r/babylon5 • u/IstoleyourHRT • 1d ago
What if
How would it effect the show and universe in general if an earth force ship had been destroyed by the shadows at the behest of Lando causing EA to help the Narns
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u/Raxtenko 1d ago
Nothing would happen. Clark was already subverted by the Shadows. He would bury the incident. Or he would use it. There's no way to trace the incident back to Londo, but Clark can just make some speechs about evil aliens attacking brave humans and running and use the panic to solidify his power base more.
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u/PedanticPerson22 1d ago
Why would Lando* (sp) do that?
As to what would happen, I don't see it leading to them siding with the Narn because there'd be no way to link it to the Centauri or Londo; so why would they help the Narn?
The Shadows already had their hooks into Earth, so I doubt they'd allow things to get out of hand; they'd just redirect it towards whatever suited their purpose... That could be helping the Narns, but only if that increased the conflict in a way they liked.
*Londo
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u/IstoleyourHRT 1d ago
Like in s2 e9 let’s say the shadows accidentally make a mistake and kill several hundred human soldiers. I’m not so much aiming for realism but I’m just curious on how it would effect the universe
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u/PedanticPerson22 1d ago
My point is that it's not something that could be linked back to Londo & even if it did cause Earth to come in on the side of the Narns that the Shadows already had their hooks into the EA through Clarke, so it would still go their way because they'd control Earth's reaction to cause more chaos.
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u/Mr_Shadow_Phoenix Sigma Walkers 33m ago
They did in one episode. Clarke pinned blame on the White Star.
https://youtu.be/YjvFCZkoKVQ?is=uj74IoUv-B4vakX6
Pretty much the Battle Of Jupiter.
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u/TheTrivialPsychic 1d ago
Don't know WHY Londo would want an EA ship destroyed. They would have to have seen something or be carrying some critical piece of intel that would change the game, but also whoever is on that ship, or whoever that ship is supposed to reach, would have to be outside Clark's political reach.
Aside from Clark's rise to power, the only big secret that any of the younger races might be keeping from each other at this point, is the very fact that the Shadows have been helping the Centauri in the first place. Perhaps some Narns had witnessed one of the Shadow attacks on a Narn ship, space station, or colony, in way that clearly shows their organized support for the Centauri. Assume that these Narn somehow escape death and are picked up by an EA warship that responded to a distress call, and assume that among these Narn is someone like G'Kar, who is respected and who also is well versed in ancient lore, enough that he too knows what he's seeing when the Shadows attack.
Clark somehow gets word from one of his operatives aboard said EA ship, but the ship's CO is someone who is part of General Hague's loyalist movement, and while Clark might not know this, he does know that this person isn't part of his 'New Order' group.
Clark brings this piece of news to his Shadow liaison, who checks in with Morden, who understands the consequences should their alliance with the Centauri, and in fact even their open existence be exposed, and so orders the hit. Clark is OK with losing that ship, even if it means one of his spies gets the ax at the same time.
However, the whole reason for this attack isn't to drive some wedge between the Centauri and the EA, nor is it some kind of personal or political retribution by Londo or perhaps Refa, as neither of them have any beef with the EA or largely any Humans in general. Therefore the destruction of this EA warship would be simply written off as either an accident (with its jump engines, like with that Narn ship that went to inspect Z'Ha'Dum), or as some kind of random pirate/raider ambush that got lucky. There would be no evidence linking either the Centauri or the Shadows to the loss of this ship, and only Hague would get suspicious, but really have nothing to go on should he try to investigate further.
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u/mobyhead1 IPX 1d ago
Lando would probably have turned the mimbari over to Vader, too.