Dragaera and Babylon 5, with a mimimum of IRL stuff

[lunasariel]

Thursday was kind of crappy. It started off when I woke up to an email that I don't have a secure housing contract for next semester. Granted, this is partly my fault, as I missed the filing deadline for continuing students (for some reason, I thought that it would be the same as last year, when I was an incoming transfer, or that the housing commission would at least send out a reminder email), and it's not made any better by the fact that transfer students are only guaranteed housing for one year. So my chances of getting into Wada, the transfer/grad student dorm, which I was really hoping for, are pretty much nil, and my chances of getting anything at all aren't so hot either. I'd really like to avoid an apartment or a co-op, though. In those situations, it's assumed that I actually want to live with my roommates/housemates, and one thing I like about The Roomie so much is that we're both okay with each of us doing our own thing and only interacting when either of us feel like it. Basically, we're compatible introverts, and I don't know about her, but I find it incredibly relaxing to have a roommate who I'm on good terms with but under no obligation to socialize with. We were supposed to watch a movie of a controversial turn-of-the-century Irish play in Celt Lit, but the professor forgot the DVD, so we got a lecture on St. Patrick instead, which, okay, was interesting, but I'd been looking forward to that movie! In History of the Novel, which directly follows Celt Lit, the professor reminded us that we have an in-class midterm on Tuesday. Whee. Finally, my GSI from History of Lit emailed us all and told us that our papers won't be ready Friday, as promised, but on Monday. To top it off, it rained more or less continually all week. It was been fun, serious rain for most of it, but Thursday on it was mostly this gross drizzle that gets everywhere but will never solidify into a proper rain. Plus, I think my umbrella is leaking, and, for some reason, it smells funny. I hope one of my cats didn't do something disgraceful to it last time I was home, which they do on occasion, presumably so I can have a reminder of them when I'm away at Berkeley.

But if Thursday was somewhere between annoying and downright crappy in terms of RL, it was a lot of fun in terms of fandom. I finally finished Taltos and season 1 of Babylon 5, both of which I enjoyed immensely. I also got Iron Man and Sense and Sensibility out of the library Thursday, and I'm heading down to L.A. for my cousin's birthday this weekend, during which I'd planned to start Downton Abbey, since it's consumed a good number of my relatives, so it looks like I've got a full schedule ahead of me. Of course, I've been plugging away with The Fellowship of the Ring, Maskerade, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and bloody interminable Mistborn, so it's not like I've been looking for ways to occupy my time; it's just that there are so many good books (and TV shows) out there, and I can't really help but read/watch them all at once.



If I had to describe Taltos in one word, it would be "fun." It was fun to see the formation of the alliances that I was introduced to in Jhereg and onwards, it was fun to have some good old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure after the doom'n'gloom of Teckla (and Thursday), it was fun to get a closer look at the mythology of Dragaera, it was fun to meet Kieron and watch him and Aliera snark at each other (hell, it was fun to watch everyone snark at everyone else), it was fun to see a younger Vlad at work, it was fun to see the acquisition of Spellbreaker, the magic was fun, the little cat-centaur things were fun...it was all fun!

First, the bad stuff: the constant, as in sometimes as much as every couple of paragraphs, switching between the current timeline and Vlad narrating his childhood/backstory started out interesting, but got annoying fast. I confess that the information gained by getting a closer look at Vlad's pre-assassin past is fascinating, not to mention important, and I don't immediately see an alternate way to work it in, but it really messed with the mood of the current Vlad/Morrolan/Sethra/Deathsgate plot. It would just start to build up a good head of steam, the whole thing would be getting really atmospheric and tense, I was on the edge of my seat to find out what happened next...and then we were back to Vlad beating up some Orca toughs. It broke the mood, and when repeated enough, really dragged down my enjoyment of the book. So, yeah, this was the book's major flaw.

