#ds9 1x20

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 1x20 In the hands of the prophets thoughts (rewatching; spoilers for future episodes abound probably)

The opening MilesxKeiko scene is sweet. I don't like irrational jealousy, but it was more teasing of Miles' obliviousness and was just funny and cute

Man I've missed Keiko. l thought she was around more in early season when I was missing her in later seasons, but I guess that was just rose-tinted memories

Oh. Winn's appeared. Ugh.

Keiko using her teacher voice to answer Winn's interruptions - "Yes, on Bajor the entities are worshipped as prophets." *continues lesson* 👌👌👌 Winn's point is not completely unreasonable, but the manner she brings it up is.

I love you Kira, but you don't *really* believe in Bajoran separatism, do you??

Oh my god I hate Winn's fake piety so much, you can tell she resents Sisko with every word she says. Don't you speak about Kai Opaka, she wouldn't stand for you

Yeah ever since Neela started showing up in the past few episodes consistently I knew something was gonna go down with her because frequent side characters are not normal

(side note: what happened to the Federation security bloke? I felt for sure he was dodgy but he never was he just disappeared)

"I've tried to be reasonable" FUCK YOU NO YOU HAVEN'T YOU'VE JUST PRETENDED AND GIVEN NO REAL OPTIONS. STAGING A "DISCUSSION" WITH AN AUDIENCE IS NOT THE SAME AS ACTUALLY HAVING A DISCUSSION YOU ASS

I hate her so much

I cannot

I lowkey love how petty Keiko is in teaching Galileo. Like, honey, no, that's not the way to keep the moral high ground here, and Jake's conclusions from the lessons are very wrong - but it is a Queen Move.

Sisko is best dad and I love the understanding he shows Bajorans when explaining to Jake they're not wrong.

BAREIL. Oh man. Now I'm re-watching I'm just going to be sad about how the Kai elections turn out instead of wildly optimistic whenever I see him, aren't I?

Nah I'm still gonna hope he wins

And I'm still gonna hope Kira elopes with Dax rather than ending up with him -he's fine as a spiritual leader but nah as a love interest

Odo and Quark just doing their thing :3 both "just doing their jobs" my ass

YES SISKO go off on her

FUCK I knew she'd influenced Neela but I'd forgotten about this scene SHE EXPLICITLY SENT A YOUNG BAJORAN GIRL LOOKIGN TO HER FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE TO HER DEATH FOR A CHANCE AT POWER I HATE HER SO MUCH maybe I don't wanna watch the rest of this again I'd forgotten how awful Winn is

Lol the build-up to assassination is so tense and then there's the slow-mo with Sisko shouting "noooo" and I just can't XD

Oh, Kira. Once again, you deserve to have a break.

Welp, I'd forgotten how much I hate Winn and I'm already missing Season 1 and it's lack of her presence up until now.

Guess I'm just gonna have to make peace with the "I know how it turns out but I'm still hoping what was recorded on TV can magically change to become better" feeling.

Like, I don't mind the characters being massively traumatised by every other event. But Winn, being allowed to exist, let alone eventually become Kai? Nah. Nope. Can we not.

[roguetelepaths]

If you're going to tell stories about religion, you need to actually build your setting's religion with the types of stories you want to tell in mind. As a person who cares about religious worldbuilding the normal amount, I have long noticed that some stories about religion work better in settings where the central figures of said religion are textually stated to be unquestionably real and capable of influencing the world, and some work better in settings with a more grounded and realistic approach to religion.

(I'm only talking about theistic religions here because when non-theistic religions are written into speculative fiction settings at all, they generally have different problems associated with how they're written, and that feels like a different post that is better written by someone who actually has experience with those types of religions than by my polytheist ass.)

For instance, a story about science vs faith is very much undermined by taking place in a setting where the existence of divine beings, or at least beings widely considered to be divine, is an incontrovertible fact (see Star Trek: DS9 1x20 "In the Hands of the Prophets"), unless the primary theme of the story is that rational and spiritual explanations can coexist, which isn't a theme many people are interested in tackling for some reason. Likewise, if you're telling a story that seeks to ask questions about what a god is vs what a god is not, it's helpful to have something concrete in your setting that at least some people can point to and be like "yes, this is a god" so that you can use it as a jumping-off point for your inquiries. Ideally, multiple different kinds of things, so that you can compare and contrast them (see The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind).

[subbyfoxelf]

[tv review] ds9 1x19-1x20 (1993)

1x19 “duet”

i find it pretty hard to write about this episode because it’s just so straightforward, like it’s another one that’s just all about having nana visitor give a great performance across from an equally good performance by an old guy. that’s kinda it? but that makes it sound kind of underwhelming when in actuality it’s anything but.

this episode is rough to get through at times, there’s a lot of big feelings & traumas on display w/r/t war & occupation, and for a lot of the episode kira & the cardassian prisoner are just trying to verbally wear each other down, doing everything they can to get under each other’s skin.

this is not a fun episode, or one i go out of my way to revisit very often, but it’s honestly quite remarkable that season 1 of ds9 was able to wring two episodes this good out of “nana visitor yells at an old guy for 40 minutes.” a-rank

1x20 “in the hands of the prophets”

this episode is largely about introducing the principal candidates to replace the departed kai opaka. vedek bareil is the one we’re supposed to like but he’s gonna be super creepy towards kira next season, and vedek winn is the one we’re supposed to hate.

and i mean yeah okay she’s super gross & manipulative & toxic. but.

look. her mannerisms get super dommy next season like she just starts calling everyone “child” & being hella condescending and just… yeah… i’m not proud of it, but i feel some kind of way about it.

don’t get me wrong, i know she’s vile. i just… yeah. ahem. anyway. moving right along.

this episode gets pretty heavily into bajoran religious politics (aka… bajoran politics), and although it doesn’t necessarily have lasting consequences in & of itself, it’s still pretty important to the show’s metanarrative thanks to introducing these two characters.

i was a bit taken aback by kira initially being on vedek winn’s side, but i suppose that did make her denunciation of her at the end of the episode even more satisfying? and i just thoroughly loved the conversation between ben & jake where jake calls “all this bajoran stuff” “stupid” and ben turns it into a teachable moment about cultural relativism & empathy.

meanwhile, chief o’brien is forming a workplace friendship with his bajoran assistant chief of operations, and when keiko finds out about it we get some The Straights Are Not Ok writing. fun. it does add a nice little twist that the assistant ends up being the assassin that he’s helping investigate, and we get some pretty awesome star trek investigation bullshit where he figures it out at the moment of maximum drama and warns them, a la data in “the mind’s eye.”

this is a pretty action-packed episode with lasting consequences for the rest of the series, which is a pretty good formula for a season finale. now that we’ve come to the end of it, i do have to agree with the general consensus that season 1 of ds9 isn’t great, but it’s for sure no tng season 1 and i really do always enjoy revisiting it even though a lot of it is fairly mediocretacular. b-rank

[angrywarrior69]

O'Brien: A runabout? What was he doing in a runabout at four in the morning?

Odo:

[chacusha]

There's a quote of Odo's that is relevant here that is my absolute favorite and it's bothering me that I've forgotten it. Oh yeah it's this:

"What kind of fool are you?" "My own special variety." Top tier Odo snark.

feel like people don’t appreciate what a deadpan snarker odo can be sometimes like 

“what was he doing in the runabout at 3 AM” “apparently, getting murdered” or “what’s he doing?” “being fog? what does it look like” 

this goo is the funniest bitch on the station and he either doesn’t know it or absolutely knows it and doesn’t care