Dave Walsh's Blog, page 6

INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH’s New Home is my Patreon

When I need to, I can be pretty swift.

The truth is? I love INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH. It’s super fun to write and I really feel like those of you that read it will love it. It’s also the kind of story that will get lost in the shuffle on a place like Amazon, especially when they require somewhat exclusivity and control over how I can market my work, where I can market it and how.

So I launched a new Patreon page for INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH.

I was on vacation until Saturday evening, where I got home, took my story down from their broken new system and registered for a Patreon page, waiting an agonizing 24 hours before I got the go-ahead to go live. Now, it’s live.

https://www.patreon.com/dvewlsh

The first reward tier is just $2 USD a month, and with it comes a 10% discount off of my store for ebooks. Second tier includes a 20% off discount and ebook copies of INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH as they happen. The plan right now is for each individual story arc to be contained into a single ebook. This leaves room for a multitude of ebooks down the line, depending on how long we all want this to keep going. The third tier includes all of that, 30% discount and a paperback copy of those collections each time they happen.

The plan for now is to release new episodes weekly. Considering I’ve got another five just about ready to go and I’m really enjoying writing this, I can keep going for a while now.

So check out my Patreon page and pick the reward tier that works best for you.

I’ll be looking into serialized reading apps as well moving forward, but for now? The best place to read INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH and support me is via my Patreon.

INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH Episode 1: One-Eyed Skidz

Hanging heavily from his taped fist was his wooden bat, wrapped in a length of barbed wire and the small electrical box Coop rigged to his weapon. The bat, lovingly named Guy, had been through a lot. A last-minute addition before his first fight against a stodgy little zondian named Zeke, it became his signature after that fight. Zondian flesh was a tough beige color, clumped into patches that made them look like they were made of stone. It wasn’t stone, though, it was flesh like every other creature in the ‘verse, and the barbs tore him up, spraying his neon pink blood all over Coop’s face.

That was the beginning of something beautiful, or at least something fruitful for a nobody like Coop. The promoter thought he’d be another pretty boy who’d go out there, full of bluster and guts, only to get torn to shreds by his prized zondian. Even though that fight was a distant memory after dozens of trips into the arena, it still played through Coop’s mind before each fight. Tonight was no different. Humans were still an oddity on the deathmatch circuit, considered the infants of the galaxy in terms of technological advances and discoveries, only making first contact with the diplomatic explorers the traliks thirty years prior. A few humans had tried their hands at the deathmatches and a small stable of fighters had been training up on Luna as a sort of home league, but those that fared out through the gates didn’t make it far. 

That is until Coop and his exploding baseball bat hit the arena. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH is proud to present the bad boy himself,” the announcer’s voice boomed in galactic basic, “the toughest human being to walk the galaxy, along with his bat, Cooper Sabre!”

The thunderous eruption of the crowd and the parting of the great metal gates into the arena were his cue, lights pouring into his sad little staging area. Only once had Coop worn sunglasses to cope with those lights, which in retrospect was the biggest mistake he’d ever made in the arena. An Arakan cracked them with a blow, the shards of glass flying into his eyes and detaching his retina in the process. A detached retina may sound like a minor injury for a gladiator battling aliens on the galactic stage, but flesh and bones healed up just fine in their regen tanks. Eyes were more sensitive. Stupid sunglasses. Coop emerged from the tunnel, pumping Guy into the air while the crowd roared. Coop flicked the switch on the base of the bat, sparks shooting out from the electrified barbs, driving the crowd into a frenzy. 

Across the packed dirt-and-rock arena from him stood Skidz, a brandian berserker that stood eight-feet-high, with toxic-to-the-touch green flesh and six arms, a long spear gripped in his right-middle-hand. A large scar ran along the side of his oblong face, the eye socket on the right side scarred over. To say Skidz and Coop had history was an understatement, seeing as though the last time they met Coop took Skidz’s eye clean out with a jab from Guy. These fights weren’t always to the death, that was just the marketing. Most of the time they survived and fighters found themselves plopped into regen tanks to heal up, because history between two fighters meant bad blood. Bad blood meant grudge matches, and grudge matches meant money for the promoters. 

Skidz screeched at the top of his lungs, a war cry letting Coop know he’d be coming for him. Coop smiled in return, letting sparks fly from Guy’s barbs and watching Skidz grimace at the sight. “Got ya, ya bastard,” he said under his breath.

The klaxon blared overhead, signaling the start of the bout. Skidz was on him in no time at all, bounding forward with his powerful legs and closing the distance between the two in a matter of seconds, Coop avoiding a thrust from the spear. To say Skidz was angry was an understatement, eschewing an artificial eye for a battle scar, both to put on a better show for this rematch and remind himself why he was angry at Coop. A massive hand gripped onto Coop’s wrist while the spear swung in an arc around him, slapping him across the shoulder. Coop tried to wrestle himself free, but Skidz had an unrelenting grip on him, multiple hands gripped around the spear and using it to trap him, trying to squeeze Coop up against his flesh that secreted a toxic pheromone that was akin to a hallucinogenic. 

“I thought you’d make it good, human,” he seethed.

“Who says I’m not?” Coop asked, driving his knee up into the stomach of the brandian, who doubled over and ever-so-slightly loosened his grip. 

Without pause, Coop swung into action, ducking under the spear’s shaft to create some distance while his wrist remained stuck in the alien’s grip. Still, it was enough space for him to rear back and land a shot with the bat. Guy’s barbs sunk into the side of Skidz’s face, sparks flying and flesh sizzling like his old bug zapper on the patio back home did in the summer. The alien was screaming at the top of his lungs, grip relenting from Coop’s wrist while he attempted to peel the bat from his skin.

That was just the opening Coop needed, planting the heel of his shoe into the giant’s stomach and peeling the bat away, tearing at Skidz’s flesh and lining the luminous arena with his cries. Dark brown goop dripped from the wounds on his face, him rushing in with wild blows from his six arms. An errant fist clipped Coop behind the ear, sending him crashing down to the ground in a heap from the strength of the blow. It felt like someone had smashed him over the head with a cinderblock, everything spinning around him. The massive boot came down hard across his back, planting him flat against the ground, Guy just outside of his reach. A warm trickle of Skidz’s leaking fluid splattered down onto his silver jacket, and Coop tried to pick himself up to no avail.

“What do you say?” Skidz boasted, spear held high. “Eye-for-an-eye?”

-#-

Want to read more? Join my Patreon.

This is the first episode of INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH, a new, weekly serial written by me. Watch this space as I’ll have updates for where to find the rest of the series. It originally launched on Amazon’s Kindle Vella, but frankly, much of my readership is outside of the ecosystems they launched on (United States and iOS only) and the terms as they were when they launched were not in favor of the authors.

