#Tears of the Prophets

[stopthatbluecat]

Something that makes me apoplectic about Jadzia's death is that they create a storyline about her and Worf wanting to have a baby just for shock value when she dies when LITERALLY Jadzia getting pregnant would have actually been a perfect way to give Terry Farrell exactly what she wanted in less screen time etc.

It really just twists the knife in how they treated her.

[mysticum-draconis]

Mini portrait of a still of Jadzia Dax from "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - S06E26: Tears of the Prophets", drawn in the note space of November 12th in my 2023 diary, which is the day that I first watched this episode.

Yeahhhh, so I'm really not happy with how this one turned out... at all. It went a lot quicker and smoother than I expected (I usually have to fight tooth and nail to get the jawline and eyes/nose/mouth correct), but it was only after colouring her that I realised just how wonky her face looks in my drawing. I keep changing my opinion on how it looks every time I look at it - sometimes I think it doesn't look as bad as I thought it was and sometimes I groan in horror at my creation 😔

I'm currently fighting my way through art block, so I suppose it's not surprising that I'm not happy with this one. I never like to draw these diary illustrations after a year has passed since I watched whatever I'm intending to draw, however (I finished drawing this on the 12th this year), and I just couldn't decide not to draw Jadzia from this episode, because, well, anyone who's seen this episode will understand why 🥲

I'm mostly happy with how the title came out, at least. I'm not too happy with the positioning of the words, but I am pleased with the font and colour of the letters.

HB mechanical pencil and Lyra colouring pencils ✏️

Process photos and reference below cut.

Please don’t use or post on other websites without credit or permission, thanks ����

I swear she looked better before I finished colouring her 🙄

Honestly, trying to copy from this still was a nightmare, because Netflix wouldn't let me screenshot it, so I had to take a photo of my computer screen with my phone and it ended up really washed out 😑

[chernobog13]

The First Battle of Chin'Toka

This looks impressive, but having all your ships bunched up like that just makes them easier targets.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Gul Dukat

By Ames

Last week we expanded our spotlight series to include villains, and like our focus character Kai Winn, this week’s villain is so compelling he deserves his own post. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Dukat (both my favorite Cardassian and my favorite DS9 villain), but what is it about him that’s just so entrancing? Is it the swaggering charisma he exudes? Is it all the justifications he makes for his clearly villainous actions? Clearly it’s the mile-long neck, right? Well A Star to Steer Her By is going to get to the bottom of how such a bad man makes such a great character.

Did Dukat do nothing wrong? Of course not; he’s a monster, after all. But as a character, he gets so much right, and his performance by Marc Alaimo is so devoted that, every so often, you let your guard slip and root for the guy. He has the sheer audacity to pull off some of the schemes we’ve highlighted below, so scroll on down, listen to us whispering in your ear on this week’s podcast (jump to 1:15:10), and swagger up the place.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Favorite moments

Won’t someone please think of the children? One of the most impressive things about Cardassians is their ability to scheme for the long term. And Dukat is particularly skilled at scheming. His war orphans plot in “Cardassians” to undermine Gul Pa’dar sat dormant for eight years before it emerged! How many other schemes is he sitting on, waiting for them to hatch into something nefarious?

I spent the last few years building up an immunity to mind melds When Sarkonna tries to mind meld Dukat to extract information, she learns the hard way that Dukat’s mental discipline somehow surpasses hers. And she’s a freakin’ Vulcan! And then Dukat spends the rest of the scene in “The Maquis” sassing at his Maquis captors about how terrible they are at handling their prisoners and how the Cardassians are so much better at it.

Attention Bajoran workers It is downright badass for Dukat to beam in during “Civil Defense” and snark at the crew in Ops about how naive they were to set off the counterinsurgency program… all while standing in front of a ball shooting lasers! We also see more layers of trademark Cardassian scheming when even Dukat’s program is supplanted by yet another directive from Central Command!

I thought the Obsidian Order didn’t have any ships I find it amusing that, while normal Romulans acquiesce to the Tal Shiar in “Face of the Enemy,” the Cardassian Central Command and the Obsidian Order seem to loathe each other. In “Defiant,” Dukat has teamed up with Sisko to get the Defiant back from Tom Riker, and he manages to gleefully expose the Obsidian Order’s illegal ship-building plans on the way!

Cue the fireworks! Cardassians are nothing if not petty. When the Siskos have proven it possible for Bajoran lightships to have traveled to Cardassian space in “Explorers,” Dukat is there to congratulate them. Turns out the Cardassians have beaten Sisko the punch by “discovering” wreckage of a Bajoran lightship right before Sisko arrived. Coincidence? I think not.

You’re my number one dad, give or take Okay, so Dukat was fully planning on killing Ziyal in “Indiscretion,” and it’s the lowest bar for a man to not murder his progeny, but he manages to clear it! Leaving his bastard daughter alive ends up ruining his position and his marriage, but Dukat can’t bring himself to harm his daughter when he finally confronts her. And damn does he look good in a Breen uniform.

