Christopher Rush

Part Two: Babylon 5

Chapter Three — Characters

In the introduction to this thesis, I declared my purpose here is not to describe Babylon 5 as a Western epic in allegorical ways, as if the main characters must be precise representations of Achilles or Odysseus, or that its plot must be a war story or a journey tale.  Instead, I demonstrate Babylon 5 utilizes the foundational elements of the Western epic analyzed in part one to tell a new epic story with heroes that strive to gain a transcendent understanding of themselves and their universe.  Since the Odyssey is markedly different from the Iliad, while still being an equal epic, it is reasonable to allow for variation within the epic concept, in both characterization and story construction, as long as a connection to that foundation still exists.  The most significant element of the Western ancient epic genre, how the characters make choices to understand themselves and the nature of their reality, is also the most important element of Babylon 5.  Though most of the main title characters throughout the series are exemplary individuals and perform different functions on the station, the two human leads of the series, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair and Captain John Sheridan, demonstrate Babylon 5’s reinvention of the Western epic hero.  Just as the Homeric heroes are made more impressive by their counterparts, two key alien characters, Ambassador Londo Mollari and Ambassador G’Kar, exemplify the nature of Babylon 5’s complementary characters to its heroes.

Commander Jeffrey Sinclair

Jeffrey Sinclair is the first commander of the Babylon 5 station from its initialization in the Earth year 2256.  Season one begins after the station has been operational for two years.  Throughout the season, Sinclair expresses occasional surprise that he was chosen for such an important position, in charge of an interplanetary peacekeeping station housing the advisory council of representatives from the five dominant species in the galaxy.  Part of his surprise over his position comes from his comparative low military rank as only a commander in the military structure that owns and operates the station, Earthforce.  Other officers perhaps more qualified and higher in rank come to the station at times and express their disgust that Sinclair has such a prestigious command.  It is soon learned that Sinclair got the post because the alien race who helped build the station, the Minbari, until recently Earth’s main enemy, demand he get it.  Why they want him specifically is a significant first season plot thread.

Descended from fighter pilots, Sinclair is a warrior before he is a diplomat, even though he represents Earth on the Babylon 5 Advisory Council with the other four major races.  As the man in charge, Sinclair could easily be an Agamemnon-like character, letting his military background and ruling position go to his head, but series’ creator and co-executive producer J. Michael Straczynski dispels that connection: “the character of Sinclair is not a jingoistic military leader.  He’s a very thoughtful man” (Back to Babylon 5).  Unlike the group of warriors in the Iliad who are only loosely unified but mainly concerned with self-interests, the main crew of the Babylon 5 station is cooperative and cohesive (mostly).  Sinclair rarely has any need to coax or threaten his command staff members to do their jobs; the Earthforce military in which they serve is more dedicated than Agamemnon’s motley group of polis chieftains.  Instead, Sinclair spends most of his time during the pilot movie and first season growing into his diplomatic role and taking responsibility for his choices and his crew’s decisions, facing their consequences head on.  The episode “Eyes” intentionally deals with the ramifications of the choices Sinclair makes during the season prior to that episode.  He is clearly not an Agamemnon type, interested only in his personal gain.

The first season, aptly titled “Signs and Portents,” reintroduces the series beyond the pilot movie The Gathering, familiarizing the audience with the major characters and conflicts in the Babylon 5 universe, giving many of the command staff individualized episodes to flesh out their characters; the major plot arc of the series is foreshadowed as well.  The major mysteries and extended plot lines of the first season revolve primarily around Sinclair, however.  In addition to why the Minbari want him to command the station, his personal epic quest begins at the end of The Gathering.  Sinclair is missing a twenty-four hour period of his life from the conclusion of the recent Earth-Minbari war.  As the Minbari are about to overcome Earth’s final defenses at the infamous Battle of the Line, Sinclair watches his fellow pilots be destroyed until he decides to ram the lead Minbari ship with his own fighter.  On his attack pattern he blacks out and wakes up the next day, only to learn the Minbari have surrendered, minutes away from complete domination of Earth.  In the ten years since the war, Sinclair never discusses his experience with anyone until now.  At the end of the movie, a Minbari assassin declares to Sinclair “there is a hole in your mind.”  This, plus other incidents throughout the first season, motivates Sinclair to find out what happened to him.

Sinclair’s motivation, then, as an epic hero, is self-understanding.  Unlike Agamemnon whose self-knowledge is limited by material possessions, Sinclair’s ability to know himself is incomplete because he is missing part of his memory and thus a portion of his identity.  In this sense he is like Odysseus, and his warrior heritage and isolation from his society by the end of the season also make him like Achilles.  Furthering his connection to the epic heroes is his moral ambiguity; he manipulates and lies at times to achieve (in his estimation) some higher good — not simply to be deceitful or wicked.  In one sense he does this because he believes it is part of the nature of life:  “Everybody lies,” he declares.  “The innocent lie because they don’t want to be blamed for something they didn’t do.  And the guilty lie because they don’t have any other choice” (“And the Sky Full of Stars”).  The characters do not inhabit the same amoral universe as the Homeric heroes, since the Babylon 5 heroes all contend for transcendental values of service and good, regardless of their individual beliefs.  Sinclair’s background of three years of Jesuit training help enable his personal freedom to lie and manipulate for a greater good, such as saving life and solving crimes.  In “The War Prayer,” an episode about the burgeoning hate group Home Guard interested in eradicating the growing alien presence and influence on Earth, Sinclair declares he hates the hate groups, yet he is not above pretending to be like them in order to infiltrate and bring them down.  In the same episode, he threatens violence against Ambassador G’Kar so he will agree to his peace proposal with another race.  In “And the Sky Full of Stars,” Sinclair lies to his friend Ambassador Delenn (Mira Furlan) of the Minbari once he realizes she has been lying to him about his missing twenty-four hours.  In order to forestall a workers’ strike on the station in “By Any Means Necessary,” Sinclair manipulates a government representative into allowing him to use “any means necessary,” which to Sinclair means redistributing budget allocations, infuriating his own government superiors in the process.  His morality is flexible, in part because he does not fully know who he is and what his role in the universe is.  Once he fully understands himself and regains his missing hours, he fully commits to the steadfast unity of the epic hero character — but not until then.

In the epic tradition, Sinclair’s flexible morality is only part of his characterization: he is not just a liar trying to discover what happened to him during that missing day.  Sinclair, like Achilles for much of the Iliad, is internally lost.  His two closest friends both recognize this: Delenn though she sometimes deceives him, does so because she is actually watching him for her government, believing him to be a fulfillment of prophecy, and so she lies to protect him.  She gives him information at times and also keeps him ignorant of certain things for his own good, she believes, knowing that he will take any risk for his friends or for the right thing, because, she says, “[h]e’s looking for a purpose” (“A Voice in the Wilderness” part two).  Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) arrives on the station with Sinclair and has known him for several years.  Garibaldi knows he must do well in this position or he will probably lose his military career because of several mistakes in his past, including alcoholism.  As Sinclair’s oldest friend, Garibaldi does not want to fail him or let Sinclair fail himself.  After Sinclair unnecessarily risks his own life for the third time, Garibaldi confronts his reckless behavior, suspecting it has something to do with Sinclair’s experience during the Earth-Minbari War and now having to work side-by-side with his former enemies.  Perhaps Sinclair is looking to find “something worth dying for because it’s easier than finding something worth living for” he tells his friend in the episode “Infection.”  Garibaldi wonders if that is the definition of being a hero, and in part he is correct.  Epic heroes need to find something worth living and dying for.  Achilles knows he must die if he is to be a hero in his culture and finds it is worth the price, committing the rest of his life to heroism and glory.  Odysseus, by rejecting life with Calypso to return to Penelope, rejects immortality for mortality, favoring humanity and death over an eternal static life.  Returning to his family, growing old and dying, in an ironic way, are worth living for to Odysseus because he values humanity with all its defects over all else.  Life itself becomes Odysseus’s purpose, just as it becomes Sinclair’s, after he knows who he is.

