#✗ delenn. / general.

[therighthandofvengeance]

“found family” is simply another way to say “direct victims of prophecy”

[rainymoodlet]

the rasoya-dahans. ⚗️

[ddagent]

Okay but an AU where Earth sends 'Jeff Sinclair' to B5...but its really John Sheridan in disguise.

[babylon5]

i know how this sounds but a fictional ship being between a man and a woman does not automatically make it bad

[brightlotusmoon]

"The universe puts a mystery in front of us as a gift. Politeness requires that we at least try to solve it." -Delenn

[starstcff-z]

IF YOU WERE A DEITY,   WHAT WOULD YOU BE THE GOD OF?

balance and revenge

another seemingly intimidating figure. some only know you for revenge and fear you. however, you’re fair and provide justice and balance to your worshippers. you are regarded as the judge, jury, and executioner and no one can escape.

labyrinths and confusion

a god for the lost souls. you can often find makeshift altars for you deep in forests, cave systems, and other uncharted territories. you guide those lost back onto the path. the souls of those who disrespect you are lost forever, trapped in a winding labyrinth, never to leave or see sunlight again.

flora and fauna

you’re friendly and a benevolent force to those who respect you and your domain, but a true force to be reckoned with to those who disrespect or threaten the balance of the natural world. the forest is nothing to fear for those who take care of it, but it isn’t uncommon for people to go missing with only their faces outlined in the bark on a tree.

trickery and mischief

twisted and playful, you view humans as nothing more than mere toys or puppets. people provide you with offerings and keep their heads down so as to not upset you. you’re expressive and dramatic, though often lying and quite skilled at manipulation and illusion.

[kenaran]

In the spirit of that last post about asks: Do you have any "I don't have any proof but I Just *KNOW* it's true" headcanons for Ivanova?

Hmm. Hmmmm.

I refuse to accept jms' take that Talia and Susan had sex in Divided Loyalties, chiefly because he bases it on a "they don't have to get into each other's heads, they can choose to stay out" approach. Susan's motivation for not wanting anyone inside her head isn't just based on general mistrust or closed off-ness and I just don't see her risking anything on someone (anyone) keeping their wits about them during sex. Even just something that would have her throw up a block reflexively would out her. She'd only have sex if she was okay with Talia knowing and at the point of the episode (and just hours(?) after coming out to John) she's probably almost there, but not quite yet.

I also have a hard time with any fics that somehow incorporate Talia's gloves into anything intimate/sexual. I think the association to the Corps would be way too strong for that so I'm going with "if you want to make sure Susan doesn't want to have sex with you, bring out the gloves".

On a more flexible "range of possibilities" head canon scale: I think she'll remain single (while possibly having casual sex very intermittently) up until Sleeping in Light. And I'm leaning more towards the possibility of Susan and Delenn not staying entirely platonic after that every time I watch the show.

Thank you for the ask! (I really, really need a rewatch...)

[woodsfae]

B5 s02e20 The Long, Twilight Struggle Table of Contents • previous episode

Wow, we're almost to the end of another season! It's been a really good one, despite my own rocky start with its beginning. It's been interesting how my perspective has shifted enough along the way that I had change of minds about my change of minds of some characters. In The Gathering I loved Garibaldi, then came to dislike him for his sexism, police brutality, abuse of position, stalking Talia, being a shit about his ex, and general cop-ness, but the writing really brought me around on him! Weirdly, I now believe he can and will be better.

Almost the same for Londo. I didn't really like him at all, came to like him a little, then was to be SO disappointed in him that now I'm just fascinated to see how far his moral depravity and Sunk Cost Fallacy-ing will go.

And on to the episode!

Their CGI planet is really lovely and colorful, and does look quite 3d! And it's Centauri Prime (presumably). Must be a Londo episode!

This guy is petting the throne. wtf Refa. Very blunt about the fetishization of power that's going on here.

Londo: "Lord Refa, I have come a long way, and I am tired. Is there a reason I have been summoned here, now?" Refa: "Indeed there is, I have good news. The war which began six months is about to end. Sooner than any of us could have hoped. And you, Londo Mollari, will be the architect of our victory."

ope, the Centauri are about to do some crazy war crimes, I see!

Finally, a sexy transparent glass silhouette showering scene! I've been waiting for this since the show started. Classy of them to make it be Sheridan.

Friendly Draal Planet!!! I hoped to see him again! How delightful! What a bad omen, though.

Delenn is becoming just…transcendently beautiful. The lighting and camera shots, her expressions and grace, are all just astonishing. I am glad she gets to see her friend again. Maybe some of the other serene characters will pop up for a reunion. I'd love to see the little telepath girl who went to Minbari, Janice the Healer, and Thomas Jinxo the Seeker of the Grail again, and I think they'd all get along well (or at least interestingly) together.

Draal, appearing before Sheridan fresh out of his shower: "I've been watching you for quite some time, Captain. And I thought it was time that I introduce myself. My name, is Draal. How do you do." *Minbari bow* Sheridan, damp and be-robed: "Uh, fine. I'm fine." Draal, who has no idea how to talk to humans: "Good. You don't have any idea who I am, do you?" Sheridan, who did his research on B5 tysvm: "Unless there's another Draal who can do what you just did, you're the Minbari who took custody of the planet we're orbiting." Draal: "Ah, Captain, you do not take custody of the planet, the planet takes custody of you!."

This made me laugh really hard. The planet really did take custody of Draal. Near-total isolation, but youth. idk if I'd go for that.

Details…details…lmao Draal.

