Weird Babylon Alternative Universe #2

[andraste]

I mean, it's really more like Weird Alternative Universe #7003 since there are so many twists and turns in this story, but the one I'm thinking of today ...

So my rewatch just hit Interludes and Examinations, a particularly painful point in the canon, and I had somehow forgotten that Morden only hears about Adira and her return to the station because he's in the right place at the right time.

Of course Morden is casting about for a way to steer Londo back into his arms, so if that opportunity hadn't arisen he'd have had to find something else awful to do instead. And if Adira hadn't been right where she was, there's every chance he'd have picked the only other plausible target: Vir.

I mean, I guess he chooses Adira intsead for good reason (more plausible that Refa would pick an insignificant former slave to poison than a fellow nobleman?) but if she'd shown up a week later Morden might never have known she existed.

Probably the universe where Adira arrives back and finds Londo completely grief-stricken and seeking revenge on Refa for his friend instead of his lover is ultimately a worse one than the one that exists, since Adira is hardly going to be a position to accomplish what Vir does in canon. (For that matter, we don't even know her position on Narn-Centauri relations and/or Centauri expansionism and/or assassinating Cartagia.) But it would certainly be an interesting one ...

Comments

[selenak]

Argh, yes, you're right. Without Adira, it would definitely have been Vir. (I mean, I assume Morden knows Timov exists, and possibly also that Londo respects her, but he has no reason to believe Londo would deeply care if she died, let alone that Refa could be framed as having believed that. Refa is far more likely to assume Londo would celebrate his bachelor freedom if she died.) And good lord, that's bound to be a dark AU. Then again: we know so little about Adira. In such a future, she'd get fleshed out as a character, of course, and perhaps as a former slave, her opinions on Centauri society and its dire need for reform are similar to Vir's. (Also: she's too young to have personal experiences with the Narn beyond her stint on B5, which might help.)

Mind you: how much is Vir protected by the power of prophecy? Given that Lady Morella said that he would be Emperor. Which he couldn't have become if he'd died instead of Adira.

[jesuswasbatman]

You could get round it by having Vir survive the murder attempt, in which case things would be very similar to canon. Unless Adira turned up later to be reunited with Londo but survive.

[nic]

Ouch. You're totally right, and that is a dark direction that is fascinating to think about!