I just rewatched it and now I remember why it stuck in my brain so much for so long.
Marritzas portrayal of Gul Darhe'el being so much more about his own guilt, about him reconing woth the banality of his evil. With the fact that he was just a cog in a giant murder mashine. Just a file clerk that never murdered a man by his own hand but enabled the murder of thausandths, maybe millions of innocense.
He cannot die as Marritza. He cant.
Because if he dies as Marritza it has no weight. No meaning. It wont mollify the bajorans and it wont calm his own guilt. It wont fprce Cardassia to face its own evil.
Instead he has to die as Darhe'el. Has to get himself executed as Darhe'el. He has to give the Bajorans SOMETHING. He has to force Cardassia to face itself and change and grow.
But it changes nothing. Because Kira cant kill a man that dares to try and become better. So, he gets killed as Marritza. Not even in trial.
We flatter you, sir, we flatter you!: The best Cardassians in Star Trek
By Ames
We’re wrapping up our series of alien species discussions with one of our favorite Star Trek races: the Cardassians! These are a people that are so varied that it’s a relief from more monocultural societies. Instead, we get to see all kinds of individual motivations that make our reptilian friends tick. Whether they’re fascinating villains, redeemed heroes, or (more likely) a little bit of both, these are the best of the best that A Star to Steer Her By has compiled for you!
Cardassians concoct some of the best-laid schemes of the show, even outdoing the best Romulans we discussed previously. Check out our favorite spoon-headed friends below, listen to our discussion on this week’s podcast episode (Cardi chatter at 1:00:08), and pour yourself some kanar as we toast the Cardassian Union!
How could I not pick some of the most villainous, secretive, manipulative characters we’ve met in all of Star Trek? I’ll start things off with our favorite gul whose layered portrayal, self-serving motivation, and sexy swagger drive him head, neck, and shoulders (but especially neck) above the competition. Let’s also give some praise to Tain’s housekeeper who has hinted depths that Andy Robinson makes canon in A Stitch in Time, and to the nefarious Orwellian agent from TNG who had Picard seeing who knows how many lights?
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Chris – Shades of obsidian
Garak
Damar
Marritza
We see in Chris’s favorite Cardassians how a character can go from toady in an evil government to rebel for a good cause on their way to redemption, or at least as close as they can get with the number of literal skeletons in their closets. There is a thick grey area for characters like the former Obsidian Order operative turned simple tailor, for the right-hand man to a tyrant turned revolutionary leader, and to the file clerk turned martyr for the people his kind nearly obliterated, and we salute them!
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Jake – A few good lizard men
Marritza
Damar
Ghemor
Jake’s picks turn out to be good people at heart, contrary to the totalitarian nature that drives most Cardassians. Early in DS9, we were fans of the lowly file clerk who concocted a needlessly elaborate scheme to bring about some much warranted justice. Later, we got to watch the full realization of one character who sees the Dominion for what they truly are and sacrifices himself for the cause. And pour one out for the rebellious father who tries to save his daughter only for someone who looks like his daughter to save him.
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Caitlin – Wanna spoon?
Ghemor
Rejal
Garak
Caitlin put together a list of Cardassians who follow their hearts and do what they do for the love of family, romance, and maybe just some lunch with a cute Starfleet doctor. We were fully sympathetic to the secret rebel who formed a fatherly kinship with Kira through their couple episodes together. DS9 gave us some great awkward tomfoolery when a young Cardassian scientist got the hots for O’Brien of all people. And what else can we say about Gar/shir that slashfic all over the internet hasn’t already planted in our wildest imaginations?
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Those are all the alien races we’re covering for this blog series, so thank you for taking this trip through the galaxy’s family tree with us. There will be plenty more topics for us to explore as we get through more Trek, so continue following along here, keep up with our trip through the Delta Quadrant on SoundCloud, hail us on Facebook and Twitter, and count how many lights you see. We’ll wait…
Someone said "I'm glad that ds9 let the Bajorans grieve without being gaslighted by the Cardassians", but I'm currently watching a war criminal gaslighting and taunting Kira & wondering... Were they being sarcastic?