The Narn…cannot catch a fucking break. Contact with an entire sector of colonies, lost. They're losing, although their official stance is that they're holding their own. I wish them and their counter attack well! One all-out strike with the majority of their forces is a hardcore strategy! They could lose everything.

G'Sten: "If we make them pay, for every inch of space, we can wear them down, prolonging the war beyond their capacity to fight it. Centauri want a quick victory: they don't have the stomach for prolonging the war."

He also says there will always be enough ships to defend their homeworld, but dang that still feels really risky. I am so excited to see a little of G'Kar's family. His uncle! And he's so kind, warm, and loving. The exact opposite of the way they were described by Delenn and the Centauri in season one. They both call the Narn cold, strange, impossible to empathize with. I hate to see anti Narn propaganda! They have risen highly in my estimation and I am rooting for them so hard.

The Centauri are going to bomb Narn from orbit with banned weapons and wipe out much of the entire population. To "save Centauri lives." War crimes, as I thought.

Everything depends on Londo. It's too late to back out. Bringing the pressure and the logical fallacies down on him! He bends, obviously, and is going to reach out to Morden for help carrying out the sick plan.

Londo: "All right. I will bring my assoociates into this, but this is that last time. We are Centauri. If we are to sieze our destiny, we must do it ourselves. After this, no more." What'shisface" "After this there will be no need! Thank you. Cheer up. By the time you return to Babylon 5 the war will be over, and the Narns will be at our feet. This time, we will keep them there."

Exactly. The Narns will not stop resisting, they will eventually gain their freedom again, and there will be another and another. You can't build an empire without horrifically violating sentients' rights, and those sentients are always going to resist.

Love Delenn's outfit today. I hope Draal won't be an ass about her hair.

Aw, so nice, Londo gets to go watch the Centauri genociding the Narns, live and in HD safe on a warship. How thoughtful. May he choke on the sight.

Dr Franklin is a real and good friend and a great anti-fascist comrade. Gathering deets from his Narn patients to give G'Kar as up-to-date as information as he can, as quick as he can.

Draal Planet light hearted B Plot, yay! And Delenn is now experimenting with swearing She used the f-word even! Frag me, she's so great.

Delenn: "Draal? We're here." Draal: "Did you think I hadn't noticed, my old friend? You've changed. I like it."

I'm glad he's not racist to her! That makes two Minbari who have on-screen supported her: Lennier, and now her old mentor. I'm so glad!

But onto the meat of the visit. Draal has been using the planet's resources to gather information, including Sheridan's history and all the plotting Sheridan's been doing. Convenient, and awesome! Powerful allies are badly needed right now. Draal has been studying the universe and the planet, and he's ready for action! And I"m ready to see that action!

"In the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is a possibility of hope."

That's a great message, and good repetition of the same sentiment from earlier with G'Kar and G'Sten. I'm afraid G'Sten is going to die, but I hope he lives. The Narns have faced enough tragedy.

Shadow ships coming for G'Sten and his fleet, the evil shits! The CGI has definitely improved from last season to a degree, although it's extremely obvious with the shadow ships. but I love the effect! They are all cgi and thus fake-looking, which I think enhances how out of sync with the normal dimensional bounds they are. I'd be fucking unnerved if I saw something that fake looking in real life.

goodbye G'Sten. :/

There's people on the Draal Planet! Wow, they must be weird.

LOVE this for Delenn. She's needed friends really badly, too!

Zathras!! Is in league with Draal! Cool!! I didn't think we'd see the Space Werewolf again, but this should be fun! JMS's spreadsheets must have been wild.

Narn is in a BAD position. Centauri have Narn surrounded, there's massive destruction and death, and the Narn fleet has been neutralized. An impromptu re-enactment between Narn and Centauri on B5 is underway. Of course.

Narn looks mostly brown and orange from orbit. I wonder what it looked like before the Centauri ever arrived. Bombs underway, Londo watching on while looking sick. Hope he feels even sicker than he looks!

Ineffective response from Minbari and Earth, of course. An atrocity! They condemn it! Really hard! Finger wag! Don't do it again!

:(

G'Kar. What a horrible horrible place to be. Narn plans to surrender. I hope they can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but knowing this show, it will be even more grim for them and the universe by the end of the episode. Horrific.

G'Kar is reduced to asking Sheridan for political asylum. If they hand him over to the Centauri…! fuck! That's the kind of dystopian universe this is, too. I hope that won't happen, though.

Ugh. A speech by Londo. What an awful piece of propaganda.

Londo: "A little over five standard hours ago, the conflict which began with the Narn declaration of war, came to and end. The Narn regime has offered complete and unconditional surrender. The terms imposed by the Centauri Republic are as follows. One: the ruling body known as the Kha'ri will be disbanded, and its members subject will be subject to arrest and trial for the commission of war crimes against the Centauri." Sheridan: "Earth requests the right to send observers to these hearings." Londo: "That request is denied. Two: to prevent further acts of terror by the Narn against our people, the penalty for the murder of any Centauri by any Narn will be the execution of five hundred Narns. Including the Perpetrator's own family. Three: a provisional ruling council appointed by my government will take up the responsibility of re-building a more civilized Narn government, as a colony of the great Centauri Republic." Sheridan: "Is there anything else." Londo: "Yes. Just, one thing. Because the Narn homeworld is now a protectorate of the Centauri Republic, we reserve the right to determine who can speak for Narn. As a result, Ambassador G'Kar may no longer represent the Narn in any official capacity whatsoever. His appointment ambassador to Babylon 5 is hereby withdrawn. And as the only member of the Kha'ri still at large, Citizen G'Kar will return to Narn for trial."

