I think the beginning of DS9 could not fully convey how absolutely mindblowing it must have been to be the Prophets meeting Sisko
because imagine you are a timeless being who experiences every moment simultaneously. you are incapable of imagining the concept of moments occurring in any kind of order, and therefore you have no concept of death, birth, falling in love, aging, loss, growth, or any type of change
and then (remember, you do not even have a concept of “then!”) you meet (remember, you do not even have a concept of “meet!”) a person who teaches you (remember, you do not even have a concept of “teach!”) that linear time is a thing?????
…at the same time that you are learning about the very concept of things changing over a series of consecutive moments…
…you are also experiencing change for the first time…
…without even comprehending what a “first time” is
…the first time I watched this? …I assumed it was a huge plot hole, by writers who were so boring normal human that they can’t actually imagine a lifeform who doesn’t have these concepts, even as they write these lifeforms claiming they don’t have these concepts while clearly having them (see also: Data, experiencing his constant powerful emotion of… wishing he had emotions).
but (kind of the same as with Data!) I gradually grew to enjoy trying to imagine what this would actually mean, in-universe, if we take these beings at their word.
(I still do have… some skepticism about how the Prophets worked without linear time and change)
(because in my understanding, 1. an intelligent being needs the ability to think, and 2. thinking is a process that takes time and consists of change)
(maybe they weren’t actually alive/intelligent “before” Sisko got there) (whatever “before” means in this context) (maybe Sisko giving them Time was why they became alive and therefore became prophets) (throughout all of history) (great. time paradox headache coming on now) (BUT HEY, THAT’S STAR TREK, FOLKS)