Most fans of the character seem to concentrate on his personal transformation from adjutant to liberator, which was a stroke of genius by the writers, convincingly acted, and I don't need to add any more praise than that. Usually his role before said personal transformation by contrast gets swept under the carpet as being rather insignificant and dull, with the character being no more than a simple bully. I don't get this - I found the way he was presented during the Occupation arc one of the best-acted and subtle portrayals of the indoctrination commonplace in totalitarian regimes that I've ever seen! Damar is your classic loyal-to-the-death adjutant who won't have a word said against his commander. I have no doubt members of the Cardassian military are not only conditioned to absolute obedience, but equally to view their military leaders as some kind of walking embodiment of "the national virtue". Examples of such unthinking hero-worship are all too common in real history; Casey Biggs does an outstanding job, with very few words, in portraying this. My favourite example would be the scene where Dukat has a little run-in with Weyoun. Damar is in the background, but his face eloquently registers volumes of approval, annoyance, disdain, triumph with every turn of the tussle for authority being played out in front of him. I'm certain Dukat approves of Damar so much not simply because of the unquestioning efficiency with which he carries out his duties, but because his loyalty is personal. He's a mirror for his superior officer's self-conceit (parallels to Ziyal, there). Damar looks at Dukat and sees the man Dukat sees when he looks at himself. In essence they both idolize the same image. So does anybody else think the character worked at least as well before becoming the hero of his people than he did after? or simply has some comments/opinions about the character and his development...
Wait...when other people are discussing Damar they only talk about his later development and ignore his earlier role? Why would anyone do that? Damar's not boring at any point in his storyarc. I always find his initial role, as a soldier whose loyalty and belief that Dukat is doing what is right for Cardassia is sincere enough that he willingly follows him into exile, just as interesting as his later character growth.
Damar may have been loyal to the end but he was an alcoholic long before he shot Ziyal. Remember he leaked the plan to destroy the mines to Quark.
Part of thats because he was a nameless extra at first, then he reappears enough we get used to seeing him... He was never really "introduced" to us in one episode with any real exposition, the way Dukat, Winn Adami, Bareil Antos, Etc have been.
I admit that I didn't pay Damar much attention until The Final Chapter. My viewpoint on him went from Dukat's thug to the Dominion's puppet. After watching the series over again with my interest in Damar heightened, I did find him to be pretty interesting. As far as being a perfect soldier, I think that's a fair assessment of him. He's a very competent officer - something I didn't notice the first time I watched the show. It's kind of insane the number of duties he juggled during the Dominion occupation of the station. For instance, why would the adjutant to the leader of Cardassia have to worry about storage bays being ready to incoming ships or have to assign someone else, (Kira) to deal with it? Someone that talented first seen stuck on a freighter makes me wonder if he was stationed there as a punishment like the way Dukat was. Disciplined for drinking too much? And his loyalty to Dukat is understandable considering they spent months as a renegade crew dependent on only each other. Maybe one of the reasons the Dominion choose to take over leadership is the hope they would gain some of that depth of loyalty for themselves.
Damar was a toady, he's essentially Admiral Piett turning against the Empire right before the A-wing crashes into the Executor. He saw the writing on the wall.
He might have got stuck on that freighter as a punishment for his loyalty to a demoted officer. It's never clearly established whether Damar was already serving under Dukat before he got demoted. They might already have had some history together before we first get to see Damar.
So do I. I think it works well; especially in establishing why Damar admires his superior so much. He would have been very young and impressionable back then.
I prefer the idea that Damar, as a character in his own right, has his own story that intersects with Dukat's on the freighter. In "Return To Grace," we see Damar as a competent, dutiful soldier who seems eager to fight, but there isn't any evidence of the admiration and deep loyalty to Dukat that becomes clear in Damar later on. He seems loyal to Dukat as his commander, but that's about it. Of course, we don't see much about Damar except him doing his job until the last act when he seems pretty excited about taking over the Bird of Prey. Dukat's quest to disobey the Central Command and wage a one-ship war against the Klingons may have struck Damar as something noble and even romantic (in the sentimental and fantastic meanings of the word), especially with them becoming renegades and dependent on each other and their crew for nearly a year (or thereabouts). Damar's admiration and loyalty to Dukat would have flourished in such a heady atmosphere.
Yeah, I always assumed that Damar was posted on the freighter and that's where he met Dukat. The loyalty came later, maybe when Dukat decided to fight the Klingons and Damar subscribed to this idea of what a "true Cardassian" is.