Susan Ivanova
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Susan Ivanova (russian: Сью́зен Ива́нова) is a
fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...
in the
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
television series ''
Babylon 5 ''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Tel ...
'', played by
Claudia Christian Claudia Christian (born Claudia Ann Coghlan August 10, 1965) is an American actress, singer and author, known for her roles as Commander Susan Ivanova on '' Babylon 5'', as Captain Maynard on Fox's ''9-1-1'', and as the voice of Hera on the N ...
.


Character overview

Susan Ivanova holds the rank of lieutenant commander during the first season and is promoted to the rank of commander in the second season. From the first through the fourth seasons of the series, Commander Ivanova was the first officer (XO) of the Babylon 5 space station. After the fourth season of the series, she was promoted to captain and given command of a new class of Earth Alliance warship, the "Warlock-Class". She accepted the promotion because of the tragic events that happened on Babylon 5 at the very end of the Earth Alliance Civil War, in which she played a major role, including the death of Marcus Cole, who sacrificed his own life for hers. During the fifth and final season, she appears only once, in the series' final episode, holding the rank of general – a position for which she showed little enthusiasm. She ultimately ends up as the new leader of the Anla'shok at the insistence of
Delenn Delenn is a fictional lead character in the universe of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5''. She was originally Minbari, but from season 2 onwards, became a Minbari/human hybrid. She was played by Mira Furlan. Role in ''Babylon ...
.


Character description


Overview

Like many of the show's characters, Susan Ivanova seemed locked in a tragic cycle. The particular millstone around Ivanova's neck was
love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
– not only romantic, but familial as well. Deep down, she believes that "all love is unrequited", perhaps believing that she is undeserving of true happiness. However, in spite of her troubled relationships with her mother, father, brother, and others, she is also fiercely loyal and caring about those to whom she is close. Given her troubled background, she also possesses a surprisingly good sense of humor, which often comes out at odd moments. She has a hot temper and this often leads other crew members to give her a wide berth whenever she is angry. She also possesses a strong sense of integrity and honesty. As a military leader she is brave to the point of recklessness, has the ability to think and act quickly in a crisis, and she can be creative and original in coming up with ways to resolve any situation she finds herself in. While most of the major Earthforce characters have flown combat missions against raider fighters, Susan Ivanova is "the one most consistently on the front lines of battle. She chases raiders and single-handedly destroys a small fleet", although other commentators note that she fires without a warning in ''Believers'' prompting author
Andy Lane Andrew Lane (born 17 April 1963), as Andy Lane, is a British author and journalist best known for the Young Sherlock Holmes series of Young Adult novels. He has written novels in the Virgin New Adventures range and audio dramas for Big Fini ...
to ask, "Is this standard Earthforce procedure -- shoot first and ask questions afterwards?"


