History Headscratchers / BabylonFive

** It is kind of imply that the centauri do not fight their fates as seen in the dreams and that doing so is cultural taboo, probably because it was done before with worst consequences or because it was discover that trying to change it just makes it happen in self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way. So probably most just go with it and live their lives unworry. Also they probably just have not enough information from the dream to do something about it and we as an audience can't really know. What did Refa saw? Did he saw the entire Londo speech or he just saw a large boot crushing his face nor even knowing if the creature wearing it is Narn? You do wonder how come Cartagia did not send Vir to be executed right after he met him (as he most have know he will be seeing his face while having a needle piercing his chest), but do notice that Cartagia is shown to particularly dislike Vir since the moment he mets him.

** It is kind of imply that the centauri do not fight their fates as seen in the dreams and that doing so is cultural taboo, probably because it was done before with worst consequences or because it was discover that trying to change it just makes it happen in self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way. So probably most just go with it and live their lives unworry. Also they probably just have not enough information from the dream to do something about it and we as an audience can't really know. What did Refa saw? Did he saw the entire Londo speech or he just saw a large boot crushing his face nor even knowing if the creature wearing it is Narn? You do wonder how come Cartagia did not send Vir to be executed right after he met him (as he most have know he will be seeing his face while having a needle piercing his chest), but do notice that Cartagia is shown to particularly dislike Vir sense the moment he mets him.

*** Humans have customs like this as well. A wave or a handshake started as showing I have no weapon in hand and mean you no harm. So does the military pose with the rifle shouldered. They all state I am armed, but not threatening you with the weapon I possess. If the sensors hadn't beeen blinded, the gun ports open but not armed probably would have come across as this.

** Of course people were praising their awesomeness a million years into the future. They drove away the Shadows, Vorlons and all the First Ones forever! G'Quon drove the Shadows off Narn, temporarily, and became a majorly worshipped religion for it. G'Kar managed to outdo him in the span of five years and he was one of the lesser members of the War Council. Delenn turned down leadership of the Minbari, became the first, known to them, minbari/human hybrid, became leader of the Anla'Shok broke the Grey Counsil, defeated the Shadows forever, ended a civil war, became leader of her people by setting herself on fire and converting a rival caste leader (Neroon), reinstated the Grey Counsil giving the Worker Caste a dominant voice, created the Alliance, and became president of the Alliance, plsu who knows what else over the next several decades. Sheridan defeated the Shadows, broke away from Earth, united the Non-Aligned worlds for the first time ever, became the only person every race seemed to trust, died and came back, freed Earth from president Clark, forced the Alliance and became it's first predisent, a title he apparently held for over a decade, and disappeared into space. And Ivanova? Well, she's God, what do you expect? These weren't regular people who did minor things, they accomplished some serious stuff.
** Their relationship got even more obnoxious as the series went on. They seemed to have something genuine up to mid season 4, but after that there are such lovely gems as her going off to face her clan in Atonement without telling Sheridan that she might not be back, Sheridan telling her in Lines of Communication that he'd rather she stayed on the station to keep him happy ''even though it would mean ignoring mass murders of her caste mates by the warriors--'' and Delenn not even putting him in his place for it, Delenn overtly flirting with Neroon a few episodes later, and then the whole S5 situation where she was very much interested in Lennier in ways that can't be considered entirely platonic. 'What The Frak?' How is any of this compatible with what both of them recognized when Sheridan was at ZHD: that they are both the other's reason for living? Dear JMS, write them as devoted soul mates or write them as conveniently together for political/religious/etc reasons but ''not both.''
*** It's perfectly possible to be both soulmates and a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage with Sheridan. Delenn never flirted with Neroon; they met, made a political conspiracy, and courteously called each other WorthyOpponent s . As for Lennier, I didn't get to season 5 but in season 1-4 she was perfectly proper with him. She was in an incredible bind; for she knew she owed him a lot but the one thing he wanted(without him admitting it) was the one thing she couldn't give. Perhaps she should have dismissed him but she couldn't bear to break his heart, and it would likely dishonor Lennier, certainly if the reason became known. The whole thing was was just a very sad tragedy.

** The most obnoxious thing about Delenn is that we're supposed to forgive her for her role in the E-M war despite ''never'' seeing any character work to justify that she's worthy of forgiveness--and, in fact, a lot of stuff (such as her handling of the Drakh first contact) which suggests she hasn't learned much from her mistake. If we're supposed to forgive her, then we should have seen some indication that she's troubled by what she did. Even one line to Lennier in Atonement -- imagine i.e. "this is what I am remembering when I wake up at night screaming" -- would have gone along way to show that she's actually repentant and therefore worthy of consideration for forgiveness.
*** She was a stateswoman and had to keep such feelings bottled up. On some occasions every decision a powerful figure makes will cause someone to die. If a decision turns out to be a mistake thats even worse. That doesn't mean she wasn't troubled-in fact she certainly did seem troubled to me, it meant she simply wasn't rendered incapable of functioning. As for "repenting" the only ones she could "repent" to are humans, whatever she considers her equivalent of God to be, and to herself. She can't apologize to humans without the orders of the Minbari government which certainly would never be given as she was a diplomat and not an ordinary person. And the other forms of repentance are private matters, especially to an honor culture like the Minbari. It would not have helped make everything all better if she had ruined herself with grief when people depended on her. I'm sure UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill didn't feel dandy about the bombing campaign after the war either but he kept that to himself.

