Oh, I know, it's a high quality heartbreak marathon.
Re: ending note of s4 versus s5 - I think it's another great case for Lord of the Rings parallels. If you end with Aragorn becoming king, it's liberation and triumph and renewal etc. as a general feeling. But the book does not end there by a long shot. The whole Scouring of the Shire, however, changes that ending significantly. We find out the Shire got Sarumanized while the hobbits were gone (i.e. there is no safe, idyllic home to return to, it's changed just as them), Frodo is irrevocably damaged by all that happened, and he has to leave. There is still happiness (Sam, Pippin and Merry all get traditional happy endings, with the caveat for Sam that he has Rosie and his new family but no Frodo and he'll miss him), but it's mixed with immense sadness. And B5 does something similar (Vir is such a Sam equivalent if ever there was one) with season 5. Now much as it breaks my heart, I think it is the better ending, especially from my Centauri centric pov, because frankly, if the show had ended with s5 I would have felt cheated with Londo's seemingly benign ending. At that point, he had not really confronted what he did (as he will in the second s5 episode), we hadn't nearly seen enough of his and G'Kars new friendship, and it would have felt altogether like a get out of jail free card. I love Londo more than any other tv character, and the second half of s5 is incredibly painful for me to watch, but - it was the right ending.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 06:04 am (UTC)Re: ending note of s4 versus s5 - I think it's another great case for Lord of the Rings parallels. If you end with Aragorn becoming king, it's liberation and triumph and renewal etc. as a general feeling. But the book does not end there by a long shot. The whole Scouring of the Shire, however, changes that ending significantly. We find out the Shire got Sarumanized while the hobbits were gone (i.e. there is no safe, idyllic home to return to, it's changed just as them), Frodo is irrevocably damaged by all that happened, and he has to leave. There is still happiness (Sam, Pippin and Merry all get traditional happy endings, with the caveat for Sam that he has Rosie and his new family but no Frodo and he'll miss him), but it's mixed with immense sadness. And B5 does something similar (Vir is such a Sam equivalent if ever there was one) with season 5. Now much as it breaks my heart, I think it is the better ending, especially from my Centauri centric pov, because frankly, if the show had ended with s5 I would have felt cheated with Londo's seemingly benign ending. At that point, he had not really confronted what he did (as he will in the second s5 episode), we hadn't nearly seen enough of his and G'Kars new friendship, and it would have felt altogether like a get out of jail free card. I love Londo more than any other tv character, and the second half of s5 is incredibly painful for me to watch, but - it was the right ending.