Garak and Odo - Parallels
Odo and Garak are some of my favorite DS9 characters, and I was thinking yesterday that they have some similarities in their lives, and so I tried to put this together with this gifset and this lengthy meta.
1. Principles
Odo was respected by both Cardassians and Bajorans because of his sense of justice. Justice was the principle that always ruled Odo’s life, and a big part of his own personality, something that he always tried to follow in his life.
Duty to the state was always something that Garak preached as the right path for a Cardassian, and most of his actions can be seen as this way of thinking. Garak is very, very loyal to Cardassia and his duty to his planet.
(Ironically enough, Garak was exiled because he was more loyal to people than the state, and Odo’s sense of justice failed him just when his friends needed him the most.)
2. Shitty Fathers
Dr. Mora Pol wasn’t really Odo’s father, but he was the only father figure that Odo ever had, and Odo even moulded himself physically after him. And while Mora Pol was a Bajoran scientist working under a Cardassian occupation and he didn’t knew what kind of life form Odo was or if he was even alive, he was a very shitty father. Most of time he refused to acknowledge how bad his actions affected Odo, and he forced himself as a parent figure in Odo’s presence even when Odo clearly didn’t want to see him. Their relationship is strained at the very, very best.
Enabran Tain is even worst. He tried to get Garak murdered more than once, and all his life he always refused to acknowledge Garak as his son. And contrary to Odo, who usually ignored Mora, Garak was loyal to Tain at the very end, searched for him when everyone else thought Tain was already dead. He wanted to be seen as Tain’s son at least once, wanted to have all his efforts recognized, and even in his last minutes of life, his father is still denying to give this to him.
3, Genocide
It’s hardly fair to blame Odo for the actions of his future!alternate!self, but it’s interesting to notice what Odo could have turned it, if circumstances were favourable. Future Odo was willing to kill an entire planet population just by the small chance that the woman he loved would live; he sacrificed an entire culture for one person’s life.
Now we can totally blame Garak for being fucked up, but it’s interesting to notice that Garak’s position is exactly the opposite; he was willing to die and willing to kill his friends and an entire species if it meant that the Alpha Quadrant (especially Cardassia) would be spared from a war with the Dominion.
4. Being an Outsider
Since he became conscious of his own existence, Odo was an outsider. He never met anyone of his species, and neither did any other else; there was literally no one else like him. His outsider status simultaneously made him somewhat bitter for how he was treated and eager to meet his own people, and at the same time, ‘comfortable’ with himself. I hesitate a little in say ‘comfortable’, but what I mean is that he became highly respected in his profession and both sides of a war saw him with respect; he wasn’t hated or seen as enemy.
Garak always knew where he came from. He was raised as a Cardassian, trained as a skilled agent, and always had a deeply sense of connection and patriotism with his planet. His outsider status was a punishment for his conduct, and Garak had to live between the people who was enslaved and killed by the Cardassians for decades, so naturally he was seen as either an enemy, as someone to hate or at the very best someone to be very wary of. Odo was maybe conformed to be an outsider, but Garak never found any peace in being one.
5. Saying Goodbye to Loved Ones
Odo was leaving the station with the intention of living between his people in the Great Link. He was willing doing it, but it still meant saying goodbye to everyone, including Kira. Kira was his friend for many, many years, and more recently a lover; he always loved her, even before he was aware that he did. It isn’t easy to say goodbye to someone you love, but Odo isn’t sad; part of him always knew that he would be living with his people someday. Kira is a bit sad, but mostly she is happy for him; before they separate, they exchange tender words and Odo even 'put on’ his tux, saying that his is how he wants Kira to remember him. It’s a bittersweet goodbye, but it’s more sweet than bitter.
This is not the case to Garak and Bashir. Garak is finally on Cardassia, the place he wanted to come back since his exile, and yet… his homeworld is gone. Almost everything was destroyed, and there is too many deaths, and both Garak and Bashir know how bad the situation is. If Odo is coming back to his people in the right time to be saviour, Garak is coming to his people too late, and his only option is to put together the broken pieces that were left. Their goodbye is sad, because Garak knows the future is going to be bleak, and Bashir is heartbroken because he knows it too. They’re saying goodbye to each other, maybe forever, and they’re saying it in the worst circumstances.
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