*** Well it was less her fault then others. She did deserve whatever angst she gave herself for it despite the fact that she was otherwise a very likable character. But she deserved blame less then the others. Some of her actions can be inferred as partly guilt. Sometimes she seems to have had recklessness that lends suspicion of a death wish. And her estrangement from the Grey Council could easily be interpreted as a grudge. I think she was deliberately manipulated to make an opportunistic war that would enhance the religious and warrior caste's prestige. They pressed her when she was most vulnerable and then never let her change her mind. Delenn of course knew that perfectly well later and I think she did hold it against them.

** That in Thirdspace Sheridan flys through one of the most packed space battles in cinematic history with ships, munitions, lasers and debris all over to deliver a nuke. He goes all the way from B5 to the big bad enemy mothership THROUGH this battle in what, an Omega class destroyer, a Minbari cruiser, an Earthforce fighter. No IN A FRICKKING SPACESUIT. try skateboarding the whole length of the M1 or the I66 or any other major motor/high way against trafficflow with a nuke. and all this to punch out Cthulhu at the end

** It's a flaw of Franklin's character, at least until his stim addiction and near-death experience, that he can't just leave things alone, he has to try and fix them and assumes he knows better. It's the same thing as when he performed the surgery on the child against his parents' wishes, he wanted to take action, he assumed he knew what was best so he did it and suffered the consequences. He even laments it in this very episode.

* In episode "A Late Delivery from Avalon" when Franklin discovers the truth about who "King Arthur" really is, he decides to tell him. Marcus correctly opposes. The thing is, Franklin's actions are very irresponsable, he's not a psychiatrics nor a psychologist, but even as physician should know better. Precisely one of the two aforementioned professionals would have pointed to him that you never, ever, take a person with some form of psychosis, especially a traume-induced psychosis, and rip them out of it violently telling them their "true" nature because, well, exactly what happens in the show can happen; a mental break down that may end them catatonic. The correct treatment to take someone out of psychotic dilusions take months if not years of careful therapy and drugs. So the question is, how come Franklin acted so irresponsably? Even if is not his branch of medicine he should have known or at least consult with one mental health expert before taking any mental healt decision.

-->'''Na'Toth''' (to G'Kar upon finding an assassin's calling card in his bed): "It is not my place to speculate upon how anything gets into your bed. Your reputed fascination with Earth women, for example."

** The narn had the crystal showing Londo's speech so unless Londo assured them that such thing wouldn't happen they will make it public. Also even as ruthless as the centauri were they probably still had investigations and had to be proven that the centauri was killed by at least one narn (otherwise and considering that centauri does kill each other a lot soon there will be no narns, and yes probably often a centauri murder was blamed on narns but this won't be the case) all they have is Refa's dead body and evidence of his treason so probably won't investigate further.

* How does one go from the rotating section of the station to the non-rotating section of the station? Like the ships all dock to the part that doesn't rotate (Yet the docks have gravity whenever someone is there...) but how do the two segments connect? Are there temple of doom style corridors you gotta rush through while they are aligned less you be crushed? We see the interior of the station axis is hollow when Sheridan takes his exploding tram through it, so that's not where stuff connects.

* Two things that have always confused me about the EnergyBeing-ness of Lorien and the Vorlons. First, it was said that Lorien was the first sentient being and was born naturally immortal. Now, for a long time, I just assumed that he was born of two less-than-sentient humanoid beings, but not only does that not make much sense to begin with, it also turns his [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended nature]] into a bad case of HollywoodEvolution, as he himself would have been actively evolving over those years, although I suppose that such a scenario is somewhat reasonable given the mass-ascension/"evolution" of the race from [[Recap/BabylonFiveFilm03TheRiverOfSouls The River of Souls]], but even that still seems off. Then it occurred to me that he could have simply come into existence as the energetic cloud of ascended tentacles that we see him as on occasion, who merely "shifts" into [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith a humanoid form]] like the future human's "avatar" in the Season 4 finale. So which is the case; that he was born humanoid and underwent "personal evolution" or that he was always the glowing energy cloud? And as for my second headscratcher, could the Vorlons also shift between an "avatar form" and an energy form, and if so, do they simply stay in their energy forms out of preference (or arrogance)?

** Best guess, they covered it up to avoid a nasty scandal. As far as the general centauri public knows, Lord Reefa was either found dead Narn by unknown causes, or simply disappeared. But the Royal Court will know the truth (that’s “truth” in big glowing air quotes) and that’s the important thing. As Londo said, Reefa’s house will be discredited and by extension all his allies at Court, clearing away all opposition to Londo and his allies.

* When narns killed Lord Reefa, weren't they worried about the retalliation? According to the centauri laws, the murder of ''any'' centauri on Narn was punishable by deaths of 500 narns. Sure, Londo released 2000 narns from death camps as payment, but I seriously doubt either G'Kar or his friends would agree to such "net gain". They didn't even try to make his execution look like an accident, or "disappear" him! Sure, they framed him for being a narn colloborator, but why would it stop the centauri from enacting the retalliation anyway?

* What does “ascension of the ordinary man” actually mean? Is it an insight into President Clark’s motivations or beliefs? Solely a MadnessMantra that he latched on to? Or did he only write it out so many times to mock his enemies with the “Scorched Earth” message?

** According to the Babylon 5 wiki quoting episode Rising Star, Sheridan is also Earth's representative aside from President having a double role. EDIT: And in fact this is confirm on screen, if you watch carefully during the council scenes in the fifht season in each ambassador's seat there's a card with his government's name, in Sheridan's case it says "Earth Alliance".

** According to the Babylon 5 wiki quoting episode Rising Star, Sheridan is also Earth's representative aside from President having a double role.