"No," quoth Sheridan. Minbari supports Earth and Babylon 5 in this, although Delenn does call him Citizen G'Kar like Londo did. Fuck him, man. He's fully a bootlicker channeling his frustration at his guilt over all the war crimes against the non-Centauri. My least favorite fictional war criminal.

The framing and character work through this scene is WILD. G'Kar, sitting, slumped, not meeting anyone's eyes. Londo, speaking with clear enunciation, racist and imperialist language framed as the ethical, sensible decisions the Narn have forced them to make. G'Kar rising and speaking calmly before leaving when Londo loses his temper and demands, screaming, that G'Kar leave the council room.

G'Kar: "No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years…we will be free."

The Narn will not go quietly.

Centauri is celebrating, they are dancing in the streets on homeworld. Or so the propaganda news broadcast goes.

Sheridan has a very nice speech for G'Kar and offer of support of all his personal assets that can be put towards that aim.

G'Kar: "The last time I took someone's hand we were at war twenty-four hours later." *takes Sheridan's offered hand anyway*

Mad lad.

And now Sheridan's off to a super-secret meeting! Delenn presiding. She has gathered him allies to pledge to Sheridan. Ah, Sinclair's project! <3 Sinclair, good work, buddy. Kosh is there, too! Somehow I doubt he is there to swear TO Sheridan. Along with, benevolently, to help the ants win against the anteater, maybe.

This is an episode of speeches! G'Kar's was terrible and great. Sheridan's falls a little flat. His line has been drawn on the other side of a fascist empire re-enslaving an entire people.

Well. I can only hope for some great and wild successes on the other side of the season finale!

The balance of affection between G'Kar and G'Sten, and Delenn's joyful reunification with Draal and the hope that and Sinclair's rangers inspired were all a much-needed balance against the Narns' current plight, but this was still so heavy and dark. It went there, it did that! Man, the forces of the Light are just fucking crippled without the Narn and their previous resources. All destroyed, and mostly dead, to feed the appetite of the Centauri Empire.

next!

[phaeton-flier]

Delenn, you cannot actually just go "By the ancient rites from before Valen we must decide who will lead us by mystical trial", because he just go "No, that's stupid, I am going to follow in Valen's footsteps and form a new Grey Council (filled with Warrior Caste members)" and since he still has all the weapons pointed at your city he will win. You shouldn't be able to embarrass him into doing it, because why would any of the soldiers following him give a shit about you did things over a millenium ago before Minbari Jesus showed up. They're already willing to follow him into outright civil war.

Anyhow Castes keep being treated as this inherent social unit and not a social construct. I can see the societal benefits to having a trial by single 'combat' to social disagreements but what happens if you win this trial and then general #2 decides he doesn't give a shit about this random tradition from over a thousand years ago?

[branmer]

💛💚💜🤍🖤💕🏳️‍🌈 for b5 >:DDD

I want all of them but I am being So Good and not asking for all of them ;_;

for this meme

ooooh excellent choices, and yes you are being so good <333 i am very proud of your restraint

💛<__< >__> i don't know if it's accurate to say i can't get behind them but i'm not really into londo/g'kar. years ago i probably would have been 'fuck yeah londo/g'kar!' but over time ive just come to prefer their relationship as a complicated frenemy situation, i'm not even sure i see g'kar liking londo so much as he understands and pities him and feels a loyalty to him because of their shared history. i'm also increasingly a bit hmmm re sheridelenn but mostly because jms really sucks at writing relationships and the further it went on the more delenn just got slotted into the wife role rip s1 delenn

💚treating neroon's deathbed conversion as legit and not just a political manouvre. that man doesn't have a priestly bone in his body >:( also special mention for chad neroon, a characterisation that has marred many a marcus/neroon fic. and generally any characterisation where neroon gets over his xenophobia too quickly!

💜i will die on the hill that branmer is sexy and evil idk if it's really unpopular in fandom to say neroon is hot but we do periodically get people going 'ew neroon????' so i'm just gonna throw down for my guy 😤😤😤

🤍shakiri i joke, i joke, but more seriously my answer for this is less one specific character and more broadly that i think the entire situation with the castes was probably more complicated than what we see on the show (or the books) and it's interesting that people tend to take unapolagetic villain shakiri as being representative of the caste generally, rather than neroon, who is more ambivalent (while still being a dick haha). i find the whole religious caste = good, warrior caste = bad stuff very reductive especially since we see many in show examples of the religious caste absolutely fucking unhinged. i also think it's v interesting that no one in the warrior caste really put up a fight when shakiri got backstabbed by neroon and defeated by delenn in the starfire wheel. i guess you could put that down to minbari having an intense respect for tradition and ritual but... this is also a caste that just broke a thousand year minbari do not kill minbari rule and idk... it just speaks to something interesting going on behind the scenes with this guys!

🖤delenn, haha. this is probably my most controversial opinion and it's one i've touched on before. i don't think delenn is evil (and disclaimer: she is one of my fave characters), but she is cunning and manipulative and she's prone to letting her own personal biases rule her understanding of a situation which leads to some, uh, interesting choices on her part. basically i don't think delenn is the trustworthy source on the minbari, on her own choices, or on broader issues in the b5 galaxy that she gets treated as by fandom lol. like, for example i don't entirely believe what delenn says about why they had to leave the narn to face the centauri/shadows alone, i think that's just what she told herself to justify the decision. im also, idk, iffy about the whole not ever telling sheridan about her role in the war. i saw a post on here where someone was saying this was her great 'gift' to him and it just... ew. ick. no. fuck no. i understand why she doesn't tell him, but it's not a gift

💕i feel like marcus/neroon gets a bad rap and a lot of people being sniffy about it, but also enough people appreciate it that i can't really call it unpopular exactly so um. hmm. i do, sigh, i do have a growing fondness for neroon/sheridan actually >__> which probably isn't so much unpopular as non-existant apart from your amazing neroon/delenn/sheridan fic. i have a feeling that neroon-as-the-bridge is gonna end up going down the sheridan/neroon route if i write more of it haha

🏳️‍🌈 oh this, this is a tough one haha... tbh... londo i guess? he just comes across very... straight male to me >__> like at most i can see him having a drunken fumble with a friend and thinking nothing of it, but that's it.

thank you for the ask! <33333

[therighthandofvengeance]

Sheridan: you know, sometimes I wonder why everyone seems to be enamored with my wife.

