From jms:
*They [Centauri] believe in a variety of afterlives; the god you worship, of the centauri pantheon, holds dominion over a given “heaven” or afterworld. If you appease the god sufficiently during life, it will accept you into that afterworld, in preparation for the day when all heavens are united; if not, you will have to be reborn and choose another until one accepts you.
Londo saw what he said he saw.*
Which prompts the question…was Londo an atheist?
Not at all. It’s meant to be a fun thread, anything tangentially relevant to Kosh, Yoda, B5, or Star Wars is fair game as far as I’m concerned.
Hmm, Londo fits the profile, an amoral hedonist bent on genocide.
He’s a horrible person, so he’s an atheist? Oh, this’ll end well.
Yoda would see him as a midiclorian (whatever the fuck that is) and use him to move heavy stuff with his mind. Kosh would be Yoda’s bitch.
Honestly, who knows. Londo is a deeply troubled person caught in the middle of so many webs he never had a chance to escape. (It’s kinda hilarious to me that B5’s greatest schemer was largely helpless, as everybody in the damn universe seems to have been messing with him.)
Was he an atheist? Maybe. I doubt he ever gave it much thought. The Centauri, like the Romans, were creatures of ritual, and their religion was a religion of ritual (very awesome rituals, too 
). Deep down, he doesn’t seem to believe much, but he also saw real prophecy by priestesses. He may have been responding to the nihilism he battled with over the course of the series.
The answer is “Yes”.
Dude, I’m the atheist, atheist who ever athed.
It were a joke.
It’s hard to tell one from t’other these days, ya know. Poe’s law rules the virtual landscape. Should’ve kept my trap shut anyway, as the thread might’ve gone off the rails. Apologies to all.
Londo was a complicated character though, and one of the reasons why B5 was so freakin’ great. He wasn’t a horrible guy, and even so, his plans and decisions led him down a dark path that resulted in millions, if not billions, of deaths. That scene when the mass drivers were pummeling Narn as he stood and watched through the windows - HE was responsible for that, and you could see how quietly, desperately horrified he was. Londo’s fall, and his work to redeem himself - it’s as if he’s some sort of larger-than-life Shakespearean archetype that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe I shoud’ve paid more attention in class.
Speaking of Shakespearean, G’Kar. Who the hell expected Sid the Snitch and the one-armed man to turn in these kind of performances? Any time either were on-screen, I knew I was in for a good time. Any time BOTH were on-screen, I sat up and paid very close attention.
I’ve got to get my disks out and watch it again. Seasons two through four anyway.
Thinking about this some more…what did Vir see? Or was he even present?
The Centauri had gods for every occasion: gods by the bushel, gods by the pound. I’m sure Vir, untouched by the Shadows as he was, saw one of the benificent ones. If he was there, which I don’t remember.
Oh, and Kosh would take down Yoda in a heart beat if he chose. Chronos stated it perfectly.
Sorry to post for the third time in a row, but it occurs to me that Kosh is more on a par with Gandalf. Who would win there, or would they even choose to do battle? Of course, their lengendaria are completely mutually incompatible, but hey, this is a message board full of fantasy scholars. I have great faith in your abilities.
Kosh is a senior diplomat in the service of a major interstellar empire. He has a ship, and his government has many, many warships.
Yoda has himself alone.
At the end of the day, it’s no contest. Kosh wins, overwhelmingly.
I’d always assumed that it was Londo who caused Londo not to see anything. Whether that came from atheism, agnosticism, corruption by the Shadows, simple cynicism, materialism or whatever. I’ve always assumed that any random Centauri would see some spiritual figure from their religion when they saw a Vorlon, and Londo’s reaction was an individual one.
Concur.
Empires, ships, and governments are irrelevant. This is a cage match. Two beings enter, one being leaves.
Chalk me up as another who thinks that Londo’s not seeing Kosh was an individual thing. First of all, I can’t imagine that the Vorlons missed contacting any sentient race in the Galaxy. And second, even if they had, I expect that a member of such a race would just see a nondescript being of light-- That much of the manifestation, at least, seemed to be common to everyone, so the conditioning was probably just filling in details.
Maybe the Vorlons visited Centauri Prime, but they revealed themselves to the Xon instead.
I’m sorry they never explored the Xon more.
To the best of my memory, Vir wasn’t there. Too bad, as that would have answered some of our questions. Perhaps JMS did that on purpose.