But not all of Brust's stylistic choices were bad. One thing that he does, and that I've come to really like, is the framing device for each chapter. One of the most interesting things about Teckla was that it began with a list of instructions for cleaning/repairing his clothes that Vlad sent to his tailor after the book (as we find out later), and each chapter began with an item on the list. Within that chapter, the damage would occur, and I enjoyed keeping an eye out to spot the damage (i.e. he spills a cup of klava, which causes a stain on his pants; he foils an assassination attempt, which leaves a slash in his sleeve; he walks around a lot, which leads to mud stains on his cloak, etc.). I found this both an interesting and innovative framing device, as it engages the reader's attention, especially with regard to details, but not to the point where it feels nitpicky or artificial. Similarly, in Taltos, each chapter begins with a paragraph or two of him performing a complex spell, which turns out to be vital to the climax of the plot. This was another good move, as it did all the heavy lifting of setting the scene, creating an atmosphere, explaining the mechanics/metaphysics, etc. without interrupting the flow of the story itself. I remember him just pulling snarky quotes from each chapter in Jhereg, which, I've seen before but wasn't categorically against, and I don't remember what he did for Yendi, but I hope he continues this tradition with interesting chapter framing devices!

I've squeed before on how much I loved seeing Team Dragon/Jhereg come together, and although I'm still pissed at myself for that "Kiera = Sethra" spoiler (WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN!), I still like seeing all of them getting to know each other, especially Vlad's and Morrolan's more or less immediate and unexpectedly deep bond, where they were willing to risk their lives for each other in the Halls of Judgment, which was v. d'awww-worthy. I can see why so many people ship them! In fact, I think I'm starting to ship them myself.



The other big fandom news this past week is, as promised, that I finished the first season of Babylon 5. I started taking episode-by-episode notes a little over halfway through the season, as I found that trying to do my usual "just start spewing thoughts and see where that takes me" style of writing about fanstuff leads to A) a really disjointed ramble, B) too much stuff that I wanted to mention getting left out because I didn't happen to be thinking of it at exactly the right moment, or C) both. So I started jotting down notes at "TKO," episode 14 out of 22, and I'm glad I did.

I liked "TKO" because it had a lot of both Garibaldi and Ivanova, my two favorite human characters. I noticed that Garibaldi is left-handed, which just further endears him to me, a fellow southpaw. The format of his and his buddy's storyline was a pretty boilerplate sports story (plucky underdog with something to prove + jocular buddy + crusty old mentor go up against arrogant elitist power structure, lose badly, train, come back for climactic rematch, lose the first 2/3, make a surprising comeback in the last few minutes and end up winning/tying), which wasn't particularly inventive, but wasn't particularly annoying either. I liked this half of the episode mostly for Garibaldi doing what he does best: equal parts being a supportive friend, goofing around, and kicking ass.

The other half was a similar mix of good and bad. I really liked that the death of Papa Ivanov was finally addressed; I was afraid that this particular plot thread had been entirely dropped after the actual event way back in the first few episodes of the season. But it makes complete sense that this is something that Ivanova would want to bottle up instead of sharing with everyone. I had initially thought that her blow-up about how she doesn't want anybody controlling her life is a bit at odds with her being a career soldier, and thus categorically required to submit to the a variety of commanding officers, whose orders she usually seems happy, or at least duty-bound, to obey, but as the episode went on, it became clear that she wasn't exactly thinking clearly, so this could be seen as either subtle character development or fridge brilliance; take your pick. I don't know if her Judaism had been mentioned before; if so, I'd forgotten it, but I did like the rabbi. When he and Walker first appeared talking together, I thought the writer was setting up a kind of parallel moral about spirituality/nonviolence vs. materialism/fighting for fighting's sake, but that turned out to be a red herring, if it was any kind of herring at all to begin with. The shiva scene was actually pretty moving, especially because Sinclair's usual emotiveness/empathy, which otherwise often comes across as smarminess, actually read as genuine compassion here, which I really liked. Basically, I like Sinclair in the odd sharing-and-caring, inspiring speech moment, such as here, but I'm kinda looking forward to the new commander next season.

