Variations on the same theme

Yes, I'm spamming the flist. Sorry. Or not. Just - Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar from Babylon 5) died on Monday. He was absolutely amazing on Babylon 5, and G'Kar was such a figure of wisdom. Inspiring. I don't know anything about the man, but I know what he made me see in his character.

G'Quon wrote, "There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain."

Listen to him. (Let me know if it runs out of DLs, I'll reupload it.)

/This was written last night, but obviously since I don't have access to the LJ site I can't quite backdate it. Bear with me./

This was going to be an entry about many different things - the second tattoo I'll be getting on Monday, the general expectedness of the well-adapted-and-yet-unadaptable Hitchiker's Guide, the comforting realisations that Orli can act and that an American film about the crusades can be a good entertainment (not to mention, for those who know and love him as I do, Alexander! And all the other brilliant actors therein.), the nearing end of my time here, the coming and going of greenie_breizh, the upcoming arrival of miss_kao, the general busy-ness of my days in the pre-orals frenzy or my impatience to see Sin City... But I'm not going to talk about any of this. Why? Because of her.

And any of you out there who hasn't watched Babylon 5 but wants to watch it some day, I suggest you stop reading right about now. Else you'll be quite, quite spoiled. You're warned.

So, who do I mean, "her"? Well, of course... her.

Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andrei and Sophie Ivanov. The right hand of vengeance and the boot that is gonna kick someone's sorry ass all the way back to Earth. Death incarnate and the last living thing that the very same someone is ever going to see. God sent her.

Yes, I've just watched Between the Darkness and the Light. And I don't know what broke me the most, Marcus' drained face even before we got a look at Ivanova herself, Ivanova herself in this diminished state, or Marcus' single tear. I should have seen it coming. I knew neither she nor Marcus were on S5, so I had considered the possibility of their deaths (one, the other, both?) before. Consequently, when she thanked him for telling her she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, big red flashing warning lights should have popped up all around my mind. But no, all I thought was, "oh, we might get a hint of something between those two before the end after all." How could I not hope for that? I had not realised "the end" was so close.

She was... she was Susan Ivanova. (Technically she still is, I know, she has at least a few more days to live.) If you haven't seen the show, you can't understand. Susan Ivanova... is Susan Ivanova. And I can only praise Joe for having killed her. I haven't seen the end of the season yet, but I hope she won't be the only character I love to suffer, to pay the price. G'Kar has lost an eye, as expected. Ivanova has died (or will shortly, hopefully she'll outlive Clark's presidency), which is a hell of a testament to the fact that wars. Kill. People. Regardless of whether or not they're amazing, powerful minor characters (Neroon) or the heroes of the show (Ivanova). Wars kill people, and life kills people. (To quote a certain film, "All death is certain." Comprenne qui pourra.) And there is always a price to pay. The extent of that price should be proportional to the scope of the victories, and the B5 guys sure have won some major battles - and war (soon to be wars, dare I hope).

Ivanova got the ending she deserved. Her last speech, I might not have agreed with every single word (God sent me?), but it was her. Every single word was her. She thanked Marcus, she had her last speech, she made her stand, she got those Destroyers.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll cut my ranting short to go and watch the next episode. After that, only two to go, which will have to wait for tomorrow. I just wanted to take an entry to commemorate Ivanova and all she was, all she stood for. Her peculiar sense of humour, her issues, the Voice of the Resistance, her frailty and her strength, her qualities and her flaws. One of those unclassifiable characters that aren't quite like anything we're used to see. Thanks for her, Joe.

Edit, post "Endgame": Can we scratch this whole entry and make it a monument to Marcus Cole instead? Ta. And Jason Carter - "I love you" is one of the hardest lines to pull off, and he did magnificently. I had never seen Marcus so... serene. And content. While getting his life sucked out of him.