Tag: deep space nine

ds9promenade:

Autistic Julian Bashir in ep 1.12 “Battle Lines”

The screencaps don’t do a good job of showing it, but Julian’s words have slowed down and become carefully enunciated for these lines.
“She neeeeds treat-ment. I’d like my medical case – if. you. don’t. mind.”

When in intense situations where he needs to keep in control, Julian often talks like this – I do the same thing when I am upset or nervous and need to be understood. I talk deliberately and slowly to make sure my words don’t come out garbled and incoherent.

A bit about what Garak and Andy really mean to me.

guljerry:

I was just thinking about how
much Garak means to me as a queer person because he’s a queer character and how
grateful I am that Andy has kept being insistent all these years upon Garak
being pansexual even when corporate people were pushing against it. I wanted to
talk about how I see Garak as a positive role model–which is probably fucking
weird as hell since he is a spy, assassin, torturer, and a number of
other ‘nasty’ things.

But there are so few queer characters, and Garak is strong,
clever, intelligent, witty, loyal, creative, and unashamed of himself as far as
his sexuality and gender expressions go. Garak is portrayed at times as
effeminate, and yet he will fucking kill you, okay? It’s so powerful and awesome
that Garak embodies BOTH these things. I mean we live in a culture where
strength = masculinity, and effeminate men are portrayed as being ‘weak’
which ties right into women being portray as ‘weak’ too. Garak says fuck
that shit I am a badass, and I can also make you a lovely cocktail dress that
will turn all the heads, and either way I will blow your fucking mind.

I was thinking about how Garak must deal with claustrophobia,
crippling anxiety, addiction, and probably depression too though that’s not as
explicitly indicated in the show. But no doubt he has felt that in being an
exile–he felt so bad that he turned on his wire just to escape and to deal with
his life. Garak has many emotional problems, but he stays alive. He keeps
fighting. He keeps doing his thing. He is an outsider on this station full of
people who are not like him, full of people who hate him, full of people who’d
probably rather see him dead–and if that doesn’t sound like the shit that is
going on in the U.S. regarding the LGBT community and other minority groups, I
don’t know what does. Many of us live in this place where we feel like we are
lost, unwanted, feared, loathed, treated as people who are disgusting, wrong,
and undeserving of a happy and productive life. A lot of us in the LGBT
community feel like outsiders, like exiles in our own world. But Garak keeps
moving on. Not only that, but at the end of things, he gets to go home again.

His home is destroyed by war, but he does get to go home. He
gets to find his place again. There is still some bit of hope there even though
so much bad has happened. To me… that kind of gives me hope that maybe I will
find my place one day too.

I just love Garak so much, and there are so many reasons why,
but these reasons are deep and personal. I think there are a lot of other
people who understand this too. Garak does seem to be a favorite among queer
folks in this fandom and the reasons are obvious.

I’m so thankful that Andy made the choices he did, was bold
enough and brave enough to say, ‘fuck it I’m going to do this’, has been
consistent through the years in insisting that Garak is queer, and that he
portrayed this amazing, complex, character who faces so many obstacles but he
keeps on going and living even if it’s only out of spite, or instinct, or
whatever.

After the election, there were tons of helplines and suicide
prevention numbers all over my facebook feed because people in the LGBTQIA
community were so terrified. We still are. Our country has elected a man whose
platform would see our marriages ended, our rights taken away, our people
forced into torturous conversion therapy, and hormone therapy ended for those
who are transgender or nonbinary. My best friend was very upset over the
election and at one point I told her–we must keep fighting. Garak and Damar
wouldn’t give up. I was thinking about them huddled down in the basement while
outside Cardassia is being destroyed by their enemies, about them facing the
Jem’Hadar, Garak charging forward screaming FOR CARDASSIA. Later she told me
that it was ‘silly’ but that telling her that they would not give up had
helped her find a source from which to draw strength.

Sometimes shows are just shows, stories are just stories, and
characters are just characters.

But sometimes they are so much more than that.

I hope that Andy really knows how much he is appreciated, and
how much of an impact he has had on some of us. A lot of us have few people who
stand by our side. It is good to know that on a fictional space station there
is this guy with scales and a well-tailored tunic who would sit down with us at
lunch and tell us that we are okay.

norcumi:

dharmaavocado:

It’s time for another round of aus I would like to read but not necessarily write because my wip list is a nightmare that never ends: clone wars ds9 au.

And let’s be honest the main reason I want this is because the Jedi are obviously the Trill, and Hondo’s people are exceptionally long lived and he has known several of Kenobi’s previous hosts. He is, as he will loudly tell anyone within shouting distant, Kenobi’s best friend. He’s not exactly wrong.

(Obi-Wan had barely set foot onto the promenade before he was greeted with a booming “Kenobi!”

Hondo bustled out of his bar, grinning, arms held wide open.

“Hello, Hondo,” Obi-Wan said, resigned, as Hondo swept him into an embrace that lifted him off his feet.

“You’ve changed faces again, old friend,” Hondo set, setting Obi-Wan back onto his feet. “You’ve finally become a ginger. I like the beard. Very masculine. Oh, remembers Ilia’s lamentations over xir inability to grow one?”

