TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-15 11:16 am
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TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-15 11:06 am
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TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-15 10:47 am
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TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-15 09:49 am
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xkcd.com ([syndicated profile] xkcd_feed) wrote2025-07-14 04:00 am
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slacktivist ([syndicated profile] slacktivist_feed) wrote2025-07-15 03:12 am
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-07-14 11:43 pm
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Happy Bastille Day!



May the prison you liberate have more than seven prisoners.
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TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-15 12:07 am
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Whatever ([syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed) wrote2025-07-14 07:32 pm
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I’m Posting Some Recent Charcuterie Spreads I Did, For No Other Reason Than I Feel Like Showing Y’al

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/14/im-posting-some-recent-charcuterie-spreads-i-did-for-no-other-reason-than-i-feeling-like-showing-yall/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56408

I’ve been making more charcuterie boards than usual lately, and I’d like to think practice makes fairly decent, so I’d like to show y’all some of my recent spreads I’ve done for gatherings and parties and whatnot. I usually post them on Instagram and Bluesky, but just in case you missed them, you can get your fix right here and now!

For the 4th of July I was in Texas, and my friend hosted a party, for which I volunteered to supply some snackage for. Here’s the charcuterie board:

A large wooden serving board covered with meats and cheeses. There's a salami rose, a river of prosciutto, cubed Munster, triangular sliced chimichurri Gouda, rustically crumbled Kerrygold aged cheddar, a log of fig and honey goat cheese, a wheel of Brie, a small bowl of Castelvetrano olives, candied pecans, cherries, and small mounds of honeycomb scattered around, plus a tiny jar of Mike's Hot Honey.

For this board, I used prosciutto, salami, Munster, Kerrygold aged cheddar, Brie, chimichurri gouda, fig and honey goat cheese, candied pecans, Castelvetrano olives, Mike’s Hot Honey, Honeycomb, and cherries. Everything on there except the pecans I picked up at H.E.B.

This was the rest of what I served:

The charcuterie board from the previous photo is the main focus of this shot of the entire spread of food on a large butcher block counter. There's also a bowl of salsa and guacamole alongside a bowl of tortilla chips. There's a plate of watermelon, feta, and mint salad, plus a plate full of Caprese skewers. There's also a serving board of crackers on the far side to accompany the charcuterie board.

While the salsa and guac I bought pre-made from H.E.B., I did assemble the watermelon, feta, and mint salad and drizzled it with honey, and put together the caprese skewers with balsamic glaze. I honestly think this turned out really well! I was very happy with my summery salad and light bites.

Just a few days ago I got my AppyHour Box (which I have regrettably not been doing posts over lately!) and decided to make a little board for my dad and his friend that was visiting from out of town.

A long and narrow stone serving board filled to the brim with meats and cheeses. There's crumbled Togarashi cheese, a river of coppa, crumbled aged gouda, sliced smoked goat cheese, and a mound of prosciutto. There's handfuls of dried cherries around, as well as two mini jam jars that I forgot to take the lids off of for the shot.

This board consisted of a Togarashi cheese, an aged gouda, a smoked goat cheese, dried cherries, coppa, and prosciutto (I think it was a Calabrian Chili prosciutto?). The two jams I forgot to take the lids off of are a caramelized pear and honey spread, and a raspberry hibiscus jam. I thought this was a cute little lunch for my dad and his guest, and I’m glad the enjoyed it.

Finally, this past weekend, I hosted a friend’s baby shower at the church. She said she expected around fifty people to attend, and I can say with confidence I’ve never tried to make a spread for that many people before. I was definitely intimidated, but I was determined to make an approachable spread that would appeal to the masses and not spend hundreds of dollars doing it.

I didn’t capture everything, but here’s the gist of how it turned out:

A long white counter covered in parchment paper with a ton of food on top of it. There's a vegetable assortment consisting of carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and bell peppers, all surrounding a dish of dill dip. There's a bowl of salsa visible, plus some crackers in the shot, too. At the far end there is a charcuterie section that I will go into detail of in the next photo.

And of course, a close up:

A giant salami rose is the main focus of the charcuterie spread, the middle of which is filled with some prosciutto. It's surrounded by crumbled Asiago, rosemary almonds, cubed jalapeno havarti, grapes, a log fig goat cheese, more prosciutto, cherries, crumbled cranberry cheddar, and pimento stuffed olives. There's also a fig and orange spread, and whole grain mustard.

The spread contained Asiago, jalapeno Havarti, fig goat cheese, cranberry cheddar, smoked cheddar, cherries, grapes, rosemary almonds,  chocolate covered almonds, hard salami, prosciutto, pimento stuffed olives, fig spread, and whole grain mustard.

There was also cucumbers, bell peppers, baby carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, dill dip, salsa, tortilla chips, garden vegetable entertainment crackers, fig and sesame crisps, honey mustard mini pretzels, rosemary flatbread crackers, coconut macaroons, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered shortbread cookies, and chocolate covered Belgian waffle cookies.

Other than the tortilla chips, whole grain mustard, fig spread, rosemary almonds, and chocolate covered pretzels, I bought everything at Aldi, and despite buying doubles if not three of absolutely everything I listed, my total came out to $220. I was able to make this huge spread and refill it when it got low and feed 50 guests for just over $200. Who knew Aldi was so cool?! I spent about fifty bucks more than that on my spread for the Texas party, and that was only to feed about ten people.

The best thing on the spread from Aldi was the honey mustard mini pretzels, or the chocolate covered waffle cookies. I am definitely going to be stopping at Aldi more often for some surprisingly cheap and yummy treats.