"Grail" was one of those episodes where I could see the ending coming a mile away. Of course it wasn't really Ambassador Kosh mindwiping people for a small-time gangster, and of course Obi-Wan Kenobi Gandalf Dumbledore Merlin the wise old messianic mentor was going to sacrifice his life in the end. That said, though, my favorite part of the episode was probably Londo's comic relief. The writers have been handling the balance between comedy and serious drama very well, especially with regards to Londo: he's a Funny Foreigner (to borrow a phrase from TVTropes) with ostentatious clothes, silly hair, and a Loveable Coward (ibid)/hedonistic personality, but he's still taken seriously as an ambassador. This time, however, I was just enjoying the comedy of him freaking out over the feeder on board and holing himself up in his quarters. Vir also got in on the comedic action with the last scene when he got locked out and Garibaldi was cheerfully trolling him, which literally made me lol.

"Eyes" was probably one of my favorite episodes of the season. It has everything I love: continuity porn, Garibaldi being a big loveable badass doof, Lennier being an adorkable awkward eager puppy, Sinclair using the rules against the antagonist in a satisfyingly Vimes-like way, Ivanova threatening people bigger than her, PsiCorps goings-on, and an underdog victory at the end. I especially liked the bonding moments between Garibaldi and Lennier, two characters I wouldn't have originally pegged as friends, but them rebuilding the motorcycle together, and both of their glee at not just fixing it, but at riding it through the station, was eminently d'aww-worthy (also, was it just me, or did Garibaldi once refer to Lennier as "Ms. Lennier"?). The villain was my favorite type of one-off baddie: slimy, powerful, and frothingly insane. Watching him go down hard was fun. I even liked the PsiCorps guy! It was easy to sympathize with him, and his Dog Bites Back (dammit, TVTropes, stop ruining my vocabulary!) moment was more than satisfying.

Of course, "Eyes" wasn't perfect. I found some of the dialogue pretty awkward ("port off" as an attempted Joss-speak version of "shove off"? A reference to a "chamber pot" in the 23rd century? WTF?), and I found it weird as hell that Talia just disappeared for this episode. Don't get me wrong, I've noticed that not every episode has every character, but they could have at least written in a line about her having been temporarily recalled to Earth or something; this could have even been a part of the bad guy's plot to take down Sinclair by removing his resident, and thus presumably loyal, telepath. The way it was, though, her absence was particularly glaring because this episode hinged on telepathy and its uses, and she would have been really, really helpful in a situation like this. In fact, cases like these are particularly why they hired her in the first place.

Sadly, the trend of good episodes didn't continue into "Legacies," one of my least favorite of the season. The kid couldn't act, but then again, her dialogue was poorly written to begin with, so her coming off as almost terminally fake wasn't all her own fault. The season arc wasn't advanced except for about ten seconds, in which the chrysalis is first mentioned. Speaking of bad writing, the episode is resolved by the patented Rousing Speech and Crooked Smile© by Da Captain method. After a belligerent, crazy baddie last episode, a subtler, more ambiguous/morally gray villain would have been appreciated here, but nope, it was another violent nutjob. This is a real shame, because when I read the episode summary on Wikipedia, it sounded like everything I love about Babylon 5: complicated interplanetary diplomacy, gray vs. gray morality, and cool superpowers and alien cultures.

In the two-part "Voices in the Wilderness," the first thing that struck me is that the actress who plays Ivanova would make an excellent Jane Roland: she has a real aura of command, she's got the strong bone structure I've always imagined the good Admiral having, and she knows her way around an action sequence. I'm sure she's too old now, but as she was in B5, she would have been a great choice. The second thing that struck me was that the Minbari are totally Space Elves. I confess that this realization is partially due to hamsterwoman pointing it out to me when I first started the season, but the banners and pomp and circumstance (for lack of a better phrase) last episode, combined with the explicit reference to older Minbari tired of life being "called to the sea" and the constant star symbolism...yeah, they're Space Elves; that's all there is to it! This actually spawned an interesting little plot bunny where the events of The Silmarillion are Minbari legend, and the time-travel thing that came to the fore later in the season brought the house of Finwë forward in time and to Babylon 5, leaving both Delenn and (especially) Lennier with both a major diplomatic situation and major geekgasms.

