Apparently all the writing on the wall is in fact plot summaries of all the episodes of DS9 up to that point. Now how cool is that!
Very cool. All the Benny Russell stuff is awesome. It's also extremely sophisticated, in both the positive and negative sense. Positive, in that it is an intricate and quite fascinating way of contemplating the relationship between fiction and reality (does it matter? does it mean anything? if so, why?). Negative, in that it is perhaps overly complex and a bit self-indulgent. This duality characterizes much of DS9, actually, which is I think what Ron Moore is referring to in his Voyager "exit interview" when he says that DS9 is the epitome of what has been accomplished creatively in the Trek universe, but perhaps a bit too complex and "inside," i.e. prone to navel-gazing.
Although I still don't really see the point of the Prophets engineering Sisko's birth (especially in light of what comes after)...
I'm a tad uncomfortable playing the role of defender of this plot development, since it's not something that I ardently enjoy. I don't, for example, think the series would have been greatly impoverished without it, the way it would have if, say, Benny Russell had never been invented, or if Kira hadn't gone to Cardassia in the final arc, or if
Chimera had never been written, etc. However, I don't vehemently oppose it either, and I disagree that it is irrelevant in the grand schemes of things.
So, with that in mind, I shall begin my measured, not entirely impassioned, yet sincere defense of this plot point
Briefly, its contributions are as follows:
It tightens the focus on the non-linear nature of the Prophets
This has been their primary distinguishing characteristic since the pilot, and the writers have played with the idea in interesting ways before, notably in the Emissary trilogy. That said, nothing that had been done up until this point had really forced Sisko or the audience to confront the seeming paradox of the Prophets' non-linear existence the way these episodes do because they affect an important character in an intimate, troubling manner. We can tell these episodes were effective at accomplishing this because some fans object to this development as nonsensical, whereas it isn't any less logical (given the Prophets' non-linear existence) than the events of
Destiny or
Ascension: it's just more blatant and forces us to think about the concept of non-linear existence, whereas previously it was easier to ignore.
Sisko's relationship with the Prophets is more intimate from here on
This is partly important for dramatic reasons: there's only so much that can be done with the kind of visions the show had previously used, with random characters incarnating the Prophets. From here forward, Sarah speaks for the Prophets, which makes for more intimate, affecting scenes, since the Prophets now have a face and a voice. This is also important because it allows the Prophets' love for Sisko to manifest itself more clearly: he is not just their tool, he is their child.
The Sisko is "of Bajor"
What does this mean, either for the Prophets themselves, or for Sisko? That they live near this planet, and that he works nearby? Meh. The enigmatic phrase has to mean something more. The writers where smart enough never to spell this out for us, but the revelation of
Shadows and Symbols makes it pretty clear: the soul or "Pagh" is "of Bajor," i.e. it is Bajoran, or in Sisko's case part-Bajoran.
Additional religious resonance
The Prophets partly exist as a way for DS9 to integrate religious themes and questions into its sci-fi storyline. (The Link also sometimes serves this purpose.) A demi-god, semi-divine figure, or "child of the gods" is of central importance to many religions and mythologies, so this plot point allows the show to present a sci-fi take on those ideas, just like the non-linear existence of the Prophets allows the show to present a sci-fi take on notions of destiny, fate, pre-destination, and their (perhaps only apparent) contradiction with the notion of freewill. The compatibility of God's omniscience with humanity's freewil is a central question of Christian theology, for example.
DS9 is partly a story about stories
It's a bit too sophisticated and self-indulgent at times, but DS9 is partly a show about the show's creators' own creative struggles: against the studio, against stale Trek tropes, against their own writing habits. Increasingly in the later seasons, the Prophets can be read as incarnating the show's creators who exist outside the linear time of the story itself, and who are god-like with reference to the story without being anything special themselves, and who are also strangely dependant on the fictional universe they manipulate (for inspiration, for their own careers, etc.). These meta-story elements are particularly common at the end of season six and the beginning of season seven, I think because there was uncertainty as to whether there was going to be only six seasons of the show, or whether an additional season would be green-lit.
Sisko is a child of the Prophets because he has a special relationship with the show's creators: he is the Captain and the Emissary. The writers are just recognizing a simple fact that is true for all the Trek Captains: Kirk and Picard were writer's babies as well, the stories just never bothered to break with suspension of disbelief to recognize this simple reality. We were just supposed to believe that they always came out on top because they were just that super-awesome. As Dukat points out to Damar (I'm paraphrasing): "we made the mistake of fighting Sisko and the Bajorans, when we should have been fighting their gods."
Two types of beings are capable of ret-cons: the Prophets and the writers, i.e. they are one and the same.
To put it another way, the revelation that Sisko is the Prophets' child is tied to his second existence as Benny Russell: he exists inside and outside the story, he is part character and part creator, part Captain and part writer.
I think that's more than enough to justify the inclusion of this plotline, though I certainly have no trouble understanding why it is not palatable to everyone. For one thing, there is the issue of the Prophets' manipulation of Sarah. I have a feeling we will have a chance to discuss that more fully in the near future
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