Though he learns what happened in his missing day before the end of the first season, Sinclair takes two more years to fully understand its consequences and his purpose.  This all occurs behind the scenes, since he is transferred off the station at the beginning of season two and sent to the Minbari as Earth’s ambassador.  Like Achilles, Sinclair is only able to learn what he needs to learn as an epic hero while he is separated from his society.  Toward the end of season three at the turning point of the series in the two-part “War Without End,” Sinclair returns to the station to resolve plot threads and his maturation as a full epic hero, finally knowing himself and his role in the universe.  He tells his friends “All my life, I’ve had doubts about who I am, where I belonged.  Now I’m like the arrow that springs from the bow.  No hesitation, no doubts.  The path is clear….  My whole life has been leading to this.”  His self-understanding is clear, and he is ready to perform the actions of a fully-realized epic hero now that he has learned what he must learn.  He knows that he will not return from this mission, but he does what he must because he is an epic hero, choosing to do what only he can do.  For Achilles and Odysseus, following their heroic impulse leads them to personal glory and the restoration of order.  Sinclair’s heroic impulse is different, since Babylon 5 refashions the Western epic into something new.  Sinclair’s heroic impulse and newfound self-awareness lead him not to the self-centered goals of the ancient epic heroes, but instead to sacrifice himself and leave his friends and society in order to save them all, transforming the epic hero into a more munificent, selfless character.  In this way, Sinclair salvages the better attributes of Hector from the Iliad, validating personal sacrifice in a new kind of community no longer defined only by battlefield victory.  Achilles returns to society because it is the only community he has, however much he may want to change it.  Odysseus restores his society because it is his home and family, clearly a self-interested goal.  Sinclair, however, saves his society by leaving it (what Hector could not do) because it is worth saving, not just because it exists; he values humanity and its continued existence more than his own life and place in it.  Through his sacrifice he achieves the eternal renown sought by the ancient epic heroes, but his motivation and method are quite different in Babylon 5’s refashioning of the Western epic genre.

Captain John Sheridan

Jeffrey Sinclair is not the only epic hero of Babylon 5.  He plays a pivotal role in the series, yet after the first season, the main character becomes Captain John Sheridan, Sinclair’s replacement on the station.  Like Odysseus, Sheridan is a traveler, coming to Babylon 5 after years exploring the outer edges of known space.  His quest is to learn the true nature of his universe in order to save it and remake it, which he does in an archetypal journey that follows Campbell’s path of the Western epic hero.

Departure

Sheridan’s call to adventure occurs at the beginning of season two, when he is transferred from his life as a deep-space explorer captaining his ship named, ironically, the Agamemnon.  Sheridan is also nothing like the Homeric Agamemnon.  Sheridan’s departure from the life he has known and enjoyed for so long signifies his gaining of freedom and distance required to better understand the society and universe the hero inhabits.  The station is the epicenter of the important activity in the series; while Sinclair must leave it to find himself, Sheridan must board it to understand reality and become an epic hero.  Though Sheridan goes through a realistic period during the first few episodes of season two in which he regrets his decision and questions his ability to be a diplomat and station manager, he soon realizes the value of the opportunities and unique life possible on this significant interstellar port.

The next phase of the epic journey, according to Campbell, the advent of supernatural aid in the form of a protective figure, comes from Vorlon Ambassador Kosh (voiced by Ardwight Chamberlain).  The Vorlons are an ancient race shrouded in so much mystery that they even hide their genuine appearance from other species, preferring to interact with others (which is quite rare) in encounter suits, masking their features and even true voices.  Kosh’s arrival on the station is the instigating plot of The Gathering.  Yet, during his first two years on the station, Kosh spends almost no time performing his ambassadorial functions; he is rarely seen during the first season except in mysterious, inscrutable circumstances.  It is not until Sheridan replaces Sinclair that Kosh becomes an active and involved character.  Keeping in line with his inscrutable nature, Kosh first appears to Sheridan as a protective figure through a telepathic dream while Sheridan is being held captive on an alien ship.  The vision motivates Sheridan to seek out Kosh’s assistance.  Kosh agrees to teach Sheridan about himself and, ultimately, to become an epic hero by understanding the nature of the universe — as Kosh puts it, “[t]o fight legends” (“Hunter, Prey”).  The legends Sheridan learns to fight are the misconceptions the Vorlons have been perpetuating about themselves as they manipulate other races over the centuries.  Kosh also prepares him to fight the legends of the Vorlons’ enemy race the Shadows, which, at the time Kosh becomes his supernatural aid, Sheridan does not even know exist.  He still has much to learn under Kosh’s tutelage.  All but one of Kosh’s lessons occurs off screen, but Sheridan becomes more adept at understanding the universe because of Kosh until events lead Sheridan to cross what Campbell calls the threshold of adventure.  As with Telemachus, epic heroes are not made in the classroom.

Sheridan’s crossing of the threshold is his encounter with Mr. Morden, the Shadows’ covert emissary (and spy) to Babylon 5.  Sheridan’s connection to Mr. Morden is complicated but crucial: Sheridan’s wife Anna (played primarily by Melissa Gilbert) supposedly died three years earlier when her science ship disappeared.  Morden, however, was on that ship, and he is still alive.  Sheridan engages in morally dubious behavior to investigate why Morden is alive but his wife is not.  Virtually every character enjoins Sheridan to release Morden for various reasons, including Ambassador Delenn and Kosh.  His choice whether to release the emissary of his enemies without finding out the truth about his wife is the end of his departure phase in what Campbell calls “the belly of the beast.”  Sheridan chooses to release Morden so the Shadows will not suspect their presence in known by the Vorlons and other races.  With this decision, made freely as a sacrificial hero, Sheridan’s self-understanding is changed.  Kosh and Delenn tell him more about the Shadows and the true conflict raging in the universe among the superior races, furthering his progress as an epic hero.  Cementing the change in his identity and his journey, Sheridan asks Kosh to change the nature of his instruction.  Instead of just fighting legends, he wants to know how to literally defeat the Shadows.  He is even willing personally to take the fight to their homeworld, Z’ha’dum (the same planet upon which his wife met her death and Morden did not).  Kosh warns him of the serious nature of his transformation and the possible occurrences if he continues on his epic path: “If you go to Z’ha’dum, you will die,” he explains.  Sheridan, with Achilles-like resolve and acceptance of his fate, is now sure of his role in the conflict: “Then I’ll die,” he replies.  “But I will not go down easily, and I will not go down alone” (“In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum”).  He fully crosses the threshold of his epic quest of cosmic understanding.

