Lyta-Ivanova-Byron Love Triangle

[JoeD80]

No I'm not talking of my fantasies! (well maybe a little).

In the script books, jms mentions that Lyta and Ivanova were originally planned for a relationship together. He then passed this thread to Talia when Lyta didn't work out early on. When Talia left, and Lyta came back, jms thought it would be stretching it to have Ivanova go for Lyta too. He was hoping to have a long-term same-sex relationship on his show.

We know that both Lyta and Ivanova were planned for the Byron arc. So I had the thought that perhaps the plan was to have them be involved in a 3-way relationship! Although jms now says "Lyta would have been star-struck," we know that the Lyta/Ivanova relationship was dropped because of the Talia <-> Lyta switch. So if both Ivanova and Lyta stayed together they would both be pulled in by Byron, and the end result still would have been thermonuclear Lyta and a sad Ivanova, perhaps with Ivanova turning on Lyta because of occurrences here.

[Jan]

I'd say the key phrase is "if both Ivanova and Lyta stayed together". It might well not have given Ivanova's dedication to duty. Plus we have to remember that Byron's look, at least was triggered by Marcus and Ivanova's failure to allow herself to get involved with him. Also that JMS has said that Lyta wasn't originally supposed to be romantically involved with Byron.

I think all we can assume is that as one door closed (Talia's fate) other doors opened for Ivanova and Lyta.

Jan

[JoeD80]

From the script books it sounds exactly like Ivanova and Lyta were supposed to stay together throughout the seasons if Talia hadn't been brought in and then taken back out. I know he said Lyta wasn't going to be romantically involved with Byron, but, he did say that the directive to not get Lyta involved in relationships in the season 1 bible was because of Byron, and we know Ivanova was supposed to get involved with Byron, and Ivanova was likely headed to that plot one way or the other because of her latent telepathy. Byron's look was triggered by Marcus but Marcus came in after Talia had already gone away as a love interest for Ivanova and jms had decided that it wouldn't make sense for her to fall for Lyta too. Ivanova would have been naturally pulled in by Byron with Lyta without having to go through Marcus's 'death' first. It seems to fit.

[cornholio1980]

he did say that the directive to not get Lyta involved in relationships in the season 1 bible was because of Byron,

He did? I always thought that was referring to his plans concerning Lyta and Ivanova.

The way I interpreted it, there was not meant to be a Byron originally. Lyta and Ivanova would have gotten involved, and then during the Telepathy-Crisis, it would have been Ivanova that would have called in Psi Corps to take care of the situation, thus betraying her lover.

Just my 2 cents...

[JoeD80]

Joe did say this on Byron and Lyta and initial plans mentioned in the season 1 bible:

Anyone looking at the S1 bible right now sees stuff that was laid out for the later seasons, and it was pretty much all done... right down to telling writers not to get Lyta into a relationship because she would eventually become starstruck by Byron, and I didn't want anything else to get in the way of that.

Whatever the relationship plans might have been though, there was certainly always going to be a telepath cult leader; in the script book Joe mentions sticking to that plot (in addition to losing the notes) because he wanted to show how people got drawn into the cult and a different kind of life that these people lead, translating his own experiences of living in a religious commune.

[Foxy]

I am glad that it didn't work. I mean imho Ivanova and Byron don't fit together. Same as Lyta doesn't fit to her. But I liked the story arc between Talia and Ivanova and also that one between her and Marcus.

[JoeD80]

Byron and Ivanova weren't supposed to fit together exactly. The point of it was that Ivanova was going to jump into it because she thought Byron was similar enough to Marcus, but it would turn out to be a big mistake.

[moreorless]

I am glad that it didn't work. I mean imho Ivanova and Byron don't fit together. Same as Lyta doesn't fit to her. But I liked the story arc between Talia and Ivanova and also that one between her and Marcus.

Obviously hard to say what might have happened but I'd tend to agree Talia/Ivanova seemed like a better matchup than Lyta. Just watched season 2 for the first time in a couple of years and the formers conflicted view on the corps was really what setup/sold that effectly for me.