What item looks the best to you? What’s your go-to cheese to serve for entertaining guests? Am I the only one who didn’t realize how neat Aldi was? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/14/im-posting-some-recent-charcuterie-spreads-i-did-for-no-other-reason-than-i-feeling-like-showing-yall/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56408

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Schneier on Security ([syndicated profile] bruce_schneier_feed) wrote2025-07-14 06:46 pm
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TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-14 06:30 pm
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Penny Arcade ([syndicated profile] pennyarcade_feed) wrote2025-07-14 05:12 pm
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Tony Hurk

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/07/14/tony-hurk

Gabriel buying the new old Tony Hawk game on PC of all places must be considered my final victory over the man. Nought remains now but to choose a new nemesis - or even nemeses! Good luck trying to replace a hobgoblin like the Mork with a single foe. It's either gonna have to be a team of people, like with a shared Gcal or something, or I'm gonna have to war with a timeless concept like "hunger" just to get the same high.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/07/14/tony-hurk

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Reactor ([syndicated profile] tordotcom_feed) wrote2025-07-14 06:20 pm
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Tom Holland Says Spider-Man: Brand New Day Will Go “Old School,” in a Good Way

Posted by Vanessa Armstrong

https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/

https://reactormag.com/?p=818207

News Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Tom Holland Says Spider-Man: Brand New Day Will Go “Old School,” in a Good Way

The movie starts production in Glasgow later this month.

By

Published on July 14, 2025

Screenshot: Marvel Studios

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Vanessa Armstrong</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/">https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=818207">https://reactormag.com/?p=818207</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/news/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag News 0"> News </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/spider-man-brand-new-day/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Spider-Man: Brand New Day 1"> Spider-Man: Brand New Day </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Tom Holland Says <i>Spider-Man: Brand New Day</i> Will Go “Old School,” in a Good Way</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">The movie starts production in Glasgow later this month.</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/vanessa-armstrong/" title="Posts by Vanessa Armstrong" class="author url fn" rel="author">Vanessa Armstrong</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on July 14, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Screenshot: Marvel Studios</p> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] tablet:hidden"> <div class="flex gap-[30px] tablet:gap-6"> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/#comments" class="flex items-center text-sm font-aktiv tracking-[0.6px] font-semibold uppercase translate-x-[1px] translate-y-[1px]"> <svg class="w-[22px] h-[22px] mr-[7px] icon-hover" viewbox="0 0 18 18" aria-label="comment" role="img" aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="icon-comment-quick-access-"> <title id="icon-comment-quick-access-">Comment</title> <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> <path fill="#FFF" fill-rule="nonzero" d="M6.3 18a.9.9 0 0 1-.9-.9v-2.7H1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 0 12.6V1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 1.8 0h14.4A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 18 1.8v10.8a1.8 1.8 0 0 1-1.8 1.8h-5.49l-3.33 3.339a.917.917 0 0 1-.63.261H6.3Z" /> <path stroke="#000" d="M5.9 14.4v-.5H1.8a1.3 1.3 0 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Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home-final-fight-740x416.png 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home-final-fight-1100x619.png 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home-final-fight-768x432.png 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Spider-Man-No-Way-Home-final-fight.png 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Screenshot: Marvel Studios</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p>The fourth Spider-Man film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, <em><a href="https://reactormag.com/the-next-spider-man-movie-has-a-title/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spider-Man: Brand New Day</a></em>, is slowly moving toward production, and Peter Parker himself (aka Tom Holland) shared how this MCU film will be different than the last one, <em>No Way Home</em>.</p> <p>In an interview with <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMEKovBtK4d/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Flip Your Wig</a> (via <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/tom-holland-reveals-how-difficult-shooting-spider-man-no-way-home-was-and-how-that-will-change-for-brand-new-day" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IGN</a>), Holland said that playing Spidey again was like meeting up with an old pal, and that shooting for <em>Brand New Day </em>will be a breath of fresh air compared to <em>No Way Home</em>, since the latter was shot largely on stages due to Covid. “Now, we’re really going to lean into that old school filmmaking, and shoot in real locations,” he said, adding that this fourth film will feel more like the first one (<a href="https://reactormag.com/spider-man-homecoming-has-the-clearest-vision-of-spider-mans-most-important-message/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2017’s <em>Spider-Man: Homecoming</em></a>) than the previous sequels. <em>Brand New Day</em> will also see some new faces in a Spider-Man film: <em>Stranger Things</em> actor <a href="https://reactormag.com/sadie-sink-to-star-alongside-tom-holland-in-next-spider-man-movie/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sadie Sink will star in the film with Holland,</a> and <a href="https://reactormag.com/jon-bernthal-spider-man-brand-new-day/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jon Bernthal&#8217;s Punisher will also be in the movie</a>.</p> <p><em>Spider-Man: Brand New Day</em> begins filming in Glasgow later this month, and Holland also said that the reason they were “starting in Glasgow” is because the crew were putting together “a massive set piece” there. Glasgow is often used in films as a stand-in for New York City, so that news isn’t too surprising, but it’s nice to see the production make it clear that they’re moving away from CGI-ed sets when and where they can.</p> <p>We’ll still have to wait about a year to see the film in theaters: <em>Spider-Man: Brand New Day</em> is currently set to premiere on July 31, 2026. The wait, Holland promises, will be worth it. “I think the fans are going to be over the moon with what we’re putting together,” he said.[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/">Tom Holland Says &lt;i&gt;Spider-Man: Brand New Day&lt;/i&gt; Will Go “Old School,” in a Good Way</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/">https://reactormag.com/tom-holland-says-spider-man-brand-new-day-will-go-old-school-in-a-good-way/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=818207">https://reactormag.com/?p=818207</a></p>
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Reactor ([syndicated profile] tordotcom_feed) wrote2025-07-14 06:00 pm
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Why Do I Love Charts? Let Me Count the Ways.

Posted by Sarah

https://reactormag.com/why-do-i-love-charts-let-me-count-the-ways/

https://reactormag.com/?p=818034

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Why Do I Love Charts? Let Me Count the Ways.

Charts hold back chaos, and we should sing their praises!