Early life and career

Susan Ivanova was born in
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russian Consortium, in 2230. Her mother, Sophie, is established to have committed
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
when Susan was a child, which Ivanova blames on the
Psi Corps The list of ''Babylon 5'' characters contains characters from the entire ''Babylon 5'' universe. The Babylon station was conceived as a political and cultural meeting place. As such, one of the show's many themes is the cultural and social intera ...
. Sophie was a
telepath Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
who refused to join the Psi Corps and, as a result, was forced to take telepathy-inhibiting drugs regularly. The powerful
depressant A depressant, or central depressant, is a drug that lowers neurotransmission levels, which is to depress or reduce arousal or stimulation, in various areas of the brain. Depressants are also colloquially referred to as downers as they lower the ...
effect of these drugs gradually drained her energy and eventually led her to take her own life. Susan Ivanova eventually reveals that she is a latent telepath herself and lives in fear of discovery by the Psi Corps. She harbors a lasting grudge against the Psi Corps throughout the show, and blames them for the death of her mother. Her beloved brother, Ganya, died during the Earth-Minbari War, a piece of
backstory A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of p ...
set 10 years before the show. He was a fighter pilot aboard the Earth Alliance warship ''Lexington'' and was killed in the battle with the ''Black Star'', the Minbari's flagship. Due to her telepathic abilities, she was able to sense her brother's death despite the vast distance between them. She also did not have a good relationship with her father, Andrei, who became irritable and emotionally distant after her mother's death. In a first-season episode her father dies on Earth. She reconciles with him and forgives him before his death. Over the course of the series Ivanova has two major romantic interests. The first, with telepath
Talia Winters The list of ''Babylon 5'' characters contains characters from the entire ''Babylon 5'' universe. The Babylon station was conceived as a political and cultural meeting place. As such, one of the show's many themes is the cultural and social intera ...
, is largely implied, though after Talia is revealed as an unwilling sleeper agent and her subsequent departure from Babylon 5, Ivanova admits to possibly loving her. In the first season her relationship with Winters gets off to a rocky start, and her inherent distrust of anyone in Psi Corps leads Ivanova to behave rudely towards Talia. However, they eventually become friends, and possibly lovers by the time of Talia's departure from the series. Ivanova is clearly hurt by the revelation that Talia is actually a "sleeper" Psi Corps agent who had been sent to spy on the command staff of Babylon 5. The second relationship, with Marcus Cole, also starts off badly, as Ivanova regards Marcus as reckless and annoying. However, they eventually become uneasy friends, and when he sacrifices his life to save hers at the end of the fourth season, Ivanova is devastated. She tells Dr. Franklin, B5's medical chief and a close friend, that "all love is unrequited", and wishes that she had returned his love and affection instead of being so sarcastic with him. The death of Marcus leads her to leave Babylon 5 and become captain of the newly commissioned ''Warlock'' class destroyer EAS ''Titans''. ''Babylon 5'' creator
Joe Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ( ...
often spoke of Ivanova's supposedly "
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
" temperament and character. His comments, as well as Ivanova's own quips, hint that her world view may have been shaped by the history of the Russian people. In the future Earth shown on Babylon 5, the Russian people have united in a
consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...
and are clearly an important power on Earth. Yet, if Ivanova is any example, they remember vividly more difficult times under
czar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the t ...
s and
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. Although she is not openly religious, Ivanova is established as ethnically
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
when she sits Shiva after her father's death in season one, and is seen also lighting a menorah. An old friend of her family, a man she refers to as "uncle" who is a
rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
, visits her after her father's death and she comes to accept her faith, if only in private. She does appear to have a belief in
God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
, and she occasionally "talks" to God (in a rather joking manner) under her breath in a few episodes of the series. However, she keeps other aspects of her religious beliefs largely to herself, such as how strictly she follows the Jewish dietary laws, since in the episode "
Messages from Earth ''Babylon 5'' is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on the Babylon 5 space station: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the ye ...
", Marcus procures a freshly-prepared plate of bacon & eggs for her as a surprise to which she doesn't overtly object; bacon being generally avoided by observant Jews as it comes from pigs, which are specifically listed in the
Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...
as an unclean animal, and thus not
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
. Ivanova is promoted several times during the series. She starts as a lieutenant commander, and is promoted to full commander in the second season. At the end of the fourth season, she is made Captain. In "
Sleeping in Light ''Babylon 5'' is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on the Babylon 5 space station: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the ye ...
" (the series finale, set 18 years after the events of the fifth season), it is revealed that she is a General. She retires from Earth Force in this episode and becomes "Ranger One", the head of the Rangers.


Relationships

Throughout her
character arc A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to ch ...
in ''Babylon 5'', Ivanova is involved in a series of relationships, during season one, an old flame, Malcolm Biggs comes to Babylon 5 eight years after their relationship ends to start a 'business' and rekindle his relationship with Ivanova, before she realizes he is an agent of the xenophobic Homeguard in the episode "
The War Prayer "The War Prayer", a short story or prose poem by Mark Twain, is a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war. The structure of the work is simple: an unnamed country goes to war, and ...
". All of Ivanova's relationships end badly, the most emphasized being her relationship with
Marcus Cole The list of ''Babylon 5'' characters contains characters from the entire ''Babylon 5'' universe. The Babylon station was conceived as a political and cultural meeting place. As such, one of the show's many themes is the cultural and social intera ...
, a
Ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
assigned to Babylon 5 in 2260. While he falls in love with her early on, she does not begin a romantic relationship with him, possibly because of pain from her previous failed relationships. Their story comes to a tragic ending in the year 2261, when she is gravely injured in an epic battle to liberate Earth from the
dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
of President Morgan Clark, aboard the White Star, the Minbari doctors determine that her injuries are too severe for her survival. She is sent to Babylon 5 to be made comfortable as the fleet is going into battle, Marcus searches for a way to save her, until he finds Dr. Stephen Franklin's notes on The Alien Healing/Execution Device, a device that takes life energy from one individual and gives it to another. Armed with the knowledge that it is stored for safekeeping on Babylon 5, he returns and uses it to save Ivanova's life, at the cost of his own. Only then does Ivanova realize the depth of Marcus' love for her. Mourning the loss, she requests that his body be preserved in
cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...
suspension, in the hopes that he could someday be revived.


