Markup View

Author: fulltimeD

Oct 21st 2011 at 6:22:43 AM

''BabylonFive'': The Earth Alliance is like a combination of the European Union and the United States, though it's implied that other major economic powers like China and Japan play a role too, it's usually off-screen. On the other hand, alien cultures, traditions, religions and customs are noted for being exotic, even though in many cases they parallel non-western human cultures. Examples being: the collectivist sensibilities of the Minbari; the Narns changing their names based on major life decisions like which prophet of theirs to follow; the Brakiri "Day of the Dead" being very similar in concept to holidays from several Earth cultures. For any alien trait in B5 that's not explicitly tied to BizarreAlienBiology, one can probably find a parallel in some human culture.

Broadly one could say that the Minbari are "eastern," the Narn are "middle-eastern," and the Centauri are the Second World, former colonial powers compared to the Earth Alliance's USA (especially given the Centauri relationship to the Narn as their former oppressors).