@221bentleys​ I lost a lot of respect for the DS9 writers’ room too, the more I learned… even what they did to Bashir wasn’t the grossest of their decisions. And I thought that proposed season 8 was pretty bad! Even in the artwork Bashir’s skin was way paler than it’s supposed to be, as if poor Bashir didn’t have it bad enough already!

Bashir is my favorite DS9 character, but I still only like him in about half the episodes, where he’s what I used to see many people refer to as a cinnamon roll. But I think we fans should be willing to throw out the bad parts of canon, especially when Siddig himself clearly does and embraces Bashir as the kind, gentle guy he is. He is definitely iconic! The actors in this show were often the ones who had the best ideas for their characters (I continue to praise Nana Visitor for refusing to let the writers make Kira and Dukat have a romance). I’ve also seen that same video and I agree! Bashir is such a healthy representation of manhood (and not to mention great POC representation) and it’s a shame that people tried to change that in order to please the chart.

I’m normally not like this, but DS9 fanworks are a case where I think it’s fine to throw out the canon and let most fanworks be a kind of fix-it.