Vir Cotto - Purpose of The Character

Purpose of The Character

With Mollari's increased association with Morden following the events of "Chrysalis" and "Points of Departure", Vir became a silent (and unwilling) participant in Mollari's "achievement" of his destiny - that of a vicious and despised tyrant. Vir pleaded with Londo to sever his ties with Morden, yet Londo's desire to restore the glory of the Centauri Republic made him ignore Vir's opinion. It was hinted at that Vir thought that he might get through to Londo someday and thus he persisted in staying with him and persisted in letting Londo hear about how wrong he is in his decisions every time. The character thereby became a counterpoint to Londo's increasing emotional detachment towards his own actions, and illustrated Mollari's "fall" by remaining true to his principles.

As actor Stephen Furst describes it, he's Londo Mollari's Jiminy Cricket, his conscience which, unfortunately, he rarely listens to.

Vir also displayed outright animosity (mostly to comedic effect) towards Mr. Morden. Unlike Londo, who is seduced by the power Morden and his "associates" wield, Vir resists the deception and manipulation of Morden. In the episode "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Morden confronts him directly, asking him the Shadows' question "What do you want?" to which he responds:

This request was mostly granted in Season 4 by Londo.

Since Vir was portrayed as mostly good-natured and unaggressive up to this point, this response underscored the loathing and revulsion he felt towards Morden and the Shadows. In fact, during the entire five year story arc, Vir only displays this level of utter distaste towards two specific individuals—the other being the mad Centauri emperor Cartagia, and even then only after being directly exposed to the latter's psychotic and unashamedly sadistic behavior; until this point he had been against actually assassinating the emperor, vehemently arguing that "there must be another way."