#Bajor

[kiranerysismyhero]

imagine a bajoran teenager living on ds9 who's trying to decide what to do with her life and feels compelled to get closer to the Emissary, but gets the sense that Sisko is a little uncomfortable with being approached in that way, and she's a little young to join the bajoran military and try to get stationed under him, so she looks for another pretense to like have a conversation with him or something

and she overhears Jake talking about playing baseball with his dad, and maybe at the temple she overhears Kira talking about going to the holosuites with them for a baseball game, and she gets the sense that baseball is Important

so she gets up her courage and approaches him on the promenade some time when he doesn't seem too busy, like "excuse me Emissary, I wonder if you would allow me to ask a favor of you."

and Sisko tries not to look like he's steeling himself

"I would like to learn about Baseball."

and he gets this big grin. and tells her what day and time to show up to Quark's for the next time he and Jake are gonna play (and ngl maybe part of him is thinking she's closer to Jake's age than Mardah is...)

and like as they're doing warmups, and she's taking things Very Seriously trying to learn the ropes, Sisko makes an offhanded comment about how Cestus III would be the place to be if you really wanted to get immersed in the sport. and of course she takes this a lot more seriously than he meant it. like a direction in life given to her from the Prophets, directly from their Emissary.

so after all of one (1) time playing baseball in a holosuite she approaches Kassidy to learn more about Cestus III and works like a short internship under her to earn passage there. and shows up in like Pike City or someplace like "hi, does anyone around here hire non-federation citizens? i don't care what type of job. also when are baseball tryouts?"

and like after several years spent getting good, bc she approaches the sport with y'know religious devotion, she returns to her people. and starts a training camp on Bajor that's like basically a monastery. like teenagers who want to pursue religious studies but can't sit still long enough to have hope of becoming a ranjen, they get sent to her to learn to practice Baseball

like imagine a young adult with a really elaborate earring and also like the baseball shoes and the short pants tucked into tall socks going "you know, waiting for a sign from the Prophets is a lot like playing left field..."

[writergeekrhw]

Do you know why Opaka was written off DS9 so early on? Every time I rewatch, I wish we had more time with her.

I think Michael and Ira felt Opaka was too nice and too helpful to Sisko and Kira, and they wanted someone as Kai that would create more conflict.

We definitely got that!

[chadepitanga]

Oh. My god. The Bajoran religion is like. the Orb Pondering religion. They ARE PONDERING those orbs.

[wisteriaclaw]

i know the point of star trek episodes where they travel into the past is to put the characters into a familiar setting, for them to play out a certain genre but with higher stakes than a holodeck. but like.. i really REALLY want them to accidentally end up in another planets past once in a while!! i suppose its possible that happens in an episode i have yet to watch but.. idk, i think its really a missed opportunity if it doesnt. lets say, in ds9, a returning runabout finds that the station is missing! they land on bajor only to discover they have been sent back in time to a PRE-WARP bajor and now they must go on a rich worldbuilding adventure, trying to find a way back home while avoiding polluting the timeline!!! perhaps their runabout crashed somehow or it was damaged at the beginning of the episode as they returned home from a short skirmish, so they have to try replicating the conditions of their initial time travel with a gutted runabout fixed with sails from a bajoran lightship

[sleepy-marten]

One of the stickers I made ages ago for DS9... What I would give to watch this show for the first time again

[purplespacekitty]

dude, i can’t get over Li Nalas.

he knew what was going on from the beginning. sure, a moment of brief confusion and then the realization that these people he’s been trapped in a labor camp with for the past ten fucking years, Memory Alpha says, believe his return to Bajor will bring restoration. the realization that they have such confidence in him as to place his life above their own.

he gets shot and then he’s hauled off to a shuttlecraft within minutes, forced to leave behind his decade-old reality. to leave behind people who shared it with him until just moments ago. and he’s dying, maybe. in excruciating pain, so he can’t even object, can’t even think. and Kira looks at him with this intense certainty. like he’s the missing puzzle piece she’s been scouring every last corner of the universe for. only he knows he isn’t.

and then he’s off to sickbay before anyone else despite his protests, where a human operates on him. a doctor who won’t stop regaling him with all the wonderful things he’s supposed to have done, all the battles he’s supposed to have won.

he is on his feet soon after, clean and dressed in warm clothes. he has no time to rest or breathe in his newfound freedom before he is swept up for a tour of the station he knew too long ago. and now every Bajoran he comes across in this ore processing center turned glitzy space mall looks at him the way Kira does, like they know him, like they need him. their words and shining smiles of praise when he reluctantly stands to address a crowd of them tells him just how much they believe they do. he does not forget the ones he left on Cardassia IV.