The first Klingon Bird-of-Prey ever to be captured by Cardassia Marauding Dukat may be my favorite Dukat. Sure, he lost his status after the news about Ziyal spread, but in “Return to Grace,” he just goes with it! He uses his dinky little freighter the Groumall to actually capture a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which is all kinds of impressive. And he even has a good rapport with Kira this episode, trying to tempt her over to the privateer life.

Remember to rate your Uber driver While Sisko, Odo, and O’Brien are dressing up like Klingons to infiltrate the Order of the Bat’leth ceremony in “Apocalypse Rising,” Dukat is flying around with his stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey. He’s even magnanimous enough to bring our DS9 friends to the ceremony, likely as an excuse to show off his spoils and how damn great he looks in a Klingon baldric.

The enemy of my enemy, twice removed If there’s a theme to many of these favorite Dukat moments, it’s the sheer audacity he displays. If nothing else, he always picks the ballsiest moves, which makes for the most entertaining developments. And it’s nothing short of audacious when he reveals that he has allied Cardassia with the Dominion in “By Inferno’s Light” while the DS9 crew picks their jaws up off the deck.

A graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! Just everything about “Waltz” is spellbinding, which is a testament to Dukat’s character because a majority of the episode is watching him go slowly (and then quickly) absolutely insane. He reveals to Sisko with relish how he believes he was right in how he treated the Bajorans and how he deplores that they never so much as said “thank you.” Ingrates.

Yo Momma jokes, Bajoran edition Is it contrived that “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” establishes that Gul Dukat took Kira’s mom as a comfort woman during the Occupation? Yeah, a little. And I’ve already given both Sisko and Kira guff for their actions this episode. But you’ve got to appreciate the gall of Dukat, ringing Kira in the middle of the night to drop this bombshell on her for no damn reason.

How do you fight a god? Dukat turns a new leaf when he gets really into Bajoran religion. And sure, all his leaves are evil, but this one is still new! In “Tears of the Prophets” he lets himself get possessed by Kosst Amojen so he could take on the Prophets, and subsequently hit the Bajoran people where it hurts: right in the religion. Sadly it results in Jadzia’s death, but Dukat was just that committed.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid Another “Oh the audacity” moment from Dukat comes in “Covenant” when he establishes the Cult of the Pah-wraiths. Rather successfully too, I might add! He’s got a decent and devoted little cult going, so brainwashed that they don’t bat an eye when he knocks up [at least] one woman, and even convinces them to go full Jonestown to cover his ass.

A little more than a neck lift If other Cardassians thought it was audacious to jump feet first into bed with the Dominion in “By Inferno’s Light” or watch a Pah-wraith possess him for reasons in “Tears of the Prophets,” imagine how Damar feels when he finds Dukat has gotten cosmetic surgery to try to infiltrate the Bajorans’ ranks in “Penumbra.” This guy. Always upping the ante, he is.

I’m just a simple man of the land By the top of the next episode, “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” Dukat has weaseled his way into the good graces of Kai Winn. And an episode after that in “Strange Bedfellows,” he’s weaseled into her bed. We covered all this in the Winn Adami spotlight, but Dukat’s skill at deception and persuasion are rivaled by none. He plays Winn like a fiddle and she loves it!

Feel our love: the love of the Pah-wraiths Okay, the Prophet stuff at the end of the series treads too far into fantasy for me, but what’s perfectly on the nose is both Dukat’s and Winn’s characterization. Dukat so seamlessly plays Winn into the hands of the Pah-wraiths by “Strange Bedfellows” that it is a work of art. And he gets her to read from the Book of the Kosst Amojen in “The Changing Face of Evil,” sealing their fates and bringing the whole series toward its conclusion. Praise be!

—

What a truly audacious journey! That’s everyone from Deep Space Nine I felt like covering in these spotlights, so next week we start revisiting some of our friends from Voyager! Boy, are we missing them during our watchthrough of Enterprise, for which I hope you’re humoring us by following along on SoundCloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summon the Pah-wraiths with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and see what schemes transpire!

[r0larens]

tfw your boss sends you on a work trip and your fave coworker gets murdered by a possessed lizard and you blame yourself so you take indefinite time off and go back to your parents’ house to figure your life out by cleaning clams and playing piano then through a dream you find out your mom isn’t your mom and you’re actually part alien then you get stabbed by someone who worships the demon that killed your work bestie who reappears at your front door in a new body to come with you to find your bio mom who lives in a box in the desert and kills the demon when you open it because a man in a parallel universe writes your life story on a wall.

[themightyleg]

Watched Tears of the Prophets yesterday!!! I'm sad now!!!

[usstrekart]

"Tears of the Prophets" (S06E26, Stardate UNKNOWN) is a nearly flawless season finale. The only real misfires are in the B-story with Julian's pining. We finally see what it takes to break Ben down, not just losing his connection with the Prophets, but losing a good friend as well.

I knew at the beginning of season 6 what I was going to use for my episode poster for "Tears of the Prophets." I wanted to mirror my poster for "Call to Arms," but have Sisko's baseball be missing, with the reflection still on the table. He isn't planning on coming back...