Talia Winters

While not depicted explicitly in the show, it is strongly hinted that there was a
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
relationship between
Talia Winters The list of ''Babylon 5'' characters contains characters from the entire ''Babylon 5'' universe. The Babylon station was conceived as a political and cultural meeting place. As such, one of the show's many themes is the cultural and social intera ...
and Ivanova. A badly edited scene in 2.19 ''
Divided Loyalties Divided Loyalties may refer to: * ''Divided Loyalties'' (film), a 1990 Canadian television film *" Divided Loyalties", a 1995 episode of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' * ''Divided Loyalties'' (novel), a 1999 novel in the Do ...
'' led many to believe that a kiss between the two had been edited out. In response to this,
J. Michael Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ( ...
stated, "No, nothing was cut. We had a matching problem at one point in the edit, where Andrea reached with her left hand in one angle, and did not reach out with the other, and we had to come around for the shot on Ivanova, so it looked a tick off. But nothing was cut." However, in the same discussion, Straczynski also mentions that, "I didn't show a kiss because, in my experience, it's easier on all around if one steps into the shallow end of the pool first, and walks into the deep end rather than diving in and splashing everybody in the process" and "Susan and Talia had been dancing around one another for months; that night, though, would've been the first time they got physically intimate." Also, in the same episode, Talia sleeps over at Ivanova's apartment, and while we don't see the two in bed together, during the night Talia makes a 'reaching' motion, as if expecting another person to be sharing the bed, and finding that person gone. Talia also mentions that, when she woke up, Ivanova was gone. Straczynski confirmed this in the script books. Ivanova referred to Talia during a Minbari rebirth ceremony in the third season of Babylon 5. She told Delenn, the person who organised the ceremony "I think I loved Talia."


Departure from Babylon 5

According to Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, Claudia Christian declined to be in the fifth season – according to her they weren't interested in having her. No agreement was reached and she was not in season five. She was still able to appear in the final episode, as that episode was originally filmed as the finale of the fourth season and was moved forward. Ivanova did not appear in the episode that was created to serve as a new finale for season four. This departure necessitated substantial changes to the fifth season of Babylon 5. A planned episode title, "The Very Long Night of Susan Ivanova," was reused as " The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari," though the episodes did not share a plot. Furthermore, a planned romantic relationship between Ivanova and the telepath
Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
that would have continued her pattern of tragic relationships was changed to be a romance between
Lyta Alexander Lyta Alexander ( ) is a character from the fictional universe of the science-fiction television series ''Babylon 5'', played by Patricia Tallman. Role in ''Babylon 5'' Character arc In the series' pilot, Lyta is described as a sixth-generation ...
and Byron, which in turn precipitated the events of the Telepath War. A new character, Elizabeth Lochley, was created to take Ivanova's narrative role as commander of the station. In the Season 5 episode A View from the Gallery, two maintenance workers discuss Ivanova's sudden departure. They speculate on the reasons she left, mentioning contract and pay disputes and Marcus and his sacrifice before finally concluding that they will not ever know the true story.


After the series

Neither the ''Babylon 5'' movies released after the end of the series nor the spin-off series "Crusade" refer to Ivanova. However, Straczynski wrote a short story set far in the future of the series called Space, Time & the Incurable Romantic which was published in
Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
#602. This story features Marcus Cole being revived after a long time in stasis. The world that created the device Cole used to heal Ivanova (and kill himself in the process) has been discovered, and enough additional information has been found to revive him. While Ivanova herself does not appear, Cole uses some of her hair that was on his uniform and an imprint of her thought patterns and memories. He uses this to create a clone that believes she is Ivanova. He deliberately traps himself and the clone on a remote planet so that he can live out his days with her. The story has been confirmed as canon by Straczynski, who has gone on record to say that Ivanova never finds out about Marcus's cloning of her and his deception, which gave Marcus his own happy ending without Ivanova having to grapple with the ethical issues involved.


Reception and literary analysis

The character of Susan Ivanova has been subject to several literary analysis that focus on her feminine identity, or her military career and LGBT-related coming out or her Jewish background.


See also

* Woman warrior *
List of women warriors in folklore This is a list of women who engaged in war, found throughout mythology and folklore, studied in fields such as literature, sociology, psychology, anthropology, film studies, cultural studies, and women's studies. A ''mythological'' figure d ...


References


External links


The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5
The definitive B5 reference and episode guide
Babylon 5 Encyclopedia (fansite)


* Downloadable short ebook
Space, Time & the Incurable Romantic.pdf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanova, Susan Babylon 5 characters Fictional bisexual females Fictional telepaths Fictional women soldiers and warriors Fictional Jewish women Fictional Russian Jews Television characters introduced in 1994 ru:Список персонажей телесериала «Вавилон-5»#Сьюзен Иванова