For now, the new home of INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH is via my Patreon.

Read the first few chapters of INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH

While I’m taking a bit of a sabbatical from my series for the time being to collect myself, I’ve still got that itch to write more pulp. That’s a good thing, right?

Amazon launched their Kindle Vella platform this week, and it’s still unclear what this will be. What’s clear to me is I’m enjoying writing my new story, INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH, going at a nice, leisurely pace and writing something super fun.

The premise is a melding of a lot of things I know and love. It’s far-future sci-fi, crawling with all sorts of wild-looking aliens, cyberpunk aesthetics and baked into it is my love for pro-wrestling, more specifically deathmatch wrestling.

You can check out the first three episodes on Kindle Vella right now if you live inside the United States. If you do, you can read it via your browser or the iOS Kindle app on Apple devices. I’m technically on vacation right now, but when I’m back home I’m going to look into further options for distribution as Vella, well, I’m not really sure it’s great! Maybe it will be fine, who knows.

Vella operates via tokens, like other app-based reading platforms do. $2 gets you 200 tokens and each episode is around 10 tokens. Oh, and Amazon is giving away 200 tokens to readers for a limited time. Don’t worry, I’m not paid for those at all, either. Sad trombone. Bezos in space, baby!

Like I said, I’ll be looking into expanded distribution, be it other reading apps, a Patreon, Substack or something similar. Can’t let Amazon be Amazon.

What I can tell you is INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH is awesome.

Shut Up About Lore Already (Also World Building)

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed as both a writer and ingester of all sorts of fiction, it’s the hard shift our culture has taken towards literal, surface-level readings of any form of art and entertainment that would make the most conservative of stuffy old upholders of literary canon blush. A Christopher Nolan movie comes out and the core audience appears to be deep divers into the minutiae on Reddit, doing so in the name of discovering the “true meaning” to his work through context clues and on screen doodads. When it comes to science fiction and fantasy at large, across multiple mediums, it gets a lot worse.

Somewhere along the way the shift happened within these spaces, where exciting and interesting stories weren’t enough. Oh no, we had to *WORLD BUILD* everything. World building, in and of itself, is a cool concept that almost every piece of fiction does, unwittingly or not. While I’m not sure when this started exactly, it’s clear that the idea of “immersion” is partially at fault for this. Escapism with holes in it would no longer suffice. Every last piece of kipple needed a rich backstory and ties to the world and characters that inhabit it.

Now before you get your pitchforks ready, hear me out.

This comes, in part, from role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and others that have spawned in the wake of D&D’s popularity. Seasoned role players know the game can be fun when played with the right group of pals, but that the experience is also enhanced when the world is more detailed, allowing you to sink further into the muck and mire of an orc-infested world and experience that full immersion. Immersion and this level of world building is not a bad thing, but it also didn’t exist in such an oppressive manner as it does now before. Tolkien had the Silmarillion, but that was a rough work developed prior to publication of the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings and served as more of a passion project that publishers saw for what it was: a history of a fictional world that appealed less than more stories about Hobbits and orcs.

As a writer, you should understand the world you’re writing in, but that doesn’t mean everyone else needs that information always. Following the release of Mad Max: Fury Road I remember reading interviews with the actors and revealed within was that for every character—yes, every character—George Miller had written about a paragraph or so of backstory to help flesh them out. He gave the actors these to help them understand their character and become more immersed in their performances. Did you know that Coma Doof Warrior, the mutant in the red bodysuit wearing a mask of flesh playing a flame-throwing double-necked guitar, was wearing his mom’s face over his own? Probably not! Did the actor? Yep!

Stuff like this is cool, but largely unnecessary to the grand plot of Fury Road. Coma Doof was a cool character that played a killer, chugging death march that helped define the story and had that one, brief fight with Max on the rig near the end, but at the end of the day, knowing Coma Doof was wearing his deceased mother’s face does nothing to enhance the story of Max, Furiosa, Knux and the Wives. Me buying a face wash at the grocery store and the guy at the register nodding and saying “oh, I use this stuff” is certainly an interaction in the world. Knowing the lore of grocery man and that he had bad acne growing up or dry skin and was made fun of for it and that his casual endorsement of it carries a weight to it doesn’t change my life. I need to get home, pick up my kids from preschool, get dinner ready and fold the laundry.

Knowing the history of this guy won’t change those core parts of my life. If I did, could we be friends? Is he a great guy? Is it worth my time to stop and get to know him better? Maybe! I don’t know! For right now, though, for my core narrative, our brief encounter doesn’t enhance either of our lives in any meaningful way.

In the realm of storytelling, lore and deep world building have become a standard expectation for media properties. The most recent case I can think of is Mortal Kombat. A video game series that was developed to be a fun, ridiculous, over-the-top homage to old martial arts movies with a lot of gore. What began as a simple fighting game series spawned a lot more video games, a series of films in the 90s and now a rebooted film series with the first movie just released at the end of April. In the age of COVID, where there aren’t four new films a weekend, the release of a moderately budgeted action film based on a ridiculous game series has gotten a lot of attention. Some of the core talking points?

LORE.

That’s right, people are somewhat furious about Mortal Kombat‘s lore and how it was either omitted or changed within the realm of this film and how it doesn’t do the series justice. You… can’t make that up. I’m not ragging on people for being fans of something ridiculous. We all do it. I’ve consumed enough Star Wars material for a few lifetimes already, even if most of it wasn’t very good. Still, that’s not the point. The point is lore and world building have become so omnipresent that more than just George Lucas and his midichlorians or “Greedo shot first” nonsense exists now.

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Literally, I don’t care about whatever the ninja clan Scorpion and Sub-Zero belonged to was, I don’t care what their relation is to each other in the games or whatever. I don’t care about the magical realms and their histories, or why Reptile or Goro exist. The original characterizations of most Mortal Kombat characters from the early games do exactly what they intended to do. Johnny Cage is a movie star and an egoist! You know how we can tell? He’s wearing his sunglasses and does ball shots. Scorpion is a cool ninja with a knife on a chain and is a skeleton that can breathe fire. Sub-Zero is a cool ninja that looks like a color-swapped Scorpion but while Scorpion represents “fire” Sub-Zero represents—GET THIS—ice and he has ice attacks! Goro? He’s a giant monster with FOUR ARMS. FOUR ARMS!

The inner workings of these worlds, the relations between them or their personal hardships are all things that could be explored in a film setting if done well, but the reality here is… there’s only so much room for plot, characterization and backstory in a film. Fans cried out that surely, if any property deserved more time—at least three hours—it was Mortal Kombat! THINK ABOUT THE LORE!

