There was a timeline showed in Parallels that was similar to that.
Why do people hate the Bajorians?
- Thread starter Jayson1
- Start date
Interesting that you assume religious always means warlike. There have been strict religious groups on Earth who haven't started wars. Most of them were destroyed by other warlike religious groups, but that's beside the point. According to Kira (Though she's biased) the Bajorans were peaceful and agrarian before the Cardassians came. Prophetism never seems like the sort of religion that is interested in converting other races.
Amish are strict. Hacidic Jews are strict. Jain are strict. None are warlike.
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They had a strict caste system and were somewhat xenophobic. That much is clear.
Like one of the early episodes where one of Kira's resistance buddies wanted to blow up the wormhole hoping that would make the federation go away and Bajor could revert back to sulking in its own backwardness and approaching civil conflict.
Like one of the early episodes where one of Kira's resistance buddies wanted to blow up the wormhole hoping that would make the federation go away and Bajor could revert back to sulking in its own backwardness and approaching civil conflict.
Sadly in human history, religion is a great excuse to kill your fellow man. The Bajora had its extremist, the priest that broke the neck of the man who refused to follow his dajara (his clan in ancients times looked after the dead, so he was unclean). Perhaps Bajorans were peaceful cos anyone who questioned the vedeks or the clergy were thrown out of an airlock. Peace through fear can work.
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Religion was often used to give the force of law in ancient societies to whatever the ruling elite wanted a society to be - it was a tool to control the masses. It's much easier to keep people in line when they are told "It's God's (the Prophets', etc) will that you do this and don't do that", as how does one argue against a higher power. It was an effective way of shutting people down from rebelling.
Religion justifies good people in doing good things and justifies bad people in doing bad things. I just think it's unfair to those on the good side to associate religion with war. The blame for war rests in the warlike, not the religion they practice.
The Bajoran achieved space flight before the Cardassians but didn't have weapon technology, I think that at least indicates they do not have conquering on their mind. Caste based discrimination and probably intolerance toward dissent, but not expansionism.
The Bajoran achieved space flight before the Cardassians but didn't have weapon technology, I think that at least indicates they do not have conquering on their mind. Caste based discrimination and probably intolerance toward dissent, but not expansionism.
They apparently were too weak to face the cardassians despite having reached Cardassia first.
Dukat was right Bajor was stronger as a result of the occupation
Dukat was right Bajor was stronger as a result of the occupation
In the same sense that I would get stronger if somebody punched me in the face, sure.
The Klingons would have got there eventually, they were also militaristic and their homeworld lacked resources. Unless the Bajorans developed a strong defense they were ripe for conquest since I doubt they would have joined the Federation unless the politicians ignored their caste based discrimination ala The Cloud minders style.
The Bajorans in the early season especially were annoying pains.
Well, I think they're lovely.
Visitor played Kira far to stridently at 1st. Pissed and irritable and temperamentally unsuited for diplomacy. After she grew into the role, Visitor was able to round off Kira's sharper edges and make her more likable.
I think Visitor had the idea that Bajoran women were supposed to be a bit obnoxious, like Ensign Ro was when she first came on board Enterprise. But even she lightened up after awhile. But the stereotype of the Bajoran woman with a huge chip on her shoulder was one hard to live down.
I loved the Bajorans and Bajor episodes, but this is exactly what holds it back. Winn was such a fantastic character, all we needed was ONE more strong recurring Bajoran for her and Kira to tangle with and it would have made all the difference. The biggest missed opportunity is Shakaar. Reading Memory Alpha left me with the impression that character wasn't used more because Duncan Regehr was too expensive, which is such a casting mistake, given that he was also incredibly dull and uninspired in the part. They could have found someone better that was also affordable, and actually developed him.
They made a similar mistake with Frank Langella and Steven Weber, it would have helped if one or both of them could have become recurring characters, but neither actor would have done more Trek at that point in their careers, so there was no reason not to definitively wrap their characters at the end of the Circle three-parter. And Philip Anglim was just boring as hell as Bareil, you understand why they had to kill him. Camille Saviola is a great actress who didn't really get to demonstrate her true range in her few DS9 appearances, but I see how they got rid of her too early amidst the season-one-flailing and then couldn't undo it (though it might have been interesting if someone figured out how to bring her back from the planet in season 3 or 4 -- even just living in retirement on Bajor, she would have been a prominent figure, attracting a lot of attention and followers, and thus might have made an interesting antagonist to Winn. At the very least, they could have had the Prophets assume her form a few more times)
Writing that, I realize another problem was that these Bajoran characters that came and went were often just treated as extensions of Kira. Bareil, Shakaar, Opaka, they all shared Kira's agenda for Bajor. What they needed was a third point of the triangle, someone who brought their own point of view that could have contrasted with both Winn and Kira. Maybe a secularist who wanted the Bajorans to move away from their spiritual ways as they achieved greater involvement in the galactic community?
More Memory Alpha trivia: I was surprised to have it pointed out that no Jem'Hadar character appears in more than one episode (except for the one at the prison camp in "In Purgatory's Shadow"/"By Inferno's Light", but that's a technicality). For me it doesn't inhibit their overall development as a species, because that's baked into the cake with the whole idea of them: the tragic nobility of their extremely short life spans, always ready to die in service of the Dominion, while the gods they are willing to sacrifice everything for are just churning them out on an assembly line.
(Hey, now that would have been the right love interest over for Kes on Voyager, if only she could have hooked up with a Jem'Hadar! They would bond over the fact that they're going to die soon, Kes would Beauty-And-The-Beast him and tame his warlike heart, it would have been great)
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Multi-season long non-religious war, yawn-yawn-yawn-yawn.
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