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"You gave me a reason to come back. Could I love that much, and not forgive?" Aaahhh... good shippy stuff. These two have some great romantic speechifying, and Sheridan in particular since he's been a speech-maker from day 1.

Regarding the Centauri subplot: ( And more talk below, about 4x01-4x05 )

The Alfred Tennyson poem quote at the end of 4x05 is one of my favorites. Hell, it's probably one of everyone's favorites, because it really is quite stirring.

(I had to look it up)

apotheosis:
1. the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god; deification.
2. the ideal example; epitome; quintessence: This poem is the apotheosis of lyric expression.
3. Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification.

After a while, when it all starts to sink in, Delenn really floors me. I'm trying to think of an appropriate analogy for her role/character, and the best I can come up with is lions. ( 3x20 spoilers within )

Now it's late and I have to sleep, but I wanted to get my thoughts out first.

WARNING: For comments, I am rewatching the series, but it has been a long time since I saw the show, though I do remember generally what happens. Please don't talk about the movies since I haven't seen them yet and am unspoiled.

You know how last week I said I wanted a grown-up fandom again? Well, at the moment I'm retro-fanning Babylon 5. I'm retro-fanning it like a champion. Two weeks and I'm already 1/4 way through season 3!

I remember really liking it when it aired, but I was a young teen at the time and my memory of it is pretty hazy. Upon rewatch, I've discovered that it is every bit as entertaining and sophisticated as I remember. Sure, the season 1 dialogue is a bit hokey and dated, but that gets fixed by season 2. The costumes and space ships aren't as cinematic as something like BSG, but the costumes and don't matter so much because you're there for the plot. And the plot? IS COMPLETELY GREAT. Better than I remember it. The continuity! I could sing about it for hours. The consistant, well-planned character development!

The romances that I don't even have to ship because the question isn't "will they get together? oh tension!"... in fact I don't wonder about that at all. I can see it coming very easily, because the show leaves no doubts even though it's been quite subtle with its foreshadowing. The tension isn't about whether there will be romance, but about whether that romance will survive war and disaster. If I remember, one romance does and another one doesn't. It's so much a fabric of the story that you can't doubt it, you just watch it unfold like a piece of candy from a wrapper.

Rewatching B5 has highlighted in my mind the main problem I've had with Battlestar Galactica from the beginning: BSG is good tv, but it's bad sci-fi. So much of their world-building doesn't make sense, and requires huge leaps of irrational thinking, and requires you to accept nonsensical choices and behavior in order to be able to understand it the NEXT time they make a nonsensical choice or behave absurdly. I like the actors, and the cinematography, but I can't like the story or how it handles the characters.

( a great deal more rambling, about B5 vs. BSG, about general awesomeness of B5, etc etc etc. UNSPOILERY. Well, only supremely vague spoilers less than you'd get from a movie trailer. )