Sure enough, the film featured about 45 minutes of weighty exposition dumps and world building that ultimately led nowhere. They dragged the film down and took away from the core conceit of the series: over-the-top archetype characters fighting to the death in entertaining and gory ways. I’m not saying you couldn’t make a thoughtful, personal story within this universe, or that there’s no value in that, though. Just that trying to cram as much Mortal Kombat lore into a story where it doesn’t fit, never gets properly or fully explained and tries to please many masters achieves what’s seen in most Hollywood productions today: nobody is satisfied because the creators tried to please too many masters.

If this was always going to be a film series that means there’s plenty of room to explore the lore and history within those confines, but that it shouldn’t come at the cost of telling compelling stories, or else what’s the point of making a film in the first place?

The Alien series has a very similar problem where the original Alien movie did a fantastic job of explaining the Xenomorphs. They’re scary aliens in space! They do X, Y and Z and they’re scary. Alien, the film, isn’t somehow better or more interesting by delving deeper into the history, etymology or minutiae of the aliens and their relations to humanity. Alien is about a sad future where humans go to space at the behest of the wealthy, risking their lives in the unknown to make money, only to find the limitations to this greed through a force of nature that they don’t understand.

Simple, right? Effective, too.

So as much as I did like Prometheus, the fact that the series just kept going and kept diving deeper into the lore of this universe only bogged down the original films intent and effectiveness.

When us writerly types write stories, intentional or not, we use metaphors to help make them better. Alien had some pretty great metaphors in it that helped give that story weight beyond SCARY ALIENS and IT BURST THROUGH THE GUY’S CHEST. Those were certainly parts of the story, but the film resonated because there was more to it than raw jump scares. For folks interested in jump scares and cool effects, those were there, for people who wanted to ruminate on what happened. That was there, too.

I encountered this recently when I read Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. It’s a short, surreal science fiction novel that was adapted into a film of the same name I wasn’t super into, but definitely saw the value in. There was an interesting thread woven through the story about personal relationships, control and humanity’s own relationship with its physical world. Again with the metaphors, right? The book’s ending had this amazing weight to it, which only helped to put a period at the end of the metaphorical ideas explored in the story.

What killed it for me, though, was knowing there were more books in this series and the protagonist pops up again. Even that the books go deeper into actual explanations of Area X and the people looking to explore it. Knowing that made the first book so much less interesting and meaningful of an experience, instead it turned into another series that had to stop to explain itself instead of making a statement and letting it simmer. I can’t begrudge VanderMeer making a living for himself by striking while the iron is hot. Being a writer means making these sacrifices to artistic vision to please audiences and keep your bank account from over drafting.

These are genuine struggles I’ve felt as an indie author. Series are cool and my interest in books, films, television and whatever else runs a strange, expansive gambit. Sometimes I want to experience something short, thought-provoking and interesting that’s not a part of some thoroughly investigated universe where everything has in depth explanations attached to them. Other times I want some pulpy, ridiculous stuff in my life. Read about a witty Murderbot? I’m down! But… not always. Writing deep, lengthy series is how indie authors make a living and something I’ve been doing because, well, there aren’t any other options, right? Still, I find myself not wanting to explain everything away and ripping away the mystery the unknown adds to these stories.

I still remember the fervor over the Mass Effect trilogy’s ending years ago. Fans wanted something exact, precise, and not some “bullshit” ending. I vividly remember the argument from fans that they didn’t want “magic in space” as an ending. If you’ve yet to experience these games and want to, don’t read further because I’m going to spoil them (I have big opinions on spoilers, too!), but that’s precisely what the creators did at the end of the game. They left some mystery in the universe of Mass Effect and it made people furious. They cried because what was the point of branching storylines, moral decisions and permadeath of characters they loved if there were only three real endings to the series that were all pretty similar?

… Do you see the lack of introspection here?

Don’t worry, I already know the arguments that fans wanted—no, deserved—a real ending to something they love.

This unhealthy obsession with knowing everything and never being satisfied until every last corner of relevant information is available to viewers/readers/listeners/consumers reflects who we are and where our culture is headed. It’s a very capital L Libertarian view of the universe that the correct way to live is to always be “logical” and to only make informed decisions after reviewing as much data as possible, not to trust “feelings” or intuition because those are not based on facts. Not everyone obsessed with lore and world building is going to reflect a political ideology like that, no, but the roots are the same and the parallels are clear. The ceaseless quest for meaning through mere logic alone strips out meaning and interpretation entirely. It creates a bland, lifeless world where personal exploration is cast aside and stifles creativity. This doesn’t mean casting logic aside entirely, just that there should be room for whatever works best.

World building and lore, when used with care and understanding, can be magical and add to an experience. The belief that lore is a signifier of something being “good,” though, is a rather restrictive way to view the world, entertainment and art. Lore should be freeing and allow for deeper understanding and expression, not lock creators into rigidity and uniformity. Lore for the sake of lore can be fun, like the little hidden journals and books in RPGs or whatever that grimoire stuff is in Destiny if you enjoy it. As a bludgeon of truth, though, count me out.

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Anarchy’s Edge Available Now

It’s official, Andlios Book Four: Anarchy’s Edge is available for purchase right now.

You can buy the ebook through any of your favorite retailers currently, the paperback is available on Amazon as well. The paperback version should be available on more retailers starting shortly, it just takes a while for it to populate elsewhere.

I’m undecided on where I’ll be going next with these books, if there’s one or two more left in this series or not. What I do know is I’ll be taking a break before writing and publishing my next indie book, I’m not sure for how long. Thanks for all the support over the last year and a half and I can’t wait to cap off this series in the near future.

As always, you can purchase it directly from me below if you’re so inclined. That’s the best way to support me if you’re buying an ebook.

Anarchy’s Edge (Andlios Book 4) eBook

PRE-ORDER: Planned release date is March 30th, 2021. You’ll receive your book file on that day.

Trella embarks on a mission through the gate to investigate her people that were banished from Andlios, while Jace, Katrijn and Loren deal with the Earth Ministry looking to stamp out Khonsu Station’s revolution.

Note: eBook delivery is via email from BookFunnel.

For further instructions on loading an ebook purchased directly from me, check out this guide.

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Evil Ways: The Legacy of Atsushi Onita’s Most Subtle Performance

The American wrestling world is talking about things I care about again, which brings me out of partial hibernation from my lifelong obsession with pro wrestling to recount something I love. What was it this time? AEW is doing a deathmatch and had Atsushi Onita cut an interview to promote the upcoming deathmatch. I wrote this post for one of my writer’s Facebook groups a few months back, recounting my love for the match between Masahiro Chono and Atsushi Onita from NJPW.

