G'Kar

"No one here is exactly what he appears"

- G'Kar in 2258

"No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power governments, and tyrants, and armies can not stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free!"

- G'Kar's speech after Londo Mollari had him expelled from the council G'Kar was a protagonist of the Babylon 5 series. Originally a somewhat villainous figure he evolved during his time on Babylon 5 to become a major religious figure amongst his people.

G'Kar was portrayed by the late Andreas Katsulas.

As a young man G'Kar's father was killed by the Centauri for spilling a drink on the mistress of the house where he and his family worked. G'Kar watched as his father died, strung up on a Jalwah tree. After his father died G'Kar ran away into the underground, and killed his first Centauri two days later.

G'Kar became a major resistance leader as the Centauri were driven from the Narn homeworld in 2231. Afterwards he became a member of the Kha'ri, or the Narn ruling council. He was appointed ambassador to Babylon 5 in 2256. Shortly after his arrival he angered the Minbari ambassador Delenn, who forced him to leave his quarters by using gravity rings against him. G'Kar would later be involved in a plot with renegade Minbari to discredit the station commander Jeffrey Sinclair.

Over the next couple years he engaged in a bitter feud against the Centauri, hoping for the day when they were anniliated. When the Shadow agent Mr. Morden asked G'Kar what he wanted, G'Kar's response that he wanted to Centauri destroyed and for the Narn to be safe. This led Morden to dismiss the Narn as a potential ally due to their insufficient desire for conquest, and instead turned to G'Kar's rival Mollari, turning the Centauri into a client race of the Shadows.

G'Kar was one of the first people to suspect that the Shadows were returning to the galaxy after a 1,000 year absence. He tried to warn the others, including new B5 commander John Sheridan but without proof his concerns were initially dismissed.

With the Shadow support the Centauri were able to reoccupy the Narn homeworld in 2259. Expelled from the council, G'Kar was able to claim asylum on B5 when the Centauri demanded his arrest and extradition. G'Kar began a resistance effort against the Centuari from B5, with the B5 staff providing covert assistance.

G'Kar procuered the human drug dust and used it to force his way in to Mollari's mind, where he learned that Mollari was behind everything. While G'Kar was in a dust induced trance the Vorlon ambassador Kosh made mental contact with him, and gave him a revelation. G'Kar turned himself in to station security and was sentenced to six months in prison for his assault on Mollari.

While in prison G'Kar began writing out his thoughts on the war and the vision he had experienced. At the time he estimated that it would be done by the time he got out of prison, but he spent most of the rest of his life writing what would become the Book of G'Kar.

Out of prison he helped the B5 command staff by convincing the local Narn population to help take over security after the Nightwatch security personnel were relieved of their duties and arrested. By then Delenn remarked he was not quite the same individual she met when she arrived three years ago.

G'Kar was brought in to the Army of Light after Delenn told the truth about how she refused to reveal what she knew when G'Kar began to suspect the return of the Shadows.

After Sheridan and Michael Garibaldi disappeared in early 2261 G'Kar set out to search for Garibaldi. He was captured and arrested by Centauri forces. While G'Kar was in the captivity of the insane Centauri Emperor Cartagia Mollari made a deal with him, where if he helped Mollari rid the Centauri of Cartagia then Mollari would have the Centauri withdraw from Narn forever. Over the next couple weeks G'Kar was tortured at the hands of Cartagia, culminating in the loss of his left eye when Cartagia had his guards cut G'Kar's eye out.

During his trial G'Kar broke free from the restraints, providing Mollari and his aide Vir the distraction they needed to assassinate Cartagia. Honoring his promise, Mollari had the Centauri withdraw from Narn.

G'Kar returned to Babylon 5 a short time later. There he was given an artificial eye by Dr. Stephen Franklin to compensate for the loss of his natural eye. G'Kar spent the next few months studiously avoiding Mollari and other Centauri, wanting to pretend they no longer existed in his universe.

When Earth Alliance President Clark began killing civilians, the B5 command staff decided it was time to use force to depose Clark. G'Kar agreed to sign a joint statement with Mollari in support of Sheridan's actions, but not on the same page. He and Mollari would later get the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to take a more active role in opposing Clark when Sheridan was captured, feeling they owed it to Sheridan to continue his quest to free the Earth Alliance from tyranny.

At the end of the Earth Alliance Civil War, G'Kar supported Delenn when she proposed disbanding the League of Non-Aligned Worlds and creating a new Interstellar Alliance. G'Kar sat on the Alliance's advisory board for many years, advising President John Sheridan as the new government began to take its first steps following its formation.

In the 2270s G'Kar went with Stephen Franklin to explore beyond the galactic rim. He would later return to help the Centauri in their struggle against the Drakh.

G'Kar died in 2278 while trying to end the life of Emperor Mollari at Mollari's request to prevent Mollari's keeper from taking action against Sheridan and his family. He was honored by the Centauri for his role in freeing them with a large gold statue placed at the gates of the capital that guarded the city against invaders.

Trivia

 * The idea of G'Kar with Franklin having gone beyond the rim was used in The Lost Tales to honor the late actors - Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs - who had portrayed the two characters.