VID: Mostly Tame (Star Trek: DS9)

[beatriceeagle]

Title: Mostly Tame
Fandom: Star Trek DS9
Music: "Godzilla," by Kesha
Summary: Julian and Garak are in love! What could go wrong?
Warnings: Violence, including a couple of shots of violence between characters the vid frames as being in a romantic relationship.

"Star Trek DS9 | Mostly Tame" (Watch on YouTube)

Comment at AO3 | Watch on YouTube | View on Tumblr

The idea for this vid started out as a kind of in-joke with myself, when I was watching DS9 while listening to Rainbow--"heh, Godzilla, Garak's a lizard"--but then it got out of control when I realized that the song fit really well with my conception of Julian and Garak's relationship. Because the thing about Garak/Bashir is that I see it, but I don't ship it. I really wanted to ship it, but you guys, Garak is a war criminal! He tortures people! And not like, in the past--he tortures and assassinates people in the present day, while we know him! He tries to blow up a planet while Julian is on that planet. And ordinarily I can kind of get on board with that--the first couple I ever shipped was Wesley/Lilah on Angel, so I have a high tolerance for amorality--but there's an imbalance. With Wesley/Lilah, Wesley knows that Lilah is evil. That's the fun of it; the mutual disdain that both parties have for even the idea of a real relationship between them, and the fact that both of them are actively spying on each other the entire time. But Julian and Garak carry on this charade of civil lunches and holosuite excursions and witty repartee, and occasionally we have an episode about Garak's past, or we have a conversation about spycraft or cynicism, but we never really reckon with the fact that Julian is lunching with a guy who actively tortures and kills people. The closest the show ever comes is "The Wire" and "Our Man Bashir"; "The Wire" lets Garak off the hook, both figuratively (by not telling us what he's done) and literally (by having Julian forgive him, regardless), and "Our Man Bashir" is too much a lighthearted Bond riff to do anything with what it's got.

The point is, as much as Garak may be fun to watch on screen, and as much as he's surely fun for Julian to talk to, as much as Julian may personally like and care for him, and as much as Garak may sincerely care for Julian, Garak is also someone that Julian knows has committed atrocities. And even if he believes that Garak is repentant, which is... a whole can of worms, Garak is an ongoing danger to Julian, and to those around him.

And despite all of that, Julian is clearly in love with him. The final shot of this video, the one that plays over, "and fall in love," where Julian is just grinning himself silly? Is literally from a conversation where Julian tells Garak that his mind projected an image of Garak onto the alien who was trying to murder him, and Garak says, essentially, "Oh, good, that makes sense."

I don't know, the point is, Garak tortures and murders people, and Julian knows that Garak tortures and murders people, and yet Julian keeps flirting with Garak over Tarkalean tea.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

It was a fun video to watch given the song (taking him home to your mom!) I think your thesis comes through though after 1:30. Yes, it's so lighthearted a relationship yet at the same time, so disturbing, because Julian isn't just a Starfleet officer, he's a doctor who is very committed to what that means.

[beatriceeagle]

Yes! He's cast perfectly in the mold of the ethical Starfleet doctor—probably the most ethically encumbered character on the show. (Save possibly Odo, although Odo has a whole other tangled thing going on.) In "Pale Moonlight," Garak's big episode, Julian is the character the show brings in to show the morally upstanding response. And yet.

[purplefringe]

This is a MASTERPIECE of song/source matching, and omg what a delight it is to watch. You are, of course, completely correct in everything you say here about Garak, and about Garak and Julian's relationship (and it all comes across very clearly in this vid!)...aaaaand yet I ship them anyway. Help.

Anyway, this vid is wonderful!

[beatriceeagle]

Oh, I totally understand why people ship them. There are even moments where I'm halfway there myself, like that scene in "Purgatory's Shadow" where Julian's overhearing Garak's conversation with his father, and Garak manages to, completely wordlessly, arrange it so that he shares a secret with Julian... and Julian knows that this is the truth. The actors bring a ton of depth to their relationship, and I could probably go on a whole essay about how the genetic engineering reveal brought a balance of secret-keeping/secret-digging to their dynamic that's just interesting, and fun to play with. I just can't quite get there myself, you know?

Thank you for watching!