B5 Finale: "Sleeping in Light"
May. 24th, 2009 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI ended up watching "Sleeping in Light" today, because I was getting tired of hearing "OMG BEST FINALE EVAR!!1!eleventy!!!" across the internets and not seeing it for myself. Also, I was spoiled for...pretty much everything in it, actually. And hell, it was filmed back during S4, before they even knew they were getting a fifth season, so apparently it would've worked well as a finale there, thus I figured, what the hell, you know?
And it had Ivanova. I miss Ivanova.
I was getting really confused as to why so many people actually liked this plodding mess...and then came that bit at the end where a ship from every race in the Alliance is decommissioning/blowing up the station in slow motion and Ivanova is doing that voiceover, and I admit, I got a bit verklempt. Having Susan in the Head of the Rangers uniform and Ghost!John sitting beside Delenn on the bench at sunrise made me a bit more teary.
(That said, the middle three-fourths were a slow and plodding mess. I was mentally yelling at the screen for Sheridan to just die already, instead of dragging out the magical mystery reunion tour he was doing. It made me a little sad that he didn't die by Delenn's side, and a lot sad that he didn't want his son to see him one last time. And now that Sheridan's goneto the Grey Havens beyond the Rim, does that mean his and Delenn's souls will never meet again [assuming we buy into the Minbari belief that souls do such a thing]?)
I liked Susan especially throughout the whole thing--greatly enjoyed that she was still as cynical as ever even twenty years later--although I felt terribly for her, so sad and bitter after all those years. I feel like, in some ways, we constantly see her starting over--at Bablyon 5, leaving to command a starship, and now as head of the Rangers. These aren't situations that have to be presented in terms of starting over, but for her, they are, and I get the feeling she would like to be someone who has a foundation to build on instead.
But the fact that two women are now pretty much running the galaxy makes me happy. Jirl power! :D
I also enjoyed the fact that Garibaldi and Franklin are still buddies, and that Vir was obviously getting some, finally. Heh. I liked the juxtapositioning of S1 or S2 footage against shots from this episode in the credits at the end, although wow, it sucks to be Marcus. Oh, Marcus. Poor, cryogenically-frozen Marcus.
It's been years since I read The Silmarillion, but was Delenn's and Sheridan's parting dialogue reworked from something in the tale of Beren and Luthien? It seemed like something that would've come out of that. Although really, Sinclair should be Luthien and Delenn Arwen. Er. Anyway. Moving on...
I was getting really confused as to why so many people actually liked this plodding mess...and then came that bit at the end where a ship from every race in the Alliance is decommissioning/blowing up the station in slow motion and Ivanova is doing that voiceover, and I admit, I got a bit verklempt. Having Susan in the Head of the Rangers uniform and Ghost!John sitting beside Delenn on the bench at sunrise made me a bit more teary.
(That said, the middle three-fourths were a slow and plodding mess. I was mentally yelling at the screen for Sheridan to just die already, instead of dragging out the magical mystery reunion tour he was doing. It made me a little sad that he didn't die by Delenn's side, and a lot sad that he didn't want his son to see him one last time. And now that Sheridan's gone
I liked Susan especially throughout the whole thing--greatly enjoyed that she was still as cynical as ever even twenty years later--although I felt terribly for her, so sad and bitter after all those years. I feel like, in some ways, we constantly see her starting over--at Bablyon 5, leaving to command a starship, and now as head of the Rangers. These aren't situations that have to be presented in terms of starting over, but for her, they are, and I get the feeling she would like to be someone who has a foundation to build on instead.
But the fact that two women are now pretty much running the galaxy makes me happy. Jirl power! :D
I also enjoyed the fact that Garibaldi and Franklin are still buddies, and that Vir was obviously getting some, finally. Heh. I liked the juxtapositioning of S1 or S2 footage against shots from this episode in the credits at the end, although wow, it sucks to be Marcus. Oh, Marcus. Poor, cryogenically-frozen Marcus.
It's been years since I read The Silmarillion, but was Delenn's and Sheridan's parting dialogue reworked from something in the tale of Beren and Luthien? It seemed like something that would've come out of that. Although really, Sinclair should be Luthien and Delenn Arwen. Er. Anyway. Moving on...