Initiation

Just as Odysseus’s initiation is what Campbell calls “a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials” (97), Sheridan’s journey is against the seemingly ambiguous mythical inhabitants of his universe, and like Odysseus, Sheridan needs more than physical strength to overcome millennia-old races engaged in a “war without end.”  Sheridan’s journey to understand the two sides of the conflict, the Vorlons and the Shadows, with the younger races caught in the middle, occupies most of season three.  His biggest trial is uniting the younger diverse alien races against the Shadows; he eventually succeeds, but the victory is costly — Kosh is killed.  Without his mentor, Sheridan turns to the next phase of his quest, Campbell’s Mother Goddess.  For Sheridan, this is Ambassador Delenn.  Babylon 5 continues its re-envisioning of the Western epic by changing the Mother Goddess into a romantic relationship for the hero.  The more Delenn and Sheridan work together to understand the universe and save the races in it, the more their romance grows until Sheridan’s next phase of his initiation, the confrontation with the Temptress.

Sheridan’s Temptress, in a typical Babylon 5 twist, is the unexpected return of his wife Anna, apparently back from the dead.  As the Temptress, Anna entices Sheridan to return with her to Z’ha’dum; there, she claims, he will complete his quest and learn the truth (though from the Shadows’ perspective).  Much like Circe the Temptress directs Odysseus to the Underworld to learn what he must, Anna directs Sheridan to the Underworld of the Babylon 5 universe, Z’ha’dum.  Sheridan’s journey to the underworld furthers his connection to the Western epic hero, but unlike Odysseus, Sheridan is actually killed as Kosh warned.  His willing descent is intentional by the series’ creator and episode writer Straczynski.  “The journey of John Sheridan is the classic hero’s journey.  The hero often ends up going into darkness, dying, being reborn, and coming back in a newer, better form” ( Introduction to “No Surrender, No Retreat”).  Straczynski clearly understands the path of ancient heroes according to Campbell, incorporating it into the major plot of the series, providing a helpful context from which to analyze the show as an intentional rebirth of the Western epic.

Odysseus’s “atonement with the father” phase of Campbell’s path brings him the wisdom and advice he needs to complete his restoration of his home and identity.  Sheridan, though, already knows who he is — he must learn the nature of the external reality and how to live in it.  Sheridan dies at the end of season three in his attempt to destroy Z’ha’dum, but when season four begins, he is apparently alive in an underground cave devoid of any context.  Here Sheridan meets Lorien (Wayne Alexander), the first sentient being in the universe.  Lorien considers the Vorlons and Shadows his “children,” since their races came after his and he essentially reared them.  In turn, the Shadows and Vorlons have been rearing the humans, Minbari, and other younger races, but have now lost their way.  Sheridan’s atonement is metaphorical — by meeting the ultimate father, Lorien, he can finally understand the nature of the universe, the conflict raging in it, and his purpose.  His sacrifice for this atonement includes not only his misconceptions about what he thought he knew of the universe including the war itself, but also his misconceptions about himself and his reason for being.  He must accept that he is dead.

Lorien explains Sheridan is dead, but because he has not yet accepted it, he is stranded in a Dante-like limbo state of the underworld.  Before Sheridan can resume his quest, he must accept his death and fully learn what epic heroes must learn.  Lorien’s words parallel Garibaldi’s advice to Sinclair three seasons earlier:

You can’t turn away from death simply because you’re afraid of what might happen without you.  That’s not enough!  You’re not embracing life, you’re fleeing death.  And so you’re caught in between, unable to go forward or backward.  Your friends need what you can be when you are no longer afraid.  When you know who you are and why you are, and what you want.  When you are no longer looking for reasons to live but can simply be (“Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?”).

Sheridan’s zealous, yet naïve, willingness to die in destroying the Shadows is not enough — knowing how to fight is only part of the epic hero’s nature.  Sheridan was unwilling to have Kosh teach him about himself, and his ignorance returns to him here at his death, but Lorien gives him a second chance.  Lorien’s advice to no longer be afraid of death is the opposite of Calypso’s offer of immortality, but the results are the same: Odysseus and Sheridan embrace life.  “It’s easy to find something worth dying for,” Lorien continues.  “Do you have anything worth living for?”  Sinclair needs two years of self-discovery before he can answer Garibaldi’s question; Sheridan, though, knowing himself, has an immediate response for Lorien.  “Delenn!” is his declaration as he yields to his death.  As Odysseus abandons immortality to regain Penelope, Sheridan embraces his mortality so he can return to his love Delenn and be the epic hero she needs him to be.  Living the human life, with its failings and brevity, is valuable to the epic hero and so it should be for us all, as Lorien’s caution that life should not be lived just to avoid death rings true for the epic heroes of Homer and Babylon 5 as well as the audiences of these stories.  Because death awaits us, life is valuable and should not be squandered; it must be lived wisely and well, with accurate self-knowledge and proper understanding of the universe.

After yielding to his death and accepting the nature of his reality, Sheridan is revived by Lorien, finally prepared to be the epic hero he must be.  He knows that his wife and past are truly gone, despite the Shadow’s machinations and deceptions, and he is prepared to embrace his new life with Delenn and win the Shadow war, now that he fully understands the nature of the conflict.

Return

Campbell refers to the onset of the completion of the hero’s journey as the “crossing of the return threshold” (37), in which “[m]any failures attest to the difficulties of this life-affirmative threshold” (218).  Despite returning from the dead, Sheridan experiences many failures as he nears the completion of his cosmic quest.  In his absence, the younger races disband again, and, worse, the Vorlons begin attacking them as well in an effort to eradicate all traces of the Shadows and their influence.  The young races have no chance of surviving a war against both the Vorlons and Shadows, let alone winning it militarily.  Sheridan eventually rallies the races again to renew the fight.

The penultimate sub-phase of the hero’s return, what Campbell calls the “Master of the Two Worlds” (37), applies to Sheridan as it does to Odysseus.  He not only has the knowledge to complete his quest, he has the understanding of life and death to do what is necessary to win the war.  Since his ultimate boon is knowledge not weaponry, and since his quest is philosophical and cosmic in nature, Sheridan’s conclusion to the war is also philosophical in nature.  Through Babylon 5’s reinvention of the epic, Sheridan finishes what Achilles started.  Having no desire, for a time, to follow his heroic impulse, Achilles returns (somewhat reluctantly) to his only mode of earning glory, having no power to eliminate the gods or change the culture of society in any substantial way.  Sheridan, however, ends the ultimate war by understanding it, sending the gods of his universe away.  In doing so he reinvents the hierarchy of the universe itself, and transforms the heroic impulse from glory and pleasure seeking into a clearer, more accurate philosophy, discussed in further detail below.

In completing his quest, Sheridan allows everyone to understand the nature of the conflict by showing them what the Vorlons and Shadows really are, bickering parents.  The Vorlons and Shadows want the younger races to choose which of them is correct in how they rear them, but the proper choice is not to choose at all.  Under their manipulation, no one could truly make any significant choices.  When Sheridan sends the Shadows and Vorlons away, all the people, not just the heroes, can make their own free choices.  Without guiding or manipulating races over them, the younger races have all the choices and all the responsibilities.  By conquering his enemies by understanding the nature of the universe and humanity’s place in it, Sheridan completes his journey and enjoys Campbell’s final sub-stage, the freedom to live, though with the freedom to face the consequences of his choices with responsibility.

