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s03e12 - Sic Transit Vir
s03e13 - A Late Delivery from Avalon
A nice couple of personal-scale episodes with no shortage of humor, to offset the recent big serious plot-heavy galaxy-rending shows.
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Mar 3, 2022 23:15
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(The first was, of course, in reference to the escalation risks present in real-world current events.)
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 14:54 |
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fantastic recaps everyone, I'm really enjoying reading your reactions 
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Mar 3, 2022 23:41
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Struggling to get words out of my head but S02E20: christ. this was a very Sudden episode, it feels. I feel bad placing my chips on Londo but I appreciate the audacity of the writers making the more affable person turn out to be the conqueror. I get the vibe that he'll get more chances at redemption (in whatever form, although it cannot be total redemption) soon, and I really really hope he takes one of them. I think I'll have to do a second watch after this one, because my first reading of G'Kar and Londo was that while they fought, they were grudging friends, and had a mutual respect going on. And I really get the feeling that had things played out differently from the moment of that handshake, they could have been. G'Kar's words when the Commander went to shake his hand - "The last time I shook someone's hand, 24 hours later we were at war" stung like hell. I'm going to pull a Valen and go back in loving time (i assume that is what happened based on the b4 episode) and give the writer of this a good strong punch for how many times their scripts have made me sob my loving eyes out lol. The last lines or thereabouts - "We will hold that line, no matter the cost". I feel like he's going to be eating those words later on. On a lighter note, I feel like Vosh turning up at council meetings now and then has a "older stoned out dad" vibe to the whole thing. Hes just leaning against a wall barely keeping his eyes open just like "ughhh the loving kids..... are at it again.... god fuckin dammit..... can you lot keep it down for like one loving minute so i can get some rest!!!!"
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Mar 4, 2022 05:19
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Predictions: - Earth will join with the Centauri, maybeee. The senate member's comment I feel is going to be misdirection. Earth has a looot of nationalism / maga naziism going on and I have zero trust around them - Londo is currently way too proud to eat his words but I think the death of his friend, Vir constantly poking him, and whatever happens next, is going to push him into making a stand against the Centauri manipulators. I think he's being set up to lose everything again, but worse.. - G'Kar, hmm. There was a good bit of writing by one of the Iron Man authors during the Extremis arc, that I read a few years back. Basically, Stark is a really really useful character. He's rich, rude, occasionally misogynstic and famous, but that's great because it means he's not beloved in the same way that say, Spiderman is. People have a kind of a like-distaste thing going with him, which is great for them as writers because they can push him and punish him and rip everything away from him, they can destroy him, throw him into darkness and excesses further than you can any other character, and they won't get nearly the same level of hate mail from the fans. I feel this same kinda thing is happening here with G'Kar. They have built up enough frustration with him as a character -- he's unreasonable, he's pushy, while he is sometimes wise and kind, he is often a complete rear end in a top hat and was actively trying to assassinate people earlier on. So they can keep pushing him and drawing the (however righteous) darkness into him. I feel like they're setting him up to do something absolutely heinous. - Ambassador Voltron (i literally just typed his name out right now but I just have zero memory of his actual name) I think the psi whose name I've forgotten... hmm.. shits going on there. I don't think we're ever going to actually see them, but I think him and Sheridan(?) are going to be hitting up The Caves maybe in season 4.
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Mar 4, 2022 05:35
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Sorry to triplepost but S02E22:  Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. I gotta pee, but,,, but but I gotta pee, but, I can't look away, but,,EDIT: I want a refund on Kosh. 
alexandriao fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Mar 4, 2022 |
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Mar 4, 2022 06:58
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Chevy Slyme posted:Always fun to see the mixed bag of very right and very wrong in these posts.
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Mar 4, 2022 07:22
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alexandriao posted:Predictions: I have one small request, and that's for whatever name anyone comes with at the time to recall someone or something, keep using it even once you finish your blind watch and join the main thread.
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Mar 4, 2022 22:39
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s03e14 - Ship of Tears
s03e15 - Interludes and Examinations
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Mar 6, 2022 04:49
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S03E02 "Convictions": Didn't care too much for the bomb plot, but G'Kar and Londo's elevator scene was beautiful. G'Kar's laughter was infectious and I couldn't help giggling along with him. I don't remember much else. Binge-watching makes everything a blur lol S03E04 "Passing Though Gethsemane": Wonderful. This was a really beautiful episode about what reparative justice means in the context of our culture. What it has to mean. How can reparations mean something in the context of brutal murders? How can they be done in a way that respects the right to life for even murderers, and still help their victims feel respcted and like justice has been served? At what point does victimized hatred become in excess of that of the agressor? Those feel like the themes that are being set up for the series, in general, to be honest. S03E05 "Voices of Authority": God I loving hate that I was right about the lovely loving department of peace. And she's just as annoying as I expected. Ughhhhhh. Both wins feel bittersweet, and I feel like Babylon 5 is going to very very soon be placed directly at odds with Earth in a rather drastic way, they're just exaggerating the difference between them with each episode, step by step S03E06 "Dust to Dust": Haven't finished yet. Suddenly, Babylon 5 does The X-Files. I think they've done a great job at humanizing Cheko- err, the Psi-Cop Guy. I like how they are deliberately paralleling Garabaldi and the Psi-Cop (Che-cop? Chekcop? Never remember his name so thatll do). I feel like Garabaldi tries to distance himself from them but uses a lot of the same kinds of tactics when it is convenient. I hope the Minbari realise that Vir is on their side... I hope... Glad to finally see Londo getting some more backstory, and G'Kar's fathers words are meaningful.
