Generally speaking, people advise hopping in at Season 2. There are more detailed viewer guides out there, of course.

I haven't seen the relevent episodes since they aired, so I don't know
how much is stated about Sarah Sisko's experience, but is it possible
she somehow consented to be a vessel for the Prophets?

feel like you're expecting the Prophets to possess a greater understanding of human morality than they could be expected to have.

I agree that it's disturbing, but I don't really consider that to be a flaw in the story.

Er… I mean, this is Star Trek, anything is possible with enough retconning, but…

Fair enough.

*SPOILERS I GUESS*

I admit to finding him off-puttingly theatrical in the first couple of seasons

I try not to think about River of Souls.

I really like General Hague, actually. Had forgotten how me manages to convey force despite seeming quite mild.

The fun thing about that dream sequence is it spawned a MASSIVE outpouring of "Ivanova is actually a super badass telepath who has been hiding it for years" theories. People thought that was going to be a major plot point. There's even an incident in an episode where, due to a deleted scene, she appears to read…

Actually, if I recall right, I think that in a previous episode Dr. Franklin mentioned his father was career military and fairly high up.

You know, I actually really liked Lochley. She wasn't served well by the scripts, but Tracey Scoggins always gave it her all, and unlike Claudia Christian wouldn't just give up whenever she felt the materiel was beneath her.

I'm unsure, not that this is true, but the extent to which it is true.

It's never stated explicitly, but there are a million little touches that indicate that despite the trappings of democracy Earth is probably pretty damn fascist.

Well, yeah, but they can also say "thirty years ago, we kicked the shit out of the Dilgar. It was an absolute curbstomping. Sure, we got unlucky against the Minbari. We just won't pick a fight with them again. We stack up comparably to the Narn, Centauri, and the League."

… the Shadows did no such thing.

Babylon 5, both as the Emperor and later in a small part as a Ranger, were Turhan Bey's final roles.

He isn't, actually. Morden spends a lot of time on B5 but it will soon be established that he comes and goes a lot and isn't always available at the drop of a hat.

I've been defending Rosalind Chao on this board for over a year now, and this episode is largely why.