Начну постить телеги про советника На'Фара

И для начала дискуссия с тумблера о нем. Имхо, фаны очень глубоко его проанализировали. Привожу на инглише, потому что переводить дико лень.

О своем отношении к На'Фару: я никогда не считала его злодеем в сериале или отрицательным персонажем. Напротив, мне всегда было его жалко. Потому что в сушности и он и ГКар хотели блага своему народу, спасти его от уничтожения итп. Просто пути у них разные.

В общем тема, поднятая в том эпизоде, очень наболевшая.

fuckyeahb5:

Let’s talk about Na’Far.

Na’Far is a good man, trying to fight an old battle in a new way. It’s clear that this is different than when they first drove the Centauri off of Narn, that the old rebellion coupled with a war of attrition isn’t going to work this time, that they have to fight smarter, and better. G’Kar’s an old veteran of the rebellions and it seems, and certainly all signs point to it as he has yet to have his epiphany at this point, that he is arming the Narns for a resistance which, according to the terms of the surrender, would result in the death of thousands of Narns for every Centauri they kill.

Even knowing that his actions would lead to the death of the last of the Kah’Ri, the оnly true leader the Narn have he believes that it is better to fight more subtly and that the death of оne Narn is worth saving thousands.

And yet, the way that ‘A Day in the Strife” portrays him, he’s the bad guy. Not Londo (well he is but not in the same way), but Na’Far. He’s portrayed as a collaborator. Which we all know the implications of.

So this feeds back into the likes of the Second World War, where members of Nazi occupied countries would work with and for the Nazis for personal gain.

But Na’Far clearly isn’t like that, no оne comes out оn top in Centauri occupied Narn. It seems to me that he genuinely believes that this is best for the survival of his people, and to be honest I don’t think he’s wrong.

I mean we want him to fail because well, G’Kar’s our guy, we’ve been with him these past 2 years and we want to see him, help his people. But looking at it from the outside, regardless of the orders of the Kah’Ri, it looks like he is staying оn Babylon 5 out of fear, and that others are rallying to his cause because of a cult of personality, оne that could lead to the extermination of the Narn as a species.

And yet Na’Far is the bad guy. I don’t think it’s entirely fair, and it seems to be a quirk of the direction more than the sсript, but his entire role in that episode is much deeper than we see and I think it was a missed opportunity, that belies how bad things must really be оn Narn.

I also think we should of seen a little bit more of him.

But I worry that he was executed for his failure.

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uncdan:

The idea of collaboration, throughout history, is a problematic оne. People generally like the attribute of loyalty and courage in the face of evil or whatever, evil being defined as “the other guy.” 

So even in the Second World War, people who cooperated with the Nazis were a mixed bunch: some just wanted to help their people, some found personal gain, and some were previously marginalized ethnic groups who found power after invasion. 

Croats, for example, had little recognition as an ethnic group in Yugoslavia until the German invasion allowed them to take authority as a proxy.

History, regarding collaborators, is written by the victors. We admire the French resistance now, but оnly because we were able to liberate them. We do less to admire the Polish Free Army, because they were slaughtered as the Russians waited across the river from Warsaw. 

So yes, I agree. Na’Far is given a bit of a bad light in this episode, despite that, taking the big picture of things, G’kar just doesn’t know what things are really like оn Narn and doesn’t know what his actions of resistance cost his people. 

G’kar believes in the long term goal of freedom through sacrifice, Na’Far believes that the cost of that sacrifice is too high. As things develop, it’s G’kar’s own personal sacrifice, in his deal with Londo, which frees Narn, not the sacrifice of Narns themselves. 

In a way, I suppose, you could argue that G’kar really does fulfill the role of a distant rebel, the distance of which makes it easier to espouse resistance because he’s not necessarily facing the dangers and occupation directly, no matter how empathic he is.

This sort of ideological dispute between whether collaboration or resistance work better doesn’t fully get resolved in this, again because in the end it’s G’Kar’s deal with Londo which frees Narn… but it’s also unanswerable in real life.