Editing Babylon 5 (section)

=== War and peace ===
{{Quote box |quote=What interests me, what I wanted to do with making this show, was in large measure to examine the issues and emotions and events that precede a war, precipitate a war, the effects of the war itself, the end of the war and the aftermath of the war. The war is hardware; the people are at the center of the story. |width=40% |source=—J. Michael Straczynski, 1997<ref name="jswar">{{cite web |title=Great Job (as usual) |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=February 2, 1997 |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=9894 |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026123532/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=9894 |url-status=live }}</ref> |align=right |salign=right}}The ''Babylon 5'' universe portrays numerous armed conflicts on an interstellar scale, including the [[Deathwalker|Dilgar war]], [[Narn]]-[[Centauri (Babylon 5)|Centauri]] conflict, [[Rumors, Bargains and Lies|Minbari civil war]], [[Drakh#Centauri|Drakh War]], [[And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder|Interstellar Alliance-Centauri war]], and [[The Deconstruction of Falling Stars|the Great Burn.]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Straczynski |first1=J. Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TvW4b6ckVcC&q=war&pg=PA118 |title=Role Playing Game |last2=Sprange |first2=Matthew |date=2006 |publisher=Mongoose Publishing |isbn=978-1-905471-20-1 |access-date=October 25, 2020 |archive-date=August 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818015355/https://books.google.com/books?id=6TvW4b6ckVcC&q=war&pg=PA118 |url-status=live }}</ref> The story begins in the aftermath of a war which brought the human race to the brink of extinction, caused by a misunderstanding during a [[first contact (science fiction)|first contact]] with the Minbari.<ref name="january">{{cite web |title=Since it is now January 1st, time... |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |author-link=J. Michael Straczynski |date=December 31, 1991 |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-7707 |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=November 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010152146/http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-7707 |archive-date=October 10, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> Babylon 5 is built to foster peace through diplomacy, described as the "last, best hope for peace" in the opening credits monologue during its first three seasons. Wars between separate alien civilizations are featured. The conflict between the [[Narn]] and the [[Centauri (Babylon 5)|Centauri]] is followed from its beginnings as a minor territorial dispute amplified by historical animosity, through to its end, in which [[weapons of mass destruction]] are employed to subjugate and enslave a planet. The war is an attempt to portray a more sobering kind of conflict than usually seen on science fiction television. Informed by the events of the first [[Gulf War]], the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] and the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Prague Spring#Invasion|invasion of Prague]], the intent was to recreate these moments when "the world held its breath" and the emotional core of the conflict was the disbelief that the situation could have occurred at all, and the desperation to find a way to bring it to an end.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=16470 |title=Coming of Shadows *SPOILERS* |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=February 6, 1995 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028170549/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=16470 |url-status=live }}</ref> By the start of the third season, the opening monolog had changed to say that the hope for peace had "failed" and the Babylon 5 station had become the "last, best hope for victory", indicating that while peace is ostensibly a laudable goal, it can also mean a capitulation to an enemy intent on committing horrendous acts and that "peace is a byproduct of victory against those who do not want peace."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=7354 |title=Season 3 voiceover |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=May 17, 1998 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026134029/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=7354 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Shadow War also features prominently in the show, wherein the Shadows work to instigate conflict between other races to promote technological and cultural advancement, opposed by the Vorlons who are attempting to impose their own authoritarian philosophy of obedience. The gradual discovery of the scheme and the rebellion against it underpin the first three seasons,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=14592 |title=<Voices> |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=February 4, 1996 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=November 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128053708/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=14592 |url-status=live }}</ref> but also as a wider metaphor for competing forces of order and chaos. In that respect, Straczynski stated he presented Earth's descent into a dictatorship as its own "shadow war".<ref name="home">{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=14458 |title=Re: Instant Gratification |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=February 13, 1996 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026120843/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=14458 |url-status=live }}</ref> In ending the Shadow War before the conclusion of the series, the show was able to more fully explore its aftermath, and it is this "war at home" which forms the bulk of the remaining two seasons. The struggle for independence between [[Mars]] and Earth culminates with a civil war between the human colonies (led by the Babylon 5 station) and the home planet. Choosing Mars as both the spark for the civil war, and the staging ground for its dramatic conclusion, enabled the viewer to understand the conflict more fully than had it involved an anonymous colony orbiting a distant star.<ref name="mars">{{cite web |url=http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/mars_babylon5_991203.html |title=Babylon 5 and the Red Planet |last=Aylott |first=Chris |date=December 3, 1999 |website=SPACE |publisher=Space.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010211102406/http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/mars_babylon5_991203.html|archive-date=February 11, 2001|url-status=dead |access-date=February 24, 2019}}</ref> The conflict, and the reasons behind it, were informed by [[Nazism]], McCarthyism and the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]],<ref name="commie"/> and the destruction of the state also served as partial inspiration for the Minbari civil war.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=13899 |title=The Future of B5 |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=March 9, 1996 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026124632/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=13899 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-6010 |title=Richard Hatch |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=August 24, 1996 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303183039/http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-6010 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The post-war landscape has its roots in the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]. The attempt to resolve the [[issues of the American Civil War]] after the conflict had ended, and this struggle for survival in a changed world was also informed by works such as ''[[Alas, Babylon]]'', a novel dealing with the after-effects of a [[nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] on a small American town.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=9783 |title=Re: ATTN JMS: Comparison to "Lucifer's Hammer" |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=February 14, 1997 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028175309/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=9783 |url-status=live }}</ref> The show expresses that the end of these wars is not an end to war itself. Events shown hundreds of years into the show's future tell of wars which will once again bring the human race to the edge of annihilation, demonstrating that humanity will not change, and the best that can be hoped for after it falls is that it climbs a little higher each time, until it can one day "take [its] place among the stars, teaching those who follow."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=8433 |title=Re: to JMS: deconstruction |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=October 30, 1997 |website=JMSNews |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028173753/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=8433 |url-status=live }}</ref>