Personally, I would have lost all respect for her if she had. He's a great character, and I love watching him, and I'm indebted to the folks who had a hand in creating him (the writers and, particularly, Marc Alaimo). But the Kira I came to know, the one who risked her life trying to free her people from Dukat and people just like him, would never get romantically involved with the enemy of her people. That's just disturbing, frankly - like a resistance fighter in Paris 1940 (or even after the war in Paris 1948) getting cuddly with a Nazi general or the commandant of a prisoner-of-war camp. Brrrrrrrr!
That said, one of my favorite Dukat moments was when he flicked Sisko's baseball to the floor. It was so...so...Dukatian!
Why would you have lost respect for her? The occupation was over. They really do make a good team too. Time heals all wounds and after they got to know each other more they got to learn more about each other and forgive and forget. I mean... she cared about his daughter enough to watch over her ... there had to be something more there than just trying to protect Ziyal. Man she wanted her there so Dukat would come back and be in her life.
Plus... if they hooked up and actually got married or whatever, that would be a huge symbol of unity to the Bajoran people and Cardasians because they both held such esteemed positions on their worlds.
Why? Because no matter how charming he is, how charismatic, how wonderful to watch, Dukat is a bad guy - a bad
person - in the fullest sense of the phrase. Yes, he had some good qualities, but he had more bad qualities than good, and he never stopped having those bad qualities. In fact, he didn't seem to realize he had them.
Bad guys can repent, but Dukat never repented, never even acknowledged that he had anything
to repent. He, in fact, saw himself as the good guy, the hero - and that's the worst kind of bad guy that there is since there is no hope that he'll become a better person. He was delusional, really. Sociopaths can be extremely charming, and that's what Dukat was - charming, charismatic, and yes, even sexy, but also a sociopath. About his only really good quality was his love for his children, but even there, his love for himself was greater. He loved himself more than he ever loved anything else, and that includes his children and Cardassia itself.
We are not talking about any old Cardassian here. We are not talking about somebody who was indirectly affected by the occupation and rape of Bajor. We are talking about one of the people who oversaw and
facilitated the occupation and rape of Bajor. That not only isn't the kind of thing people - real people - forget. It's the kind of thing they
shouldn't forget.
I think you are letting his charm and charisma mislead you, to be honest.
A romance with some other Cardassian might have the effect you describe, but with Dukat? No. I
don't think that having a former resistance fighter become involved with such a person would be a huge symbol of unity. I think it would be a sign that the former resistance fighter had been brainwashed - that Kira had bought into Dukat's own delusion.
Kira was a fighter. That's the Kira I admired. (I didn't always like her, though I usually did, but I always admired her.) I would not admire a Kira who became a goopy, delusional romantic who so forgot who she is and where she had come from that she would have a romantic relationship with the man who was essentially the commandant of the prison camp that was Bajor under the occupation.
Yes, it would be
romantic. Big deal. There are lots more important things than romance.
And if you'll forgive my saying so - I really don't want to offend you here, but this is how I see it - such a romance would be sooooo hackneyed. I mean, in how many movies and TV shows and books do we have the scenario of former antagonists who fall in love? Jeez, can't a man and a woman have an emotional relationship that doesn't end up as a romance? Here, we did. Yay!