(Posts tagged WHAT HAVE YOU DONE)

tinsnip

Okay. It’s incredibly common in the fanfic. And every single time it gives me the yigg.

Garak tells Bashir about a Cardassian tradition, OR gives him this piece of jewelry, OR fakes this illness, and Bashir respects the tradition/wears the jewelry/tries to treat the illness, and it leads to sexy times, and yee hah, and Bashir asks about the tradition/jewelry/illness, and Garak is all I MADE IT UP TO GET IN YOUR PANTS/IT’S A BETROTHAL RING HA HA WE’RE ENGAGED NOW/THAT ILLNESS ISN’T REAL I JUST WANTED TO SEX YOU.

And Bashir’s always all, oh, you rascal, let’s sexy times again.

And I just can’t help thinking that lying to get into someone’s pants is very different from lying to entertain, or to protect oneself. If I were Bashir, I’d be horribly embarrassed and very turned off. Especially with that betrothal jewelry bullshit. Seriously, don’t lie about that.

I’m thinking too much. But it’s a weird trope and I don’t like it.

ladyyatexel

No, this is totally a legit thing. I started writing a giant spiel in a draft post about the things that Garak gets away with as a Cardassian versus what he can get with as a human (because pizza), and then there were definitely things that he should not get away with in either circumstance and “oh, lol, now we’re engaged/sleeping together because I am mocking/exploiting your lack of knowledge about my culture~” is not one of them.

Garak’s lying is fun because most of it is an invitation to figure him out (the rest is, like you said, self-preservation). Lying to sleep with someone is ridiculously skeevy and I think can be classified as rape under some places’ laws. And I’m pretty sure Garak is not this despicable.

WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT OF ‘NO’, I get really frowny when Bashir is referred to as a ‘boy’ because A) fuck epithets, and, more importantly, B) Bashir is a fucking adult. He might be a young one, he might be totally doofy and kind of naive when this shit starts. He might have eyes fit for a Disney movie and possibly the hair and smile as well, but he’s a MAN. He has a fucking medical degree, can we stop it with boy? I understand there is an age difference. I rather like it, even! But let’s stop with trying to ratchet it up to creepy levels AND infantilzing Bashir.

muiromem

I have come across these sort of things so many times while reading fic and THANK YOU GUYS YOU ACTUALLY GET IT. I hate it when they have Garak call him “boy”. This stuff just bugs the crap out of me.

Not to mention one of my own more minor pet peeves is how often I see things going completely one-sided with their relationship. I understand that Julian always showed an interest in Garak and his culture, but relationships are supposed to be a compromise between both people involved. It bothers me when I read a fic and Julian is is the who tries to learn to the language, customs, rules, and such about Cardassians (which is great) but then Garak just stays exactly how he is and people kind of ignore human customs, ideals, and such.

Don’t get me wrong tough, I mean I’m one of a bunch of us who hold on to our personal headcanon that he and Garak go live on Cardassia and adopt a bunch of war orphans and of course Julian would need to learn about Cardassian culture if he’s going to live there. But like, for a very quickly grabbed (and probably crappy) example, nearly every fic I have read has the two of them being “bonded” or whatnot the Cardassian way, but never do I hear mention of them getting married like humans do. This is in no way a bad thing, but I sometimes feel like the authors just dismiss any notion that Julian might want to hold on to his own culture. It’s just little things like that I guess.

~~and this has been a longer jumble of half-thought out opinions than I expected woops don’t bite my head off anyone please~~

ladyyatexel

Not to excuse it, because I don’t, and I would rather they share, but I wonder if people do this as some sort of unconscious attempt to undo some of the “HUMANS ARE THE BEST, DO IT THE HUMAN WAY” that happens on a lot of shows? I think Star Trek tries very hard both to show that the human way is not the best way, and then goes and tries just as hard to show the Federation way is the best way (which is mostly ‘the human way), so there’s some conflict in how things are presented. I feel like we very rarely see a planet ultimately get along just fine without the Federation values. Like, we start watching the Ferengi culture change into something the Federation would like more (which is thankfully spurred by a Ferengi woman and not some people who swooped in telling her she was oppressed like some colonial bullshit), and while it was a good thing in that case, it seems that is just keeps happening with every planet they encounter. ‘Silly aliens, this thing you’re doing is dumb!’ Do we see the Federation ever running into a new world and going “MY GOD, THEY HAVE A GOOD THING HERE, LET’S USE IT!” rather than just eating everyone up?

So maybe it’s a counter to that and that people feel there’s some sort of romance in giving up your own shit for someone? And people feel bad making Garak do that because, ‘oh, isn’t it predictable for us humans to think our ways are superior, and dammit Federation, stop it. I’ll write Bashir going Cardassian instead!’

And then everyone does that and Bashir and Garak don’t share.

tinsnip

I am banging my actual head on my actual table. It’s really quite an interesting feeling. You’re right, you’re right, dammit, you’re right. Giving up your own shit for someone is a recipe for disaster in, mmm, about three years, when you realize you’ve lost all your friends, you don’t wear the clothes you like anymore because you don’t fit in with his friends/culture, you hardly see your parents, you listen to his music, you read his books, and where the hell is the person he fell in love with, and how dare he not appreciate the sacrifices you’ve made to be with him??

It’s not romantic, it’s not cool! Oh, God! This is going to find its way into what I’m writing, rrrrrrgh, my G/B headcanon is getting turned on its head and it’s making a mess~

A Garak/Bashir trope that gives me squick

DS9 Season 2 Episode 5 “Cardassians”

(Posts tagged WHAT HAVE YOU DONE)

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

A Garak/Bashir trope that gives me squick

DS9 Season 2 Episode 5 “Cardassians”