Rewatch: "The Long, Twilight, Struggle"

[ruuger]

For some reason, I always confuse the name of this episode with the S2 finale... This is the one with the mass drivers, though, isn't it?

Bonus reading:

Analysis on Lurker's Guide
Discussion at B5_revisited

Comments

[alexcat.livejournal.com]

I didn't really remember this one until I got into it. I guess the one most memorable moment is Londo watching as those ships attack. If he has not realized that he was wrong before, he does now and still, he does nothing at all. He is the world's greatest example of the road to hell being paved with good intentions!

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I just re-watched this episode before writing my B5 Xmas fic. I still think it's strange, the whole 'you have allies' thing between Draal and Sheridan because the Great Machine (minus the obvious help in obtaining B4 which lies in the future...past? whatever) does little or nothing in the Great War. It feels like a missing piece somehow.

That last 'Zathras!' is one of my favorite 'things clicking into place' scenes.

I heard Peter J. speak on filming this episode. Apparently to get that looking down from space angle they had him up on a ladder for hours. With no breaks. His physical discomfort helped sell his emotional turmoil.

I never believed in Londo's good intentions; everything he did was for the good of the Centauri (and not even that since it led to nothing but trouble for his people) and for no one else. This re-watch is the first time I noticed the old Emperor talking about the Centauri's lost greatness--they were all over space at one time, weren't they, and our First Contact? The Centauri elite never resigned themselves to their post-Empire status, which made them ripe for exploitation. I wonder what the Centauri-in-the-street thought of all this longing for conquest. Idle support as long as it didn't impinge on their everyday lives?

Kosh says at some point that both the Narn and the Centauri are dying, but then, the Vorlons had an exaggerated sense of their own importance too.

[ruuger]

the Great Machine does little or nothing in the Great War

Yeah, it just feels odd. I understand JMS not wanting to use the Great Machine as an all-powerful deus ex machina that could be used to solve any problem, but without a good explanation as to why Draal can't/won't help them, it does come across as one when it's only mentioned when it is used (helping with B4, finding the first ones, boosting the Voice of Resistance signal...)

I wonder what the Centauri-in-the-street thought of all this longing for conquest. Idle support as long as it didn't impinge on their everyday lives?

I'm now seeing posssible parallels between Centauri Republic and today's Russia...

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I see possible parallels with all empires; they all fall, and if they survive they regret past glories.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

Oh, this episode. The one that originally made me hate Londo. It still makes me really, really angry at him even though I end up feeling bad for him later. But even madder at Rifa. He totally got what was coming to him later.

I honestly just...glory for yourself is not an excuse and neither is glory for your people on the backs of other people. There is one thing that I never agreed with in the series: the Centauri and the Narn being equally good/bad. The Centauri were always, always worse than the Narn. The Narn hating the Centauri given what the Centauri did to them is totally understandable, even if it is great that G'Kar was eventually able to choose another path. The show tried a little too hard to paint them as the same, particularly when G'Kar was the worse one in season 1.

That being said, it was an interesting and heartbreaking storyline. I feel so bad for G'Kar. And watching Delenn, knowing that she would help if she could but can't because of the Shadows and all she knows is heartbreaking as well.