Garibaldi: you married her, you should know.

Sheridan: that’s why I said “sometimes”!

[queer-geordie-nerd]

A nuanced and insightful interview with Mira from November 1996, in the middle of filming S4 of Babylon 5 - it touches on her war time experiences in Yugoslavia and the events that drove her from her home, and the similarities between her own life and that of Delenn. Once again, I am bowled over by the incredible integrity and courage she possessed:

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

It's the one subject that pains Mira Furlan to discuss. The one subject that invades her privacy. The one subject that so violates her very soul.

And yet, it's the one subject that can't be avoided.

Nearly five years to the day of this interview, Furlan left her homeland of Yugoslavia, which was about to be engulfed in a bloody and horrific civil war. Ethnic passions restrained by decades of Communist rule had been unleashed by its collapse. Fascistic Nationalists arose to take its place, many of them former Communists. In their lust for power, they tore apart a nation of disparate republics and peoples that had once been a dream of poets, intellectuals and writers.

As one of Yugoslavia's most prestigious actors, Furlan risked her life and fortune to perform in cities on both sides, in Croatia and in Serbia. She hoped that she could be a bridge of unity, a symbol of pacifism, a clarion warning what terrible price their country would pay for unleashing the war their leaders were about to start.

Except for her husband, Goran Gajic, no one supported her.

Her colleagues abandoned her. Nationalist demagogues threatened to have her killed. Anonymous death threats were left on her answering machine.

She could not go silently. Before she left Yugoslavia, Furlan picked up her pen and wrote a farewell letter to her country. The letter was published a few days later in Zagreb (the capital of Croatia) and Belgrade (the capital of Serbia), cities on opposite sides of the coming war. It began:

“I hereby wish to thank my co-citizens who have joined so unreservedly in this small, marginal and apparently not particularly significant campaign against me. Although marginal, it will change and mark my whole life. Which is, of course, totally irrelevant in the context of the death, destruction, devastation and bloodchilling crimes within which our life now goes on.

This is happening, however, to the one and only life I have. It seems that I've been chosen for some reason to be the filthy rag everyone uses to wipe the mud off their shoes. I am far too desperate to embark on a series of public polemics in the papers. I do, however, feel that I owe myself and my city at least a few words. Like at the end of some clumsy, painful love story, when you keep wanting, wrongly, to explain something more, even though you know at the bottom of your heart that words are wasted; there is no one left to hear them. It is over.”

In Yugoslavia, Furlan was a leading actress of film, television and stage. She appeared in over 25 films, and won two Golden Arenas for Best Actress, their equivalent of the Oscar. Among her acclaimed theatrical roles were Ophelia in Hamlet, Celimene in The Misanthrope, and the title role in Euripides' Helen.

Under socialist rule, the arts were state-funded. "Your star status didn't mean that you were making money. But there were other advantages. Money was not the main obsession. The absence of money gave you a certain degree of creative freedom. We had all the time in the world. Movies were shot forever. Theatre plays were rehearsed forever. I personally was bored with that; things were not quick enough for me. But you had the luxury of having time to explore, to enjoy the creative process. These were the few advantages of living in socialism."

The notion of "freedom" in the arts in a socialist country may come as a surprise to Americans raised on Cold War propaganda asserting the opposite. "With my generation, the Communists were dying off," Furlan said. "Their grip on the artists' community was not as strong as after the war (World War II), when you could be in prison for just saying the wrong sentence. So we didn't feel it. I grew up totally despising them - the so-called them - and not having anything to do with them. And they left me alone. So there was relative freedom. Theatre was free because no one cared, basically. It was so marginal to the cause of the regime that people were left to do what they wanted. Film was much more dangerous, thus much more controlled."

That started to change when the Nationalists came to power. "The Yugoslav Communists didn't have the force that these new Nationalists now have, because these new leaders feel that the world is starting from them. They're creating new realities, new history, new language, new values. There's always this passion in the beginning; as a citizen, you don't want to be touched by that passion, because it can cost you your life."

Life in the former Yugoslavia was a political lifestyle largely unknown to Americans. "It was a double life. People had their own private thoughts. Publicly, they behaved as was prescribed; the majority were members of the Communist Party. Opportunism ruled. I think all Eastern Europeans have that built in — no confidence in any government, in any politicians. But, a contradiction! When Communism collapsed, Nationalism was born out of the old Communism. Trained in opportunism, people easily converted from Communism to Nationalism. That's the irony of it. Nothing has changed. The same people, the same names. The same faces. They just converted, switched just like that. That's what's so ugly in that whole situation. You just watch it and cannot believe that people don't remember what they were saying just two months ago. They didn't learn anything. They actually jumped into the first trap, completely surrendering to those new Nationalist leaders that brought them only pain lsss and devastation."

