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Apocalypse BoX

Citizen V

Beyond the rim
Anyone care to speculate exactly what it was?

Shadow tech?
Vorlon tech?
Something else?


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"The war is never completely won. There are always new battles to be fought against the Darkness. Only the names change."--Delenn
 
A very fancy place to put your socks and shirts.
laugh.gif


It's probably some kind of lifeform or advanced AI tech (duh!). Honestly, it sounds Vorlonesque: short, cryptic, and seems to know a lot more than it lets on. It also seems to have some control over its owner, as what happened with its former owner before Gideon.

Other than that, I'm stumped.

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.
 
I agree. It seems to be some sort...leech, whether it's a creature or tech, that takes control ever so slowly. The fellow Gideon won the box from felt like he needed to die to be rid of it's influence. Apparently, the box wouldn't let him die unless it had another owner.

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"The war is never completely won. There are always new battles to be fought against the Darkness. Only the names change."--Delenn

[This message has been edited by Citizen V (edited July 30, 2001).]
 
If the box really were Vorlon tech, I'd think it would have some kind of goal in mind. This Apocolypse box seems to have no goal, unless it is to slowly destroy its "owner".

Reminds me a bit of the ring in Lord of the Rings. Just one more unanswered question from Crusade.

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo
 
Galen seemed to know what it was which makes me speculate it was Shadow technology.

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According to the Crusade Bible, if Galen had known it was on board, he would have "thrown it out of the nearest airlock".

Spoiler for those who haven't read the Technomage books yet:

<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>Given what we learn in the Technomage trilogy about the link between Shadow tech and technomancy, I'd say it's a leftover piece of a Vorlon. </font></td></tr></table>

Ro
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I have no surviving
enemies. At all.

[This message has been edited by Technomage Roanna (edited July 30, 2001).]
 
The large problem with the Apocalypse Box is that Sometimes It Lies. Whatever it is, whoever made it, the box has an agenda of its own.

The phrasing of the previous owner's questions when Gidean "won" the box seems to indicate that a change of ownership must be voluntary on the part of the New owner. The Old owner was evidently running for his Life when he got hit by the car. It is Possible that the box guided him into that poker game and allowed him to think he had a Chance to get away if he acted quickly.

The overall view we get of the box implies that it can "see" at least some parts of the future.



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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
 
I'm still betting it's shadow tech

<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>Galen would have a lot more reason to throw it out the nearest airlock if it was shadow tech than he would if it was vorlon. Hell, sometimes I think he would throw himself out the nearest airlock to get rid of his shadow tech....</font></td></tr></table>

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I'm lobbying for someplace more comfortable for our next gathering place. A nice resort with a beach. A bunch of pale skinned technomages in black robes would fit right in.

[This message has been edited by Derian (edited July 30, 2001).]
 
I'm sorry, but I don't remember anyone talking about winning the Box in a poker game. Anyone know which episode it was?

It is possible that the Box was the Big First Mystery of Crusade that would've gotten answered within the first couple of seasons. Babylon 5's First Big Mystery was the "hole" in Sinclair's mind. It appears the Rangers' will be the haunted ship. They're plot devices that get us hooked into the show right away, so that by the time they are explained, we become rabid fans.

Clever they are.

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."
 
I thought that it was already established that the box was older than the Vorlons and Shadows, but not quite as old as Lorien's race. So, it could not be Vorlon or Shadow tech.

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"Even I am not a Marxist" —— Karl Marx.
 
You know, it sounds an awful lot like a Keeper. It probably isn't a keeper but...

<table bgcolor=black><tr><td bgcolor=black><font size=1 color=white>Spoiler:</font></td></tr><tr><td><font size=2 color=black>

We know the Keeper was communicating with David Sheridan before it attached itself.

There was mention made that the Keeper can not attach itself unless the subject/victim is willing.

</font></td></tr></table>

Then again, it probably isn't a keeper because:

It seems to speak out loud.

It may be thinking at a higher level than we expect from a Keeper.



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"What's up, Drakh?"

Michael Garibaldi
 
Maybe it's an adult keeper? The keepers always seemed to be...um...I dunno, odd, to me. Like there was something more to them than was let on. Or I've been watching these shows for too long and I'm getting paranoid.
smile.gif


Honestly, the first thing I thought was that it was a vorlon in a wire cage.
smile.gif
Though I like what Derian said...

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Just a moment!...my muse is speaking to me...
 
Gideon won the box in a flashback in the episode, "The Path of Sorrows."

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"The war is never completely won. There are always new battles to be fought against the Darkness. Only the names change."--Delenn
 
Thanks, Citizen V.

Figures it would be the one episode I never saw. Sunuvabich.

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"You do not make history. You can only hope to survive it."
 
I agree with Darquin, it certainly isn't Vorlon/Shadow in orign. It is rather stupid and unimaginative to simply assume that every myster on the show is down to them. The same can be said for the theory that the Great Machine is Vorlon tech which is proposed elsewhere on this site.

It is most likely something compleatly new that will now never be explained unless by some miricle Crusade is revived or JMS is feeling magnanimous and decides to tells us what it is.


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"Watch the Shadows, they move when you're not looking..."
 
PURE Speculation:

I believe it was a JMS post (somebody help me out) that said that later on in the series the Apocalypse Box would begin to speak wit Gideon's voice. What if the box is some kind of "radio receiver" that is getting messages from the future, and Gideon, himself, is sending the messages to his past self from some point in the future to warn him of trouble and guide him in his quest. The box tried to warn Gideon of Galen's intentions at the Well of Forever, maybe that was a warning from foreknowledge. What if Galen is a real traitor and the Gideon of the future knows this and is trying to prevent some event in his past.

If you saw the movie "Frequency," it's kinda the same idea.

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You are finite. Zathras is finite. This...is wrong tool.

jtk724@hotmail.com

[This message has been edited by Zathras (edited July 31, 2001).]
 
I sincerely doubt it's Gideon telling his former self what's going to happen. JMS has detested time travel, and has used it sparingly at best, the obvious case being WWE. It just creates too many paradoxes, and complicates matters, not to mention you have to make sure the future is consistent with the past and vice versa.

It's just a lot of trouble, and it's more of a trekky solution, something the Great Maker wants to avoid.

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.
 
Actually, it's Gary's voice now, but altered by computer or mixing or some such thingamabob. As the show would go on *sniff* it would have become more clear that it was his voice as the box gained more control over Gideon.

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"The war is never completely won. There are always new battles to be fought against the Darkness. Only the names change."--Delenn

[This message has been edited by Citizen V (edited July 31, 2001).]
 
Personally, I don't think it's any species we've ever seen. To borrow a line from Douglas Adams, space is BIG. And I guess it appeals to the Lovecraft reader in me that it might be something unknown, corrupting, and beyond our understanding.

The Vorlons and the Shadows spread their nets pretty far and wide, but I dunno. Bumping into their leftovers all the time would take all the fun out of it.

"Another all-powering artifact from the First Ones? [sigh] Throw it on the pile and let's keep moving."

Shades of a Monty Haul dungeon crawl. So there's the Excalibur crew dragging behind them a +3 Vorpal Blade, a Vorlon Planet Killer, and a complete set of Star Trek III plastic cups from 7-11...but still no cure for the Drakh plague. That'll go down real well back home!



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Joe Medina (neargrai@aol.com)

"...that which are, we are"
 
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