Babylon 5 Discussion: Special Poll Edition!

Ditto. First time I watched it I think I was around 16-17?(Very IIRC) His talks on religion (that one in particular) moved me ahead a few steps in a short duration. I was already reevaluating things, G'kar/Straczynski's talk gave me some much needed tools of thought to move things forward. I think the next leap forward comparable to that would be my early 20's and Daniel Dennett's take on viral memetics.

We all do what we do for the same reason, 'because it seemed like a good idea at the time.'

Heh

And I agree, another great G'kar moment.

My favorite one from G'kar: "The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest."

BTW, @fuckit : In continuation of our little discussion on the tv thread (seems more appropriate to continue here), I agree, it would be hard to match the kind of character growth that G'kar is going through.
I think one of the reasons why I found Garibaldi's arc even more intriguing though is because on the one hand, it's a real rolercoater (not the G'kar's isn't but Garibaldi is really going through some extremes) but on the other hand it's still believable.
I don't see a lot of tv where addiction and especially it's long term consequences is portrayed well but after the shit Garibaldi went through, you kinda get why he has a relapse. And thus, I feel really, really bad for him.
A lot of very bad things happen to G'kar as well but for him personally, it's kind of this constant journey upwards whereas with Garibaldi, you never knew where this might be going next. As a bonus, the ultimate conclusion for the character is - while probably the one that is most heavy on the cheese (Italian cheese hopefully ) - the most satisfying to see honestly. I always have a big smile on my face when I see the final bunch of episodes, mostly because of him.

But anyway, didn't want to start a character arc competition, just wanted to express why I pointed out Garibaldi in the other thread.

*Sigh*

I miss this series.

There should be a sequel series of some sort.

Also dunno if this made the rounds in here yet but if so, well, here it is again.

I'd put the Drazi under Lawful Neutral (since they blindly follow their faction no matter how little sense it makes)  and put the Shadows under Chaotic Neutral (they're all about kicking over anthills to see what happens)

Crusade was honestly following the B5 pattern of rocky start with hints of something amazing. Except more studio fuckery (that damn broadcast order ). Had they been able to develop it, I'm sure it would've been a worthy sequel.

We don't talk about Legend of the Rangers. Though it sincerely saddens me if the "punch punch kick in space to hit ships" was a JMS idea. I was hoping that was some coked up studio exec that wanted to warn kids about the dangers of diabetus.

Lost Tales was clearly out of touch, though Galen and his conundrum for Sheridan were on point. still some genius shining through.

Lawful Evil. But in this case, he does take a backseat to Ulkesh and his ilk.

That being said, Marcus should be Netural or Chaotic Good. Lorien is probably the True Neutral. Or the Walkers. Or any First One that's not Vorlon or Shadow, really.


I do like where the Vorlons and Shadows are placed on the chart. I argue evil makes sense for both of them since they've lost their way and are no longer about guiding the younger races, but rather about selfishly proving who's right (and genocide, which they both partake in is a little hard to swing out of that category).

But it's also perfect symmetry of course since apart from their methods (order, chaos), they're really not that dissimilar and both sides of the same coin. Also interesting (especially if you take expanded material into the mix) is how frequently they cross over into the domain of their counterparts. Shadows are supposedly all about chaos but their servants are utterly controlled and in most cases incapable of disobeying or even having free thought (Morden's always followed by Shadows, despite showing he willingly serves them and believes in their ways, Shadow vessel cores, technomages etc). Meanwhile the Vorlons freak the fuck out when one of they dies and start indiscriminately blowing shit up while ironically, Kosh is the one who least followed the usual Vorlon program.

I loved Babylon 5 from the 2nd season onward. The first year bored me in many ways, although I appreciate much of S1 now when you can see the bigger arc unfolded before us, but the characters were compelling, the effects very good for tv in the 90's and it's still one of the best written episodic tv shows of any genre ever. And yes, I love Susan Ivanova!

I never saw much of this show and what little I did was well into the series.  As a result, I was never able to follow it closely.  I more or less know how it ends because I googled it after it was over because plenty of it sounded interesting to me.  It didn't help that it basically wasn't available to watch anywhere.  Now it's on Amazon Prime and I'm starting from S1E1  Anyone have any thoughts about it?  Interesting or not?