“I have no other way of thinking. I cannot accept war as the only solution, I cannot force myself to hate, I cannot believe that weapons, killing, revenge, hatred, that such an accumulation of evil will ever solve anything. Each individual who personally accepts the war is in fact an accessory to the crime; must he not then take a part of the guilt for the war, a part of the responsibility?”

"Historically, there were all kinds of frustrations on all sides, among all the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. There was a general feeling that each of these peoples who lived together in the former Yugoslavia had been somehow abused by the others. And there was a lot of truth in that. Nationalism is always partly grounded in truth. The Nationalists' politics manipulated the existing anger and frustration of the people and put their emphasis on that, and that's how the war started. The new Nationalists, who were for the most part converted Communists, took all the media. Journalists, I think, and media in general, bear an incredible responsibility for what happened."

The Babylon 5 episode being filmed during this interview, "The Illusion of Truth," has some eerie parallels. An ISN news crew films a documentary on B5, only to use the footage in a propaganda film for President Clark's fascist regime. It's an allegory for how America was consumed by Senator Joe McCarthy's witch hunts in the 1950s. "Sometimes I'm so appalled by what Joe (Straczynski) knows. I happened to experience a witch hunt — as an object! — but it's nothing new. Old stuff."

Furlan drew the attention of the Nationalists after she travelled from her home in Zagreb, Croatia to Belgrade, Serbia to perform at the annual BITEF Festival. BITEF was an international theatre event attended by actors from across Europe. She believed that her participation was a statement that her profession should not be drawn into supporting any political or national ideas. She felt it was her responsibility to establish bridges and ties, "for the sake of something that would outlive this war and this hatred which is so foreign to me," she wrote at the time. But the political leaders in Croatia were furious with her — and targeted her as an example of what would happen to others who chose the same path. Fearful for their careers, if not for their lives, and perhaps even sympathetic of the Nationalist cause, none of her colleagues spoke up to defend her.

“I think, I know and I feel that it is my duty, the duty of our profession, to build bridges. To never give up on cooperation and community. Not that national community. The Professional community. The human community. And even when things are at their very worst, as they are now, we must insist to our last breath on building and sustaining a bond between people. This is how we pledge to the future. And one day it will come . . .

I was willing and I would still be willing to undertake all and any efforts, if the hatred hadn't suddenly overwhelmed me with its horrendous ferocity, hatred welling from the city I was born in. I am appalled by the force and magnitude of that hatred, by its perfect unanimity, by the fact that there was absolutely nobody who could see my gesture as my defense of the integrity of the profession, as my attempt to defend at least one excellent theatre performance.”

"People's behavior is mainly built on fear. People think, 'Let them destroy her but just leave us alone.' When the media went crazy in Yugoslavia, I was a good example. I was a perfect target. I was a totally unprotected woman. Woman, that's very important. The war propaganda was constantly in search of 'internal enemies' just to homogenize the people, and to put fear in their heads so they could manipulate them. It's interesting that the majority of the 'internal enemies' were women. It's a very misogynist culture. It's a very misogynist world. I happen to be partly Jewish, and that came into the picture nicely. And I was never very obedient in my life and career. I left projects that I didn't really believe in. I made some unexpected choices in my work and in my life. All of that got wrapped up - Liberal. Feminist. Whore. Jew. Everything. The media combined it into this juicy bundle and served it to the people, who devoured it."

Abandoned by her friends and colleagues, and living with the threat of assassination, Furlan and her husband left Yugoslavia on November 15, 1991 for New York. She left behind the open letter explaining her departure.

“I am sending this letter into a void, into darkness, without an inkling of who will read it and how, or in how many different ways it will be misused or abused. Chances are it will serve as food for the eternally hungry propaganda beast. Perhaps someone with a pure heart will read it after all.

I will be grateful to that someone.”

American life and culture were a difficult adjustment, both in her profession and her personal life. Furlan has found the acting profession, indeed the entire entertainment industry, radically different from what she knew. Unlike in Yugoslavia, she found that diverse acting talents in the United States were rarely appreciated, much less rewarded.

"It's a European tradition among actors. Serious actors build their career in the theatre," Furlan said. "It's a completely different thing in America. The theatre is so marginal. The theatre doesn't matter because it's not mass culture. It's not the money-making machine. So yeah, I've learned that. We had a crash course in capitalism in the toughest spot. Hollywood is probably the toughest spot on Earth that way, the most cruel. It's a struggle, it's a fight. It's all about publicity and agents and names. That's what I really hate about being an actor here. I hated many things about acting in Yugoslavia. I was frustrated, and felt hopeless as an actor in socialism. I hated many things there, but I really miss concentrating on my work, which should be enough ideally, and it's not. Here, it's just a tiny part of everything else. Everything else is much more important, and you have to do so much of it yourself because no one else cares. Doing stuff that takes away your energy and your concentration and your precious time. These telephone conversations with people who have no interest in you, who don't have interest in anything but quick and easy money."

Babylon 5 is Furlan's first major television role in the United States; in fact it was one of her first auditions. It was also her introduction to science fiction. "I'm completely new to this whole thing. I knew the basics of science fiction literature — Bradbury, Clarke, just general culture — but there wasn't anything remotely similar to this. I was shocked when I went to my first convention."

The similarities between Furlan's life and Delenn's travails are striking. But it seems that it's no more than an amazing coincidence. According to Furlan, Straczynski didn't even know about her personal history when she was hired to play Delenn. "He surprises me so many times. And sometimes I feel as if he's written something directly for me. But he didn't know anything about me. Nothing. When the series started, we talked and he found out."

