What irritates me....

[Gazomg]

This whole Garak - Bashir gay thing you see so much on the net.
So many photoshop pics of them as a couple.

nothing against gay people but assuming Garak was gay simply cos his relationship with Bashir annoys me.

[Shada Dukal]

Well, actually I have always found it funny. I have read a lot of fanfic ranging from gentle pre-slash and hurt/comfort to real graphic slash. Garak really had some omnisexual aura that appealed to people with various tastes. And Bashir was not the macho type, he was quite sensitive, a good listener, did not try to be the leader in the their conversations. In fact, Garak was setting the pace and the topics, Bashir was only reacting.

At the same time, Garak mannerism was very chameleonic, he could switch from deadly succinct to lavishly talkative, he had this patronizing attitude of an old queen cackling about Bashir’s naiveté so I guess people see what they want to see.

[Gazomg]

I believe his initial relationship if you can call it that was Garak trying to intimidate Fashir, check his reactions and somewhere along the line he got to enjoy it.

If it was not bashir he would have found another young naive officer who he could toy with and push his button, but a gay thing, no chance....mind games more like

[Gazomg]

I dont think that Bashirs genetic enhancement had anything to do with it, as that was unknown at the time, but merely Garak was simply bored and wanted to toy a bit with some Starfleet officer and Bashir was the prime candidate.

His initial tactics would not have worked on the experienced Dax,
O Brien would have sent him packing from the off

When Worf joined DS9 Garak toyed with him, remember him wanting Worf to write a letter for him so he could join starfleet to wind up Worf.Everything was all part of his plan to have things his way and not only pass time but ingratiate himself to others and garner what info he could, after all that came natural to him.

[Shada Dukal]

I think that Garak chose Bashir because he was much more sensitive and open-minded than O’Brian and less haughty than Dax who was so busy to demonstrate her superiority based on someone else’s memories. Bashir was tolerant to other species and far too many people misinterpreted his good will and good manners for gullibility. He was just a decent human being and he never showed off with his genetic enhancements.

Garak made the perfect choice. Too bad that at some point the writers decided that Bashir and Garak spent too much time together so Bashir started fraternizing with O’Brian. They were like chalk and cheese in terms of personality and views, Bashir was a bachelor, the other one a married man who had to go home. It really did not make sense.

Garak really loved pulling Bashir’s leg but Bashir took it quite well.

[Gazomg]

I liked the bashir O Brien relationship.

And it does work well, for me, for example I am a married middle aged Irishman as well, but most of my friends are single, a lot of them younger.

My 3 brothers are all younger than me and less tied down to things, .Guess I see O Brien like a wiser older brother for Basjir, and also O Brien is not an officer so Bashit can let his hair down a bit, and values o briens experience in life matters.

[Shada Dukal]

Well, O’Brian has never been my favorite character because of his attitude to Cardassians and his quite commonplace values. I am also middle-aged and I have a lot of friends who are much younger than me but I hate acting like an old grumpy mother. They have the right to make their mistakes as I did mine in my time.

In this sense, I think O’Brian should have respected Bashir more, he just underestimated him quite often. Still, I love their holosuite adventures and the Alamo game.

What is your wife like – like Keiko or Keiko + a Pah-wraith?

[Gazomg]

O Brien had reason to dislike Cardassian, setlik 3 and all that.

He did get on with gilora rejal and other cardassians, even in ten forward on the enterprise he opened up to a cardassian about his feelings about them.

Also he was arrested and tried by cardassians despite being innocent

[Shada Dukal]

Yes, I fully agree that he had his reasons but I guess the Cardassians chose him for this trial exactly because they were fully aware of his sentiments. Just a lesson learned the hard way.

Gilora was too pushy and pesky and he simply did not know how to handle her, it was fun to watch. I liked the moment when she sent him to bring her a red-leaf tea. He did not have high opinion of the Cardassian scientists and refused to admit that when it comes to Cardassian technology they are better.

In the book “The Lotus Flower” he is forced to live on Cardassia and to cooperate with Garak and Gul Macet so he had to fight his preconceptions and deeply rooted distrust towards Cardassians. What an irony, to live on Cardassia of all possible worlds.

[Gazomg]

Gilora was too pushy and pesky and he simply did not know how to handle her, it was fun to watch. I liked the moment when she sent him to bring her a red-leaf tea. He did not have high opinion of the Cardassian scientists and refused to admit that when it comes to Cardassian technology they are better.

Except that is not true, and besides that was on DS9, which is O Brien station not theirs.

I would not have someone order me in my house either.