not actually grackles

she/her, 30s. babylon 5, worm, trek, analysis, other stuff. democracy enjoyer. SV, SB, AO3

[gracklesascendant]

memes are in #memes

read analysis I repost in #analysis

read analysis I wrote any% in #my meta

[sparklebog]

Didn't realize they made emergency thermal blankets for babies

[sparklebog]

It's scary to think about babies in an emergency but I guess it's a crazy world out there

Emergency baby

[fuckblast]

[Francisco de Goya]

[laylainalaska]

I've been thinking about Neroon off and on ever since that post I reblogged earlier. I get why he had to die, narratively speaking, and I like that ending for him, but one of the reasons why I wish he'd lived - besides just really liking his grudging development of mutual friendship/respect with Delenn - is that we really know next to nothing about the culture of the two other Minbari castes.

They are effectively three different cultures under one umbrella, and although they do have some things in common (most of them imposed by Valen; thank u for your service Jeff) I think it's reasonable to assume that nearly every cultural thing we see Delenn doing on the show, ranging from the marriage ceremony in season one to all of the various courtship rituals and religious stuff, is religious caste Minbari culture. We really have no idea what the warrior caste does. I think it's safe to say that watching their prospective spouse sleep for three days is not really their kind of thing; they probably have to defeat them in staff combat three days running or something like that. IIRC, it's even canon (extracanonical canon, perhaps) that the language we hear spoken in the series is religious Minbari, and the other two castes have their own languages or at least dialects.

The way that Delenn spends the entire series using the religious Minbari culture as a synecdoche for Minbari culture as a whole is very her and very typical of the Minbari in general - the fact that each caste thinks of themselves as the "true" Minbari seems very them. (And tbf, the humans are doing the same thing, since despite B5's various nods to decent-for-its-period diversity, Babylon 5 in general is an extremely narrow slice of the human cultural experience ...)

But since we really don't know much about the warrior caste, and Delenn presumably doesn't either, it would have been such a delight to see her and Neroon actually dealing with that once in a while. In canon, they only get to the point where they even would have dinner together, socialize voluntarily, play a game, whatever, in those two episodes in season four, at the end of which he dies. But it would have been just so ... idk, cute, and very much in keeping with B5's themes, to watch them both running up against their own cultural chauvinism and lack of understanding of the other's caste culture - but in the same gentle way as late-season Londo and G'Kar, where it's more an opportunity for "oh, we do things this way, do you want to try it?" than a reason for an actual fight. And I would have liked to see a little of that onscreen.

[gracklesascendant]

for people who like to draw shapes

Trace a circle or regular polygon. We count sides and grade you.

[borgcast]

A-mazing effects. But here's how it appeared when originally broadcast in the US:

(Image sourced from www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html)

[dearest-loveliest-elizabeth]

I have never once wished for Tolkien to still be alive as much as I do in this moment

(Some more clips)

[salmon-n-hazel]

Dandelions

[lhoandbehold]

The full saga of Margie and the Nuns (so far). Realised I never compiled these in one place.! Also, bonus Margies!

[fromtheashes76-2]

[ependasketchpad]

Babylon 5: (Talia, Lyta and Susan) Lyta Alexander, Lost kitten in the streets, eager telepath in the sheets

[thatdogmagic]

There is an adult fic attached to this~~ For the curious.

Lyta didn't kill Talia. But she sent the command that did, and Susan hasn't looked at her the same way since.

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[thatdogmagic]

One of the few times I've hated having to put in my watermark, but honestly it's not that out of place in a 90s sci-fi 'shows up in the background' style ad. Also, story's been updated.

Finally bringing this sucker in for a landing.

[blue-tailed-sphinx]

I deeply adore Lyta's relationships with original Kosh. Perhaps, it's even my ship of sorts. I'm not sure if they had anything going on between them in a romantic or romantic-like sense - most likely not - but I feel like these two shared a very deep connection which was the closest it could get to love between their species.

Lyta was enthralled with Kosh. Her eagerness to work with him and be with him in general was apparent. She had absolutely no complaints travelling with him or carrying him around. And, due to her interactions with another Vorlon, it was revealed that Kosh treated her very gently. He listened to what she had to say and obliged her requests if he could. With him, she was a person, not a simple tool. And she was a person to him, too. Maybe, even a trusted friend.

It's sad we didn't get to see more of them together... Maybe, then softer sides of them both would peek out for a little longer.

[gracklesascendant]

YES what Lyta has for Kosh is so big! It's religious reverence, the wonder of seeing something amazing, and perhaps programming. But it's also genuine affection.

I really do think I'd Lyta could go back in time, even after Byron and feeling like she'd never be accepted because of how the Vorlons changed her, she'd do it all again just for Kosh.

[gracklesascendant]

[thatdogmagic]

Usually, she can't look at it directly for too long, even like this. There's too much going on. Focusing on one detail reveals ten more she never noticed before-- and ten more besides. Until mere observation becomes too labyrinthine to escape. She has no such trouble now. She just sees it, feels it there as if it's physically present, given a weight its species hasn't possessed since a time when her own was still debating if it wanted to be one cell, or two. Seeing her seeing it, it greets her with a cozy rumble. Wind and thunder given melody.

(slightly modified) Excerpt/WIP illustration from the ongoing B5 fix-it fic I've been kicking around.

Designing what the Vorlons must have looked like before they 'ascended' into beings of pure energy was a very fun exercise, and one I enjoyed doing quite a bit. I hope to have the above illo done soonish.

[thatdogmagic]

checks morning leaderboards

It was about time I tried my hand at drawing a Shadow. With some obvious flourishes and alterations.

I wanted to see about making the lower body weirder/flesh out their heads a little more/give them a bit more neck than the slender-as-hell looks-like-a-weakpoint-to-me twig the animation gave them.

[thatdogmagic]

Guilty as charged. ps here's an update, answering questions absolutely no one asked like 'do shadows hold hands' and 'do they touch mandibles'

[legendarylars]

forbidden fruit

[inkwish]

they're plotting

[legendarylars]

foliage