Furlan was an only child, raised among adults in a family of university professors. What was it that led her into acting? "It was a game! I always wanted to study languages. I studied English and French when I finished high school. I did them together, languages and acting. I went to the Academy for Film, Theatre and TV, and the University. But it was the other part of me, the part that wants to play, that finally won over the serious part, the one who sits at home and reads and learns and does research. It started as a game, it started as 'Let's play.'

"When I started at the Academy, they always used me for comedy, for light, playful stuff. Then I did a play in which something clicked in me. It was an English play in a famous little avant garde theatre, with only me and another actor. It was a very heavy play about marriage, marriage in three stages, which ends with this woman committing suicide on stage. I was so much younger than the part I played, but it completely opened this world of reality in acting. It started a journey inward for me. Once you experience that, once you open up in that way - people talk about getting in touch with your emotions, that's what you do in acting. That's your main job. That's your profession.

"That's why I miss theatre. That's the beauty of doing theatre. You are in touch with the greatest writers of world literature. Their thoughts, their characters. That's unbeatable. That's a pleasure in itself, no matter in what way it forwards your so-called career. I miss film. I miss having time to try things to discover subtleties, layers, little things. The comforting thing on Babylon 5 is Joe's writing, which sometimes touches the depth of the classic literature."

If Straczynski were to ask her to write a B5 episode, what story would she tell?" I have an image for some reason of the set for The Wizard of Oz. I'm in the middle, kind of a Dorothy figure. On one side is G'Kar, and on the other side is Londo, and we walk towards some incredible adventure. Having them on each side of me would make me feel strong and protected, and I would dare to go anywhere!" She suggests that her cat could play Toto, and we agree that cats are very Minbari.

Babylon 5 is fiction. But much of that fiction is rooted in reality, the reality of our 20th Century. It's easy to turn off the TV each week at the end of the hour, put away the popcorn bowl and say, "Aw, that couldn't happen here." But it has. It does. And it will.

Delenn is a fictional character, but Mira Furlan is not. It's easy for a fictional character to risk her life for a cause. For a living human being with friends, family, and a successful career, that decision is much more difficult. Fiction often poses for its characters the question, "Will you sacrifice all for what you believe?" In the fictional world of Babylon 5, that question is, "Who are you?" Reality rarely presents any of us with that challenge. Few of us will ever know what our answer would be.

All Mira Furlan ever wanted was to experience the pure joy of acting, the inward exploration of her soul, and to share that exploration with her audience. But history forced her to explore down unseen paths, paths of darkness, the same paths that took countless lives in her homeland. History demanded, "Who are you?"

Mira answered, and suffered for it. She and Goran have started a new life in America, strangers in a strange land. Their experience reminds us that life may one day demand a test of our integrity. If it does, let us hope that we are equal to their courage.

[ddagent]

BREEN :)

John/Delenn Weekend Promptathon | Read at AO3

General John Sheridan sat in his office in Geneva, fiddling with the Starfury model on his desk. He tried to recall the last time he’d been in a Starfury and, with great disappointment, realised he couldn’t. Leaning back in his chair, John let out a deep sigh. Where was the challenge? Where was the problem to be solved? Since the early days of the Minbari war, it seemed as if his career had been mapped out ahead of him: XO of the Prometheus, CO of Io, CO of the Agamemnon. He’d spent three years on an explorer class vessel before promotion after promotion had led him here. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rank. Medals. And not a damn thing else to show for it.

Two raps echoed through his office. His aide, Lily, entered. “General, Satai Delenn is here to see you.”

“Thank you, Ms Waters.”

She smiled brightly at him before slipping back out of his office. At least his meeting with a Minbari Satai would be something to keep his mind off his near-constant boredom – and his divorce. He’d met a few Minbari since the end of the war; they had greeted him with disdain, distrust and disinterest in equal measure. He had no doubt that Satai Delenn would be the same. Her government was hoping to create stronger ties with the Earth Alliance, years after the aborted Babylon Project. Better late than never, John mused as he straightened his dress uniform and prepared to greet the Satai.

Lily entered first; the Satai followed. “General, may I introduce Satai Delenn. Satai, General John Sheridan.”

John’s mouth fell open and refused to pick itself back up. Any member of Earthforce would have had the exact same reaction: Satai Delenn was partly human. Dark hair, woven with grey, curled lightly atop her shoulders; her brow was less pronounced, a half bone crest wrapped around her skull. Her robes were a vivid plum – the most colourful thing in his drab office. But the shock of her part-Human appearance was not just why John kept staring. She was also the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Eyes that missed nothing; full lips that thinned at his blatant rudeness. John tripped over himself to offer his hand and his welcome. Lily, who had been nursing an obvious crush on him for the three years that she had been his aide, stared at him like he had the bone crest.

John ignored it all in favour of the Satai. “Hello. I’m John. John Sheridan.” He coughed, finally closed his trap, and straightened his jacket. “General. John. Sheridan.” What the hell is wrong with you?

“General. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“And yours.” He shook her hand for what felt like the ninth time, John quickly pulling his back by his side. “Welcome to Earth. I believe we’re scheduled for a tour of the dome today, dinner with the President this evening, and then talks will begin tomorrow.”

Satai Delenn inclined her head in acceptance; those bright eyes growing glassy. “Those were the arrangements made, I believe.”

Staring at the Satai, John saw someone who was equallybored; someone who had met all expectations and still found life wanting. What the hell? “About three blocks from here is a market; they sell the most amazing oranges. You hungry?”

His aide looked scandalised. Satai Delenn, however, seemed enthralled by the prospect. “Yes.”

Good. He was hungry too. Had been for the longest time.

