"Neroon can have a real working relationship with Delenn, but only if he's religious caste and dead in the same episode"
Indeed. I just can't picture Neroon sitting through some of the longer and more (from a Warrior Caste perspective) woo-woo Temple services without repressing a jeer or two. He says in a half-admiring way of Delenn that "she believes," and that leads me to think that he doesn't. Maybe he would like to, but his identity isn't just rooted in his caste, it's at least three quarters of who he is, and moreover what he sees as the most important part. This might be an argument for killing upon conversion, a la Javert (the owl wasn't built for daylight etc), but there's another way of looking at it.
I sort of like the idea that what looked on the outside like a betrayal of his caste was from the inside the ultimate expression of it. Warrior principles are built on self-sacrifice. Neroon was in a position where in order to consolidate Delenn's power, he had to not only sacrifice himself but his idenity; someone needed to transcend caste to close the rift and restabilise Minbari society. So it might be that he laid down his warriorhood because of it... Which makes the scene more powerful to me, anyway.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-05 02:54 am (UTC)Indeed. I just can't picture Neroon sitting through some of the longer and more (from a Warrior Caste perspective) woo-woo Temple services without repressing a jeer or two. He says in a half-admiring way of Delenn that "she believes," and that leads me to think that he doesn't. Maybe he would like to, but his identity isn't just rooted in his caste, it's at least three quarters of who he is, and moreover what he sees as the most important part. This might be an argument for killing upon conversion, a la Javert (the owl wasn't built for daylight etc), but there's another way of looking at it.
I sort of like the idea that what looked on the outside like a betrayal of his caste was from the inside the ultimate expression of it. Warrior principles are built on self-sacrifice. Neroon was in a position where in order to consolidate Delenn's power, he had to not only sacrifice himself but his idenity; someone needed to transcend caste to close the rift and restabilise Minbari society. So it might be that he laid down his warriorhood because of it... Which makes the scene more powerful to me, anyway.