Thank you! It's fascinating to read.

Just by coincidence i watched the same first two episodes last week.

As you said, they did a marvellous job establishing everything. I think they didn't engage me that much on an N'th rewatch for that reason, I'm much more interested in how things are set up than invested in the current happenings which I know mostly don't lead into future plot -- eg Garibaldi Delenn popcorn scene establishes both characters great, but they don't usually hang out at home together, maybe only because we don't have that many side characters. But the looks held up amazingly, both the space combat and alien races.

When I first watched it I thought it was handwaving the existence of souls as most sci-fi does. Now I rewatch carefully, I THINK that it established that "putting dead people in orbs" was really real. But it was carefully unspecified whether "escape" meant dissipating or reincarnating. The glowy things implied external existence, but knowing JMS's attitudes it seems through all the seasons they never suggest there IS an eternal soul, at most that there might be...