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Published on July 14, 2025

Photo by Niko Nieminen [via Unsplash]

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Photo of a fountain pen and a printout of a generic pie chart

Photo by Niko Nieminen [via Unsplash]

In my quest to work through all the tabletop roleplaying games that I own but have never run, I am currently gamemastering Fabula Ultima. Part of the attraction is that FU encourages a collaborative approach between players and gamemaster, an approach with which I am not especially comfortable. Personal character growth (for me at least) is inevitable.

In accordance with the collaborative narrativist spirit of the game, I have dialed back my control freak tendencies, which is why, while my master player character chart lists names, core stats, figured stats, defensive stats, classes and which class abilities each PC possesses, it does not detail what each ability does, nor does it list spells1.

All of which brings me to my question: Why are charts so cool2?

On a personal level, the charts I create for tabletop roleplaying games3 are a means of circumventing unreliable memory. All the character names are right there at my fingertips… provided I remember to open the relevant file. The charts I create for the works I review serve a similar purpose as I juggle a number of often incompatible review goals. Much the same is true for charts documenting the books I receive, especially since I don’t seem to have object permanence for ebooks.

More interestingly, a well-designed chart will highlight patterns that might otherwise be overlooked. This ensures that I do not, for example, build an entire scenario around player character abilities that none of the PCs actually have4, or spend an entire year without reviewing any books by women, or, on a more positive note, determine that no single publisher had a lock on Best Novel Nebula Awards, reveal that SFF authors prefer oligarchies to other forms of government, and that publishers currently seem oddly shy about unambiguously labeling books as part of series. Or, in what was for me an astonishing finding, that charts tracking absences are extremely confusing for most people. I didn’t know that! But now I do.

Most importantly, a well-designed, well-presented chart is a thing of beauty. What could possibly match the endorphin rush triggered by glorious data presented in an eye-catching, easily-comprehended format? Charts to order chaos, they illuminate an often-murky world, they make us as gods5!

At least, that’s why I love charts. No doubt there are dozens of equally compelling reasons to adore charts6. If I’ve overlooked your favorites, feel free to mention them below.[end-mark]

  1. Yet. ↩︎
  2. I know not everyone realizes that they think charts are cool. Charts are like broccoli, or liver, something everyone adores provided only that they are presented correctly. ↩︎
  3. You know how many older persons encounter some minor change that turns out to be their personal final straw? Having to remember to prepend “tabletop” to roleplaying games lest people think I am talking about computer games comes close to being that for me. ↩︎
  4. Ah, memories of the moment in a Traveller campaign where we realized that while we had a functioning starship, none of the remaining player characters had the navigation skill needed to get it safely from star to star. ↩︎
  5. And provide us with a deeper appreciation for the design choice that leads Excel to default to treating all data as dates. ↩︎
  6. Those long-suffering persons who languish under my house management skills at the theater would point out that the chart I create documenting when they worked and for how long plays an important role in their getting paid. Remember, money can be exchanged for goods and services! ↩︎

The post Why Do I Love Charts? Let Me Count the Ways. appeared first on Reactor.

https://reactormag.com/why-do-i-love-charts-let-me-count-the-ways/

https://reactormag.com/?p=818034

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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-07-14 02:14 pm
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james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-07-14 02:08 pm
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Bundle of Holding: Hearts of Wulin



This new Hearts of Wulin Bundle presents Hearts of Wulin, the tabletop roleplaying game of Chinese wuxia action melodrama from Age of Ravens Games.

Bundle of Holding: Hearts of Wulin
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Penny Arcade ([syndicated profile] pennyarcade_feed) wrote2025-07-14 03:37 pm
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PA behind the scenes!

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/07/14/pa-behind-the-scenes

I’ve been messing around with the tools Clip Studio has for recording your work. I forgot to turn it on until I had finished my first sketch pass but I do have a recording of today’s strip getting made. If you like to see how the sausage gets made here is a quick little timelapse that shows how a Penny Arcade strip comes together. 

https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2025/07/14/pa-behind-the-scenes

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Reactor ([syndicated profile] tordotcom_feed) wrote2025-07-14 05:00 pm
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Babylon 5 Rewatch: “War Without End, Part Two”

Posted by Sarah

https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/

https://reactormag.com/?p=818043

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “War Without End, Part Two”

While Sheridan is unstuck in time, the others continue with their timey-wimey plans on Babylon 4…