As the major epic heroes of the Babylon 5 universe, Jeffrey Sinclair and John Sheridan depend heavily on the Western epic hero bases of Achilles and Odysseus, while also transforming the character type in new directions.  Like the Homeric heroes, Sinclair and Sheridan do not change much as characters.  Sinclair learns who he is and what his life’s purpose is, but this does not transform his sacrificial nature or his valuation of all life.  Sheridan learns the true nature of the universe, but he is still a stalwart leader and passionate defender of justice and right.  What these epic heroes learn, instead of changing them internally, refocuses their pre-existing natures into epic heroes with more defined purpose.  Babylon 5 transforms the Homeric epic hero by adding selflessness and sacrifice to the heroic impulse, yet it never strays too far from its most important foundation.  The fundamental message of the show, the importance of choice, is consistent with the Western ancient epic as embodied in their epic heroes.

Unchanging epic heroes, as discussed above, are complemented by important characters that provide contrasts to the natures of the heroes.  Hector and Telemachus provide notable juxtapositions for Achilles and Odysseus, highlighting the particular elements that make the heroes superlative in their poems.  Similarly, Babylon 5 surrounds its heroes with significant, developed counterparts to expand the universe and reflect the singular achievements of Sinclair and Sheridan.  Part of the series’ reinvention of the Western epic genre, however, is that, while traditional epic heroes are surrounded by static characters, the epic heroes of Babylon 5 are complemented by dynamic characters that grow and change over five seasons.  Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari and Narn Ambassador G’Kar, the remaining two members of the Babylon 5 Advisory Council, demonstrate Babylon 5’s use of character development based on choices and their consequences made by these characters.

Ambassadors Londo Mollari and G’Kar

Much like Achilles has a comparative equal in Hector to add to his greatness, Sinclair and Sheridan are set against powerful representatives from other races.  As Ambassadors to Babylon 5, speaking for their peoples, Londo and G’Kar begin the series with great significance.  The Centauri Republic, however, have recently diminished in power and importance.  Londo spends most of the first season drinking and gambling, bordering on a buffoon.  In a poignant moment of the pilot movie, Londo laments that he is only there to grovel before the magnificent Earth Alliance, to try to attach his fading people to the humans’ destiny.  He yearns for the glory days of his once-proud and expansive Centauri Republic, which has now become a tourist attraction.

G’Kar of the Narn is more dominant at the beginning, often reveling in the fact his people have recently broken free from under Centauri rule, though by a devastating war.  G’Kar exerts sway over Londo early on, parading around the station with a single-minded pomposity.  The audience soon learns his behavior is a façade when he cautions Sinclair’s visiting girlfriend Catherine Sakai (played by Julia Nickson) that “[n]o one here is exactly what he appears,” not even him (“Mind War”).

G’Kar and Londo reveal who they truly are at the onset of the series by their responses to Mr. Morden’s question “what do you want?” in the first season episode “Signs and Portents.”  The Shadows are looking for new allies.  All pomposity aside, G’Kar’s response lucidly shows his anger: “What do I want?  The Centauri stripped my world.  I want justice!…  To suck the marrow from their bones and grind their skulls to powder.…  To tear down their cities, blacken their skies, sow their ground with salt.  To completely utterly, erase them.”  G’Kar has no dreams or ambitions beyond Centauri destruction.  As long as his people are safe, he does not care about anything else.  Such a narrow vision does not satisfy Morden or his Shadow superiors.

Londo’s response, however, is precisely what the Shadows are seeking:

I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy.  I want to see the Centauri stretch forth their hand again and command the stars.  I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power.  I want to stop running through my life like a man late for an appointment, afraid to look back or to look forward.  I want us to be what we used to be!  I want … I want it all back the way that it was.

Londo commits to “the good of his people” at any cost, even his self-respect, and by the end of season two, the Centauri re-conquer the Narn, and G’Kar is subordinate to Londo.

While most complementary characters of the Western epic make few choices but suffer the consequences of the heroes’ decisions, the complementary characters in the Babylon 5 universe face the effects of the heroes’ choices and eventually their own, but it takes time.  G’Kar, desperate for assistance against the Centauri re-occupation of his homeworld, does not fully accept the responsibility for his first season vitriol: “But what else could I do?  When you have been crushed beneath the wheel for as long as we have, revenge occupies your every waking thought.  When everything else had been taken from us, our hatred kept us alive” (“Acts of Sacrifice”).  He is unwilling to acknowledge his choice of anger and vengeance, separating himself from the heroic.  In the same episode, Londo laments the repercussions of his earlier actions.  “Suddenly, everyone is my friend.  Everyone wants something.  I wanted respect.  Instead, I have become a wishing well with legs.”  Though he acknowledges more of a connection between his choices and their consequences than G’Kar does by this point in season two, he is not at the heroic level of facing those consequences with responsibility.  They both, however, are being changed by their choices and soon realize this.

By the start of the third season, Londo better realizes the terrible consequences of his alignment with Morden and the Shadows and tries to sever those ties; he is still concerned solely with the good of his own people regardless of what happens to anyone else.  G’Kar, however, learns the importance of valuing all life, not just one’s own kind.  Assuming the form of G’Kar’s prophet in a vision, Kosh teaches him that he

cannot see the battle for what it is.  We are fighting to save one another.  We must realize we are not alone.  We rise and fall together.  And some of us must be sacrificed if all are to be saved.  Because if we fail in this, then none of us will be saved, and the Narn will be only a memory….  You have the opportunity, here and now, to choose.  To become something greater and nobler and more difficult than you have been before.  The universe does not offer such chances often, G’Kar (“Dust to Dust”).

G’Kar rises to the challenge of being better and different than he was, finally acknowledging the reality that people make choices and now he must start to accept the consequences with responsibility.  The nature of his choice, linking him to the heroic while also distinguishing him as a dynamic character, is to sacrifice for the good of others.  No longer does he care and act solely for his own people’s safety, like Londo does; instead he regards the epic valuation of life itself as something worth fully embracing, flaws and all, regardless of race or species.  Londo, though willing to sacrifice himself, is still limited by his narrow focus and value only of his own people.

G’Kar demonstrates his new understanding and sacrificial nature throughout the third season, most notably when he rallies the Narn on the station in support of Sheridan when they are attacked by Earth forces.  He also demonstrates how far he has changed as a character mid-way through the series when Delenn tells him in “Ship of Tears” they had to let the Shadows conquer the Narn homeworld so the Shadows would believe they were still working in secret.  G’Kar accepts the news with such equipoise Delenn is moved to tears.  He has “come a long way,” since she first met him, Delenn admits.  But he is not fully realized; someday he might be able to forgive her, he says, “but not today.”

