For some reason, it feels like we learn more about Ezri in one season than we do about Jadzia in six. And now, in the Lit, Ezri has gone onto be one of the pivotal figures in galactic history... whereas Jadzia remains the DS9 party girl.
In fairness, getting murdered does tend to be hard on one's long-term career plans
To address the question of the Trill, I agree with you,
lvsxy808, and with
Jeff, that the writers struggle to do anything interesting with the Trill concept.
They do fail in interesting ways, though, which, I guess, is the next best thing to actually succeeding. Harry Kim and Chakotay would have benefited greatly from such failure
Jadzia is supposed to have been trained, like any joined Trill, to prevent her personality from being overwhelmed by that of a past host, but in the end that is exactly what happens to Jadzia: she is taken over by Curzon, essentially. I doubt the writers did this on purpose, but it is quite interesting that it happened anyway.
I think this is related to a larger issue with the Trill, which is that their culture is built on a series of tabous and dogmas that really only become interesting when they are transgressed. Trills are supposed to be trained for joining, but Ezri benefits greatly as a character from being unprepared. She also goes ahead and does all the things joined Trills aren't supposed to do, i.e. revisit the life of her previous host, get involved with Worf, etc.
There are many similar examples, such as
Rejoined (obviously), and
Equilibrium (where the capacity for great numbers of Trill to be joined is revealed, despite established dogma to the contrary). Jadzia would probably have been more interesting had the writers identified this tabou/transgression structure within Trill culture sooner, or had exploited it better.
It's noteworthy that, in
Facets, the only two past lives that are interesting are Joran, who was never meant to be joined, and Curzon, who wants to live again (and eventually succeeds, through Jadzia instead of Odo).
Another interesting thing about Jadzia: she ends up working better as a wise counselor with a wry sense of humor, Sisko's "old man," which was the original intent, than in any other role. For all the talk from Ira Behr about realizing that she was really a "tough cookie," I don't think this approach really did anything for Jadzia other than turn her into Klingon Party Girl. As a friend to Sisko, Kira, Bashir and Quark, or as a playful observer in episodes like
Trials and Tribble-ations, or playing the Romulan while debating Sisko in
ItPM, the character works fine. So, that is odd. It's as if, the more the writers tried to turn her into a "tough cookie," the more she excelled in her original capacity as wise old man.
No. That said, I don't really mind seeing Kira get her clock cleaned occasionally. She's not a super-heroine. It's also good for the character in the long run that she isn't limited to the original concept of a tough resistance fighter. Being strong, yet vulnerable is one of the hallmarks of Kira's character. The writers are fortunately comfortable with this approach in her case because they feel they have established a strong enough foundation for the character that losing some fights or showing a vulnerable side will not undermine what they are doing overall.
This example isn't an especially interesting one, but anyway I don't see it as an issue since it never became a habit.
... I still cannot understand how so many people can consider it "one of the bad seasons", with episodes like the Circle trilogy, Cardassians, Necessary Evil, The Maquis, The Wire and the last few episodes of the season, including the only good MU episode of DS9, and the introdction of the Dominion in the finale.
It is utterly mystifying, especially given that there is probably a bigger gap in quality between seasons 1 and 2 than between any other two seasons of DS9. The show is pretty consistent from there on out, though I think there is actually a slight dip in overall quality in season 3 when Peter Allen Fields leaves the show, some of the TNG writers come on board, and DS9 starts to integrate more of an action-adventure element.
It's worth noting, though, that detailed reviewers tend not to make this mistake. Jammer, Tim Lynch, and Michelle Erica Green (who as far as I know are the most accessible on-line reviews written during the show's original run) are all in agreement on the overall high-quality of season 2 and the less focused tendencies of season 3.
Lumping seasons 1 and 2 together as far as quality is concerned does not stand up to much scrutiny. I think it's mostly a result of internet group-think on the one hand, and on the other hand a result of the fact that people are often looking for a more action-adventure approach when they turn on Star Trek.
I love season 2 partly because it is an absolutely unique season among all the seasons of Trek that have been made. The stories and character interactions are very different from anything we will see later on DS9 or in any other Trek show. (Granted, there is a bit of a lull mid-season, but even these more mediocre episodes contribute something in the long haul.)
Not to mention alien women, who might have grown in a completely different culture where those old Earth gender roles would be completely... well, alien. I'm baffled as to why someone would expect an SF show to feature aliens acting as if they were brought up on early 20th century Earth.
but would do... what? Scream and cry for help? Take the punches?)