Hello! I really like your blog and the am in awe because of the effort you put into Kardasi! It is really awesome and I am impressed by your work. Since you are so interested in Cardassians, I’d like to ask what you think about Aamin Marritza and the episode ”Duet” in general.
Thank you, friend. I appreciate your kind words, though there are certainly many people who have contributed more to the development of Kardasi than I have!
To be honest, I have not watched Duet many times. In fact, I rewatched it this evening just so I could answer this more accurately. I know it’s a very important episode, in terms of what the writers were trying to establish for the future of relations between Bajor and Cardassia, as well as the progress that we hoped Cardassia might make and Kira’s personal arc. However, I’ve always had a little difficulty with the episode - and this is very much just a personal issue and no reflection on the quality of the writing and the performances - because the gentleman who played Marritza also played the judge in Ghostbusters II. So every time I see him, especially when he starts shouting, I’m like, “Hey, it’s the judge from Ghostbusters II.” He similarly yelled about burning people at the stake in that movie. I don’t mean to detract from the poignancy of the episode. As I said, it’s just something that I found to be distracting personally.
So, with that in mind, I do think it’s a very important episode and really sets the tone for a lot of what we see in DS9 in general. I think it was a fascinating character study, and a reminder that not all Cardassians are uber-militarized one-dimensional antagonists. But is Marritza really innocent? I’m reminded of a post I’ve seen floating around about ‘what did we call people who stood back in Germany and did nothing during WWII - we called them Nazis.’ I am paraphrasing, of course, but the point is it’s not so clear cut to say he was blameless. As Kira says at the end of the episode, yes, he was only one man, but he also did nothing. Was there anything he could have done? I don’t know. Maybe. I do think he was right in saying that his trial would force Cardassia to confront what it had done and that was the only way for it to repent and move in a more positive direction (fortunately, I think Damar came to a similar conclusion, though it took the occupation of his own homeworld for that to happen). I also think that Cardassia could have used more people like him, so it’s unfortunate that he died. I don’t know. I really have mixed feelings about it. But I don’t think he deserved what happened to him and he really could have been useful to the dissident movement and later the Rebellion.
Hope this makes sense. I’m a little out of it right now. I enjoyed the question though! Feel free to send me asks any time!
I’m glad they gave us Duet as an early episode. It exposed us to another side of the Cardassians we didn’t think existed. Those who regretted the Occupation. Those who could not stand what was happening. And even though Marritza did nothing back then, it exposed us to the terrible reality of the Occupation.
So far all we’ve seen is Garak’s evasiveness and some guile, and Gul Dukat’s self-important posturing. We see Cardassians as arrogant and ruthless monsters.
And there were those. There are those. But Duet gave us a chance to see that reconciliation and forgiveness aren’t impossible. And that not all Cardassians wanted what happened. We got to see the file clerk, the desk job man who was exposed to the harsh realities of the other side and couldn’t handle it.
I’m glad Duet was an early episode so we could get an overall, more rounded view of Cardassians.
In the role of Aamin Marritza, a Cardassian file clerk posing as an infamous war criminal in hiding, Yulin gives a dynamic performance, first as a sadistic orator and then making a hundred-eighty degree turn as a cowardly and remorseful confessor. The actor was apparently exhausted from the make-up and filming schedule for the show, but, whether the weariness fed into the representation of a stressed and sickly individual or whether Yulin’s abilities simply overcame it, the result is the same: a sympathetic, desperate, and honorable man using what little resources he has to make the greatest sacrifice he can to help his homeland and address his own complicity.
This is the first time we see humanity among the Cardassians in Deep Space Nine. It’s only fitting that we experience it through Kira, who herself has seen the worst Cardassia can offer and has, until now, made hating Cardassians a necessary part of her survival. Marritza gives Kira and the audience hope for Cardassia’s future and our first occurrence of the Cardassian Rebellion’s battle cry: “For Cardassia!”