By the end of the series, after making many more choices too numerous to discuss here, Londo finally accepts the consequences of his actions in the fifth season episode “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari.”  In order to survive a heart attack brought on by years of hidden guilt, he finally faces G’Kar and apologizes for what he has done, for the first time in his life.  Even so, an apology does not clear him from his responsibility, and his years-long commitment to the good of his people at any cost catches up to him.  As he ponders his final moments of freedom, he tells G’Kar, “Isn’t it strange, G’Kar … when we first met, I had no power and all the choices I could ever want.  And now I have all the power I could ever want and no choices at all.  No choice at all.”  His comments fully illustrate how far his character progresses through the seasons.  From a drunken buffoon lamenting the loss of an empire to a hardened puppet emperor, Londo makes many choices and at last faces the consequences with responsibility, even though it leads to his destruction.  From first to last, Londo is motivated by one thing, the good of his people.  He goes to Babylon 5 for his people, he aligns himself with the Shadows for his people, and he sacrifices his freedom for the good of his people.  This single-mindedness connects him to the heroic by establishing his function as a suitable complement to the heroes Sinclair and Sheridan; yet, because he changes and develops as a character, he is a new element in the epic genre.

In his response to Londo, G’Kar similarly encapsulates his own character growth from the beginning of the series: his people can never forgive the Centauri nor the Centauri forgive the Narn for what they have done to each other, “but I can forgive you,” he says (“The Fall of Centauri Prime”).  From hated nemeses and pawns in each other’s plans for revenge, they progress to the point where Londo can ask for forgiveness and G’Kar can grant it.  More than just having a refocused purpose, they are new people.

While most Western epic complementary characters want to be epic heroes, most fail.  Londo and G’Kar, however, have no desire to be heroes; they connect Babylon 5 to the Western epic by providing foils for the heroes, and they distinguish the series from its epic foundation by expanding the possibilities of characterization within the genre.  Given the focused development of the series as an epic narrative, Babylon 5 shows the logical growth of its characters based on the choices they make and their consequences.

Chapter Four — Structure, Plot, and Theme

Having examined four of the central characters that create the story of Babylon 5, the well-defined structure, plot of historical significance, and theme of transcendent understanding remain to analyze the series as a refashioning of the Western epic genre.

Structure and Shape

Much of the reason characters such as G’Kar and Londo have cohesive developments and characters like Sheridan have significant personal journeys over multiple seasons comes from the planning done by Straczynski.  Before the series went into production, Straczynski established its overall content and direction.  Kurt Lancaster, in his work analyzing the series from the fans’ perspective, recounts Straczynski’s anecdote about the program’s origin:

In 1986, while taking a shower … [Straczynski] received a flash of inspiration for a new kind of science fiction series with a five-year arc.  Straczynski explains: “In the shower at the moment of this revelation, I dashed out and hurriedly scribbled down what would become the main thrust of the series before I could lose the thread of it…” (5).

As one of the executive producers and writer of ninety-two of its one hundred ten episodes, Straczynski maintained great control over the series, ensuring its connection to his original vision.

As noted above, the first season, “Signs and Portents,” is the exposition that introduces the universe, diverse inhabitants, and political and religious institutions that provide most of the conflicts in Babylon 5 throughout the remaining seasons.  Season two, “The Coming of Shadows,” is the rising action in which the characters discover forces beyond their current level of understanding are at work in the universe.  The complication comes in season three, “Point of No Return.”  The command staff of Babylon 5 separates from Earth, and Sheridan commits to his heroic path.  Season four, “No Surrender, No Retreat,” acts as the falling action, ending in the climax of the major plotlines developed in the previous seasons.  Season five, “The Wheel of Fire,” is what Straczynski calls the “denouement.  It shows the consequences of what the first four years [developed], now being brought down to human form” (Introduction to “The Wheel of Fire”).  With an intentional beginning, middle, and end, Babylon 5 distinguishes itself from typical television programming while aligning itself more to the literary realm.  Its structure furthers its connection to the Western epic genre in more ways than one.

Like the ring composition that unites the episodes of the Iliad, Babylon 5 has a similar cohesion. The series begins with The Gathering as the final complement of the station’s crew and Advisory Council arrive.  Assemblies initiate many epics: the Iliad begins with a gathering of Achaean leaders; the Odyssey begins with a gathering of Ithacan elders.  Completing the ring structure, the series ends (excluding the epilogue “Sleeping in Light”) with a new command staff replacing the old, departing crew in “Objects at Rest.”  Each character fulfills his or her purpose on the station and moves on to new ventures.  The series begins with the completed construction of the station; the series ends with the destruction of the station in “Sleeping in Light.”  Ring composition is symbolic but cohesive, and Babylon 5 implements it well: one story ends while a new story begins.  In addition to classical ring composition, the series also incorporates other epic narrative structures.

In one sense, as indicated by the shape of the series and season titles, Babylon 5 has a typical plot arc, beginning with the pilot movie, climaxing with the two part “War Without End” in the middle season, and culminating in the final episode.  In another sense, as the ring composition indicates in the series’ ending marking a new beginning with a new crew as the old crew disbands to new opportunities, the series tells its story through what playwright Bertolt Brecht and other critics call “epic theater.”  Contrasted with Aristotelian or dramatic theater, epic theater for Brecht instructs the audience so they not only experience the story and understand the world but are moved to change it.  The characters in epic theater are shown in process and development, not as fixed.  Certainly this kind of “epic” diverges from the Western epic of unchanging heroes such as Achilles and Sinclair, but it accurately applies to characters such as Telemachus and Londo Mollari.  Dramatic theater moves the audience’s emotions, whereas epic theater demands decisions: Babylon 5 does both.  It moves the audience partly by the loss of several key characters, and it demands the audience decide on how to live, ideally as people with transcendent self-awareness.  By tackling pertinent issues of the time, such as the nature of parenting in “Believers” or the role of the citizen in a government that limits personal freedoms, Babylon 5 demands the attention and awareness of its audience, to both the series and reality itself.  It does this through Brecht’s epic theater narrative structure.  Perhaps the most significant element of this, as Lancaster emphasizes, is the development of the story itself as a process, just as the characters are in process.  Scenes and episodes “thematically progress toward an ending — but not in a rising climax …, but rather through the depiction of historical moments.  Straczynski shows the five-year history of Babylon 5 as a historical process” (16).  Lancaster comments further that the audience does not watch Babylon 5 to find out what is going to happen at the end, since the series spends a great deal of time telling the audience what will happen to the characters in prophetic episodes like “Babylon Squared,” “Point of No Return,” and “War Without End.”  The purpose, as its epic theater structure makes clear, is to find out how the series arrives at its destination, much like how Achilles’s anger will be resolved in the Iliad or how Odysseus will eliminate the suitors in the Odyssey — the audience does not wonder whether these events will happen.  The focus is on the course, not the finish, highlighted by the fact the characters still go on even as the series ends and the station is destroyed.  By emphasizing its progression as dictated by the choices and developments of its characters shown over the spans of entire episodes and seasons, Babylon 5 refashions the epic narrative structure, utilizing both traditional ring composition and modern epic theater techniques.

Plot of Historical Significance

In addition to the personal journeys of the series’ two main heroes for personal and cosmic understanding, Babylon 5 covers a vast scope of intergalactic events that profoundly affect the universe of the series, describing the rise and fall of empires and the effects of wars and their aftermaths.