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Published on July 14, 2025

Credit: Warner Bros. Television

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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Sarah</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/">https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=818043">https://reactormag.com/?p=818043</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal"> <div class="container container-desktop"> <div class="flex flex-col mx-auto post-hero-container"> <div class="post-hero-content"> <div class="post-hero-tags font-aktiv text-xs tracking-[0.5px] font-medium uppercase"> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/articles/column/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Column 0"> Column </a> </span> <span class="mr-3"> <i class="inline-block w-2 h-2 rounded-full mr-[5px] bg-blue"></i> <a href="https://reactormag.com/tag/babylon-5-rewatch/" class="inline-block link-no-animation" aria-label="Link to term or tag Babylon 5 Rewatch 1"> Babylon 5 Rewatch </a> </span> </div> <h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “War Without End, Part Two”</h2> <div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">While Sheridan is unstuck in time, the others continue with their timey-wimey plans on Babylon 4&#8230;</div> <div class="post-hero-wrapper"> <div class="post-hero-inner"> <p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&amp;_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/keith-decandido/" title="Posts by Keith R.A. DeCandido" class="author url fn" rel="author">Keith R.A. DeCandido</a></p> <span class="post-hero-symbol relative top-[-2px] hidden tablet:block">|</span> <p class="text-xs uppercase post-hero-publish font-aktiv"> Published on July 14, 2025 </p> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: Warner Bros. Television</p> </div> <div class="quick-access post-hero-quick-access mt-[17px] tablet:hidden"> <div class="flex gap-[30px] tablet:gap-6"> <a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/#comments" class="flex items-center text-sm font-aktiv tracking-[0.6px] font-semibold uppercase translate-x-[1px] translate-y-[1px]"> <svg class="w-[22px] h-[22px] mr-[7px] icon-hover" viewbox="0 0 18 18" aria-label="comment" role="img" aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="icon-comment-quick-access-"> <title id="icon-comment-quick-access-">Comment</title> <g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"> <path fill="#FFF" fill-rule="nonzero" d="M6.3 18a.9.9 0 0 1-.9-.9v-2.7H1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 0 12.6V1.8A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 1.8 0h14.4A1.8 1.8 0 0 1 18 1.8v10.8a1.8 1.8 0 0 1-1.8 1.8h-5.49l-3.33 3.339a.917.917 0 0 1-.63.261H6.3Z" /> <path stroke="#000" d="M5.9 14.4v-.5H1.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 1-1.3-1.3V1.8A1.3 1.3 0 0 1 1.8.5h14.4a1.3 1.3 0 0 1 1.3 1.3v10.8a1.3 1.3 0 0 1-1.3 1.3h-5.698l-.146.147-3.324 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9.41431V6.41431C2.21205 6.41431 3.64538 6.70197 4.97871 7.27731C6.31205 7.85264 7.47471 8.63597 8.46671 9.62731C9.45805 10.6186 10.2414 11.781 10.8167 13.1143C11.392 14.4476 11.6794 15.881 11.6787 17.4143H8.67871Z" fill="currentColor" fill-opacity="0.2" /> </g> <defs> <clippath id="clip0_1051_121783"> <rect width="17" height="17" fill="white" transform="translate(0.678711 0.414307)" /> </clippath> </defs> </svg> </a> </li> </ul> </div> </details> </div> </div> </div> <div class="post-hero-media "> <figure class="w-full h-auto post-hero-image"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="493" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-01-740x493.jpg" class="w-full object-cover" alt="Sinclair stands before a triluminary device in Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-01-740x493.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-01-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-01-768x512.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-01.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /> </figure> <div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-horizontal [&amp;_a]:link"><p>Credit: Warner Bros. Television</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </post-hero> <div class="wp-block-more-from-category"> <div> </div> </div> <p><strong>“War Without End, Part Two”</strong><br>Written by J. Michael Straczynski<br>Directed by Michael Vejar<br>Season 3, Episode 17<br>Production episode 317<br>Original air date: May 20, 1996</p> <p><strong>It was the dawn of the third age…</strong> After a summary of <a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-one/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part 1</a>, we open in 2278 with Sheridan in the throne room of Emperor Mollari seeing the capital city of Centauri Prime burning. Mollari coughs raggedly, and orders Sheridan back to his cell with instructions to make peace with whatever deity he worships.</p> <p>In 2254, Ivanova and Cole—after being ambushed by a couple of B4 personnel and dispatching them—stumble across an access panel and start on Ivanova’s plan to sabotage the station.</p> <p>Sheridan becomes unstuck in time, briefly fading in near Zathras in 2254 before winding up back in the Centauri cell in 2278, where he is joined by Delenn. She says she hasn’t told the Centauri anything and that their son is safe. This intelligence rather surprises Sheridan…</p> <p>In 2254, Ivanova creates a fake hull breach alert, which gets the entire deck evacuated, allowing the B5 crew to work in peace.</p> <p>In 2278, Sheridan explains that he’s from the past, and Delenn—remembering what happened in 2260—says she understands, and says only that they built something great, but at a terrible price. But the only way to avoid paying that price is to let the Shadows win, which would be, y’know, <em>bad</em>. They’re then taken to Mollari, they assume to their deaths.</p> <p>However, they are brought to a darkened throne room and a <em>very</em> drunk Mollari. It turns out that his super-villain act from the end of Part 1 was just that: an act. He behaved that way for the benefit of his Keeper—a parasitic creature, belonging to allies of the Shadows, who control and monitor Mollari. The only way to put the Keeper to sleep is for Mollari to drink heavily. However the time it stays unconscious gets shorter with each binge. Mollari allows Delenn and Sheridan to escape, on the condition that they and their allies work to free his people.</p> <p>After they leave, G’Kar, with his left eye covered by a bandage, enters. Mollari calls him “old friend,” and urges G&#8217;Kar to kill him before the Keeper can wake up. However, the Keeper awakens while G’Kar is strangling Mollari, forcing the emperor to return the favor.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="825" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-04-1100x825.jpg" alt="G&#39;Kar strangles emperor Mollari in Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" class="wp-image-818072" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-04-1100x825.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-04-740x555.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-04-140x105.jpg 140w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-04-768x576.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-04.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Warner Bros. Television</figcaption></figure> <p>As they’re being led to their escape vessel, Sheridan becomes unstuck in time again. Before he fades back to the past, Delenn urges him, “Do not go to Z’ha’dum!”</p> <p>Vir walks into the throne room and finds the corpses of Mollari and G’Kar on the floor. He picks up the emperor’s medallion…</p> <p>In 2254, Ivanova, Cole, and Zathras are bringing equipment from Epsilon III over to B4 from the <em>White Star</em>. Zathras rigged up a space suit for Sheridan to wear when he reappears in the hopes that it will help stabilize him. To Ivanova and Cole’s shock, this works, and Sheridan reappears in the suit.</p> <p>Sinclair is also in an EVA suit, and he and Sheridan go outside to install some of the components. Ivanova triggers a fake fusion reactor overload, but the B4 crew’s response to that is to increase power, which causes a surge, which sends B4 into a time rift.</p> <p>They come out in 2258—right when B4 appeared last. Zathras manages to stabilize everything, but they need to work quickly. Sheridan has become unstuck in time again and Sinclair looks like he’s twenty years older. He explains that, because he went through the time field once before, it’s still affecting him, even with the stabilizer. It’s why he didn’t want Garibaldi here, it would have affected him as well.</p> <p>Sinclair works on the power core. Zathras looks for equipment to fix Sheridan’s stabilizer, but is captured by B4 security. He’s brought to Major Krantz, and then “meets” Sinclair and Garibaldi, who have just arrived from B5, answering the distress call.</p> <p>Ivanova sneaks into CnC to boost the power and speed along the evacuation.