“I’ve always liked a good beard,” Obi-Wan said.

He had long since given up on guessing how Hondo always knew it was him, even when he was in a new host. He half-suspected Hondo just shouted that greeting at every passing Trill in hopes of eventually getting it right.

“You wound me,” Hondo had said the one time Jrul Kenobi had voiced her theory, hand splayed over his heart. “I am wounded to my very core that you think our deep and abiding friendship means so little I would not recognize you.”

“You once mistook Jinn for me,” Kenobi pointed out dryly, although out of all of Kenobi’s hosts she was the one who found Hondo the most amusing.

Hondo waved one hand dismissively. “Bah. I was drunk and concussed. You cannot possibly blame me for that. And,” Hondo added as he topped up Kenobi’s glass with fine Vulcan whiskey, “you have a very particular way of carrying yourself. You cannot be mistaken for anyone but yourself.”

“Why, Hondo, that was very nearly poetic of you,” Kenobi said, and touched their glasses together.

“Tell me, my friend,” Hondo said, draping an arm around Obi-Wan’s shoulders, “now that you’ve finally grown the beard you’ve always wanted, have you put more thought towards my very lucrative business opportunity?”

“It’s piracy,” Obi-Wan said dryly, “and my answer is still no.”

Hondo shrugged, unbothered as always. “Perhaps your next host will have a better head for business.” He steered Obi-Wan towards his bar. “I hear you’ve got a little worm junior falling you around. You should bring him around sometime. It is a him, yes? There is so much I want to tell him.”

The Trill were not gifted with foresight, but Obi-Wan had a vivid vision of Anakin and Hondo meeting.

“That,” he said with feeling, “will never happen.”)

::CACKLES AND APPLAUDS (and gently nudges in @morgynleri‘s direction in case they hadn’t seen it yet)::

*sits and giggles* Oh, fuck. That. That was so perfectly a blend of the two universes, and damnit, I want to read this. I do not have the spoons to write it, but fuck yes, I would love to read more of this.

gplusbfics:

OMG! I was searching YouTube looking for videos to queue up for later when U came across this “Epic Fan Video” for an imagined Garak action flick. IT IS SO EPIC. I love it. So Hollywood. So dark. He’s an action anti-hero, Batman, bad man, smooth criminal. Just watch it. It has a pitiful number of views. The editing is A+. Give it some love!

P.S. Keep watching til the very end.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

maylovelies:

The episodes where we learn more about garak, bashir and odo’s relationships with their mentors are great and all, but I hate how the writers made them forgive,or make up with their abusers. 

Garak and Tain made up. He should have left Tain in mental agony on his death bed. Told him what a failure he and the Obsidian Order were, but told Tain about how he himself found friends and a new family. 

Bashir should’ve been “see ya later” to his abelist father as he was sentenced to jail. What Mr. Bashir did was not Julian’s fault and to make him feel guilty that he could a.) get his parents arrested and b.)that he did “get” his father arrested is shitty. He should have cut him off. (same with his mom?? like his mom sat there and let that happen!!)

And Odo…Odo making up with Dr. Mora, a man who abused him until he had no choice to turn is just??

If the narrative isn’t gonna make Kira forgive Dukat (which I’m glad she didnt forgive him, i’m not complaining bcs if she did forgive/befriend dukat i would’ve had a lot more to rant about) , then why make these three forgive people who were directly responsible for their lives. Or if not forgive, make up?

Like, Garak is freaking middle aged and still lived half his life in guilt wanting to please a man who abused him?? At least Odo and Bashir outwardly hated their folks, Garak was the worst still stuck on a man who wanted to kill him since he was a baby–and the narrative made them make up to some extent.

I really don’t like the whole “be the better person” or “learn to forgive. it makes you feel better” trope when it comes to abuse and like, all three of these men were abused in some way and still got off on some good footing with their abusers….

^^^^

THIS.

howtofightloneliness:

I see so many fics about Garak and Bashir that are sweet or sexy, and they’re tons of fun, but what I don’t see enough of is the most compelling aspect of their relationship: the fact that Garak is a deeply damaged individual. He is much older than Julian, a different species, and from a totally different background. Where Bashir’s parents risked everything to enhance him and give him a fighting chance in the world, Garak’s father denied their relationship and turned Garak into an efficient wreck. He’s a liar, a murderer, a spy and a torturer, and even his good guy progression can’t change some of that. His charm and good-naturedness is a mask, and if he ever only showed Julian his beaming sarcasm and witty banter in the bedroom (as most fanfics would have us believe), then their relationship was never real. Even the TV episodes show more than that! In The Wire alone, we see Garak scream at and attack Bashir, lie to him repeatedly, and communicate his need for help through strategically placed clues. It’s the closest he can come to revealing himself, because that IS him. It’s all true, “especially the lies,” because that is what Garak consists of. His groanings about sartorial choices and human rituals are characteristic, but they don’t compose his character. I want to see more of the REAL Garak; and, if he can’t give that, more of Bashir’s real frustration at not receiving it.