What exactly was the Mimbari's interest in Sinclair?

[Infinite-Possibilities]

I've been making my way through the series lately and I've reached the last few episodes of Season 3. A few episodes ago I watched the Two Part episode with the return of Sinclair which is as I understand is his last appearance. So I would imagine the storyline about his destiny and his significance to the Mimbari is over. It certainly seems to have tied up most loose ends, but I still don't quite understand the intrigue they were trying to build back in Season 1. Why did the Mimbari Federation want Babylon 5 to be run by Sinclair? And why did they seem to think he had some specific purpose to them? I know he did have a Mimbari related destiny, but they couldn't have known about that.As far as I could tell the only reason the Grey council seemed interested in him personally was that he was the first human they picked at random from the Battle of the Line. From what Lennier explained in Season 2 the reason the Mimbari surrendered didn't have anything to do with him specifically. I wouldn't normally ask something like this before finishing seeing the show but I would imagine this isn't explained later in the show's episodes but if it is, I guess I would prefer to avoid spoilers.

[djackson1234]

My best guess for the choice in commander would be that his title as commander as Babylon 5 would be appropriate enough for Earth to approve him being an Earth ambassador to Mimbari. Or else it would be completely random, right? If he was stationed elsewhere, why would the Mimbari want him as an ambassador (keep in mind I just realized I didn't see the last 2 episodes of season 1 so I might be wrong)? It would have raised questions. Why would he out of all military personnel be chosen to go to Mimbari? Either way, he had to be commander because it was written in history already that he was supposed to go to Babylon 4 with Garabaldi in season one. Also, maybe because they wanted someone like Delenn to keep an eye on him.

I also think it was at the Battle of the Line that they discovered his significance and importance in history. Didn't they do some kind of mind-probe or something?

PS. I've reached the last few episodes of Babylon 5 myself! Quite a coincidence!

[suse]

They used the triangle thingie on him and discovered he had DNA from Valen's family. They wanted to know more about him - yes, Delenn was keeping an eye on him. I can't remember if there were any other explanations.

[DigiFluid]

The Minbari are deeply, deeply religious people. Their religion almost completely focuses around one individual, Valen, remaking their civilization into what it'd been for the following thousand years up to that point.

In the present, they'd spent however long massacring humanity, without really knowing much about us. And then one day, almost completely by accident, they discover that one of their enemies--who they had every intention of torturing for intel--lights up their Valen-detector device like a Christmas tree. This device glows a little bit for everyone who has some Valen bloodline in them, but they've never seen anything like this.

Think of it as the Minbari equivalent of the Second Coming. You've got a civilization of thousand-year-diluted Jesus (Valen) bloodlines that are deemed important, and one day along comes someone with a purity of Valen blood that hasn't been seen since he first lived.

For a civilization as deeply religious as that, it's a discovery like none other in the history of their people. And in the same breath, they realize they were about to exterminate his entire species. It rattled them to their core.

And because they still didn't know much about humans, or why this had happened at all, they kept him where he'd be available to them.

[Infinite-Possibilities]

I must have missed the triangle device being a "Valen detector." It seems like a strange thing to have lying around. I don't remember that being explicitly explained. Which episode was that? If anything I might have thought it was what caused the Mimbari to believe that humans had Mimbari souls and thus figured they must have used it on every captured human in the battle.

[SaberBlade]

I must have missed the triangle device being a "Valen detector." It seems like a strange thing to have lying around. I don't remember that being explicitly explained. Which episode was that? If anything I might have thought it was what caused the Mimbari to believe that humans had Mimbari souls and thus figured they must have used it on every captured human in the battle.

The triangle devices are called Tri-luminaries, and you are right as the devices (there are three, which are needed to transform a person) were used on other captives during the Minbari's final assault on Earth. It's what ultimately made the Minbari believe Minbari were being reborn in Human bodies and stop.

As for them being a "Valen Detector", it's not an accurate description but consider how far you're into the series it is an apt description. It would be hard to explain it in more detail because it spoils some stuff from season four so for now, consider them a Valen detector and when season 4 comes around, it will be better explained as there is still one or two small things that need explaining. If you still don't understand it then (I think it's episode 9 or 10 of season 4), then you can be told everything.