Ship Manifesto: Delenn/Susan Ivanova (Babylon 5)

[muccamukk]

What Is the Canon?

Babylon 5 was a military science fiction/space opera TV series that ran from 1993 to 1998 (plus or minus a variety of spin offs and TV movies, which are not relevant to this manifesto). It followed a space station in a neutral area of the galaxy, which was built to be a diplomatic and trading hub between various galactic empires. After about one and a half seasons of trying to keep the peace, the plot moved on to several inter-planetary wars and attempts to build a new order.

The special effects showed off the very finest of computer-generated images from the 1990s, and the plot showed off one guy manically writing almost the entirety of five 22-episode seasons. It will spoil you for all other science fiction arc plots, and is also awkwardly earnest a lot. I've seen it short-handed as "The Lord of the Rings in Space" which is... fair if you forget that the Hobbits were the main characters in LotR.

Here's the opening credits from season one, to give you an idea of the tone:

Watch on YouTube

(Also, every season redid the credits to match where the arc plot was, including with different music, which was really cool. Also, also the music throughout the series was great!)

Show Me the Space Ladies!

When we meet Delenn, she's the Minbari ambassador, a woman with a mysterious past and a big destiny. We eventually find out that she's also one of the members of the Grey Council, a group of nine who rule the Minbari Federation. A member of the religious caste, Delenn is convinced that she's following an ancient prophecy to save the galaxy from the coming war. If she runs into an obstacle, she will smash it. If the truth is inconvenient, she will obfuscate around it. She has led fleets into battle, reshaped governments, and reprogrammed her own biology. You do not fuck with Delenn. (She's also a low-key troll, which very few people around her ever work out.)

At the end of season one, Delenn decides that the prophecy means that she needs to be half human, goes into a cocoon like a butterfly, and when she comes out, she has hair and a human reproductive system. She's also one half of the show's main romance plot, which I never really cared about, and which I will largely be ignoring for the purposes of this manifesto.



Ivanova is Babylon 5's executive officer for the first four seasons. A career Earthforce officer, she doesn't have much of a life outside of running a space station. She's Russian, Jewish, and has a grim sense of humour and a tragic past. When she was a child, her mother committed suicide because she could no longer cope with the oppressive treatment of telepaths, and later her beloved older brother was killed in the war with Minbar. Over the course of the show, she also loses her father and her girlfriend.

Despite Ivanova's overriding pessimism, she cares deeply about her few friends and about injustice. She can be awkward in social and diplomatic situations, but will switch to confident when it comes to command. Her main romance plot is a slow burn with the station's commercial telepath, which ends poorly. (There's also a one-sided thing with a male character, which I'm largely ignoring, but it also ending poorly does cause Ivanova to leave Babylon 5 at the end of season four.) It is worth pointing out that she's one of two canonically queer characters I can remember from the 1990s (Deep Space Nine's Jadzia Dax being the other one), even if the network made them play coy with what was actually going on.

Is There Much Shippy Canon?

This is admittedly more of a "two great tastes that taste great together" type ship, rather than a "Wow! It's practically canon!" situation. Because they both have separate romance plots, and Ivanova tends to be in charge of the station when other characters are off doing stuff, Delenn and Ivanova don't interact whole lot. However, here's a handful of jumping off points.

1x17: "Legacies"

When Ivanova is struggling to find a safe haven for a teenaged telepath, someone who's bringing back Ivanova's family trauma and trust issues, she goes to Delenn for help, and believes that she will be able to keep the girl safe. For her part, Delenn takes time away from nearly starting another interstellar and/or civil war (depending how the day went), and helps Ivanova out.

2x07: "Soul Mates"

Having recently turned into a half-human, Delenn is having a difficult time getting a handle on her new biology. Specifically, she doesn't know how to look after her hair. She summons Ivanova to her quarters, and the two of them have a spa day where Ivanova teaches Delenn how to bathe and do her hair. She later asks Ivanova about menstrual cramps.

4x01: "The Hour of the Wolf"

The main character and Delenn's love interest is missing and presumed dead. Everything else has gone to shit. As the last senior leaders still standing, Delenn and Ivanova must team up to run the multiple ongoing wars, and save the galaxy. Despite their grief and fear, they go on a dangerous mission to try and salvage the remains of their alliances.

5x22: "Sleeping in Light

The series finale takes place twenty years after the main show, and without spoiling absolutely everything, a war weary General Ivanova goes to Delenn to find hope. They renew their friendship and the show ends with Ivanova and Delenn working together again.

So What Do You Like About Them?

I'm a huge fan of repressed characters who only come at their feelings sideways, and now we have two of them who both cope in different ways. Ivanova is a straight up brave little toaster, who will only open up in her darkest moments (her friend and CO has to team up with her rabbi to bully her into sitting shiva for her dad). Delenn, meanwhile, talks a lot about emotions and ritual and openness, but even her scary secrets have scary secrets.

They both have issues around loss and grief, and the sacrifices of war. They both claim to want to move on from the war between their peoples, but they both still have one foot caught in that tragedy. We never really dig into how they feel about each other's role in the war, but it's also always kinda there. At the same time, no matter how reluctant they are, they're both warriors at heart (something Delenn, a member of the religious caste, doesn't like to admit).