The Narn race, as described above, begins the series having won a pyrrhic war of attrition against the Centauri Empire, enjoying freedom for the first time in one hundred years.  The Centauri, by contrast, are a waning people, no longer as expansive or powerful as they once were, now a tourist attraction, as Londo says.  By the end of the second season, these empires’ fortunes are reversed again, as the Centauri re-conquer the Narn and expand out into the galaxy.  Toward the beginning of the fourth season, the Narn are free once again and the Centauri descend into obscurity until the end of the series when the Narn exact final vengeance upon the Centauri, virtually destroying their civilization.  The Centauri turn away from the rest of the galaxy in self-imposed isolation and stagnate for twenty years until Londo and his allies are finally overthrown.  Though G’Kar learns the importance of sacrifice and understands the universe better, his people do not listen to his teaching, despite their efforts to make him a king and a prophet.  He leaves his people to their willful ignorance, for his sake and for theirs.  As Kosh predicts early in the first season, both the Narn and the Centauri are dying people, consumed by their short-sightedness and vengeful attitudes.  The didactic message is clear: those who focus only on their own interests and ambitions have no substantial future.

The human race, however, is predominantly on the rise throughout the series.  That is not to say the series posits humanity as flawless and superior. On the contrary, a strong faction of humanity acts egregiously for much of the series, eventually forcing the Babylon 5 crew to break away from Earth control in season three and motivating Sheridan to lead an armed liberation to Earth in season four.  On the whole, however, humanity is depicted as an improving, admirable people.  In the pilot movie, Londo claims he is on the station to try to attach his people to the humans’ rising destiny.  Delenn is also on the station to learn more about the human race and their potential.  One of the reasons humanity sets itself apart from the others is because mankind forms communities, a rare and admirable trait according to Delenn.  The Minbari are divided by social castes; the Centauri care only for appearances, power, and prestige; and the Narn are concerned only with freedom and revenge.  Only humanity seeks to bring diverse peoples together for mutual protection and understanding, and thus are the people with a destiny and a future, another clear lesson from the series.  The choices of a people, as well as individuals, bear great significance in Babylon 5, either to abet an empire’s downfall or to ensure a people’s rise to prominence.

Besides the rise and fall of peoples, the plot significance of Babylon 5 is depicted through many wars, despite its initial premise as a gathering of ambassadors to one location to end intergalactic hostility through peaceful diplomacy.  The Earth-Minbari war is the main progenitor of the “Babylon Project” that leads to the construction of the station, and its ramifications are still felt throughout the first season, especially in the character of Sinclair.  Approximately a decade before the Earth-Minbari war, many of the main characters’ fathers fight in the Dilgar War, the aftermath of which helps establish Earth’s interstellar prominence and the League of Non-aligned Worlds, the amalgamation of the other, less powerful races who have a collective voice on the Advisory Council.

Season one’s two-part “A Voice in the Wilderness” witnesses the Mars Rebellion, which is portended in previous episodes; earlier, the Mars Food Riots bring together many of the main characters so they know each other before reuniting during the course of the series.  Season two features the latest incarnation of the Narn/Centauri conflict as well as Earth’s growing military expansion onto other, minor worlds.  Season three concerns the present version of the millennia-old “war without end” between the Vorlons and the Shadows.  After the conclusion of that war, the fourth season proceeds to the Minbari Civil War and Sheridan’s War of Earth Liberation.

These wars do not happen for no reason; they all proceed from the freewill decisions made by the characters and how they face the consequences of their choices, as well as how they react to the free choices made by their enemies.  “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,” the final episode of season four, shows a war between Earth and the Interstellar Alliance, the new diplomatic council Sheridan creates after the Shadow War; this war occurs five hundred years after the events of the series, but it is not the only future conflict foreshadowed in the waning episodes of the series.  Throughout the final season, which culminates in the climactic Centauri War, many characters presage a forthcoming Telepath War between the growing, powerful Psi Corps of telepaths on Earth and the non-telepathic populace.  Episodes such as “Rising Star” and “War Without End” indicate a coming war against the allies of the Shadows who resent losing to Sheridan, whose son will play a significant role in that battle.  Thus, the story of the station sees a great amount of militaristic action before, during, and after the five years of the series: it confronts the aftermath of earlier wars, engages in many wars, and sets up many future conflicts all because of choices characters make and how they understand their society and place in the universe.  The characters fight epic battles both cosmic and personal; they uncover, solve, and participate in assassinations, affect “the rise and fall of empires,” and learn the true nature of the universe.  Some sacrifice their wellbeing and freedom for the good of others and live to tell the tale like Odysseus; some sacrifice their lives like Achilles, though again, for the good of others, unlike Achilles.  Much of its significance comes, as well, from Babylon 5’s theme of transcendent understanding.

A Theme of Transcendent Understanding

Religion, as one means of attaining transcendent understanding, plays a crucial role in Babylon 5.  The Western epic displays religious elements, obviously, in the form of the Olympian gods and how the heroes relate to them, but Babylon 5 also explores a diversity of religious beliefs.  One of the earliest episodes, “The Parliament of Dreams,” showcases the dominant religious beliefs of the Centauri and Minbari.  The word “dreams” in the title is not derogatory, as if to say religious beliefs are insubstantial.  The episode, as well as the entire series, validates the beliefs of people without commenting on their accuracy or utility.  Instead of showing a dominant Earth belief in that episode, Sinclair gathers one person each from dozens of belief systems and introduces them all to the alien ambassadors, giving each equal worth and significance.  A Roman Catholic stands next to an atheist; a Muslim stands next to a Jewish man.  In the future, declares Babylon 5, mankind will still have a diversity of religious beliefs, and they are all valid beliefs to have.  Later, one form of Narn religious belief is shown in “By Any Means Necessary”; another race celebrates a powerful religious event in “Day of the Dead.”  Many races are polytheistic in the Babylon 5 universe, though some also believe in a “Great Maker” (cf. “Infection”).  The Centauri are both polytheistic and believe in the Great Maker.  Sinclair, mentioned above, has three years of Jesuit training.  Executive Officer Susan Ivanova (played by Claudia Christian) is a non-practicing Jew, but she eventually sits shiva for her deceased father in “TKO.”  Garibaldi, despite being raised Catholic, is an atheist for much of the series, believing only in what he can see, which accounts in part for his deep-seated antipathy toward telepaths.  G’Kar’s religious beliefs help his character development as noted above.  As the head of the religious caste of the Minbari, Delenn performs many religious ceremonies throughout the series, always valuing other peoples’ beliefs, especially “true believers” — anyone with a sincere faith.  She even forces Sheridan to take a break from strategizing against the Shadows to attend a gospel meeting in “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place.”  Sheridan spends time with the Dalai Lama in his youth.  Many missionaries from various races come to the station in season three; a group of human monks even take up residence onboard.

As a narrative component, religion is never portrayed as a negative or foolish thing, though sometimes belief systems come into conflict.  In “Confessions and Lamentations,” an entire race is wiped out by a plague, though they believe it is a divine punishment.  Possibly the most thought-provoking stand-alone episode of the series is the first season episode “Believers,” in which alien parents do not want Chief of Staff Dr. Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs) to operate on their child, even though it is the only way to save his life.  More than a simple materialist doctor, Franklin is a Foundationalist, believing that all life is sacred, whether human or alien.  During the Earth-Minbari War, Franklin quits his government job when he is instructed to give his Minbari research over to the military.  Franklin contravenes the parents’ wishes and operates because “a child deserves a chance of life,” he says.  His fellow doctor confronts his apparent religious inconsistencies: “You don’t disapprove of superstition, if it’s your superstition….  Your god is medicine, and you can do no wrong in his service.”  Sinclair is not happy that Franklin countermands the parents’ wishes, but he appreciates Franklin’s concern for life.  Life itself, lived well, is an important element in the religious universe of Babylon 5.  It does not make judgments on which belief system is right; it simply shows religion as a possible, meaningful component of life and one valid way by which to understand reality.

