I really love this pairing and they seem so very difficult to write, so complex to capture the mundane agonies two people in a marriage can inflict on each other while still caring despite it all. I'm impressed with how fairly you write them, as there are plenty of moments in this story that they take turns seeming pretty unbearable to live with. :)
Gradually, she began to understand why Centauri men didn’t mind the arranged marriages, the often cool relationships, nearly as much as the women did. It allowed them to perfect the art of lovemaking undistracted by anything as bothersome as obligation, or embarrassment, or – gods, forbid! – love.
Ouch. This makes perfect sense as a society--disentangling sex from love and turning sex into a sort of craft one can perfect seems very Centauri.
The next morning she stalked across to his bedroom, half expecting to find the new wife-to be draped across the sheets; yet the bed was empty, and stayed empty, for the better part of the following year.
It kind of broke my heart that Londo put off taking another wife as long as he did, even in the face of Timov's careful disinterest. That was the point I disliked her the most, although he made up for it with the job lecture. :P
It had formed a much-needed counterweight for the attentions of one Vir Cotto, who wouldn’t know the word ‘detached’ when forced to utter it at knifepoint.
Oh Lord, that's such a good description of Vir. "Detached" is not his thing, not at all.
Londo was as physical a person as any telepath, so to deny him even those small comforts of the flesh was not only thoughtless, it was downright sadistic.
Augh, her empathy for him here, and the way she intuitively understands how bound he is without knowing the full story...it kills me.
His arms are too short, she thought vaguely, too short just by an inch; just like his reach had always been an inch too short to embrace his hearts’ desire, and he’d ended up claiming another’s desires for his own.
That's a wonderful summary of poor Londo, his reach always exceeding his grasp by just the tinest amount, the most fatal amount.
You catch everything I like about these two together, all sharp edges and reluctant empathy right when it's far too late for it. *sigh* B5 is definitely the go-to fandom for tragic romance, isn't it? Beyond Delenn/Sheridan, it's a pretty bleak landscape...
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Date: 2009-09-28 02:21 pm (UTC)Gradually, she began to understand why Centauri men didn’t mind the arranged marriages, the often cool relationships, nearly as much as the women did. It allowed them to perfect the art of lovemaking undistracted by anything as bothersome as obligation, or embarrassment, or – gods, forbid! – love.
Ouch. This makes perfect sense as a society--disentangling sex from love and turning sex into a sort of craft one can perfect seems very Centauri.
The next morning she stalked across to his bedroom, half expecting to find the new wife-to be draped across the sheets; yet the bed was empty, and stayed empty, for the better part of the following year.
It kind of broke my heart that Londo put off taking another wife as long as he did, even in the face of Timov's careful disinterest. That was the point I disliked her the most, although he made up for it with the job lecture. :P
It had formed a much-needed counterweight for the attentions of one Vir Cotto, who wouldn’t know the word ‘detached’ when forced to utter it at knifepoint.
Oh Lord, that's such a good description of Vir. "Detached" is not his thing, not at all.
Londo was as physical a person as any telepath, so to deny him even those small comforts of the flesh was not only thoughtless, it was downright sadistic.
Augh, her empathy for him here, and the way she intuitively understands how bound he is without knowing the full story...it kills me.
His arms are too short, she thought vaguely, too short just by an inch; just like his reach had always been an inch too short to embrace his hearts’ desire, and he’d ended up claiming another’s desires for his own.
That's a wonderful summary of poor Londo, his reach always exceeding his grasp by just the tinest amount, the most fatal amount.
You catch everything I like about these two together, all sharp edges and reluctant empathy right when it's far too late for it. *sigh* B5 is definitely the go-to fandom for tragic romance, isn't it? Beyond Delenn/Sheridan, it's a pretty bleak landscape...