Ive never liked movies where the writers populate the bad guys with irredeemably wicked hordes, so that the heroes need have no moral qualms about offing them en masse. I hate that about the LOTR movies...in the books, Tolkien repeatedly gives us a peek into the thoughts, words, and mindset of the orcs. And you find that they are not completely alien to you or I. So much so that I feel bad for them in a way when Barad-dur falls and they are cut off from their societys organization, their livelihoods, and their redemption. It was mainly the Ringwraiths who drove the Orcs forward with the fear of themselves...and the Ringwraiths lived in constant fear and total submission to Sauron. Im not saying that the orcs even could be reformed...but, Tolkien either doesnt think so, or he overlooked it. One thing I like about B5 is that, even the Shadows are redeemed in a way...they are embraced by Lorien and reconciled. So are the Vorlons. Which of course leaves the rest of us, rooting for Sheridan and Delenn as we are, shaking our heads in unbelief. lol JMS subverted the entire good-vs.-evil trope by having Lorien take the keys to the galaxy from the Vorlons and the Shadows, and handing them to Sheridan and Delenn. Both the Vorlons and the Shadows had killed millions in their battling...but in the end, no one is punished, aside from being demoted as gods and revealed as merely the petty bickering children of Lorien. It is a strangely unsatisfying-yet-vital end to the conflict...and it gives John Sheridan the moral wherewithal to settle the much much smaller (in a cosmic sense) conflict between B5 and the Clark regime. I love how JMS subverts the heroic trope yet again, by having a Captain Sheridan who died at Zhadum, be revived and able to face torture and the ultimate loss of his Earthforce career, because he had fought and won a much larger battle beforehand.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:00:41 +0000
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