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Delenn's Story in Confessions and Lamentations

vacantlook

vacantlook

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Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

As I sit here watching "Confessions and Lamentations" again (I love this episode, definitely one best of season two), I just got past the part where Delenn tells the little Markab girl about getting lost in a Minbari city and ending up in a temple. Delenn said that before her parents found her that there was someone else there that told her that no harm would come to her there. Delenn said something about this person standing brightly against the background or something of that nature. Does anyone think that this person might have been a Vorlon, or maybe even Kosh himself?
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

It could be. JMS says that line pays off in Comes the Inquisitor, but I haven't figured it out yet.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

The vision Delenn had in the temple was of Valen. Her description of this event in her early childhood reflects a scene in the episode "Soulhunter". During the climax of "Soulhunter", Sinclair comes to the rescue of Delenn, who then says to him "I knew you would come.....We were right about you". In other words, she knew that he would protect her from harm, because he has the soul of Valen.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

I agree about thinking it was Valen.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

I think it was Valen. But if it might have been a vision of Valerius, well a Vorlon acting like him.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

From jmsnews.com...

What Delenn says, if we all go back to the episode in question, that a Minbari appeared to her, when she was a child lost in the city and wandered into the temple; a vision, telling her that "I will not allow harm to come to my little ones here in my great house." (Note: "my little ones" being a coy bit of foreshadowing to her being a child
of Valen, but never mind that for now.)

Obviously there were many drawings and pictures and records of Valen, but most were destroyed in the Great War. And those that survived have been, over a thousand years, idealized and distorted by whichever caste is currently claiming him as theirs. (Valen refused to belong to any one caste.)

Which, btw, is also what Delenn referred to in season one, when she was lost and in fear of death, and she looked to Sinclair with reverence and said, "I knew you would come for me."

jms
Click to expand...
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

I think it was Valen. But if it might have been a vision of Valerius, well a Vorlon acting like him.
Click to expand...

The Valen theory's pretty common. Also, a Vorlon wouldn't have to pose as Valeria, at least I don't believe so -- Valeria was a Vorlon. I think JMS said something about Valeria being Valen's helper, his angelic ally, like G'quan (the religious leader) and G'lan (the being of light/Vorlon). Now it may be that legends of Valeria predate Valen, but even still, it might have been a Vorlon all along.

Or then again, it might not be. Difficult to tell with Vorlons....
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

I always guessed she imbelished slightly. I="I went to the nearest priest and asked for help" wouldnt inspire too many markab kiddies.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

Yeah, maybe it was a Vorlon appearing to her as Valeria like Kosh appeared to G'Kar as G'Quan.

Now I don't know which to believe, that or my original guess of Valen. They both seem possible. :eek:
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

There is no obvious reason for a Vorlon to be on Minbar when Delenn was young nor a mechanism by which the 1000-year-old Valen could be operating. Although it could have been a special mission to protect or educate the young Delenn.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

Maybe the Vorlons were aware of her role and what she would do on B5 in the future, so they wanted to start steering her towards that at a young age.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

Perhaps it's just the Universe helping The One. It would give weight to her passing Sebastian's test. Remember Dukhat chose Delenn to be on the Grey Council and to take his place should he die - perhaps that was the Universe helping her out again.

Does anyone else have a headache thinking about this? :LOL:
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

No, but that Sinclair going back to become Valen thing makes my head swim. :LOL:
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

I always assumed it was just some priest Delenn saw in the temple.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

not sure of the wording, but I think she said it was an old or abandoned temple.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

Er, did anyone notice the JMS quote that Bester put right in the middle of this thread where the Great Maker himself says that Delenn had a vision of Valen? :)

And note that it was a vision (as far as Delenn was concerned) or even more likely, a dream. (I think she mentions falling asleep in the temple.) It wasn't a priest. (The temple was empty, and a priest would not have uttered a cryptic reassurance and then wandered off. He would have asked her name, made a few phone calls, let the Minbari cops know what was going on, etc.) It was not a Vorlon. (There were not Vorlons on Minbar when Delenn was a girl, Dukhat had only made contact with them shortly before ItB. And it certainly wasn't Valen in-the-flesh - he had either vanished 1,000 years earlier or had not yet been born on Earth, depending on how you choose to look at things.)

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

Trust Joe to set us straight.

Actually, JMS's logic about no Vorlons doesn't make sense. Sure, they hadn't made contact with the Minbari yet, but surely they could have snuck onto Minbar without too much trouble. Hell, a Vorlon could have simply stayed there to keep an eye on things all that time. That might not be in keeping with their modus operandi, though... and it's all fairly pointless anyway, because JMS explicitly said it wasn't a Vorlon...

Argh. Sometimes I make things too complicated.
 
Re: Delenn\'s Story in Confessions and Lamentations

Far be it for me to debate the words from the Great Maker himself, but what if it was a Vorlon, but only a portion of a Vorlon planted inside some Minbari priest that made Delenn see him as Valen. With Sinclair going back in time to become Valen, it would have been easy for him to inform the Vorlons of Delenn's importance.

Of course with time passing between Valen's end and Delenn's emergence a thousand years later, the Vorlons could easily have started doubting Valen's information and thus that's why they tested Delenn in "Comes The Inquisitor." Of course, then one could get into whether or not that test was for the Vorlon's confirmation as they purported or if it was for Delenn's benefit instead; but that's a whole nother thread.

And then, Valen time traveled once, maybe he made one final time trip to appear to Delenn in that temple and died in light very shortly after speaking to her. I can see Sinclair/Valen doing something like that since he would know the importance of Delenn's involvement in the coming (from her perspective) Shadow War.
 
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