20 years

Chilli · June 2nd 02, 16:48

I just rewatched Falling Towards Apotheosis and a though crossed my head.
Was Lorien telling the truth? Could he really only extend Sheridan's life for a nother 20 years?
Did he maybe just want to give Sheridan enough time to should we say "attend to unfinished business", personally and politically, before he would join him beyond the rim?

I started forming this thought while reading Legions of Fire - 20 years is about the time a child needs to grow to adulthood - it seems like a pretty damned large coincidence that shortly after David joins the Rangers - and therefore is no longer really a child - Sheridan's borrowed life span comes to an end.

It just somehow does not seam reasonable to me that a being like Lorien could bring Sheridan back from the dead, could restore him, could get him back from being a bit of splattered organic mass at the bottom of a pit on Z'ha'dum but could only keep him alive another 20 years. Why this? Sheridan's body was perfectly intact when he came back from Z'ha'dum wasn't it?

KoshN · June 2nd 02, 17:01

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Originally posted by ChiLlBeserker:
 It just somehow does not seam reasonable to me that a being like Lorien could bring Sheridan back from the dead, could restore him, could get him back from being a bit of splattered organic mass at the bottom of a pit on Z'ha'dum but could only keep him alive another 20 years. Why this? Sheridan's body was perfectly intact when he came back from Z'ha'dum wasn't it?<hr></blockquote>

Who says Lorien let him physically hit the bottom of the pit?

Sheridan's uniform looked the same as it did right before he jumped.

Chilli · June 2nd 02, 17:20

If he didn't hit bottom, if Lorien caught him..then why did he die?

Elizar · June 2nd 02, 17:21

true, if He had hit ground, he and his clothing would be rather screwed up! [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Kribu · June 2nd 02, 17:23

But maybe Lorien is good with the sewing needle? I mean, while Sheridan was there dead, he may have taken the time to mend his clothes, before he brought Sheridan back to life?

[img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Chilli · June 2nd 02, 18:04

If he didn't hit bottom then Lorien caught him and he didn't really die - and Lorien explenation was not quite honest.

KoshN · June 2nd 02, 18:51

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Originally posted by ChiLlBeserker:
If he didn't hit bottom, if Lorien caught him..then why did he die?<hr></blockquote>

Just a guess: Radiation from which Lorien could only partially shield him??? It is possible to receive a dose that would kill a human, and leave his clothes relatively unscathed.

If he had hit bottom, especially given Z'Ha'Dum's 1.3G gravity, his clothes would have been shredded, and pretty much hard to separate from his pulpy remains and the rocks and soil on the bottom of the pit.

Radiation exposure is mitigated through Time, Distance and Shielding. You reduce the time of exposure, increase the distance to the source, and increase the shielding between you and the source. By jumping, Sheridan reduced his time of exposure close to the source (the physical point of the explosion) and increased his distance from the source. He just didn't have any shielding, except for any that Lorien may have been able to provide. Sheridan was probably still falling when the explosion took place. Radiation from a point source falls off at 1/r cubed, where r is the distance from the source.

June 2nd 02, 19:42

I have never seen the point in "joining Lorien beyond the Rim". In my opinion, it would actually diminish what Sheridan gave to create something better. He did not choose his actions to receive rewards or exceptional treatment. He chose them after consideration, because they were right.

The other problem:

Lorien quite clearly implied that it could not (would not) become some galactic healer. The reason: what one deserves, another deserves too. It healed Sheridan because of the situation where/when/how he died, and because he found someone worth living for...

Lorien told that one day, Sheridan would stop. It told this in a manner which Sheridan and Delenn clearly understood as death. To have anything else happen would create several implications, some of them quite unexpected:

1. Lorien lied to Sheridan.
2. Lorien lied to Delenn.
3. Lorien had motives for being dishonest.
4. By being dishonest, Lorien took unwarranted risks.
5. Shadows or Vorlons could have discovered/used that lie.

I consider it very unlikely for a being as experienced as Lorien, especially in such a situation, to pursue such a course.

Chilli · June 2nd 02, 21:09

About what happened in the end of Sleeping in Light.. What happened at the end depends entirely on if the viewer believes in the existence of souls or not.

I don't believe there are souls
I don't believe that there aren't
I don't pretend to understand what life actually is. Also if i am definantley not religios, I have my problems believing that everything I am, everything that everybody is is just the travelling of electronic impulses through synapses. I also have my problems believing that when someone dies it simply stops - but these are questions that cannot be answered, you can only get close to answering these by dying..and thats not really a good scientific method. So, to me, the whole question of what happens to Sheridan at the end of Sleeping in Light is up to the viewers imagination. For me, I acept that what the Minbari believe in as the truth when concerning Babylon 5. Don't ask me why, I somehow just do, also if I don't belive this in reallity. The Minbari believe that souls are reborn over and over again. That souls travel, trying to correct their mistakes from previous lives,trying to understand, trying to relive relationships with outher souls from prior lives, yadda yadda yadda.. at the end of times, all souls come together. As i said before, I don't believe this IRL

As to dimishing what sheridan gave: For me it was more about what he was willing to give, not about what he gave.

Loadhan · June 3rd 02, 04:10

Did Lorien actually say Sheriden would die after 20 years? He did say "He will simply ... stop." That might not be the same as death - even if everyone around him believed that was the case.

And I think he did say at some point "I caught you/him" or something to that effect. We do see Sheriden being held up by Lorien-as-the-energy-being.

And ... *spoiler from the 3rd Techno-mage book*

Spoiler:
<table bgcolor="#000000" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0"><tr bgcolor="#000000"><td bgcolor="#000000" id="spoiler"> Lorien did heal at least one other. Mr. Morden. Morden just didn't give up on the Shadows and sealed his own death warrent long before anything Lorien could do would have worn out - probably. He might have helped the telepath Bunny. Galan did hope that - but we never found out. </td></tr></table>