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The Fall of Centuari Prime

R

Rik

Member
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Just finished watching it on Sci-Fi and every time I see this ep I about cry. Londo turns away from the dark only to get hosed anyway, and then he is sending the gang away and can't tell them why, and walks to his coronation alone....tragic..heavy stuff. SOB!



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"Good judgment comes from experience, unfortunately most experience comes from bad judgment!"
 
i really lole this episode alot... but in the scene where londo has flashbacks of all the seasons... i thought that a scene of that prediction where one will become Emperor upon the death of another...that could have really got the waterworks goin...

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I have no one to envy...
I envy you having me to envy...
 
Yep, and then the fade out with him sitting on the throne solo....agggghhhh! I have to admit that Londo is probably one of my favorites, and I think he is the most pivitol character in the B5 arc, so many events unfolded from his actions, and then to turn from his dark path only to bite it anyhow.

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"Good judgment comes from experience, unfortunately most experience comes from bad judgment!"
 
The lonely walk to the coronation with the bells tolling really sends shivers up my spine.

I also have to admire Londo for his fortitude when the keeper (I always want to call it the creeper) attaches itself.

This was a tremendous episode, possibly the best of all Season 5, with the exception of Sleeping in Light.

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expecialy at the end, when the bells are
ringing. seeing those memories are
very gutrenching. even londo did not
deserve that fate.
frown.gif
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"daffy duck singing showtoons in my bathtub"
 
Dont read unless u read the Centauri Trilogy

<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>That reminds me of in the final centauri trilogy books, how Mollari tells G'kar that this entire story is about him... </font></td></tr></table>

Also

<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>I remember a debate concerning the whole B5 series is suppose to be someone telling a story... so when Londo dictates a story [which winds up being In the Beginning] that could be seen as Londo telling the viewers the entire B5 story... </font></td></tr></table>

I guess i got off on a tangent there... but it makes sense in my mind...
tongue.gif


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I have no one to envy...
I envy you having me to envy...
 
Can you imagine what it was like for JMS to write that episode. To work on a character for over 5 years, and then make that character hit rock bottom. In a way, it's a major accomplishment because it's interesting, it's major character development, and it's a goal that was set in the very first episode.

On the other hand, it's so tragic, it's gotta be a major bummer too. I can't imagine writing that episode and not needing a nap afterwards or a moment alone or a walk or something. Writing that has gotta mess with your whole day.

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Not many fishes left in the sea. Not many fishes, just Londo and me.
 
I cried for Londo tonight, too.

And the scene between G'Kar and Londo just before Londo submits to the keeper (I think "creeper" is a better term though. *shudder*) is just one of the best scenes in the entire series.

Not to mention Damian London's (The Regent) wrenching performance. The monolog when he tells Londo "I have been foolish... I have been quiet when I should have spoken... but I am still Centauri..."


As G'Kar says of them in another show, "They are a doomed people."

Ro

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I have no surviving
enemies. At all.

Galen
 
To me Londo was most of the show. His actions caused so many of the problems on B5 that sometimes I wondered how he managed not to get himself bumped off.
The Fall of Centauri Prime was the culmination of all his sins and I felt very sorry for him.
He set in motion so many things that he lost control over.
Just think, if he had said no to Mr. Morden, would we have had a series at all.

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"No boom to-day, boom tomorrow.
There is always a boom tomorrow."
 
This episode is the payoff for what JMS said about Londo early on:
Londo has a lot of King Lear in him.



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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
God, what a fantastic episode. Folks, this is what TV was made for.

The Regent was just magnificent.

Londo's speech...chilling.

I missed the last segment, the part after the last commercial and the credits. Can someone let me know what happened?

Don't ya just hate when real life gets in the way of B5?

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."
 
Actually, I've come to think that it's one of the very, very best episodes of B5 - right there with The Long Twilight Struggle for me.

And yes, it's the only one that made me cry on the second viewing... and when I watched it again, it made me cry again. Oh well. I really can't remember when I was so heartbroken over a fictional character. I was so sorry for Londo.

The scene between Londo & G'Kar just before Londo got the keeper was fabulous. But there was something that touched me even more - right after Londo's speech, when Delenn and Sheridan had said what they had to say (and I really, really hated them both at that moment - especially the oh so condescending attitude of Delenn even though I can't blame her, after almost being killed by Centauri warhips etc).

It's when Londo looks at G'Kar as if to ask "well, and what are you going to say to tell me off about that speech" and G'Kar doesn't say anything, just looks with such understanding - and then pays his respects that one last time (well, last time as far as the series goes, and I doubt he knows at this point that they'll meet again).

And that ending... Londo all alone on his throne, emperor at last... but at what a personal cost, nothing at all like he imagined just a few years before.

Ouch. Powerful stuff. B5 at its best, I'd say. And one of the reasons I'll never say that season 5 sucked or that we would have been better off without it. No way.

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"It's animal magnetism. What can I say?"
- G'Kar, A Tragedy of Telepaths
 
In so many ways, this episode is our payoff for five years of loyal watching. Even now, the fourth time through, it's still consuming.

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"What's up, Drakh?"

Michael Garibaldi
 
What really did it for me was the flashbacks. Some how I missed that the last few times I saw this ep. and suddenly seeing them when I thought I knew what was next...

*sob*

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Faith Manages
 
The Centauri are one of the least sympathetic races, and Londo is the closest thing there is to an "evil" character among the main cast. And, yet we get depressed, we cry, we sympathize with Londo, we say that the episode in which the Centauri get bombed to hell is one of the best episodes but for somber reasons, etc.

It's a real testament to JMS's writing that he manages to invoke in us sympathy for the person and the race that you would least expect to deserve sympathy.

As much as I love DS9 too, I didn't feel anything when the Changlings shot up Cardassia Prime. I didn't even feel anything when they shot up Betazed or when Jadzia Dax was killed by Dukhat.

But Centauri Prime falling and Londo falling with it--that's powerful stuff.

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Not many fishes left in the sea. Not many fishes, just Londo and me.
 
I still cry when I see that episode, too. Peter J. is great in that ep., & I also like his performance in In the Beginning. I'm so glad I finally got to meet Peter--what a nice person!
smile.gif


Tammy

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"We're in here! Can anyone hear us?"
"I hear you." [giggle, laugh]
"In here!"
"We are here." [giggle, laugh]
-- Londo and G'Kar in Babylon 5:"Convictions"

Tammy's Station
http://community.webtv.net/gkarfan/TammysStation
 
It is a great episode.

There is one thing I would have done differently. At the very end when Londo is sitting alone on the throne I wouls have had the bells still sounding and played it over the credits too (there must have been tens of millions killed), similar to the change in music in 'Walkabout' and others. It would have been very powerful.

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"Watch the Shadows, they move when you're not looking..."
 
I agree. Now that you bring it up, it actually makes me surprised that JMS didn't have that in there.

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Not many fishes left in the sea. Not many fishes, just Londo and me.
 
Sometimes silence is the loudest sound you can make.

The lack of sound, as well as nothing else being shown, was meant to convey just how alone Londo was. It was very Stanley Kubricki-ish.

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."
 
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