History Fridge / BabylonFive

* Micheal Garibaldi, the brilliant security chief, failed to realize that forcibly seceding from the Earth Alliance would result in a disruption of his postal service? The same postal service provided by the Earth Alliance? Seems like a bit of an odd blindspot for his deductive skills.

* In "Legacies" the command staff is rattled by a Minbari ship approaching with open gun ports until Delenn explains the gesture. So after a misinterpretation of the gun ports open approach caused the Earth/Minbari War - ten years later the fact that the warrior caste does this has STILL not been explained to the humans?

*** Actually, Sinclair was the last Commander of B5. Both Sheridan and Lochley were Captains. JMS mentions giving them this rank to make the narration internally consistent.
**** That's somewhat of a MathematiciansAnswer - while technically true that Sinclair was the last person to run B5 with the rank of "Commander", military tradition refers to someone who commands a unit as the commander (of that unit), whatever their rank. That also ignores Sheridan's accomplishments towards Babylon 5's greatness. While Sinclair did [[spoiler: go back in time to become Valen - and do all that implies]], that was not done on Babylon 5, if we're getting into technicalities.
**** Actually, if we want to get ''really'' technical, the last person to bear the title of Commander and be part of B5 command staff was Commander Susan Ivonova.

**** Actually, if we want to get ''really'' technical, the last person to bear the title of Commander and be part of B5 command staff was Commander Susan Ivonova.

**** That's somewhat of a MathematiciansAnswer - while technically true that Sinclair was the last person to run B5 with the rank of "Commander", military tradition refers to someone who commands a unit as the commander (of that unit), whatever their rank. That also ignores Sheridan's accomplishments towards Babylon 5's greatness. While Sinclair did [[spoiler: go back in time to become Valen - and do all that implies]], that was not done on Babylon 5, if we're getting into technicalities.

**** That's somewhat of a MathematiciansAnswer - while technically true that Sinclair was the last person to run B5 with the rank of "Commander", military tradition refers to someone who commands a unit as the commander (of that unit), whatever their rank. That also ignores Sheridan's accomplishments. While Sinclair did [[spoiler: go back in time to become Valen - and do all that implies]], that was not done on Babylon 5, if we're getting into technicalities.

**** That's somewhat of a MathematiciansAnswer - while technically true that Sinclair was the last person to run B5 with the rank of "Commander", military tradition refers to someone who commands a unit as the commander (of that unit), whatever their rank.

**** That's somewhat of a MathmaticiansAnswer - while technically true that Sinclair was the last person to run B5 with the rank of "Commander", military tradition refers to someone who commands a unit as the commander (of that unit), whatever their rank.

**** That's somewhat of a Mathmatician'sAnswer - while technically true that Sinclair was the last person to run B5 with the rank of "Commander", military tradition refers to someone who commands a unit as the commander (of that unit), whatever their rank.

*** Actually, Sinclair was the last Commander of B5. Both Sheridan and Lochley were Captains. JMS mentions giving them this rank to make the narration internally consistent.

*** Actually, Sinclair was the last Commander of B5. Both Sinclair and Lochley were Captains. JMS mentions giving them this rank to make the narration internally consistent.

** Also, in Londo's narration that opens ''The Gathering,'' he states that B5 achieved its greatness "under the leadership of its final commander." It shows admirable foresight from JMS that he didn't name that commander. The problem is, the last commander of B5 we see is ''Lochley.''

* The Vorlon method of teaching the younger races doesn't work and never would! Just look at the Minbari, the only race we know to have significant long term influence by the Vorlons, they seem to have barely progressed technologically in the thousand years since the last Shadow war. The Vorlon teachings make a society so disciplined and rigid that there's little room for creative thought which leads to few innovations and improvements. Sure, to a Vorlon taking a few thousand years to progress is not a concern, but their immortal, the younger races can't do that because they don't live long enough to benefit from that kind of lifestyle. You'll notice that every single advancement we know of from the minbari occured due to direct alien influence (Valen restructured Minbari society and made all the castes equal, the Vorlons allowed the Minbari to use some of their technology to creat the White Stars and everything that happens to them during the series happens due to Delenn's constant contact with humans). Notice how humanity managed to come up with ships that can fight and destroy White Stars in a little over a decade after being completely ineffective against the Minbari during their war? And all they had to work with was one Shadow ship for a couple of years, while the Minbari had Vorlon access for centuries and still needed the Vorlons to directly give them the technology. While the Shadows' methods go too far as well their methods actually do get results it's just they go too far and get themselves destroyed.

** Also, Londo isn't just an alcoholic. He is also addicted to power and prestige. In his constant effort to gain more respect he allies himself with other power hungry men, never notices how much damage they are doing to others, and when he realizes what he has done, he can never turn his back on his allies because he can't cope with loosing their respect. He lies to what few friends he has left, to hide his association with other conspirators, and when openly accused becomes violently angry and makes up justifications for what he did. And every time he manages to break free, it takes only a tiny nudge by a former ally or a personal tragedy to forget about all his promises to himself to never get drawn into it again. Mr. Morden also uses the classic drug dealer tactic of offering some first tastes of great power for free, but later makes increasingly greater demands for his continued service as Londos ace in the hole.

** It's pretty much stated that Sebastian has been awakened from time to time for similar purposes, so it's entirely possible that at least some of his speech patterns have evolved over time as he's experienced future time periods. The Vorlons seem also to have extended his life, so Sebastian may have ''experienced'' [[OlderThanTheyLook more years than his appearance would suggest]], even taking his [[HumanPopsicle periods of long sleep]] into account.

* In "A Late Delivery From Avalon," Marcus proposes that Mckintyre might actually be the real King Arthur, preserved by the Vorlons in much the same way that Sebastian a/k/a Jack the Ripper was. Franklin objects, saying that 'Arthur's' speech patterns are too modern by about 1400 years. A very logical objection...except that Sebastian's speech patterns should be about 350 years out of date as well (of course, the only major character he interacts with for a significant length of time is Delenn, and [[TranslationConvention their entire conversation may have been in Minbari]]). Consider how well Shakespeare's works or the original King James Bible holds up for modern English readers to see what a difference this should make.

* Everyone we see answer Morden's question ("What do you want?") gets what he asked for; Londo gets a return to Centauri Empire's imperialist days, and later G'kar gets to see the Centauri Empire bombed to rubble, and in between, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Vir gets to wiggle his fingers at Morden's head on a spike]]. Of them, though, Vir was the only one who asked for something which, by the time the request was fulfilled, actually ''wanted''.

* Everyone gets what they want from Morden; Londo gets a return to Centauri Empire's imperialist days, and later G'kar gets to see the Centauri Empire bombed to rubble, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Vir gets to wiggle his fingers at Morden's head on a spike]]. Of course, only Vir actually appreciates what he gets.