I agree with your points, but now you’ve got me thinking maybe she wasn’t convinced/didn’t really believe. What if she was the equivalant of an American Televangelist? What if her primary goal was just power (in their case money)? At that point it doesn’t matter how she achieved that power, Prophets, Pah-Wraiths, to her character they’re just two sides of the same coin. Once someone is at that point, even taking in her people’s most egregious enemy doesn’t seem far fetched…I’m not sure if I could ever be that cynical, yet gestures around
They certainly could have gone that rout. It would have made her situationship with Dukat make more sense.
Overall, I think DS9 was a rare inversion of the usual trek formula - the writing started strong but got shakier as the series went on. That got masked somewhat by the actors becoming more comfortable with their characters, so the performances carried where the world building and arcs may not have landed on their own.
I agree with your points, but now you’ve got me thinking maybe she wasn’t convinced/didn’t really believe. What if she was the equivalant of an American Televangelist? What if her primary goal was just power (in their case money)? At that point it doesn’t matter how she achieved that power, Prophets, Pah-Wraiths, to her character they’re just two sides of the same coin. Once someone is at that point, even taking in her people’s most egregious enemy doesn’t seem far fetched…I’m not sure if I could ever be that cynical, yet gestures around
They certainly could have gone that rout. It would have made her situationship with Dukat make more sense.
Overall, I think DS9 was a rare inversion of the usual trek formula - the writing started strong but got shakier as the series went on. That got masked somewhat by the actors becoming more comfortable with their characters, so the performances carried where the world building and arcs may not have landed on their own.