#at most delenn marcus and maybe vir

[mushroombossa]

Figuring Lennier out is weird because even during events where he should be a central core character, he's treated more as a support, a second thought. In S1 we meet him as this naïve young Minbari who's fresh out of his time at the temple, he doesn't know much about the universe and sees his culture in idealized lens. But by S4 (in the few moments we get inside his head that is) he's all skeptical about the Minbari and clings even harder to Delenn because of it.

But the thing is, while he's present at a lot of crucial events that would explain the shift in his thinking, he doesn't really participate as an active character, and therefore leaves us to figure out his arc by overanalyzing small nudgets of nuance sprinkled here and there over the show.

Maybe JMS just didn't know what to do with him personally besides being Delenn's protector/aide, or maybe Lennier just think of himself as so insignificant he prefers to live vicariously through Delenn and his idealized vision of her. Which would also explain his animosity to Sheridan even more, as it's not only a simple jealousy sparred from unrequited love, but a literal "if I was Delenn I wouldn't choose him". But she does and that fantasy is ruined by the time S5 begins.

What's curious is that his choice is to join the Rangers, who follow the same line of suppressing their personal will for a bigger cause. He's not parting ways with Delenn in order to know himself better, but to continue running away from that. He craves purpose for the sake of it, but he's never in the frontline, the first to take a step, he's only there to support others more corageuous to do so.

Hence why his ending feels so strange and somewhat unsatisfying to me. You can see hints of what could have lead him to reach that point, but never a strong development and character direction that corroborates that idea.

#tbf of the aides only vir got a proper development #na' toth was long gone after early s2 - a shame #and lennier just stuck around but rarely had relationships with any of the cast #at most delenn marcus and maybe vir #and tbh i feel like he nullifies himself a lot when he's around delenn #while you see a spark of personality with Marcus and Vir #but he does have more scenes with delenn than anybody else so that's what's left to remember sadly #lennier #babylon 5 #if i didn't hate my writing i'd finish my fic bc i had a lot of ideas for him.

[lesabear]

Hit me with some B5 for the fandom ask.

Favorite character: Susan Ivanova. - not just the obvious (Ivanova is God speech) but also things like

“So if we go down there it blows. If we don’t it blows anyway just a little later. It’s a good thing I’m Russian. We’re used to hopeless situations.

and from the finale

Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we don’t, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly, though, I think it gave us hope, that there can always be new beginnings. Even for people like us.

There are a ton of characters I love though - Vir, Londo, G’kar, Morden, etc.

Least Favorite character: I guess Byron by default? I think I liked basically all the characters that showed up a number of times and even the somewhat iffy ones (like Keffer) were generally good.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Delenn/Sheridan, Vir/happiness, Ivanova/happiness, Garibaldi/Daffy Duck cartoons, Sheridan/oranges

Character I find most attractive: Ivanova, probably.

Character I would marry: Goofy ol’Sheridan most likely.

Character I would be best friends with: Vir, I think. Or maybe I just hope.

a random thought: A series I wish had gotten more attention at the time, because the universe in it would have been really fun to explore in more shows. I should probably read the books at some point, too.

An unpopular opinion: I don’t know how unpopular it is but I really liked a lot of the theatricality of the dialogue/directing.

my canon OTP: Sheridan/Delenn, although their last scene absolutely kills me.

Non-canon OTP: I get why they couldn’t make it clearer, but Talia/Ivanova

most badass character: Ivanova, but there are a lot of badasses in very different ways which is cool - Vir with his conscience and refusal to give into temptation, Dr. Franklin with his principles (especially given his father), etc.

pairing I am not a fan of: Marcus/Ivanova - nothing against Marcus, who I like, but she wasn’t interested in him and the semi/vaguely canon thing with him and the Ivanova clone…eeesh

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Byron and the telepath arc in general could and should have been a lot better. I get that network interference/concerns about being cancelled also affected things, but still.

favourite friendship: Vir/Londo is great, Vir/Lennier and their meetings to vent were great. And the Sheridan/Ivanova/Franklin/Garibaldi interactions were also a lot of fun. Bonus points to Garibaldi/Londo too

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: Hmm. Sheridan’s parents seemed pretty cool

#ikarralives #replies

[tallysgreatestfan]

Fragebogen no.1 für babylon 5? :D

Thank you so much for this!

1. my beautiful cinnamon roll too good for thisworld fave: Lennier.Damn, he is so innocent and shy and sweet, he didn’t deserve this

2. my trash-shit fave: Delenn.Yeah, I consider her as fitting forthis, I mean, her role a the earth-Minbari-war and how often she manipulatespeople or withheld important informations to get what she wants, she definitelyis a dark character. But if you want a more typical mention, Na’Toth.

3. my I love to hate them fave: Neroon. His feud with Delenn and whateverhistory they share is just to fascinating.

