Character Spotlight: G’Kar

Kati Corlew is pursuing a PhD in Cultural Community Psychology at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. Her research interests include social and environmental justice, poverty, and discrimination. Prophetic aliens from the planet Narn are of natural interest to her.

When Dustin put the call out for guest writers to do character portraits, I didn’t even have to think two seconds before deciding mine would be on G’Kar from Babylon 5.  If you’re unfamiliar with the show, Babylon 5 is both the best and the worst scifi serial there ever was.  The show takes off to a bumpy start with a feature length pilot that falls victim to some of the worst dialogue of all time.  The acting isn’t much better.  In fact, some of it is much worse.  But for those who are contemplating watching the series for the first time (Dustin, I’m looking at you), I would highly encourage you to suffer through this first episode (and hell, the first season) (and hell, probably even the season after that) with good graces and possibly alcohol.  Because…

The series as a whole is like a series of really engaging novels!  The series as a whole is witty and thought-provoking with enthralling storylines, amazing arcs of character development, and provocative satires and commentary on our human experience, particularly our raging political battles, rebellions, revolutions and subversions.  The series as a whole builds upon itself, including upon that rough beginning, to create an epic journey for the characters and viewers alike.

And plus… there’s G’Kar.  G’Kar is a shining spot of awesome during the early WTF phase of the show—and then he just keeps getting better.

Two things you must know about the show in order to appreciate G’Kar:

1) Babylon 5 is the UN in space.  Interplanetary wars have reached their critical mass, and so humans (America), along with a small number of other advanced civilizations (Europe) band together to create a diplomatic space station to figure out a way to peace.  They had to do this a few times because Babylons 1-4 blew up or got disappeared.

2) G’Kar is the ambassador for the planet Narn (Africa), which prior to the show had been subjugated and devastated by the Centauri Republic (the British Empire).  Narn has been freed now that their homeworld is bleak and barren and mined of all resources; and the Centauri Republic is in decline.  The Narn blame the Centauri for ruining their planet, and the Centauri blame the Narn for their declining empire because the whole Narn fiasco was so expensive and didn’t further their glory at all.  Got it?  Narn + Centauri = No Love.

Narn ambassador G’Kar and Centauri ambassador Londo Milari are mirror characters.  Of course they hate each other, given their planets’ history, and they strike off on two very different paths, but they’re basically the same person on two different journeys.  They both mourn for the past glory or beauty of their homeworld; both their jobs on B5 are to scheme the other planets into helping them back to the former glory or beauty; and neither of them believes this is possible.  Both G’Kar and Londo believe that their whole purpose on Babylon 5 is a fool’s errand which they must nonetheless strive to fulfill, and so they pay lip service to their ambassadorial duties, they drink and carouse and generally live the lives of ne’er-do-wells, and they take great joy in their highly amusing mutual hatred.  (These two make the early episodes entertaining even without alcohol.)

G’Kar begins the show as a disillusioned, apathetic caricature of who he thinks he should be.  He rails against the injustice done his world in a close approximation of sincerity, knowing that all his screaming will never be truly heard and all his efforts will never amount to anything.  In a bit of extraordinarily impressive acting for someone who is covered with foam alien-face make-up, G’Kar’s resignation and despair bleed through the exaggerated outrage that he has become too numb to actually feel.

The turning point for his character takes place with heartbreakingly poor timing.  G’Kar and Londo come to terms, of sorts, and G’Kar, for the first time since Narn’s subjugation, has hope. He believes that his efforts at B5 just might do something after all.  This turning point is short lived, because Londo has also just experienced a turning point.  Londo has learned the hard way that the road to hell is paved with slightly shady, questionable and self-serving intentions.  A series of minor choices, all made in one grouchy fit or another, have culminated in Londo (kinda accidentally) spearheading the re-conquering of Narn.  Genocide and internment camps ensue.  Londo has no choice but to continue down this terrible path.

His mirror G’Kar continues down another.  With his people enslaved and his hope smashed to pieces, G’Kar does the only thing a reasonable person would do: he takes a bunch of alien PCP and goes to kill Londo.  Lucky for him, he is stopped and thrown in jail.  As with other people traveling down G’Kar’s path (Mandela), jail transforms G’Kar.  In the solitude of his rage and betrayal and despair, G’Kar in a way rediscovers, but in a way truly discovers for the first time, the source of his spiritual belief and the way in which he can free his people even in the midst of their slavery.  He comes to understand the true nature of human – alien interactions, even the darkest elements.  He transcends the scheming politics of his position, and seeks instead a much higher purpose.

He begins writing and speaking so as to free the minds and the spirits of his people.  He campaigns endlessly, puts his life in danger, and trades his pride for the freedom of his planet.  From his beginnings as an ambassador of uncertain repute he becomes the moral compass, the grounded extremist, the spiritual guide, and the truth-speaker of the series, all the while remaining the same G’Kar in wit and personality that we knew from the start.

G’Kar also says my favorite line of the whole series.  I made a t-shirt out of it, even.  At one point, he confronts Londo about his role in the genocide.  Londo tells him there was nothing he could have done because at that point, no Centauri would have paid attention if he had tried to stop it.  G’Kar screams, “It doesn’t matter if they don’t even listen.  You have an obligation to speak.”

And he is heard.

Londo, his greatest enemy and his mirror opposite has heard him.  All of the Narn have heard him.  Other, unaffected, civilizations have heard him.  And I heard him.  Because his is a language that speaks to the heart.

So, yes, it’s true, I have a bit of an inter-species crush on G’Kar.  I maintain that this is not creepy, although I don’t exactly have any good arguments to back up that assertion.  G’Kar’s plotline in B5 weaves throughout much greater (and other minor) plotlines, many of which are equally compelling—some perhaps more so for their intricacy and scope.  But G’Kar’s story is the one that engaged me from the beginning, carried my interest through the early quagmire of rough dialogue and bad acting, and finally captured my heart with the tragic beauty of his journey to true freedom.

And other stuff on the show is good too, so check it out.  Possibly with alcohol.