</p> <p>A figure in a space suit appears. Zathras gives the figure the repaired time stabilizer (just like we saw in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-babylon-squared/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Babylon Squared</a>”), and then the figure fades away.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="825" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-08-1100x825.jpg" alt="Delenn removes the helmet of her EVA suit in Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" class="wp-image-818076" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-08-1100x825.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-08-740x555.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-08-140x105.jpg 140w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-08-768x576.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-08.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Warner Bros. Television</figcaption></figure> <p>Cole is shocked to see Sheridan—without his suit. He came back, and now has an intact stabilizer. It turns out that, when Sheridan reappeared, Delenn gave him her intact stabilizer and she took his busted one and put on the EVA suit.</p> <p>Ivanova’s sabotage starts to take effect, and the Sinclair and Garibaldi of 2258 start leading the evacuation of B4. Debris falls on Zathras, and Sinclair tries to rescue him, but Zathras urges him to go and save himself so he can fulfill his destiny. After everyone’s gone, Delenn rescues him.</p> <p>While doing his bit when EVA, Sinclair tries to send a message to the Garibaldi of 2258, but he’s out of range.</p> <p>Sinclair reenters the station and takes his helmet off, and we get the scene we saw in “Babylon Squared” again, except we see Delenn this time.</p> <p>In B4’s CnC, Sinclair tells everyone to head back to the <em>White Star</em>. He’ll set everything up and rejoin them. Cole refuses to accept that, because if it was automatic, he wouldn’t have to stay behind. He plans on going to the past and not coming back. Sinclair confirms that, and Cole says he’ll go instead, but Sinclair says it <em>has</em> to be him. He reveals that the letter he got at the top of Part 1 was in his own handwriting from 900 years previous. He has to go because he’s already gone.</p> <p>Zathras then speaks to Sheridan, Sinclair, and Delenn alone. He’s referred to all three of them as “the one” at different points, and Zathras explains that in Minbari culture, everything is in threes—three castes, three languages, the Grey Council is nine (three times three), etc.—and that includes the one. Sinclair is the one of the past, Delenn is the one of the present, and Sheridan is the one of the future. They form the beginning, middle, and end of a great story.</p> <p>Sinclair and Zathras stay on B4 while everyone else disembarks to the <em>White Star</em>. Using a triluminary, Sinclair undergoes a transformation while remembering several past incidents that hinted at this.</p> <p>On the <em>White Star</em>, which goes through the time rift to 2260, Delenn explains that human and Minbari souls became intermingled a thousand years ago—and her own transformation was to restore the balance. But Sinclair couldn’t present B4 to the Minbari as a human, because the Minbari of the past wouldn’t accept that.</p> <p>Cole figures out the rest of it: Sinclair transforms himself into a Minbari and brings B4 to the fight a thousand years previous, accompanied by Zathras and two Vorlons, and identifying himself as “Valen.”</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="825" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-02-1100x825.jpg" alt="Sinclair, transformed into the Minbari Valen in Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" class="wp-image-818070" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-02-1100x825.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-02-740x555.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-02-140x105.jpg 140w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-02-768x576.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-02.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Warner Bros. Television</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Nothing’s the same anymore. </strong>Sinclair turns out to be <s>Minbari Jesus</s> Valen. This goes a long way toward explaining why Valen’s prophecies tended to come true…</p> <p><strong>Get the hell out of our galaxy!</strong> Sheridan disappears completely from the <em>White Star</em>, but then reappears in the future—but inside his future self’s body. It’s unclear what happened to the Sheridan that was already there in the future.</p> <p><strong>Ivanova is God.</strong> Most of the damage done to B4 that forced the evac in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-babylon-squared/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Babylon Squared</a>” turned out to be by Ivanova. Go her.</p> <p><strong>The household god of frustration.</strong> Garibaldi only appears in this episode in archive footage from “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-babylon-squared/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Babylon Squared</a>.”</p> <p><strong>If you value your lives, be somewhere else.</strong> Delenn’s actions since the start of the show all come into focus here, as she is a major mover and shaker toward Sinclair going back in time to become <s>Minbari Jesus</s> Valen.</p> <p><strong>In the glorious days of the Centauri Republic…</strong> As predicted by Lady Morella in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-point-of-no-return/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Point of No Return</a>,” Vir is seen to be taking on the mantle of emperor after he finds Mollari and G’Kar’s dead bodies.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="825" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-06-1100x825.jpg" alt="Vir holds the emperor&#39;s medallion in Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" class="wp-image-818074" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-06-1100x825.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-06-740x555.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-06-140x105.jpg 140w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-06-768x576.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-06.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Warner Bros. Television</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.</strong> G’Kar and Mollari appear to be friends now, or at least not mortal enemies. They kill each other, as predicted, but not at all the way we expected…</p> <p><strong>We live for the one, we die for the one.</strong> In a lengthy exposition dump that’s mainly there to show how J. Michael Straczynski adjusted his storyline once he lost his male lead at the end of season one, Zathras explains who, exactly, “the one” <em>is</em>—er, well, that is, <em>are</em>.</p> <p><strong>The Shadowy Vorlons.</strong> Two Vorlons accompanied Sinclair-as-Valen when he introduced himself to the Minbari, which probably helped sell the whole thing.</p> <p><strong>Looking ahead.</strong> Delenn has a flashforward to her watching Sheridan sleep, only to be interrupted by a woman’s voice. This scene will come to pass in “Shadow Dancing.”</p> <p>We see the fullness of Mollari and G’Kar’s strangling of each other, first mentioned in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-midnight-on-the-firing-line/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Midnight on the Firing Line</a>” and foreseen by Mollari in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-the-coming-of-shadows/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Coming of Shadows</a>.”</p> <p>We have previously been told that Sheridan will die if he goes to Z’ha’dum, so Delenn’s urging of Sheridan not to go to there is understandable, though if he’s still alive seventeen years hence, he obviously doesn’t die—exactly. This will all be explained in “Z’ha’dum” and the first several episodes of season four.</p> <p>The Keeper is of Drakh origin—we’ll see more of the Drakh in the future. Mollari’s acquisition of the Keeper will happen in very aptly titled season-five episode, “The Fall of Centauri Prime.”</p> <p>G’Kar will lose his left eye in “Falling Toward Apotheosis.”</p> <p><strong>No sex, please, we’re EarthForce.</strong> Sheridan and Delenn will have a son. This rather surprises Sheridan. Also we get our first Delenn-Sheridan kiss, though it’s really only Sheridan’s first time kissing Delenn because time travel…</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="825" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-05-1100x825.jpg" alt="Delenn speaks with Sheridan about the future in Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" class="wp-image-818073" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-05-1100x825.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-05-740x555.