ONITA ON AEW TV!!! I love it! #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/3pKaCYyyf3

— Big Willie-isms | #FutureEndeavors (@bigwillieisms) March 4, 2021

The quality of the match isn’t really what I’m concerned about, though. Talking about wrestling through the lens of how many stars you’d rate the match and trying to weigh to value of an isolated match for performance alone tends to be a zero sum game. I think about this match a lot, but more specifically, the entrances and the strong thematic elements at play.

Chono is a NJPW homegrown star, a top talent, well paid, respected and projects an image. The fans love him. Atsushi Onita is a wildcard in every way. He always forged his own path ahead and was bad at playing by the rules that could’ve made him unbelievably wealthy. That wasn’t his path, though. Instead he’s brash, unreasonable and irrational. I’m not exaggerating when I say he could’ve been the biggest star of the era if he stayed put in a larger organization. Instead, he founded his own company and they ran it like outlaws.

Even with him being an outlaw, he was wildly popular with the fans that knew him and larger companies were always trying to pick him up and channel that energy. This match itself is… whatever. Chono isn’t interested in taking damage and won’t fling his body willingly into barbed wire like Onita will. What’s worth watching and analyzing, to me, is the entrances.

The theater.

Onita comes out to Wild Thing, folding chair in hand and is being pelted by drinks from the fans at the Tokyo Dome. There’s 50,000+ people there and they all hate him, or to be more accurate, love to hate him. He knows this, knows they want to see their hero, Chono, lay waste to this invader that belittles all they believe in. He knows that’s what’s gonna happen, too, because it’s wrestling, it’s predetermined. So he sits his ass down in the chair, lights up a cigarette and gets repeatedly smacked by drinks and other trash with a grin on his face. When he gets up and walks, it’s slow, methodical and oozing with intent. In those moments, he’s taking the whole of the experience in and conjuring a performance that is a feedback loop in unison with that energy. Time seems to slow down and the intent of his gait turns Wild Thing, an energetic song, into a funeral dirge.

By contrast, Chono comes out in an armored vehicle, wearing his own absolutely ridiculous clothing from his expensive clothing line that still exists today (this was 1999, mind you), with a cigar in his mouth and the fans love it. They eat it up. This is their guy.

Onita is the working class stiff that always told the bosses to shove it, he’d do it himself, and there he is, smoking a cigarette with his beaten up folding chair, torn up jeans and off-the-shelf tank top. Chono is smoking a cigar, wearing thousands of dollars in gauche clothing, a company man until his retirement 10+ years later.

While I won’t criticize wrestling pundits and fans that watch wrestling for the athletic displays and are looking for meaning within the context of the moves, technique and general layout of the matches, I believe that wrestling transcends these concepts alone and judging wrestling solely on the minutiae of concepts like workrate, selling and big, exciting moments alone loses the nuance. Performances like this are rare and unique. They’re a master class in those in between moments that I wish more wrestlers would get a feel for.

While both men had matches that fit this criteria in their youth, the magic of their meeting wasn’t what they were capable of doing as athletes and athletic performers alone, but the entirety of their performance and abilities.

I’m glad Atsushi Onita is remembered and modern promotions like AEW, run by nerds like Tony Khan who hung out on the same message boards as I did when I was in college, are able to pay homage to and respect the magic someone like Onita conjured in his performances.

Modern stars like Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley undoubtedly owe a debt of gratitude toward performers like Onita and will attempt to pay homages to his work, like they have in the past, in their upcoming deathmatch. Selfishly, I wish they’d tell a compelling story like Onita and Chono were able to do through mere entrances alone, albeit that is difficult in the age of COVID. The older I get, the more I reflect on the almost massive subtext that two men walking to a ring lined in barbed wire projects and in all of my time watching wrestling, how this is one of those moments that always sticks out to me. So while the deck is stacked against performers like Omega and Moxley meeting in another deathmatch against each other in an era where it’s not safe to fill arenas with fans and give these types of performances…

It’d be nice.

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Babylon 5 S3: Severed Dreams

Babylon 5 has gotten a shiny new remaster released on HBO Max and digital storefronts, which makes it a perfect time for me to revisit my critical analysis of the series. I began the project years ago, picking up in season two when the series really took off, and now I’m continuing on into Babylon 5 S3. 

I’ll warn you now, if you’re looking for apolitical analysis, I will not pretend this is what you’ll read here. Political and cultural insights are the key to understanding popular culture, literature and other artwork, thus my view of Babylon 5 is painted by both the period where it was written and aired and the current. If you enjoy my books and share different political views than I do, you’re more than entitled to that. I am a lot more explicit on my personal social media about my views than I am here on this blog, but sometimes it’s not possible.

“Messages From Earth”

This is where things get pretty interesting. This episode sets up the expansion of the Nightwatch into a political police force and introduces a mysterious scientist on the run from Earthgov for her firsthand account of Earth’s knowledge of the Shadows. The scientist kicks off the episode on the run only for Marcus to rescue her just in time, placing her in the care of Doctor Franklin until she recovers. 

G’kar is okay with doing time, explaining to Garibaldi that he’s writing down his own accounts and beliefs of existence while Garibaldi stumbles through the Book of G’Quan. 

Dr. Mary Kirkish is completely fine, which is good, and explains watching a Shadow vessel excavated from Mars, something that Garibaldi was on the planet for although he didn’t see with his own eyes. Garibaldi unveils he found something at the old site which was a Psi Corps badge. Kirkish unveils Earthgov has found another one on Ganymede and is planning on excavating it and taking control of it for themselves. This pushes Sheridan to take the White Star and stop it, no matter the cost.

Oh, and the Nightwatch? They’re planning a big raid with mass arrests and Nightwatch assuming insane amounts of power. Zack can at least see this is bad while the rest are licking their chops, even noting Sheridan is missing and implying he’s complicit in a wacky conspiracy theory that everything happening is an alien conspiracy to undermine Earthgov and Clark. If you’re reading this with knowledge of the American conservative conspiracies that have been floating around in the age of Trump, this will all feel eerily familiar. 

There’s a conspiracy against a conservative leader! We need to be vigilant! The elites cannot be trusted! Everyone who disagrees is a traitor!

It’s almost like history informs fiction, and as long as we refuse to learn from history, we keep repeating the same awful mistakes. 

Sheridan, sans-uniform (ooh, symbolism) is forced to engage when the pilot that entered the Shadow vessel wasn’t prepared and the ship went “insane,” destroying the rogue vessel. Sheridan’s old vessel the Agamemnon arrives, making life a lot more difficult. Sheridan is tasked with destruction or firing upon an Earth vessel. Instead opting to head into Jupiter’s atmosphere and opening a jump point to disappear. 

ISN reports inaccurate news that an alien vessel appeared and the Agamemnon destroyed it and the Nightwatch tasks Zack with figuring out where Sheridan went just in time for President Clark to declare martial law. That’s not good.

