O'Brien always gets the shaft?

[thisisdanzo]

Is there some kind of inside joke among the writers that makes them always screw O'Brien over?

-He gets wrongly tried by the Cardassians, gets stripped, gets a tooth ripped out, and almost gets executed.

-As a clone, everyone treats him like crap, his daughter hates him, and he gets killed.

-He gets put in a "mind prison" for 20 years, kills someone in cold blood while there, and has to live with the PTSD afterwards.

I'm sure I'm missing some others as well. I just feel so bad for the guy...

[thisisdanzo]

aaaand in the episode where he keeps flashing into the near future, he gets radiation poisoning and dies.

[Tosk]

I'll just quote Memory Alpha, themselves quoting the DVD special features:

The DS9 writing staff had a running joke with a semi-annual "O'Brien Must Suffer" episode. Among these were "Whispers", "Tribunal", "Visionary", "Hard Time", "Honor Among Thieves" and "Prodigal Daughter". (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) According to Ira Behr, "Every year in one or two shows we try to make his life miserable, because you empathize with him." Robert Hewitt Wolfe further explains, "If O'Brien went through something torturous and horrible, the audience was going to feel that, in a way they wouldn't feel it with any of the other characters. Because all the other characters were sort of, I wouldn't say larger than life, but nobler than life, but O'Brien was just a guy, trying to live his life and so if you tortured him that was a story." (Crew Dossier: Miles O'Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)

[Robert D. Robot]

thisisdanzo wrote:

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aaaand in the episode where he keeps flashing into the near future, he gets radiation poisoning and dies.

"They killed O'Brien! ...You bastards!"

O'Brien is the improved 'Red Shirt' that takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!

...Because all the other characters were sort of, I wouldn't say larger than life, but nobler than life, but O'Brien was just a guy, trying to live his life and so if you tortured him that was a story[/I]." (Crew Dossier: Miles O'Brien, DS9 Season 5 DVD, Special Features)

"Vell, O'Brien's just zis guy, you know?"

[thisisdanzo]

All is revealed! At least he gets a reprieve in "The Ship" when his buddy dies instead of him.