Hm, Fiona Avery's role in B5 and Crusade production and as an editor in the B5 book team not withstanding, this strikes me as entertaining but avarage fanfiction. Her unproduced Crusade script starring Bester is far more impressive.
The good: a look at post war Narn, the return of Na'Toth (hooray!) in an important role, showing her recovered from her prison ordeal, showing what became of Alissa from early s2, trying to show that the new Khari without G'Kar is like.
The bad: I haven't watched Alissa's episode in ages and I vaguely remember this being show canon, so it's not Fiona Avery's fault, but all the comments of how the minds of Narn feel slippery and cold and revolting come across as racist. Especially coupled with remarks like Alissa thinking about Jerrica that how could she, growing up with humans and thus having a tender soul, be prepared for the vicious side of Narns. Um. Humans have their own deeply vicious side, thanks a lot, and the show itself never made any bones about that (ask President Clark, Homewatch, Psi Corps, etc.) Now of course a character's attitude doesn't have to be the story's attitude, and it's entirely possible to write someone's biased pov and showcasing at the same time this person is wrong. But if that's what Fiona Avery went for, she didn't succeed very well.
Ditto for the part where Alissa changes a Narn's sexual orientation to punish him, thinking virtuously that she learned from the Minbari (who are soooo different from Big Bad Psi Corps in this) that telepaths never hurt people and isn't this an excellent solution of how to deal with the weasel. I'd hope for narrative irony, but again, if that's what was meant, it wasn't written very well, because I had the impression the story wants me to agree with Alissa. Alissa, changing someone's sexual orientation is an incredibly gross violation, like rape. (Also now I'm having bad flashbacks to Galen mindwhammying Mariel with a love spell in Peter David's trilogy, which I DO NOT WANT.) This being said, given that the Minbari are far from the ideal people which, say, Vir sees in them whe he praises Minbar to Londo in s3, a black humoured part of me is amused by the fact this is supposed to be an example of Minbari taught telepathic ethics superior to human Psi Corps ethics. Go figure.
Sidenote: also, Alissa, even beyond the sexual orientation change being a violation by itself no matter what the sexual orientation, making the guy exclusively attracted to Centauri (women) specifically is gross because you've made him attracted to the species which has been oppressing and exploiting his own within his life time. This is like inflicting Stockholm syndrom on someone. Now B5 canon actually provides a canon example if you want to explore the murky and fascinating territory of what it means to sexually attracted to a species whose representatives for the most part were busy subjecting you and whom you've been busy fighting and killing when your sexual orientation was formed. Yes, I mean our very own G'Kar. Whom we know to have enjoyed sex with at least one Centauri woman (Mariel), and given the physical similarity between humans and Centauri, I think a case can be made that G'Kar's sexual fondness for human women is a safe way to channel his attraction Centauri. It's a good subject to explore (and, um, I may have done so in a story), and worth a story of its own. Not a few lines making it a gag about a minor character.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-10-01 07:41 am (UTC)Hm, Fiona Avery's role in B5 and Crusade production and as an editor in the B5 book team not withstanding, this strikes me as entertaining but avarage fanfiction. Her unproduced Crusade script starring Bester is far more impressive.
The good: a look at post war Narn, the return of Na'Toth (hooray!) in an important role, showing her recovered from her prison ordeal, showing what became of Alissa from early s2, trying to show that the new Khari without G'Kar is like.
The bad: I haven't watched Alissa's episode in ages and I vaguely remember this being show canon, so it's not Fiona Avery's fault, but all the comments of how the minds of Narn feel slippery and cold and revolting come across as racist. Especially coupled with remarks like Alissa thinking about Jerrica that how could she, growing up with humans and thus having a tender soul, be prepared for the vicious side of Narns. Um. Humans have their own deeply vicious side, thanks a lot, and the show itself never made any bones about that (ask President Clark, Homewatch, Psi Corps, etc.) Now of course a character's attitude doesn't have to be the story's attitude, and it's entirely possible to write someone's biased pov and showcasing at the same time this person is wrong. But if that's what Fiona Avery went for, she didn't succeed very well.
Ditto for the part where Alissa changes a Narn's sexual orientation to punish him, thinking virtuously that she learned from the Minbari (who are soooo different from Big Bad Psi Corps in this) that telepaths never hurt people and isn't this an excellent solution of how to deal with the weasel. I'd hope for narrative irony, but again, if that's what was meant, it wasn't written very well, because I had the impression the story wants me to agree with Alissa. Alissa, changing someone's sexual orientation is an incredibly gross violation, like rape. (Also now I'm having bad flashbacks to Galen mindwhammying Mariel with a love spell in Peter David's trilogy, which I DO NOT WANT.) This being said, given that the Minbari are far from the ideal people which, say, Vir sees in them whe he praises Minbar to Londo in s3, a black humoured part of me is amused by the fact this is supposed to be an example of Minbari taught telepathic ethics superior to human Psi Corps ethics. Go figure.
Sidenote: also, Alissa, even beyond the sexual orientation change being a violation by itself no matter what the sexual orientation, making the guy exclusively attracted to Centauri (women) specifically is gross because you've made him attracted to the species which has been oppressing and exploiting his own within his life time. This is like inflicting Stockholm syndrom on someone. Now B5 canon actually provides a canon example if you want to explore the murky and fascinating territory of what it means to sexually attracted to a species whose representatives for the most part were busy subjecting you and whom you've been busy fighting and killing when your sexual orientation was formed. Yes, I mean our very own G'Kar. Whom we know to have enjoyed sex with at least one Centauri woman (Mariel), and given the physical similarity between humans and Centauri, I think a case can be made that G'Kar's sexual fondness for human women is a safe way to channel his attraction Centauri. It's a good subject to explore (and, um, I may have done so in a story), and worth a story of its own. Not a few lines making it a gag about a minor character.