Cardassians and Villainy in Star Trek DS9

Posted July 22, 2023

This entry assumes you've watched all of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and it contains spoilers.

The Cardassians paint a perfect picture of villainy in Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and I love them.

First, all the disclaimers: The Cardassian treatment of the Bajorans was completely fucked up, horrible, abysmally bad, and unforgivable. They are, as far as I've seen (and I haven't seen all the Star Trek episodes ever) Star Trek's closest representation of fascism. If this regime existed in real life, I would deeply despise them. However, if I think of them as a fan of a fictional show, as someone who likes thinking about the world, and as someone who likes to dabble in writing, they're really thought-provoking and engaging in the story of DS9. That's what I mean when I say I "love" them.

With that out of the way, here's what I love about the Cardassians:

I love that DS9 shows that not all Cardassians hold the same beliefs. This one's pretty self explanatory, and a no-brainer for a franchise like Star Trek. Between Garak, Damar, Dukat, and Ziyal, there's a whole range of people with different goals and motivations. On one hand we have Dukat who's completely self-absorbed and charismatic, sometimes being helpful but eventually he goes far off the deep end. He's a stark contrast to Ziyal, who's just a genuine good person, because obviously not everyone from a certain group is bad. Then there's Garak who comes with a sort of unease and suspicion because his motives remain unclear early on, but he later starts consistently choosing to help people. And finally Damar is pretty straightforward with his one main nationalistic desire, and that's for Cardassia to succeed in whatever way it can.

I love that sometimes, in occasional critical moments, Cardassians do the right thing. I think this touches on something important, that not every horrible person is always a cartoon villain who kicks puppies for fun. Real evil is sometimes more insidious and not always overt. We love to hold it up as an example when someone with despicable politics is proven to also be an asshole to their family. Or when a hated celebrity has their spouse reveal that their interpersonal interactions were just as shitty. Or when a politician's kid explains how their parent fucked up their life. It feels like a no brainer that someone who we dislike would be an awful parent or an awful spouse, right?

But not every actual person is like this. Unnervingly often, people who do evil things in the world will be loving and caring towards their family. There's not always an innate quality of sadism that causes someone to impose shittiness on the world around them. Or hell, someone can even have an inherent sadistic streak yet sill take care of their loved ones, for example how Dukat gives up power and influence to be with Ziyal. Deep Space 9 excels in acknowledging that even the best people have low moments, and even the worst people have some good moments.

It's also great that Damar has almost no redeeming qualities, but the story aligns just right for him to have a bit of a heroic role. He's really not very likable, as the guy who killed Ziyal and kind of a bumbling alcoholic when he's working for the Dominion. He has all this pride in Cardassia which motivates him to also antagonize the Federation and the Bajorans - until that same pride motivates his decision to stand against the Dominion. He's still the same guy and he has the same core values, but situationaly they get twisted around and he ends up on the good side almost by accident. This doesn't make the Cardassian nationalism ok, but it's weaponized and used against another bigger oppressor which is interesting.

Humans are complex creatures that can sometimes turn to bad ideas for stupid reasons, whether it's money or a cycle of abuse or misinformation. That's a bit of a scary thought, because anyone could be susceptible to becoming a grade-A shithead under the right conditions. But there's also a bit of hope in that, because that also means that some people have the potential to turn away from bad ideas. We see this a bit with Garak, as he quite possibly joined the Obsidian Order and did some shady work for them because of parental abuse. His father certainly abused him by locking him in closets, and then as an adult, Garak of course joins the organization his father is leading. He got into murder and espionage in a way that, to me, seems like he was looking for his dad's approval. Despite his manipulation and posturing, by the end of the show he comes around to help fight against the Dominion because he doesn't seem to truly be a bad guy.

I also love that not everyone is redeemable. While it may work for Garak, there's no such peace for Dukat. There are so many little brief moments where it seems like he could possibly turn it around, only to burn it all down and go into full sadist mode in the final sesason. Particularly in the episode Waltz, he has his puppy-kicking moment, except instead of a puppy it's Commander Sisko. Despite the few previous shining examples where Dukat briefly did something badass to actually help people, he never actually committed to improving himself. Fittingly, his final resting place is the fire caves of Bajor, which really comes across as symbolism for him going straight to Bajor-hell. Sometimes there's really no getting through to someone and it's best to try to just protect oneself and minimize whatever damage they'll try to do.

Finally, I love that the Cardassia's pursuit of glory backfired on them spectacularly. Dukat led Cardassia to join the Dominion to try to give their society a boost, but this authoritarian pursuit turned against them. Then it was Cardassia under the boot of the Dominion, and it took huge sacrifices to undo the damage. In a sense, everyone who pursued power and control lost and got a taste of the suffering they inflicted on other people. This was great to show because if one supports authoritarianism and oppresses other people, then that oppression starts to include more and more people, until eventually everyone is oppressed.

Overall, Deep Space 9 doesn't shy away from showing areas of moral gray and outright malice. I think it's important to address realistic baddies like this rather than a charicature, and to engage in stories that make us think about what motivates people. Is a real-life person motivated by ego like Dukat? Are they acting out of a place of hurt like Garak? Or could their distasteful values somehow be turned to my advantage like Damar? I think understanding motivations like this can sometimes be useful when figuring out how to approach adversarial people, as then we can decide whether it's worth trying to rationalize with someone, or whether it's time to throw the whole Gul away. Cardassia encompassed some shitty people, but they were really entertaining to watch as fictional villains.