You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
77 lines
4.0 KiB
77 lines
4.0 KiB
Path: spud.Hyperion.COM!spud.Hyperion.COM!not-for-mail
|
|
From: koreth@spud.Hyperion.COM (Steven Grimm)
|
|
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5
|
|
Subject: Why "Shadows?" -- speculation on darkness, light, and souls
|
|
Date: 14 Apr 1995 14:41:51 -0700
|
|
Organization: Hyperion, Mountain View, CA, USA
|
|
Lines: 66
|
|
Message-ID: <3mmq6v$kak@spud.Hyperion.COM>
|
|
NNTP-Posting-Host: spud.hyperion.com
|
|
|
|
I don't think I've seen this brought up before. Possible spoilers for the
|
|
rest of the season and beyond; proceed at your own risk:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why are the apparent baddies called "Shadows?" At first, I just sort of
|
|
accepted the name at face value; shadows connote darkness, stealth, and so
|
|
forth. But the first time we hear the word used in reference to the new
|
|
race (Lady Ladira in "Signs and Portents") it's not really used as a proper
|
|
noun; it's more a description. This makes me think there's more to the
|
|
name than meets the eye.
|
|
|
|
So what does the word "shadow" tell us about these folks? Three possibilities
|
|
come immediately to mind. The first, which has been discussed here, is that
|
|
they're related to one of the other races, a different aspect of one of them,
|
|
connected but not really the same. The obvious choice is the Vorlons, of
|
|
course (though I'm not so sure about that.) If this is what the word meant,
|
|
it also implies that the shadows can never be destroyed; where there's light,
|
|
there must also be shadow.
|
|
|
|
Second, if you want to take "shadow" really literally, you can ask: what's
|
|
the light, and what's causing the shadows to be cast? I have a vague feeling
|
|
that the Minbari, standing as they do between the darkness and the light, may
|
|
be an integral part of the picture; their presence is preventing the light
|
|
from going everywhere it should. Maybe when they go, so do the shadows --
|
|
and if that's true, and the prophecy says the shadows will be destroyed,
|
|
Delenn's transformation is an act of self-preservation on her part, not
|
|
self-sacrifice.
|
|
|
|
This has some appeal, since it ties in with the whole soul-migration issue.
|
|
Humans aren't getting Minbari souls; Minbari have been standing in the way
|
|
of souls that were supposed to go to humans, recycling them over and over.
|
|
Stealing them, if you want to look at it that way (a nice irony given their
|
|
hatred of soul hunters!) Where are the souls coming from? The Vorlons.
|
|
Yes, I'm suggesting that Vorlon souls are migrating into humans, not the
|
|
other way around as has been discussed frequently. Note Delenn's speech in
|
|
"Babylon Squared," in which she says of humans: "They are the future."
|
|
|
|
In this case, the shadows are the result of the souls not reaching their
|
|
destinations, and maybe what they're up to is trying to rectify that problem
|
|
in a way that's not clear to us yet. Kosh's encounter with Morden in "Signs
|
|
and Portents" suggests that the migration is not voluntary on the part of
|
|
the Vorlons.
|
|
|
|
Finally, the third possible meaning of "shadow" -- a remnant, a lesser
|
|
version of something that came before. Maybe they're the remains of some
|
|
*really* ancient force that was nearly destroyed, and is now trying to
|
|
regain some of its past glory or to finish work that it once started. It
|
|
has more important things to do than deal with a bunch of little races
|
|
who might try to interfere. It devotes a small fraction of its resources
|
|
to getting them to squabble amongst themselves so they're too busy to
|
|
notice what else is going on; its true aims have nothing at all to do with
|
|
the Narn or the Centauri or mass killings. In fact, if I were to hazard a
|
|
guess along these lines, I'd say the current war's real purpose is to
|
|
distract the Minbari by making the Centauri look like a threat. (In that
|
|
case, they'll probably try to arrange for the humans to join in the war on
|
|
the Centauri side.)
|
|
|
|
What defeated them when they were stronger than they are now? Something we
|
|
haven't seen yet, maybe. Perhaps something that was itself destroyed in the
|
|
process, but I doubt that. If this third theory is right, there's yet
|
|
*another* invisible player in this game. I'm guessing we'll find out about
|
|
it in the next batch of new episodes if so.
|
|
|
|
Comments?
|
|
|
|
-Steve
|
|
|