B5 meta stuff
Apr. 24th, 2005 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eye_of_a_catI was wondering what I'd answer for that character types meme, and ended up thinking Delenn would appear on the list of types I liked and the list of types I didn't (in canon and fanon incarnations respectively). And this seems like a long way to drift, especially for a main character who gets a lot of screen time, but there's really a huge difference - canon Delenn is one of my favourite characters, but fanon Delenn is probably my most disliked part of the B5 universe, Lennier's diary included.
So, musings about Delenn(s).
(And with a disclaimer: while it's entirely possible that my perceptions of Delenn are completely in error and the fanon version is a lot more consistent with canon, I'm not going to pretend to argue from the perspective of trying to work out whether this is the case, since that would seem a bit disingenuous.)
Starting the Earth-Minbari War was a really, really big thing. It doesn't matter that she was upset or that Dukhat was dead or that the war was called off before humanity got wiped out; she started it, and she bears the responsibility for starting it, and this matters. One of the reasons fanon Delenn doesn't appeal to me so much is that the war is hardly ever presented as a big thing, and although her angst usually centres around Sheridan, it's not in the context of what either of them did in the past. This bothers me on a couple of levels, but mostly it just results in a not-very-interesting character - there doesn't seem to be very much of Delenn that isn't tied up with her past.
So, the Delenn I like to write (and read) about is responsible for the war, and motivated in the present by her guilt and responsibility in the past. (And I don't think she's solely responsible, or that she forced anybody to fight, but the fact that other people are to blame as well doesn't make her responsibility any less.) Which means I think Atonement and In the Beginning are attempts to exonerate her to some degree, which, admittedly, does sound like 'canon is wrong and I am right'. Fanon Delenn is guiltless because Atonement and ItB are fair and correct - she started the war in a moment of madness, regretted it straight away, and was too young and unimportant to stop it happening. I don't think this is exactly a lie in that she made up the story, but I think it is important that the only time we see this story is through her memories, and that these are not an entirely accurate picture of her past.
That 'moment of madness' thing, too. In quite a few of the discussions on Delenn's role in starting the war that I was reading on Usenet groups of a while ago, the word 'weak' gets used a lot and that's described as a 'moment of weakness', which I thought was interesting. I don't think it is a moment of weakness, first - not that it doesn't take strength to refuse the opportunity for violent revenge in that kind of situation, but ordering war also involves strength and power, and 'strong' is not interchangeable with 'good'. But it does make her look less guilty here, if her command was a failing to do well enough rather than a choice to do the wrong thing entirely; also, it sets up the situation for her to look less guilty later, because if she can get described as 'weak' here then she might well not be in a place to stop the war. (I think the words she uses herself in Atonement are 'a moment of rage', which seems a lot more accurate.)
But canon Delenn isn't weak, really, not here or anywhere else. We see her looking intimidated and out of her depth in the Atonement flashback, but this is when she's standing before Dukhat himself and the entire Grey Council for the first time - I don't see any suggestion that she'd be like that in any less intimidating context, and not by the time the war starts. Atonement and ItB imply that everyone else on Minbar except Delenn wanted war, and she was helpless against it. And yes, she's the most junior member of the Grey Council, but she's the most junior member of the Grey Council - she's still one of the most powerful Minbari alive. She was chosen by Dukhat as his replacement, and now Dukhat is dead. Her word counts for something. And besides, if she had wanted to stop the war soon after giving the order, we already know half of the Grey Council voted against it - it doesn't make sense that she couldn't have tried to stop things.
In Ceremonies of Light and Dark, she gives that speech about Minbari always doing things together
So, musings about Delenn(s).
(And with a disclaimer: while it's entirely possible that my perceptions of Delenn are completely in error and the fanon version is a lot more consistent with canon, I'm not going to pretend to argue from the perspective of trying to work out whether this is the case, since that would seem a bit disingenuous.)
Starting the Earth-Minbari War was a really, really big thing. It doesn't matter that she was upset or that Dukhat was dead or that the war was called off before humanity got wiped out; she started it, and she bears the responsibility for starting it, and this matters. One of the reasons fanon Delenn doesn't appeal to me so much is that the war is hardly ever presented as a big thing, and although her angst usually centres around Sheridan, it's not in the context of what either of them did in the past. This bothers me on a couple of levels, but mostly it just results in a not-very-interesting character - there doesn't seem to be very much of Delenn that isn't tied up with her past.
So, the Delenn I like to write (and read) about is responsible for the war, and motivated in the present by her guilt and responsibility in the past. (And I don't think she's solely responsible, or that she forced anybody to fight, but the fact that other people are to blame as well doesn't make her responsibility any less.) Which means I think Atonement and In the Beginning are attempts to exonerate her to some degree, which, admittedly, does sound like 'canon is wrong and I am right'. Fanon Delenn is guiltless because Atonement and ItB are fair and correct - she started the war in a moment of madness, regretted it straight away, and was too young and unimportant to stop it happening. I don't think this is exactly a lie in that she made up the story, but I think it is important that the only time we see this story is through her memories, and that these are not an entirely accurate picture of her past.
That 'moment of madness' thing, too. In quite a few of the discussions on Delenn's role in starting the war that I was reading on Usenet groups of a while ago, the word 'weak' gets used a lot and that's described as a 'moment of weakness', which I thought was interesting. I don't think it is a moment of weakness, first - not that it doesn't take strength to refuse the opportunity for violent revenge in that kind of situation, but ordering war also involves strength and power, and 'strong' is not interchangeable with 'good'. But it does make her look less guilty here, if her command was a failing to do well enough rather than a choice to do the wrong thing entirely; also, it sets up the situation for her to look less guilty later, because if she can get described as 'weak' here then she might well not be in a place to stop the war. (I think the words she uses herself in Atonement are 'a moment of rage', which seems a lot more accurate.)
But canon Delenn isn't weak, really, not here or anywhere else. We see her looking intimidated and out of her depth in the Atonement flashback, but this is when she's standing before Dukhat himself and the entire Grey Council for the first time - I don't see any suggestion that she'd be like that in any less intimidating context, and not by the time the war starts. Atonement and ItB imply that everyone else on Minbar except Delenn wanted war, and she was helpless against it. And yes, she's the most junior member of the Grey Council, but she's the most junior member of the Grey Council - she's still one of the most powerful Minbari alive. She was chosen by Dukhat as his replacement, and now Dukhat is dead. Her word counts for something. And besides, if she had wanted to stop the war soon after giving the order, we already know half of the Grey Council voted against it - it doesn't make sense that she couldn't have tried to stop things.
In Ceremonies of Light and Dark, she gives that speech about Minbari always doing things together
