Speculate: Mela
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Science fiction characters can't have parents? 
toughlittleship said:
Science fiction characters can't have parents?
Sure they can. But with a galaxy as large as it is, with presumably hundreds of billions of beings out there, isn't it a bit unlikely that people will miraculously run into their long-lost whatever. Not that it would happen once, but it seems to happen a lot in sci-fi.
I certainly got the impression that she was, as did Andrew Robinson.
Have we ever heard Mila's surname before? I don't remember it being in ASiT, but it has been several years since I read the book. She could be Mila Garak.
How is that the same as the unmarried Enabrun Tain having a fling with his housekeeper? It's hardly an unheard of situation, unlike the convuluted revalations from the original SW Trilogy.
Have we ever heard Mila's surname before? I don't remember it being in ASiT, but it has been several years since I read the book. She could be Mila Garak.
Also, Garak didn't "run into" Mila and she wasn't "long-lost". They'd known each other since he was a small boy. She, unlike Tain, believed he was guilty of betraying Cardassia and Tain. (EDIT: innocent! I meant innocent.)
Another possibility is that she started in Tain's service as Garak's childhood caregiver, but isn't actually his mother.
Another possibility is that she started in Tain's service as Garak's childhood caregiver, but isn't actually his mother.
Of course she was his mother. DS9, for all it's strengths, was very soap operatic.
That was my interpretation. That his mother died when he was very young and Mela essentially raised him. His father being emotionally absent, she filled the void his mother left. Even if she is "just a housekeeper" that bond would be just as strong as if she had been his real mother.
It's possible, but I think it more likely that Garak simply loved his nanny...
I believe that if she wasn't biologically his mother, she was certainly his mother in fact. More than a nanny in any event. The fondness he felt for her seemed genuine and her insights into him and her pride seemed very maternal.
Hey at least they knew not to try to make Ziyal into Kira's half-sister.
As for Mila, I could see it either way.
Temis the Vorta said:
Hey at least they knew not to try to make Ziyal into Kira's half-sister.
For a time there I was beginning to wonder. And was rolling my eyes at the prospect. I didn't need every major character related to each other in some way thanks
When Mela pleads with Garak to help Tain in "The Die is Cast," I got the distinct impression that she was more than a housekeeper, and appealing to Garak was more than wishing. The connections are there. Secrecy trumps all else in Garak's world so it doesn't surprise me that there isn't an overt acknowledgement by title.
DanTheGrey said:
Temis the Vorta said:
Hey at least they knew not to try to make Ziyal into Kira's half-sister.
For a time there I was beginning to wonder. And was rolling my eyes at the prospect. I didn't need every major character related to each other in some way thanks
Thing is, Mela being Garak's mother is not really that kind of a stretch. Knowing how fanatical Cardassians are about family and guessing how a totalitarian society could easily fall into a rigid caste system, it makes perfect sense that Tain could not acknowledge a relationship with a lowly housekeeper, much as historians have denied that Thomas Jefferson had a "relationship" with and children by his slave, Sally Hemmings. It also follows that Tain would then assume a twisted, fatherly relationship with his by necessity un-acknowledged son. Look how much Dukat sacrificed when he acknowledged Ziyal. (Of course, Mela is a Cardassian so the degree of taboo would probably be lesser.)
Looked at that way, Mela as Garak's mother is not soap operatic but a rather interesting take on social mores.
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