"Babylon Squared" was a great myth arc episode: I'm on fire to see where the whole time travel thing takes us, as well as to see if the future Sinclair saw is going to come to pass, and if so, what happens to Garibaldi, who looks to be in a bad way, not to mention if Sinclair actually ends up being the One and/or leading some sort of resistance fight against...something (those shadowy whatsits that keep popping up, maybe?). This kind of episode is where B5's strengths really lie. It's a big story in every way: big scope, big stakes, big timeframe, but leavened with enough humor (as usual, courtesy of Garibaldi, this time via his grooming habits) to keep things from getting overly serious or corny.

"The Quality of Mercy" was another one of my favorite episodes, and cemented Lennier as my favorite non-human. Now we know that not only is he an adorkable awkward eager puppy and a history/math/everything geek, he's also a ninja and a damn decent guy. (And possibly violently psychotic, or at least REALLY REALLY WEIRD, if given alcohol [yay Space Elves!].) Also, there were kiwi drinks, which looked delicious. I'm finding that the character-driven subplots are my favorite part of any given episode, or at least the parts I remember the best. The main plots, the once centering on the unlicensed with the magic alien machine and the one centering around Talia and the murderer, were fairly standard, but what I'm going to take away from this episode is definitely Lennier and his interactions with Londo.

"Chrysalis" was a good season finale, as in I can't wait to start s2! I really like the shadowy whatists and their guy Morden, who are turning out to be worthy long-term antagonists. Morden creeped me out from the first (stop smiling, dammit!), and my fandom-gut tells me that the station is headed for a big confrontation with him at some point in the future, when somebody makes a really stupid/un-thought-out wish/request, or when Morden comes to collect his debt(s), which in itself promises to be interesting. The idea of Delenn's transformation is interesting, but slightly marred because my first thought, upon seeing the chrysalis, is that she's going to come out with a big pair of costumey butterfly wings and  equally obvious bobbly antennae. I find her leaving the White Grey Council interesting, and not only for the continued Space Elves analogy: a lot of her political power in this season has derived from her being in such a powerful position, so it'll be interesting, provided that she stays on the station, to see how this changes the dynamic between the various ambassadors and the humans. Of course, Garibaldi also spent a lot of this episode getting whumped on in the line of duty, leading to several "holy shit!" moments of the highest caliber. This hasn't been a terribly "anyone can die" show so far, but if they were to kill off a major character, the season finale would be the place to do it, so I'm more worried for him than I otherwise would be. Obviously, I hope he doesn't die, as that would be a huge blow to both my enjoyment of the show and the plot itself, but I can kinda see how, as the likeable, badass supporting lead and everyone's buddy, he might be in the writers' sights. *gulp*



Spring break starts next week (well, technically, I leave on Thursday), so it's crunch time IRL. I'm glad that I finished Taltos and B5 before my bloody midterm tomorrow, especially because I, being the genius that I am, forgot my books when I went down to L.A. last weekend. Academic derpage aside, though, L.A. was fun as always: I got to play with various dogs, wrangle a handful of 8-to-10-year-old boys at a bowling alley for my cousin's birthday, go see John Carter (fun and pretty, but tends towards incomprehensibility, especially for those unfamiliar with the books), and watch the pilot of Xena: Warrior Princess, which the MW family either already loves or is loving. I enjoyed what I saw, so that, plus Downton Abbey and s2 of Babylon 5 (I can order the DVDs from Netflix once I get back to Sebastopol) means that I'll have a busy break! Also, Iron Man is due back at the library by tomorrow, so forgive me if the IRL portion of this post is a bit brief. Studying and superhero movies AWAAAAAYYYY!

