Triluminary Question

[Recoil]

Its a really cool theory, and ties neat a neat sci-fi idea (DNA bonded links) into a major plot element. I'm sure if you mentioned it to JMS and he said its not that case, he will wish it had been.

My personal thought on this, is almost exactly what you had said. I'd bet good money that when the Triluminary was first created or introduced this was decidedly NOT the plan for it. But it is one of those B5 details that could easily have changed to fit the story as the story evolved because little information was given on it.

There were many elements to the show that changed from where they were originally intended to go during season one (or The Gathering), but JMS had made things work beautifully. Adding the line "Entilza Valen" as Kosh's greeting in "The Gathering" after the fact was a perfect example. Sinclair wasn't planned to be Valen then in the original run, but since the story evolved to that, it was added back in later. (And I think we all agree the story turned out 100x better than those early outlines). The Triluminary could easily be another detail like that, that seems to make more sense given how things ended up turning out.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

The only way I could see that any portion of it might be a comlink would be if we'd ever seen any sort of comlink in use by anybody we saw on Epsilon 3. We didn't. Holographic techology, yes, but no sign of anything resembling a comlink.

We also never saw any sign that Sinclair had left behind a comlink that might have been used to construct the triluminary. So if it were a piece of a comlink and it was supposed to be linked to Sinclair then how'd that happen, given that JMS clearly states that they originally came from Epsilon 3.

It's not as if the 'soul link' is the only mysterious property the triluminaries have. They also can knock out guards and leave no memory of it behind. Links can't do that.

Jan

Ivonova and Sinclair have their comlinks on when they go to Epsilon III in season 1. That doesn't prove anything, of course, and there's not a scene of Sinclair losing one. I'd never heard this theory before, and I'm going to say it's rather dubious, though I will say that the close-ups we see of the Triluminary do appear pretty raggedy and sloppy, almost as if they were built around somthing else. But that could be that the prop shop was having a bad day.

One dangling thread that I was always interested in was that we're told the Minbari grabbed other pilots and scanned them as well, and many of them had "Minbari Souls."

 

[Recoil]

One dangling thread that I was always interested in was that we're told the Minbari grabbed other pilots and scanned them as well, and many of them had "Minbari Souls."

Yea but that never fit the context of the story. I took it as one of those "goofs" (even though JMS stated it) that didn't make much sense as later plot elements were revealed later in the series. Everything we have SEEN shows it was just Sinclair. Additionally, why was Sinclair the only pilot who was wiped and returned later? He was the only one who was on trial for missing the battle. He was the one under suspicion. If other pilots were taken, wouldn't they be in the same boat? Yea, that line never made sense to me. Better off it was just Sinclair as the story seemed to show as things worked out.

There were a few other goofs as that in Season 1. Lennier saying there were two castes of Minbari (not mentioning the Workers Caste). Lennier saying the Minbari souls started disappearing 2000 years ago, when its later shown Sinclair and the last Shadow war were really 1000 years ago instead. I simply took those to be items that were affected after the fact as the story evolved (and for the better) and pretty much ignore those little contraditions.

 

[KoshN]

The only way I could see that any portion of it might be a comlink would be if we'd ever seen any sort of comlink in use by anybody we saw on Epsilon 3. We didn't. Holographic techology, yes, but no sign of anything resembling a comlink.

We also never saw any sign that Sinclair had left behind a comlink that might have been used to construct the triluminary. So if it were a piece of a comlink and it was supposed to be linked to Sinclair then how'd that happen, given that JMS clearly states that they originally came from Epsilon 3.

It's not as if the 'soul link' is the only mysterious property the triluminaries have. They also can knock out guards and leave no memory of it behind. Links can't do that.

Jan

Ivonova and Sinclair have their comlinks on when they go to Epsilon III in season 1. That doesn't prove anything, of course, and there's not a scene of Sinclair losing one.

I doubt that they didn't have a backup link, probably in their quarters somewhere. What happens if the one they're wearing got lost or damaged, or just quit working/malfunctioned (How long does your cellphone last before it starts to fail?*)? Did you see a scene in War Without End Parts 1 or 2 where Sinclair took off his link before he went back in time to become Valen? Were one or two undamaged links in the box of Sinclair's effects that was given to Delenn (I can't remember which episode that was in. Also in WWE?)? It's entirely possible that Sinclair's link could have been modified by the circa-1258 Vorlons (just like Sebasiian's cane in Comes the Inquisitor) and could knock people out.

I'd never heard this theory before, and I'm going to say it's rather dubious, though I will say that the close-ups we see of the Triluminary do appear pretty raggedy and sloppy, almost as if they were built around somthing else. But that could be that the prop shop was having a bad day.

It looks kind of like a circuit board fragment which could have come from the inside of a link.

One dangling thread that I was always interested in was that we're told the Minbari grabbed other pilots and scanned them as well, and many of them had "Minbari Souls."

They could have been descendents of Valen, like Delenn. Over the course of 1000 years, Valen could have many descendents. IIRC, they gave a vague number near the end of Delenn's "dreaming" episode.

* My LG VX8700 is now >2.5 years old and I've worn and used it every day. It's been ON about 99.999% of that time. In the last month it has started to go bad. When I flip it open, the screen no longer comes on. I have to tap the screen partway closed (~ 10 degrees of arc) and then let it fall back open to get the screen to come on, and it doesn't stay on as long as it used to, even though I have not changed the time-out setting.

 

[KoshFan]

Or the hypothetical link circuit component started to decay itself (or heck, got specifically reset), and was no longer recognizing Sinclair's DNA specifically but a human gene strand in general -- one which Sinclair not only could have shared with his Minbari descendants, but also with plenty of 23rd-century humans.

Also, what other tests might have been performed? Or were they basing it all on the Triluminary alone?