Winn's final moments

[Methuselah Flint]

Do you think Winn finally realised her mistake and realised/accepted that Sisko was indeed the emissary in those last few moments? Would she have changed for the better if she had not died? Or would she have returned to her power-hungry ways?

Are there any novels that mention her post-finale?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I think that she realized she was wrong and she could not control the powers about to be unleashed. I don't see redemption as being a big part of DS9, so any change of heart would be extraneous. Perhaps she would have behaved differently had she lived, but her bed was made at that point.

 

[NCC-73515]

She was just crazy. First kissing Dukat, then sacrificing him to the pagh wraiths, then suddenly appealing to The Sisko when he shows up... just using any and all opportunities to get whatever she wants at that moment.

 

[AntonyF]

I never thought Winn was a bad person, but she was weak and very insecure. Dukat exploited that. But when push came to shove, she wasn't a bad person and she came to her senses.

 

[Kor]

In her last moments she realized how badly she had messed up, and she called Sisko "Emissary" and really meant it.

Kor

 

[kkt]

Yes. I'm not sure that would really have been enough for redemption. Maybe it would? Distracting Dukat was critical. But she spent so long listening to the Pah-Wraiths even after she knew they weren't the true Prophets.

I think redemption is a theme of DS9. Kira is redeemed for her violent past in the resistance, even though it's pretty clear at least some of them were guilty of nothing more than being a Cardassian who went with their family to Bajor. Garak redeems himself for working with the Obsidian Order, in our minds by providing critical codebreaking and translation skills to help the Federation alliance in the war. Odo was redeemed for working for the Cardassians during the occupation. Nog was redeemed from his fumbled burglary, and Nog and Jake for dropping sand fleas on the customers at Quark's. Even Dukat was very close to being redeemed, in the period of the Klingon-Cardassian War, but didn't quite get there.

 

[Kor]

I wonder if she ended up in some version of Bajoran purgatory or something, having to do penance for all eternity.

Kor

 

[Bad Thoughts]

think redemption is a theme of DS9. Kira is redeemed for her violent past in the resistance, even though it's pretty clear at least some of them were guilty of nothing more than being a Cardassian who went with their family to Bajor. Garak redeems himself for working with the Obsidian Order, in our minds by providing critical codebreaking and translation skills to help the Federation alliance in the war. Odo was redeemed for working for the Cardassians during the occupation. Nog was redeemed from his fumbled burglary, and Nog and Jake for dropping sand fleas on the customers at Quark's. Even Dukat was very close to being redeemed, in the period of the Klingon-Cardassian War, but didn't quite get there

Ok, but it is an act of work and evolution, not faith. One action wasn't going to erase Winn's treachery.a

 

[kkt]

Ok, but it is an act of work and evolution, not faith. One action wasn't going to erase Winn's treachery.a

Agreed.

 

[DonIago]

I think if Winn had survived she might have eventually found her way to some sort of redemption...or maybe not, since she was acting in a moment of crisis, and we've seen her vacillate several times before.

I believe Winn is mentioned in more than one of the relaunch novels, but I don't recall it being in any sort of meaningful fashion.

 

[Tosk]

Winn was not incapable of recognizing her mistakes. I'm sure she knew she'd picked the wrong side at the very end.

But she was always a being primarily driven by ego and jealousy. Even if she had survived the experience, I doubt she'd have been changed by it long-term. Megalomania is her bag, baby.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

One instance of choosing the right thing, especially in the wake of having enabled the empowering of the Pai-Wraiths and Dukat, doesn't make a redemption. But I think it would have been enough for many of the major players involved to say that she deserved an opportunity to attempt atonement.

Honestly, I legitimately think that Kira would have said that, provided Winn step down from Kai (something that, had she survived, I think would have been a given - you don't open the door for the devil and still get to be the Pope), that allowing her to seek the forgiveness of the Prophets would be the right thing to do.

But I also feel like the thing that Winn would have done in the aftermath would be to retreat into seclusion in a distant monastery, considering that, even acknowledging her ego and jealousy as motivation, she would be in a position where she could not serve as Kai, and would definitely have had Vedeks and the public as a whole demanding she step down. And, yeah, she does end up feeding on having that proverbial spotlight, so I don't think it would have lasted forever - we saw in her earliest appearances how willing she was to let others act in her name, both in the assassination attempt on Bareil and in her association with Jaro and the Circle, she could easily have found her way into some other movement where she could work in the shadows and claim it was for the good of Bajor.

Still, it is an interesting possibility to consider. Again, I don't think it was quite "redemption equals death," as the trope is called, but I do think that Sisko and Kira in particular would probably have said that she deserved the opportunity to attempt to atone.

 

[Roundabout]

No one likes Adami. Not the Prophets, and not the Pah-Wraiths.

Winn must have come to that realization after the Pah-Wraiths chose Dukat over her.

After everything she had done to ingratiate herself with the Pah-Wraiths, Winn must have felt betrayed by them. She may have been doubly bitter because Winn lost out to Dukat, a man whom she had contempt for.

I suspect Winn sided with Sisko, at that moment, partly out of contempt for Dukat and partly because Winn got religion again. She threw in her lot back with the Prophets; she reverted back to her faith, at least for the moment.

Other than Sisko, who would have known about Winn's treachery? Winn murdered her aide Solbor in an earlier episode.

If Winn had made it out of the fire cave alive, who would have held her to account for her crimes and sins? I doubt Winn would have turned herself in for what she did.

 

[DonIago]

It is interesting to consider what Winn would have told everyone if she'd survived the experience. For all we know she would have claimed Sisko and Dukat were in cahoots, which the people who know Ben would have found ridiculous...but a lot of Bajorans seemed pretty inclined to take the Kai's word at face value.

 

[Roundabout]

Winn could have spun whatever story that she wanted.

 

[Frontis]

In never trusted Winn, I think she was evil. But she also lost her mind.