Post by stargazer1682 on Sept 30, 2019 2:49:01 GMT
Re-watching Penumbra for probably the thousandth time, and something occurs to me when Sisko's "mom" appears to him and tells him not to marry Cassidy - are we sure she's a legitimate prophet? Don't get me wrong, by all accounts, for all intents and purposes, she's probably the real deal; yet as I think about it all in hindsight, the signs all kind of point to a Pagh Wraith.
Think about it, this...entity.... surreptitiously takes over an unwilling human woman in order for her to get her together with Papa Sisko to make Ben. That's a pretty extreme move in general; and it's always kind of bugged me the lengths the "prophets" felt were necessary to perpetuate Ben's birth; especially considering that the Ben Sisko in the mirror universe, like so many other doubles, clearly didn't need divine intervention. But it also seems un-prophet like and better suits the MO of a Pagh Wraith; like the one that possessed Keiko or Jake. The Prophet that possessed Kira did so because Kira was willing; and in the case of Sarah Sisko, this wasn't just a few hours or days like the other instances of a Pagh Wrait or Prophet possessing someone, this went on for years where the real Sarah Sisko was supressed and made a prisoner within her own body. This so-called Prophet violated this woman, all to create a paradox whereby Ben Sisko would be born to meet the Prophets and introduce them to concept of time. (Side-note - I have a fan theory to explain why this might be necessary; if the incursion to the past during the Bell Riots where Sisko had to take on the identity of Gabriel Bell produced a slight change in history where Ben wouldn't have been born and the Prophets took efforts to fix it to stabilize at least that part of time)
Afterward the orb of the Emissary is opened, "Sarah" is the only "Prophet" seen the rest of the series, which seems a little suspect; and she turns out to be a lot more demanding than the other Prophets prior to season 7. Sure, they gave him ambiguous warnings and tried convincing him not to leave the station during the season 6 finale, but they didn't try to "control the game". They'd sometimes to try to help Sisko; and in the case of the season 6 finale, they invariably were aware of the possible outcome of the Pagh Wraith and the danger they were in should Sisko not be on the station. So that was at least as much them pleading for his help and protection. But Sarah outright demands Ben not marry Cassidy; and even though it's couched in a cautionary warning that he'd "know only sadness," it's a still a degree of proactive interference that none of the Prophets exercised before; especially considering how hard Sisko had to argue to convince them to act to stop the Dominion fleet to come through the wormhole.
The "Orb of the Emissary" is also something I've often thought was off about the whole resolution of what happened at the end of season 6. Objectively, it was a plot convenience, but even before considering Sarah's behavior, I've always wondered why this orb was immune to all the other orbs; and what it wound up on some random planet that ostensibly had nothing to do with Bajor?
And I know that the Pagh Wraith cult follower stabbing Sisko works against this whole premise, but at the same time, Dukat tells Kira that this person hadn't been instructed to do that and was work on his own free will and misguided ambition. And while it's also difficult to beleive anything Dukat says, it's still somewhat plausible.
Think about it, this...entity.... surreptitiously takes over an unwilling human woman in order for her to get her together with Papa Sisko to make Ben. That's a pretty extreme move in general; and it's always kind of bugged me the lengths the "prophets" felt were necessary to perpetuate Ben's birth; especially considering that the Ben Sisko in the mirror universe, like so many other doubles, clearly didn't need divine intervention. But it also seems un-prophet like and better suits the MO of a Pagh Wraith; like the one that possessed Keiko or Jake. The Prophet that possessed Kira did so because Kira was willing; and in the case of Sarah Sisko, this wasn't just a few hours or days like the other instances of a Pagh Wrait or Prophet possessing someone, this went on for years where the real Sarah Sisko was supressed and made a prisoner within her own body. This so-called Prophet violated this woman, all to create a paradox whereby Ben Sisko would be born to meet the Prophets and introduce them to concept of time. (Side-note - I have a fan theory to explain why this might be necessary; if the incursion to the past during the Bell Riots where Sisko had to take on the identity of Gabriel Bell produced a slight change in history where Ben wouldn't have been born and the Prophets took efforts to fix it to stabilize at least that part of time)
Afterward the orb of the Emissary is opened, "Sarah" is the only "Prophet" seen the rest of the series, which seems a little suspect; and she turns out to be a lot more demanding than the other Prophets prior to season 7. Sure, they gave him ambiguous warnings and tried convincing him not to leave the station during the season 6 finale, but they didn't try to "control the game". They'd sometimes to try to help Sisko; and in the case of the season 6 finale, they invariably were aware of the possible outcome of the Pagh Wraith and the danger they were in should Sisko not be on the station. So that was at least as much them pleading for his help and protection. But Sarah outright demands Ben not marry Cassidy; and even though it's couched in a cautionary warning that he'd "know only sadness," it's a still a degree of proactive interference that none of the Prophets exercised before; especially considering how hard Sisko had to argue to convince them to act to stop the Dominion fleet to come through the wormhole.
The "Orb of the Emissary" is also something I've often thought was off about the whole resolution of what happened at the end of season 6. Objectively, it was a plot convenience, but even before considering Sarah's behavior, I've always wondered why this orb was immune to all the other orbs; and what it wound up on some random planet that ostensibly had nothing to do with Bajor?
And I know that the Pagh Wraith cult follower stabbing Sisko works against this whole premise, but at the same time, Dukat tells Kira that this person hadn't been instructed to do that and was work on his own free will and misguided ambition. And while it's also difficult to beleive anything Dukat says, it's still somewhat plausible.