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

the constant, as in sometimes as much as every couple of paragraphs, switching between the current timeline and Vlad narrating his childhood/backstory

Interesting! It's been so long since I read Taltos without knowing what happens that I don't remember if this bugged me originally or not. I'm definitely by far the most invested in the main narrative rather than Vlad's spell or the flashbacks, but on rereads I actually find the interweaving kind of nice, because it makes the story last longer.

I do in general love the cleverness of Brust's clever framing conceits, and the laundry list in Teckla is my favorite (well, at least something to have fun with in that book :P)

In fact, I think I'm starting to ship them myself.

Mwahaha! *rubs hands gleefully*

Actually, for such a small fandom, there seem to be two opposite camps. The right-thinking ones Some see Vlad and Morrolan as a quite obvious ship and others seem violently opposed to it, which is par for the course, really, but this is a barely existent fandom, and like 90% of it is meta, so I find it really odd that even here there's something that's akind to a ship war, only without the actual warring. A cold ship war? IDK.

It's been a really long time since I watched B5, especially season 1, so I don't remember much detail ep by ep, but to respond generally:

writers have been handling the balance between comedy and serious drama very well, especially with regards to Londo

I love this about Londo and what the show does with him. (He's probably my favorite character overall.)

Lennier being an adorkable awkward eager puppy

Lennier is another one of my favorites, precisely for that. (And yep, totally Space Elves. The Elfiest.)

the actress who plays Ivanova would make an excellent Jane Roland

Oooh, I hadn't thought of that, but you're right! She looks quite dashing in uniform, and has the right sort of air.

Morden creeped me out from the first (stop smiling, dammit!), and my fandom-gut tells me that the station is headed for a big confrontation with him at some point in the future, when somebody makes a really stupid/un-thought-out wish/request, or when Morden comes to collect his debt(s), which in itself promises to be interesting.

*whistling innocently* And, yeah, Morden is a creepy, creepy guy. I think B5 generally does quite well with its recurrent villains -- I've found all of them really memorable.

s2 of Babylon 5 (I can order the DVDs from Netflix once I get back to Sebastopol)

I wish I'd given you more disks!

Really glad you're enjoying the show -- it only gets better from here!

Sorry to hear about the RL frustrations, and hope that the housing situation sorts itself out in a satisfactory fashion. When will you know what you can count on from the dorms?

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about your housing issues. I hope you will be able to find something good. Your current roomie sounds like a dream.

I had to laugh at your suspicions regarding your umbrella!

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Your current roomie sounds like a dream.
She just got back from a weekend at home today, and brought homemade tiramisu! Best. Roommate. Ever.

I had to laugh at your suspicions regarding your umbrella!
Yeah, sometimes my kitties like to do things like that; I've learned not to leave anything of a size to be somehow defiled on the ground. I don't know if this is just them being special; does Fluffy do anything like this?

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

No, he doesn't. Fluffy has never pooed or peed in the house or on any of my stuff, except for one time when he was hacking up a hairball... and he really couldn't help it. But it could be because he's an only cat. Sometimes cats get territorial with each other when more than one live in the same house, or if a neighborhood cat is challenging their territory.

Whichever cat peed on your umbrella was probably just claiming you as his territory. At least it wasn't your twirly green velvet skirt that got the treatment!

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Sometimes cats get territorial with each other when more than one live in the same house
I hadn't thought of that! We do have three cats, and none of them had...issues until all of them lived in the same house.

At least it wasn't your twirly green velvet skirt that got the treatment!
I think I would have cried.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Lennier is another one of my favorites, precisely for that. (And yep, totally Space Elves. The Elfiest.)
I get the strongest Elrond/Galadriel-esque Space Elf vibe from Delenn; Lennier is just adorkable. He's Space Elfy too, of course, but less...ethereal than she is. I love her for her Space Elvishness, but him for his adorkable awkward eager puppy-ness. Srsly, no words for how much squee I have for this little guy (for a certain value of "little," anyway).

