Preemptive Strike Against The Shadows

[@kineticdeath]

Battle scenes only ever show the Vree for the briefest of moments, but when those briefest of moments show a saucer going full gattling gun mode, its worth it!

[@dougc190]

Gun sounds like something from the original movie war of the worlds from the 40s

[@greyofpta5305]

Who knew those little grey guys could whoop shadow butt?

[@attila535]

@@greyofpta5305 According to lore, the vree use anti matter guns, so it isn't much of a surprise.

[@Stingmon21]

Never underestimate the knowledge that can be gained from abducting and probing rednecks.

[@WUZLE]

The first Vree saucer we see has twin guns mounted above and below the saucer, but the antimatter spread variety is either more common or was sent to the front lines more during the Shadow War.

[@JH24821]

1:55 The way those Shadow Vessels move is just incredible.

[@S1nwar]

uhm, what?

[@sinoleao]

in the way of their name.

[@JH24821]

@@sinoleao Good point.

[@skyborne80]

Gotta watch that Narn cruiser! Previously we saw Shadow vessels cut them up like a turkey on xmas eve, but properly protected, you don't want to get anywhere near those dual heavy lasers!

[@jediknight73]

As a kid I loved the saucers ufo ship

[@Thyinternet]

As always, the stylish jungle camo of the Narn ships give them an unfair advantage

[@DavidKnowles0]

I do wonder, given that is one of there last ships, if they were given special compensation to hang back and better protected.

[@Thyinternet]

@@DavidKnowles0 good point. After G’Kar “convinced” them offscreen in walkabout they seemed pretty all in though, jumping in that one time to come in clutch for the whitestar

[@Sigurther]

Heh, the narns seemed to pack some serious firepower in their main guns.

[@Thyinternet]

@@Sigurther 🔥serious firepower AND serious style 🔥

[@captin3149]

@@Sigurther I was thinking the same thing. It was shown more than once that that Narn cruiser could put out enough power to damage a shadow vessel unaided. It might have a tough time in a one-on-one due to maneuverability and durability, but it's weapons at least seemed OK. I wonder if they might have upgraded them with Mimbari or Vorlon weapons after joining the alliance?

[@billythompson6725]

One of the best series growing up in the 90's.

[@superraggazio]

the damage of the costly victory at the end was perfect to highlight the power of the shadows.

[@descendinguniverse]

Those Drazi vessels are like Miranda class form Star trek. Capable of doing some damage yet so easy destructible

[@joshualau4070]

I've always wondered what those Brakiri ships did besides get blown up.

[@descendinguniverse]

​@@joshualau4070 Everyone knows that if Brakiri ships start firing, they all will be doomed. So they just kindly fly by in order not to tip the balance. Jokes aside I think there was a single shot in Call to arms, but yeah, could be more for sure. It`s basically a transport kind of ship with minimum weapons, so keeping sending those to war might be not their best decision

[@brianwhedon8442]

Brakiri Avioki cruisers are basically heavily armed cargo ships. They have some powerful short and mid range weapons (2nd in the League to the Drazi) but they were never designed as dedicated warships. The ships themselves predate the Dilgar War. The Brakiri do have a few dedicated military ships but only one model was ever seen on screen - the Tashkat in The Lost Tales. That ship entered service right as the Shadow War started and none of the ships were seen in the Army of Light because they were always in orbit around Brakos. I think theres a note in B5Wars that they were escorting a Corumai Dreadnought to Coriana VI but because the dreadnought was so slow the Brakiri fleet showed up after the First Ones had left the galaxy.

[@brianwhedon8442]

Drazi ships are not weak. They are small. And because of this they can't really take hits from a Shadow cruiser and survive. The big problem with Drazi ships are the Drazi pilots. The Drazi are like Klingons that can't follow orders. Their instinct is to attack anything and everything regardless of orders. That's the reason very few are allowed to be Rangers. If you watch the video from the beginning, you see the Drazi Sky Serpent fighters are the first to fire, and as the carrier groups engage its the Sunhawk that fires first.

[@descendinguniverse]

@@brianwhedon8442 Actually most of Klingons followed orders quite effectively during battles. The civil war though, yes. Miranda isn`t weak but small also.

[@obiitom]

The Vree phased antimatter canons seem to be the most effective weapons in this fight.

[@Gothic7876]

Well it’s antimatter. If your armour is made from Matter, it literally doesn’t care what type of armour it is. It’s going to do horrible, horrible things.

[@MrNintoku]

Against small fighters certainly. Properly locked down the Narn heavy cruisers dual cannons are super effective.

[@dustygrant3043]

I really enjoyed it when the Shadow vessels were beaten and had to leave with their "tails" tucked beneath them!!!!!!!!

[@davidlister7590]

The thing is the Shadows was not trying at all to win the battle to them it was a test nothing more. IF the shadows had wanted to win woud of just phased to pop up behind the fleet and instantly wipe them out before any one could react.

[@paulbowler5345]

Awesome battle, like how you edited this together

[@robertrowan9893]

If one thing can be said about spaceships, they don't suffer fear or fatigue. Just as well really because that was like a pitched battle from times of yore. Eyes on the back of your head never go amiss either - with weapons to boot. These were the days I longed for Sunday's nights on UK's Channel 4. Halcyon TV days indeed they were!

[@leechmiller1072]

The design of the Shadow vessels is awesome, the reference to the Shadows being a hand reaching out of the dark is visible in their design. Open both your hands and with palms facing up place one wrist over the other. With fingers and thumbs out hold your hands up to your face and squint. Two open hands is the rough shape of a Shadow vessel.

