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rivendellroseDear fellow Babylon 5 fans... I have come to a crisis-point. I've always been a faithful defendant of the character of Marcus Cole. I know some of you disagree with me on this one, but I genuinely think the poor guy gets a bad rap in fandom - yes, he's pretty well broken. But so's everyone else on the show.
However, a little trip through the B5 Wiki has caught me on something that kind of... well... My first impulse is to say that JMS is really a cruel and slightly twisted son of a bitch. Unfair, I know. But really... umm.... I don't know what else to say about this:
Marcus' story concludes in "Space, Time & the Incurable Romantic", a short story written by JMS and published in Amazing Stories #602. It takes place hundreds of years after the series ends. Marcus (still preserved in cryogenic suspension) is revived when the homeworld of those who built the life-energy transfer machine was found. He then proceeds to create a clone of Ivanova by enlisting one of Garibaldi's descendants to help him. Endowing it with her exact memories by stealing the scans done of her memory, he then strands them on a desolate and uncharted world with the intent of living "happily ever after" together. There are significant moral questions raised by his actions in this story, but JMS has been quoted as "wishing to give the character the happy ending he deserves" while at the same time raising the type of ethical question that Bablyon 5 is famous for (my bolding).
...If that's a happy ending, maybe I should be happy that he decided to be spiteful (again, here's me being unfair to JMS... but I don't care. I call the whole "oops, Telepath War!" thing pretty lame) on the subject of one of my other favorite characters. I'm sorry, but... can we say "creepy," boys and girls?
*Eyes Marcus icon with some misgivings* Cloning of one's would-be-love is not okay, Marcus. And if one should happen to make that decision, unwise as it would seem to be, it is really not a good idea to then strand oneself and one's love on a 'desolate and uncharted' planet. Especially not if one's love happens to be... Ivanova. Unless he also did some tinkering with her personality while he was doing the memory transfer, I'm betting Marcus didn't live long after she figured out what he'd done. Romance is one thing, but I can't imagine Ivanova taking that well.
And to think, sometimes I think the fandom does creepy things with these characters. We've got nothing on their owner. o_O
However, a little trip through the B5 Wiki has caught me on something that kind of... well... My first impulse is to say that JMS is really a cruel and slightly twisted son of a bitch. Unfair, I know. But really... umm.... I don't know what else to say about this:
Marcus' story concludes in "Space, Time & the Incurable Romantic", a short story written by JMS and published in Amazing Stories #602. It takes place hundreds of years after the series ends. Marcus (still preserved in cryogenic suspension) is revived when the homeworld of those who built the life-energy transfer machine was found. He then proceeds to create a clone of Ivanova by enlisting one of Garibaldi's descendants to help him. Endowing it with her exact memories by stealing the scans done of her memory, he then strands them on a desolate and uncharted world with the intent of living "happily ever after" together. There are significant moral questions raised by his actions in this story, but JMS has been quoted as "wishing to give the character the happy ending he deserves" while at the same time raising the type of ethical question that Bablyon 5 is famous for (my bolding).
...If that's a happy ending, maybe I should be happy that he decided to be spiteful (again, here's me being unfair to JMS... but I don't care. I call the whole "oops, Telepath War!" thing pretty lame) on the subject of one of my other favorite characters. I'm sorry, but... can we say "creepy," boys and girls?
*Eyes Marcus icon with some misgivings* Cloning of one's would-be-love is not okay, Marcus. And if one should happen to make that decision, unwise as it would seem to be, it is really not a good idea to then strand oneself and one's love on a 'desolate and uncharted' planet. Especially not if one's love happens to be... Ivanova. Unless he also did some tinkering with her personality while he was doing the memory transfer, I'm betting Marcus didn't live long after she figured out what he'd done. Romance is one thing, but I can't imagine Ivanova taking that well.
And to think, sometimes I think the fandom does creepy things with these characters. We've got nothing on their owner. o_O
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Date: 2006-11-05 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-05 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 06:35 pm (UTC)*cough*if you want to read the story I might have all the B5 short stories in a Word document*cough*
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Date: 2006-11-06 07:33 pm (UTC)*Coughs*I would definitely be interested in that.*Coughs* Alas, the things one misses coming late to a fandom... It's sad being late on all the good gossip. ;)
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Date: 2006-11-13 12:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 05:58 pm (UTC)Not at all! I'll have to add you back, I love having new people on my f-list!
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Date: 2006-11-08 01:23 pm (UTC)That being said, here's a fan story that actually makes me feel better about the whole thing. It picks up where JMS left off, raises some really interesting questions, & left me in a place that felt right.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/71992/1/
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Date: 2006-11-08 06:51 pm (UTC)Ooo, yay, new fic to read! *Bounces* Thank you!