Why exactly was Garak exiled from Cardasssia?
Why exactly was Garak exiled from Cardasssia?
- Thread starter The Overlord
- Start date
It's intentionally left open. Someone once told me Andrew J. Robinson's follow-up novel actually answers it directly but I can't confirm it.
With Garak you never know, but here are his stories, I guess one is correct:
- He first claimed he was a Gul in the Cardassian Mechanized Infantry and was exiled for killing several Cardassians, including his first officer, a man named Elim, as well as the daughter of a prominent military official, who were on board a transport going from Bajor to space station Terok Nor, when he destroyed it. Garak thought he was in fact killing members of the Bajoran Resistance who were planning to sabotage Terok Nor.
- He then changed his story to say that as he and his assistant Elim were interrogating a group of Bajoran children he felt pity for them and let them go instead of turning them over to be executed. He was exiled when Elim turned him in to the authorities.
- Garak also said that he was exiled after being framed by his best friend Elim with evidence that a member of the Obsidian Order was allowing Bajoran prisoners to escape.
I always took his 'all of them and none of them' response at the end of the episode to suggest one of two things: either they were all farce but truth is in the eye of the beholder or, perhaps more likely, it was actually a mishmash of all three and no single story is entirely accurate.
Well all of those sound incorrect, because Garak is Elim.
In "Improbable Cause" Tain mentioned that Garak betrayed him, but we never got any sense that Garak would ever be disloyal to Tain. I wondered what crime would be so horrific that Tain would exile his own son, unless Tain is one of the most petty monsters in Star Trek history.
You have to get inside the Cardassian mind a little. Order in all things. Obedience to the state. Then you take Enabran Tain -- by all rhyme and reason the very pinnacle of such things judging by his place in Cardassian society -- and such harsh punishment makes sense. And Garak, ever the Cardassian, puts on the front that he's completely understanding of it; ready and willing to agree with his lot in life.
I think the person was trying to say the truth is in the above. But the fact is that we'll never really know because we know so little about what was really true or not true with what Garek said.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
For not paying taxes.
That's my favourite "truth" (it's not a lie, I'm certain it's not
).
That's my favourite "truth" (it's not a lie, I'm certain it's not
).
They should really start reprinting a Stitch In Time in hardcover and softcover edition.
Still with the Cardassian obsession with the family, you would think Tain would be unwilling to exile his own son. Unless Tain is disdainful of the Cardassian obsession with family. I kinda wonder why Tain was so willing to turn his back on his own son.
^
It was made pretty clear that Tain didn't really think of Garak as his son. The maid was more of a mother to Garak than Tain was a father. And wasn't there a line in the Dominion prison that Tain should have killed Garak's mother? Been awhile since I've seen it...
So, I can see Tain puttin' the state above the son he never really wanted anyway.
EXILE!
It was made pretty clear that Tain didn't really think of Garak as his son. The maid was more of a mother to Garak than Tain was a father. And wasn't there a line in the Dominion prison that Tain should have killed Garak's mother? Been awhile since I've seen it...
So, I can see Tain puttin' the state above the son he never really wanted anyway.
EXILE!
It was clearly for not paying his taxes.
Governments, both real and fictional, are more than willing to let you do things like kill daughters of prominent politicians, let rebel insurgents escape and falsify government documents in order to betray your best friend.
But, by God, if you don't pay your taxes, they'll drop the Sword of Damocles on you in a heartbeat.
Governments, both real and fictional, are more than willing to let you do things like kill daughters of prominent politicians, let rebel insurgents escape and falsify government documents in order to betray your best friend.
But, by God, if you don't pay your taxes, they'll drop the Sword of Damocles on you in a heartbeat.
"A Stitch in Time" is available in eBook format.
Thing is that Garak clearly did SOMETHING very "wrong", which even he admitted in saying "I never betrayed you - at least, not in my heart!"
Maybe it was a sin of omission/laziness, or something where he intended to "make it up to Tain" and got caught before he did (maybe the taxes thing held a grain of truth - embezzlement?)...
Neither would I. Garak was always best as a mystery. It depends. How much you like him affects what reason you think it might be.
Tain might have seen him as a weakness as he said on his deth bed. Could have ruined his political career like it did Gul Dukat for a bit. But then considering all the sneaky going ons of Cardassia you'd think someone would find out Garak was his son.
Perhaps Tain had more heart than we realised and thought he could save garak from living like he had.
Who knows?
True, but "family" is ingrained in Cardassians... even in creepy ones like Dukat. He may have done it instead of having Garak executed... as Garak does seem like someone who would try to get around killing too many innocents, etc.
I always believed Garak was the Obsidian Orders spy on Terak Nor and then was told to stay put and become a spy on the Federation after they took over. His "exile" was being given such a demeaning post on Terak Nor, a Cardassian controlled station watching over a subjugated people. Not much use for a spy there except to try and find out about the resistance.
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