[B5] In the Beginning
Jun. 19th, 2007 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldSome brief spoilers-laden observations on the Babylon 5 television movie In the Beginning, which recounts the story of the Earth-Minbari War, lie below the lj-cuts.
After an Earth ship accidentally killed Dukhat, the Minbari seems to have taken an unusual approach to their war of vengeance. A holy war is declared, pitting the Minbari military against Earthforce in a wa that had the potential to turn into wholesale genocide, but the war took an amazingly long three years despite the Minbari technological advantages. What were the Minbari doing? Might mobilization have taken so long, or were there anti-war protesters?
Earthforce's brass created the preconditions for the near-annihilation of human civilization by sending an armed expedition into the backyard of a xenophobic and highyly advanced power. Earthforce's grunts died by the hundreds of thousands, leaving the brass safe on an untouched Earth. Not only did the Earth Alliance not undertake a serious review of Earthforce's competence, but the brass stayed in power and retained the same firepower-heavy approach to astropolitics as before. "Why, hello, Mister para-dimensional spider with an unpronounceable name who screams in my mind, what guns do you have for sale today? And what do you want in return?"
As he is telling the story of Earth's last years, Londo wishes that he could die as nobly as any of the Earther soldiers who fought to the last against the Minbari. Would that his actual death, no more than a couple of hours in the future, been so noble. He was damned.
After an Earth ship accidentally killed Dukhat, the Minbari seems to have taken an unusual approach to their war of vengeance. A holy war is declared, pitting the Minbari military against Earthforce in a wa that had the potential to turn into wholesale genocide, but the war took an amazingly long three years despite the Minbari technological advantages. What were the Minbari doing? Might mobilization have taken so long, or were there anti-war protesters?
Earthforce's brass created the preconditions for the near-annihilation of human civilization by sending an armed expedition into the backyard of a xenophobic and highyly advanced power. Earthforce's grunts died by the hundreds of thousands, leaving the brass safe on an untouched Earth. Not only did the Earth Alliance not undertake a serious review of Earthforce's competence, but the brass stayed in power and retained the same firepower-heavy approach to astropolitics as before. "Why, hello, Mister para-dimensional spider with an unpronounceable name who screams in my mind, what guns do you have for sale today? And what do you want in return?"
As he is telling the story of Earth's last years, Londo wishes that he could die as nobly as any of the Earther soldiers who fought to the last against the Minbari. Would that his actual death, no more than a couple of hours in the future, been so noble. He was damned.