More than the simple existence of supernatural beliefs, how the ancient heroes deal with the transcendent elements of reality around them, such as the Olympian gods and destiny, is a key theme of the poems that establish the Western epic genre.  The ways the heroes interact with the divine distinguish them from the other characters.  Achilles questions the gods and comes to understand his society and place in it better than those who simply acknowledge the gods and follow them without question.  Babylon 5 likewise features the conflict between mortals and immortals, but in its refashioning manner, the conflict becomes something else.  The deities of the Babylon 5 universe are not the various entities in which diverse races believe; instead, the real deities in this epic universe are known as the First Ones: Lorien, the Shadows, and the Vorlons.

As Sheridan discovers during his cosmic quest, the “gods” with whom the younger races interact in the Babylon 5 universe are loosely akin to the amoral deities of Achilles’s and Odysseus’s world, but instead of simply being personifications of ultra-powerful character types, the Shadows and Vorlons are personifications of philosophical ideologies, each represented by a question.  The Shadows, through their emissary Morden, ask the question “what do you want?”  The Vorlons, through their inquisitor Sebastian, ask “who are you?”  Lorien asks Sheridan the third important question, “why are you here?”  These questions not only represent the nature of the interaction between the mortals and deities in the epic of Babylon 5 as a philosophical conflict but also demonstrate the series’ emphasis on knowing oneself and the nature of the universe.  Only through understanding do the heroes accomplish their goals — just like the epic heroes of the Western tradition.  Babylon 5, as an epic, asks the important timeless questions of life and humanity.  Such metaphysical questions of identity and purpose cannot be explained by scientific inquiry and so are answerable only through other means such as literature and artistic works like this television series.  By asking the important questions of meaning, Babylon 5 urges its audience to find sufficient answers, just as its heroes find sufficient answers to accomplish their goals; through emphasizing the importance of choices and consequences in addition to asking such crucial transcendent questions of understanding, Babylon 5 unites itself to the Western epic.  Like with the various religions depicted during the series, Babylon 5 does not offer any easy answers to these questions.  It gives the responsibility of finding the answers to the audience.

As personified ideologies, the Vorlons are beings of order and light; they demonstrate this by appearing to most races as angels, though this is part of their manipulation.  When Sheridan finally confronts them in the climactic “Into the Fire,” their representative appears as a veiled woman in a block of ice.  The Vorlons are frozen.  They do not like change; they represent unchanging order.  The Shadows, in contrast, are agents of chaos and conflict; they live to serve evolution and constant progress.  Such is their message in that episode: serve evolution.  Constant change, progress through conflict is their ideology, made clear by Morden and others in “Z’ha’dum.”  Representing angels/light and shadows/dark, the symbolic interpretation of these races is informative.

Northrop Frye’s archetypal and mythological interpretation in Anatomy of Criticism presents the conflict of light and dark as “two contrasting worlds of total metaphorical identification, one desirable and the other undesirable” (139).  Babylon 5 in its characteristic way modifies Frye’s general archetype in that both the Shadows and the Vorlons, despite being overt metaphors, want to be the “desirable” metaphor.  They each want Sheridan and thus humanity at large to choose one of their options, their way of life: choose order or chaos, they demand.  The Western epic is driven by choice, but Achilles and Odysseus do not have a choice of which transcendent ideology to serve.

Babylon 5 is not about conforming to an intrinsic or extrinsic model of behavior — the best ideology is proper self-understanding.  Once one rightly understands oneself and the true nature of the universe, then one can live freely.  Sheridan combats his deities by asking them their own questions.  The Vorlons, though, do not know who they are, only that they believe in order.  Similarly, the Shadows do not know what they want, only that evolution must be served through chaotic conflict.  Because they cannot answer their own questions, Sheridan knows that their two options are not enough.  Instead of choosing between the order of the Vorlons and the chaos of the Shadows, Sheridan chooses not to choose.  Sheridan rejects both of them.  Without their allegiance the Vorlons have no purpose; without conflict, the Shadows are lost.  Lorien provides the solution: join the rest of the long-gone First Ones beyond the rim of the galaxy and let the younger races develop on their own.  Sheridan agrees and ends the cosmic conflict through transcendent understanding.  As an epic hero representing humanity itself, Sheridan interacts with his deities differently than Achilles and Odysseus deal with theirs.  Achilles and Odysseus want the freedom to transcend their cultural limitations and define their own fate, but that ultimately cannot happen.  Even by embracing life and restoring order to his home, Odysseus does what Zeus wants.  Sheridan and Babylon 5 take the Western epic in the direction its foundational heroes want to go but cannot.  By sending the gods away, mortal humans are free to live and rule the universe their own way.  Babylon 5 clearly emphasizes the importance of understanding oneself and the universe.  By understanding the nature of the conflict, Sheridan allows humanity to become what it needs to be without the external manipulation of the gods.  The epic series confronts transcendent reality and gives humanity the central place.  No longer are heroes and others subject to the whims of the gods as Achilles lamented.  Sheridan the epic hero empowers humanity with the knowledge of the nature of the universe, and so everyone has the ability to make their own choices with responsibility.  In one sense, we are all epic heroes now.  In order to live well, everyone should gain an accurate self-understanding and know their place in the universe.  We all have the responsibility to face the consequences of our actions.  This is the message of Babylon 5, the rebirth of the Western ancient epic genre.

Conclusion — The Importance of Choice

Having examined the four major elements of the Western epic genre, 1) a lengthy narrative with a defined structure and shape; 2) a developed central hero; 3) a plot of historical significance; and 4) a theme of transcendent understanding, as well as the texts of the epic poems, many of the series’ episodes, and critical secondary sources, this inquiry had endeavored to demonstrate that Babylon 5 not only utilizes the original elements of the Western epic but also refashions those elements in new ways.

Further research into this area should certainly be done.  Given more time and space, an exploration of each episode and its contributions to the series as a Western epic would provide further insight than this initial survey can supply.  More archetypal critics and theories, such as those of Northrop Frye and Carl Jung, could also provide pertinent interpretations of the series.  Further quotations from cast and crew members, especially creator J. Michael Straczynski, would supplement an analysis of the series.  Additionally, since Babylon 5 re-makes the epic genre, contrasting the series with other, non-Western or non-Homeric epics such as the Aeneid, Argonautica, or Kalevala, would only enhance an understanding of the value and literary merit of the series, thereby increasing the limited body of scholarship on science fiction, especially televised science fiction.  More work could be done from a literary perspective such as comparing the Aeneid as a written epic with Babylon 5 as a literary epic from predominantly a single author (unlike the oral narrative nature of the Homeric poems that this investigation has purposefully avoided).  Finally, since this thesis focuses on the pilot movie and five seasons of the series, further research could incorporate the additional telefilms, novels, comic books, and the spin-off series Crusade, all of which are considered canonical by the series’ creator.