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-05-140x105.jpg 140w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-05-768x576.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-05.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Warner Bros. Television</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Welcome aboard.</strong> Back from <a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-one/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part 1</a> are Michael O’Hare as Sinclair, Tim Choate as Zathras, and Kevin Fry as the Centauri guard. Back from “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-babylon-squared/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Babylon Squared</a>” is Kent Broadhurst as Krantz, while Bruce Morrow plays Krantz’s second-in-command. Choate will return in “Conflicts of Interest,” while O’Hare will return (via archive footage from “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-and-the-sky-full-of-stars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">And the Sky Full of Stars</a>”) in the movie <em>In the Beginning</em>.</p> <p><strong>Trivial matters. </strong>This obviously continues from <a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-one/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part 1</a>, and also finishes telling the other side of the story told in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-babylon-squared/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Babylon Squared</a>.” Indeed, large chunks of this episode consist of footage from that first-season episode, mixed in with new material.</p> <p>Sinclair sends a message to the Garibaldi of 2258 to watch his back, a reference to Garibaldi being shot in the back in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-chrysalis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chrysalis</a>,” an event still in the security chief’s future.</p> <p>Before his transformation, Sinclair remembers the Soul Hunter telling him that the Minbari are using him and Delenn saying that the Minbari were right about him, both from “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-soul-hunter/">Soul Hunter</a>,” and Neroon telling him he talks like a Minbari in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-legacies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Legacies</a>.”</p> <p>We first heard Valen described as a Minbari not born of Minbari—and also that no one knew where he came from—in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-passing-through-gethsemane/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Passing Through Gethsemane</a>.”</p> <p>There are many inconsistencies with “Babylon Squared.” Delenn is wearing a different-colored outfit from the one we saw on her sleeve in the prior episode. The B4 crew’s capture of Zathras does not match what Krantz described in the prior episode (this was a conscious choice, as filming the scene as described would have added three minutes to an already-overcrowded script, so J. Michael Straczynski just bagged it). In “B<sup>2</sup>,” Krantz never mentions the explosions of the Shadow ships and subsequent EMP that we saw in Part 1, which doesn’t really track. The moaning of the EVA-suited figure in “B<sup>2</sup>” was definitely male, though this episode has it be Delenn in the suit. No mention was ever made in “B<sup>2</sup>” of two of B4’s personnel being taken out by two people in black outfits.</p> <p><strong>The echoes of all of our conversations.</strong></p> <p>“Come on, grab what you need—we’re running out of time.”</p> <p>“Cannot run out of time. There is infinite time. <em>You</em> are finite, <em>Zathras</em> is finite, <em>this</em>—is wrong tool. No, not good. Never use this.”</p> <p>—Ivanova trying and failing to rush Zathras.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="825" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-03-1100x825.jpg" alt="Babylon 5: &quot;War Without End, Part 2&quot;" class="wp-image-818071" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-03-1100x825.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-03-740x555.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-03-140x105.jpg 140w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-03-768x576.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Babylon-5-War-Without-End-2-03.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Warner Bros. Television</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>The name of the place is Babylon 5.</strong> “No one ever listens to Zathras.” One of the difficulties with aggressively plotting out a five-year storyline for television is that sometimes changes happen due to circumstances beyond your control, like actors leaving the show. In particular, J. Michael Straczynski’s storyline was given a punch in the solar plexus by Michael O’Hare’s departure at the end of season one. Not all of Sinclair’s role in the overall storyline—most particularly his going back in time to become <s>Minbari Jesus</s> Valen given how much of that was seeded in season one—was something that could be just transferred to another character.</p> <p>This two-parter is an attempt to get the storyline’s breath back following that gut-punch (he says, abusing the metaphor). On the one hand, you can see that some of the fixes are wielded with a very large hammer; on the other, you gotta admire the fact that Straczynski <em>mostly</em> pulled it off.</p> <p>His solution to Sinclair no longer being “the one” all by himself, since both he and Sheridan can’t be “the one” is very Catholic. (While he is an atheist, Straczynski’s family is Catholic, and he was likely raised in that tradition.) By throwing Delenn into the mix, we get a three-as-one thing, which is very Creator-Child-Spirit (not to mention the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(writing)" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rule of three</a>” that is a truism in writing). And Minbari culture has already, as Zathras said, been established as doing lots of things in threes. You can still see the spackle, but at least it covers the hole.</p> <p>The solution to the much older Sinclair seen in “<a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-babylon-squared/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Babylon Squared</a>” is very elegant, since the possibility of being rapidly aged by the temporal rift was seeded in that first-season episode with the death of that poor never-named Starfury pilot. So that part, at least, works out, though the whole, “It happened just the way I remembered it” thing doesn’t really make much sense from only two years on the way it would have from two decades on.</p> <p>And then we get the always-intended revelation that <s>Minbari Jesus</s> Valen is a time-displaced (and chrysalis-transformed) Sinclair, finally paying off all the hints we got throughout season one.</p> <p>But the best part of this whole two-parter is the revelation of the full story behind Mollari and G’Kar killing each other. It’s absolutely brilliant, since everything we know about these two in general and Mollari’s premonition in particular points to the two of them ending their years of acrimony with a final double-murder. So to reveal that it’s a mercy-killing on G’Kar’s part to free Mollari, and that Mollari’s violent response is solely due to the reason for the mercy-killing is a masterstroke. It’s completely unexpected, especially as it starts with Mollari referring to G’Kar as his old friend. While the revelation in <a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-one/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Part 1</a> that the good guys will win the Shadow War is a bit of a spoiler, this apparent rapprochement between two old enemies is a magnificent bit of foreshadowing, adding still more complexity to an already-complex dynamic between the two most interesting characters on the show.</p> <p>On the one hand, saving these dual revelations for the last episode would’ve made for a banger of a finale. On the other hand, putting it midway through like this (a) means we don’t have to wait until four years after he left the show to find out Sinclair’s final fate, and (b) is a great tease for the future of the Mollari-G’Kar dynamic, which will get so much more interesting in season four. (B) works so much better as a bit of dramatic foreshadowing than it would have as the culmination of the storyline.</p> <p><strong>Next week:</strong> “Walkabout.”[end-mark]</p> <p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/">&lt;i&gt;Babylon 5&lt;/i&gt; Rewatch: “War Without End, Part Two”</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/">https://reactormag.com/babylon-5-rewatch-war-without-end-part-two/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=818043">https://reactormag.com/?p=818043</a></p>
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Reactor ([syndicated profile] tordotcom_feed) wrote2025-07-14 04:00 pm
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Who Gets a POV In Your Story? It’s a Political Decision

