I’d contend that the O’Brien one needs to be changed slightly.
O’Brien foolishly believes there is something which cannot be taken from him. It is taken away from him while forcing him to endure incomprehensible levels of psychological and emotional torment.
There’s a post I saw ages ago which said a lot of O’Brien episodes can also be summarized as “Watch the Irishman suffer” and that has never really left my brain. Just living there rent free.
I always love the Watch the Irishman Suffer episodes.
I would also personally modify the Quark one, because sometimes they show his (repressed) compassionate side.
And sometimes he takes the dignity of everyone else down along with his own.
Yeah he’s definitely shown to have a soft spot, it’s just that he views it as a moral failing, and not a redeeming characteristic
Very fair point. It’s rare but it does exist somewhere under all of that makeu- I mean flesh.
It is surprising how much PTSD he has for someone who’s just supposed to fix the ship
That’s why he’s so good at fixing things. He can’t fix himself, so he puts all his effort into fixing everything around him instead.
Basically this but with fixing things.
Both of them have PTSD because of Cardassians. Shaxs and O’Brien should do group therapy.
That would actually make for an incredible Lower Decks scene that fits perfectly in universe and in show.
And maybe it could give a clue as to why he’s the most important person in Starfleet history!
Well, this comment hit a little too close to home.
Like every good Irishman, he projects.
Garak is a simple tailor. He resolves an impossible situation in the least tailorly way possible yet somehow maintains plausible deniability.
I remember one episode when he is not on drugs, and starts telling truths to everybody. That one explains him.
His takedown of Ezri articulates exactly how I felt about the character shift in general
Lol not in drugs that took me a second to comprehend but your a totally right.
the least tailorly way possible
I don’t know, I think he usually finds a way to thread the needle.
Tbh, Garak is just: Kingsman, but make it star trek.
Jake naively and brashly tries to explore some aspect of himself for personal growth…
The one thing that I always remember about Jake Sisko was an episode where he was trying to hide something from his dad, and at the end of the episode, dear old dad catches him trying to teach a young Ferengi how to read.
Everyone in-universe feels about Jake the way that everyone out of universe feels about Wesley.
Alternative episode: Sisko believes that he can solve something in the normal, intended way and not a horrible, fucked up way. He solves it with baseball.
Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack.
—Rule of Acquisition 109
- Quark believes that he has made some profit. He loses it.
Rom: “Well brother, I suppose the real profit was the friends we made along the way.”
Quark: “What?! No. I’m docking your pay for that.”
Rom: “hey brother, remember the time I led a strike against you, put you in a position to lose everything, got you beaten nearly to death by Nausicans, then when you finally met my demands violating Ferenghi law and risking your business license I told everyone to take the deal and I quit?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to do anything to you about it.”
“Because you forgive me, brother?”
“No, because I’m pretty sure that light fixture over there is actually Odo.”
“You know, I might be Nagus one day, and then you’ll be sorry you treated me this way!”
“Pfft, yeah, right! Keep dreaming…but do it on your own time!”
I saw that one last night, “The Abandoned”.
One of them.
If you don’t need money, then you certainly don’t need mine.
I haven’t yet been able to watch DS9 from beginning to end … I’ve seen episodes here and there but never saw the entirety.
So my question is
What about these Garrick episodes I keep hearing about?
Garak? Why, he’s just a simple tailor
There are no Garak episodes. Why would anyone want to watch an episode about a mere tailor
I always loved that … in an age of replicator technology, instant manufacturing and duplication, automated systems and digital recreations … no one ever finds it unusual that there is an individual of the species that was a former military opponent posing as an old school clothing merchant on a space station.
It would be like having a simple humble scientist from 1940s Germany working as a common rocket engineer in the American space program in the 1960s … weird right?
To quote Lower Decks:
Mariner: I think it was the chef in the biolab with the sniper rifle that can shoot through walls.
Freeman: You always pick the chef.
Mariner: Yeah, because we have replicators. Why is there a chef? That’s just shady.
View it as a luxury service. Even in a world with replicators, people enjoy cooking but see it as more special. Getting your clothing made or adjusted by a tailor is also a sort of luxury. There’s a certain touch that comes with a person creating a thing that you can’t get from a computer.
Yup I have to save this post. I agree with folks about Quark, however I’ll add the wrinkle that the things that make Quark grow emotionally only serve too shred his dignity among the Ferengi.
Also occasionally we remember the Marquis exist and have an episode about them. Sisko comes up with basically the same solution as always, but at least it’s not the Dominion.
Quark only had that shred of dignity because he planned to sell it to the highest bidder like any good ferengi would.
😢
