History BabylonFive / TropesIToP

** Alfred Bester, more or less. (Much less in the novels. [[spoiler: Directly responsible for causing the events that lead to the destruction of the Psi-Corp, chased by Garibaldi for a decade or two, mind-wipes his love, only to realize it's not necessary, and put in a prison for the rest of his life, under anti-PSI drugs, and dies when an ESPECIALLY ironic announcement is made.]])

* NotNowKiddo: Commander Sinclair is faced with a pretty bad scenario in one episode: the cargo workers on his station have been badly abused by a combination of having so small a workforce that they're pulling triple (or even quadruple!) shifts and by having to work with aging, failing, unsafe equipment that tragically leads to the death of a worker. These horrible conditions have driven the workers to the point where they're starting a strike that's necessary, but that's not legal under their contract. Sinclair wants to solve the problem by reallocating dormant funds away from the station's defense budget toward hiring more workers and replacing the infrastructure and equipment that the workers are (correctly) pointing out will fail altogether within a few months, but Sinclair doesn't even get to reveal his plan until an unrelated law gives him power to end the strike "by any means necessary": more than once before that point in the episode, he genuinely tries to ''tell someone'' with authority to reallocate this money about how the dormant funds can be used to solve the whole situation fairly, peacefully, and logically, but before he can reveal any details of his idea, they talk over him and dismiss him. Only repeat viewings would even reveal to the audience that this trope was what was happening at the time.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Garibaldi has an argument with a post office worker who charges 100 credits to pay for a package that got delivered. Now the worker points out that the price hike is due to [[spoiler:B5 breaking out from Earth and him having to employ alternate means to get the mail to arrive to B5, and his extra expenses have to be passed to the consumer.]] Yet most of the B-Plot was following Garibaldi trying to avoid paying the price, eventually resorting to extortion to get his money back. Because the guy ''dared to do his job'' (Or heck, go beyond his duty considering he's trying to maintain the service despite the consequences).

** "...and then he said, 'That's not my leg, ''that's my air hole!''[='=]" - Londo, again ("Soul Mates")

** Among the human main characters: Sinclair is a Catholic, and was instructed by Jesuits as an adolescent. Ivanova is a former lapsed Jew, whose re-connection with her faith is a large part of her character arc in the first season. Franklin is a Foundationist, a syncretic future religion which holds that all the galaxy's existing faiths reflect some part of a greater truth. Garibaldi is agnostic but was had a Catholic upbringing. Zack Allen's religion is unknown, but he believes in Heaven and (perhaps jokingly) comments on being behind on penance. Sheridan doesn't follow an organised religion, describing his beliefs as "eclectic".

* PowerWalk: The intercut between Sheridan and Nightwatch near the conclusion of "Point of No Return". Both sides are gathering their forces to arrest the opposing side's leader.

* PlasmaCannon: Handheld Phased Plasma Guns.
%%* ThePlague: The Drafa ("Confessions and Lamentations")
%%* PlayingWithSyringes: The secret Psi-Corp project in "Mind War".

** Garibaldi puts one on as part of his [[PaperThinDisguise "excellent disguise"]] when doing some investigating with Franklin in Downbelow. G'Kar is shown wearing it in a later episode as part of an attempt to better understand Garibaldi while searching for him.

* ImGoingForACloserLook: Very, ''very'' bad idea upon encountering a Shadow vessel. And also true for most unidentified craft.
** [[spoiler:Warren Keffer]]'s last words.

** Among the human main characters: Sinclair is a Catholic, and was instructed by Jesuits as an adolescent. Ivanova is a former lapsed Jew, whose re-connection with her faith is a large part of her character arc in the first season. Franklin is a Foundationist, a syncretic future religion which holds that all the galaxy's existing faiths reflect some part of a greater truth. Garibaldi is agnostic but was had a Catholic upbringing. Zack Allen's religion is unknown, but he believes in Heaven. Sheridan doesn't follow an organised religion, describing his beliefs as "eclectic".

%%* LesYay: Ivanova and Talia.

* PlotArchaelogy: Much of Captain Sheridan's character arc in Season 2 centers on [[DeathByOriginStory the death of his wife]] and how he needs to let it go and move on with his life. Fast forward to the end of Season 3, and [[spoiler: Anna Sheridan shows up on B5, with a message for her husband from the Shadows.]]

* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling:
** Lyta to Kosh and later Ulkesh.
** Lennier to Delenn, in spades.

* LeeroyJenkins: The Narn are a whole ''species'' of these.
** Possibly the best example of this is when Earthforce is boarding Babylon 5 to try and get the station back from Sheridan. Garibaldi and a large percentage of his security team (augmented by recently-recuited Narn soldiers) move in to where the breaching party will enter the station. As Garibaldi and the Humans begin digging in to set up a kill zone, the Narn just rush on ahead, forcing the humans to chase after them.

* LesYay: Ivanova and Talia.

** When it comes to human religions, Babylon 5 is shown to be home to a small but thriving community of Dominicans, and is also chosen to host an ecumenical conference which involves a visiting Baptist choir (much to the contemplative Brother Theo's chagrin), and a delegation from the [[AllHailTheGreatGodMickey Church Of Elvis]].

** Telepaths in general are trained to use this to cloud their own abilities while not actively working.

** The Minbari Denn'bok, a [[SimpleStaff fighting staff]] that can collapse into a small tube).

*** The Centauri like [[SlowLaser lasers]] and [[BoringButPractical particle beams]], and have advanced versions of both, including Battle Lasers, particle beam Twin Arrays (shared with some others), and a particle beam Heavy Array.

*** The Centauri like [[SlowLaser lasers]] and [[BoringButPractical particle beams]], and have advanced versions of both, including Battle Lasers, particle beam Twin Arrays (shared with some others), and a particle beam Heavy Array (a Twin Array UpToEleven).

* NiceHat: The Inquisitor's dapper-looking top hat.

* NeckLift: [[BewareTheNiceOnes Lennier]] to Marcus.

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Averted with the [[CoolStarship White Star]]. While they spend most of the third season using the ship as a very powerful one-of-a-kind starship, it is later revealed that the Minbari had been secretly mass producing the design, having an entire fleet of them ready for battle once the Shadow War kicks off in earnest.