Did Arthurian legends influence the heroic-epic style of B5s storyline?
Well, if you’re going to look at heroic epic, sure, the Arthurian story is a classic…but the earliest and best of these remain the Illiad and the Odyssey. Homer was definitely hitting all cylinders with that. If there’s an aspect that informed B5’s development, it’s the arc of that heroic epic, which if you look at it dispassionately, is as much about the people *around* the hero as the hero himself. And all too often, the hero achieves the goal, but falls or falters or is changed by the end of it. Much of what passes for contemporary “heroic epic” assumes that it means the Good Guys Win. Heroic here as a term goes back to its much earlier origins, a “heroic effort” is something that takes everything you have, against terrible or impossible odds. Yes, you achieve the goal…but you fall in battle in the fields of Troy. Yes, you create Camelot, but in the end you are destroyed and Camelot falls. There’s tragedy and mistakes side by side with the glory and the gains. The accounts of Ar
