#but he does have more scenes with delenn than anybody else so that's what's left to remember sadly

[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.

[believerindaydreams]

though I would like to write a story called “dreaming of oranges”

Upon quiet, thoughtful reflection, a whole “AU rewrite with Sheridan and Sinclair switched around” would require a rewatch of everything up to “Into the Fire” and at least twenty thousand words to do properly. And a lot more guff about Minbar than I can probably handle convincingly. And writing Sinclair, who strikes me as being one of those sneaky bastards who are great on the small screen but hell to write dialogue for. 

(cut for spoilers. Lots of spoilers)

Counterpoints: the fascination of dealing with this Minbari paradox, with the Grey Council struggling to grasp how their greatest icon could possibly also be Starkiller. How long it takes them to tell Sheridan why they asked him to be ambassador; around the end of Season Two or so, I think. In this version, Sheridan thinks he’s been posted to Minbar because new Clark wants him off-stage for some reason. In this version, he’s right; Clark’s heard just enough rumblings about a White Star fleet in the making to want a war hero on the spot to keep an eye on developments (Clark can always blame any unfortunate developments on Minbari War Syndrome, if necessary). Sheridan would, I think, have some genuine Earthforce concerns about helping Minbar build an entire flippin’ warfleet of White Stars, and want some very solid evidence about this whole Shadow War...so enter the Rangers, and Sheridan spends a year thinking they just wanted him to be Entil'zha. 

Probably some reluctant mutual admiration with Neroon, and Sheridan finding he gets on better with the warrior caste, ironically enough; there’s some common ground there and they agree that the religious caste’s five hour dinners are ridiculous. And Marcus shows up! With a lot of terrible jokes resulting, no doubt. 

Back on the station, everybody’s getting used to Sheridan’s replacement, the restrained and thoughtful Sinclair (and his on-and-off girlfriend Catherine). Garibaldi’s glad to have his old friend back; Susan takes somewhat longer warming up to him. Londo and G’Kar run into each other at the post office, one carrying a bag of oranges and the other parcelling up a set of Narn heating stones, and find themselves actually agreeing on something- namely, that landing up stuck on Minbar must be one of the worst possible fates for any hot-blooded sentient in the entire known galaxy. 

(Cut to: Lennier, holding a letter and pointedly not looking annoyed.)

So Sheridan starts deciphering the Shadow War, based partly on data gathered by the Rangers. Though some he’d be getting straight from Babylon 5, because Ivanova bullied the Epsilon III crew into providing them a reliable and secure communication system (you know she would). Gotta keep Sheridan in touch with the main crew somehow, especially if he’s going to fall in love with Delenn long distance...

who is aware that falling in love with Valen is an exceptionally terrible idea, but finds herself doing it anyway. Not that she intends to mention this to him; she’s already keeping far too many secrets from him, so what’s one more...until the end of Season Two (or thereabouts, anyway). When Sheridan calls her to say, well, this year on Minbar’s been fun, but now he’s going to pull every string he has in Earthforce to get back the Babylon 5 posting. Or anything that’s not planet-side, really...

so now she has to explain to him that he’s Valen, and destined to stay on Minbar. Sheridan’s reaction would be amazing to write- contradictory, frustrated energy, partly fascinated by the odd culture that he’s spent a year aiding, and partly completely exasperated by that culture and wanting out already. Anger with the very notion of being forced to do anything because of fate, and a very worried realisation that if he was to accept the truth of this duty, it’s not in him to say no. Not when the fate of billions might depend on it. 

But then, he argues with Delenn, if he’s going to be Valen then his destiny is to fight Shadows, and it might just be that he needs this experience to help save Minbar’s past. They settle on a temporary compromise; Sheridan’s given the first White Star to captain for as long as the war continues, on a top-secret basis. No longer. 

(Sheridan sleeps very hard, his first night back in space; and she spends it watching him.)

As for what’s been happening back on the station....Nightwatch is starting to make things nasty, Sinclair’s girlfriend has vanished under mysterious circumstances, and he’s starting to question why everybody leaves him out of the loop on things. Garibaldi notes that after all the hard work Sheridan went through on Babylon 5, a lot of people are gonna be cool on any replacement- and also that anybody taking lessons from Vorlons is going to sound a little touched after a while. 

