#al bester

[toliveanddieinstarlight]

Season 2, Episodes 7 and 8

Soul Mates:

There aren’t a lot of opportunities for this show to pass the Bedchel Test - your predominant recurring female characters are basically Ivanova, Delenn, Talia, and Lyta (and later Lochley). There are moments here and there, of course, but I really like this one. Besides, Ivanova has the Best Hair, so this scene just makes good sense.

Londo is particularly cruel here. He's got to be sure even at this point which of his wives he'll be divorcing, but he just twists the knife at every opportunity. He is so fucking awful.

I don’t think I ever noticed it before, but HOLY SHIT G'Kar tossed a grape or something at Mariel and she caught it and they totally had a Moment. 

I love Ivanova being right over Londo's shoulder in this scene. Her reaction to overhearing Lennier is Very Good.

My favorite thing about this episode is that there's a blooper reel from Londo's party where Sheridan calls in to Medlab as "Sinclair" and everyone loses it.

Londo doesn’t deserve you, Timov. Divorce him, marry meeeeeeeeee!

A Race Through Dark Places: As wrong as I may have been about Talia, I will never come around on Bester. Bester is fucking scum. That said, he is definitely the reason I started reading Alfred Bester the sci-fi novelist, and he was a solid fuckin writer. A number of his short stories are excellent, and he was the first winner of the Hugo award. The Demolished Man is absolutely worth reading.

That penny of Talia's should be an artifact by this 2259. We totally got rid of coins by 2100, right? You'd think coin collectors would lose their mind over a 150-year old penny. 

There's been a lot of focus on telepaths and the Psi Corps the last couple of episodes. We got a little early push regarding The Shadows in the first couple of episodes, but they’re on the back burner for a bit. I wonder what it would have done to the pacing of the season to vary the distribution of the telepath episodes with the coming of Shadows episodes. 

You think the telepaths would have come up with a better term for non-telepaths than "normals". Hell, you could at least start with "neurotypical".

[behind-the-gloves]

Growing up in Cadre Prime

Artwork I commissioned from Ramon Puasa Jr. depicting the confusing complexities of growing up in Cadre Prime, the most elite cadre in Psi Corps.

While there are perhaps 10 million telepaths in the entire Earth Alliance, only a dozen or two children graduated each year from this elite cadre (itself one of several even in the Corps’ flagship Geneva school). Bester and Lyta both grew up in Cadre Prime. Talia did not - she grew up on Mars.

In the era of Director Vacit (2156-2202), Cadre Primers were placed in key positions in the administration of the Corps. Top jobs were often only open to Cadre Primers.

Only in Cadre Prime did the teachers dress up in scary costumes and, as “monitors,” reward or punish the children (sometimes brutally).

More on Cadre Prime can be found here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12665913

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680634

[ufonaut]

Poison is putting it mildly, boys! I'm mayhem!

Highlights of Alan Scott in Green Lantern (1941) #15

(Alfred Bester, Mart Nodell)

[ufonaut]

Green Lantern fall for a pretty smile? Don’t make me laugh! [...] The Harlequin would be the last girl in the world Green Lantern would fall for!

Green Lantern (1941) #33

(Alfred Bester, Irwin Hasen)

[ufonaut]

You mean who’s bothering me! I’ll tell you who -- it’s this guy Alan Scott. Does he do everything around here? [...] That’s all I’ve been hearing! Alan Scott -- troubleshooter, lineman, radio engineer, M.C., program director-- electronics technician, writer, actor, radio reporter -- it’s impossible! Who is this fellow Scott? How does he rate all that?

Green Lantern (1941) #20

(Alfred Bester, Mart Nodell)

[ufonaut]

Work, work, work... fight, fight, fight... sometimes it gets you down.

Highlights of Alan Scott in Comic Cavalcade (1942) #19

(Alfred Bester, Paul Reinman)

[ufonaut]

I got to fight fer da both of us... dis is one team that never, never quits!

Alan & Doiby in All-American Comics (1939) #61

(Alfred Bester, Paul Reinman)

[ufonaut]

Without a doubt, the use of this solemn, almost grim oath contributed not only to the uniqueness of Green Lantern as a character, but also to his popularity, for no other hero of the 1940s had anything like it. The oath portrayed the commitment Alan Scott had to his new occupation in society... it stated his purpose in clear, distinct terms... it had mystical, maybe even religious overtones. Captain Marvel’s “Shazam!” or Johnny Quick’s magic formula just didn’t match up. How could they?

‘The Many Oaths of the Green Lantern: Of Prose & Poetry and Sacred Oaths’ in Alter Ego (1999) #7