Yeah, been a fan for years and years, so I remember those silly chants.
I think the group spirit thing might've worked with better actors but it was downhill from when Byron introduced the first one of his gang as "Sarah the beautiful", or something, which I suppose might've been an interesting way to introduce someone if she'd actually be otherworldly - not necessarily beautiful, but at least charismatic somehow. This chick looked like the girl next door. Sure, I guess we could call everyone "the beautiful" once we get to know them and hold them dear, but c'mon.
The whole thing just felt
weird, like some rudderless, delusional hippies with shampoo commercial hair, had no solutions and only a drug warped connection to reality.
I suppose that one might try to explain Sheridan's behaviour towards Lyta with things like how he knows how the vorlons turned out to be and how Lyta telepathically nudged Z for self-destruction before they got there with Bester. She could be seen as a loose cannon and I don't think that any leaders will stand long for that sort of behaviour from someone under him.
But Lyta wasn't really under him. She wasn't in his chain of command, and he hadn't cemented any kind of informal chain of command with her, "deputised" her, or anything like that. Additionally, after the Vorlons were gone, she was left to fend for herself, and was
persona non grata to all sides, Psi Corps, Army of Light and the business community. If I'd have been Sheridan, after all she'd done for me and my cause, I'd damned well have taken care of her, helped her out and made her feel INCLUDED, instead of EXCLUDED and tossed aside. If he'd done that, she'd almost certainly have INCLUDED him. She could have told him about not letting Bester get anywhere near Z'ha'dum, and her plans, and she could have put in a block to prevent Bester from Bester seeing it in Sheridan's mind. C'mon, you know she could have put in a block that Bester wouldn't either see or have any chance of getting through. This is Lyta, the Vorlon enhanced telepath/telekinetic and she's far, far beyond Bester's P12 rating.
Imagining yourself in that kind of world where there are telepaths and how different they are, and taking into account those things above, I suppose that some level of reservation is only common sense. Still, some of those hateful looks of Sheridan when he's with Lyta and the way he's bullying her is just plain dumb - and yeah, sometimes you just gotta wonder about JMS. I don't know if he oversaw everything and that if the show had different people at different shooting locales so that some scenes might've gone through with this type of vibe that doesn't make any sense.
Oh, I think JMS was in charge of everything and just couldn't think up a good way to get Lyta over to Bryon's side. Sheridan had to alienate her, and IMHO, it was
entirely out of character. It was just crappy storytelling. I think JMS might have had a better plan when it involved Ivanova, but when CC didn't come back for Season 5, it all went to hell, and JMS couldn't come up with a good way to get the telepath replacement (Lyta) over to Byron's side. Ivanova would have been more of a natural because it would have been out of an attraction (to a side that's against the Corps. Ivanova's always been on the outside relative to the Corps.), instead out of a repulsion (Sheridan alienating Lyta.).
Bottom Line: CC rottenly threw a plasma grenade into JMS' storyline, and he couldn't adequately recover, and everybody suffers.
