Shadows and Battlecrabs

[jds1982]

We know that the Shadows used other sentients as CPU's for their ships. I always assumed this meant that the only crew onboard a Battlecrab was the person hooked into it. It would minimize Shadow casualties that way. However, I watched "Into the Fire" the other day and realized that there were actual Shadows present at the Battle of Coriana 6. There had to be for them to talk to Delenn like they did. Unless of course they're super powerful telepaths and can project their thoughts across light years. So were there actual Shadows present at Coriana 6, or are they just crazy powerful telepaths? Also, why did they use people as CPU's when they had those things the Drakh used to control the Centauri's ships?

[Jeffala]

They didn't just use people as ship CPUs, they used telepaths. Telepaths are a threat to the Shadow ships' command and control mechanisms so they killed two birds with one stone: remove one weapon from their enemies and turn that weapon into a CPU for their ships.

I would say that the battlecrabs did have Shadow crews--if not to run the ship, then just as "passengers". Otherwise, they didn't have any real ships so far as we've seen.

[Sealurk]

Maybe those Drakh pod things were only good for mechanical ships, while the Shadow organic ships require complex, sentient, sapient brains, such as those of a human. I'm not sure, I haven't watched in a while.

Besides, weren't there other Shadow vessels besides the battlecrabs (always thought that was a bad name for one of the creepiest ships ever designed) at Coriana 6? Transports (like the one you see destroyed in the season 4 intro by a White Star, if memory serves), and the Planet Killer (which A Call To Arms suggests has habitable command structures).

Might be wrong on many counts - long time since I watched them.

[jds1982]

They didn't just use people as ship CPUs, they used telepaths. Telepaths are a threat to the Shadow ships' command and control mechanisms so they killed two birds with one stone: remove one weapon from their enemies and turn that weapon into a CPU for their ships.

I would say that the battlecrabs did have Shadow crews--if not to run the ship, then just as "passengers". Otherwise, they didn't have any real ships so far as we've seen.

They didn't always use telepaths, Anna Sheridan being a prime example. In fact we don't know that they ever actually got their hands on any telepaths, only that they planned to. I suppose they could have had Shadow passengers, or controllers. Maybe that's why the ship on Io went nuts.

Maybe those Drakh pod things were only good for mechanical ships, while the Shadow organic ships require complex, sentient, sapient brains, such as those of a human. I'm not sure, I haven't watched in a while.

Besides, weren't there other Shadow vessels besides the battlecrabs (always thought that was a bad name for one of the creepiest ships ever designed) at Coriana 6? Transports (like the one you see destroyed in the season 4 intro by a White Star, if memory serves), and the Planet Killer (which A Call To Arms suggests has habitable command structures).

Might be wrong on many counts - long time since I watched them.

I suppose the Shadows could have been in the Death Cloud, someone had to pilot it. The Shadows just seemed the type to have other people fight for them. I guess that was sort of the whole point of the war.

[s09119]

They didn't always use telepaths, Anna Sheridan being a prime example. In fact we don't know that they ever actually got their hands on any telepaths, only that they planned to. I suppose they could have had Shadow passengers, or controllers. Maybe that's why the ship on Io went nuts.

Anna didn't pilot any ships, though, she was just their go-between to draw Sheridan to Za'ha'dum.

[jds1982]

Anna didn't pilot any ships, though, she was just their go-between to draw Sheridan to Za'ha'dum.

Yeah she did. She had the same modifications Bester's girlfriend did. Franklin discovered the same type of scarring. They also basically state that she was hooked into a ship when Sheridan goes to Za'ha'dum. There's also the little fact that you see a small craft ejected from a Battlecrab, which carried her to B5.

[s09119]

Yeah she did. She had the same modifications Bester's girlfriend did. Franklin discovered the same type of scarring. They also basically state that she was hooked into a ship when Sheridan goes to Za'ha'dum. There's also the little fact that you see a small craft ejected from a Battlecrab, which carried her to B5.

Okay, my memory is spotty on that then...

[jds1982]

Okay, my memory is spotty on that then...

S'ok, I wouldn't have remembered that if I hadn't watched it in the past 2 weeks.

[Character]

Most of shadow ships were piloted by human-cpus and seemed to not have any crew otherwise, but likely larger ships like the planet killer or the large crabs (most shown in the series were small ~1km ones) were piloted by shadows, after the vorlons got involved.

I've read theories on other forums that the shadows are actualy those eyes in space, like what ivanova saw when searching for first ones using the great machine, and the black spider like creatures we saw were just encounter suits.

[jds1982]

I suppose that's possible, if they couldn't physically effect anything without the encounter suit. That would mean the Centauri probably wouldn't have been able to kill Morden's escort, just destroy it's way of effecting the world. Speaking of which, Shadows were really easy to kill, whereas Vorlons were crazy hard to kill.

[Jeffala]

Speaking of which, Shadows were really easy to kill, whereas Vorlons were crazy hard to kill.

Which makes me wonder how two or three Shadows were able to kill Kosh.

[s09119]

Which makes me wonder how two or three Shadows were able to kill Kosh.

They could have powers that they only use on other beings like themselves, much like how the Ancients and Ori can unleash hellfire upon one another but don't use that kind of ammunition when dealing with lowers.

[locutes]

I don't care how they work, they just do, just as they simply look awesome!

[jds1982]

Which makes me wonder how two or three Shadows were able to kill Kosh.

Maybe they had really powerful offensive abilities, but crap defenses. Or their cloaking made them vulnerable.

[Jeffala]

Like Warlocks in WoW.

Cloth armor can bite me.


<_<
>_>