Question on some other hostile aliens

[Morden]

Hi togehter, some thougts occured to me during my last B5-watching.

1. The Streib: I've heared a few times that they may be minions of the shadows, as the drakh were. This seems likely if you think about the drakh surgery aliens which "install" the keepers. But on the other hands, would'nt the Minbari and Delenn - as they already attacked/invaded the Streib Homeworld - know about their connection with the shadows if there had been one? Wouldn't the Minbari have taken any capacity to assist the shadows from them?

2. What are your thoughts about those nomad-like aliens from "A view from the gallery"? Pretty capable guys, and they haven't been noticed yet by any other League race? Do you think JMS intended to show them again? Or were they just a "mcguffin" to make the plot evolve as it did in the episode? Really big thread for this scenario, weren't they? Well perhaps JMS just git tired of using the Raiders for such events.

Any thoughts?

[ninjrk]

The Streib are an interesting case. We have JMS stating that they are not the Shadow doctors, even though the look is similar. Until the Technomage trilogy came out, they seemed a fairly minor race in a relatively weak ship that the Minbari enjoyed whomping on. However, the Technomage trilogy lumpoed them, Drakh, and the Wurt as being heavily represented on the streets of the Shadow homeworld, which has led to obvious conclusion that they are full-fledged Shadow thralls. It's possible that large numbers of them have just independently linked up with the Shadows but that would be a bit more of a stretch. Personally, I don't care for this as I'd rather not have every nasty race on the show being allied with the Shadows but that may just be me.

As to the Red Helmets, a few years ago JMS told the game guys that they were a fairly minor race and they'd never be brought up by him again. That could change at his whim, of course.

Matt

[Morden]

Well, perhaps the Streib had been shadow minions once, but then then betrayed them and now their Homeworld has been plagued by the Shadows with the same plague the Drakh use in "ACtA". For that reason they test other species (similar to those guys from one Crusade episode). But that wouldn't fit with having the captured aliens fight each other. But for a moment that seemed to be an interesting idea...

BTW, who are the "Wurt", did we see them in the show?

[Capt.Montoya]

Well, perhaps the Streib had been shadow minions once, but then then betrayed them and now their Homeworld has been plagued by the Shadows with the same plague the Drakh use in "ACtA". For that reason they test other species (similar to those guys from one Crusade episode). But that wouldn't fit with having the captured aliens fight each other. But for a moment that seemed to be an interesting idea...

IIRC, Earth had five years (on average) to find the cure only because the Drakh did not know how to tailor the plague for immediate lethality to humans. During those five years the plague would be adapting itself, starting to kill a few and learning from that, until it became 100% lethal. Had the Shadows used the plague I think that it was supposed to be lethal much sooner. The idea of the Shadows using the plague as a threat for cooperation seems interesting, but I think it goes against most of their actions.

To be a realist, I think the Streib had the custom of putting their captives to fight only because the plot required it.
But from what's seen on the show, that they were looking for "weak" races to attack, maybe they were trying to conquer other races (as the Centauri did to Narn) or just looking for planets to loot. That does not make them necessarily Shadow minions, though those are actions that certainly help the chaos.

[Hal_10000]

Something to keep in mind.

1. The Streib: I've heared a few times that they may be minions of the shadows, as the drakh were.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are varying degrees of shadow influence. Earthgov, after all, was under shadow influence but not exactly in thrall to them. Nor where the Centauri. But they had been "touched" by the shadows to varying degree. So Shadow influence would range from none (Minbari) to quite a bit (Earthgov, Centauri) to total thralldom (Drakh).

I haven't read any novels, so don't know precisely where the Streib lie on that spectrum.

[vacantlook]

IIRC, Earth had five years (on average) to find the cure only because the Drakh did not know how to tailor the plague for immediate lethality to humans. During those five years the plague would be adapting itself, starting to kill a few and learning from that, until it became 100% lethal. Had the Shadows used the plague I think that it was supposed to be lethal much sooner. The idea of the Shadows using the plague as a threat for cooperation seems interesting, but I think it goes against most of their actions.

I can't remember where I got this from -- be it outright stated somewhere by jms or a character in the stories, surmised based on indirect statements in the novels, or just wild speculation from someone that posted it online -- but I've read that the Drakh hadn't originally intended to use the plague on Earth. That they had planned on using the Shadow Death Cloud on Earth and then move on and use the plague on Minbar. And that it was that the Death Cloud was destroyed before it could be deployed against Earth that made them opt for dropping the plague right then and there, thus not having time to adjust it for humans as it was adjusted for Minbari.

Again, I can't remember where I read that, but it's something to think about. I do remember in one of the novels (novel spoilers, highlight to read)

that the Drakh had a second Death Cloud that they were planning on using against Minbar but had that plan reduced to rubble thanks to Vir and some techno-mages. So, with the destruction of the planned-for-Minbar Death Cloud, it would then track that the Drakh would pursue the use of alternate means to attack Minbar since they decided to use the Death Cloud on Earth.