#Delenn/Sinclair

[babischlong-six]

B5 text posts part 3

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[branmer]

Strange, that a human in his last moments would be more Minbari than I. Perhaps it is true what Delenn said: that we are not of the same blood, but we are of the same heart.

babylon 5 x every episode feat. Neroon

[can-we-talk-socks]

[mylittleredgirl]

all right! who wants my chrysalis device theories?

i've been pondering the way alisa says this for a while now. i think it's not just that she has never used this word because she lives in space and hasn't been to school since age 12.

i think delenn may not know what it means either. what if "chrysalis" is a proper noun in minbari, the name of the device and nothing else?

it's an english loanword, but one that valen didn't otherwise translate. he's a mysterious guy, and he's not going to tell them too much because revealing his origin would defeat the purpose of transmogrifying in the first place. there's some kind of religious mythology around it or delenn wouldn't know what to do, but presumably nobody has seen the process happen or gone through it in the thousand intervening years.

the minbari don't really know what the device does. delenn knows that she'll either be changed in some way or die ("speak well of me when i'm gone"), but she looks surprised (and terrified) when the device starts spitting out cocoon threads as soon as she adds the triluminary to it. lennier doesn't know what's happening to her in there, and neither of them know what she is when she first emerges.

--

i also find it fascinating that while there's a lot of sacred mystery around the triluminaries, and minbari loooove secrets in general, there's no attempt to hide the rest of the device.

delenn starts playing with it long before she gets the triluminary in hand. she adds pieces to it in front of sinclair, and it's left out in her quarters in plain view of both aliens and other minbari.

i thought for a long time about whether valen left thousand-year-old ikea instructions about exactly how this thing fits together, but i don't think so. we see it arranged on different surfaces in a few configurations in the background of other scenes, so either there's some creativity to it, like a mandala or zen garden, or it's a 3D jigsaw puzzle that makes sense to minbari minds. either way, these can't be the same triangles that valen touched, or she would never handle them so casually.

my theory is that it's a meditative puzzle that isn't unique, and may even be a common decorative activity in religious caste homes. maybe even with a little ceremonial (but not real) triluminary-like triangle to put on top when you're done! if that practice was also a Gift From Valen, it's one way to ensure that both the materials and the knowledge remain available through the generations.

--

and a bonus thought: how did sinclair know how to put it together later on? zathras could have done it for him, but it seems kind of spiritually important to do it yourself. did he learn it on minbar as a meditation technique? did he learn it from her out of context??

[thethirdromana]

Babylon 5 characters as cheeses

OK, I love this question.

Let's start with Delenn. She's halfway between one thing and another. She's strong, powerful, unifying. She may look superficially weak and squishy, but she can dominate a room (/cheeseboard). Delenn is Cambozola, a delicious hybrid of gorgonzola and camembert. I see the Minbari as more of a camembert and the humans as more of a gorgonzola, but you know, I'm open to dissenting opinions on that.

For Londo I needed a cheese that would look stunning in purple. He's all about tradition, so it needed to be a cheese with a solid history, under a DOP. My suggestion is Époisses, a cheese that dates back to the early 16th century. It's a rich, soft, stinky cheese with a rind that is washed in brandy. This just feels so profoundly like Londo in cheese form that I'm not actually sure I can justify the choice sufficiently. I'm just going to have to trust that you see my vision.

One of the many things that I utterly love about G'Kar is the way we see his character evolve. When we first meet him, he seems a bit silly and a bit petty; not the kind of person to take seriously. But under pressure, it turns out, he rises to the occasion and proves to be unbreakable. G'Kar, therefore, is a squeaky cheese that can handle a lot of heat. G'Kar is halloumi.

To me the core of Sheridan's character is that he doesn't really fit in the position he's been placed in. He's a hotshot military commander who has had diplomacy forced upon him. He's not a cheese that's a natural fit alongside all the other cheeses. But when he's in his element, Sheridan is unbeatable. Sheridan is mozzarella.

For Sinclair, I wanted something smooth and subtle. There's a pyramid-shaped goat's cheese called Pouligny Saint Pierre that's has flavours of nuts, hay and herbs, which has exactly the combination of strength and subtlety that I associate with Sinclair. Also, it only comes in 250g servings, so - just like Sinclair - you never get quite enough of it.