“Point of No Return”

This is indeed the point of no return. 

Also, hey, Vir’s back! And Londo is pissed because his report paints the Minbari in a positive light and Londo requires revisions made that make them sound less impressive than they really are. That’s surely damning of their people. It’s not like I’ve ever seen that in modern western history. Lady Morella visits as well, with Londo and Vir greeting her just in time for the station to be in a state of utter chaos because of the martial law order back on Earth.

Sheridan is tasked with what seems like the impossible. A general reaches out to send news of chaos back home. General Hague (lol) has defied the order and gone rogue along with a fleet of ships, and a message is delivered from Hague to Sheridan.

“Everything’s gone to hell, John. God help us all. You’re on your own.”

Babylon 5 hasn’t been addressed yet, but they’re just waiting for the hammer to drop. All while the Nightwatch has a meeting planned and Zack is told to bring extra charges for his gun “just in case.” Sheridan lets G’kar free, who finds T’Lon waiting for him, giving him his loyalty. G’kar unveils newfound ideas that the Narns’ place in the galaxy is helping the humans, which is… certainly something! 

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An Earthforce general calls in and explains in somewhat goofy, obtuse terms to “respect the chain of command” and isn’t saying anything coded at all. The Political Office has issued the order and will take over station security. At the same time, Nightwatch is briefed that they’re in control and they’re all pumped up and ready to bust some skulls. Garibaldi walks in on a meeting where they demand loyalty or expulsion from the Nightwatch and flips his shit and a few tables. They relieve him of duty and walk him off. Things aren’t looking good.

Nightwatch riots (again, seem familiar) against the people, Lady Morella, Vir and Londo get stuck in the ruckus and Vir catches a bottle to the head. Sheridan coughs out the martial law order and seems pretty upset with the whole thing. It doesn’t take long to realize what General Smits was telling him before, the Political Office cannot issue commands to military personnel. 

G’kar has both an offer and an idea for Ivanova. 

Morella tends to Vir while Londo wants her premonitions to tell him his future. She touches Vir’s skin and has a glimpse at the same visions that’ve haunted Londo of… not good things. Oh, and Sheridan and co. invite Zack into a meeting. 

Zack plays along with Nightwatch, telling them he couldn’t be complicit in their actions, and sets up a meeting where Nightwatch can find the real traitors. What follows is the old bait and switch, where Zack leads the geared up Nightwatch into a hangar, then bails, while Sheridan reveals the order from the Political Office is illegal and for Nightwatch to either leave or surrender their weapons, badges and comms and sit under house arrest. All agree it’s a very temporary solution, but hey, Zack came around, right? The Narn have assumed duty as station security as a part of G’kar’s big plan.

Delenn returns to give news that most of Hague’s ships have been shot down and Babylon 5 remains a holdout.

Oh, and remember Londo and Vir? Lady Morella reveals her visions of the future: Londo will be the Emperor. Darkness will happen. Oh, and Vir will be Emperor, too. One will take over after the other one dies.

Vir as Emperor?!

“Severed Dreams”

I could write thousands and thousands of words about “Severed Dreams.” I still might. Londo returns to the station to see the Narn in charge and finds himself held up by them. Oh, the humanity.

Things are coming to a head, though, as the EAS Alexander is at the command of Major Ed Ryan after the death of General Hague, forced to fire upon Earth ships to survive. After taking massive damage, there’s only one place left to go for repairs: Babylon 5. 

Sheridan prepares for the oncoming struggle, preparing his command staff that he’s left in the dark for what will probably be the singular event that tests their allegiances. A Minbari Ranger returns to relay a message that members of the Non-Aligned Worlds have sided with the Shadows out of fear of the Centauri conquering them otherwise. Delenn learns of her own people’s inaction and is determined to change their minds. 

The Alexander pops through after news of Mars refusing the martial law order and breaking free comes through and the horror of Earthgov bombing civilians on Mars to send a message. A few Earth Senators have escaped or gone into hiding, but the rest have been rounded up and detained. Clark’s totalitarian grip has no boundaries. 

An ISN broadcast shows an apprehensive newscaster relaying the information about the Mars attacks while attempting to remain impartial only for her colleague to slide in and say he can’t sit idly by anymore, that there’s information being withheld and the people are being lied to. Proxima III and Orion VII have declared independence. As he does this, the building comes under attack, Earth forces storming in and the feed cutting out. 

Again, a totalitarian, fascist government undermines free press. It restricts their ability to report clearly while selling the lie that they’re not loyal or somehow biased against them. If this isn’t familiar to you, I’d ask you why. 

Captain Hiroshi’s ship jumps in to warn B5 of an impending attack. Sheridan is tasked with surrender and most likely be detained or even executed, or fighting. Everyone agrees they fight. 

Delenn approaches and admonishes the Gray Council for their inaction, urging the 2/3rds that aren’t the military to stand up for what’s right and join her. You see, a powerful military is one thing, but when the people (in this case the religious and workers) band together they have more power. There’s really no way of knowing what this is trying to say, right?

Sheridan harnesses the old man hologram power as they shut down Earth-controlled comm systems and makes his case to the station: Babylon 5 refuses to follow the illegal orders and will break free from Earth’s control. They’re to prepare for battle, and anyone who wishes not to get involved is free to go. Some go, most stay, including the reluctant Corwin who was always on their side, just couldn’t figure out if Ivanova was into him or what. 

The battle goes down and it isn’t pretty. Lots of people get hurt or die. Marines breach the station and the Narns fight to the death. Earth ships clash, and Captain Hiroshi sacrifices herself and her crew to fend off more attackers. When Delenn and the Minbari appear, the battle is over, forcing the loyalists to flee at the much-stronger Minbari forces. 

Outside of a few injuries, our main cast is fine and Babylon 5 has officially made themselves enemies of a fascist government back home.

Join me again for another look into Babylon 5 S3. But really, you watch Babylon 5 to get to “Severed Dreams.”

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Andlios Book 4: Anarchy’s Edge Planned for March 30th Release Date

All is not right with the galaxy.

Enter Anarchy’s Edge.

You know that if you’ve been following along with the Andlios series, with a focus on humanity sitting in two places across the galaxy from each other.

On one side sits Andlios, primed to elect their first democratically-elected leader, even if the candidate in the lead has a shadowy history. Back in the birthplace of humanity, the dominion of the Earth Ministry, a lone mining outpost called Khonsu is creating a society in contrast to the Ministry’s oppressive regime, but for how long?

For Trella, the galaxy has become a more isolated place and it’s unclear where she belongs. The woman she loved has passed on and her options are to continue exploring her humanity or recede into her shell.

