More guesses. I don't mind inconsistencies, by the way. Sometimes I even like them. They are good for spculation, and the Shadow Nitpicking Team needs speculation to refine story ideas.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>If the Shadows were either able to install a back-up 'Eye' or assume the role of the 'Eye' themselves, what was actually changed such that the Vorlons felt an 'unexpected door had been opened'.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This meant that the Shadows would have to manage things personally, no longer having everything in automatic control. Being used to order, the Vorlons believed such an event would deeply diminish the Shadow ability to fight.
The Shadows never saw it that way. Given that adpating is their favourite hobby, they quickly pulled their systems back together and took the challenge.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Also, as the Vorlons did not directly attack Z'Hadum and as far as we know the Shadows did not attack Vorlon homeworlds<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The goal was to prove the other party wrong. Someone who is dead can not understand he/she/it was wrong. Shadow and Vorlon "rules of engagement" treated infinite loss of life bearable in case of the younger races, but not themselves.
Besides, a direct life-or-death struggle between the Shadows and Vorlons would have probably ended in mutually assured destruction. Neither side could have protected their homeworld, and both would have got rid of their fleets.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>considerng that we learn from the Centauri trilogy that the Drakh are not only aware of Shadow planet killers but how to use them ('hell they may have built them for all I know')<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I doubt if Shadow planetkillers are "built" in the ordinary sense. There is no Drakh hammering in nails.
Building a planetkiller might instead look like this:
A couple of Shadows arrive at a world with suitable resources. They deliver a swarm of nanobots and write the programs: some bots will multiply, others will gather resources, others will build self-operating tools and structures, other will repair these tools and structures. Directed by Shadows, the planetkiller would essentially build itself.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>"They heard us. They know we are here. The eye .. is looking for us."
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Didn't Ivanova also say that she encountered the same thing when she was in the Great Machine?
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The real world equivalent of the destruction of the Shadow Eye is the destruction of the Pentagon...
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How does Lyta know its the "Eye"? Did the "Eye" introduce itself to Lyta? Hi Lyta; I'm the "Eye".
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The Vorlons programmed or trained her to know a lot about Shadow tech.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Good questions and suggestions, all of them. There need not be a singular right answer.
Neither is the border between an inconsistency and an explanation too sharp. So please allow me to present more guesses:
Lyta tells that "they" have heard her. I assume that by "they" she means the Shadows. After that she states that the Eye is looking for them, and quickly loses control of her actions.
What could this mean?
1. Ivanova using the great machine.
Well, she surfs the galaxy looking for First Ones... and finds the First Ones she didn't want to find. She alerts the Eye of her presence and it talks to her, taking the image of a Shadow face. This could mean:
A. When communicating with beings, the Eye doesn't remain impresonal but takes the image of a Shadow.
B. The Eye is an impresonal control system, an automatic tool. After noticing Ivanova's intrusion, it "put her through" to a real Shadow.
2. Galen detroying the Eye.
Galen destroyed the automatic control system, the part with enormous attention and filtering ability, the system which carried out mundane tasks while relaying the important ones to Shadows.
He did not necessarily destroy the communications systems needed to control the fleets. He just destroyed the intellect which kept them running automatically, by allowing its individual parts to choose if they wanted to do this.
3. Lyta identifying the thing looking for them as the Eye.
She knows what the Vorlons have told her. They have told that Z'ha'dum is protected by the Eye, something which has incredible telepathic powers and infinite attention.
Perhaps they have told her how to resist it, something which she fails to do, either because of close distance... or because the thing talking to her is not the Eye.
What is the Eye?
Who defines it? Naturally it is defined by the Shadows. Ivanova saw it from one angle. Galen destroyed what he saw as the Eye. The crew of the White Star was controlled by something which Lyta identified as the Eye, although the Eye should have no longer existed.
Yet nobody knows how the Shadows define the Eye. My guess is this: as a person familiar with Shadow technology, Galen knew what the Eye was, and destroyed it. For the Shadows, the Eye was destroyed. For everything Lyta could feel, a single Shadow focusing on them would have been no different than the Eye.
It is a matter of perspective.
Was the Eye ever rebuilt?
Probably not, although it could have been possible. Most parts of Shadow technology can be built with amazing speed. They essentially grow on their own. But the Eye was not standard Shadow technology. It needed a huge number of sentient beings, adequately "prepared" and wired into it. After realizing that the Vorlons would attack, the Shadows would no longer maintain a vulnerable central command. Instead, they would focus their efforts on counterattack.
[This message has been edited by Lennier (edited January 10, 2002).]