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Mar 6, 2022 18:10
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Koenig's character is Bester, named after the science fiction author.
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Mar 6, 2022 19:36
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That elevator scene is such a perfect microcosm of the things that make the show great.
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Mar 6, 2022 20:25
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alexandriao posted:
They literally erase his identity. Black Mirror rightly portrayed that as something that only a society that has gone very wrong would do.
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Mar 6, 2022 20:38
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Alhazred posted:They literally erase his identity. Black Mirror rightly portrayed that as something that only a society that has gone very wrong would do. Sure but how is that worse than the Americans keeping the death penalty around? Objectively and ethically, killing the body and the person is worse than killing the person and saving the body 
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Mar 6, 2022 21:04
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alexandriao posted:Sure but how is that worse than the Americans keeping the death penalty around? Objectively and ethically, killing the body and the person is worse than killing the person and saving the body
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Mar 6, 2022 21:23
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Alhazred posted:A society that has the death penalty has also gone very wrong. 
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Mar 6, 2022 21:30
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For what it's worth I think the mind wiping rather bluntly makes a point as a stand in for the audience to separate who is the person who commits the murders and who is the person long after the murders have committed, after proper psychiatric help has been applied. It allows the audience to separate that between "murderer who is sick/evil/whatever" and "person who at one point committed a murder and has since gone through reparative justice" or whatever. Society kinda teaches us to just dehumanize people who do bad things to the point that for literally anyone to take this seriously without raging at the screen, you need that mental separation. That entire episode was about exploring that mechanical device, and using it to exploring what reparative justice, punitive justice, and forgiveness mean in the context that a murderer can become a new, different, better, and perhaps eventually, a genuinely good person. It's just a device to get around that firm category/distiction people have mentally. I had a lot more to say here, but I don't want to longpost too much.
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Mar 6, 2022 21:42
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alexandriao posted:I had a lot more to say here, but I don't want to longpost too much. 
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Mar 6, 2022 21:53
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I like that the show isn't afraid to ask the questions or broach the subjects of "What turns a person into a murderer?", "How is someone tranformed by grief and revenge and how can they find peace?", "What does forgiveness mean in (context)?", etc etc. They seem to be the major themes of the show, tbh (I don't think that counts as a spoiler? Its science fiction so you would expect it to broach questions like this I think)
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Mar 6, 2022 22:23
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s03e16-17 - War Without End, Parts I and II
With that two-parter, a few of my predictions have already been proven right and wrong. s03e18 - Walkabout
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Mar 7, 2022 06:01
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The fact they managed to make War Without End work is really impressive. Even today when most shows are serialized that would be hard to do.
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Mar 7, 2022 11:48
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FWIW Walkabout was originally supposed to air before War Without End. They switched it due to how the scheduling worked out.
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Mar 7, 2022 14:13
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Powered Descent posted:Suddenly, these nigh-invincible ships, which have only been defeated via creative one-off solutions, can be blown up by simply concentrating fire from a couple of ships. You'd think someone would have tried that before; it seems kind of obvious. Re: s03e16-17 - War Without End, Parts I and II. Part of the Shadows' advantage is the terror they inspire, not to mention up till now they have usually surprised their targets so they panic and can't get organized until it's too late. They're not usually on the receiving end of someone who's got a plan to take them on.
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Mar 7, 2022 14:14
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Winifred Madgers posted:Re: s03e16-17 - War Without End, Parts I and II. Yea, it's a lot of this. Also the white stars use of Vorlon technology in their weapon system I think have a lot to do with this. If it had been like 2 narn cruisers focusing it wouldn't have worked I believe.
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Mar 7, 2022 17:25
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s03e19 - Grey 17 is Missing
e: Speaking of Kirk fighting the Gorn, my current favorite take on that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axXmLFZZmds Powered Descent fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Mar 9, 2022 |
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Mar 9, 2022 02:32
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Powered Descent posted:s03e19 - Grey 17 is Missing JMS has admitted this ep is something that seemed fine on the page as he was writing it, but then turned out a complete mess. The cult stuff is just plain dumb.
