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So I started watching "Babylon 5" for the first time.

Question: Will they explain why Londo is still on B5? Centari has a treaty with Earth now, and B5 is against Earth. I can't help but wonder why he is still there, for the most part, the shows been pretty airtight and consistent within itself. This seems like a glaring ommision, and great material to be explained in an ep.
They're not part of the Earth government; the Centauri want to keep their interests in Babylon 5 as well.
 
Financially, and territorially, Babylon 5 stole from the Centauri, the Narn, the Minbari and to a much lesser extent the League when it voided it's debts and writs of ownership to all those governments by declaring independence.

Actually?

Would Earthgov still be responsible for it's outstanding offworld debts in connection to Babylon 5? And outstanding debts to Earthgov from Aliens? Are they going to pay B5 or Earthdome?

Babylon 5 would have had it's fingertips into the Earth Alliance general fund. Money/credit that is electronicly transferable...

Up to the point open hostilities began, both sides should have been trying to hack and steal from each until the other was penniless.
 
Territorially, Babylon 5 is neutral space. That's kind of the whole point. As for the financial side, legally speaking I'd presume that any financial agreements were between the signatory governments, not with the station itself. Besides, I don't recall any mention of money being loaned so much as donated to fund the project as a viable concern. Since any return on their respective investments would be in the form of the various trade deals and diplomatic negotiations to be had overthe years.
This isn't really affected by the declaration of independence, beyond Earth no longer having a seat at the negotiating table.

The treaty was a non-aggression pact which would basically mean both sides agree not to attack the other. Doing business with rebelling colonies and space stations probably wasn't covered.

Plus, as has been said, Clark has his hands full keeping the colony worlds in-line. The last thing he needs right now is to antagonise the Centauri who are clearly in the conquering mood. Indeed, their increased militarism was the whole point of the treaty in the first place.

In short, Earth has very little leverage in the matter. The only thing they really have over the Centauri Republic is that in the event of open war, they could badly weaken the Centauri and cost them a lot of money...right before they flatten Earth from orbit.
 
The money the Minbari put towards the Babylon Projected was partially reflected in their veto power on who got to be Station Commander... Yes the station was in neutral space, but if it wasn't an earth alliance station to a degree, even though everyone in an Earth Force uniform part from Ivanova up, seemed to be an independent contractor rather than career military...

Although Earth Alliance paid for the rent for the Earth Alliance Post Office to "Babylon 5"?

Is that a case of synergy, the left hand paying the right to maintain synergy, or dopes everyone still hate the post office?
 
Materially speaking, the station is owned by the Earth Alliance Central Government. The other governments chipped in to get the thing built, but that was in exchange for a seat on the council, not their name in the deed. Indeed, they weren't the ones that funded the station's day-to-day operations, that was Earthdome.

So yes, they basically stole it from the Earth Alliance. But that's always true when any body of people declare political independence, the "steal" the ground under their feet along with the buildings, infrastructure and any other assets that happen to be there. But as I said though, no government, not even Earth has claim on the territory where the station orbits.

Not sure who owns the jumpgate. Probably Earth, but again, not much they can do about that. Those things are expensive, but it's a given that they'll be around much longer than any political change. Even attempting to take one of them out makes about as much sense as tearing up the roads and bridges around a city-state out of spite.

The relationship between the station and EF was a little complex. Yeah, the station commander and the command staff were all EF officers, but the Earthforce military wasn't technically in command. Sinclair and Sheridan were military governors acting on the direct authority of the EA President and overseen by the Earth Senate oversight committee. Hence the pissing match that ensued in 'Voice in the Wilderness' when Captain Pierce tried throwing his weight around. Although he outranked Sinclair, he had no authority over the station or it's personnel. It's also why when Sinclair was recalled to Earth, it wasn't some General or Admiral, it was Clark that gave the order.
 
I'm following your interpretation... But even though Clark may have given the word, considering where Sinclair wound up... Jeff's marching orders came from Minbar.

Earth did what it was told.
 
I'm following your interpretation... But even though Clark may have given the word, considering where Sinclair wound up... Jeff's marching orders came from Minbar.

Earth did what it was told.

More like Minbar made a polite formal request and Earth jumped at the chance to get that pain in the arse, possibly collaborating alien lover out of there and get in one of their own red blooded, pro-human jarheads with a proven track record of slaughtering boneheads...or so they thought.

Indeed, if Earth was so eager to please Minbar or so afraid of pissing them off, they wouldn't have picked Sheridan "Star Killer" whom the entire warrior caste (and probably most of the religious caste) want skinned alive and mounted on a pike. Preferably several, spread across a very great distance.
 
Another possibility is that up until that point there was no formal Ambassador to Minbari and the Minbari offered Earth the chance to post one, and suggested Sinclair.
 
Another possibility is that up until that point there was no formal Ambassador to Minbari and the Minbari offered Earth the chance to post one, and suggested Sinclair.

That's not so much another possibility as it is exactly what happened. The point we're discussing however is who tell who what to do.

From Earth's PoV, the post is a neat way to get rid of Sinclair since they have zero interest in maintaining an embassy on Minbar (as Sinclair quickly finds out in the novel 'To Dream in the City of Sorrows'). It was a dead-end post. From the Minbari point of view...well, as the OP knows by now they* wanted him to rebuild the Anla'shok with both humans and Minbari.

* And by "they" I mean Delenn & her supporters--the warrior caste were less than impressed with the notion to say the least.
 
As a side note, a lost line from The Gathering explained why there wasn't an Earth ambassador on B5 , and was being replaced for now by the station commander.
 
The book "To Dream In the City of Sorrows" was written by JMS's wife!
This is soo cool to watch a non B5 fan watch it from the beginning. You sir will have the carpet pulled out from under you, ENJOY THE RIDE.
:rofl::bolian::bolian:
 
Who cares. Look at her slink.

But seriously, every (male) child of the 70s wanted to bang Laura Ingalls.

We wanted to do wet and sticky things to that body.

At what point did we ever consider pausing because the wrong personality was in there?

Melissa Gilbert?

An accomplished actress of stage and screen from a hundred years forward into the future?

Fuck it. Close enough.

(You know that Melissa and Bruce were married in real life (1995 -2011)?)
 
Who cares. Look at her slink.

But seriously, every (male) child of the 70s wanted to bang Laura Ingalls.

We wanted to do wet and sticky things to that body.

At what point did we ever consider pausing because the wrong personality was in there?

Melissa Gilbert?

An accomplished actress of stage and screen from a hundred years forward into the future?

Fuck it. Close enough.

(You know that Melissa and Bruce were married in real life (1995 -2011)?)

I did not...
 
It's so weird seeing this show through the eyes of someone who doesn't know these things. Still, this is bringing back a lot of old memories I'd forgotten!

Back in the day I was reading the Lurker's Guide updates after every episode and getting Joe's EXACT thoughts on each episode, along with all the easter eggs and shit.

In the case of B5 it is LITERALLY an example of that old saying, "I've forgotten more than you'll EVER know about this subject"!
 
^ Not bragging or anything - I just thought it was funny that that old saying which is often spoken in arrogance is ACTUALLY true in my case, as I'm sure it is for many here!
 
Z'ha'dum was one of the first, if not the first season finale that dropped my jaw on the floor. I was mesmerized and really bloody worried for the characters. Hell, one of them actually jumped off a cliff so it wasn't just a mere cliffhanger. In all honesty I just stared at the screen after the end credits were long gone and wondered what the hell was that!

It was an amazing!
 
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