[@Chris-Smith]

close, but there are 8 limbs on each side

[@Harjawalda]

Every Stellaris player: 1# Destroy the crisis constructor ship, 2# wait for their fleet to respond, 3# jump right on top of them with all you got.

[@David-jt9nt]

yes

[@dustygrant3043]

I can't wait to see the ne version on the CW!!!!!!!!! I wonder how long before the show will have it's series premiere!!!!!!!! I HOPE they go ALL out for this wonderful show!!!!!!!!! The action the scripts the actors and the special visual effects ALL need to be grade AAAAA to beat the original show!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@hot2warm]

OMG, no!!!!! It'll be more like Beta-lon 5 or some of that other CW emo-drivel.

[@Sigurther]

I have even more concerns if the CW is doing the reboot. If it's a spinoff, not so bad. If it's a "reminagining" that's a hard "fuck no" from me, dawg.

[@DeltaPi314]

100% it's going to suck balls.

[@Thurgosh_OG]

It's not going into development due to the CW being up for sale. JMS is hinting at 2024 release.

[@KMCA779]

JMS is going to be dead before we get anymore B5 at this rate

[@DavidKnowles0]

I just wonder what the budget CW is giving the new show to recreate similar scenes but with modern graphics.

[@TheMadTube]

It’s still the CW. They could take millions and make it look fresh from a Commodore 64

[@hot2warm]

@@TheMadTube With the whiny, overwrought CW-styled relationships.

[@Duomaxwell02M]

@@hot2warm Knowing its from the CW, its gonna be a phenomenal 1st season, after that it will only get worse for the following seasons, regardless if its gonna be JMS at the helm. People should really stop reinventing the wheel. I already loved the OG B5, flaws and all.

[@SardonicALLY]

I always thought it would be fun if it turned out that the Pak'ma'ra were one of the First Ones, that they hid in plain sight and pretended to be weak because they were pacifists as much as they could be, but in the final battle they had some completely over-powered ships that just changed the course of a big battle when it counted most. It would have been funny.

[@kennethmelnychuk9737]

@02:48, is that a Q’Quan cruiser firing?

[@JH24821]

Yes.

[@brianwhedon8442]

Yes and there are Narn fighters flying alongside the Nials and Sky Serpents right as Sheridan is addressing the fleet

[@Anlushac11]

Yes.

[@Thurgosh_OG]

One of the last.

[@ArmyVeteran25U]

Who could hear the dialog in their head? That's a true fan!

[@daniels7907]

Other than the Vorlon's trick of folding hyperspace, how does anyone hide a fleet in there if they're all going to emerge into realspace at roughly the same place?

[@F40PH-2CAT]

First time a Narn ship destroyed something...

[@SantomPh]

I know you collect the CGI, but the faces of Sheridan and Delenn coordinating the attack as well as well as the Minbari crew being tossed around by the Shadow debris should have been kept

[@brianwhedon8442]

Yeah Sheridan coordinating the attack from the Sharlin adds to the suspense of the battle

[@Sigurther]

I think a lot of these channels remove the actors to highlight the cgi specifically and to prevent copywrite hits.

[@Insertnamehere3000]

i would love to see these 4k upscaled

[@mitche5007]

Z minus 2 days....time for the Vorlon Planet killers and the "old ones" to whoop butt :)

[@andrewstrongman305]

To me, the Shadow battleships looked like spiders, particularly when they 'died'.

[@Space-Battles-2020]

cool content, keep it up

[@TheGreySage0]

Thats why Divide & Conquer was so important to Shadows they cant handle younger races togethet

[@valensigmund1957]

Another victory like that, and the Alliance should hand their surrender -_-

[@PlipisSr]

Sucks that space is so polluted in the 2200s that even sound waves are able to travel. Darn shame.

[@-JA-]

🖤

[@kevinmurphy65]

Klingons...all you need.

[@Darqshadow]

Eh... don't know how well a bird of prey would handle a race dedicated purely to chaos and is several millenia old.

[@TheKingTywinLannister]

Klingons are dumb

[@alexslgato1735]

@@Darqshadow the Klingons killed their own gods. I guess they'll manage.

[@Darqshadow]

​@@alexslgato1735against a race several billion years old? No

[@alexslgato1735]

@@Darqshadow I gave you a like for making me think about the response. That a civilization has been a space-faring race (or just existing) for far longer than any other species does not necessarily mean that much, due to several factors, including how much it focuses on investigating and innovation, if it aquires technology from another more advanced race, or if for some reason the civilization loses progress or stagnates due to a recession or Middle Age, plus other factors. All of this ends up summing up into their current technological prowess seen and explicitly mentioned in-lore. For example, the first time we see an actual shield in B5 on the TV screen it completely blocked a Shadow Battlecrab's beam (a Vorlon Dreadnought did that, a race which, while among the First Ones, was still far, far younger than the Shadows). And if two G'Quans managed to hurt a Shadow Battlecrab to the point of breaking one of its arms (despite the huge elder gap), with 4 young race ships (2) managing to take a single Shadow battlecrab down, then the 24th Century Kligons, being more advanced technologically than many of such Young Races, would probably have a huge edge. Second, there's the theory that all the current Shadow vessels were watered down a bit on purpose to allow the younger races to survive, making the fight a tough challenge but not impossible. And third, there's that huge vulnerability Battlecrabs have against focused beams where if they are hit in the center they become immobile and start twitching to the sides without attacking as if stunned, which is something that could be (and has been) easily exploited. A Vor'cha or Negh'var could just use that on multiple ships at the same time while either that ship or a smaller bird-of-prey spams torpedoes and disruptors.

[@xadam2dudex]

Bad tactic having a line of ships where most of your ships are not on the line of combat .. you should have all ships on the line of combat so the full force of your firepower can be felt simultaneously..