She looks quite dashing in uniform, and has the right sort of air.
IKR? Her expressions, especially when she's exasperated/annoyed/just wants everybody to shut up and do what she tells them, are priceless. I can totally imagine her snarking at Laurence, flying on Excidium, etc.

When will you know what you can count on from the dorms?
They emailed me last week, saying that they didn't have anything at the moment, but that I should basically sit tight and hope they come up with something, which would require someone else dropping out of their room for one reason or another. The problem with that is that a lot of people apply for the dorms so they have something to fall back on, but also apartment-hunt, and so don't drop their dorm until the last minute. As someone who likes to have everything planned out months in advance, needless to say, this bugs me. >:( Arrrggghh, housing.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, Delenn is definitely of the High Elves, while Lennier gives me a more Legolas-like vibe -- he is still very young and fallible and all the more fun for it. (My "Elfiest" was meant to refer to the Minbari in general, not specifically to Lennier. Because I was reading the TV Tropes page on Space Elves and was going like, please, Vulcans? You call that Space Elves? Now, this is Space Elves! ...Anyway.) But, yeah, adorkability and puppiness are a large part of his appeal to me. (Also, you've probably noticed/discovered this already, but I get occasional cognitive dissonance from the knowledge that the Lennier actor, Bill Mumy, was also the kid on Lost in Space, which I was exposed to via reruns when I was a kid.)

Claudia Christian c. Ivanova would be so perfect for Roland that I'm surprised that I don't think I've seen her suggested by fancasting before! (I still like Lucy Lawless, too, but it's way easier for me to imagine Christian in the Aerial Corps uniform.)

As someone who likes to have everything planned out months in advance, needless to say, this bugs me

Yeah, this definitely sucks... Does this mean you will have to look for housing alternatives meanwhile? Or only once you know for sure that the dorms will not be an option? (I bypassed this whole set of considerations by living at home while I was at Cal, so am totally clueless about how these things are done.)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Delenn is definitely of the High Elves, while Lennier gives me a more Legolas-like vibe -- he is still very young and fallible and all the more fun for it.
Oh, they're both definitely Space Elvish! Maybe it's your icon, but I think of Delenn as very Elrond-like, dipping in now and again to guide everyone else, but generally staying out of thing and...I dunno, gazing serenely into space, while Lennier has a lot more of Legolas or Elrond's sons (as they're portrayed in fanon, anyway, since they hardly ever show up in canon) in his youth and inexperience and eagerness to see everything.

the Lennier actor, Bill Mumy, was also the kid on Lost in Space, which I was exposed to via reruns when I was a kid.
Oooh, I didn't know that! I don't think I've seen Lost in Space, or if I have, it was long enough ago that I don't remember it, but I definitely know *of* it, and, ow, brain cramp trying to imagine Will Robinson and Lennier as (being played by) the same person! XD

it's way easier for me to imagine Christian in the Aerial Corps uniform.
The uniform thing was something I noticed, too. Maybe it's because the EarthForce uniforms bear a certain resemblence to the Aerial Corps ones, but it is now my headcanon that this is what Jane Roland looks like.

Does this mean you will have to look for housing alternatives meanwhile?
Yup. As far as I can tell, the way it works is that they never definitively tell you no; they just tell you to sit tight and wait for them to toss you something, which they may or may not do, although they don't prevent you from looking for alternatives in the meantime.

[hamsterwoman]

As you might guess from "Chrysalis", we do see a lot more of Delenn, a lot more personally, in the subsequent seasons. But I do agree with you, she gives me an Elrond sort of feel -- especially as she is both a very high Minbari and also, well, "Chrysalis".

Good luck with the interim apartment search, then! I hope you find something acceptable soon so you don't have to fret about whether or not the dorms will come through.