For Katrijn, she’s fulfilled her promise to her father, but at what cost? Aimless and without purpose, Katrijn must find what leaders do after relinquishing their power for the good of the people. Of course Jace isn’t doing much better, having seen the strands of time and space only to give those up to save the people he loves.

And Loren, well… Loren is getting by like he always does, just older, slower and with a bad shoulder. He’s at ground zero on Khonsu Station and when the Ministry comes knocking he’s not about to give up without a fight, even if that fight looks like nothing he’s ever done before.

Anarchy’s Edge, book four of the Andlios series is set for a March 30th, 2021 release. You can pre-order the book now, either directly from me, or on [most] storefronts (Google Play is forthcoming).

[ Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Apple | Direct ]

In addition (celebration?!) to this, I’m offering a special, limited-time discount on ebooks purchased directly from my store of 20% off. Just use the code “AND21” at checkout for 20% off all eBooks.

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Babylon 5 Season Three: “We Rise and Fall Together”

Babylon 5 Season Three/Warner Bros.

Babylon 5 has gotten a shiny new remaster released on HBO Max and digital storefronts, which makes it a perfect time for me to revisit my critical analysis of the series. I began the project years ago, picking up in season two when the series really took off, and now I’m continuing on into Babylon 5 season three. 

I’ll warn you now, if you’re looking for apolitical analysis, I will not pretend this is what you’ll read here. Political and cultural insights are the key to understanding popular culture, literature and other artwork, thus my view of Babylon 5 is painted by both the period where it was written and aired and the current. If you enjoy my books and share different political views than I do, you’re more than entitled to that. I am a lot more explicit on my personal social media about my views than I am here on this blog, but sometimes it’s not possible.

Such as reviewing a 25-year-old television series. I know. I know. I’m sorry. Let’s continue talking about Babylon 5 season three.

“Voices of Authority”

There’s no way of candy coating what Babylon 5 delves deeply into, which is totalitarian rule, restriction of freedoms and oppression through nationalism, xenophobia, fear-mongering and everything else in the book. While perhaps meant to be a more moderate take on the idea of totalitarianism, as it exists across the left-right spectrum, Babylon 5 seems to point more towards a critique of fascism and we see that with the creation of the Nightwatch. 

A new “political officer” arrives on B5 while Draal, the alien strapped into an ancient machine that allows him to be a hologram while experiencing space and time differently, appears to Captain Sheridan to offer his assistance in calling some of the “first ones” to arms against the Shadows. This political officer is a beautiful blonde woman with a very clear agenda to make Earthgov look as great as possible. She’s an agent of the system, and she’s there to ensure that Captain Sheridan falls into line and lead the Nightwatch. 

We get to laugh at Zack Allen’s poor-fitting shirt, which was a running joke among Usenet and email listserv fans of the series at the time. This is really the first science fiction series I can think of off-hand that had this sort of connection with an internet fandom through much cruder means than now and I can’t complain about playing off of a joke like this and giving fans a nod. Zack is pulled into the center of this conflict in a hurry, though, as he’s Garibaldi’s number one guy and joined the Nightwatch out of a sense of obligation to Earthgov, now finding himself in the middle. The political officer does not think he’s charming whatsoever, although makes it clear she has eyes for Sheridan. Of course she does, right? It wouldn’t be science fiction without the leading man getting all the girls.

Sheridan’s plan to search for the first ones is put to a halt by a need to meet with this political officer and keep her busy, instead sending Ivanova in his place, thus jacked into Draal’s weird machine where she traverses space to look where the first ones should be. Of course they aren’t there, it’s the Shadows and because of this psychic projection if she doesn’t turn around she can die and… okay, she’s fine, and as a little goody for doing such a good job, she’s able to psychically pick up on a recording from President Clark the day of President Santiago’s death, speaking about how he always wanted him gone, with the disembodied voice of Mr. Morden assuring him everything was going according to plan and he had control now. Because Susan is a telepath and has hidden it her whole life.

Ivanova returns as a holograph to find Sheridan and a topless political officer, while Sheridan is trying to get her to put her damned clothes back on, only to be forced to make out with her to avoid her seeing Ivanova materializing in his room like that. Oof, right? Anyway. Sheridan excuses himself, speaks to Ivanova’s hologram in the other room while she makes double entendres galore, and he’s told she’s found pay dirt.

Upset by Sheridan’s refusal to succumb to her advances to keep him in line, she unveils to the Nightwatch the chilling scope of their additional duties, with limitations on anyone who criticizes the government and talk of purging disloyal members of Earthgov. When Zack shares concerns about this and asks if it extends to regular citizens, she explains all they need to do is monitor them, then report it and Earthgov will take care of it.

That doesn’t sound awful or anything. 

Sheridan reviews the recording, shows it to Garibaldi and sends it along to General Hague, who he respects and believes will do the right thing with it. Ivanova takes Marcus as a translator aboard the White Star to call on the first ones, playing up their disdain for the Vorlons to secure their help, and we’ve got ourselves another ally in the war against the Shadows when the video leaks. Our new political officer is forced to return, where an apprehensive Zack asks her what a Code 7R is, the code Sheridan and them have been using for secret meetings, only for her to say she didn’t know. 

Episode ends with G’kar awakening Garibaldi to hand him the Book of G’quan to read.

“Dust to Dust”

Finally, a G’kar episode. 

Nightwatch have turned into jackbooted goons, much to absolutely no one’s surprise, harassing shop owners much to Sheridan’s disdain. A guy goes crazy in downbelow and guess who’s coming to dinner? Everyone’s pal Bester!

I’m not gonna get too deep into this episode’s happenings, but the basic idea is Bester comes to investigate a drug called “dust” that gives user’s psychic powers. Can’t have that now, can we? They neutralize Bester with Minbari telepaths and force him to take a pill to block his powers. Most of the episode is Garibaldi/Bester as buddy cops that don’t like each other but seem to work well together to track down the dust. 

Only the dust finds its way to G’kar, who wants to use it on his own people in an attempt to breed Narn telepaths, which he believes is vital to his people’s sustained existence in a galaxy where every other major race has their own telepaths. G’kar tests the product himself and, well, he goes a bit insane, heading to Mollari’s quarters, beating up a visiting Vir to gain entry and then beating the snot out of Londo and kidnapping him. 

What happens from there is G’kar inhabiting Londo’s mind and visiting his memories, including when he was originally given the shame of the role of Ambassador to B5. Nobody else wanted it and the emperor gave it to him as a punishment for being so mediocre. G’kar found this hilarious. What he didn’t find hilarious was Londo’s talks with Mr. Morden. Londo shows initial regret over the deaths of the Narn, as we remember, then jokes about destroying all the Narn. G’kar went into a rage over this, and it seemed pretty likely he was going to kill Londo, who begged for his life. 

