What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[UssGlenn]

The Cardassians as a people...yes, okay.
Dukat...no.

Well, what could you remove/tweak from Dukat's pre-show history to make him redeemable like Damar? He always saw himself as trying to minimize Bajoran suffering, from within the system, how do you make that true? And is that enough to make him redeemable?

 

[Commander Troi]

No. Dukat SAID he was trying to minimize Bajoran suffering, but that was only to make himself look good. He never saw Bajorans as fully sentient and equal; always "sheep" needing him to "save" them from themselves.

 

[Farscape One]

And having a Bajoran mistress at his side for his entire time as Prefect doesn't help his case, either.

 

[knightgrace]

Garak was dangerous, which was the point. Anyone who had at least two btain cells knew that. That, was never the question. Dangerous to whom, and when. I have no doubt that he would have killed Sisko, if he thought that it was necessary...

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I have no doubt that he would have killed Sisko, if he thought that it was necessary...

If he ever thought that was necessary, he would've had to weigh that option against making enemies of:
1) The Bajoran People
2) The UFP
3) StarFleet
4) The rest of the senior Staff of DS9 + any 'Friends & Family Members' of Sisko.

That's alot of potential enemies to make.

It's not like the majority of everybody on that list didn't know who Garak was at this point.

The whole "becoming a Mild Manor Tailor" is a poor cover story.
Even if he was good at the job.

This is why I find the STO storyline of Garak becoming part of the new leadership for the Cardassian people to be believable.

Look at what happened to the USSR & what happened to Russia after-wards.

Their current leader is a former KGB operative.

 

[Tallguy]

If he ever thought that was necessary, he would've had to weigh that option against making enemies of:
1) The Bajoran People
2) The UFP
3) StarFleet
4) The rest of the senior Staff of DS9 + any 'Friends & Family Members' of Sisko.

That's alot of potential enemies to make.

It's not like the majority of everybody on that list didn't know who Garak was at this point.

The whole "becoming a Mild Manor Tailor" is a poor cover story.
Even if he was good at the job.

If he could consider if it was dangerous or not then he wouldn't consider it necessary.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

If he could consider if it was dangerous or not then he wouldn't consider it necessary.

You never know what options that man is weighing in his head.

 

[at Quark's]

I still wonder what Cardassians are 'naturally' like.

The Cardassians we've seen were the product of (growing up in) a military dictatorship, but according to some stories, Cardassia didn't use to be that way in earlier centuries. According to Picard, they once were "a peaceful people with a rich spiritual life".

 

[137th Gebirg]

Perhaps they, too, were a conquered people at one time, rising up against their oppressors and taking a more outward aggressive militaristic stance in the aftermath.

The Bajorans clearly got to be very militant after the Cardassian occupation. The Klingons really got into it after deposing the Hur'q. I am curious who came in to rattle the Cardassians' chains like that before they went after Bajor.

One wonders, though, why any formerly-oppressed people would turn around and start doing the very thing to their neighbors that caused such harm and trauma to themselves in the first place.

 

[Farscape One]

Perhaps they, too, were a conquered people at one time, rising up against their oppressors and taking a more outward aggressive militaristic stance in the aftermath.

The Bajorans clearly got to be very militant after the Cardassian occupation. The Klingons really got into it after deposing the Hur'q. I am curious who came in to rattle the Cardassians' chains like that before they went after Bajor.

One wonders, though, why any formerly-oppressed people would turn around and start doing the very thing to their neighbors that caused such harm and trauma to themselves in the first place.

The Founders answered that question saying, "What you can control, can't hurt you."

They are definitely an even more extreme version of any other example mentioned above.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Perhaps they, too, were a conquered people at one time, rising up against their oppressors and taking a more outward aggressive militaristic stance in the aftermath.

The Bajorans clearly got to be very militant after the Cardassian occupation. The Klingons really got into it after deposing the Hur'q. I am curious who came in to rattle the Cardassians' chains like that before they went after Bajor.

One wonders, though, why any formerly-oppressed people would turn around and start doing the very thing to their neighbors that caused such harm and trauma to themselves in the first place.

Trauma often is a cycle. But at the same time, we don't know that anyone ever did conquer the Cardassians. The impression I always had was that Cardassia ran out of natural resources and Cardassian society fell to pieces until the military took control and focused their entire civilization on taking resources from wherever they could find them.

Also, the Klingons didn't need the Hur'q example to become bloodthirsty. The only change born out of that conquest was that the Klingons suddenly had the technology to conquer other worlds instead of other kingdoms/clans.

 

[Orphalesion]

Well, what could you remove/tweak from Dukat's pre-show history to make him redeemable like Damar? He always saw himself as trying to minimize Bajoran suffering, from within the system, how do you make that true? And is that enough to make him redeemable?

I would not tweak him at all. He does not need to be "redeemable"

And I disagree, as Cmdr. Troi wrote, he claimed that his aim was to minimise Bajoran suffering, but the Bajorans remained the equivalent of "sub-human" to him.
Plus even in his interactions with the Bajorans and his claims how they "forced" him to be cruel to them always reminded me of the kind of abuse people who will beat their partner or kid in a fit of rage and then yell "look at what you made me do!"
He's just not redemption material, and I don't think every character has to be.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

I think what the Cardassians went through in the Dominion war did more than enough to reform them.

Yeah, reforming Germany is fine and dandy. I said you can't refom Hitler.

 

[Tallguy]

Well, what could you remove/tweak from Dukat's pre-show history to make him redeemable like Damar?

Was Damar really redeemable? Did he really say "Oh no, what I was doing was wrong!" or did he just say "Oh wow, we got screwed!"

Even Stalin fought against the Axis in WWII.

Kylo Ren, Grandpa Vader and Damar all died heroic deaths rather than having to face civilized society.

But then Loki stabbed Phil Coulson through the heart and everyone LOVES that guy.

 

[fireproof78]

But then Loki stabbed Phil Coulson through the heart and everyone LOVES that guy.

Total protagonist material and who didn't weep when Thanos killed Loki?

Right?

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Was Damar really redeemable? Did he really say "Oh no, what I was doing was wrong!" or did he just say "Oh wow, we got screwed!"

Even Stalin fought against the Axis in WWII.

Kylo Ren, Grandpa Vader and Damar all died heroic deaths rather than having to face civilized society.

But then Loki stabbed Phil Coulson through the heart and everyone LOVES that guy.

The great thing about Damar's storyline is that it is nuanced and debatable. It leaves you feeling like he actually learned to be a better person, but without any 'A Christmas Carol' style epiphany scene that magically transforms him into a better person and with enough wiggle room that you can also still remain skeptical if he really got all the way there in the end or not.

But he most certainly did land a big character arc in those last few episodes while Kira was shoving his nose in the similarities between the Dominion occupation of Cardassia and the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. His previously deeply shallow, nationalist worldview was clearly altered heavily even if it's debatable to what extent he would ever really have admitted his fault and his people's fault if he had lived.

 

[Snowdrop82]

Yeah, reforming Germany is fine and dandy. I said you can't refom Hitler.

It is fiction. Anything's possible, as long as the way it is done seems sensible. There definitely is a way for Dukat to have changed, at least in my eyes. He could have been present alongside Damar when Damar "changed" his ways.

 

[cooleddie74]

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[Snowdrop82]

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I have watched this guy's videos over the years. His Star Trek Videos are okay, his other content I don't like. This guy does at least put some level of thought into his work, even if at the end of the day, I don't quite find myself in the same mindset or opinions he has.

 

[Nyotarules]

Damar shot his friend because he represented the old Cardassia, he was aware their whole outlook would have to change.