As a way of asserting his authority, and also because he shares Delenn’s philosophy that all lives are precious, Sinclair forbids Lyta Alexander to search for a possible spy who can only be uncovered via murder. Talia gets to live; Lyta makes a break for it to Vorlon space. Susan decides that her instinct to keep some of the particulars of the anti-Clark, pro-Hague campaign away from Sinclair were probably wise, if he’s going to be such an idealistic with weird delusions of godhood and mutterings about Z’ha’dum- concerns that Garibaldi makes light of. Even after Sinclair falls out of a tube and gets saved by an angel in front of half the station. 

Season Three, Sheridan’s on the White Star and Sinclair’s on Babylon 5, with Delenn splitting her time between both (Lennier is concerned that Delenn is plunging through Minbar relationship rituals with accuracy but unseemly speed.) Sheridan offers Vir a few tips about life on Minbar. Sinclair concentrates on maintaining Babylon 5′s diplomatic status, trying to walk the line between keeping the station’s ideals and keeping in with Clark’s administration. All’s going well until some idiot blows up a ship at Ganymede, whereupon martial law is declared and everything goes haywire. Sinclair reluctantly declares that Babylon will secede, but emphasizes the unarmed, neutral nature of the station (he previously forbade the GROPOS crew from using the place as a base for combat operations, which is helpful in terms of propaganda and unhelpful in that the station still doesn’t have a decent defence grid).

“Is he seriously expecting God to reach out of the heavens to save us?“ Susan asks Garibaldi, in complete exasperation. 

“...when a guy like Jeff asks, it might just happen.“

Severed Dreams happens, with everything much the same as before except that Sheridan comes riding in with Delenn to save the day. ISN declares Sheridan a Minbari-tainted traitor, and the White Star attracts a good deal of fascination. Nobody cares about Sinclair, still. Franklin asks if they arranged it this way on purpose, with one dramatic hooligan drawing attention away from that station’s real work. Sinclair smiles and says nothing.

Some time later, Garibaldi spends an annoying day stuck in Grey Sector, and shoots a monster with some old-fashioned bullets. Nothing else happens that days. 

The campaign to fight the Shadows is progressing, slowly but surely, and the scope of Sinclair’s behind-the-scenes work is becoming slowly evident; he’s been quietly soothing small conflicts from breaking into worse conflicts, garnering favour with alien governments, and there’s a sturdy compact of ships to join up with the White Star fleet. All seems well, until Catherine comes back to Babylon 5 for the first time in months- and asks Sinclair to come with her to Z’ha’dum. 

Kosh says that this is not the time. Sinclair ignores the Vorlon and asks Sheridan for a White Star; Sheridan reluctantly agrees. 

Time passes. Sinclair doesn’t come back. But Shadow ships start coming out, attacking everywhere- many, many Shadow ships, far more than anyone had expected, or even thought possible. Despite a huge smoldering crater in their planet.) 

The Babylon 5 crew take council in the War Room, how to proceed next; and Sheridan gives a rousing speech to the Non-Aligned Worlds about honouring Sinclair’s memory, by putting up the best resistance they can. The appeal to martyrdom works; the anti-Shadow alliance vows that they will fight on whatever the cost. 

“You have forgotten something,” Kosh says to Sheridan. 

And Sheridan looks at the Vorlon, out at the planet below, and knows he can’t delay any longer, that the full fury of the Shadow forces must be lessened a thousand years earlier. Epsilon III is waiting for him. 

Delenn goes with him. So does Ivanova, who won’t let her old captain go without one last mission, so does Marcus, following the One. They ride the station backwards in time; Sheridan’s previous encounter with the rift causes him to age- but very strangely. Zathras clucks and tells him that he’ll probably only have twenty years more to live, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at him. 

Station prepared, there’s nothing left to be done but take leave of each other. Marcus offers to go back instead, and Sheridan sharply tells him not to play tempter; Susan salutes her old captain, and thanks him for giving them all a chance. Delenn stands before him, waiting, and can only say she has no ritual for this. 

All Sheridan can say, through his own tears, is that if his sacrifice shapes a world that’ll nurture her one day, it’ll be worth it- 

and Sinclair walks through the door, serene as none of them have ever seen him before. 

“When did you get here?“ Susan asks. 

“Before,” Sinclair says, in obliquely Vorlon fashion; and provides little more explanation when he’s pressed. Franklin was right, he explains; Catherine was a Shadow of her former self, quite literally, the Army of Light needs its martyr more than a figurehead, the universe needs him no longer- not here, that is. But it could use him elsewhere. A thousand years in the past...

“But who are you, to think yourself Valen?“ Delenn asks him, uncertain, unwilling to take hope too easily. 

