VOY: Mortal Coil Review

[Yukaphile]

Indeed. Still questionable things, though. Hell, if she'd met this guy outside his murder sprees, would she have felt sorry for him? I'd like to hope she would have.

[Jonathan101]

I think it depends on what kind of attitude he had.

She probably still did feel sorry for him even with the killings; the problem is that this conflicts with her anger and hatred so I imagine she still would have blamed him for what happened to some degree, either to his face or behind his back with another member of the cast. It would probably have worked as an episode where she goes through all kinds of mixed feelings but ends up apologising (or maybe, like Maritza, he gets killed and she has to lament).

[Yukaphile]

I dunno, if he hadn't been murdering people, I think there would have been none of that "you're all guilty!" crap. She did cause this, and she did sympathize with Marritza.

[Jonathan101]

She sympathised with Maritza eventually, after angrily ranting at him because she thought he was someone else, only to find he was horribly guilt ridden and pathetic.

Basically, she got it out of her system and then felt confused.

It doesn't mean that she wouldn't have killed him back in the day with zero remorse, which is what she advises the Cardassians to do later. Just because she sympathises with someone doesn't mean she is against killing them or harbours no-ill will.

[Yukaphile]

So you're saying it depends on how this dude initially presented himself outside a murder context? I could accept that. And because it was a murder context, she's not gonna care what he thinks. I still think her argument is bullshit. Just because someone is there doesn't make them guilty. Honestly, it's disturbing how similarly this parallels my own criticisms against people who do the same in reality that gets in the way of comforting real victims, demonizing them as monsters, and addressing their pain and treating those who hurt them "as victims too." It may have been a good episode, but it's still very brutal and intense for me for those reasons. I guess Fuller is good at that stuff, but it's hardly my favorite DS9 episode.

[Darth Wedgius]

The Darkness and the Light reminded me that Kira is a terrorist. I can root for her, but I don't really have to like her. Oddly enough, that makes her similar to Dukat when he was fighting the Klingons. In some Treks that might be a flaw, but DS9 operated in a gray area more than the rest.

[Yukaphile]

Exactly.

[clearspira]

Shall I be the one to point out the elephant in the room: when this episode was made, the US was sympathetic towards terrorism - particularly the IRA. A lot of you even funded them.
Watching Kira post 9/11 is very different to watching Kira as she was intended and that is a fact.

[Deledrius]

Shall I be the one to point out the elephant in the room: when this episode was made, the US was sympathetic towards terrorism - particularly the IRA. A lot of you even funded them.
Watching Kira post 9/11 is very different to watching Kira as she was intended and that is a fact.

9/11 doesn't change Kira for me. The show always operated on making a distinction (and playing with it from time to time) between freedom fighters and terrorists, and how perspective affects which you see. The fact that the USA completely flipped on this topic doesn't change the show or its characters for me. Someone who grew up post-9/11 may have a different view on it, however.

[Yukaphile]

Don't forget the obvious Nazi symbolism that went into making the Cardassians. Yes, I see the Soviets and us there, but the morally simplistic black-and-white Trek writers probably didn't. And terrorism against Nazis can't be bad, can it? It's the same thinking that goes into saying they were collectively guilty, right down to the last man, woman, and child, which is so utterly detached from compassionate humanity and common sense that I reject such extremes.

Oh God, it hit me. The Irish Unification of 2024? OMG... written around the 1990s? Was... was that a mention to IRA?