Was Dukat always Emissary to the Pah Wraiths?

[ED-209]

Was Dukat born to be Emisary of the Pah Wraiths in the way Sisko was with the Prophets?

Was he born of an entity and the worst years of the occupation part of the Pah Wraith plan??

Or did they just latch onto him because he was the best available at the time?

 

[johnnybear]

Script editors using more off kilter ideas to draw in more viewers to be honest!
JB

 

[Oddish]

Was he born of an entity and the worst years of the occupation part of the Pah Wraith plan??

I don't think the Pagh Wraiths had the same temporal omnipresence as the Prophets. Otherwise, they would have known their plan was destined to fail.

 

[at Quark's]

I don't think the Pagh Wraiths had the same temporal omnipresence as the Prophets. Otherwise, they would have known their plan was destined to fail.

Or they know and simply don't care and go on... like, say, satan in Christianity. (Not that he's supposed to have the same omnitemporal presence as the Christian god).

 

[Oddish]

Or they know and simply don't care and go on... like, say, satan in Christianity.

I'm not a student in Bajoran theology, but I think that the Prophets and Pah wraiths are beings of similar capacity. The conflict in "The Reckoning" suggested that either of the two could have prevailed. But that doesn't mean the Prophets don't have the added ability of knowing the future, while the wraiths do not.

In Christian tradition, Satan is a created being like any other. A contest between him and God is like a cockroach against a booted foot: the outcome is inevitable.

 

[at Quark's]

I'm not a student in Bajoran theology, but I think that the Prophets and Pah wraiths are beings of similar capacity. The conflict in "The Reckoning" suggested that either of the two could have prevailed. But that doesn't mean the Prophets don't have the added ability of knowing the future, while the wraiths do not.

In Christian tradition, Satan is a created being like any other. A contest between him and God is like a cockroach against a booted foot: the outcome is inevitable.

Yes. I didn't mean to compare satan and god as roughly equal-but-opposite beings, like the Pah-wraiths and the Prophets seem to be. I only cited him as an example that even though in the christian worldview, his defeat is inevitable and satan would know that better than anybody on earth, being far more intelligent than humans (and supposedly having direct experience with the power of god to boot), he still refuses to give up. So apparently, knowing the outcome doesn't conflict with not giving up or pretending you will win, in religious mythology.

As for the Pah-wraiths vs. the Prophets: why would the Prophets be able to see the future, but not the Pah-Wraiths? I got the sense the Pah-wraiths once were the same species as the prophets, but driven from their home. Is it the location (wormhole) that gives the prophets that power?

 

[somebuddyX]

I think it depends on whether the Prophets had "always" preordained events to occur in the fire caves in "WYLB" or they were altered by either the events of "Sacrifice of Angels" and/or "The Reckoning." I know "something" was supposed to happen between the individual Prophet and Pah-Wraith in "The Reckoning" but I'm not sure about the rest of them.
I would kinda like it not to be preordained that Dukat was the Emissary, as a counterpoint to Sisko being built by the Prophets. I liked that Sisko was just some rando that met them first. It could have just been Picard or O'Brien. There's something funny to me about Dukat being such such a wannabe Sisko that he even would have that storyline.
Are the Pah-Wraiths evil? Or just misunderstood? Did they hire Dukat because he was also an asshole like them or did they not read his resume properly and are just a bunch of rubes taken for a ride?

 

[kkt]

Dax found them first, even if Sisko talked to them first. Would Dax have made a good Emissary?

 

[at Quark's]

Suppose it had been Picard.

SISKO: 'We examined your species' history, the totality of your existence. We discovered that you have not always been as you are now.
PICARD No, that's true. We were a barbaric species once but now we've matured. We've evolved beyond ...
KIRA: (Promenade) There was a time when your peoples' pontificating nature, your tendency to give long boring speeches to attempt to convince yourselves and others of your smug moral superiority was not so pronounced.'
BASHIR: We should restore this one to an earlier, more Kirk-like state of existence.

Come to think of it, it would perhaps explain part of how we went from 'philosophical' to 'action movie hero' Picard.

Or Deanna:

DEANNA: In a linear existence, we can't go back to the past to get something we left behind, so it's lost.
<prophets> It is inconceivable that any species could exist in such a manner. You are deceiving us. Even your appearance shows you're not linear.
<The voices seem to take on a certain lecherous quality >
<prophets> In fact, your .... nonlinearities are distinctly pleasing to the eye.
DEANNA: EEK! Stop ogling me, you extradimensional pervs!

 

[Takeru]

I'm not a student in Bajoran theology, but I think that the Prophets and Pah wraiths are beings of similar capacity. The conflict in "The Reckoning" suggested that either of the two could have prevailed. But that doesn't mean the Prophets don't have the added ability of knowing the future, while the wraiths do not.

But the prophets and pah wraiths both trying to win might just be how linear outsiders perceived the situation, both of them could exist outside of linear time and know exactly how things play out, if past, present and future are the same to them they don't make choices or try to win, they just exist. Even the pah wraith possessing Keiko and doing the super villain "I'm gonna kill the prophets! *muahahahaha*" thing might have just been a being playing its part knowing the plan would fail but it didn't matter because if you perceive all of time at once knowing you'll fail is not a reason not to do it because you already did it and will do it and are doing it right now all the time.

 

[Jellico]

Dukat went mad after Damar killed his daughter. He took an interest in Pah Wraiths afterward. In my opinion, it wasn’t pre ordained. Then again, what’s true is only what’s written in the scripts. After that it’s all speculation.