Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Anyone else think Commander Kira is a complete monster?

[Loonyyy]

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Sometimes you're Ghandi or Dr. King, and sometimes you're Washington or any resistance in an occupied territory. Pretty much everyone has something they're willing to be violent for, something they think is worth killing for, or something they think is worth dying for.

Also

Its easy to condemn them for killing innocents when its not your family being worked/beaten/abused to death by an oppressive invading force that is only out to remove your worlds resources. Funnily enough its the sort of position Starfleet tends to take, judge and condemn safe and afar from their utopia. Sisko sums it up himself best in an episode focusing on the Maquis [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crpUHa9_pJ0#t=112]

Pretty good clip.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I don't think terrorism against civilians is ever acceptable.

Okay, fair enough, but that only answers one of the questions I asked. There was a follow-up: How do you expect an oppressed people to fight a militarily superior invader without violating your personal morals? What ought the Bajorans to have done instead?

I don't know. To be perfectly honest, if survival of my race requires that, I feel the price is too high. Ya know, it's the John Cena thing, you can go that route to win but then what have you really won?

The right to continue breathing, which I am told some people hold in a certain regard.

Basically I'm saying, there isn't a way. And I think if they're going to do that, they have to take on the burden that they've done horrible things and not just dismiss it by saying it was for "survival."

It was for survival, and survival is amoral. Survival feeds on the deaths of those weaker than oneself, and it is neither good nor evil but just the nature of life. Asking someone to feel guilty about taking the only option available that was not self-destruction seems very unfair to me.

Right so, the deaths of Cardassian children, mothers and fathers, lives ruined. None of that clearly matters, now years later, where survival is no longer an issue.

 

[JimB]

Basically I'm saying, there isn't a way. And I think if they're going to do that, they have to take on the burden that they've done horrible things and not just dismiss it by saying it was for "survival."

It was for survival, and survival is amoral. Survival feeds on the deaths of those weaker than oneself, and it is neither good nor evil but just the nature of life. Asking someone to feel guilty about taking the only option available that was not self-destruction seems very unfair to me.

Right so, the deaths of Cardassian children, mothers and fathers, lives ruined. None of that clearly matters, now years later, where survival is no longer an issue.

I do not understand how what you said has any relationship to what I said. Would you please explain? I am somewhat confused, and my best guess is you are accusing me of saying Cardassian lives don't matter, which is not what I said or implied. If I am misunderstanding you, then I would appreciate your explanation.

 

[Foehunter82]

Yeah. That was Kira's arc: Her coming to terms with the fact that she did terrible things for the survival of her race. Understand that throughout the series, she deals with it. If you pay attention, you'll realize that she has a conscience, and that "for survival" doesn't even sit well with her. She even questions whether that's a good enough excuse to commit those terrible acts. I think what was said earlier is probably accurate: The actress doesn't have the best emotional range to convey those things, so she comes off as cold. Kira is a very human character in that even as she questions her own actions and her own motivations, she still falls back on the "Ok, what I did was bad, but what the Cardassians did was worse," thing that we as human beings often do. We do it as individuals and as nations.

And, yes, what the Cardassians did WAS genocide. I think that your view is based heavily on an idealized black & white worldview.