“One who came back from Z’ha’dum alive.” Sinclair takes the triluminary, and it glows blue at his touch...

(Back on Babyon 5, Sheridan and Delenn talk the matter to pieces. How the triluminary must have reacted to shared ancestors in either direction, human or Minbari. Whether it requires Vorlon-inspired madness, to carry through the attempt at godhood. If she would have risked paradox, to follow him back; if he would have shirked duty, to stay.)

But that’s all for the future. 

For now?

Nothing more or less than a miracle. 

#spoilers #babylon 5 #fic #if wishes were horses

[alternatemodalityavatar-blog]

And I would do anything for love...

... totally including that. As mentioned before, That Person. Has been watching the show “Babylon 5″ to which I introduced them. And saw a scene of what looked like... well, how did they write it? “:( I guess this is the result of Londo basically swearing revenge on Refa for killing Adira.“ ... how best to explain. ... when I’m realising that I have to watch what I’m typing, because the eyes keep blurring, because I keep wanting to cry, because I wish I wish I wish I could tell That Person I feel for them like Londo does for Adira. ***** BASICALLY!? ... I'm not sure you get it. I hope you do. I thought you would. I wish to be absolutely sure you absolutely do. This goes beyond hate. This goes beyond revenge. The only reason I wouldn't say this goes beyond human possibility is because a human wrote this. I would be both afraid and glad to know what happened to JMS for him to be able to write this. Londo was ready to do anything for Adira. A N Y T H I N G. Londo cared about himself. Well, a little. Not a lot. Okay, not much at all. Originally, no major problems trying to gamble and drink himself to death. Liked nothing about his life. He cares about Vir a little more. He cared about the Empire more still. More still when instead of being a drunken gambler, he realised he had the power to do something. More accurately he cared more still about the Centauri people, even having a hand in killing an Emperor to save the Centauri people. And remember the Centauri Empire is like the Roman Empire - powerful, then decadent, then rotting from the core; but also even before the Caesars, the Romans had the idea of the Imperial Cult, that their emperors were something akin to divine. For a Centauri citizen to kill an Emperor... Londo was already a drinking, gambling, end-of-his-useful-life joke of an Ambassador to a post nobody cared about; coming from a society where royalty, ego and social status are *paramount*. Listen closely. Just by nothing more than being Adira, just by being there, she made him more. He cared about Adira more than anything else in his life; and he would bend anything he had to Adira, for Adira. Sex? Who cares? Powerful Ambassador, now. Three wives and any number of possible indiscretions in the Zocalo or Down Below, not to mention half the men or women around the Centauri Royal Court. Beauty? Pfah! Every artisan would give a year of their lives to sculpt, make-up, dress and present anyone to parade before the growing, powerful House of Mollari. And yet. In a social status society like the Centauri Republic, he would throw anything away for a lone, nobody-to-miss-her, enslaved, young, owned, nobody dancing girl piece of property Londo simply could have bought and kept. He didn't just take her to bed, use her, dispose of her. His bed, to which he never forced her, never compelled her, never lured her, asked her and she agreed and chose him, was absolutely nothing but one single mere sign of a fraction of what he felt for her. ... ... why did Sebastian let Delenn go from the torture? Because as he demanded, she answered the question "who are you?"? She didn't. Not in words. Neither did Sheridan. He let Sheridan go from his torture because Sheridan was ready to die lost, alone, unsupported, unheralded, unknown in the dark to save Delenn. He let Delenn go because Delenn was ready to die in the dark to save Sheridan. And Lennier. And Minbar and the humans. Because she would give herself to what needed to be done, for another. ... Londo let his own life and his political secrets and his power be risked in order to free Adira. And not just, not simply, merely to free her from servitude to someone else, then take her himself. Once she was free, he let her go. He let her leave. No spies to follow her, no demands, not even a begging on his knees to stay, no promises of the wildest of riches and lives that the brightest of rising stars near the heart of the entire Centauri Empire could give her. She had to take the next ship out, so he didn't even try to stop her. He gave her money for the travel, to support her afterwards; a promise of a place always with him, that he would ever and forever love her, not one other woman, not one other love for Londo ever again not even after she died not even when he became Emperor, not even until the day he died on the throne. He saw her off to the next ship. Not a plea, not a curse, not one hand to stop her, not even to beg her. ... What else would Londo do after Adira was destroyed? ANYTHING EVERYTHING He didn't just have Refa killed. He didn't even kill him with a blade the way he did his old sparring partner (for different reasons, but it proves he has the skill). This is old-school revenge straight from the depths of Satan's own screaming nightmares that should leave anybody lying in bed in the middle of the night so afraid they couldn't ever sleep in a room with a door or a window again. He stripped Refa's defences and left him surrounded by Narn, learning that Refa's guards were in fact Londo's. Londo's message started with knowing that Refa was going to die because dying was going to be the EASY part of all this. And the next thing is that every single support and safety Refa relied on was taken away from him, leaving him completely alone, unarmed, vulnerable, alone, helpless. And there was no escape and the rest of the message was just going to be additional torture. "It is not enough for me to simply kill you, Refa. I could do that at home or here. But through your death on Narn, I will discredit your House and all opposition in the Royal Court." And that last bit isn't just "and I'm going to be in charge, haha". That's not even about Londo's position at all. This isn't even about Londo at all. Yes, Londo is Refa's opposition, but it doesn't matter that it's Londo. It could've been G'Kar, for all Londo cared. It could've been the crawling bug in Londo's quarters, for all Londo cared. Londo probably would've made G'Kar the next Centauri Emperor if that was what it took to make this happen. What matters is that it's Refa's Opposition who has so thoroughly destroyed Refa, shamed his house permanently, removed every last trace of Refa's influence, power, family, official history, legacy; and to seal that fate, it will be Refa's opposite, Refa's Opposition, who will then rule the Centauri Empire afterward. And not even the death of Refa's Opposition, the new Emperor, would ever restore Refa's House to the throne, or even the Court, or even anything other than disgrace forever. In a society where social standing and politics are at least as important as family. That Londo will discredit all his opposition in the Court... is not even that Londo will take pleasure in his new power. He will not even care one whit for the power. He already knows; his future is sealed, twice by prophecy, he is fated, he is _cursed_ to rule the Centauri Republic as Emperor; and he will not find peace, nor joy, for he will stretch out his hand and hear the cries . It has nothing to do with the power. It may sting Refa to know that Londo will rise as Refa's House falls. But it doesn't matter that Londo shall rise. Profit doesn't matter. Influence and power do not matter. What matters is that Refa, Refa's life, power, legacy, history, reputation, family, House, will be worse than nothing; and Londo cares only... that it be done. Just the psychology of it. Running desperately for escape through a stone labyrinth; yet the rock cried out, "no hiding place". Just the biology of it. > His head and face left untouched. Refa's brain would remain beyond the end, feeling every signal from every nerve - every last fear, every last sound, every last red Narn eye, every last snarl, every last scream of rage and hate, every blow, punch, slice, cut, fist, rock, dagger, tearing finger, wrenching grip by a people faced by the monster who killed five million of their families, friends, beloved; humiliated, unhomed, starved, decimated, poisoned, wrecked, experimented on, tortured, enslaved billions more. > And Londo made sure Refa would know; after the end, Refa couldn't even control that his head, his Centauri hair, his face, would be shown, exposed, paraded, mounted on a pike to show everybody who walks past the Palace on Centauri Prime! "Here! Here in this row of disgracers, this row of traitors! Look, children! Those who would dare such as to fall from the Court of the Divine Emperors and be traitor to the heart of all the Republic! Every misfortune to befall the Empire since then comes from his House! Jeer! Hate him, children! Spit on his head! Stone him, young ones! Know that this is the lowest of everything! Not one thing in all of the Empire, all of the Galaxy, not one beggar, not one Narn, not one monster, not one alien, not one creature, not one disease, nothing is lower, more base than Refa! Remember this, children! Tell your children, tell their children! Never let the fate of traitors be forgotten! Never let the evil of Refa be forgotten!" Death becomes nothing. Death becomes barely a relief. This is not decimation. This is not decimation tenfold. This is annihilation. Perpetual torture that not even death will relieve. > Why? Because Refa killed Prime Minister and friend Malachi? ... Londo already had blood of the court and his friend on his hands. Because Refa killed Narns? ... Londo once congratulated Vir for what he thought was Narn-killing. Vir's wife Lindesty was a fine upstanding belle of Centauri society with a lauded skill know offworld in personally killing Narns. Because Refa had endangered the beloved Empire with insane multi-front wars? ... Londo had already dealt with that. He removed Morden. He pre-poisoned Refa to separate Refa and Morden and pull back the armies. It was done. Why had Londo brought a destruction upon Refa worse than anything God brought upon Job or Judas? ... Adira. The woman he loved.