Very Important Narn Questions

[andraste]

Going through the Lurker's Guide JMS quotes in conjunction with my rewatch, I have been reminded that he said after Parliament of Dreams aired that Gilbert and Sullivan would be one of the rare subjects where Londo and G'Kar would find common ground.

I think it's obvious that The Mikado is the best and the funniest if you are a Centauri who has spent as much time at court as Londo has, and equally obvious that G'Kar does not agree because when do they ever? I lean towards The Pirates of Penzance as his choice. But then, The Yeomen of the Guard is widely regarded as having the best score - not without reason - and I can see him inclining in that direction on musical grounds. Clearly Pirates is the most amusing option given he ends up with an eye patch, but do Narns even have pirates? I mean, they should, because Narn pirates would be cool as hell.

... and the trouble with Twitter existing and JMS being right there where you can ask him questions is that I'm tempted to just go and see if there is a Word Of God answer to this, but also do not want to bother him. (And if he actually answered I know I would feel compelled to seek answers for other important B5 questions I have like 'how old are G'Kar and Londo, chronologically speaking?' and 'what year did the first occupation of Narn end?' and 'what are the Vorlons doing with that Centauri foetus?' And also 'are there Narn pirates, pls say yes?')


(Meanwhile: Delenn likes all the operettas the touring company put on for the ambassadors even though she doesn't really understand any of them, Lennier is politely baffled, Vir likes The Goldoliers because true love triumphs three times over, and Na'Toth just wishes that everyone else would stop humming.)

Comments

[wychwood]

There are definitely Narn pirates actually on the show, they just call them "raiders". But it's clearly the same thing - they're hijacking people's ships and stealing their stuff.

But I don't think we have any evidence as to eye-patches, parrots, etc.

[andraste]

True!

Whether they have a longer tradition of sea piracy probably depends on what the oceans on Narns are like (and whether they have something broadly analogous to parrots.)

[lizvogel]

Or monkeys; they could totally have pirate-pet monkeys.

[andraste]

Yes!

I feel like with so many bipeds, there must be vaguely monkey-like creatures all over the galaxy. (Gotta start out with hands before you get to 'what if I walked on my hind limbs all the time so I could carry more food with my forelimbs?')

[wychwood]

Yes, what we see of Narn is basically all desert, but that's after the Centauri got to it. I bet they did have sea pirates if they had navigable seas before that, though, it seems like the sort of thing they would do.