XPost: rec.arts.tv, rec.arts.sf.tv, rec.arts.movies.current-films   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: seawaspobvious@obvioussgeinc.com   
      
   Alison Hopkins wrote:   
   > "Sea Wasp"  wrote in message   
   > news:44CE91B0.3050108@obvioussgeinc.com...   
   >   
   >>Alison Hopkins wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>>Not your fault, she said comfortingly. Shall we have a nice chat about   
   >>>why I felt let down?    
   >>   
   >>By all means, although I'll say in advance I suspect I've heard the   
   >>discussion before -- about a dozen times. But it never hurts to find out   
   >>if someone has a new angle.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >   
   >   
   > OK, here goes a very short version. I expected something with more of a   
   > sense of, oh, mystery and awe, if that makes sense? Rather than a squabble   
   > for supremacy between two races. After all the (excellent) build up, it   
   > seemed over too abruptly and in too obvious a way. No real exposition of why   
   > the lesser races were so important to Shadow and Vorlon. Mind you, I found   
   > the Earth politics angle more interesting in many ways.   
      
   	Well, to me it was obvious. Babylon 5 is basically "Lord of the Lens"   
   -- Lord of the Rings crossed with the Lensman series, with the   
   Arisians and Eddorians having less clear-cut Good and Evil and being   
   themselves lesser beings than the legends might make them out to be.   
      
   	The resolution was, to me, brilliant. There was NO WAY that there   
   could be a military resolution directly; the Alliance, powerful though   
   it was, simply didn't have what it took to deal with EITHER the   
   Vorlons or the Shadows, let alone both. There was no way they could,   
   by themselves, negotiate a peace between two groups who were basically   
   religious fanatics. The BEST that they could do was to GET BOTH   
   GROUPS' ATTENTION...   
      
   	... but then what? Get stomped flat?   
      
   	No. Because...   
      
   	Lorien was there. Could he, by himself, take them on? Probably not.   
   Oh, I think he was clearly vastly more powerful as an individual than   
   any one Shadow or Vorlon, but the entire races assembled would have   
   mopped the metaphorical floor with him.   
      
   	But...   
      
   	As I said before, these were two religious fanatic sects. And exactly   
   who was there at the START of their religion? Who helped guide them   
   and raise them to the godhead, who gave them their missions?   
      
   	Lorien.   
      
   	And here he is. It is as though two fanatical sects of Christians   
   were warring, and suddenly Jesus himself appears to them. And they   
   *KNOW*, both sides, that it really is Jesus himself. No tricks, no   
   lies -- the Shadows and Vorlons recognized Lorien without any doubt at   
   all.   
      
   	And HE WOULDN'T TALK TO THEM.   
      
   	Instead, he stood there, supporting, and forcing them to listen to   
   this child, this lesser creature -- and thus, by direct implication,   
   telling them "You have made a terrible mistake, both of you. A mistake   
   so terrible, so basic, that even this child can tell you what is   
   wrong. And I am so very disappointed in you that if you do not   
   acknowledge this child and his people that I am not going to even   
   speak to you again."   
      
   	As I said, brilliant.   
      
      
      
      
   --   
   				Sea Wasp   
                           /^\   
                           ;;;	   
   Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)