I could have sworn there used to be a board for this (or maybe it was under an episode board.
Given that the Prophets are non-linear, how come they are surprised some of the time... for example when Sisko entered the wormhole for the first time?
Here's my answer (and someone may have proposed it before...)
You have to kind of stand outside of time to understand this...
The Prophets are actually only partially non-linear. Until Sisko enters the wormhole, they don't know anything about corporeals, and they never knew about them. Once Sisko entered the wormhole, they always know about them. Once they always knew about corporeals, they send a Prophet to possess Sarah Sisko, at which point she has always been possessed by a Prophet, and Sisko has always been half-prophet, but not before he first went into the wormhole.
Questions? Comments? other than
Temporal Mechanics Gives Me A Headache™.
Actually, despite the fact that thinking about it does bring on a bit of a headache, that's quite a good idea and an interesting theory! (Future DS9 novel writers take note... with ScottN's permission if he grants it, of course...)
Thanks, Mark! Actually, I think someone proposed it on one of the DS9 episode boards... I just took the idea and ran with it.
To paraphrase the explanation:
To the Prophets, until something happened, it has never happened, even after it happened (in linear time). Once it happens, it always has happened, even before it happened (in linear time).
Ouch. I'm getting a headache, :)
Okay, I'm impressed! This was always one of the things that annoyed me most in DS9. So did the wormhole aliens just decide at a point in linear time that they were "of Bajor" and now they always have been? They didn't seem much like prophets in Season One, but at the end of the series... But I still don't get how non-linear beings can be interested in the fate of linear beings, even if they are only half-non-linear.
The problem is, of course, that "Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once".
Warranty void when dealing with non-linear entities.
Found the original board where I saw this.
Credit does not go to me, but to one "Edje".