4. my I hate to love them fave: Delenn again, for what the writers and theneven some fanfic writers do to her. It just hurts seeing your favoritecharacter, strong, deep and intriguing, degraded to a stereotypical love interest.(I guess that‘s not how the question was meant but whatever)

5. my I wouldn’t piss on them if they were onfire non-fave: CaptainCliche Hero- does everything right - everybody loves him Sheridan. Obviously

6. my I didn’t care about them either way atfirst but the fandom makes such a big deal about them now I can’t stand themnon-fave: Sheridan. Ididn’t really like him from the beginning but only the constant praise for himand all the shipper stuff made me really hate him.

7. my I could take them or leave them kindanon-fave: Marcus,maybe? Or Talia? 

8. my I will go down with this ship and I won’tput my hands up and surrender, there will be no white flag above my door. I’min love and always will be fave ship: Delenn/Lennier. Their deep friendship, theirunderstanding, the unrequited love (finally something like this on TV and Icould relate so much to him), Lenniers loyalty and the intricacy andtragic… 

9. my dirtybadwrong fave ship: I don’t really have a ship that fits here, butDelenn/Sinclair is probably the closest to it. [SPOILERS meruleusa!] Shetortured him and erased his memory and tried to kill him and thousand others[SPOILER end] and I for this I like to see this ship, with all of theirsimilarities and mutual respect, as very dark and complicated, especially afterSinclair slowly begins to suspect what she did. But then there seem to be a lotof people who hate Delenn/Lennier not just because it goes againstDelenn/Sheridan, and I kinda understand them. I actually like a dark reading ofit where Delenns cruelty and ambivalence and Lenniers self-destructive behavioris shown.

10. my they’re cute together and I dig them butI’m not all that terribly invested kinda fave ship: Delenn/Susan, Talia/Susan, G’Kar/Londo…. Ifeel that way about most ships on the show. I really like Vir/Lennier but I’mnot that invested in it too

11. my I didn’t care about this ship either way atfirst but the fandom makes such a big deal about it now I can’t stand itnon-fave ship: Atrisk to enrage the whole fandom against me:

Delenn/Sheridan.  Its not just that literally everybody on thissite and on archiveofourown and fanfic.net ships it and that I can’t escape allthe fic and fanwork no matter how hard I try or what blacklist program I use,it is that Delenn is even more forced into a role as stereotypical loveinterest despite it don’t fits her character at all than in the series, and hownobody talks about this or one of the many other issues they IMO have. I feelso guilty for not liking it, and tried to like it, yet I simply can’t. Yeah, Ifeel like my own opinion and view on the characters is wrong because its notwhat everybody thinks about them. I try to focus on the things I like about thisseries and I try to swallow my anger and sadness about her fate because I knowit is wrong to hate a ship like this… but  I just can’t escape it, and it makes me sickhow they seem to celebrate Delenn being stuck in a role as his lapdog withoutanything on her own with a man who behaives so slightly disrespectful towardsher (,,Three is a crowd” ,,I don’t have anything against alien rituals,especially not with a woman as beautiful as you” and all the times he feelslike he would have to protect her because she is to weak to do anything on herown or when he explains her something she already knows) and doesn’t evenbothers for the majority of time to understand her or her culture. And withevery degrading fic and every corny fanart it upsets me more. Yeah, you all don’tsee it like this, but this doesn’t makes it feel better. It just hurts seeingher like this, without anything of herself left.

Damn, I know I have to stop feeling so extremelyabout it but things like this are so difficult…

From the very few people I meet in real live whoactually knew the series everybody at most was annoyed about this ship, buthere… I have absolutely no idea how on a site that’s users mostly consist of feministsof all things people love it so much.

Confession out.

12. my MAKE IT STOP non-fave ship: Delenn/Sheridan (unpopular opinion, I know). Howbadly they fit together, how OoC Delenn behaives in it, how the series nevereven touches how they are from two once hostile species and fought against eachother in the war, all the missed potential, how it puts Delenn in a stereotypicalposition as only being the heroes supporter and in a lower position than him, howrevoliting corny and self-regarding this ship is, but most of all, as mentionedbefore, how it leads to totally cheapen and wasting Delenns character… UsuallyI’m simply bored when I don’t like ships. But I just can’t stand this one.Seriously, the only reason to exist for it is IMO that it makes Delenn/Lenniereven sadder and more tragic.

I don’t likeDelenn/Dukhat too because I kind of have a swick for male-teacher/female-studentrelationships and it feels like it would cheapen their friendship, but it doesn’tmakes me as upset as the Sheridan romance.

#sorrows of young rarepair shipper popular-ship anti #Delenn/Lennier #Delenn/Sinclair #Delenn #Lennier #Na'Toth #Captain Gary Stue #Neroon #NOTP: Two people with nothing in common = biggest love story of all time? #Babylon 5 #shipping #fandom meme