What happened from there was G’kar was stopped by his own conscience, in the form of his father hanging from a tree where they engage in a rather existential conversation and his dying father urges him to change course, that the path he was on would only lead to the death of all of their people, perhaps even the Centauri as well. 

“We rise and fall together. And some of us must be sacrificed if all are to be saved.”

G’kar’s Father

The image of G’Lan, a religious figure that appeared to the Narns when Kosh removed his suit to save Sheridan, appears and G’kar comes down from the drug to find himself in the room with an injured and scared Londo, while Kosh stands in the background and walks away. G’kar is put on trial where he refuses to absolve himself and admits to everything he did wrong. Sheridan and the crew try to stop him from doing this, but he’s fine with it.

He gets 90 days in the brig which, look, for trying to kill an ambassador, that’s not too bad. He agrees.

Bester meets another Psi Cop on the way out where it’s revealed “dust” is a creation of the Psi Corp, and Bester’s mission was to get it out of alien hands. Well, part of his mission, the rest was to find out what Sheridan and co. knew, but he said he’d get it sooner or later. 

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There’s not a ton in this episode. It’s relatively self-contained about Marcus and the people of the station. 

Marcus is pals with a sick man who runs a shop and said man disappears. At the same time, Doc Franklin found a dead man with an alien parasite attached to his spine. Since nobody else will help Marcus, he turns to Franklin, who has some time to kill and the two end up imprisoned by a burgeoning cult of some alien parasite. Duncan, the shopkeeper from before, reveals himself to Marcus and says the alien, Vindrizi, are the keepers of history that fuse with other living beings to survive and carry the history of all things with them.

The newly promoted Lt. Corwin is to be vetted by Ivanova for the “Conspiracy of Light” and Susan does not know how to approach him about it and he mistakes it for a date. Zany hijinks ensue as he buys her roses, then pretends he found them on the ground only for her to reveal she loves roses. D’oh, Corwin! You fool! She offers him illicit coffee and asks if it bothers him to break the rules and he’s so flustered that he’s on a date with his superior officer or that she’s trying to trip him up that he just basically says he loves Earth and would do anything for Earthgov, which isn’t what anyone wants to hear. 

Don’t lick those boots, Corwin. 

Marcus and the Doc escape, only to come to an understanding with the Vindrizi when Duncan removes his parasite to confirm he chose the parasite but can never have it back again. C’mon, Marcus, get it together. They come to a mutual understanding where Franklin would help the Vindrizi and anyone looking to have a parasite installed and there’s something to be said for understanding people’s beliefs and willingness to give up their own lives for something they believe to be bigger than themselves. 

Susan is not happy when she concludes Marcus sent her the flowers and tosses them at him, who again takes this as a sign of affection from the rough and tumble Ivanova.

A lot of these episodes were there to get things into place for what’s about to happen. Some may seem minor and ho hum, but the idea is to get the players into position for what will be major conflicts. G’kar knows about Londo. The Nightwatch is becoming worse. The truth is out about the president. An alien parasite that documents history has taken an interest in humans. Corwin is a dork. Marcus is good under pressure. Most of these things are being established here for a reason.

I’ll continue talking about Babylon 5 season three next time!

The post Babylon 5 Season Three: “We Rise and Fall Together” appeared first on Dave Walsh.

Babylon 5: The Death of the Mind

Previously I touched upon Babylon 5 season three episodes one and two. Logically, this means I’m going into three and four now, which proves unique. Episode three and four are both largely self-contained episodes that don’t carry over much, but there’s still enough that makes them interesting. 

“A Day in the Strife”

This episode dances around topics like addiction and surprise, surprise, centrism. Yes, that is actually quite a surprise. The central plot point in this episode is that there’s a lot of stuff happening, including unrest among the trade unions and others aboard Babylon 5 when a mysterious probe enters B5 space and sets Ivanova on a strange task of answering questions to a purported superior race of beings, else a nuclear warhead aboard the probe blows the station into ash. 

What really works about this is they more or less play off how absurd this storyline is and how the stakes are seemingly high, but nobody takes it seriously only for it to go away. That really sounds like a waste of an episode, doesn’t it? Garibaldi suspects the good doctor is abusing stims to stay alert while he pulls extra shifts, so he invites him to dinner to confront him. It turns out, Garibaldi has a drinking problem and knows about handling it, so Doctor Franklin tells him he doesn’t have a problem and that Garibaldi hasn’t seen a bottle he didn’t find the bottom of. 

Ouch. 

But yeah, Franklin is hopped up on stims and is trying to help Ivanova and the bridge crew gather information for the probe. He’s pretty rude to everyone, and they’re all noticing how jumpy he is. Addiction is serious, and the show tries in earnest to handle the topic which feels mostly okay as the episodes wear on and Franklin’s stim usage becomes a more glaring problem. Here, though, it’s still early into the story and there’s not much to go on. 

The heart of this episode lies in the Narn, though. An envoy, Na’Far, arrives along with his bodyguard, the same one that was held hostage on an alien ship with the captain previously, which creates an interesting dynamic as we know this character and that he’s a relatively good, honorable person (well, alien). The envoy, though, was appointed by the Centauri and reports to them. He came to take G’kar back to Narn to stand trial, but had to deal with the crew and other ambassadors first. G’kar is a political refugee under their direct protection, and anything he did would have to be under his own will. Na’Far prostrates himself before Londo to gain access to G’kar, Londo reminding him about work camps, relocations, chain gangs and executions happening on that planet, much to Vir’s discomfort. Vir and Londo argue, furthering the rift between the two. But Na’Far gets his wish. This Narn, you see, is a moderate. He believes in slow, incremental change above the extreme actions of G’kar and the planet side resistance, clearly being led by G’kar. Unless G’kar turns himself in, the family members of the Narn aboard Babylon 5 will be (well, they already are) imprisoned until G’kar returns to the homeworld and stands trial. 

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Londo finds Delenn and attempts to have a civil conversation with her where he more or less dumps Vir off on the Minbari, claiming Vir has outlived his usefulness on Babylon 5 and could serve in the empty embassy role the Centauri have because they are, well, war mongers. Delenn warns him that Vir is his conscious, and Londo admits he cares about Vir, but wishes him to be away from all the awfulness happening around them. Delenn agrees but reminds Londo they were never really friends like he remembers and essentially he’s an awful person (alien). 

Absolutely no one wants G’kar to leave, where he’ll clearly be executed and made an example of, including Michael Garibaldi. That’s supposed to be a big deal because of how much of a pain in the ass G’kar is, but the reality is it’s very clear who’s right and who’s wrong here. This envoy preaches the Centauri have promised clemency for many, that G’kar may even live and that they’ll take care of the Narn people. G’kar protests that taking table scraps from their oppressors only increases their reliance upon them and that he has been getting them food and supplies already. Our friend Na’Far pleads with him, that yes, they deserve retribution and the Narn will rise again… but when the time is right, when something happens that is in the future and safer. Right now it isn’t safe.