The Homeric poems set the foundation not only for the epic genre but also Western Civilization’s literary heritage.  Babylon 5 transforms that foundation for a new medium of storytelling, serialized television.  The audience and method of narration are also different.  Yet, fundamentally, both the ancient epics and Babylon 5 have similar messages: life is meaningful and important because individuals matter and have choices, consequences, and responsibilities that help guide their lives.  Individuals have the ability to change their world — they are not just caught up in the impersonal forces of time and history.  Sheridan’s actions in “Into the Fire” clearly show this.  Humanity, even with its flaws, even with its brevity, is worth fighting and dying for. Life, regardless of species and gender, is valuable because of its brevity and because living well is challenging.  Because of this message, Babylon 5 is intrinsically worthwhile as a literary/televised work of art.  That it is a modern refashioning of the Western epic with the same message secures its place as a meaningful narrative on par with the ancient epic poems.

Odysseus’s key moment is not the destruction of the suitors or the reunion with his family; instead, his key moment is his renunciation of immortality proffered by Calypso.  Beye sees that renunciation as an acceptance of “human life over anything else. … Having affirmed human life over everything else, Odysseus is fully prepared for the suffering that Calypso has forecast.  It is part of living” (177).  Odysseus demonstrates clearly that normal, mortal, human life is more desirable than the amoral, changeless immortality of the gods, even with the concomitant pain, suffering, and eventual death.  “Odysseus represents a love of life so extreme that every experience of it, including suffering and finally death, is valuable and desirable,” continues Beye (178).  Odysseus chooses to return to mortal life, furthering the emphasis of the importance of choice.

Similarly, Sheridan’s key moment is his acceptance of his mortality so he can be more fully human, more fully alive by not being afraid of death.  By embracing life and love, acknowledging the fleeting nature of them both, Sheridan can truly be what he needs to be.  Certainly the series proclaims that message to its audience as well.  Life is valuable because it is brief — but it must be lived wisely.  Living simply not to die denies the importance and purpose of life, to live meaningfully, accepting the consequences for choices, sacrificing oneself for the wellbeing of others, daring to love and be loved.

Lorien makes this clear to Ivanova in “Into the Fire.”  As an immortal being, he is without love, joy, and companionship.  These traits are what the Vorlons and Shadows miss as well.  Since they are also virtually immortal, they have grown lonely and sad.  Mortality, Lorien explains to Ivanova, is a gift from the universe so mortal races can appreciate life and love.  He urges her to embrace the illusion of love’s immortality as only mortal humans can.  Love, experienced only by mortals such as Sheridan and Delenn, is worth living and dying for.

Delenn thoroughly understands the ephemeral, yet hopeful nature of life.  “All life is transitory.  A dream.  We all come together in the same place at the end of time.  If I don’t see you again here, I will see you in a little while, in the place where no shadows fall,” she tells Sheridan in “Confessions and Lamentations.”  Though she knows life is brief, it has the utmost value to her, which she makes clear at her ultimate testing point by Sebastian, the Vorlons’ inquisitor: “If I fall, another will take my place,” Delenn claims.  “This is my cause!  Life!  One life or a billion — it’s all the same!” (“Comes the Inquisitor”).  Because she recognizes the importance of all life and is willing to sacrifice hers “[n]ot for millions, not for glory, not for fame [but for] one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see,” she proves herself to be the right person “in the right place, at the right time,” says Sebastian.  Life is Delenn’s cause, as it is Odysseus’s, Sinclair’s, Sheridan’s, and the epic genre’s itself.  Like the epic heroes, Delenn is freely willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of life, a commitment she chooses to make.

The Iliad does not portray the Trojans as villains or the Achaeans as champions in any significant way.  Both races have flaws and admirable traits.  Though the text favors Achilles, Hector, too, is fully human, even as the enemy of the epic protagonist.  All life is valuable in the epic genre.  As G’Kar learns, it is similarly not just one race or one kind of life that is valuable in the Babylon 5 universe.  For the inauguration of the new Interstellar Alliance, G’Kar writes in his Declaration of Principles that “[w]hoever speaks for the Alliance does so with the understanding that it is the inalienable right of every sentient being to live free, to pursue their dreams” (“No Compromises”).  The hate groups on Earth and the station are obvious antagonists in the Babylon 5 universe because they do not appreciate life in its many forms.  As G’Kar’s principles make clear, sentient beings have the right to disagree with us, except when they act in opposition to life.  The Narn and the Centauri fade into isolation and obscurity because they are only concerned with their own selfish ambitions.  Humanity is on the rise in the universe because it values cooperation and peace with all races in the universe.

In his resignation speech at the close of season four, Sheridan emphasizes the significance of life and its connection to choices, encapsulating the epic genre itself:

Now, the time I spent on Babylon 5 I learned about choices and consequences and responsibility.  I learned that we all have choices, even when we don’t recognize them, and that those choices have consequences not just for ourselves, but for others.  And we must assume responsibility for those consequences.  I and my fellow officers had to choose between what we were told was right and what we believed was right.  And now I take full responsibility for those decisions (“Rising Star”).

The crew of Babylon 5 choose to do what they believe is right for the good of all life, not just themselves or their own kind.  Babylon 5 demonstrates the importance of choice not just from the characters, but for the audience, as life has meaning in part because of the choices real people make — not just characters in a television program.  Even though this life has pain and sorrow and is indeed transitory, the responsibility of choosing to live well is not unbearable.  Londo is told by prophetess Lady Morella (Majel Barrett) in “Point of No Return” that “there’s always choice.  We say there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with a decision we’ve already made.  If you understand that, there’s hope.”  Hope is why we should not fear or hesitate in accepting responsibility for choices or living life fully and well, despite the struggles and risk of pain involved.

It is little wonder that the only on-screen lesson Kosh teaches Sheridan is that beauty and hope exist, even in unexpected places and during the darkest times, even though we have to sacrifice and struggle to enjoy them (“There All the Honor Lies”).  We must choose to live well, to understand ourselves and our place in the universe, taking comfort from the fact that there is still beauty and hope in the world.  Ivanova echoes this idea in the waning moments of the series finale “Sleeping in Light”:

Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations.  There would never be another.  It changed the future, and it changed us.  It taught us that we have to create the future, or others will do it for us.  It showed us that we have to care for one another, because if we don’t who will?  And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places.  Mostly, though, I think it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings.  Even for people like us.

If we accept that all life is valuable, that our choices affect not only ourselves but those around us, and we are willing to face the consequences of those choices with responsibility, we need not fear living sacrificial lives for others.  That is what the Western epic intended, though the ancient poems and heroes are limited by amoral gods and the heroic impulse of self-satisfying glory.  Babylon 5 takes the ideal qualities of the epic and transforms the genre, becoming what Straczynski calls a series “about hope, to a large extent.  If you boil down the series to its very finest points, it says that one person can make a difference; one person can change the world.  You must choose to do so.  You must make the future or others will make it for you” (Back to Babylon 5).  Accurate self-knowledge and right understanding of the universe allow the ancient epic heroes to complete their quests.  Likewise, accurate self-knowledge and right understanding are the ultimate good in Babylon 5, not just for epic heroes, but for everyone.  With honest answers to the central questions of life such as “who are you,” “what do you want,” and “why are you here,” individuals and humanity as a whole has hope for itself and for the future.  With proper understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe, we can make choices that allow us to live wisely and well.  This is the lesson of Babylon 5 as a rebirth of the Western ancient epic genre.

Works Cited In Part Two

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