Marcus is the most English Englishman to ever be several generations removed from England, so he could only be a cheddar. Specifically, Wookey Hole cheddar, which is matured underground in the Wookey Hole caves in the Mendip Hills near Glastonbury. Also buried under Glastonbury - allegedly - is King Arthur. Marcus would love to be associated with this specific cheese and you can't tell me otherwise.

I would love to provide a Russian cheese for Ivanova but Russia is just not really a notable cheesemaking country. So instead I suggest a Lancashire bomb, a strong, creamy ball-shaped cheese that's wrapped in black wax so it literally looks like a bomb. Put a Lancashire bomb on your cheeseboard and no one is going to be looking at anything else. It also has a tanginess that feels very much like the cheese expression of Ivanova's dry humour.

One of the trickier people on this list was Garibaldi. He's fast-talking, divisive, a man of the people. He beats up criminals and he loves cartoons. None of this says cheese to you? Well, my suggestion is Wensleydale, a distinctive crumbly Yorkshire cheese that was saved from near-extinction after it was featured in Wallace and Gromit. (This is the weakest of my suggestions, but sometimes I fear we have to accept that a sci-fi character is not a cheese. Alternative ideas welcomed.)

When I first started watching Babylon 5, I called Franklin Dr Handsome, and despite all that he goes through - the wars, the stim addiction - it still feels like being a handsome, charming and generally good guy is at the core of his character. He's been through a lot but he's come through it, if not unchanged, then none the worse for it. I suggest smoked applewood, a cheese that's sweet, smoky, and always popular.

And finally, Lennier spent most of his life before Babylon 5 in a monastery, so we need a monastic cheese. My choice here is Tête de Moine - which translates literally as "monk's head" - a Swiss cheese that dates back eight centuries. It's not supposed to be cut but pared with a girolle, or cheese curler. I don't know that there's anything more Minbari than a cheese that comes with a ritual for how you're supposed to eat it.

[mortalstrife]

There is a hole in your mind.

minvember prompt 2: lie

[vertigoartgore]

Babylon 5 Season 1 Cast Photo (1994). When Delenn (Mira Furlan) didn't have any hair yet (before the season finale "Chrysalis")

[therighthandofvengeance]

[wipbigbang]

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[babischlong-six]

Babylon 5 text posts memes part 7

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6]

[branmer]

whenever ppl are like 'humans very definitely have minbari souls in b5' i have to resist the urge to comment pointing out that in atonement it is suggested pretty strongly that actually what the triluminaries are detecting are not souls but human dna because valen fucked and he fucked prolifically

[can-we-talk-socks]

gay people am i right

[mylittleredgirl]

- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses (excerpts)

[stardustinthesky]

Do you trust me? With my life.

[sheridansunrise]

My ranking of all the characters in Babylon 5 that I have strong feelings about, in one way or another!

Here's an explanation of the tiers (I simply cannot help but over-clarify everything)...

Tier 1 - My favourite

Tier 2 - I love them

Tier 3 - They're great, I have a lot of love for them, it's just a bit more casual than the first two tiers

Tier 4 - Depending on what part of their arc I'm watching, I either like them a lot... or I am about to shout at the TV screen because, as much as I appreciate how good their arc is, they've annoyed me

Tier 5 - This tier is mostly for villains because, yes, they make my skin crawl, but that's the point. I love a good villain to hate! You may notice, however, that there are non-villains in the tier. Lennier is a tricky one, because I really like him, and then I really dislike him. I can't just ignore that, so that's why he's in this tier of complex feelings. And as for Sinclair, I don't really have any strong feelings about him. I have ranked him because I simply couldn't leave him out, but there isn't a perfect tier for him. He ended up in this tier because, I have to admit, I will always spend season one waiting for him to leave so that I can be reunited with Sheridan ahaha oops--

Tier 6 - The quote says it all

I have made this tier list a template, so please feel free to do it yourself! As I said, I made this with (pretty much) just the characters I have strong feelings about, so if you have any you'd like me to add to the template, please let me know!