I could not believe that we found out Delenn started the war and then she just... never... told Sheridan... and that was okay??
RIGHT? And I suppose it is not exactly out of character for her to not tell him stuff, but still! Especially when the only plausible character and narrative reason not to is "she knows he wouldn't be able to forgive her for it".
That said, it also does feel sometimes as if Sheridan avoids trying to find out much about her past, compared to Sinclair who is already looking up what "Satai" means and piecing things together before he gets sent off the station. So I could buy that Sheridan has worked out enough to realise that she must have had some fairly important position on her world beyond ambassador, and might have been involved in the war to some extent, and he'd rather just not know the details. But even so I feel like her actually starting the war is not something he'd suspect, and really something he needs to know about at least before they get married!
there's a sense in which I felt like the way JMS dealt with that in Delenn/Sheridan is by sort of papering it over by just being like, well, guess they don't really understand each other because cultural differences, or Sheridan just gives in to Delenn or vice versa without them talking through it at all
And it sometimes comes across like "ah well but the main thing is they're so much in love that none of the rest of this matters past the odd comedy misunderstanding!", which I get is supposed to be sweet but, er, is not really how people work. So in this AU I did like playing around with the idea of what would happen if you were trying to negotiate a very ritualised approach to marriage where you did actually have to negotiate as if it really mattered, and couldn't be like "this is a deeply important ritual for my people but you just sit there and we'll work around you" like she does with Sheridan.
I am really glad you liked it! I do like writing bits of this one.
just so you know I am requesting Neroon and probably Branmer and maybe Delenn/Neroon for ToT
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RIGHT? And I suppose it is not exactly out of character for her to not tell him stuff, but still! Especially when the only plausible character and narrative reason not to is "she knows he wouldn't be able to forgive her for it".
That said, it also does feel sometimes as if Sheridan avoids trying to find out much about her past, compared to Sinclair who is already looking up what "Satai" means and piecing things together before he gets sent off the station. So I could buy that Sheridan has worked out enough to realise that she must have had some fairly important position on her world beyond ambassador, and might have been involved in the war to some extent, and he'd rather just not know the details. But even so I feel like her actually starting the war is not something he'd suspect, and really something he needs to know about at least before they get married!
there's a sense in which I felt like the way JMS dealt with that in Delenn/Sheridan is by sort of papering it over by just being like, well, guess they don't really understand each other because cultural differences, or Sheridan just gives in to Delenn or vice versa without them talking through it at all
And it sometimes comes across like "ah well but the main thing is they're so much in love that none of the rest of this matters past the odd comedy misunderstanding!", which I get is supposed to be sweet but, er, is not really how people work. So in this AU I did like playing around with the idea of what would happen if you were trying to negotiate a very ritualised approach to marriage where you did actually have to negotiate as if it really mattered, and couldn't be like "this is a deeply important ritual for my people but you just sit there and we'll work around you" like she does with Sheridan.
I am really glad you liked it! I do like writing bits of this one.
just so you know I am requesting Neroon and probably Branmer and maybe Delenn/Neroon for ToT
ahhhhhh what is this how do I sign up?