Re: B5 #322 -- SPOILER WARNING!!!

I'm not kidding about spoilers here. If you haven't seen the final
episode of
season 3 (boy, do you have several zillion WHAMs waiting for you!), then
you
_will_ be spoiled if you read past the spoo'er space which I now
present:

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Alun asked:
>Any ideas on why Sheridan jumped?

It seemed fairly straight-forward to me. He's hit a dead end and has
nowhere
else to run. Here comes "Anna", whom he probably finds more repulsive at
that
moment than the Shadows themselves -- although they're right behind her,
too.
The White Star is on its way down to nuke the place and he _dare_ not
let the
Shadows do to him what they did to his wife. He's really caught between
Scylla
and Charybdis (for those who don't know the names, one was a sea monster
and the other a huge whirlpool. Both come from Greek mythology).

Then, suddenly, he hears _Kosh_ telling him to jump. It should be
remembered
that, for all that the Vorlons and Minbari have kept him in the dark,
they have not
ever directly lied to him. He may have his suspicions as to the Vorlons'
motives,
which were probably reinforced by what he has learned about the Shadows'
motives, but the Vorlons have not (so far as he knows) done anything as
awful
as the Shadows. He has, by his immediate actions, chosen to side with
them
against the Shadows, and now he gets a message from the Vorlon who said
that "he" would teach Sheridan "to fight legends" and who has been fair,
albeit
mysterious, with him more-or-less from the start.

Well, why not jump? He's not expecting to live, so why not do what the
voice
says? It allows him to achieve his current, immediate aims -- to keep
away from
the Shadows, and especially "Anna", until the White Star drops in -- and
it's
hardly going to make a difference to his survival.

Except, of course, that we viewers have more than a sneaking suspicion
that he
_will_ survive...

Phil, who now knows what JMS meant about
      season 3 ending on something "honking big"..!
-------------------------------------------------------------
 Gravity is a Downer... So let's go flying!
   -- so sayeth Phil Atcliffe (p-atclif@uwe.ac.uk)