Great description of a shell-shocked, starved, over-worked woman who has been led off of armed guards.
Nonsense. The occupation had been going for twenty years before Dukat took over. Meru never had a good life to expect any better, which is why privilege was so seductive. The Cardassians kept meticulous records, which means that they kept meticulous justifications. Kira transitioned back to ore processing from Comfortgirl just fine. Sure they'd work some one to death, but they'd never execute a worker in public with out notarizing the correct forms, and that pimp so did not have the authority to have his stable thinned.
Yes, rape, Guy Gardener.
What do you think would've happened if she'd initially said no to Dukat's men? Do you think they would've just left her and her family alone to live out their lives in peace? I seriously doubt it! If she agreed to the sexual relationship with Dukat because her life and/or wellbeing or that of her family was threatened... that was rape. It's totally irrelevant that she developed feelings for him. If you don't understand why, look up Stockholm Syndrome.
The well being of her family was not threatened. The opposite happened. It was made better, and if she went back to them it just would have gone back to the regular degree of horrible and not a new depth of horrible, if she managed her withdrawl with some grace.
And, yes, of course one can rape a whore.
You really don't understand words do you?
Kira has very black and white thinking and her character arc is often about learning to see that life is more complicated than that even, or especially, during war.
Her mother was ultimately a survivor using whatever tools she had for taking care of her family which included taking care of herself. If she had let her position as Dukat's sex slave psychologically and emotionally destroy her he would have lost interest in her and discarded her. Her children would no longer be fed. So by embracing the role and enjoying aspects of it (good food, physical safety, conversation) she kept this arrangement, and therefore her children, alive. This is not weakness.
If she was constantly telling her self that? Like Walt on Breaking Bad... "I'm doing this for my Family" Fine.
But Meru drank the cool aide.
There was no moral scales, no constant assessment of if she had gone one hummer too far. She sold out her planet for fresh fruit.
Meru never once considered saying no, or sticking a knife in Dukat's throat.
From the first moment she was yes, yes yes.
Dukat seduced her, and then made her life wonderful.
She thought that she was special.
An 8 year relationship that only concluded becuase she died?
(Unless he killed her) She was special.
Did he lie?
No more than I would have had to bed any of the boys here.
In exchange for the fancy life Dukat was giving her, she forgot about the concentration camps and the resistance living in caves fighting to free Bajor.
That was the point of the story.
Kira's mummy was a dirty no good collaborator.
Personally, I thought the point of the story was that Nerys believed as you do, but discovered that Meru did what she did to save her family. Nerys may not have condoned Meru's choices, but it was definitely more "grey area" than she first thought.
EDIT: And what Teacake said.
Which is why Kira changed her mind about the Bomb she set that was going to kill her mommy, but really forgiving and forgetting are two entirely different things.
What's the name of the episode we're talking about? I might re-watch it.
Darker_Than_Death_or_Night
