Thursday, April 08, 2010

My Favorite Babylon 5 Character

My favorite character from Babylon 5 is Vir Cotto, played by Stephen Furst. He serves as comedy relief -- an awkward, clownish character out of his depth in interstellar politics. But Vir is utterly incorruptible. Although other, more cunning people, such as Londo Mollari and G'Kar, succumb to temptation, Vir refuses to make any moral compromises, ever. From the beginning, he correctly identifies the mysterious Morden as an agent of great evil and repeatedly warns Londo that his alliances of necessity will doom him and the Centauri Republic. And during the occupation of Narn, Vir risks his life to create phony documents that help 2,000 Narns escape the Centauri genocide.

Here is Vir in In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum, not just resisting temptation, but stomping it flat:


Later in the series, he got what he wanted:

3 comments:

Kevin R said...

Love Vir. I guess there's no need to be coy about spoilers if we're showing Morden's head, so I'll go ahead and say that Vir killing Cartagia is one of my favorite moments.

My favorite character is probably Londo though. Also like Marcus. I guess I have a thing for the tragic characters.

Divers and Sundry said...

I live for the one. I die for the one.

I love Susan Ivanova.

John said...

Killing Cartagia -- another glorious Vir moment.

Londo would be #2. The grand story of his innocence, fall from grace, redemption, fall from grace, and redemption in death is magnificently told.

Susan is awesome. One of my favorite lines:

"Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance and the boot that is going to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart! I am death incarnate, and the last living thing that you will ever see. God sent me."