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man if either Londo or G'kar were even a little bit hot this would be so horny

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Finished s3! Strongest season by far! I have a lot of the same complaints, but here are my highlights:

the bit in the "fascist president" arc where all the shitty cops go work for not-ICE and garibaldi throws a huge temper tantrum like "how can you do this to me, your best friend and buddy garibaldi." when like. you know he was the worst boss and I might join not-ICE to get away from him (i would not do that)

Londo and G'kar get stuck in that elevator

G'kar's crazy psychic drug trip he uses to menace Londo

Londo and G'kar murder context in the future

Londo in general (and his buddy Vir) seems to be getting the lion's share of interesting, morally-complex plots. Idk why

the episode w Vir's crazy genocidal girlfriend.

Walter Koenig multiple episodes! And his girlfriend being turned into a poorly-organized server room's worth of wires, which was v camp

the murder sequence set to a hymn that was not-quite-sinnerman

what if the trill but evil

Huge thumbs down to: what if we gave the only Black character a super cliche drug addiction storyline

Finished s1 of b5! In the interest of positivity, some things I enjoyed:

the EXTREMELY 90's production design. Tubular!

the bit in the episode about Ivanova sitting shiva where her well meaning boss is like "I just learned about this cultural practice you have but I think you gotta do it", which pissed both her and me off

they've started giving londo stuff to do on occasion other than being the not actually funny comic relief guy. I still feel vaguely offended by him but I'm not even sure in which direction

the fact that b5 ALSO has a guy named Dukat, I do a double-take every time he gets mentioned, I love ds9 but Straczynski absolutely should've sued

vv cool alien design of the guy who looks like if Legion from Mass Effect went to the gym more

chekov showing up as a guest star

weyoun showing up as a guest star

ivanova and talia winters having big "divorced couple fighting over the kid" energy in that one episode with the psychic girl

maybe they are killing garibaldi (I'm not holding my breath)

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VERY spoilery Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ending thoughts below the cut

OoooOO boy.

I came very close to siding with Verso, but in the end I chose Maelle's ending. Because Verso’s choice is the only irreversible one, as suicide always is. 

So long as Maelle’s alive there's the possibility of her growing and changing and becoming the type of person who can survive her grief, and leave the canvas. I don't know if I believe she'll be able to get there, but I chose the possibility over Verso's desire for oblivion, for himself and for the entire world. Then again, if there’s one thing we know about Verso: he’s going to try and save his sister.

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king arthur??????????????

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JMS, presumably: We're starting season 3, and the show is missing something! We need a new major character

Writer: How about another alien character, since we have a pretty limited perspective into dozens and dozens of species?

Writer: How about a "voice of the people"-type character, since there's a ton of civilians on B5 we never spend time with?

Writer: How about literally any option but it's a woman, since with Talia out, we literally only have two female characters in the whole show?

JMS: Hmm interesting thoughts, but what we really need is a bargain-bin, histrionic, Aragorn type

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the problem with watching buffy the vampire slayer for the first time when you're 13 is that it will fundamentally reshape your brain chemistry to the point where literally all fiction becomes buffy the vampire slayer in different fonts. "watch another show!" you might say, and believe me i have! i promise i've watched many other shows since i was 13. but the problem is that all those other shows as well as films, books, podcasts etc. are simply deviations of buffy the vampire slayer to me. it's the holy text, the primary source. everything else is just commentary.

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“I Lied to You” performed by Miles Caton in Sinners (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler

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I will say, the B5 stuff about the whole “authoritarian president seizing control via blatant lying and inventing widespread conspiracies working against him” is. You know. Resonating.

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I love in Babylon whenever Walter Koenig shows up to act absolute circles around the rest of the cast

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man I watched the episode of babylon 5 today where g'kar is gonna leave the station and give himself up to the centauri and there's a fairly bog-standard scene where the writers have someone from the station stop by to talk to him about it and like, convey to the audience that the character has connections here. But the person they pick is Garibaldi??? Who, as far as I can remember, has never had a one-on-one scene with G'Kar before???? Like, aside from the fact that I hate that dude, it feels completely divorced from both their characters.