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Mar 9, 2022 12:34
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Sweevo posted:JMS has admitted this ep is something that seemed fine on the page as he was writing it, but then turned out a complete mess. The cult stuff is just plain dumb. JMS has a bit of a fixation and a blind spot when it comes to cult stuff, since he was in one for a long time. When it works it works well because of that intimate knowledge and experience, but when it flops it's because he's writing in a way that makes sense to him but not to others because most folks don't have the same context in their backgrounds. Overall I think it works well for him, but you do get some stinkers in the process.
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Mar 9, 2022 16:46
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Watched 16, 17, and 18 tonight, although I feel like I should rewatch them because watching them with my folks means I usually miss stuff and emotionally can't engage as heavily with the work. It doesn't help that they are using Prime and IMDB injects sudden intrusive adverts randomly around every 10-15 minutes (they don't even blank the screen before hand, one second you are looking at Kosh and the next you have a white screen with a guy who is shouting at you about a product ) Woww. I too accidentally caught a whiff who Valen is but not from the forums, it just seemed to be semi-obvious from the "human souls that are reborn as minbari" and the bab4 time travel stuff. that stuff was so visible I didn't think it was worth mentioning. Zathras was wonderful and I will miss him. He deserved better god dam it!!!! I feel like the Kosh scene was super good but the relatively easy defeat of the Shadows was... anti-climactic? drat if I had known they could surprise just swoop in and piss all over them then I don't 100% understand why there is this big fight. Maybe the shadows just zergrushed them or something? Or they don't have the manufacturing base to compete with the shadows and lack the ethical leeway to be able to counter-manipulate? I really hope Sheridan takes forward what he has learned and helps Londo avoid the weird trill fucker. Some thoughts about the prophecy in the preceding episodes: Londo's prophecy -- I don't remember if I mentioned it but, I've been puzzling over it: - You have to save the eye that does not see I think this is the Centauri Eye? And he failed and Morton or whatever his name is helped him out, and that set him on this path. - You must not kill the one who is already dead I think this is referring to the Centauri Emperor, whom they murdered even though he was dying, and whose premature death sparked off this entire loving mess - You must surrender yourself to your greatest fear, knowing it will destroy you I can only assume that this is in the future, and that he has one chance left. I assume this also implies Vir, in some way, will take over after he has been destroyed.
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Mar 11, 2022 04:52
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alexandriao posted:
Morden Or, more accurately MEEEEEEESTER MORRR-DEN!
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Mar 11, 2022 14:59
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Polaron posted:Morden I think you will find that whatever spelling is used the first time is the correct and only spelling and should be used thenceforth
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Mar 11, 2022 21:04
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sebmojo posted:I think you will find that whatever spelling is used the first time is the correct and only spelling and should be used thenceforth
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Mar 12, 2022 23:07
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s03e20 - And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
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Mar 13, 2022 00:55
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at the assortment of Catholics, aliens and/or white people awkwardly dancing along to a Baptist revival.
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Powered Descent posted:s03e20 - And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place This is one of my favorite episodes of the whole show.
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Mar 13, 2022 01:11
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Powered Descent posted:s03e20 - And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place There's no hiding place down here! (down here!)
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Mar 13, 2022 05:09
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Powered Descent posted:s03e20 - And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place Most of the people who would've been put off by that had already left after the implied lesbian relationship in season two.
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Mar 13, 2022 05:33
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Powered Descent posted:s03e20 - And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place This episode was drat good
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Mar 13, 2022 05:54
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My folks have been doing 3 a night and I haven't been able to keep up with having a life, and watching in advance, so now we are on season 4 and i forgot all my critiques and stuff 
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Mar 13, 2022 05:55
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alexandriao posted:My folks have been doing 3 a night and I haven't been able to keep up with having a life, and watching in advance, so now we are on season 4 and i forgot all my critiques and stuff Just post whatever you feel like.
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Mar 13, 2022 07:34
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Powered Descent posted:s03e20 - And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place Edit: actually screw it, this is the one scene I still remember in detail a decade + on. I still get a shiver down my spine when I remember ”You have INCOVENIENCED me.”.
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Mar 13, 2022 10:18
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alexandriao posted:My folks have been doing 3 a night and I haven't been able to keep up with having a life, and watching in advance, so now we are on season 4 and i forgot all my critiques and stuff You don't need to worry about us readers keeping up with the plot, so who cares if there's gaps. Just post whatever whenever you feel like it.
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Mar 13, 2022 12:09
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 14:54 |
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I like the little details with the Londo hologram recording, specifically where Refa flinches away from some of the movements.
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Mar 13, 2022 14:22
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