B5 lasting throughout the entire series and its decommissioning and destruction as very nearly the show's final scene. That just feels so thematically solid that I'm amazed at all the various versions of this that would have blown it up mid-series!
Yes! Once again, what we actually got was so much more novel and thoughtful than the original plan. I can see how the cliffhanger destruction of the station—the eponym of the series! its central setting!—would have looked mind-blowingly game-changing on paper, a sort of ultimate demonstration that all things in this story are subject to change, but also . . . as politely as possible, the target audience for Babylon 5/Babylon Prime would have seen The Empire Strikes Back. One of the most interesting things about the Shadow War as it exists is that it never has that moment where the villains seem to have won. Sheridan's katabasis at Z'ha'dum does not count; it's too weird and mythological and right around the same time the Vorlons reveal themselves as just as pitiless and utilitarian as the Shadows, totally upending the model of the war of light and dark which it sounds as though the original versions mostly stuck to and which is nuts to contemplate the show not deconstructing, since it's embedded right there in the concept of the three-sided truth. Letting the station last out its intended purpose until its foreseen ending in fire turns out to be one more example of the future that comes true in a different key doesn't wind up feeling like the safer choice, but a lot more adult.
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Yes! Once again, what we actually got was so much more novel and thoughtful than the original plan. I can see how the cliffhanger destruction of the station—the eponym of the series! its central setting!—would have looked mind-blowingly game-changing on paper, a sort of ultimate demonstration that all things in this story are subject to change, but also . . . as politely as possible, the target audience for Babylon 5/Babylon Prime would have seen The Empire Strikes Back. One of the most interesting things about the Shadow War as it exists is that it never has that moment where the villains seem to have won. Sheridan's katabasis at Z'ha'dum does not count; it's too weird and mythological and right around the same time the Vorlons reveal themselves as just as pitiless and utilitarian as the Shadows, totally upending the model of the war of light and dark which it sounds as though the original versions mostly stuck to and which is nuts to contemplate the show not deconstructing, since it's embedded right there in the concept of the three-sided truth. Letting the station last out its intended purpose until its foreseen ending in fire turns out to be one more example of the future that comes true in a different key doesn't wind up feeling like the safer choice, but a lot more adult.