Posted by Sarah

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Books writers on writing

Who Gets a POV In Your Story? It’s a Political Decision

Everyone in a story is a person, and nobody is an NPC.

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Published on July 14, 2025

Photo by Aaron Burden [via Unsplash]

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Photo of a fountain pen resting on a blank notepad

Photo by Aaron Burden [via Unsplash]

POV is one of those writing issues that get a little bit thorny—because there are people out there who will tell you there are Strict Rules about how many POVs you can have, and how much you can shift between them, and so on.

A lot of people seem to hate omniscient narrators—despite the fact that many of the world’s most beloved books are written in omniscient third person. But also, some very influential writers advocate a strict economy of viewpoints, in which a book must establish its POV characters early on and not introduce any more POVs later on, no matter how convenient it might be to see events from a particular character’s perspective.

Because I don’t believe in rules—literally, there are no rules when it comes to writing—I feel like you should use as many POVs as you want to, as long as they’re helping you tell the story in the most entertaining, immersive way possible. Have a single first-person narrator, or a few. Have a single third-person POV, or a ton. Go omniscient, whatever. Go nuts.

The question of who gets to have a POV in a story is artistic—but also kind of political, because it goes to the heart of whose perspective counts.

When I started out writing fiction as a career, I mostly wrote in the first person, because I love a mouthy, obnoxious first-person narrator. But I kind of hit a wall, and I read some writing advice that said it was easier to sell short stories written in the third person. Plus writing in the third person felt like a fun challenge, so I switched. And sure enough, I found that writing in third person forced me to describe things differently, and to think about the position of the narrator in relation to the events in a way that I hadn’t with first person. (The first draft of Lessons in Magic and Disaster was written in first person, but I changed it to third person in revision for a similar reason.)

My first novel, Choir Boy, has a single third person POV, that of the main character, Berry. But the narrator is free to make all sorts of silly observations about the town where Berry lives—like, I think there’s a long elegiac section about the slow decline of the noodle-stretching factory across the street from Berry’s apartment at one point. Still, I kept my narrator from going too omniscient, because I’d internalized a strong prohibition (especially in science-fiction circles) on “head-hopping,” or allowing the reader to glimpse more than one character’s thoughts at any given moment. I had learned to think of an omniscient narrator as the third rail of fiction: touch it at your peril.

Imagine my surprise when the biggest successes of my career came from a novelette called “Six Months, Three Days” and my novel All the Birds in the Sky, both of which feature gently omniscient narration. There’s one moment in All the Birds in the Sky that I was convinced would make people rage-quit the book. It’s the bit where Laurence and Patricia are sitting under the escalator speculating about people based on their shoes—and then the narrator reveals that they’ve guessed correctly about the last guy who went past, who is indeed an assassin named Theodolphus Rose. I almost cut this bit several times, convinced people would tell me it was the reason they abandoned the book. Instead, people kept telling me it was their favorite moment in the entire book.

Lately, I’ve read more and more books that casually throw in extra POVs here and there—some side character who’s only stood in the background of scenes will suddenly have a POV chapter in the final stretch of the book. I feel like young-adult fiction started playing fast and loose with POV in the 2010s, and this has now seeped into adult fiction. I’ve also seen more ambitious experiments, like The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan, where each chapter is told from a brand new POV.

Some of my favorite memories of reading involve surprising POV shifts—like, I remember being a kid and reading Terrance Dicks’ surprisingly good novelization, Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion. Dicks would dip into the head of a random side character for a few paragraphs, someone who might not have even gotten any dialogue on screen, and it was dazzling. Everyone has their own opinion, even the guy standing in the corner while the Doctor grandstands!

There’s something kind of magical about realizing that everyone in a story is a person, and nobody is an NPC.

