Who is the Emissary?

[BillJ]

Out of all the TV Trek characters, except for those from DS9. Who do you think could've been the Emissary to the Bajoran people?

Really thinking about it and how it would affect the character, my choice would be Data. Being exposed to spirituality on that level would help in his development towards humanity and would be interesting to watch how technology and spirituality interacted.

 

[Farscape One]

I don't think anyone except Benjamin Sisko could have been the Emissary. And it comes down to one thing.

Benjamin started off as a man who was in a great deal of grief and pain. He was literally stuck in the moment of his wife's death. "You exist here" was what the Prophets kept telling him as he was trying to teach them about linear time and how the past is the past. He was helped by them to move on from the past and find a renewed sense of purpose and being. To live in the now and heal himself. They forced him to realize he was stuck, and because of this key interaction, he became the Emissary. Without that exchange, there wouldn't BE an Emissary. This was a major part of not only Sisko as a character, but for the Prophets' understanding of how other beings live.



No other lead character in the franchise started off in such a way, with maybe the exception of Kira, who felt a myriad of emotions from what she had to do while fighting the Cardassians. But for multiple reasons, she wouldn't fit as an Emissary.

And because no other one started off that way, The Sisko is the only one who COULD be Emissary.

 

[Finn]

Neelix comes close. Perhaps a reality where he wandered off instead of becoming a two-bit smuggler, ended up finding the wormhole in the Idran system...

 

[GulBahana]

The Sisko taught the Prophets about linear time.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I don't think anyone except Benjamin Sisko could have been the Emissary. And it comes down to one thing.

Benjamin started off as a man who was in a great deal of grief and pain. He was literally stuck in the moment of his wife's death. "You exist here" was what the Prophets kept telling him as he was trying to teach them about linear time and how the past is the past. He was helped by them to move on from the past and find a renewed sense of purpose and being. To live in the now and heal himself. They forced him to realize he was stuck, and because of this key interaction, he became the Emissary. Without that exchange, there wouldn't BE an Emissary. This was a major part of not only Sisko as a character, but for the Prophets' understanding of how other beings live.



No other lead character in the franchise started off in such a way, with maybe the exception of Kira, who felt a myriad of emotions from what she had to do while fighting the Cardassians. But for multiple reasons, she wouldn't fit as an Emissary.

And because no other one started off that way, The Sisko is the only one who COULD be Emissary.

Our hero was murdered and replaced by the Prophets when they meddled with his conception, and improved Sisko.

 

[Finn]

The Sisko taught the Prophets about linear time.

Neelix would have told them the same thing. Sisko isn't a student of temporal mechanics, though he probably has a footnote where they talk about Gabriel Bell in Temporal Mechanics class in Braxton's time.

 

[BillJ]

The Sisko taught the Prophets about linear time.

Any character could teach them about cause and effect.

 

[Poltargyst]

Spock.

 

[Finn]

He'd find it illogical.

 

[kkt]

He'd find it illogical.

He'd find it fascinating. What the prophets do cannot be explained by Starfleet science. Yet it exists. It would be illogical to deny its existence just because we don't understand the mechanism.

 

[Finn]

He'd find the wormhole aliens fascinating, but find being the emissary illogical.

 

[Farscape One]

Any character could teach them about cause and effect.

But only through Sisko would they connect with what he was teaching because he himself was stuck in a moment of the past. They were teaching each other: Sisko was teaching time, the Prophets were teaching how to move forward.

 

[BillJ]

But only through Sisko would they connect with what he was teaching because he himself was stuck in a moment of the past. They were teaching each other: Sisko was teaching time, the Prophets were teaching how to move forward.

Eh? A talented writer could make other characters work. Besides, this was supposed to be fun, not an actual serious discussion about removing Sisko.

 

[Farscape One]

Eh? A talented writer could make other characters work. Besides, this was supposed to be fun, not an actual serious discussion about removing Sisko.

Fair enough. I just can't see anyone else being the Emissary.

 

[Takeru]

Any character could teach them about cause and effect.

Not really because because Sisko already did it. The prophets experience all time at the same time so there was no way for anyone else to teach them about linear time because Sisko had always done it.
That's why when Akorem Laan discovered the wormhole in the 22nd century the prophets send him to the 24th for the Sisko, Akorem Laan did not live "before" the prophets learned about linear time from Sisko because such a concept doesn't exist for them.