tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post4023386282639861162..comments2024-03-28T05:59:52.454-07:00Comments on TalkToYoUniverse: Misunderstandings in Worldbuilding - a "Dive into Worldbuilding!" Hangout Report with VIDEOJuliette Wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-84654284351218900382014-01-19T10:46:21.255-08:002014-01-19T10:46:21.255-08:00Thank you, Alicia! I clearly have some catching up...Thank you, Alicia! I clearly have some catching up to do on my Firefly and Babylon 5...Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-27575200663861742862014-01-18T22:10:56.059-08:002014-01-18T22:10:56.059-08:00Wow, that' s great, Jaleh. Thanks for going in...Wow, that' s great, Jaleh. Thanks for going into such detail! I can see why the show has such a great reputation. I'll have to watch it at some point.Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-84896118979847962002014-01-18T21:37:52.834-08:002014-01-18T21:37:52.834-08:00I just remembered that I didn't mention that t...I just remembered that I didn't mention that the biggest instance of misunderstanding of all from Babylon 5 is what set up the reason for Babylon 5 to exist in the first place. <br /><br />When the Humans encountered the Minbari for the first time, Humans were exploring the edge of their territory even after being warned by the Centauri that "if you do not bother them, they will not bother you." A Minbari vessel carrying the members of the Grey Council--the Minbari leadership--was enroute to Z'ha'dum to investigate whether agents of the Shadows were stirring again after a thousand years. The two ships spotted each other. The Minbari were curious about the younger race, knowing little about them, and their scanners were so powerful, they temporarily disabled many ship systems on the Earth vessel. Also Minbari custom says that to show respect, you approach another ship with gun ports open to show that you are facing them with open hands, no deception. To Humans, this is a hostile action indicating that they are soon expecting to fire those weapons. When combined with the effect of the scanners, the Human captain panicked and fired on the Minbari vessel, disabling it enough to stop the scanners which allowed the Earth vessel to start the jump engines and get away. The Minbari saw this as an unprovoked attack ("Why would they shoot us? We approached honestly."), and since the damage caused the death of their leader Dukat, they called holy war down on the humans out of rage and grief, thus starting the Earth-Minbari War. <br /><br />And the misunderstandings didn't stop there. One of the attempts to stop the war failed because of a third party misunderstanding. The Humans made contact with a Narn who had a contact with a Minbari official. So they set up a meeting to find out how they could sort things out. But the Centauri Ambassador thought the meeting was just about the Humans gaining weapons from the Narn people, a hated enemy of the Centauri. To prevent a Human-Narn alliance, a Centauri ship made a stealth strike on the meeting, which ended up killing the Minbari representative, further kicking up the hostilities since the Humans and the Minbari each blamed the other for the attack. Finally, in the end, the Grey Council made an important discovery about the Humans right before they were about to wipe them out which prompts them to surrender to the Humans though without telling them why. To prevent such a near tragedy again, the two races work together to build the Babylon Station so that all races may have a neutral place to work out their differences. If you ever want to read/watch the backstory, check out In the Beginning. It was a made-for-tv movie, then novelized. Misunderstandings drive the plot in macro and micro levels all over the place in that. I love it, though since it is framed as a story being told to others many years later, there are some minor spoilers. But it's still well worth it for seeing how misunderstandings can be used awesomely in all kinds of ways.Jaleh Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02467289924719654371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6320269312957801390.post-55401273358664629222014-01-18T19:07:38.472-08:002014-01-18T19:07:38.472-08:00I love misunderstandings - great way to keep a sto...I love misunderstandings - great way to keep a story from just clearing up because everyone speaks honestly and candidly. The real world is full of assumptions and stereotypes and guesstimates - why should fictional worlds be any different?<br /><br />Thanks for posting, and loved the examples. That episode, Our Mrs. Reynolds, is one of our favorites of Firefly.<br /> <br />AliciaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com