Vir Cotto
| Vir Cotto | |
|---|---|
| Babylon 5 character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | "Midnight on the Firing Line" |
| Last appearance | "Sleeping in Light" |
| Portrayed by | Stephen Furst |
| Information | |
| Species | Centauri |
| Home planet | Centauri Prime |
| Affiliated with | Babylon 5, Centauri Republic |
Vir Cotto is a character from the fictional Babylon 5 universe, played on screen by Stephen Furst. He is a Centauri male who was from a family of minor nobility, who would eventually become the Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5, and then became the Emperor of the Centauri Republic in 2278.
Vir Cotto plays a role similar to that of the Everyman character of morality plays, an ordinary person influenced by personifications of good and evil, struggling with moral choices.
In contrast to many of his fellow Centauri, who often appear to be arrogant and egotistical, Vir is a truly modest, even humble, figure who initially wants only to make his family proud of him and to hold a respectable, personally satisfying job. As his boss and mentor, Londo Mollari, says, Vir "has a good heart". He is genuinely kind and will go to great lengths to help those in need, or who have been oppressed or persecuted. This even extends to the Narn, the Centauri's bitter enemies and rivals for galactic influence. When the Narn are utterly defeated and re-enslaved by the Centauri after the Narn-Centauri War, Vir uses his post as the Centauri Ambassador to Minbar to help Narn refugees. When Londo discovers this he is furious, but his affection for his faithful aide is such that he protects Vir. Indeed, although Londo frequently ridicules Vir and verbally criticizes him throughout the course of the series, he privately comes to admire Vir's pureness of heart and basic decency; he finally admits this to Vir in the series' fourth season. In return, Vir loyally supports Londo even when he strongly disagrees with his actions and decisions. In many ways Vir emerges as Londo's conscience throughout the series, and Vir is often far more wise and perceptive than Londo and the other Centauri. Unfortunately, he is usually ignored by them until it is too late. In the end Vir represents the good and innocent person who has been placed into a difficult position of moral ambiguity, and his struggle to deal with this situation is a running theme for the series' five seasons. Fittingly, Vir has one of the happiest endings of any of the series major characters, as he becomes a popular and successful Centauri Emperor who helps to rebuild his homeworld from the vicious Drakh occupation.
Vir originally appears in the episode "Midnight on the Firing Line" as an assistant to Ambassador Londo Mollari. Vir is introduced as a quiet, introspective and somewhat shy character, possibly even a "black sheep". However, since the Ambassador's position was considered a joke by the Centauri government during the first season, the assistant's position was not considered a particularly important or prestigious position. At the time, Vir was an embarrassment to his family, and his family arranged for him to be assigned to this position as a means of getting him as far away from them as possible.
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