social dynamics and ensuring that the entire group has a stake in the welfare of the young, rather than leaving the responsibility of childrearing exclusively to individuals or sets of couples.
You know, I had actually thought of this system as kind of fucked for a long time because I wasn’t imagining them living in groups! I kept thinking, ‘great, one Narn gives birth but no longer has the other parent with her for any number of reasons. That kid is fucked.’ But in a group, they’d have somewhere to go and thus shit makes much more sense. Which again makes me think it’s more like this system than the Tenctonese from Alien Nation, who would actually be fucked if they did not have two people at the right moment (or three to start with! ). The Narn seem very ‘this man is my brother’about people who are not blood family, so that mentality gels with that reproductive system being a cultural norm. I think especially that works well because of
how preoccupied with family names and bloodlines the Centauri are - it’s a nice duality.
(Also, weirdly, this may contribute to G’Kar’s habit of happily sleeping with every species but his own? He doesn’t have a group on B5, so it might be sort of irresponsible. Not that I think he’s really concerned with what is irresponsible in the early days of the show. It just might have some background in informing that decision or preference for him? Something like that.)Ooh, I’m gonna have to investigate this Alien Nation thing. I’m really interested in different portrayals of xenobiology in media, so that sounds right up my alley. But yeah, a Narn kid would probably be screwed if they just had the one lone parent, but evolution can get pretty brutal sometimes and if group living and cooperation is important for the species’ survival in general, then there’s gotta be some incentive for individuals to stick together and help each other out.
I like that observation about the Narn and their focus on community and brotherhood, even among non-blood relations. I’d never considered that before, but it makes a ton of sense in context. Like in G’Kar’s arc, there’s a lot made of G’Kar’s position and his standing among other Narns on B5. He seems a lot closer to them than say, Londo or Delenn are in regard to the respective Centauri and Minbari populations, and takes on greater responsibility when it comes to serving their interests. Londo probably knows the house-allegiances of other Centauri on the station and hosts parties for them to attend on occasion, but I don’t think he’s especially beholden to them for his job security or anything. G’Kar totally is, and I think that’s really cool.
I have a few ideas of my own about why G’Kar is more sexually interested in humans (and maybe other species?) than other Narns, but that’s a really interesting thought. It could be that it would be considered kind of irresponsible to start a family in a context outside of your social group. There’s also the possibility to consider that G’Kar, as the nursing parent, would be expected to become the primary caregiver of whatever kids he had, which might interfere with the responsibilities of his position. Who knows? But this is a really interesting discussion.
Oh, for real hit up Alien Nation. It’s not as finely crafted as some of the other shows we’ve all been watching (B5 or DS9), so I find that when an Alien Nation episode is poorly written it’s sort of Exceptionally So, but it’s really enjoyable. It’s cover story is that it’s a police procedural, but it sort of … nods at being that while actually being an exploration of racism and immigration and the ways that people are expected to integrate into society. And, since it only has one species to deal with, you get a lot of development on one alien race, rather than snips and bits of lots of them. They also do some really aggressively alien things with the Tenctonese people, to the point that you feel as uncomfortable watching them as the human characters do, and I think that’s really wonderful. I watch some things and am half grossed out and half delighted that a show has managed to make something alien enough that I really recognize it. DS9 and B5 have aliens that are largely appealing to us - we don’t get to see much beyond a few cultural differences and prosthetics that make them different - but Alien Nation’s, while looking just like bald humans with cool birthmarks, do some things that are legitimately gross or would make us sick. And then we see them reproducing, too. Literally aside from Londo’s tentacle limbs, I don’t think I’ve seen much in the way of alien reproductive anything, so this is pretty wild. I think if you’re the sort who is really interested in all the little stuff (like, the kind of person to have a conversation about space marsupial lizards, perhaps?), then you’ll really enjoy the stuff they do in Alien Nation. It’s charm, even in the places where it’s ’?????’.
Yes, yes, exactly about G'Kar’s connection with every Narn on the station versus how Delenn and Londo act. Granted, G'Kar’s people are in a kind of desperate situation and you could argue the telepaths act much the same way in a banding together against adversity sort of way, but I think there’s something to it that we see G'Kar connecting with nearly ever Narn that crosses his path and we hear little if nothing about social status among Narn, meanwhile the Centauri are all status and the Minbari are all castes. We hear about G'Kar’s status in government, but I don’t recall hearing much if anything about any Narns over any others aside from religious icons.
Delenn talks to Minbari who visit her for diplomatic reasons, old friends, vague religious figures, and Lennier. Londo talks to Centauri if they’re around for official business, can help him with something, or it would look bad if he DIDN’T talk to them. Possibly he also talks to any that are women. And Vir. But I get the feeling a lot of Centauri think Vir is sort of bad at being Centauri. But yeah, definitely G'Kar seems to have the largest connection to the rest of his people, even as Delenn claims all her people are linked. G'Kar is the one out physically WITH his, talking with them.
I’m definitely not saying that G'Kar’s preferences are entirely based on all this vague background, but no one exists in a vacuum (she says, spiraling very quickly down the meta toilet), so he’d be aware of the cultural implications of what he’s doing even if he felt it had little impact in why he gets up to what he does. He could claim it as a factor for anyone objecting or questioning him, and it would seem culturally sound. Plus, very few preferences, habits, activities, decisions, whatever are based on a single factor alone, you know? I just thought this could be a contributing element or something that gives us a bit of a case for the Narns living in groups thing. (And feel free to share any related G'Kar thoughts, haha!)
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Jeez, I buy one Funko figure for my grandmother, and draw one Londo mockup, and now my recommended blogs is like four different blogs devoted to the things. Calm it down, Tumblr.