The series is tightly written, but there are a million opportunities to pry up the boards and start nailing down your own AU, each little choice shifting the course of everything that follows. They could meet before the show starts, for example, when feelings about the war are still running high. Someday, someone is going to write an AU starting in season four where certain people don't show up again, and... (is this manifesto trying to get someone to do that? Maybe!)

We also have friends to lovers with older women who've known each other for decades, lost everything, started again, and found themselves together.

And then there's the hair thing. By which I mean inter-cultural conflict, and fish out of water adventures with one or both of them living in alien cultures. Delenn's hair went awry in the first place because her people don't bathe in water but basically do an acid wash every week or so. Ivanova never got the hang of sleeping on tilted Minbari beds, but then ends up moving to Minbar. Plus there's some canon evidence that Delenn made up vital courting rituals because she thought it was it's funny to get her partner do them. Also, xeno. How alien is Delenn post transformation? Unclear, but I think Ivanova should find out. And Delenn should absolutely get a guided tour through the Joy of Human Sex.

And any number of SF tropes (sex pollen, pretending to be married for space diplomacy, aliens made them do it, telepathically handcuffed together, turned into a fish monster, et cetera) that you can throw at the two of them. You know they want you to!

What's the Fandom Like?

Small. The fandom is small. There are, as of posting, forty two works on AO3, and a handful in older archives. However, what fic one can find is great quality, and the fandom's very welcoming and enthusiastic about new people joining in.

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(Big thank you to kanadka for helping me put this together, to nenya_kanadka for beta reading, and to cap-that for the images.)

Comments

[mab_browne]

I must admit that this a pairing that's never occurred to me, but there's certainly room for it, especially post Sheridan's death.

[muccamukk]

Or instead of Sheridan :D

[mab_browne]

I have a fondness for them as a couple :D

[toothpastepancake]

I love this. Thank you for writing more about this underappreciated pairing!

[muccamukk]

Glad you enjoyed it! It's been a minute since I've been active in B5 fandom, but they're still one of my fave ships.

[princessofgeeks]

Thanks for this! I love Ivanova so much!!!

[muccamukk]

Yes! Me too!

[cjbasicmodel]

I love everything about this.

[muccamukk]

Yay! Glad you enjoyed it <3

[kore]

I love them together! Especially at the end, with Ivanova and the Rangers and Delenn president of the galaxy or whatever.

"Someday, someone is going to write an AU starting in season four where certain people don't show up again, and"

//cackles

[muccamukk]

And that someone is not going to be me! (If I were going to do long fic, it'd be that Valen Returns So Allow Me to Vomit My Sinclair Feels On You bit, and twenty years later I haven't done that yet either.)

[sovay]

It is worth pointing out that she's one of two canonically queer characters I can remember from the 1990s (Deep Space Nine's Jadzia Dax being the other one), even if the network made them play coy with what was actually going on.

I WOKE UP LAST NIGHT AND YOU WERE GONE.

I really enjoy this manifesto.

[muccamukk]

It admittedly wasn't THAT coy.

[shipperslist]

To be fair, I never even considered them to be a ship! But...yes.

And B5 has perhaps the best opening music of all times. 💜

[muccamukk]

Which season opening did you like the best?

[shipperslist]

I checked and there's a a compilation video of all opening and closing credits!

S1 I don't like Sinclair that much but this is perhaps the best opening...and ye dogs the music
S2 is overly chippy and pompous and militaristic which suits Sheridan
S3 is just depressing. I wasn't too into the chaotic music
S4 is. hmm... sort of mix of all previous three?
S5 is just rubbish because it's not the opening theme of the series AT. ALL.

[muccamukk]

That's more or less where I'm at, except I liked season three because both Ivanova doing the narration, and because the discordance was such a swerve. You're like, "Holy shit! It's on!" I like season five on a meta level, but the actual music... not as much. But the Sleeping in Light theme at the end of that, OOOF. Right in the feels after all these years.

Sinclair was the best :P

[kanadka]

These two would be so good for tropey post-canon shenanigans where people think they must clearly be dating/even married because they spend so much time together without realising that it's job-related but then those people come up with all the evidence and people are like "you know what..... Shaal Merreck of the gossip clan is making a really valid point right now...." It'd make such a great outsider POV 🤩️

Someday, someone is going to write an AU starting in season four where certain people don't show up again, and
we don't need another heeeeero, we don't need to know the way to z'ha'dum
But seriously, this is such a mood, a S4 what-if-sheridan-just-never-returned AU is such a fruitful place.

[muccamukk]

You should fully write the Minbari Blog-o-sphere found documents post canon Susan/Delenn fic. I would read the hell out of that!

I just... don't believe that John coming back from the dead and making that speech was key to winning the war. Not when Delenn was right fucking there!

[parcequelle]

In this year 2025, I have watched Babylon 5 for the first time, and I found this post on my search for Delenn/Susan content. Thank you for writing this! I adore this ship. <3

[muccamukk]

Awww, that's so fun! I'm glad people are still enjoying the show.