Was Kivas Fajo a better "merchant villain" then the Ferengi?

The Ferengi were always going to be the clowns of the franchise (like the Raxacoricofallapatorians in Doctor Who). Kivas Fajo was more serious, if a little eccentric. The way he talks to Data makes him sound rather like Willy Wonka.

 

No, the Ferengi were originally supposed to be one of the other "heavy" villains in the show since the Klingons were now our friends. They were never intended to be a joke but more of the humans having to look at themselves in the mirror and see their own past which is why the Ferengi are greedy predator capitalists. Not to mention stuff like Picard suggesting in EaF that the Ferengi "eat" their enemies and the Ferengi having played a role in the destruction of Picard's previous command.

It's just that their execution didn't play out right and they became jokes.

 

I thought the Ferengi were a little two-dimensional. They weren't very convincing as villains, although some of the episodes they were a part of were interesting.

Fajo was a lot more three-dimensional, and if the writers/actors/directors had infused the Ferengi with the same qualities Fajo had, they really could have been "the bad guys" in a very unique way.

I don't think it helped that they decided to make the Ferengi look really ridiculous (I am sure many will disagree). They don't exactly inspire fear based on how they look, no matter what the storyline is.

 

They do that a lot actually. Have the villain be somewhat one dimensional, but someone else in the episode be a bit more fleshed out. All in all, the Bok two episode arc worked really well for being Ferengi centric

I will admit that Fajo still made for a more compelling villain, overall... & yeah.... Rubinek. He's what made it so