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Would you have believed it?

M

Mr. Bester

Beyond the rim
Would those watching Babylon 5 when it first debut would have believed how it ended? Sinclair becoming Valen, Delenn becoming a minbari-human hybrid, Garibaldi becoming the head of a huge corporation, G'kar a religious figure, Lennier a rogue anla'shok, Lando a pawn of the Drakh and Vir the Centauri Emperor.
 
<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by crazy:
<font color=yellow>no, but that was the point.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
Exactly
 
Well, I first started watching B5 during season 5, so I knew already that much of that would happen. But it was neat for me to go back and watch those episodes from previous seasons to see how they all happened.
 
I never would have guessed that it would have turned out the way it did. That's one of the reasons I liked it so much, it proved to be unpredictable so often. Even the little clues here and there didn't really mean much to me until after I'd seen the entire series. Only by rewatching it was I able catch on to what led to what and piece together all the little details. The best part is that was all planned out from the beginning, with some adjustments having to be made from time to time.
 
Didn't see it coming at all. When I first watched season one I though it was gonna be a regular run of the mill sci fi show with a different spin on the whole "alien " thing. Suffice to say that I was wrong and quite happily so!
 
I also kinda like how JMS left some storylines unanswered. In a way it kinda sucks not knowing what really happened to some of the characters after the show was over, but in a way it's kinda neat to imagine different things that could possibly happen to them.
 
<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>
Would you have believed it?<hr></blockquote>
No but the story intrigued me enough to watch every episode to see what would happen...
 
<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by whitestar90:
<font color=yellow>No but the story intrigued me enough to watch every episode to see what would happen...</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

That is what gave it it's addictive quality!
 
When B5 first started, I had G'Kar pinned as a bag guy - didn't like him at all. With Delenn it was hard to tell, although after "And the Sky Full of Stars", it looked pretty much as if she were one of the baddies, too - she was certainly up to something! Londo, I felt sorry for. Ivanova, I figured out around about "Eyes" that she had to be a telepath herself.
When the second season started, Sinclair left and Sheridan came aboard, I was thinking "uh-oh! Delenn's Gray Council - she ain't gonna be happy that the Starkiller is running things on B5! There's gonna be fur flying, lots of fireworks, and huge knockdown, dragout fights!" Boy, was I wrong!
Then G'Kar starts becoming, if not likable, then sympathetic, Londo, I started disliking intensely. Delenn was still obviously up to something - but it was becoming clearer that she was one of the good guys.
Lennier? That definitely was a surprise, and I'm still not entirely comfortable with the way his story ended - it just seemed so out of character. Okay, people do sometimes behave out of character in extreme moments of stress, but even so.....
 
<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Mr. Bester:
<font color=yellow>Would those watching Babylon 5 when it first debut would have believed how it ended? Sinclair becoming Valen, Delenn becoming a minbari-human hybrid, Garibaldi becoming the head of a huge corporation, G'kar a religious figure, Lennier a rogue anla'shok, Lando a pawn of the Drakh and Vir the Centauri Emperor.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
Not to belittle things, but the same comments can be said about ANY series, good or bad. You can never guess what will happen over the course of a series. The important thing as that things turned out good and it was consistent and well done.
 
Ok, of course you never know how a series ends if you haven't seen it, unless you made it yourself. But, regardless of this fact, I believe Babylon 5 has some very weird plot changes, that you find sparsely in other series (any TV series)

- fundamental personality change (G'Kar, Lyta...)
- disappearance of main characters (Sinclair)
- The episode ending point differs from the episode starting point

It is these interesting features that make Babylon 5 a truly surprising series, since we are used to watching series with steady personalities, circular episodes, and so on. I think this is what Mr. Bester meant when he said "Would those watching Babylon 5 when it first debut would have believed how it ended?"
 
the cool thing is that there are reasons for their changes and not trivial ones either. Other shows either keep people the same or change them for no reason. If they do change, the reasons are so trivial that it is not believable (soap operas i'm looking at you /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif )
 
The twists were so thorough that it was difficult to predict what would happen next. JMS's attention to detail was/is brilliant. Not so much the set because he kept that to a minimum, the character flaws and strengths were portrayed in such a brillint light that you reached a point that you considered them almost family!
 
Londo would have been a fun uncle to have. Ah, I can see it now. Family gathering: Londo encouraging me to drink, be merry, ogle womenfolk, and insult other members of the family. What fun we would have together /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif
 
Who needs him, I do it anyway with no assistance. Centauri way of life was law where I went to to study after I left school.
Seriously though would you have believed the depth of the character that lay beneath that "Centauri" persona that we initially saw?
 
For me the first stunning change was when Sinclair was replaced by Sheridan. It took me most of the first season to get used to Sinclair and I wasn't happy with the change at first. After that the changes were so gradual I could accept them except that I was really surprised when Talia turned out to be a bad guy. Next huge surprise was the death of Kosh.

In fact the series kept me figuratively on the edge of my chair waiting for what came next.
 
I must be honest, I never really took to Talia. I liked Lyta in S1 and was annoyed not to see her again. Suffice to say that when she came back after the whole Talia fiasco I was extremely happy. As for Sheridan, I was also annoyed when he came in to replace sinclair but soon liked his character and in the end preferred him to sinclair!
 
I always thought Talia was just ok. But looking back on it, I like Talia. She grew on me. I liked the interaction between her and Garibaldi, and would liked to have seen more between her and Ivonova. If there had been more of Talia, I probably would ahve liked her better. Oh well, so many characters, so little time.
 
I'm sure that the original arc that jms had for Talia would have proved to be verrrrry interesting. It's just a shame that the actress decided to leave the show /ubbthreads/images/icons/frown.gif
 
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