No dictator, no invader can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.
Don, thanks for posting this. My good lady holds Babylon 5 to be an epic for our times, better than Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. We’re rewatching, up to season 3, episode 10 (the beginning of the Shadow Wars) and we’ve watched the transformation of G’kar from one rabid for vengeance to a crusader for forgiveness.
The character changes during the series Bob was intriguing.
A pet peeve of mine is the claim that the show’s creator tossed a coin at the last minute to decide whether the Centauri or the Narn would be the bad guys. I don’t believe a word of it. Are you telling me that the former empire could really have been chosen the heroes, and the bad guys could have been the former colonies? Maybe I’m jaded after this many years of political correctness, but I can’t imagine a show where the Africans were the villains fighting against the honorable Europeans. And just look at the designs. Where’s the subversion if the human-looking race is noble, and the animal-looking race with the red eyes is evil? The whole premise of the show is that nothing is as it appears.
Initially the Narn did not come off that well and the Centauri were portrayed as world weary cynics, comedic grifters longing for past glory. At the end the Centauri redeemed themselves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7n4Gg-_ac&t=3s
Peter Jurasik and the late Andreas Katsulis were truly magnificent as Mollari and G’Kar. Superb performances which deserve to be remembered.
We just lost another Babylon 5 cast member. Mira Furlan, who played Minbari Ambassador Delenn, died on January 20. R.I.P.