was thinking about how both sisko and bashir have what i think of as “cardassian interlocuters” aka a cardassian character who acts as their Other/shadow self/nemesis/mentor and who is also deeply, deeply drawn to both men. garak being attracted to bashir is obvious, and dukat is positively obsessed with sisko. he’s consumed with a desire to both oust sisko and understand how sisko earned the love and trust of not only the bajorans but their gods. his journey throughout the show parallels sisko’s - the deeper sisko moves into accepting his role as emissary, the deeper dukat moves into evil and desperation until he eventually becomes a cult leader for the pah-wraiths, going right back to sexually exploiting bajoran women and mass-killing bajorans when he needs to cut his losses.
garak meanwhile moves in a different direction. he doesn’t abandon his cardassian ideals, but he comes to see how federation ideals can sometimes be useful, and his collaborations with the federation are honest even when they’re self serving, and while he struggles with the guilt of betraying his people, he understands why he needs to betray them in order to save them. he’s not hung up on earning the love and trust of the bajorans - in fact he openly admits that the cardassians committed atrocities against them, unlike dukat who tries to whitewash his crimes. he comes to respect and treasure bashir’s friendship as well as bashir’s ideals, even if he doesn’t always agree with them. he learns from bashir’s example of humanitarian values that cardassian imperialism has done more harm than good, and concludes the show in league with a former bajoran terrorist, taking orders from her, respecting her, and even risking is life for her. garak allows himself to be transformed by his encounter with humanity, while dukat digs in his heels and descends further into destructive ideals of supremacy. (bell hooks’ discussion of “eating the Other” is relevant for dukat literally taking on the form of a bajoran in the final episodes)
there is of course a lot to be said about how both dukat and garak help shape sisko and bashir into who they are by the end of the show. both sisko and bashir learn to stand firmer in their truth because of their cardassian interlocuters, and some of their most soul-searching episodes are with these interlocuters - that’s after all the interlocuters’ purpose. from a doylist perspective, i think it’s really fascinating how DS9 gave the two men of color in their principal cast these Others, interloucters from an alien race based strongly on german fascists but also embodying an amalgamation of fascist, xenophobic, imperialist ideologies. i think about andy robinson saying (and i’m paraphrasing) “bashir is the best that humanity has to offer” and how garak confronts himself because he’s confronted with this ideal of humanity. and if we extend that analysis to sisko as well, who is himself a paradigm, and if we return to that meta perspective, DS9 is making a rich, complex, worthy-of-discussion racial statement by choosing two characters of african descent, two brown men as avery brooks would say, to counterpoint, contrast, and challenge the alien embodiments of fascism.
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