Niggling question about Minbari and the truth

[Zoriah]

Was watching my 3rd season DVD's and enjoying passing through Gethsemane (and some others so please forgive me if that is not the episode in which my question stems from) - there is a scene where G'Kar confronts Delenn in the Zocalo and asks her if she has ever heard of the Rangers. She tells him she has not.

Just whose face was she saving by lying here? Sheridan's? I have always liked the way the show tried to preserve the continuity of the idea that Minbari do not lie unless it is to save another's face. Are there other lapses I have missed or is this not really a lapse?

 

[A_M_Swallow]

"The Minbari never tell the whole truth." Look very Carefully at when Delenn answers and does she deny it or change the question?

The assasin in the changeling net in "The Gathering" was not exactly telling the truth.

 

[vacantlook]

I don't think Delenn's telling G'Kar she knew nothing of the Rangers was an issue of saving face. I think it was more an issue of protection and secrecy. In her preperations for the coming conflict with the Shadows, she felt it was vastly important to not openly show how much she or any of the others knew about the Shadow's actions. Being in a public place, perhaps she thought if she acknowledged G'Kar's comments about the Rangers it would reveal her involvement, the Shadows would observe and know for certain, and she would become a much larger target than she had been previously.

Her guarding the secrecy of her socio-political movements regarding the Shadows is how I've always interpreted that scene.

 

[Vonbloodbath]

I suppose you could say that she was saving G'Kar's face...if she told him at his insistance, and people died as a result, that would bring dishonour to him. Stretching it a little I suppose, but I think that "For the Greater Good" is an equally valid reason for witholding the truth.

There is also the fact that by that point she isn't wholly Minbari...