[travalistocata]

💛💚💖💔💕 + b5

aaaa thank you!!

from these (x)

what is a popular ship you just can’t get behind, and why?

marcus/neroon is something i just can’t get into and i honestly don’t know why! it has so many things that i would like - the minor character, the possibility of tragedy, the toxic yaoi fight to the almost-death, all of that. but they just don’t grip me. i’m not some neroon hater either, at worst i love to hate him because he’s kind of obnoxious but i love obnoxious bitches. who knows.

what does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

i like to joke that lyta is a kitten in a wet cardboard box all alone but when she is able to be, she is capable, independent and able to fend for herself. she’s introduced to us in divided loyalties by immediately brandishing a weapon and making demands. people act as if she’s unable to do anything for herself when the biggest part of her character is that she has been purposefully held back and isolated from others. being abused is not a character flaw, actually, and being abused with no way of escaping that abuse is also not a character flaw! also it’s so, so, so much more annoying when this attitude towards her is applied to her “aren’t you tired of being nice-“ arc in season 5. she can explode things with her mind quite literally. she’s shown using her crazy ass telepathy to kill SHADOWS in the road home! and then people act as if she’d be at g’kar’s mercy as if g’kar is also not a senior citizen who has sworn off violence of any kind.

what is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

(strained through gritted teeth, pretending i have not seen the fifth season) the pacing isn’t that bad. some plotlines are rushed, yes (fly high byron my beautiful controversial angel) but seasons one through four were just fine pacing wise. the climax for the shadow war was somewhat underwhelming but also i don’t think babylon 5 really is, genuinely, a kind of piece of media that needs an epic space battle. especially when all of the conflict and epic space battles you are shown, you’re shown the actual tragedy behind senseless death. “talking it out” is almost lame, but it also to me quietly told me a lot about the first ones in general as well.

if you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

i’m so sorry but if lennier had just gotten the na’toth treatment and disappeared somewhere in like season 2 or 3 and showed up as a ranger in season 5 i don’t think i would have noticed much. i still love lennier but lennier’s plotlines are such nothingburger little things and are usually wrapped up in things that involve delenn, during which i’m paying more attention to what delenn is doing in those situations.

what is an unpopular ship that you like?

AS PER MY RANT ABOUT LYTA nothing quite really beats being incredibly moved by g’kar and lyta’s final scenes in the show, going to see if anyone else ships them or if i just have goggles on because they’re two of my most favorites and just seeing…That. i also like lyta/byron. like i get why people may dislike either of those ships but also i feel like a lot of people make up or exaggerate the things that could possibly be problematic about the both of them. if i read another post comparing g’kar and lyta’s established dynamic with forced prostitution i’m going to snap. like please yall my girl has gone through so much shit can she not get laid on top of it all???? also to answer the “what does the fandom get wrong about your favorite” question again the idea that g’kar is willingly doing all of THAT and intentionally perpetuating an imbalanced dynamic after he has grown up in and been victimized by systemic and intrapersonal abuse his entire life is………hmmmmmm.

[grigori77]

Celebrating International Women's Day this year, once again I'm giving a shout-out to some of the amazing ladies, both real and fictional, that I really admire, both new on the scene and since my formative years. They all live rent free in my head and I think they're awesome!

COURTNEY LaPLANTE, the incredible frontwoman from up-and-coming new metalcore band Spiritbox, who are ALL pretty amazing, but she is in a whole different league. The way she can switch from beautifully husky, gently angelic clean vocals to bloody terrifying feral demon dirty vocals AND BACK at the drop of a hat is truly astounding ...

VIOLA DAVIS, one of my favourite actresses working in Hollywood today, an undeniable queen and now a bonafide BADASS too thanks to her recent starring role as Naniska, the General of the Agojie, the legendary Dahomie Amazons, in The Woman King. These days she's PROBABLY best known as THE BADDEST BITCH in all of the DCEU, ARGUS director Amanda Waller, but these are just two of a whole CAREER of incredible performances for which she's rightly become a true A-lister ...

ELLEN RIPLEY, as played by the equally awesome Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies. Quite simply THE GREATEST cinematic female lead protagonist OF ALL TIME, Ripley is about as definitive as strong female lead protgnonists get, the scourge of terrifying hostile aliens throughout the galaxy ...

POWER, from the acclaimed new anime series Chainsaw Man. I know, I know, she could SO EASILY have just been another classic teenage boy's wet dream anime girl, but half-demon fiend Power, like many of the show's female characters, is definitely a significant step away from the cliched norms, a total, undeniable force of (super)nature, unapologetic deluded self-promoter and thoroughly adorable chaos gremlin, who's quickly becoming one of my very favourite anime characters.

RINKO KIKUCHI, probably my VERY FAVOURITE Japanese actress EVER, thanks in no small part to her DEFINITIVE turn as Jaeger pilot Mako Mori in Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, although I first discovered her as gloriously idiosyncratic demolitions expert Bang Bang in Rian Johnson's criminally overlooked The Brothers Bloom. Also rightly known for her acclaimed turn in Babel, we most recently saw her in typically fine form in Michael Mann's agreeably edgy new true crime series Tokyo Vice ...

KRISTEN STEWART. Yeah, I know, some folk are STILL likely to be rolling their eyes at this choice, but ever since Panic Room I've ALWAYS thought she was something special, EVEN when she was doing Twilight. Okay, so it's taken her A LONG TIME to shake the godawful spectre of Bella Swan, but she's DEFINITELY pulled it off by now, playing some truly AMAZING characters in a bunch of really great movies, most notably Underwater (see above), the criminally maligned and unjustly ignored Charlie's Angels reboot and her incredible recent turn as the late Diana, Princes of Wales, in Spencer.

