Rewatching DS9, Major Kira and the Bajoran resistance, especially the episodes that deal with unclean hands, like “The Darkness and the Light” really hit different when watching today, vs my innocent childhood.
I don’t really have a point, just DS9 has aged like fine wine with new flavors with each season passing.
Molten hot take, but I never really cared for the Bajorans as a people. As in, I didn’t ever feel very invested in their story. Somehow they felt like the weakest part of DS9, and episodes about Bajoran society and the resistance (aside from Duet, which was quite good) tended to fall flat for me.
I much preferred the similar dynamic concept between the Centuari and the Narn in Babylon 5. For reasons I can’t quite articulate I felt a lot more for the oppression of the Narn.
I got super invested in emotions of Bajor… mostly the emotion was seething hate of Kai Winn… Space Karen made me feel hate more then I ever felt hate in a TV show.
Kai Winn is a special piece of fun to watch, but when she’s riling up the Bajorans, I find myself not caring about them as a whole.
I did care about Kira going from a terrorist to a government security officer and the struggles she had with the different world view approaches.
it was good writing, I always was sympathetic, but saw the struggle as real
Kira = John Wick. You try to leave the life behind, but the
streetsGuls keep calling.In B5, we heard about the oppression like the Bajorans. But then we got to see it again, first hand.
Vir: “I’m sorry. I wish there was something that I could do, but… I tried telling them, but they wouldn’t listen. They never listen. I’m sorry.”
G’kar pulls a knife and slices open his own hand. In time with the blood dripping from his hand, he says-
G’kar: “Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. How do you apologize to them?”
Vir: “I can’t.”
G’kar: “Then I cannot forgive.”
That scene, and the one in the council chambers with “… we will teach it to them again.” were some of the best moments of a show full of greats.
Here’s that scene, just for fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmuHNDcXLQ
I respect that people can have different reactions to things but I can’t imagine seeing Louise Fletcher and having anything but both glee and dread for a Kai Winn episode.
But that’s the thing right. We are supposed to care about the Bajorans as a people, but the most memorable leader in their society is completely hatable. She’s fun to watch, but at odds with making me care about the plight of the Bajorans.
As a comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3_9Xb3U1V4&start=105&end=0&pp=ygUQQmFieWxvbiA1IHNwZWVjaA%3D%3D
Narn seemed more oppressed because Bajor had an effective resistance and Narn was conquered twice by the Centauri.
The great thing about the Narn was that they started as the Cardassians but turned into the Bajorans.