# A Babylon 5 Geek Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616 "2003-06-13T16:44:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/1 "2003-06-13T16:44:12Z")
Ok Narn was bombed to the ground and their govenment eventually surrendered, I want to know, how the hell did the populace survive such attacks? I mean because asteroid or ‘mass driver’ attacks can do as much harm to the planet as they say they do, wouldn’t there be NO life left on Narn at all? What resistance movements would be able to surface in such plight? I know I’m suck a geek, just wanted to know 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/2 "2003-06-13T16:47:37Z")
Well, since we know that neither the Narn nor the Centuari survive to make the transition to energy beings that the Humans and Minbari do, I suppose that the mass drivers’ impacts did eventually wipe out the Narn. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/3 "2003-06-13T16:52:02Z")
Didn’t the Drivers affect the climate on the planet, thus ensuring desertfication? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/4 "2003-06-13T16:58:30Z")
I take it you’re watching the show the first time on DVD? A good portion were offworld. Some were in shelters. Either way I think we can safely estimate the death toll planet wide for the Narn homeworld to be about 80 percent of it’s population. Think about it this way, if an asteroid like the one that killed the dinosaurs hit us today it would do massive damage and kill a great many people but it wouldn’t kill everyone. People directly under it and those in areas that would be affected by the shockwave are all dead but those people living on a mountain half the world away will survive at least the initial impact. It’s not like the population was left alone to starve to death, also. The Centauri are occupying the planet at the end of season two and they have to live there while doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/5 "2003-06-13T16:59:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Didn’t the Drivers affect the climate on the planet, thus ensuring desertfication? Narn was already reduced to a barren world by the previous Centauri occupation. It did wipe out any attempt to recover from it, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/6 "2003-06-13T17:02:28Z")
Bear in mind that huge numbers of Narn would have been offplanet at the time, or evacuated before the actual bombardment. Also, we’ve no real idea of how long the bombardment lasted, or where the fire was concentrated. there could have been pockets that held out- though i imagine that most of the planet was rendered uninhabitable. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/7 "2003-06-13T17:12:42Z")
what about the atmophere, how would they be able to breathe if there is no sustainable environment to support them? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/8 "2003-06-13T17:17:05Z")
Isn’t that redundant? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/9 "2003-06-13T18:02:18Z")
> [@](#): > > what about the atmophere, how would they be able to breathe if there is no sustainable environment to support them? Option 1: Thanks to the magic of handwave technology they can maintain a breathable atmosphere. Option 2: While the enviromental damage was widespread it didn’t wipe out the entire biosphere (note that the aforementioned dinosaur killer didn’t wipe out all the plants on earth). Option 3: It’s a television show and while they try harder than most SF shows and movies to be consistant errors do slip through. ---
**Author:** ![Nangleator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e19adc/32.png) [@Nangleator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nangleator)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/10 "2003-06-13T18:29:54Z")
Errors? You can feel free to assume the Centari understood math. Therefore, the amount of damage they inflicted was nearly _exactly_ the amount of damage they wanted to inflict. They wanted a goodly number of slaves. They wanted a planet they could live on. JMS did _not_ make a mistake here. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/11 "2003-06-13T18:41:49Z")
It was mentioned once that there was so much dust and ash in the air that most of the Narn population had to remain indoors or underground after the attack. When G’Kar looked out an open window, he had to breathe through a cloth to avoid getting so much soot in his lungs. There are still public areas, and I suppose the Narns could have gotten used to it (they had a stubbornness about them that made them almost thrive in the face of hardship), but just because they survived doesn’t mean it’s an ideal planet anymore. ---
**Author:** ![rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rabbit)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/12 "2003-06-13T18:46:28Z")
Just to add to what Nangleator said, think of it as carpet bombing, such as experienced in WW2. While for the most part the targeted cities were reduced to rubble (think Berlin for example), the population living there was not wiped out. While the damage of mass drivers would be much greater, so is the defensive technology (better built bunkers/safe zones). Its completely rational to expect some survival rate. Plus as mentioned, the Centauri weren’t trying to exterminate the Narn. only subjugate them, so they wouldve stopped when the Narn surrendered. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/13 "2003-06-21T02:31:32Z")
I thought that the Centauri only did “a little bit” of orbital bombardment; the Narn surrendered so that the Centauri wouldn’t kill all of them. If the Narn hadn’t surrendered, it would have been much worse. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/14 "2003-06-21T02:40:16Z")
:rolleyes: **Ryan\_Liam** :rolleyes: You are SUCH a geek! 😃 –wuv, **viva** did you ever find those Lost Wages? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/15 "2003-06-21T03:03:51Z")
I also wonder if the effect from lots of little asteroids might be different from the effect of one big asteroid. ---
**Author:** ![SpaceGhostofArrakis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@SpaceGhostofArrakis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceGhostofArrakis)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/16 "2003-06-21T03:40:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ultrafilter \* > \*\*I also wonder if the effect from lots of little asteroids might be different from the effect of one big asteroid. \*\* It would be worse. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/17 "2003-06-23T12:30:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vivalostwages \* > \*\*:rolleyes: **Ryan\_Liam** :rolleyes: You are SUCH a geek! > > 😃 > > –wuv, **viva** > > did you ever find those Lost Wages? \*\* I know its classified as an old thread, but I had to reply to viva, nope, I did recieve them but my mum wanted them too 😉 Geek! Geek! Ya a bit of a geek, but Babylon 5 has a really good storyline. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/18 "2003-06-23T12:36:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Well, since we know that neither the Narn nor the Centuari survive to make the transition to energy beings that the Humans and Minbari do, I suppose that the mass drivers’ impacts did eventually wipe out the Narn. \*\* I didn’t read all of the books. When did we find out that neither one of them made it? Marc ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/19 "2003-06-23T12:41:33Z")
Kosh tells G’kar in a vision that the Centauri and Narn are a dying race and that they should live out their existences in peace and respectfully rather than fighting each other until there is none of them left. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616/20 "2003-06-23T12:42:47Z")
respect\* Oh and Jms in the lurkers guide says that the Narn and Centauri don’t make it due to them not reaching a level of ‘maturity’ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-babylon-5-geek-question/181616.md?page=2)