B5 Thoughts
Mar. 19th, 2009 02:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI am currently a quarter of the way through Jude the Obscure, and while I know it's going to be incredibly depressing, right now I love it. I've always liked Hardy; he has beautiful descriptive passages and characters who are poignant but nevertheless don't become cloying. And there's something comforting about his relentless pessimism. No matter how bad it gets for any of the characters, you can rest assured that the next chapter will always make it worse.
*
- THE PSICORPS COMMERCIAL CREEPED ME THE HELL OUT. That's even without the subliminal message they threw in at the end.
- I always enjoy episodes that feature journalists reporting on the characters. Rarely do they take up the entire episode with the finished piece, though; the only other one I can remember doing it is Moonlighting. Although much as I liked seeing the place and the characters from an outside perspective (and as hilarious as the journalist's interviews with Eye-van-oh-va were), it had a very distancing effect. I think it was intentional, but it was rather an odd choice for an episode that featured some important events in terms of interstellar war and diplomacy.
*
These are longer than usual, mostly because I knew it was going to be an important episode (and because while just commenting on the surface stuff is fun, sometimes this show just begs for a full-on English grad student analysis), so I did a bit of liveblogging. It really made me wish that this had been presented in novel form, because I would be underlining like crazy if it were.
- Haha, Vir, you're awesome. Head on a pike, indeed.
- "Ministry of Peace." That's an Orwellian name if I've ever heard one. And Maccabee(?) is appropriately McCarthyish. If this Nightwatch thing isn't going to blow up into some kind of Gestapo-like mess, I will eat something inedible.
- OMG, MORDEN WAS ON THE ICARUS! (BTW, that's a terrible name to give a spaceship. Talk about tempting fate---you'd think they'd at least go with Daedalus, or something.)
- Is Talia ever going to make it through an episode without getting telepathically attacked or otherwise assaulted? Ever?
- I'm getting the feeling that the Shadows are sort of like Lucifer and his army of darkness--able to be pushed back, but always extant. (Delenn's or Kosh's dialogue about "those who would not serve" being killed was reminiscent of Paradise Lost, in an inverted fashion--Satan and his minions would not serve in heaven, and so were kicked out to reign in hell.)
- "Passed beyond the veil"? Ahem. "They have diminished, and gone into the West." Fixed that for you, Delenn. *g*
- Sheridan mentioned in the last episode that he joined Earthforce to be part of something greater--now he has to join against Shadows. (This is why I wish it were a novel--I would have notes all over it.)
- Dude, 20th century history wouldn't be "ancient" for them. It would be like the very late eighteenth century for us--interestingly enough, general concensus is that this is right about where "the modern era" begins. Perhaps there's a connection there as far as how people in 2259 would see 2009. (Also, the story about Churchill knowing that Coventry was going to be bombed is unsubstantiated rumor. They knew the Germans were going to make an air raid, but not where. It is a good story, though.)
- Uh, Sheridan, presumably everything that goes through a security camera gets recorded, and so those Shadows you saw were also recorded...
- I have to say, even after he relents and bows to the greater experience of Kosh and Delenn, I still lost a lot of respect for Sheridan in this episode. Perhaps I am empathy-impaired, but seriously? He can abuse his power to such a great extent as that and still be able to live with himself? He'll only stop when it's strategic, and not because he realizes he's violating an individual's rights?
- In sum: I love, love, love everything to do with this building Shadow-war (much more than I do the Earth conspiracy, which, while sort of interesting, when compared to this is kind of like a buzzing fly). I love the idea ofelves old races, the ancient evil, the place humanity is taking. I love the fact that it's so obviously indebted to LOTR, but not so much that it feels like a complete retread. I'm glad I didn't stick with it when I was twelve--so much of this would've been lost on me.
*
- THE PSICORPS COMMERCIAL CREEPED ME THE HELL OUT. That's even without the subliminal message they threw in at the end.
- I always enjoy episodes that feature journalists reporting on the characters. Rarely do they take up the entire episode with the finished piece, though; the only other one I can remember doing it is Moonlighting. Although much as I liked seeing the place and the characters from an outside perspective (and as hilarious as the journalist's interviews with Eye-van-oh-va were), it had a very distancing effect. I think it was intentional, but it was rather an odd choice for an episode that featured some important events in terms of interstellar war and diplomacy.
*
These are longer than usual, mostly because I knew it was going to be an important episode (and because while just commenting on the surface stuff is fun, sometimes this show just begs for a full-on English grad student analysis), so I did a bit of liveblogging. It really made me wish that this had been presented in novel form, because I would be underlining like crazy if it were.
- Haha, Vir, you're awesome. Head on a pike, indeed.
- "Ministry of Peace." That's an Orwellian name if I've ever heard one. And Maccabee(?) is appropriately McCarthyish. If this Nightwatch thing isn't going to blow up into some kind of Gestapo-like mess, I will eat something inedible.
- OMG, MORDEN WAS ON THE ICARUS! (BTW, that's a terrible name to give a spaceship. Talk about tempting fate---you'd think they'd at least go with Daedalus, or something.)
- Is Talia ever going to make it through an episode without getting telepathically attacked or otherwise assaulted? Ever?
- I'm getting the feeling that the Shadows are sort of like Lucifer and his army of darkness--able to be pushed back, but always extant. (Delenn's or Kosh's dialogue about "those who would not serve" being killed was reminiscent of Paradise Lost, in an inverted fashion--Satan and his minions would not serve in heaven, and so were kicked out to reign in hell.)
- "Passed beyond the veil"? Ahem. "They have diminished, and gone into the West." Fixed that for you, Delenn. *g*
- Sheridan mentioned in the last episode that he joined Earthforce to be part of something greater--now he has to join against Shadows. (This is why I wish it were a novel--I would have notes all over it.)
- Dude, 20th century history wouldn't be "ancient" for them. It would be like the very late eighteenth century for us--interestingly enough, general concensus is that this is right about where "the modern era" begins. Perhaps there's a connection there as far as how people in 2259 would see 2009. (Also, the story about Churchill knowing that Coventry was going to be bombed is unsubstantiated rumor. They knew the Germans were going to make an air raid, but not where. It is a good story, though.)
- Uh, Sheridan, presumably everything that goes through a security camera gets recorded, and so those Shadows you saw were also recorded...
- I have to say, even after he relents and bows to the greater experience of Kosh and Delenn, I still lost a lot of respect for Sheridan in this episode. Perhaps I am empathy-impaired, but seriously? He can abuse his power to such a great extent as that and still be able to live with himself? He'll only stop when it's strategic, and not because he realizes he's violating an individual's rights?
- In sum: I love, love, love everything to do with this building Shadow-war (much more than I do the Earth conspiracy, which, while sort of interesting, when compared to this is kind of like a buzzing fly). I love the idea of
