Babylon Five Is Lord Of The Rings

The shadows are the forces of Sauron. Obviously.
Khazad-Dum and Z'ha'dum are too close for comfort.
The minbari are the elves. They're elegant, their artefacts are voluptuous, they are wise and good, and they live a long time.
Kosh the Vorlon is Gandalf the Grey. He's the wise, powerful, ancient advisor who dies and is then resurrected in a subtly different form.
The humans are like the hobbits. They are a fairly backward race, but one of their number becomes crucial to the struggle against evil. If we include TheHobbit as part of the series, then the replacement of Bilbo with Frodo is like the replacement of Sinclair with Sheridan (note that Sinclair/Bilbo decides to hang out with the Minbari/Elves after leaving home).
The rangers are, er, the rangers. This doesn't make sense in racial terms, but just look at the beards!
It's not clear how B5's narns and centauri map onto LotR.
- With Londo, Cartagia, and Vir, It's not just LoTR, it's I, Claudius, with the characters playing Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius respectively. Throw in G'kar doing the Passion Play for extra color...
[SpoilerWarning] The big climactic battle happens halfway through the last bit, leaving quite a lot of story afterwards. This story is occupied by the return home of the humans/hobbits and their struggle against a homegrown tyrant who turns out to be backed by the shadows/Sauron.

Then what's the ring, genius?

The Shadow tech. Forged by evil, and must be destroyed :)

CategoryConspiracyTheory?