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Date: 2009-05-24 11:43 pm (UTC)Awww, cryomarcus. <3 <3
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Date: 2009-05-25 12:11 am (UTC)Thank goodness it's not just me.
I also didn't realize that it was filmed at the end of S4! That might have explained why I was all "BUT I AM PANICKING BECAUSE YOU DID NOT RESOLVE THESE THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN SEASON 5 AND COULD BE VERY BAD"... or something.
Yeah, I'd heard that it was a bit weird coming after S5, as it makes no reference to any events in that season, so I figured why not watch it before I'd gotten too far into S5. But yeah, definitely filmed at the end of S4 and only held over because thy got a fifth season. Apparently "Deconstruction of Falling Stars" was a quickie insert or something.
Awww, cryomarcus. <3 <3
Siiiiiiigh. (Have you read JMS's continuation of the whole Marcus/Ivanova thing? I can't decide whether to be pleased or utterly creeped out by it.)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:09 am (UTC)Also: IT IS SO FREAKING CREEPY. *aieieeeeee*
Frozen then waking from the dead? Okay, I can go with that. Going to check out the record of her memory whatever? Still okay. Arranging to clone her with these memories and freezing himself to wait until she's the right age? WHAT. Marooning them both on a planet and PRETENDING THAT NO TIME HAS PASSED AND NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED? OMGWTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE. Also, that belongs in The Martian Chronicles somehow.
In other news -- why would they have even bothered to make "Deconstruction of Falling Stars" then? It seemed like such a finale -- I thought it was supposed to be the show's finale and then there was like "whee! fifth season! um... let's make some random stuff up, yes?"
My version of "Marcus comes back to life and there is LOVE and JOY and wheee!" involved Minbari, and mysterious alienz, and I thought THAT was weird. This is just like... I don't know, something weird and creepy with Marcus creating her, and lying to her, and keeping her on this random planet where they will have lots of creepy future sex, and... okay, there are MORE ways that's creepy, but I think I can stop there.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 02:25 am (UTC)I are helpful, yay!
Also: IT IS SO FREAKING CREEPY. *aieieeeeee*
YES, YES, IT IS.
Frozen then waking from the dead? Okay, I can go with that. Going to check out the record of her memory whatever? Still okay.
Yep and yep.
Arranging to clone her with these memories and freezing himself to wait until she's the right age? WHAT.
I can still basically get behind this, mostly because it's totally something I expect from Marcus, and partly because it's not nearly as creepy as what comes next.
Marooning them both on a planet and PRETENDING THAT NO TIME HAS PASSED AND NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED? OMGWTF IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.
OMG YES THIS AAAUUUGGHHHH. In my head, the story continues for, oh, another page, in which Clone!Ivanova finds out what happened, and kicks his ass.
Also, that belongs in The Martian Chronicles somehow.
Ha! It does!
In other news -- why would they have even bothered to make "Deconstruction of Falling Stars" then? It seemed like such a finale -- I thought it was supposed to be the show's finale and then there was like "whee! fifth season! um... let's make some random stuff up, yes?"
That puzzles me as well, but as I understand it, contractually they had to provide a twenty-second episode for the fourth season, and since they were holding over SiL, they did that. It does seem like such a finale--I wish I had saved it for a while, because damn, it spoils pretty much everything S5-related.
My version of "Marcus comes back to life and there is LOVE and JOY and wheee!" involved Minbari, and mysterious alienz, and I thought THAT was weird.
Yay Marcus coming back to life! Even through mysterious alienz!
This is just like... I don't know, something weird and creepy with Marcus creating her, and lying to her, and keeping her on this random planet where they will have lots of creepy future sex, and... okay, there are MORE ways that's creepy, but I think I can stop there.
Yep. I wanted to scream at Marcus, "She is not a doll! Or a sex toy!" Aaaaack. The only thing that is comparably creepy, IMO, is something on New BSG where one of the Cylon "fathers" has sex with his robot "child" and they make a baby (which thankfully MISCARRIES, because EW).
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Date: 2009-05-25 03:28 am (UTC)/not-entirely-helpful
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Date: 2009-05-25 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 01:05 pm (UTC)