My secret suspicion is, owing to some of the later lines and even their having set up Garak to kill the last Weyoun, that the original plan was to have Garak die in the DS9 finale, not Damar (for whom killing the last Weyoun would have been poignant). Honestly, it makes more thematic sense. He dies having returned to Cardassia, having finally fought for it the right way, in a redemptive moment for the character. However, rest assured, fuuuuuuuuuck that
Killing Damar is also baffling in the context of this exchange:
GARAK: One of our listening posts picked up a message. The Dominion has succeeded in locating Damar’s family.
DAMAR: They’re dead. They weren’t a part of this rebellion. The Dominion knew that, the Founder knew that. Weyoun knew that. To kill her and my son. The casual brutality of it. A waste of life. What kind of state tolerates the murder of innocent women and children? What kind of people give those orders?
KIRA: Yeah, Damar, what kind of people give those orders?
Then Garak makes the point that Damar will have to shed his romanticism to be a good leader moving forward. Only, after this he basically just dies, so this exchange really doesn’t matter at all. In this context, it was pointless and hurtful, because Damar never goes on to lead a new Cardassia; whether he romanticizes the past is irrelevant, as he was already committed to the Rebellion which he does not survive.
This is one of those examples I pull out of DS9 prioritizing “moments” but not thinking about them as they pertain to actual serialized storytelling. It’s effective in the moment, and “real life” might work in this way, but as a narrative, which is what deliberately-scripted fiction on the television is, this is … fuckin’ weird. What Kira said to him should be foreshadowing about how he will perceive his leadership role moving forward, not what it ultimately becomes in the context of the rest of Damar’s short life (an irrelevant dig).
the logical garak death is he dies on cardassia in the rebellion offensive and instead of the garak & bashir goodbye scene, we instead see bashir go into his quarters, find the data rod that actually was there the whole time, and instead of eat it (obviously), instead he puts it into the computer and a pre-recorded message comes up. “my dear doctor,”
Oh my fucking God, ALL OF THIS.
