Sinclair/Garibaldi

Pairing
Pairing:	Sinclair/Garibaldi
Alternative name(s):
Gender category:	m/m
Fandom:	Babylon 5
Canonical?:	no
Prevalence:	rare
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Sinclair/Garibaldi is a slash pairing between the Babylon 5 characters Jeffrey Sinclair and Michael Garibaldi.

Like all pairings in this fandom, it was affected by J. Michael Straczynski's ban on fanfic while the show was still on the air.

Fan Comments

1995

In the first few episodes of B5, I thought Garibaldi was the only character with the slightest bit of sex appeal. Once Ivanova loosened up a bit and began acting human instead of like Katharine Janeway, I thought Garibaldi was one of only two characters with etc. I think he's a great candidate for being queer, though I don't really see anyone to slash him with — not even Sinclair.

One of the major shifts in the balance of friendship with the advent of Sheridan is Garibaldi's growing relationship with Franklin. Now there's a slash pairing if there ever was one! But then so was Garibaldi/Sinclair. Sheridan seems far too solidly hetero, which his growing relationship with Delenn seems to substantiate, to easily slash but I'm sure I could be persuaded if, ahem, someone were to write a roaring good Sheridan slash story! I assume by now you've seen more of the 2nd season and have discovered that the stalwart Sheridan isn't exactly what he appears to be. I do wish, though, that they could have developed more tension between him & Garibaldi. I find the show extremely satisfying as it is but if that tension and mistrust could have been carried forward during a few more eps then the working through of these problems would have been a delicious pleasure.

1996

The possibilities for Garibaldi/Sinclair, however, seem to me more slashy, if not more frequent, now than earlier. Consider that they are both working in (or with) the Rangers, an elite, idealistic, action-hero band of guerillas. Excitement, danger, sudden death! In a good cause! No doubt they see each other seldom, but if the feeling were there, they'd have every excuse to spend an extra half-hour in, er, personal reassurance, when they do meet. They might not ever see each other again! Each time! It's the Minbari War (the good parts) all over again! Well, but that's no excuse for mucking up a tight timetable or risking more not-where-he's-supposed-to-be points than necessary. It's mostly that the atmosphere of high-minded risk, galaxy-shaking danger, and necessary trust is consistent with many slash styles, rather than the given logistics being really favorable for good sex. But, as far as the circumstances of this (unfortunately offscreen) relationship encourage certain literary-sexual tendencies among us, I think G/S could be even more highly charged than it would have been earlier in the series.

I'm still waiting to read my first Garibaldi/Sinclair (and I WILL wait 2 more years if JMS insists, but I won't be happy).

Garibaldi's attachment to Sinclair seems to have waned, and besides, one could do interesting things with that attachment and Garibaldi's desolation: he has the job because Sinclair wanted him, because Sinclair practically dragged him up again out of the slump his career was in, he came to this godforsaken space station for Sinclair, and now Sinclair's gone.

Taking B5 as the closest we have to a thought-out plot-driven anime, will the same things happen there? Garibaldi and Sinclair have had an eternal parting, without the chance even to say good-bye. Doesn't that fact colour any G/S story you can write now? Think what will be like if Garibaldi dies. More important than whether he's making it with Marcus or Ivanova is the fact that he won't be here in two years' time. (Which is why people should be writing now...)

I wondered whether the Net had any Babylon 5 slash so, after trolling thru a dozen or so web sites via Alta Vista, I made my electronic way to a web site that's called Satrycon a GoGo at http:// www.ar.com.au/~jrlddler/slash.html. Among lots of other topics. It listed a link to Slash Fiction on the Net which sounded promising. Slash Fiction on the Net pages had a dozen or so shows listed; the largest section was for Due South. Much as I like that show, my interest doesn't go further.

B5 has two stories listed: the shorter one was a Sinclair/Garibaldi story "The Gift" which was adequate. The other story was "Balance of Power" by Jennifer Lyon, A. Manley Huff & Sue Phillips. I skimmed several pages and it looked promising so I printed it out. Fifty-five pages later it finished with a file size of 187k.

[...]

[This link] - Slash Night at the Karoke Cafe which led to a few slash vignettes, elfin's "Nights" is a brief, evocative vignette between Sinclair & Sheridan which I'm including on the next pages. I couldn't find any more. Sigh. Well, it's early, perhaps "Balance of Power" will inspire others.

1997

Aren't we past sex as possession? Apparently not. Apparently, fandom is just discovering sex as possession as a grand new kink. This may be conceptually a step up from it being so normal as a m/f paradigm as to be invisible, in both slash and m/f couples, but I do get the impression that fans either too young or too insulated to have lived through the sexual revolution think this is actually a new idea. But anyway. The B5 netfiction I've seen mostly has an air of setting up a situation that doesn't quite match anything likely for the screen personalities, for the sake of an erotic scenario. Sometimes it just looks sloppy - someone who can't see niceties of character, or can't effectively write them [...] It's unfortunate (to my mind and reading tastes) that the prevailing atmosphere reeks of fuzzy thinking about consensuality. I can be happy with stories on either end of the scale (or in the middle) but I like the author to be clear about who wants what and why. Sometimes the characters aren't clear, which is fine — many characters are thick as rocks about what they really want. Maybe Sheridan and Sinclair would find themselves slugging it out (or fucking it out) for dominance over each other, both being alpha males. Sheridan, after all, is an entrenched member of the officer/owner class of old boys and might well be possessive of "his" station, even if I'd say he's too good a people-handler to think of anyone blindly as a possession. But Sinclair, being a maverick outsider even in EarthForce, seems unlikely to claim a piece of hardware as his own territory when he's got a Minbari destiny awaiting him. Meanwhile, I'm still hoping to see something more of Sinclair/Sheridan and, even more, of Sinclair/Garibaldi, even if these intriguing concepts aren't ideally served by fannish writing so far. (Yeah, I know, I should do it myself if I want it done right. Maybe.) There's some room for skewed characterization, actually - given the source, some really thorough-going characterization of Sinclair would be a relief whether it's new or already used in the show. I liked the idea and look of the character, but I have to admit the acting was a bit low-key.