On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 10:14 PM, Kenneth Barns <ken.barns@gmail.com> wrote:
... or pure Russian.
Other citations suggest that Bismarck heard the story from Tsar Nicholas I, who was likely emphasising the (supposed) unquestioning obedience that he as Tsar could command over the span of many lifetimes.
Yeah. It sounded like something Straczynski scarfed from history.
Vilani as Centauri? Hmmm. Never occurred to me, as the Centauri never struck me as particularly _efficient_. The anonymous Ishimkarun seems the diametric opposite to the showy cult of personality that seems to surround each Centauri Emperor.
I always supposed that the Shadow Emperor was only a shadow to those outside the Imperial court. Rather like how dynastic China was ruled from The Forbidden City.
The Vilani have never struck me as particularly efficient. Ancient, hopelessly corrupt (although they don't actually see it as corruption) and largely venal, yes. Efficient, no.
Any culture must innovate to survive, yet the Vilani do so only reluctantly and then only to the minimum extent necessary. This tells me that - after a few thousand years - their Imperial ceremony would have been staggeringly ornate. Every little detail - once added - would be preserved and perpetuated, long past it's actual original practical or symbolic utility.
Vilani as Russians? Once again, Russian historical events and personalities seem much to (melo-) dramatic to match my grey-suited vision of the Vilani.
The "grey suit vision" is what I'm struggling against IMTU. Seen close up, no culture is really grey. Vilani culture only appears grey to us because the canon material is scant and superficial. So we need to fill in the color for ourselves.
I like the Centauri for this, particularly since LKW once said (on this list) words to the effect that Londo Mollari was the very picture of a corrupt Imperial noble. IMTU, the Third Imperium is still too young (the current Imperial Year is 225) to have a entrenched corrupt nobility of it's very own. So it's forced to borrow one from the surviving Houses of the First Imperium.
The closest historical model for me (visual aesthetics to one side) is the history of China: dynasties more memorable than individual rulers (though that is likely my Western cultural bias in parts), the complete focus on the singular nature of their Celestial Empire, and entrenched bureaucracy that seems to transcend the ebb and flow of other historical factors.
I agree, to an extent: see my above reference to The Forbidden City. When the Imperium was a purely Vilani one (although even then this would hardly have been actually true, not after centuries of incorporating other races, human and otherwise), this would have been the case. After their "conquest" by the Terrans (and said Terran's turncoat Vilani client state allies), the surviving Vilani houses would have been forced to change. Thus, we get the disipated modern Vilani [Centauri] nobility.
--
Richard Aiken
"Never insult anyone by accident." Robert A. Heinlein
"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice." - Bill Cosby
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester