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In the episode "Signs and Portents" Londo gains posession of "the Eye", a long lost jewel that once belonged to the Centauri royal family. His friend and fellow noble Lord Kiro is sent to retrieve the Eye, but things go wrong and Kiro eventually ends up trapped on a raider (space pirate) ship whose crew intend to hold him and the Eye for ransom. The raider ship is destroyed by the Shadows yet afterward their stooge Morden somehow returns the Eye to Londo.

I'm puzzled how the Shadows could've destroyed the ship without taking out the Eye as well, and have oft wondered if Morden gave Londo a counterfeit- did JMS ever confirm or deny this?

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  • For that matter, do we know that the Eye that Londo and Kiro were given to begin with was genuine? Quite convenient, something like that arriving just when Morden and his "associates" are trying to worm their way into one of the ambassadors' confidence.
    – Cadence
    Mar 19 at 11:03

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The strong implication is that The Eye is indeed real. The last we hear of it, it's safely in the possession of the Centauri Republic and is on display, presumably in the Capital.

Q. What became of the Eye?

JMS. The eye is now safely back home and on display.

As to how it survived, we're left to assume that it simply survived the explosion. When the Shadows attacked, they appear to have sliced the habitat ring and engines with a cutting beam, resulting in an explosion that tore the ship into around ten sizeable parts.

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I would surmise that the Shadows probably aimed for the parts of the ship where there weren't any people and got lucky that the resulting explosion didn't damage the (now heavily scorched) box and its contents.

enter image description here

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    The Shadows may just have been that good at precise destruction.
    – Politank-Z
    Sep 21, 2015 at 23:41
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    True, but it's more likely that the gem just survived. Diamonds are notorious for being, y'know, hard.
    – Valorum
    Sep 21, 2015 at 23:44
  • The box had scorch marks when it got back to Londo. Didn't seem that strong, but must've been strong enough.
    – Radhil
    Sep 22, 2015 at 1:07
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    Also, there appeared to be chunks of ship debris far larger than the box.
    – Thunderforge
    Sep 22, 2015 at 20:11
  • @Valorum: FWIW, diamonds are very resistant to scratching. Less so to shattering, which is why you can chip diamonds with facets. Also, they burn, albeit at fairly high temperatures, 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit (900 degrees Celsius).
    – FuzzyBoots
    Mar 19 at 4:22

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