Triluminary Pieces

[Matthew]

I was re-watching "Signs and Portents" last night and I'm curious about why Delenn has the triangle appear.

I remember reading somewhere they every member of the Grey Council has a piece of a triluminary implanted in their forehead, but I don't remember ever seeing that confirmed on the show...

 

[GKarsEye]

For the same reason she posesses magical rings that can kill people? One of the perks of power I guess.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Those aren't pieces of a triluminary, just some kind of hidden symbol, like a Grey Council secret handshake. Delenn was startled because it manifested in Morden's presence (or rather, that of his associates) by itself and she was unable to control it. This suggests that it has a secondary (perhaps unintended) function as a Shadow detector and that in turn suggests that the underlying technology is Vorlon.

Regards,

Joe

 

[vacantlook]

I don't remember where I read it, but I do remember reading that it was an implanted piece of triluminary somewhere too. It might have just been fan speculation or something, but it is something that I've seen stated elswhere.

 

[Lurker_Steve]

Having that triangle appear on your forehead at inopportune times can be quite inconvenient, especially when you're trying to pretend you don't know that the Shadows have returned...

 

[Sindatur]

...Or even hide the fact you are a Grey Council Member.

 

[hypatia]

Wasn't this one of the plot devices used once, and never again?

 

[GKarsEye]

Kinda... the glowing triangle never appeared again but that could be either because of the chrysalis transformation or her expulsion from the Gray Council.

 

[puzzle]

It's just a reminder for future generations about safe handling of implanted tech, telling for posterity's sake:

"That's why one shouldn't go embedding anything in yourself which you haven't compiled from source code, and read the sources for before compiling."

Luckily Delenn was quite fortunate in this unexpected incident. A curious Shadow peeking into the system could have left the flashy sign permanently active. From which the second lesson stems:

"If it might need rebooting, have it externalized from mission-critical components."

What follows is also in accordance with good security practise.

"If a compromise has occurred, consider reinstalling everything from the partition table upward. Possibly with a newer revision of your favourite OS."

Delenn clearly read the advisories, and decided that she was bored being Minbari anyway. So she soon performed a clean install into another flavour of humanoid species. Being a diligent systems maintainer, she fully migrated her old personality to the new environment, which I agree was a very wise choice. It's also a reminder to always implement your core personality in a hardware-independent language!