it is with relief that he hands the crowd off to Jaro. a deep sigh of familiar aggravation just beneath the surface of his skin as Jaro panders to the crowd's enthusiasm for his return.

that scene where Sisko shows him his quarters, i don’t blame him for striding over so tentatively but nevertheless excitedly to the small flower in a vase. Sisko hardly notices it but it is the first thing Li locks eyes on. a plant. a sprig of life clipped and close to its end, kept alive only by means necessary for display. a being which demands nothing of him here besides fresh water and a light to lean towards.

he stows away on a ship, running now, not from the Cardassians, but from Bajor. from the lies others fabricated on his behalf. Sisko - after the Tygarian freighter captain has dragged him by the ear back to the station, after Li has laid bare his truth in earnest - tells Li they are not lies. they are legends. and Bajor needs them.

and Li Nalas, a man encased in a shell of legends crafted by hands which are not his own, is tired. but he accepts the responsibility his people have placed on his shoulders. because Sisko is right. they do need him.

never mind the political unrest on his home world or the ministrations of the politicians, the Kai, the Circle: he can hardly wrap his head around it all, much less speak to it. the Bajor he has returned to is not the Bajor he knows. his people are afraid with a new kind of fear, one of unbearable uncertainty. they look to him and he can barely speak. but he will play the part he’s been told to. he will be a good soldier. that, he can do.

in the moments just before his death, he is Kira's puzzle piece. he is the flower in the vase. he is simple. uncomplicated. dying.

only then does he rejoice. he may finally rest.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Bajoran Transport Concept Art by Jim Martin

[cdr2002]

Mirror universe headcanon:

Intendant Kira actually hates Gul Dukat too. Kira probably hates Gul Dukat in every universe.

He’s tried to maneuver for a greater Alliance presence on Bajor for years, and Kira has spent the majority of her career making sure that doesn’t happen, reducing Cardassian troops to being limited to Terok Nor, Klingons restricted to only planetside military instillations, appointing Bajorans to planetside administrative positions, including as slave overseers…

She knows what an occupation looks like and that that’s exactly what Dukat is planning. And she is not having it.

Bajor may come second to her ego, but it’s still a high priority.

Her protecting Bajor from being fully bled dry by the Alliance might actually be one of the reasons Garak was always trying to kill her…

And of course, it’s one of the ways she and our Kira have more in common than we think…

[dykespirk]

human things I think bajorans would be good at:

I cannot say because my account will be banned

makeup tutorials

[eggthedyke]

Kira and the Prophets

[writergeekrhw]

I was wondering - because I’ve seen a few people say this - who were the Bajorans supposed to be based off of? I’ve seen several people say they were supposed to be based off of palestinians but I could have sworn I’d seen a post somewhere saying that it was based at least partially off of vietnam, and honestly I personally always felt that the bajorans were a pretty good allegory for Jewish people (especially Kira, she always reminded me of the Jewish people in Eastern Europe who formed their own resistance groups to dismantle and disrupt Nazi encampments).

All of the above, plus the Irish, plus Native Americans, plus the Lebanese, with a bit of South Africa and a dash of Eastern European partisans in general. Religiously, they were a little of this and that, but probably Buddhism plus Catholicism plus Islam, with an extra helping of fundamentalist Protestant for Winn. Most decent alien cultures have more than one inspiration.

[obrienmustsuffer]

The Emissary would be proud of me.

[therealsubobscura]

so the Bajorans following the religious dictates of the old poet dude brought forward 200 years is like if we decided to model modern society after the writings of Cotton Mather. It requires extreme suspension of disbelief. I'm trying to decide if I care enough about Bajoran sociology/anthropology to investigate whether the books get more into the Djarra caste system, but it's literally never mentioned again in the show so...

[spocks-husband]

WAHHH KIRA'S SMILE 😭😭 SHE'S MY BABYGIRL

UUUUHGGGHGHHHHHUUUHHHHHGGGGHHHEEEEEEGGGHGHHHHHEEEHHHHHUUUHHHGGGHH

[kingoftheu]

The Great Bajoran Political Compass Project. Notes in the Notes.

[ireallyamabear]

“I shot an unarmed Cardassian in his Underwear. He was so Embarrassed.”

godfucking damit ds9 was cooking with gas from so early on. they have like two establishing matte paintings of bajor, a couple of earring props and some old clothes but you are *there* with all these resistance cells. also this actor is so good and Avery Brooks hits it so well, too