I came to this board and decided to resurrect the old thread purely because most of what the OP said resonated so much with me. I have been watching DS9 for the first time on Netflix and I found so much of it very interesting. Especially the earlier seasons, wrestling with this idea of occupation, Bajoran and Cardassian cultures, alien value systems, hate, anger, resistance, justifications - all of it pulled me in. A big appeal of this show has been the villain / anti-hero / villain-hero character of Dukat, as the masterful creation at the hands of Marc Alaimo.
Therefore I also I find myself repulsed and disgusted by what was done to that character in the
Waltz episode and afterwards (to the point that I needed to sign up here and vent, it annoyed me so!). I had to force myself to watch episodes from season 6 post his "breakdown" and season 7, and I could only get through them by convincing myself that it is not the same character at all. Otherwise I would not have been able to get through this material at all. I think it was named perfectly in this thread already: compromising the story led by such intricate characters in the name of a simplified metaphor that is being rammed down the public's throat is creative suicide, and I feel like this is what has been done on this show.
The only part that I do not fully agree with is the original quote below:
I mean what's this man about if not power and conquest?! - that was it for me. I'd say that's where the writers lost me if they hadn't already done so by the end of the "Sacrifice of Angels" episode. I know the scene was meant to be moving, but I simply couldn't believe this man turning into a blubbing pathetic wreck from one second to the next.
I know the writers said it wasn't their intention to show him as losing his head over the love of his child but that's how it comes across. What made the character perfect for me was the fact that there were things that made him impressive while being reprehensible, so as a viewer you're forced to admire him almost against your will. It adds to his ambivalence: he may be a bastard, but he's a magnificent one. So he was someone you could really love to hate. There's no point in a good villain if you can't hate him and feel the precarious satisfaction of being justified in hating him. Yet paradoxically that needs a certain amount of respect. Strip the character of his dignity, and you can only despise and there's a difference. The fatal flaw in that scene to my mind is that he hasn't somehow fundamentally changed, he's not become likeable, you can't suddenly feel for him; therefore rather than making him sympathetic, he's made simply to appear pitiful. His apparent grief doesn't ennoble him or make him a better person. He is still vile; only now he's weak, and there's nothing more despicable than a creature who is both vile and weak. A spectacular fall from grace only makes sense if it can inspire compassion - all this inspired in me was a mixture of disbelief and disgust.
The fall from grace that happens in after Ziyal's death to me felt very, very real. That was the moment where I felt in harmony with Dukat ending up like this. Yes, I did love to hate him and yet at the same time I was rooting for him to in some way find a way to redeem himself, turn his self-aggrandizing around and realize the truth. I rooted for it maybe even beyond what was actually plausible when the show was trying to depict a narcissist. But this temporary insanity was hinted at earlier, I think. I could see it in previous episodes, especially in Dukat's overbearing flirting scene with Kira, where she confronts him over the "betrayal" and he tries to justify it by what he gets in return.. I see a glimpse of a madman already there. So this tragic fall made sense to me. It did not seem weak or pathetic, it seemed just pure tragic. In some way it was the last curtain call, the higher you climb just to feed your ego, the lower you will fall - and you will take those unfortunate, who you loved and who loved you back, right down with you. It felt cathartic, in those moments there were hints of a classical tragic hero, out of the pages of antiquity. Very visceral, sad, lost chance, just tragic.
What followed, starting from Waltz and beyond, is such a character assassination like I have rarely seen before. I agree with all arguments about him appearing pitiful, needy, lacking any sort of charisma whatsoever when having lost the "military" edge. He did not appear as someone who thinks and plots anymore, and that was where a part of his charisma as a villain was rooted in. Marc Alaimo said in an old interview (in Hamburg, available on youtube) that he wanted Dukat to be a thinker. Ultimately using his thoughts to feed his desires and wants, but a thinker nonetheless in the first reaction. It was only when you cornered him, he would lash out, be ruthless, kill without batting an eye and without mercy or regret (which he constantly claimed anyway). This thinking dimension was something so sorely lacking that just explaining it away by "but he is crazy now" is not enough. It just made what they did to this character, a favorite of mine, cringe-worthy. Such poor writing, and I also think, an insult to an excellent actor.
thank you for being understanding and welcoming! 
