Babylon 5 speculation and more Buffy filk

My heat-induced insomnia is back. So, first a Babylon 5 speculation, caused by the points about Sheridan in the later seasons which hobsonphile raised. What if Sheridan had remained dead after Z'ha'dum? Kosh II might have sounded like a callous bastard when telling Delenn that Sheridan's part was done, but I wonder… was it? (Not that I'd ever recommend writing people off just because they're not necessary for cosmic events anymore.) Presumably, despite early difficulties, Delenn, Ivanova and the others could have kept the Alliance together. The Vorlons would have revealed themselves as just as ruthless as the Shadows in any case, which would have helped foster the "no choice between the two of you" attitude. Moreover, much as Lorien turning up smacks of a deus ex machina no matter how you turn it, he's canon, and since his motivation for showing up was being appalled how much things between Shadows and Vorlons had gotten out of hand, giving Sheridan a lift as well was not necessary. It would have been interesting, though, to see how he would have been received given that without Sheridan's resurrection, Garibaldi's paranoia would have been seen as the far more reasonable attitude.

So, while I guess the outcome of the Shadow war would have been the same - how about Earth? Again, I suppose with Ivanova substituting for Sheridan as leader, the end would have been much the same… but on the other hand Ivanova might not have been ruthless enough to use the telepaths to disable Clark's ships. Might have taken longer, then, but given that there was internal resistance against Clark's dictatorship within the population (Mars rebellion), the military and even the Psi Corps (though it would have been really interesting to see whether Ivanova and Lyta would have managed to work with Bester post-Z'ha'dum or whether that alliance would have been cancelled long before Face of the Enemy), I'd say the overthrow of Clark & Co., two, and the return to democracy on Earth would have happened without Sheridan.

The Alliance afterwards was mostly Delenn's brainchild anyway, and let's face it, Sheridan's first year in office wasn't exactly distinguished by brilliance. Sheridan put Lochley in an impossible situation by allowing Byron & Co. on board against her judgement while simultaneously not providing any back-up once she had to deal with the consequences. And as deborah_judge pointed out, Lennier bringing back evidence that seemed to implicate the Centauri (- if Lyta had been the first to report back with her evidence, it might have made all the difference to save Londo from a life with the Keeper and the Centauri from a "bombing into the stone age" and 17 years of Drakh-induced isolation -) was the direct result of the Sheridan/Lennier/Delenn situation, which would not have arisen with a dead Sheridan.

Any contradicting or supporting thoughts?

Meanwhile, andrastewhite and self have made progress with our Trio: The Musical project (any title suggestions would be welcomed), aka Those Scenes of Once More, With Feeling Which Joss Wouldn't Show Us. Here's another excerpt, this time of the scene where the three frame Xander for Andrew's summoning of Sweet.
( Who Framed Xander Harris )