Post by @ami_angelwings@urusai.social

2026-09-06 22:29 UTC

I'll give an example to get us started, and yes it is about Babylon 5 again because I've been revisiting it: I used to go back and forth on whether Captain Jankowski/Earthforce was to blame for starting the Minbari War. Jankowski ordered his ships to fire on the Minbari ship that had gunports open because that was the Minbari custom to show respect and openness (no hiding weapons). The fan argument for Earthforce is the Minbari should have known other races might take it as a threat. However, it's a First Contact situation, Jankowski shouldn't have fired. You never fire first in a first contact situation. You don't know their customs, and Jankowski had already been in one first contact mishap, even though the tribunal cleared him, he should NEVER have been in command of the mission.

Replies (1)

@ami_angelwings@urusai.social 2026-09-06 22:35

The Minbari seem to coexist with other species okay, so their customs may not be that unusual, either way, blaming them because "they did something WE consider to be hostile" is exactly why you need first contact protocol. Also a good first contact captain is willing to risk their life, ship and crew to AVOID STARTING A WAR. A lot of this was also arrogance by Earthforce coming off the Dilgar War believing that starting another war wouldn't be a big deal because they defeated the Dilgar. I thought about what Sheridan would do, he'd say if they meant to ambush they wouldn't approach with gunports open & it might be a custom. He's very good at thinking in the shoes of the other. He might also open gunports back since fair is fair, but order everybody to not fire unless fired upon first.

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