Jadzia Dax and Kes: How they both had the potential to stay.
So this is a thought I've been having for a while, but eseentially I was thinking about Dax's death in DS9, how the producers were AWFUL to Terry Farrel and the writers and her castmates hated to see her go and didn't want her to leave, how it basically is star trek's very first bury ur gays death since Dax is bi…. and even though I really love Ezri and they did a good job with her story in the final season, killing off Dax like that, even if its well written, still feels like a sore wound to me after all these years.
And you know the DAMNDEST thing about all this…. You could literally have the entire last season and that entire story play out pretty much the same without Dax dying. Yes even having Ezri as well in basically the same role. It's so goddamn simple.
Basicaly, instead of dying, Jadzia is heavily, badly injured by Dukat's attack. It's not COMPLETELY fatal, but it basically puts her into one of those "oh we're not sure if she's going to wake up" kind of comas, effectively doing her death with all the dramaticness without actually killing her. She's basically put into some kind of stasis pod, due to the fact the pah-wraith prophet energy did something weird and strange to her body when she was injured. Sisko still fucking hates himself over it and thus takes his leave of abscence from DS9.
During this time, Dr Bashir works day and night to try and help Jadzia recover. He even works out a way of cloning the symbiont inside of her to basically at least in a way preseve her memories for a new host, but still trying his best to save her. Worf also visits her, kinda like how Mr Freeze from Batman usually looks over his frozen wife.
The cloned symbiont of Dax is sent back to Trill for safekeeping… and that's how you still do Ezri Dax. The rest of the season plays out basically the same, with Ezri joining the DS9 crew. She has a bit of an arc of basically having the memories of a woman who isn't technically dead still in her mind. She tries her best to adjust to being this new Dax, while also acknowleding that there is another Dax still around. She eventually starts to feel like Jadzia is in a way like a sister to her.
This all goes on for another season, but eventually in the finale, Jadzia is healed somehow and comes back in the finale to aid in the final battle for Cardassia. Ezri does still end up dating Bashir but pretty much, you have the last season of DS9 with Dax still around. Because I'm a girl who likes having my cake and eating it too.
Similarly, I've felt they could have easily had both Kes and Seven of Nine on voyager at the same time. That Kes could have been someone who could have helped Seven adjust to her new life aboard the ship, both with her telepathic powers and as someone who a few years earlier was new to Voyager herself and has become accustomed to life there.
Granted with Kes, I don't know exactly what would have happened if she had stayed on the ship. Like, a story I read the other day from an old Star Trek elseworld's anthology collection did have her powers still evovlving to the point where she's essentially a telepathic goddess and she actually gets back together with Neelix again and they start a family together, so maybe they'd have done that, but I feel like that's not exactly a whole lot to go on. But then again, maybe they'd have figured out something else to do with her as well. But point is, there was no genuine reason story wise to get rid of her.
Point is… both of these ladies didn't need to be booted off and that just saddens me to this day.
