There were no avenues to explore after the loss of his daughter because this event was the point of no return. It was the final straw in making one of the greatest villains in Star Trek history into mediocrity. What's next? Talking to himself like a loon. Becoming a charlatan for a comic booky anti-religion. F*cking a Bajoran he once detested. (Winn was after the revelation) Photon, if you have any ideas I would love to read them but where I see it the best choice for Gul Dukat at that point was to kill himself right where Sisko stand.
I see your point but I don't agree in everything. I think that Dukat could have continued to be the cunning, dangerous villain he was even after his daughter's death and without joining the Pah-Wraith cult or ending up with Kai Winn. He could have been that if he had stayed sane, went back to Cardassia, maybe killed Damar and ended up on the same side as The Female Shapeshifter and Weyoun. I wasn't that fond of Dukat being obsessed by the Pah-Wraith thing, trying to pretend being Bajoran and having this relationship with Winn. But he wasn't a total disater there either. In fact, there were times when I really enjoyed Dukat and Winn as villains in the same way that I enjoyed Culluh and Seska as villains in Voyager. And with my very twisted sense of humor, I actually enjoyed the episode "Covenant" when Dukat turns into a 24th century Jim Jones at Empok Nor. He's actually magnificent during the whole episode when he pretend to be oh so caring for his cult members and finally is revealed for what he is. The scene when the poor Bajoran discovers that "their" new born baby is half-Cardassian is.....well, I can't call it funny or hilarious, but quite telling when it comes to show what Dukat really is. Not to mention the wonderful portrait that the artist was painting, the one with Dukat in the center of the painting as som sort od divine person or savior. I wold love to have it on the wall of my living room!
It does seem a little odd that two species as different as Bajorans and Cardassians are even interfertile.
I liked the idea of Dukat dropping his pretense of being a good guy and just declaring vengeance against Sisko and Bajor. Just the way they executed it was over the top.
And effortlessly so. I mean, some inter-species pairings can produce children, but it requires some luck and some medical aid. Bajoran/Cardassians produce viable offspring seemingly as easy as two humans.
I assume Cardassians and Bajorans are actually related. Perhaps travel between the systems went back farther that Sisko realized, or some other race brought a breeding population from one to the other.
I shudder at the thought of what got bred into the Cardassian genome afterward... Xindi reptilians, maybe?
I would have killed him off. Maybe have him “take the bullet” for Ziyal. I just never liked him becoming the main adversary for “The Emissary”.
Ziyal was never that well developed a character. Dukat could have carried out his original plan, figuring Kira wouldn't keep her promise. Last mistake he ever makes.
They could've given Damar's arc to Dukat. The audience would definitely understand why Dukat had turned to drink after losing Ziyal. For the most part I was okay with where they took Dukat, however I would've left him alive at the end, but as a blind Bajoran beggar. I think Winn should've been the major vessel for the Pah Wraiths instead. It would've been nice to see Dukat get his comeuppance from a Bajoran, a Bajoran woman at that, and further to spend the rest of his days on the streets, dependent on the very people he despises to survive. Further, it would've left the door open for him to come back in some form, or provide some motivation for him to do so.
Really like this idea. I read somewhere, I think on another Trekbbs thread years ago, a theory that the Cardassians and Bajorans had a common ancestor and I've been a fan of that idea ever since.
That was in Indiscretion, and you're right he never harmed Ziyal. I was thinking in By Inferno's Light, http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/513.htm