But then I was thinking about it, and I think my main complaint about b5 in microcosm is that I can't think of anyone better to have that scene with. We're in early season 3 and it doesn't feel like any of the characters have close friendships, or relationships at all, with a few notable exceptions. (G'Kar and Londo hating each other in an impersonal political way, the 10 minutes of Ivanova and Talia we got, and the repeated insistence that Sheridan and Delenn are romantically connected, which, sure jan.) For the most part, everyone feels like acquaintance co-workers, which, as of SEASON 3, is insane! Like, Again, it's not completely fair to compare it to DS9, but I'm sorry, pick any random character circa S3 to give a "they're leaving the station" scene to, and you can absolutely come up with another character (another handful of characters!) who would care deeply about it and be significantly impacted. Like, you could even do it with Morn.

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the thing I don't understand is why so many of the actors are so bad! Like I know they didn't have much budget but a good SAG rate actor is the same cost as a bad SAG rate actor! Actors are cheap!!

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Me: hey Brad Dourif is in this! It’s so weird to see him as a monk and not like a serial killer or whatever

me about 10 minutes later: oh lol never mind

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SO funny whenever they talk about the Writers fucking them up, I hear ya gang

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Truly SO funny how season 2 of babylon 5 had an episode that was all about “Minbari never lie, to tell a lie outside of the most extreme circumstances would be the most disgraceful thing that would dishonor your house forever” and then five minutes into s3 Lennier is telling a dude he has some deadly contagious disease, truly just to fuck with him. Vulcan ass behavior

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VERSO STOP LYING CHALLENGE IMPOSSIBLE DIFFICULTY

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George Tiller was murdered 13 years ago today (May 31 2022)

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Finished season 2! Further attempts at positivity:

extremely 90s design continues, the bit where Sheridan “falls” out of a space trolley almost killed me

the Mandatory 90s Episode About AIDS had a genuinely really tough conclusion, I respect the show’s willingness to go hard

It was SO silly to do “Talia and Ivanova are bffs/dating now except OH NO Talia is evil because of Mind Cops”, but I am not immune to hot evil gay shenanigans. Remember when they tried to act like she was interested in Garibaldi? Like Come The Fuck On.

they’ve really worked hard to establish the cynical tone of this world, which is so distinct from ds9. almost everyone here is operating on their basest, pettiest instincts. Biggest exception is probably the doctor, who’s a good person but generally not an interesting character

G’kar and Vir’s awkward elevator trip

the ““minbari don’t lie,” the minbari said, lyingly” episode

News documentary episode was fun!

the bit in the gift shop where there’s a human trying on an alien mask and an alien trying on a human mask.

positivity over: unfortunately the majority of the acting is still notably bad, most characters are pretty dull, and the overarching plot is kind of silly and poorly delivered. When does it get good?

Finished s1 of b5! In the interest of positivity, some things I enjoyed:

the EXTREMELY 90's production design. Tubular!

the bit in the episode about Ivanova sitting shiva where her well meaning boss is like "I just learned about this cultural practice you have but I think you gotta do it", which pissed both her and me off

they've started giving londo stuff to do on occasion other than being the not actually funny comic relief guy. I still feel vaguely offended by him but I'm not even sure in which direction

the fact that b5 ALSO has a guy named Dukat, I do a double-take every time he gets mentioned, I love ds9 but Straczynski absolutely should've sued

vv cool alien design of the guy who looks like if Legion from Mass Effect went to the gym more

chekov showing up as a guest star

weyoun showing up as a guest star

ivanova and talia winters having big "divorced couple fighting over the kid" energy in that one episode with the psychic girl

maybe they are killing garibaldi (I'm not holding my breath)