HeinleinFan
Regular
In the pilot movie, The Gathering, Sinclair is summoned to the Zen stone garden to meet Ambassador Delenn. There is some discussion concerning who knows what about the Vorlons, which society hates the other more following the Earth-Minbari War, yadda, yadda. At the end of the scene, Delenn very pointedly tells Sinclair:
*Commander, you know everything about your stone garden, but, clearly, you have not spent nearly enough time looking at it.*
Recognizing that those who ignore Delenn's advice often do so at their own peril, I began an episode-by-episode study of the scenes in the Zen garden. I noted who appeared in each scene and how many stones were present.
Since there were two stones in The Gathering when Delenn urged Sinclair to study the garden, I used two as my baseline number. My goal was to determine what the stones themselves represented. I had two hypotheses: 1) that the two stones stood for the concept of yin-yang, or 2) that there were two stones early in the series, but the number would rise to three in later seasons. (Potentially representing The One Who Is, The One Who Was and The One Who Will Be.)
One aspect of the garden I noticed was that as time progressed in the series, it was gradually transformed from a dry, sandy plot to a lush, Eden-like place. (Compare the garden scene in The Gathering with the scene in The Fall of Night, for example.)
Well, long story short, in all scenes of the Zen garden there were never more than two stones present at any time. Sometimes, only one stone is visible, due to camera angles, actors standing in front of them, etc. So it would appear to me that the stones represent a simple yin-yang relationship which can be applied to multiple viewpoints. There are Earth-Minbari, Narn/G'Kar-Centauri/Mollari, Light-Shadow, and telepath-mundane relationships, to name but a few.
There you have it. Discussion and opposing viewpoints are welcome, of course.
*Commander, you know everything about your stone garden, but, clearly, you have not spent nearly enough time looking at it.*
Recognizing that those who ignore Delenn's advice often do so at their own peril, I began an episode-by-episode study of the scenes in the Zen garden. I noted who appeared in each scene and how many stones were present.
Since there were two stones in The Gathering when Delenn urged Sinclair to study the garden, I used two as my baseline number. My goal was to determine what the stones themselves represented. I had two hypotheses: 1) that the two stones stood for the concept of yin-yang, or 2) that there were two stones early in the series, but the number would rise to three in later seasons. (Potentially representing The One Who Is, The One Who Was and The One Who Will Be.)
One aspect of the garden I noticed was that as time progressed in the series, it was gradually transformed from a dry, sandy plot to a lush, Eden-like place. (Compare the garden scene in The Gathering with the scene in The Fall of Night, for example.)
Well, long story short, in all scenes of the Zen garden there were never more than two stones present at any time. Sometimes, only one stone is visible, due to camera angles, actors standing in front of them, etc. So it would appear to me that the stones represent a simple yin-yang relationship which can be applied to multiple viewpoints. There are Earth-Minbari, Narn/G'Kar-Centauri/Mollari, Light-Shadow, and telepath-mundane relationships, to name but a few.
There you have it. Discussion and opposing viewpoints are welcome, of course.
