Babylon 5 I 'And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place'

"A couple of months after I shot the pilot for “Babylon 5,” I got an invitation to something called “a science fiction convention.” What could that be? “I’m not quite sure,” said Diane. “What do I have to do there?” I asked. “Sign autographs and do a Q&A.” “What is a Q&A?” I asked, puzzled. “I guess the fans will ask questions and you will answer.” “The fans? Who are they?” “Yes, the fans. The fans of the show,” said Diane, probably thinking her new client was mildly challenged in the intellectual arena. “Ok, I don’t quite get it but yes, of course, I’ll do it. It seems like an easy job,” I said. “Do they pay or is it just publicity for the show?” I asked, clearly an alien who fell onto this planet without getting the necessary information about human ways. No wonder I got my green card as an “alien with extraordinary abilities.” (Or should it be “inabilities,” I sometimes wonder.) “They do pay. $5,000 for two days.” What? Really? I don’t have to learn any lines? I don’t have to descend into dark tunnels of emotion? I don’t have to “perform?” I just have to be me? And they’ll pay me for that? Oh yeah, count me in! Keep bringing it on! Maybe life doesn’t have to be such an incredible struggle all the time. Maybe one doesn’t have to bleed to death for every penny earned. Maybe even I deserve some lightness, some easiness. Or do I?

Stonybrook was the place. Michael O’Hare was the other guest. I was on stage, answering questions from “the fans” who seemed unusually kind and, for the first time in my American experience, sincerely interested in “my story.” Finally, someone was actually getting it. “The fans” struck me as sophisticated, smart, and well-educated. They seemed not to be buying the black and white picture of the war in the former Yugoslavia, the picture that the media kept serving them. Their questions were intelligent. And, what struck me most, they seemed to be peace-loving people. It seemed we were on the same side: the side of the people, the side of peace. I realized: I actually liked talking to them. I was on stage, talking about my experience of being exiled from my own city, from my profession and my life. “I lost my career, my colleagues, my family.” Then I heard a voice from the audience. “But you gained another one. Welcome to your new family. Welcome to our family.” It brought tears to my eyes then. It is bringing them now, as I’m writing this.

I’ve been a part of the science fiction family for more than twenty years now. Conventions have become an important part of my life. I’ve met interesting people, including respectable scientists, engineers, astronauts and computer wizards. I’ve traveled America, from coast to coast and in between. I’ve traveled Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Some of the people I met I will never forget. Some became my friends. Whatever resistance I may have felt throughout the years towards being pushed into the category of “science fiction actors,” is gone now. This new family has been good to me. And although I will never become a social media gal, having a deeply organic, strong aversion towards the increasingly blurry line between the private and the public, I do hope that I haven’t been too dysfunctional as a member of my new family either. This new family has proven to be much more loyal and much more reliable than the one I left behind (or that left ME behind)."

- Mira Furlan, Love Me More Than Anything In the World

Favourite characters- Babylon 5

Delenn to Sheridan(Babylon 5: A Distant Star)

Delenn

Okay - theory on delenn’s hair. 

We know the Minbari carve their bone to be stylish, so I assume carving bone is not painful like… carving actual bone would probably be… and we also know that Delenn’s hair makes stupid little sense… does it grow under her bone? Does it grow out of her bone? Does she cut it real short on top and glue it to her scalp to make it look like it’s parted? Well here’s my theory. 

Delenn, after the first few months of being a hairyscalp, took a trip home to Minbar and got a stylist to carve vents vertically along the inside of her bone, which she threads through using a crochet hook or something to achieve a more natural look. She got the idea while stealthily studying Ivanova’s hair and how often she styles it in different braids and with barrettes and headbands. The only downside to the vent system is she has to comb it back out of the vents for washing, so when she tells John she can’t go out tonight she has to wash her hair, she means it, because putting it back in the vents takes like five hours with breaks for prayer and candles. 

Discussing Babylon 5 with my boyfriend

“You’d make a good Delenn, you know. Sweet, considerate, caring, and likely to blow up a whole frickin planet if they ticked you off enough.” Best compliment I’ve ever received.

Anyway

Delenn!  (This time with hair.)

insp by {x}

Ranger Delenn, leader of the Anla Shok.

Kickass Goddess

Killin’ time drawing Delenn.

Don’t ask me what her dress is… I just wanted to play with my inkblot brush. 

two of my favorite characters in the entire world are katara from atla, and delenn from babylon 5

both of these ladies are kind, gracious, sweet, and feminine. 

they also happen to be incredibly competent and powerful, with complex characters (and in delenn’s case a super complex and upsetting backstory about making decisions in anger and using your political power to do bad things) and story arcs–they are NOT naiive, bad at what they do, or ignorant

they are really good examples of female characters who are written as very nice and sweet but are also good characters with agency and they are strong. 

i think this is what a lot of people try to do with their female characters, but it often falls flat.  delenn and katara work because they have agency and their decisions have meaning, it’s not necessary for someone else to come in and take over for them

and now we’ve swung right back around to me gushing about delenn, which is tbh the natural order of things

delenn is the greatest.  sighs happily

sweet gracious tiny lady who goes on about hope and is also so freaking dangerous you would not believe

like angry delenn is one of the scariest things in the entire world and she knows it too–heaven help you if you piss her off, she’ll eat you (or have her freaking private spy army eat you, because she has one of those) (or demolish you with the immense fleet of spaceships she also has)

i love her.  i love her so much

Bruce Boxleitner: I think my favourite part was Sleeping in Light… The last scene when we said goodbye, all of those scenes, were really, I think, some of the best stuff we ever got to play. Mira Furlan: I agree, it was incredibly touching and moving and we were all in tears, and it somehow, you know it was the end of the show, so there was this method moment, it was really the end. Bruce Boxleitner: Yeah, it wasn’t hard to come by.  I know he didn’t want us to cry, and it was… Mira Furlan: Almost impossible. Bruce Boxleitner: We were trying not to, and that’s always the most traumatic, when everything you do to try to stop from crying, and still you start to see those eyes tear up. (x)