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Who is the Most Moral DS9 Character?

Who is the most moral, ethical character?


  • Total voters
    25
Being uncompromising does not make you moral it just makes you a dictator

It depends on if you are talking about subscription to a moral code or positing an absolute, universal moral standard. The FC held to a certain code with terrible constancy. If I hold that my personal moral code is the universally right one, then she is immoral (being that I don't hold with galactic domination and slaughter). But if you consider her morality as holding to her own moral code, she was impeccable.
 
It depends on if you are talking about subscription to a moral code or positig an absolute, universal moral standard. The FC held to a certain code with terrible constancy. If I hold that my personal moral code is the universally right one, the she is amoral (being that I don't hold with galactic domination and slaughter). But if you consider her morality as holding to her own moral code, she was impeccable.
Then she was about as 'moral' as the Borg
 
2. Bashir. He might be the product of amoral behaviour (enhancement by his parents), but he his a good doctor, bound to the Hippocratic Oath.
Worf: "This is my brother, he just passed out drunk, please erase his memory and his identity before he wakes up again."
Bashir: "You sure about this?"
Worf: "Yes."
Bashir: "Alright, there you go."
 
Worf: "This is my brother, he just passed out drunk, please erase his memory and his identity before he wakes up again."
Bashir: "You sure about this?"
Worf: "Yes."
Bashir: "Alright, there you go."

That's the special thing about DS9. Almost every character has moments which are morally dubious. This one was definitely one. Kurn could have committed suiced elsewhere and not aboard DS9. There he was hindered by the Federation ethics not to stand by when someone wants help with committing suicide.
 
That's the special thing about DS9. Almost every character has moments which are morally dubious. This one was definitely one. Kurn could have committed suiced elsewhere and not aboard DS9. There he was hindered by the Federation ethics not to stand by when someone wants help with committing suicide.
But this goes beyond morally dubious. Nobody said he should be allowed to have assisted suicide aboard DS9, and it's fine if Federation ethics forbid that. But erasing his memory without his consent has nothing to do with that, it goes a thousand steps further, and I doubt it is covered by Federation ethics.
 
Dax was also involved. She took care of Kurn being treated when he had already stabbed himself. He was treated against his wishes.

I also voted for Odo. But he also did something wrong. He killed a Founder. He was punished but later saved by the baby changeling.
 
Again, not the same thing. Saving the life of someone who's dying may (in this case) not be in Kurn's interest, but I'm pretty sure that's within Federation ethics. Erasing his personality without consent, I'm equally sure it's not. Not to mention the Hippocratic Oath.

Don't get me wrong, otherwise I learned to greatly respect Bashir, in my opinion this is one of those cases where one writer casually f*cks up a character for one script. Still, it's pretty bad.
 
In Kurn's case, he was hell bent on killing himself. That memory erasing was the only solution that didn't involve his death. Yes, his personality is basically dead, but I think that scenario falls power of attorney, or the Federation equivalent.

I still feel Bashir kept to his Oath as best he could.
 
So if you disagree with someone's wish, you're free to do with him whatever you like? I fail to see the ethics in that.
 
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Since Kurn was unconcious, Bashir asked his nearest relative, Worf. A little iffy, but not as awful as you're making it sound.
 
Since Kurn was unconcious, Bashir asked his nearest relative, Worf. A little iffy, but not as awful as you're making it sound.
And because it would take a few hours for you to regain consciousness, your brother has the right to erase your memory?
 
How is Odo winning this? All those times he let bad things go down because he was having a good time with the female changeling.
 
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In judging the most 'moral' character you of course run into the philosophical problem of whether there is such a thing as a universal morality to use as a benchmark, or whether all such judgements are essentially culturally relative. Now, I tend to think that it's useful to preserve a notion of cultural relativism when discussing real life morality, because in that case its useful for discussing how 'evil' regimes and acts like genocide can come to be constructed by particular societies as perfectly rational and 'moral' acts (such as in nazi germany for instance). In other words without remembering that cultural notions of 'morality' can be twisted to justify horrific behaviour we leave ourselves vulnerable to repeating those behaviours while thinking that 'ours' is the most universal and basic morality. I don't know how applicable this is to describing fictional characters and societies however, as in this case its all made up anyway and the setting kind of comes with an in-built morality scale specific to our own culture - the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good, at least most of the time.

It might perhaps be useful in this case to think of a matrix like d&d character alignments; with an axis of 'lawful' (respect for society's rules) to 'chaotic' (rebelliousness and individualism), and an axis of 'good' (altruism and respect for life) to 'evil' (selfishness and no respect for life). I'd argue Odo is probably the most lawful character of DS9, and probably a good or at least neutral alignment. Someone like Rom, Jake or Leeta is probably more 'good' than Odo but not necessarily more lawful. The female changeling on the other hand is textbook lawful evil, believing firmly in the rules of her society but also embracing the selfish 'superiority' of that society over all other life. Sisko or even Garak on the other hand are probably examples of chaotic good, willing to break all the rules pretty much but generally for altruistic reasons.
 
Rom ended up being a good guy, but he tried to kill his own brother in The Nagus (with the help of the Nagus's son, who mysteriously disappears over the course of the series).
 
Children of Time was a different version of Odo, if he had lived 200 years in a timeline that never happened.
Things Past was an error, not a moral failure.
Crossfire, again, was an error. He got distracted and failed.
Behind the Lines is really the one time the prime timeline Odo started putting his desire to be close with his people first.
Except that it nearly caused the alpha quadrant To lose
 
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