# Babylon 5 nitpick: How could G'Kar and Mariel . . . you know . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573 "2006-07-07T23:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/1 "2006-07-07T23:29:09Z")
In the _Babylon 5_ episode [Soul Mates,](http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/029.html) Londo Mollari summons his three hated wives, Timov, Daggair, and Mariel, to attend him at the station. The emperor has granted him permission to divorce all but one of them, and he wants to spend a little time with them all before he makes his choice. In the course of the episode, it develops Mariel has not only been playing Londo false, but doing so with his worst enemy: Ambassador G’Kar! As character development, that works deliciously! Anatomically, however . . . In the first episode, [The Gathering,](http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/000.html) G’Kar tries to solicit the human telepath Lyta Alexander as a breeder in a program to create a telepathic human-Narn hybrid – the Narn having no telepaths of their own. He offers to be the sperm donor himself, and by natural rather than artificial insemination. “Now, would you prefer to be conscious or unconscious during the procedure? I would prefer conscious, but I don’t know what your pleasure threshold is!” [grins] So, it appears Narns are sexually compatible with humans. [Centauri, OTOH, have very different . . . **attributes.**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centauri_Republic#Sexuality) They appear practically identical to humans with their clothes on. But a Centauri male has six sex organs – tentacles extruding from the sides of his body, three on a side; and a female has six corresponding orifices. (Imagine the possibilities! 🙂 ) So how could any species that is sexually compatible with **humans** also be sexually compatible with **Centauri?!** ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/2 "2006-07-07T23:30:44Z")
Never underestimate the power of kink. It will find a way. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/3 "2006-07-07T23:37:30Z")
They’ve both got hands and mouths. You can have a lot of fun just using your hands and mouth in bed. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/4 "2006-07-07T23:42:28Z")
…I don’t see the problem. G’Kar’s thingy goes in one of the ladies’ thingys… and he’s got two hands… to she’s half taken care of. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/5 "2006-07-07T23:42:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > They’ve both got hands and mouths. You can have a lot of fun just using your hands and mouth in bed. Might work between, say, a man and a ewe, but here we’re talking about a man and a spider, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/6 "2006-07-07T23:54:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Might work between, say, a man and a ewe . . . And trust me, it **does!** 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/7 "2006-07-07T23:57:10Z")
Of course, I shouldn’t dismiss the possibility entirely, considering the endlessly rich [prospects](http://www.fridayjones.com/firstsquid.html) offered by the free-range [prairie](http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/questions/X0020_Prarie_squid_.html) [squid . . .](http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/hallscience/X0091_WileyMtnSquid.html) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/8 "2006-07-08T00:16:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Might work between, say, a man and a ewe, but here we’re talking about a man and a spider, as it were. I don’t see why it’d be that different. The show makes it pretty clear that both species have erogenous zones. They’ve just got different kinds of zones in different places. But there’s nothing stopping them from stimulating each other’s zones with fingers, tongues, or any other… tools they’ve got available. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/9 "2006-07-08T01:17:25Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t see why it’d be that different. The show makes it pretty clear that both species have erogenous zones. They’ve just got different kinds of zones in different places. But there’s nothing stopping them from stimulating each other’s zones with fingers, tongues, or any other… tools they’ve got available. Still . . . if the other species’ erogenous zones were really all that **different** from those of your own, you’d really have to, like, **go out of your way,** and maintaining your own species’ equivalent of a hardon in the process probably would, psychologically/genetically speaking, be really difficult (which is not to say impossible) . . . And that’s to say nothing of the olfactory factor . . . ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/10 "2006-07-08T01:26:20Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And that’s to say nothing of the olfactory factor . . . [Speaking of which.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=378143) And that’s all within the one species. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/11 "2006-07-08T01:48:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Still . . . if the other species’ erogenous zones were really all that **different** from those of your own, you’d really have to, like, **go out of your way,** and maintaining your own species’ equivalent of a hardon in the process probably would, psychologically/genetically speaking, be really difficult (which is not to say impossible) . . . > > And that’s to say nothing of the olfactory factor . . . True, but apparently, G’Kar gets off on that stuff. Guy’s a straight-up freak for alien women. He’s got terminal Kirkitus. Of course, that only explains half the equation: what do all the alien chicks he beds get out of it? Maybe he studies up on what he has to do before each encounter. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/12 "2006-07-08T01:54:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > True, but apparently, G’Kar gets off on that stuff. Guy’s a straight-up freak for alien women. He’s got terminal Kirkitus. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/13 "2006-07-08T02:16:20Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😃 I mean, Kirk would do a **Horta** if she held still for 10 minutes . . . ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/14 "2006-07-08T02:23:40Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I mean, Kirk would do a **Horta** if she held still for 10 minutes . . . Kirk? 3 minutes, tops. ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/15 "2006-07-08T03:31:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I mean, Kirk would do a **Horta** if she held still for 10 minutes . . . Who says he didn’t? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/16 "2006-07-08T03:35:23Z")
Well, regarding the thing with Lyta, it should be noted that Narn are mammals (marsupials, actually,) so…you know…it’s more like making love to a kangaroo than it is, say, a lobster. 😛 But I surmise some type of genetic engineering would have taken place _in utero_ after the insemination. In fact, odds are, it would be much better to just nab some of her eggs and go the ol’ test tube route, but what fun would that be for either party? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/17 "2006-07-08T06:06:21Z")
It’s quite clear, over the course of the series, that G’kar is a perv. Specifically (among other things), he has a thing for human and superficially-human females: In another episode, the one thing he and Londo can agree on is their appreciation of the exotic dancer they’re both watching (I don’t remember if we see enough of her to tell if she’s human or Centauri, but she’s certainly not Narn). I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if his offer to Lyta was just a really cheesy pickup line, with no actual expectation of offspring. That said, there’s one episode where we see three (human) painted ladies exiting G’kar’s private quarters with very satisfied looks on their faces, followed by G’kar himself in a bathrobe. I reiterate, three of them. At the same time. So maybe Narn, like Centauri, also have multiple… attributes, and he was only planning on using one at a time with Lyta. But given the opportunity, he could service multiple humans simultaneously, or a single Centauri. I’ll also reiterate the very satisfied look on those painted ladies’ faces. Whether by natural endowment, or special effort on G’kar’s part, Narn (or maybe just G’kar specifically) are apparently great lovers. Which may say something about what Mariel sees in him. Or she may just enjoy delivering Londo the ultimate insult. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/babylon-5-nitpick-how-could-gkar-and-mariel-you-know/363573/18 "2006-07-08T12:04:57Z")
There was other inter-species sex that _would_ have gone on, in B5. Remember how the newly encountered race, the Lumati(sp?) sealed special contracts? And how Ivanova handled it? One of the funniest scenes in the whole series. And the ambassador’s note, _“Next time, my way.”_