Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
I'm going to continue my off topic and sporadic review of DS9 if you guys don't mind.
Like any ST series it is littered with poor special effects, cheesy dialogue, predictable stories with hamfisted moral messages etc. but I still enjoy it. I enjoy it quite a bit more than I thought I would.
However the writers just pissed me off big time and if this was an ongoing show i might stop watching altogether.
So they spend all this time establishing that the characters are and have acted in morally ambious ways. Kira, Odo, Gul Ducat, Sisko, Garak, Quark etc. (apologies for spelling).
Then they execute a wonderful turn of character when the normally ####ty but entertaining Gul Ducat shows a softer side, first with his daughter, and also with Kira, the flashback episode where we see Dax as one of Ducat's Bajoran lovers etc.
He becomes a wonderfully sympathetic character despite being a POS during the occupation and still seeing Bajoran's as a slave class of people and yet he's attracted to them. Fascinating character all around. Somewhat Jaime Lannister like in that I hated him and now I like him and also feel sorry for him.
Then those bunch of ahole POS writers (20 years ago) go ahead and have him flip sides out of the blue? WTF? And after all his love BS with his daughter, he just leaves her to randomly die and be murdered by this stupid plot with fake Dr Brashear? (she didn't die because they stopped fake julien but it's the thought that counts) Are you serious right now?
Quite possibly one of the worst set up and biggest betrayals of character development I've ever seen. And they spent ####ing years to set that #### up. Then they throw it all away for a cheap twist. This show has on numerous occasions cheated the viewer with that type of misdirection and that's ok.
ST has a history of using the "it's all a dream" or "it's all in your mind" or "it's some weird lifeform" etc excuse when crazy #### happens. But this was too far. They fake us out 3 times in the same episode (fake Dr, traitor Ducat, fake invasion). I'm willing to bet in hindsight they regret selling out all the integrity of their series for a cheap shock.
If this show was ongoing week to week and not on netflix I would say eff it and never watch it again. Only because I already know it is good in the next two season am I even considering continuing to watch.
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I think this is a great write up. I'm going to maybe counter it a bit though.
Dukat was always the mirror of two key characters in the show, he was a mirror of Sisko while at the same time being a mirror of Kira, and because of that he because this hideously complex character foil.
I can't call him a psychopath, because psychopaths don't really feel and can't connect of emphasize with their reality.
Instead you get a character that knows he's doing wrong, but because he's in effect driven by the desire for polictical power so he can be the hero he's a character that devoid of any real character. He's a chameleon and that's what makes his dangerous.
I mean I think that he feels love and doesn't understand it and it gets in the way of the self. He wants to be loved and respected but is incredibly Machiavellian. he's also the true embodiment of what's outside is the same as what's inside. The Cardassians were lizardlike in appearance and cold blooded. So was Dukat.
When he turned against his people to fight the Klingons he did it for himself not for his people. He wanted to be seen as the hero while at the same time setting himself up for a political gain. We had to know that he would eventually turn on the federation when the opportunity came to advance his career and himself.
I believe he truly did love his daughter, but he was willing to kill her to save his reputation, and then later after he died he was willing to do horrible things in the name of revenge, something that she wouldn't have wanted.
I believe that even though he did terrible things during the occupation, that he wanted to be seen as a liberator of the Bajorans, by the Bajorans, again not a political end but an ego end. He had this compulsion to be loved and respected but it was always at odds with his craving for power and the ability to control.
The episode where Sisko confronts him on it, it was beautifully done, because he wanted the respect and admiration of one of his mirror characters. He wanted Sisko to say "Hey dude, I know you tried to save lives during the occupation and I know that you're not a bad dude and you have a good heart" but instead Sisko basically said "Stop lying to yourself, your a murderer and a thug and a political opportunist, this whole thing is all about you man, and that's why your not a good man doing unfortunate things, your a bad man, doing bad things to make yourself feel good". At that point we saw an honest Dukat for the first time, he couldn't handle it and he basically completely lost touch with himself and basically his character became the "You think I'm bad and evil, then I'll show you bad and evil" and at that point, his quest wasn't about redemption of self, or revenge for his daughter, it was revenge for you not seeing me like I see me, and he did the whole destroy Bajor thing.
this is also reflected in his relationship with Kira, and for a time during the occupation you could see him thinking, I've won, and using his poor daughter to break down Kira so he could hear her say "Hey Dukat, now that I know you and your family, your a pretty good guy, thanks for trying to save lives" and he almost had her, until Kira realized that maybe Dukat was the end point of the road she'd been on through the series where she justified her horrible acts during the occupation as the path to freedom from occupation.
However the question is, why didn't Dukat snap then, when he was confronted by Sisko he faced the reality of himself and went insane. But not with Kira, why? Because at the heart of it, he didn't see any bajorian as ever being his equal, so when she told him that he was dirt, it was the opinion in his mind of an inferior and it didn't bother him all that much.
I know I'm rambling.
If you were to look at a historical comparison Dukat was Stalin.
Stalin didn't see himself as evil. He wanted to be known as the liberator of his people, he put in murderous 5 year plans because he wanted to be seen as the man who modernized Russian from an agricultural state to an industrial power house. He had a family and children, and I'm sure in a twisted sense he did love them, but he was willing to cast them aside or outright destroy them as a means to his goal. He was a malignant narcissist like Dukat, who viewed himself as superior, put his ambitions ahead of his humanity but wanted everyone to see him as Uncle Joe the man who did everything and sacrificed everything to the State. In the end everyone around him though hated him, and couldn't wait for him to die, because unlike Dukat, nobody was willing to act like that foil to check him back to reality.
However unlike Stalin who had Beria who he gave open permission to evil, Dukat had Dumar (sp?) who at his heart couldn't follow the path laid for him by his leader.
Again sorry for the ramble. But I think your write up was amazing.