#viable religious schism at least

[joshuaalbert]

kai winn’s relationship to religion really is just so interesting to me in a way I come back to sometimes like. she’s the leader of a faith and her gods will not speak to her. they will speak to other people in front of her and they will make a human from a society that did not interfere with her planet’s suffering their emissary but they will not speak to her. and I’m sure she can do a lot to justify it in her mind because she would have to be able to in order to keep any faith, and she has to keep her faith because she says herself that’s all she had in the camps, but that’s still a terrible thing to experience. and I’m sure a lot of people would argue that it’s not real faith, it’s ambition, but I think it’s some of both, and most importantly I think on the most immediate levels she believes it’s faith.

and like I think she and a lot of other bajorans have a reason to have a really complicated relationship with the prophets because the more demonstrably real and powerful they are, the more they’re willing to interfere in things like the dominion war, the harder it would be for a lot of people to justify to themselves why the prophets didn’t do anything to stop the genocide of their chosen people. I think the pah wraiths plotline ultimately fell kind of flat when it kind of boiled down to “dukat’s weird cult” and it was also a victim of the season’s pacing issues, but it has some interesting implications regarding this divide in the bajoran people, particularly when their religious leader’s faith is being so seriously called into question.

#on one hand like ‘if there is a loving god why do bad things happen’ is of course an incredibly common religious struggle #but I do have to imagine it’s a little different when your gods are stopping an entire fleet but didn’t save your people yknow #viable religious schism at least #this got off topic I just think kai winn and her storyline are a lot more interesting than people give credit for #opinions around her often seem to start and end with ‘she’s a bitch’ which is. hm. #I’m not like. a winn apologist for things she actually did I just wish people would engage on a more interesting level lmao #san rant #sorry I stopped like actually tagging my posts I got scared #but i saw another post i didn't like so i am trying to make. a better post.