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.
Also, even Star Wars recognizes that sci-fi audiences are not in it to fall in love with a beautiful, iconic location and then watch it blow up. We don't mind an Aldebaran or a Death Star, but we don't want to see the Millennium Falcon destroyed or Cloud City go up in smoke.
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.
That's a fascinating point, and you're so right! The characters all have individual dark moments in their various arcs, sometimes multiple ones, but the show as a whole really never does. The closest it comes are personal, again - Earth seeming lost to fascism, Centauri Prime's brief brush with destruction by the Vorlons - but there's still the rest of the universe out there.
This actually ties into something Orion and I were talking about just this morning, about the show - he was saying that he's fed up with the Hero's Journey and specifically the refusing-the-call aspect of it (we all know you're going to take up the call! Let's just skip that part! We know you aren't going to go be a nerf herder or whatever!) and this segued into talking about how Babylon 5 doesn't really have that for any of the characters. They might not know exactly where they're going and they might take a circuitous path to get there, sometimes by way of villainy, but the entire show starts with everyone being there because they've already made the choice.
To be fair, TV is somewhat different because it relies on a recurring premise, but it still often starts with characters going through an abbreviated first part of the Hero's Journey in which they have to pick up the burden. (And in modern miniseries-style prestige TV, the entire first season can basically be some part of that.) But this show doesn't ever do that. It's not a coming of age story. It's not even that it isn't about people learning who they are - because for many of them, it is! But they never start out not knowing who they are or what they want. They just might need to change their mind about what that actually is.
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Also, even Star Wars recognizes that sci-fi audiences are not in it to fall in love with a beautiful, iconic location and then watch it blow up. We don't mind an Aldebaran or a Death Star, but we don't want to see the Millennium Falcon destroyed or Cloud City go up in smoke.
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.
That's a fascinating point, and you're so right! The characters all have individual dark moments in their various arcs, sometimes multiple ones, but the show as a whole really never does. The closest it comes are personal, again - Earth seeming lost to fascism, Centauri Prime's brief brush with destruction by the Vorlons - but there's still the rest of the universe out there.
This actually ties into something Orion and I were talking about just this morning, about the show - he was saying that he's fed up with the Hero's Journey and specifically the refusing-the-call aspect of it (we all know you're going to take up the call! Let's just skip that part! We know you aren't going to go be a nerf herder or whatever!) and this segued into talking about how Babylon 5 doesn't really have that for any of the characters. They might not know exactly where they're going and they might take a circuitous path to get there, sometimes by way of villainy, but the entire show starts with everyone being there because they've already made the choice.
To be fair, TV is somewhat different because it relies on a recurring premise, but it still often starts with characters going through an abbreviated first part of the Hero's Journey in which they have to pick up the burden. (And in modern miniseries-style prestige TV, the entire first season can basically be some part of that.) But this show doesn't ever do that. It's not a coming of age story. It's not even that it isn't about people learning who they are - because for many of them, it is! But they never start out not knowing who they are or what they want. They just might need to change their mind about what that actually is.