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Their highest literature under the military dictatorship and the censorship of the Obsidian Order. Not a very representative sample of what Cardassians really think.
I'm not so sure - then again I'm not sure it's false either. After all, it's not the military government or the Obsidian Order telling us that this is their finest literature -- it's Garak , an exile under that very same dictatorship, allbeit one with motives and attitudes towards his Cardassia that aren't always easy for us to understand as outsider and you can't take everything Garak say at face value. (He could, in fact be mocking that very attitude).
I disagree here in Star Trek the various sapient species can often reproduce without much/any problems. For example, everything in canon indicates that Betazoids and Humans can reproduce without problems; Devinoni Ral was one of five children of a human and a half-Betazoid. Deanna was one of two children of a human and a full Betazoid. Lwaxana causally had a kid with a Tavnian, despite being rather advanced in years. Romulans can reproduce easily with both Klingons (I doubt they had the best medical care in that prison camp) and humans (I doubt Sela's father would have gone out of his way to make his concubine conceive)
And even disgregarding the many Cardassian-Bajoran hybrids, Cardassians can apparently reproduce with Kazon without even trying, Seska's baby being half-Kazon sure was a surprise to her.
Deanna and Will managed to have two children as well, and Thad was killed by a virus
Really it's a lot more rare that we hear any hint of mixed species couples needing medical help to conceive. If I'm not mistaken the only time is when Jadzia and Worf are preparing to have children.
I think the implication with the ancient Bajoran ship on Cardassia was more along the lines of ancient Bajoran interbreeding with ancient Cardassians after crash-landing there, like Homo Sapiens did with Neanderthals (and others) meaning that most/all modern Cardassians had a little bit of Bajoran DNA in themselves.
Hmmm but all of these species have many things in common: Although some of these aliens have scales, blood color, ridges, and large foreheads, they all possess Mammalian-like traits. They all have hair/whiskers, bipedal primate like bodies, body heat (we've even see Cardassians sweat), lactate (Seska breast feeding her half Kazon son, another mammalian like species), they give birth like many mammals, and they probably all have bad body odor with the Vulcans smelling the least horrible. I cant imagine a Bajoran, Vulcan or Cardassian successfully procreating with a Gorn or a Tosk.
Let's be honest most of these "aliens" look like Primates with just scales, ridges and massive foreheads.
They also all seem to have very similar phenotypes to the African and European humans on Earth.
Hmmm but all of these species have many things in common: Although some of these aliens have scales, blood color, ridges, and large foreheads, they all possess Mammalian-like traits. They all have hair/whiskers, bipedal primate like bodies, body heat (we've even see Cardassians sweat), lactate (Seska breast feeding her half Kazon son, another mammalian like species), they give birth like many mammals, and they probably all have bad body odor with the Vulcans smelling the least horrible. I cant imagine a Bajoran, Vulcan or Cardassian successfully procreating with a Gorn or a Tosk.
Let's be honest most of these "aliens" look like Primates with just scales, ridges and massive foreheads.
They also all seem to have very similar phenotypes to the African and European humans on Earth.
Their highest literature under the military dictatorship and the censorship of the Obsidian Order. Not a very representative sample of what Cardassians really think.
I'm not so sure - then again I'm not sure it's false either. After all, it's not the military government or the Obsidian Order telling us that this is their finest literature -- it's Garak , an exile under that very same dictatorship, allbeit one with motives and attitudes towards his Cardassia that aren't always easy for us to understand as outsider and you can't take everything Garak say at face value. (He could, in fact be mocking that very attitude).
It's Garak, but it's Garak at a time before the Obsidian Order fell and his father was captured in "The Die is Cast." At that point in the show, he still hoped to be able to return to Cardassia and resume his old life in the Order. It was later in the series when Garak really began to turn against the dictatorship.
Incidentally, the question of Garak's attitudes towards orthodox Cardassian literature after his conversion to democracy is addressed in the novel The Fall: The Crimson Shadow. It's set after Garak has become Cardassian Ambassador to the Federation, as Starfleet is preparing to withdraw from ten years of occupation and rebuilding and a resurgent Cardassian nationalist movement threatens to overthrow the democratic government. Garak and his (husband? partner? friend? the text leaves the nature of their relationship ambiguous) companion, Kelas Parmak, are having dinner with Captain Picard and Dr. Crusher (who have married). The following exchange occurs:
"I finished the book you gave me," Picard said.
Garak's expression became one of uncomplicated delight. "Really? What did you think of it?"
"What book did you give him?" asked Parmak.
"Meditations on a Crimson Shadow."
Parmak laughed out loud. "Elim, your'e extraordinary! Was this intended in the spirit of friendship?"
Garak looked put out. "Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"
"Only you, Elim, could give someone a book describing the destruction of their civilization, and expect it to be taken as a gift."
"It did make for difficult reading at various points," Picard acknowledged, with a smile. "Particularly toward the end."
"No wonder," said Parmak. "A repulsive book." He kept one eye on his friend as he spoke. "A fantasy of eternal and permanent Cardassian conquest--"
"That's unfair," Garak protested.
"You think so? An abject Bajor, defeated and obedient? The obliteration of the entire Klingon people? What about the whole final act -- the loving, meticulous description of the fall of the Federation? Culminating in the triple flag of the Union flying above a ruined Paris? Are you sure I'm being unfair?"
"I admit that I agreed with you, once upon a time," Garak said, "and certainly that must be the reason the book was licensed for publication, but when I read it again..." He looked around the space where his father's house had once stood. "I read it almost on this spot, in fact, but down in the cellar, while all around me the Jem'Hadar were bringing this city low, and I couldn't read it the way I always had. At every possible point, Preloc allows her non-Cardassian characters to express contrary viewpoints --"
"Only for hem to be destroyed," Parmak said.
"Not all of them," Garak said. "Not the doctor."
"A book in which the doctor survives?" Crusher said. "I like it already." They all laughed, and Parmak conceded that this was a point in the novel's favor. "But I'm intrigued to hear you say that you read the book differently," Crusher said. "What changed?"
"To read it while my own world was being destroyed? How could I not see it as comment upon our crimes, rather than exhortation to greater crimes? Preloc's imagination was vast. We know this from her other works. I'm prepared to accept that this was her intent -- even if that means she got a seditious text past the Order's licensing committee."
Picard laughed. "Point to Preloc."
"Game to Preloc," Garak replied. "And gladly conceded."
"Even so, Elim," Parmak said, a fond expression on his face, "perhapse it was you that changed."
I don't think seeing one or two individuals far from their homes is what the topic of the thread is about though -- the thread's talking more about seeing a depiction of Ferengi society as a whole.
I don't think seeing one or two individuals far from their homes is what the topic of the thread is about though -- the thread's talking more about seeing a depiction of Ferengi society as a whole.
I think you were thinking of the wrong episode there, and that Excelsior was referring to the Ferengi who hijack the Barclay hologram, but I agree that that didn't give us much insight into how things were going in the larger Ferengi civilization.
