Anonymous asked:

I think one of the differences in at least how the audience views Garak vs Dukat is that, while he's still done horrible things that this in no way justifies, we see that Garak does actually care about at least some other people, while Dukat never seems to actually care about anyone but himself. Whether we see Garak's regard for other people, even just "his" people, as just inherently more sympathetic, or feel like it could more easily expand into broader compassion, I think it's a big factor.

kaelio answered:

See, I’ll probably pop back in here with a reblog to go into more detail when I’m more… sober, and though I thank you sincerely for your message and mean to engage with you in good faith, I don’t quite agree. I don’t think Dukat is as self-serving as the fandom seems to perceive. I think he’s arrogant and self-assured, but decisions like manning the Groumall and even sparing Ziyal are not in his individual best-interests. Even helping Sisko in The Maquis I/II, and even more so in The Defiant, is to try to avoid war. Sure, Dukat might perish in war–but he’s not fearful in that respect (see: the Groumall). If anything, war’s the opportunity for a Gul to earn his stripes. And I think that the way Dukat interacts with Damar suggests he genuinely cares about Damar as well, including his behavior in the final episodes where he is the one who finally puts Damar back onto a path of self-respect. 

I think that the fandom, at least the tumblr fandom, has a very weird read on Dukat I don’t quite agree with. Dukat’s a bad guy. But he’s a bad guy despite having genuinely good qualities. I think Tumblr culture has made people very hesitant to acknowledge the grays of a character. It reminds me of how, immediately post-911, people would get really mad if you told them Osama Bin Laden liked women’s volleyball. That’s a true fact, by the way. But people didn’t like the idea of knowing anything neutral or positive or relatable about him, because it made him harder to hate. Well… it’s possible to condemn someone without fomenting a semi-artificial purity to your hatred. You can hate the 95% and have that be enough, without deciding that for 100%’s sake, women’s volleyball is evil too. Intentionally confining things to black and white will lead you to misinterpret reality around you in a bid to make the world into something more certain than it is.