Still, I have often found myself feeling cautious about adding more POVs to a story—because I do have the sense that a POV should be immersive. In other words, you should fully inhabit the mind of a character if you’re going to see through their eyes. It’s a bit of an imaginative lift each time, which requires you to think about who this person is, where they come from, how much information they have, and what’s going on. I do think that even if a POV only appears a couple of times in a long book, you need to make sure there is a unique attitude and set of concerns animating this person, so it stands out from the other POVs at least somewhat.

I get more annoyed when a book has multiple first-person narrators whose voices are too identical—but even with third-person POVs, ideally you want them to be thinking differently. It’s sort of the same problem as when all your characters talk the exact same way.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about POVs, because I’ve found out the hard way that it’s super challenging to make readers fully identify with someone whose thoughts we never experience. I’m not saying it’s not doable, it’s just tough—especially with characters who make unsympathetic choices or behave even a little selfishly.

When I wrote The City in the Middle of the Night, I decided that only Sophie and Mouth would have POVs in the book. (In fact, originally it was going to be just Sophie, and after I had written a couple of drafts I realized the book needed more of an edge, so I promoted a random smuggler to a second POV.) At the time, making Sophie first-person present tense and Mouth third-person past tense felt a bit daring, even though young adult fiction had been doing this sort of thing a lot.

Anyway, at a certain point I ran into a question: should I give Bianca some POV chapters as well? For those who haven’t read the book, Bianca is someone who starts off idealistic and radical (but unaware of her own privilege in various ways), and she ends up becoming a bit of a monster. I have a certain amount of sympathy for Bianca, even though her actions are unforgivable. (I also have a sneaking suspicion that if Bianca were a man, she would have had a lot of people defending her and demanding a redemption arc.) In any case, I toyed with giving her a POV, to make her actions more legible to the reader. But I didn’t want to give her equal space to Sophie and Mouth, and I wasn’t sure if it would work to just dip into her POV a couple of times. More importantly, I wanted to preserve the surprise of Bianca’s heel turn, and I didn’t think I could do that while letting people in on her thought process.

I’ll never know how things in the book would have turned out if I’d given Bianca some POV chapters, but on balance I’m glad I didn’t. It kept the focus on what I wanted the book to be about: Sophie and Mouth both bought into other people’s ideals of justice and community, and they both learn the hard way that they need to make their own.

But more recently, I have been finding that when in doubt, it’s usually a good idea to give someone a POV. In my upcoming novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster, I originally included only a couple of brief sections from the POV of Jamie’s mother Serena. And I found some of my beta readers had a hard time feeling invested in Serena or understanding why she does the things she does in the story. The book fails miserably unless you care what’s happens to Jamie’s mom. And I have so much love and empathy for Serena, someone who consistently tries to do the right thing and struggles to shoulder the weight of grief and trauma.

So I gave Serena way more space in the book, including a huge chunk of flashbacks to her early years as an activist and her marriage to Jamie’s other mother, Mae. As soon as I did this, it was obviously the right choice: it deepened all of the other themes and relationships in the book to have this level of understanding of Serena’s joys and struggles.

So lately, I’ve been thinking about the politics of POV.

The issue of whose perspective is included in a story feels inherently political. A character who’s only seen from the outside inherently becomes a bit of a cipher—or an NPC, as I said above. I wrote before about the idea that we should stop talking about characters having agency in a story and instead talk about whether a character gets to be an authority on their own life. The characters who matter in a story tend to be the ones whose opinions shape how we feel about the overall events.

So as I start crafting my next couple of novels, I’m increasingly thinking about how to be a bigger POV slut—because I think it’s a matter of simple fairness to allow as many voices as possible to exist within the story.

I do think a POV character needs to pull their own weight narratively—not just in terms of witnessing events that nobody else in the story could have witnessed, but also by adding a different sensibility. Or set of concerns. Or something that might change how we think about the story a bit.

Especially when someone is a character that readers might be predisposed to judge harshly because of internalized prejudices, I think it’s important to try to represent that person’s viewpoint in the story. But also, people whose actions shape the narrative, in ways that feel startling or confusing, can really benefit from getting to tell their side of the story. Lately I’m noodling on the idea that it’s not so much a question of “How can I structure the story in such a way as to keep the narrative moving” as “Who is being silenced in this story, and do they deserve a voice?”

I guess I’m craving more anarchy in my stories, because I have read some stories lately that were gloriously promiscuous in their use of viewpoints, and I was surprised by how much it enhanced the experience. And because I feel like the dominant experience of 2025 is being trapped in our own perceptions of reality, with less and less ability to know how other people are thinking and feeling about the same events. One of the great joys of fiction is that it lets you understand that any one event can be understood from many different angles. (See: Rashomon.)

A few caveats apply: I still love an omniscient narrator and I’m probably going to try to keep making that happen. Also, here’s where I admit that my next novel, the one that I’m hoping comes out in 2026, has only one POV for reasons that I hope will become clear. Finally, I do think that if a POV fails to stand out or feel unique, it can be worse than not going into that person’s mind at all.

All in all, though, I have been getting the feeling lately that the era of POV puritanism—the idea that you gotta pick a small number of major POVs and stick to them—is over, and the era of “anything goes” has begun. And I couldn’t be happier, not just from a writing standpoint but also from a standpoint of wanting to experience as many ways as possible of looking at a story within that story.[end-mark]

Buy the Book

Lessons in Magic and Disaster
Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Charlie Jane Anders

A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic—with very unexpected results…
Lessons in Magic and Disaster
Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Charlie Jane Anders

A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic—with very unexpected results…
A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic—with very unexpected results…

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This article was originally published at Happy Dancing, Charlie Jane Anders’ newsletter, available on Buttondown.

The post Who Gets a POV In Your Story? It’s a Political Decision appeared first on Reactor.

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TrueAchievements News Feed ([syndicated profile] trueachievements_feed) wrote2025-07-14 04:10 pm
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