DELENN, as played by Mira Furlan (Lost), the ambassador of the alien race, the Minbari, in one of my very favourite TV shows of all time, Babylon 5. From humble (albeit also EXTREMELY mysterious) beginnings, Delenn went on to (rightly) become THE main female lead in the show, carrying the weight of one hell of a sprawling, epic sci-fi saga plot on her more-than-able shoulders.

KATY O'BRIAN. Basicallythe core inspiration (at least in a roundabout way) for the lead character in my ongoing online fantasy novel series Never Split the Party, Kesla Shoon, Katy is 100% what I love in a genuine physically powerful woman - tough as nails, sexy as hell and, paradoxically, an absolute sweetheart. I first stumbled across her as George, the very best character in Syfy's guilty pleasure TV series Z Nation, but she's finally REALLY getting the attention she's long deserved, already earning fast fan-favourite status as Jentorra in Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania.

ZOE SALDANA. Ever since she started to come up in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, she's been steadily growing herself one hell of a reputation playing a succession of strong, frequently badass women in cinema, most notably in The Losers, James Cameron's Avatar movies and OF COURSE as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.

SOFIA BOUTELLA. Ever since I first saw her busting some truly incredible moves in those glorious "Keep Up" Nike ads from the mid 00s, I have always been SUCH a big fan of this incredible dancer-turned-actress. She first REALLY captured our attention in the first Kingsman movie, but she's shone ever brighter since in the likes of Star Trek Beyond, Atomic Blonde, Climax and Hotel Artemis. Personally I CANNOT WAIT to see what she does with THE LEAD ROLE in Zack Snyder's incoming new sci-fi epic Rebel Moon ...

ALISON MOYET. One of my favourite female vocalists when I was growing up, I recently rediscovered her music when I started one of my music fan deep-dives through her entire back catalogue, and I'm absolutely LOVING IT. Starting out in the frustratingly short-lived early 80s electro pop group Yazoo with Erasure's Vince Clarke, she truly came to fame with her dynamite solo debut album Alf, as well as a killer cover of That Ole Devil Called love, but she's been going strong ever since thanks to one of the greatest voices around.

ANNIE LENNOX, formerly of The Tourists and The Eurythmics. Another one of the 80s all-time great frontwomen, Annie is a statuesque Scottish goddess who is rightly best known for her SECOND tour of duty with multi-talented musician Dave Stewart, but went on to have an equally astounding career as a solo singer-songwriter with a string of masterful records from the 90s right up to the present. Add to that her undeniable ICON status in the LGBTQIA+ community and you've got a bonafide androgynous goddess on your hands ...

GRACE JONES. Ever since she played Zula in Conan the Destroyer, Mayday in A View to a Kill and one seriously STRANGE vampire in Vamp, I've been a fan of this Jamaican model/actress/singer and undeniable fashion ICON. She continues to be a wonderfully weird and truly unique individual with her own unapologetically challenging style to this very day, and I love her for it.

DEBORAH CHOW. A fantastic up-and-coming Canadian filmmaker, who made a modest splash with her feature film The High Cost of Living before cutting her teeth on a series of impressive TV directing gigs on the likes of Copper, Reign and Mr Robot before truly coming into her own on The Mandalorian, which directly led to her helming THE ENTIRETY of 2022's rightly acclaimed Obi Wan Kenobi series. I'm really looking forward to whatever she does next.

CHARLIZE THERON. If there's one actress I've become a fan of mainly through her playing GENUINELY UNSTOPPABLE kickass women, it's Ms. Theron. The South African-born actress looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING when she's stalking down a catwalk in her Dior ads, but as far as I'm concerned she looks HER VERY BEST when she's taking roomfuls of men apart with her bare hands in Atomic Blonde or a big fucking axe in The Old Guard, which will soon get a sequel I for one CANNOT WAIT FOR ...

MARISHA RAY, ASHLEY JOHNSON & LAURA BAILEY, the Ladies of Critical Role. Sure, there have been other women who've come and gone in a variety of excellent guest slot roles through the years the live-play TTRPG webcast series has been going (from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Ashly Burch, Sumalee Montano, Mica Burton and Aimee Carrero to, of course, the legendary Aabria Iyengar), but these three have always been the core, the heart and the undeniable BACKBONE of this amazing ongoing D&D adventure, and long may they all continue to reign ...

[aarrowom]

Aarrow Reviews: "Midnight on the Firing Line", Babylon 5 S1E01

After a significant delay from showing my friend (who never watched B5) The Gathering last year, we finally started watching the show. I've watched all of B5 a few times (on DVD) over the years and watched from somewhere in S2 onward live (back in the '90s), but watching it with someone who knows nothing beyond the vague things she's picked up from me does put things in a new perspective.

MotFL is, as such things go, not a terribly good episode from a 21st century perspective. I can appreciate the need to jump right into the action, especially for a network show, but as she rightly pointed out, there's a lot of "say the exposition into the camera" during the episode.

What's interesting is that she is picking up on Sinclair's generally ineffectual sense of command (which I am dying to talk about the reasons for, but those are all spoilers for S1E08 so I can't). She absolutely hates him and his laid-back affability, which makes it interesting for me to see if that opinion changes over the season.

Obviously, she thinks G'Kar and Londo are the most interesting characters (and also the only two actors who can really act, but again, a pilot episode so growing pains... Encounter at Farpoint isn't any better, either).

Best lines belong to Kosh and Delenn, as is usual IMO: "They are alone. They are a dying people. We should let them pass."

"To start a war over blood spilled so long ago... Where does it end? You kill them and take their land. They kill you and take the land back. On and on and on. The cycle of hatred."