I’ve never seen Babylon 5 as a politically progressive show. It’s a product of the time and reflects some of the progressive values of the era, while also reflecting a more militaristic world view where might makes right, but only smart might. Still, this is a truly damning look at what most Americans have gotten to know as liberal politics. At this very moment, the Democratic party is walking back its promise to voters that if they got control of the House, Senate and presidency, stimulus checks would fly out to the American people immediately. Instead, now, they’re counting the previous stimulus payment as a “down payment” on the promised sum. It’s in the name of bipartisanship in an era where partisan divide is so deep that shaving $600 off of pandemic stimulus leaves literally nobody content. It does nothing to “reach across the aisle” and promises that the way forward is slow, steady, and to push incremental change. 

We’re emerging from an era of rampant corruption, and most of us doubt there will be any reform whatsoever. As I write this, a Reddit board is attempting to manipulate the stock market to stick it to a few hedge funds, bankrupting one and causing chaos in our financial system in the process. It shows how easy it was for a relatively small group of people to disrupt a bedrock system that our country relies on and has been the casino for the ultra-wealthy for far too long. The relevance here is that our government is looking into ways to prevent this from happening again. No, not the already legally dubious short-selling, the “retail traders” being able to disrupt the market in such a simple, profound way. 

Na’Far is an agent of slow, incremental change. Na’Far believes in the doctrine of fear and not rocking the boat. Ultimately, his threat of imprisonment for the rebel Narn families pushes G’kar to sacrifice himself to return home and face his judgement. Na’Far has shamed and guilted G’kar into giving in to an occupying, oppressive force to protect the average person. What pushes him is seeing the other Narn attack Na’Far and accuse him of being a race traitor, one Narn looking to stab him in the back, which enrages G’kar. 

Na’Far asks them what could be more important than their safety.

Just when G’kar is ready to leave and sacrifice himself, the Narn step forward, one-by-one, telling G’kar to stay. He’s confused, don’t they want their families to be safe? It turns out that they want their families to be free. What point is safety without a promise of freedom? Na’Far offers nothing but empty promises, and his leadership over the Narn resistance would mean the end of any resistance whatsoever. It takes Ta’Lon, Sheridan’s pal, stepping forward and unsheathing his sword to stop G’kar in his tracks. He points out it’s a ceremonial blade that, once unsheathed, can only be put away once it draws blood. Ta’Lon then explains that in a fight between the two of them it would be an unfair one because Ta’Lon has his blade, but G’kar has two weapons: his heart and his mind, making it an unfair fight. G’kar has heard enough and will stay, Ta’Lon draws his own blood to satisfy tradition.

The probe thing? Yeah, they got most of the information they needed and Sheridan decided just to not send it because it made absolutely no sense that a race with advanced technology would kill lesser races instead of kill advanced ones that pose a threat. Like those on Babylon 5. So they transmit nothing, it backs away, then they send a loader bot out with the answers loaded onto it, which explodes, proving Sheridan’s point.

Hooray. Oh, and Vir leaves. Londo and he just stare at each other. It’s pretty tense.

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This episode is… different. 

While self-contained, it takes another bold stance on the idea of punishment and redemption. In the last piece I wrote about B5, I talked about this idea of redemption and how not everyone is owed redemption. 

Lyta Alexander returns from her voyage to the Vorlon homeworld, remarkably different, even passing by Londo in the hallway without seeming to notice him, only to get angry at him when he stops her to have a conversation. The return of a strong telepath coincides with the concept of a “death of personality,” where instead of the death penalty, the worst of the worst criminals are subjected to a process where a telepath wipes their memories and personality, replacing them with suggestions that they need to serve their community instead. 

It turns out, there’s a holy order of monks aboard the station and Sheridan plays chess with the leader, while Brother Edward looks on. Brother Edward, it turns out, is one of the people who went through death of personality for his crimes. He was a serial killer who was then given over to the order to serve out the rest of his life as a monk where he studies religion, helps people and makes little crystal sculptures. 

Edward engages with Lennier and Delenn to share ideas about their religions, which leads to him talking about Jesus and the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus could have fled before he was arrested and executed, but he instead remained strong and faced his judgement. Delenn wanted to see someone who’d been through that death of personality firsthand, confused as to how humane of a punishment it was. It’s a rather extreme punishment. 

Brother Edward is haunted by visions and bloody letters etched into the walls, this episode playing out like a horror movie in parts. Edward is confronted by messages alluding to his true personality, objects that should trigger his memories like a black rose, and even a staged scene of a woman on the ground with a rose between her teeth. This pushes him to investigate and discover who he really is: a cold-blooded killer who was sentenced to death of personality. Of course, nobody really understood who Edward was or what he’d done before this, the monks not caring where their members came from, just that they were good people.

By all accounts, Brother Edward was a kind, caring person who devoted his life to helping people. He was a far stretch from the black rose killer of the past. Still, he grappled with this revelation before he was finally confronted by families of the victims, looking for revenge. Nobody wishes to kill him anymore, except for one guy. By the time the gang finds him, it’s too late, he’s quite literally crucified and near-death when they find him. His attacker shows zero remorse over his actions, and nobody seems happy here. Brother Edward passes into the unknown, assured by Brother Theo that he was forgiven for his sins and a good person, that redemption was possible. The killer had hired a Centauri telepath to muddle with Edward’s programming and help him remember as much as he could, who Lyta could extralegally extract information from because hey, she’s a rogue now! 

Brother Edward’s death at least came with talk about the Garden of Gethsemane, where he didn’t know if he’d have that same courage, but he did. He faced down his past before dying, an important lesson that leads us into his killer stepping forward in the last scene, mind wiped, a new member of the order. Sheridan is uneasy, but Brother Theo reminds him of Brother Edward with one last, unfinished sculpture that he wanted Sheridan to have.

The episode closes with Kosh traveling from Lyta’s body back into Kosh’s body through a sort of violent transfer that leaves her drained.

What we can take away from this episode is the idea of redemption and confronting the wrongdoings of our own pasts. Brother Edward was haunted by his past as a killer, but once presented with it, stood firm on who he was and his beliefs, thus “redeemed” in the eyes of Brother Theo. Only for his killer to take his place in the order, thus continuing the cycle. We’re meant to be uneasy with this transfer. 

Was Brother Edward redeemed? I don’t know. Brother Edward was an entirely different person at that point. It’s definitely a view on crime and punishment and meant to provoke thought in the least, discussion at most, about what punishment and reform should look like.

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