The reckoning

[Nakita Akita]

this is the Episode where The Pah-wraiths go against the prophets, using their chosen puppets, sort of.
I love this episode but I love all of the episodes with any of the Bajoran religion in them.
But this is about Kai Winn. Her character and the way the actress plays her is superb. She definitely makes you want to reach out and 'touch' her!
Last night watching the episode when I keep hoping somehow Kira will pop Winn on the chin, I thought how great the casting is for really good shows.
I just couldn't picture Kai Opaka being as annoyingly nasty as Winn.
I guess it's part acting ability too though. I think the lady that played Kai Opaka was good but to me she looked little and cute.
It's hard to want to pop a little cute person as much as someone bigger, not so cute. (Possibly)
Winn is the character we are supposed to love to hate, and she fits the bill. She is even more annoying than Dukat to me.
I think the writers did a superb job on her character.
Her implying Sisko smashed the stone tablet so as not to have to return it!

I used to work with a woman that she reminds me of, possibly that aides in my desire to have someone pop her one?
Do others want to pop her upside the head of want to see one of the characters do it?

Just the character, not the real actress of course, she is probably totally cool.

 

[May 20]

To me, Kai Winn represents all the modern-day "preachers" who use religion and faith to manipulate their followers for their own selfish ends. So, yes, I want to pop her one almost every time she opens her mouth.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I hate this episode, but I agree than Winn is superb here. Indeed, one of the problems I have with the episode is that Winn is really just antagonistic--very antagonistic--but not necessarily as villainous as the episode wants her to be. The episode assumes that corporeal beings should be willing vehicles for the conflicts between supernatural beings. Only Winn is exercising any agency. Even if it was for selfish reasons, she is still rejecting how Kira and Jake were made into pawns.

 

[DonIago]

I like Winn because I understand and pity her even as I can't condone the things she does in this episode or others.

I mean, imagine going your entire life being surrounded by people who shared the same (validated!) religion as you, only to have them start getting visions and such while you're left at the curb. Then some alien comes along and gets to talk directly with the Gods too! That one would become bitter in the face of that kind of rejection (however well justified it might have proven to be) is hardly surprising.

It's like anyone who ever took up a hobby and was pretty good at it...but there was always someone (or someones) better than they were, and they just could never compete.

Or like Salieri in Amadeus, really.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I hate this episode, but I agree than Winn is superb here. Indeed, one of the problems I have with the episode is that Winn is really just antagonistic--very antagonistic--but not necessarily as villainous as the episode wants her to be. The episode assumes that corporeal beings should be willing vehicles for the conflicts between supernatural beings. Only Winn is exercising any agency. Even if it was for selfish reasons, she is still rejecting how Kira and Jake were made into pawns.

I think it came down to her being jealous of Sisko, his son and Kira.
The off-worlders, speak to the profits in person and the profits do their bidding no less. Some little chit if a girl gets chosen by the prophets to battle the forces of evil. The even the no nothing boy of the station commander is chosen by the evil Pah-wraiths.
And here is poor Kai Winn who has devoted her whole life to the prophets being completly ignored. She is sick with her jealousy.
Then she is so very jealous that she floods the area with the chroniton particles (or what ever) to end what should be Bajor's 1000 year reign of peace! That is one extremely jealous person.
The actress is superb though with her subtleness and the undercurrent of vindictive anger.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I think it came down to her being jealous of Sisko, his son and Kira.
The off-worlders, speak to the profits in person and the profits do their bidding no less. Some little chit if a girl gets chosen by the prophets to battle the forces of evil. The even the no nothing boy of the station commander is chosen by the evil Pah-wraiths.
And here is poor Kai Winn who has devoted her whole life to the prophets being completly ignored. She is sick with her jealousy.
Then she is so very jealous that she floods the area with the chroniton particles (or what ever) to end what should be Bajor's 1000 year reign of peace! That is one extremely jealous person.
The actress is superb though with her subtleness and the undercurrent of vindictive anger.

I agree that is what we are to understand has happened, but I can't dismiss my own perception that in spite of herself, Winn did the right thing. In previous episodes, Sisko was willing to wag his finger at the Prophets, to chastise their behavior. It's not clear why he was willing to sacrifice his son and his colleague to their conflict.

 

[DonIago]

I think the series made it pretty clear that Sisko essentially becomes more of a believer over time.

First season Sisko would have pushed the chroniton button himself.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I agree that is what we are to understand has happened, but I can't dismiss my own perception that in spite of herself, Winn did the right thing. In previous episodes, Sisko was willing to wag his finger at the Prophets, to chastise their behavior. It's not clear why he was willing to sacrifice his son and his colleague to their conflict.

I think after the Dominion disappears inside the wormhole he starts to change his attitude.
Who wouldn't?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I think the series made it pretty clear that Sisko essentially becomes more of a believer over time.

I think after the Dominion disappears inside the wormhole he starts to change his attitude.

Arguably, he is nearly a Bajoran by the end of the series (he has clearly committed to integrating). However, he continues to question the Prophets and to assert his autonomy as late as Til Death Do Us Part.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I think he was automous in that he wasn't a prophet. He never felt that he was one of them or really had sway over their actions.

Even with the Dominion inside the wormhole, I think he was a shocked as everyone else that the Dominion ships just disappeared.

I felt that at the end of the series he was actually a prophet all along. For me it sort of made the whole series 'all about him'.
But that's just my take on it.
And in a few months who knows? I might completly change my mind.

 

[UnknownSample]

I was very disappointed that the ep ended with a good and evil fight that consisted of two beams of colored light being fired at each other.

 

[Terok Nor]

Kai Winn's actions in this episode led to Jadzia's death, the disappearance of the Wormhole and Sisko being stabbed. If she'd let the battle play out it would've prevented all of that and most likely her own death at the end of the series.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I like the way Winn is characterized as using religion for her own political gain, like real politicians do today. They manipulate religious people to justify their prejudices and make themselves seem holier and more moral than everyone else, when really it's a calculated plot to gain power.