[sarahwatchesthings]

OH SHIT IT'S RICK BERMAN. I MEAN GUL DUKAT.

[shadowdemon-gd]

What are 5 things you’re looking forward to this year? Here’s 5 of mine in no particular order:

1. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

2. The Outlast Trials

3. Turning 18

4. MMLP2 turning 10

5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

[raurquiz]

#otd #startrek #deepspacenine #TearsoftheProphets #sisko #JakeSisko #dax #kiranerys #odo #worf #bashir #obrian #quark #Weyoun #GulDukat #Letant #Martok #Nog #ds930 #startrek57 @TrekMovie @TrekCore @StarTrek @StarTrekOnPPlus

[quailfence]

[Image description: Ten gifs of five scenes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. They each show Jadzia Dax and Benjamin Sisko saying goodbye to each other.

Gifs 1-2: In ops. Benjamin walks up to Jadzia and says, “Dax…” Jadzia replies “I know, Benjamin. You’ll do all you can. And just in case it isn’t enough, I want you to know it’s been fun.”

Gifs 3-4: Benjamin says, “I am happy for you.” Jadzia grins and replies, “You’ve been my friend for two lifetimes.”

Gifs 5-6: Jadzia is sitting in the fapatin’s chair of the Definant, and Benjamin is standing in a doorway. He turns to face Jadzia as she says, “Benjamin? I wish you were coming with us.” Benjamin replies, “you’ll do fine.” He turns and walks out of the room, Jadzia looking after him.

Gifs 7-8: Benjamin and Jadzia and standing by an airlock, talking. Jake watches them. Benjamin says, “It’s your station, old man.” Jadzia replies, “I’ll take good care of her.” Benjamin turns to leave.

Gifs 9-10: Benjamin stands talking to a coffin with the Federation flag laid on it. He says, “The funeral service is due to begin in a few minutes, Jadzia but I need to talk to you one last time. When I first met you, you told me that my relationship with Jadzia Dax wouldn't be any different than the one I had with Curzon Dax. Things didn't work out that way. I had a hell of a lot of fun with both of you, but Curzon was my mentor. You, you were my friend and I am going to miss you.” End description.]

@startrekdescribed

sisko & jadzia + goodbyes

[stopthatbluecat]

Rejoined - Tears of the Prophets: Jadzia & Julian Affection

[disarmonia]

Another Dragon Age piece from last year, a portrait of Andraste for the DA inspired charity artbook - "Прийдешній Шторм" ("Incoming Storm") by Lunavis, a non-commercial project created to support Ukrainian defenders and people in need.❤️‍🩹 A little step away from my usual style, but I’m still happy with the result, and the book turned out a-ma-zing.

Hey also maybe follow my new page (this one) cause I’m really trying to make this place work for me.✨

[shushmal]

okay you know the american express skate shop commercial?

eddie who co-ownes a skate shop despite having only been on skateboard twice in his life (he broke his arm the second time) but gareth loves skating more than drums, and the band never went anywhere but his skate career DID, so eddie somehow wound up taking care of gareth's shop while he travels the world breaking his bones. eddie's clientele is a pretty narrow group, until fucking steve harrington himself (his hs school crush) comes into the shop asking for a board for his daughter.

months of awkward flirting later, eddie finds out max is a big fan of gareth and that night eddie is curled around gareth's ankles chanting "please please please please please please please" and gareth throws up his hands and agrees to meet them.

that weekend eddie happily gets to hang off steve's shoulder while gareth and max are tearing up a half pipe. max is happy, so steve is happy, and gareth is impressed with max's talent and keeps getting more and more into coaching her through a few little tricks, and eddie may never get into steve's pants, but anything is worth seeing steve smile, so happy and excited for his kid and—oh fuck, eddie's in love fucking shitting fuck

meanwhile, steve spends each morning lamenting to robin as they get their bakery ready for the day how he'll die alone because eddie won't ask him out and robin keeps yelling at him, all exasperated "why don't YOU ask him out then??" and steve pouts because that's no fun

anyways one day eddie wanders into the shop not even realizing that steve works there (luckily he's doing a delivery atm), and robin sees eddie from all the way in the back and beelines it out so eddie just randomly gets accosted by the bread lesbian hissing "i need you to dick down and marry steve already or i WILL kill him, i'll drown him in the sourdough."

eddie walks back out thinking robin's some kind of prophet or psychic, he has no idea that she actually knows steve.

but who is he to argue with a fate-sayer? and he fulfills part of the prophecy that very night.

[r0larens]

thinking of pulling a ben sisko 😙 (taking an indefinite amount of time off work to figure things out)

[helluvatimes]

Praying In The Garden

A Praying Mantis (Mantodea) praying for a meal in the Bird Paradise. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

We were photographing the Prophet’s Tears (Mussaenda erythrophylla) when it dropped in. It was barely an inch (about 25mm) long and a low fence prevented any closer approach. So this is actually a 25 percent crop of the original image.