Dilf Worf fucking people up. The fucking "not just another electronic system/biological organism" lines. Durango. Cat dad Data. Brent Spiner in 25 different little outfits. Riker's slutty shirt. Durango. Brent Spiner in a dress! Worf dad #wholesome times.
Fistful of Datas truly out there giving the gays everything we want.
I watched a bit of Our Man Bashir in spanish a while back and every so often the knowledge hits me that not only do Julian and Garak still use the formal you for each other after 4 years of weekly book club lunch dates but also that when they're arguing at the beginning (that one scene with the tuxes in which they're standing 2 inches apart) Julian drops it. They're arguing about whether Garak should stay or not and Julian's telling him to "shut up and don't rain on my parade", and I guess he thought it was a little weird to say "kindly shut the fuck up, sir". There's also, I'm sure, some interesting Cardassian cultural connotations in someone telling you to shut your damn mouth in informal speech while standing so close your noses are basically touching.
Then they immediately go back to the formal you and stay that way even after Julian shoots him
they honestly couldve done so much with junpei beheaded/dismembered and im disappointed that it ended up just being mira. so much of his character and his relationship with akane is characterized by his lack of bodily autonomy, and him being openly beheaded during the nonary games would be the ultimate example of this. its perhaps the most brutal death in the game, and it never really gets explained or developed beyond the one puzzle that we get with it. junpei has been shown repeatedly to be subject to akane's plans or follow her blindly and i just think that would have been a really interesting angle to approach his beheading from. junpei has willingly signed up for nonary games in two different timelines just because he knew he would see her. he was infected with a deadly virus trying to find her. he grew desensitized to death as he took underground jobs to try and find her. his safety always comes second when shes in the picture, and his beheading wouldve been a prime opportunity to 1. exploit his willingness to let himself die/be injured for her and 2. make akane confront the fact that her confidence that junpei will always follow after her is not necessarily a positive thing.
I feel like we don't discuss the fact that the Deep Space Nine Federation crew was basically sent there to rot. It was a shitty assignment, and likely issued to officers that weren't very promising. But when the wormhole is discovered, they rise to the challenge. When the war starts, they rise to the challenge. The Bajorans initially see the Federation as more conquerors (see: Kira Nerys) and they know the Starfleet officers don't want to be there, so they're openly hostile, which makes the federation hostile right back. They absolutely don't trust each other. The odds were not in their favor. Deep Space Nine should have failed.
And yet, miraculously, Deep Space Nine fucking THRIVED. The wormhole had nothing to do with that. If anything, it made it harder. With little very functioning equipment and people who are likely less than stellar at their jobs, Deep Space Nine should have collapsed under the pressure. But it didn't! Starfleet used Deep Space Nine as their trash can, and yet the officers proved themselves to be remarkable. They weren't stellar at first but they became it.
For realsies? I don't think Deep Space Nine could have succeeded in the way it did under anyone other than Sisko. Sisko knew what needed to be done and his... flexible morals ensured that it got done. Like using Nog, a child, as a bargaining chip to keep Quark on the station.
The crew, and indeed the whole station, are a community of misfits; ones who are saddled with baggage and trauma no less. Each character defies expectations and becomes so much more than the sum of their parts. GOD. I don't know how to end this but like.
Deep Space Nine is where outcasts and the broken go home.