What episode was this from?

[AstroBoy]

I'm trying to find a quote from Londo where he talks about how a young princess ordered a guard to stand over a flower that was going to bloom and then forgot about it and a guard still stands over the same spot hundreds of years later even though no one remembers why.

What episode was this in?

[Jan]

I'm trying to find a quote from Londo where he talks about how a young princess ordered a guard to stand over a flower that was going to bloom and then forgot about it and a guard still stands over the same spot hundreds of years later even though no one remembers why.

What episode was this in?

Episode #510, 'A Tragedy of Telepaths'

Two hundred years before, as winter came to an end, the emperor's
daughter saw the first flower growing out of the snow. To keep anyone from walking on it, she assigned a guard to stand watch over it every day. She never gave it much thought after that ... and never countermanded the order. As a result, every day, for two hundred years, a guard would stand
in that place, long after the flower was gone ... long after the reason was forgotten ... long after the princess was gone.

[alpha128]

I'm trying to find a quote from Londo where he talks about how a young princess ordered a guard to stand over a flower that was going to bloom and then forgot about it and a guard still stands over the same spot hundreds of years later even though no one remembers why.

What episode was this in?

s05e10 - A Tragedy of Telepaths

When I was still new to the royal palace, I looked out the window and saw a guard standing in the middle of a courtyard nothing to protect, nothing to guard, no doors.

I couldn't figure out what he was guarding so I asked around.
No one knew not even the emperor.

Finally, they searched through the old records and found the truth that 200 years before as winter came to an end the emperor's daughter saw the first flower growing up through the snow.

To keep anyone from walking on it she assigned a guard to stand watch over it every day.

After that she never gave it much thought, and thus never countermanded the order.

As a result every day for 200 years a guard would stand in that place long after the flower was gone. Long after the reason had been forgotten. Long after the princess was gone.

[Looney]

Well you're both wrong! It was in . . . . . Nah I'm just kidding around. I figured since you both gave such thorough answers at likely the exact same time someone should try to contradict you to keep the thread alive.

[B5-Stefan]

Yeah!
It's one of so many small blinking gems, we love JMS' Babylon 5 for.

B5-Stefan


--
"This means that people of every race, religion, and ethnicity can be fully and
equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed." [George W. Bush, Oct-19-2017]

[Delenn_of_Mir]

When I read the post, I tried to think of the answer before reading the replies, and it seemed to me it was in the episode where they discover poor Na'Toth had been forgotten in the dungeon. G'Kar was naturally very angry about this and Londo told the story as a way to try to placate G'Kar and to excuse what happened to her.

Then I read Jan the All Wise's reply and looked up the episode description. So I was right, too, but not in the most helpful way since I don't remember episode names most of the time.

[AstroBoy]

Thanks all.

I knew I could count on you to come up with the answer.

It's something I'm thinking of using for work as an example of why we need to question the way something is done, that "it's always been done like this." is not a good answer.

[Jan]

It's something I'm thinking of using for work as an example of why we need to question the way something is done, that "it's always been done like this." is not a good answer.

Good for you! Always ask why and if the first 3 or 4 people can't tell you, it's a good indication that whatever it is doesn't need to be done.

[Jonas]

JMS posted this, uh, 16 years ago:

I think it's important to look to the past for (if you will) signs and portents
of the future. You take a historical scenario and lay it into a fictional
universe and see where it takes you.

For B5 I looked a lot to the history of Russia, Germany, Greece, ancient Rome,
and the Mid-East.

(One kind of fun aside: the story Londo tells about the guard assigned to watch
over the first flower of springtime was actually a true story, set during the
reign of the Tsars. Everybody thought, "How alien." Nope, that's just us.)