Babylon 5 - [4x06] - Into the Fire - Immortality

A scene from Babylon 5 that shows one of the many pieces of wisdom that the series has to offer.
An excerpt from the episode 'Into the Fire' in season 4.

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"Yes?"

"I was told you were ready to leave."

"Almost. You're awfully impatient for someone supposed to be immortal."

"Not immortal as you mean it. My race can die. Through illness or injury."

"So where are the rest of them?"

"They fell ill and died, were injured and died. The rest went away. I am the last. And I was the first."

"I have to admit I'm a little bit skeptical about that."

"Skepticism is the language of the mind. What does your heart tell you?"

"My heart and I don't speak anymore."

"Yes. I have noticed that."

"Okay, let's assume that in all of the universe you were the first living being to achieve sentience billions of years ago. At that point, you'd be doing pretty good to invent fire or the wheel. You couldn't come up with science, technology, find a serum for immortality all in one lifetime."

"It wasn't necessary. We were born naturally immortal."

"It's impossible. Everything dies."

"Yes. Now. At first, we were kept in balance by birthrate. Few of us were ever born, less than a handful each year. Then, I think the universe decided that to appreciate life for there to be change and growth, life had to be short. So the generations that followed us grew old, infirm, died. But those of us who were first went on.

We discovered the Vorlons and the Shadows when they were infant races and nourished them, helped them and all the other races you call the First Ones. In time, most of them died. Or passed beyond the Rim to whatever lies in the darkness between galaxies.

We've lived too long, seen too much. To live on as we have is to leave behind joy and love and companionship because we know it to be transitory, of the moment. We know it will turn to ash. Only those whose lives are brief can imagine that love is eternal.

You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received."

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Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• babylon
• babylon5
• 4x06
• into
• the
• fire
• ivanova
• lorien

[sunnchilde]

When Lorien says "Only those whose lives are brief could imagine that love is eternal." he has this look of regret on his face. Could this be to a past love that he lost to death? Could that event have created this realization in him so that he could speak it to Ivanova eons later? Look at the look in his eye. There's something going on there. Lorien lost somebody. Someone very dear to him. And he's remembering it now.

[FuumaDarina]

Lorien such a great character. He is wise, but sometimes he made me scary...

[LightHero117]

The Vorlons and the Shadows are dicks.

[x1101011x]

@legendarytoyou It turns to ash regardless -- that's what's horrible. The person whose finite life is too short to see it turn to ash is able to believe that it is eternal -- that's delusion.

[legendarytoyou]

@x1101011x not a case of how horrible reality is but how much of a curse immortality can/could be. i myself am writing a book about a young girl who is cursed with immortality, has to watch everything, her loved ones, society, the earth even the universe decay from age while she remains to observe it. Unending..even a universal Big Freeze she still still lingers trillions of years before the curse is lifted. imagine a horrible fate like that; would you really call that a blessing?

[kevthegerbil1958]

Love is eternal i be lost without mine very touching scene if you understand it

[x1101011x]

So, the greatest gift humanity ever received is the ability to deceive themselves about how truly horrible reality is? Swell.

[InsurrectionistFungi]

Every time I see Lorien's beard I have this urge to stroke it. XD

[xadam2dudex]

why r all the clips with Lorien dubbed in a foreign language and only a few clips in it's orginal form ??

[DoctorWortspieler]

I think that the First One's Immortality is an allusion to the Bible, specifically Genesis, where the first few generations of human kind lived for centuries. This is also observed in other ancient mythologies. For example, the Assyrians believed that their first kings lived for tens of thousands of years. Knowing JMS' penchant for making classical allusions, I would not be surprised if this was intentional.

[proadmin1]

@AllTheseWorldsAreUrs I think it's a little bit of bad narrative in an otherwise great story. But you could know in a number of ways. For example, if we manage not to kill ourselves, pointing radio telescopes at other parts of the galaxy and at other galaxies will give us the electromagnetic "echo" of civilizations that would have lived and perhaps died millions of years ago, the Orions Arm Wiki explains this in some amazing detail.

[rakkav]

This is wisdom?!