Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Hey. HEY! Would anyone else enjoy a long self-indulgent post about my reasons for every song on my Garak/Garashir/Cardassia playlist?
Some of these songs I got from other Garashir playlists, some from my own songs, and some from Spotify playing random songs.
CABINET MAN by Lemon Demon
So this was a song I stole from another playlist. It’s about an arcade game that’s part human! So it has a little Garak and a little Julian.
This bit is very Elim and it hurts me:
“Thank God for business, they let me take the floor
I stood so proudly, like I was going to war
Players soon appeared and I quickly was revered
This must be what love would have felt like”
😭😭
Also I love this bit:
“I’m happy for years and years
And only eating the occasional maintenance man
Only driving a few kids to madness
Maybe they were predisposed to madness, who knows?”
HEM OF YOUR GARMENT by Cake
This is just a very Garak pov Garashir song. I could quote bits, but it’s basically the whole song. Just go google the lyrics and be amazed that they wrote this whole song for Garak.
IN OUR BEDROOM AFTER THE WAR by Stars
Listen! This is the ultimate post-canon Cardassia song. Very Julian and Garak separately and together. The war is over but we have scars but maybe we can heal them together?
“Lift your head and look out the window
Stay that way for the rest of the day and watch the time go
Listen, the birds sing
Listen, the bells ring
All the living are dead and the dead are all living
The war is over, we are beginning
Here it comes, here comes the first step
Here it comes, here comes the first step
It starts up in our bedroom after the war
It starts up in our bedroom after the war, after the war”
LOST IN THE COSMOS by The Mechanisms
This song is courtesy of @jubrunaikovics It is also very Garak and Julian tho it leans more Julian? I kinda go back and forth on it. Very beautiful and haunting and sad.
QUEEN OF WHITE LIES by The Orion Experience
This is absolutely a Julian pov Garashir song. Like, early days. And it’s fun and peppy! Plus I enjoy the Orion and how that relates to Star Trek.
WE ALL LIFT TOGETHER by Freya Catherine and Jack Victor
Another song from @jubrunaikovics! This one is about Cardassia post-canon. The people rebuilding their world while accepting Federation help and trying to maintain their identity. Also has strong Jem'Hadar vibes.
MY HERO by The Foo Fighters
So we reach the first song that came fron my existing playlists. This is my song for Damar. He is ordinary. He is a hero not for being special (the way Garak and Julian are special) but for being A Good Cardassian. And I respect that.
METAPHOR by The Crane Wives
This was a happy suggestion from Spotify! This is 1000% a Garak song. It hurts me, and I love it.
MY OWN WORST ENEMY by Lit
This is one of my songs. And it is a Garak song circa The Wire.
“Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk?
I didn’t mean to call you that”
Yep.
ROUND HERE by The Counting Crows
So this is a song that is Garak POV about life on DS9 but also! Bamarren. It is very Bamarren.
MRS. RITA by Gin Blossoms
So this is about Garak and his relationship as an exile with Cardassia. Read this and think of “she” as Cardassia. Another way of looking at it is the way Sisko uses Garak and then drops him until he needs him again. From Garak’s perspective, Cardassia and Sisko have that in common.
“Well, my patience keeps me plaintive, my high hopes keep me alone
My lover’s will is shaken
I wish she would just come home
So tell me, Mrs. Rita, what’s it say in my tarot
Read my palm and tell me why do lovers come and go
Is she coming round for me once again
Around or was that the end
I just hope she’s coming round again”
GENGHIS KHAN by Miike Snow
So I stole this from a playlist and tbh it’s just a fun song. Also please go watch the video if you haven’t seen it.
INFINITY by Jaymes Young
So I actually got this one from an excellent Garashir fanvid! I see it as very Julian pov Garashir.
LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD by Pat Benatar
Cardassian flirting, the 80s love song! 😂😂
DEAR FELLOW TRAVELER by Sea Wolf
Another stolen playlist song. This! Is a post-canon Julian regretting his decision to stay on DS9 with Ezri. Think of Ezri as the city. BUT ALSO! Think of Garak on Cardassia happy to be home but wishing Julian was there. Cry.
“And now we turn to my beautiful city
Black skies changed into blue
And my love is so wise and so pretty
But tonight I still dream of you”
A DROP IN THE OCEAN by Ron Pope
A gift from Spotify! Makes me want to cry! This is Garak pining for Julian and also Kelas wanting Garak but not wanting to get hurt again. It’s a lot! And it’s pretty!
RUN by Snow Patrol
This song goes on all of my ship playlists. I love it. Every ship has its Run by Snow Patrol moment(s). Garashir has The Wire, By Inferno’s Light, and also somewhat Our Man Bashir.
LEMON PARADE by Tonic
This is a song for baby Julian and baby Elim when I just wish I could rescue both of them from their shitty childhoods.
IVY and ILLICIT AFFAIRS by Taylor Swift
So Ivy is Palandine’s song and Illicit Affairs is Elim’s song about their relationship. Elim growing vines around Palandine’s heart and Elim hiding and sneaking “as if [he doesn’t] even exist” And if you’ve read ASIT, well this line in Illicit Affairs hits home:
“And you know damn well,
For you, I would ruin myself
A million little times”
AWAKE FOR THE SUNRISE by Flock of Dimes
This came from another playlist. Very Garak pov Garashir. Hurts a lot. Another where I could quote bits but it would just be the whole thing
DELICATE by Taylor Swift
Yes there are actually four tswift songs on list playlist and I refuse to apologize. This was actually recced by a post on tumblr. Another Garak pov Garashir song.
“My reputation’s never been worse, so you must like me for me.”
EPIPHANY by Taylor Swift
This is the last song! It is here for Julian. It is a doctor song and I feel it follows his journey from “frontier medicine” to quality empathetic doctor. It’s beautiful and sad.
Hope you enjoyed this post! Sorry it’s so long and idk how to add a read more cut. I hope you look up these songs and lmk what you think! Here is the playlist on Spotify:
You all want an update on this, of course you do.
So someone on here suggested “It Will Come Back” by Hozier and I was like holy shit, YES. And also: that’s on my Hannigram playlist! Tbh Hannigram is just dark Garashir, so a fair few of the songs work for both. I chose four, because I was trying to limit myself XD
IT WILL COME BACK by Hozier
I’m trying to choose lyrics to highlight but it’s just the whole goddam song tbh. This works for Garak’s pov with Julian and Palandine and Kelas tbh.
FORCE OF NATURE by Bea Miller
This has a lot of the same energy as the previous song but it’s more delicate and pretty and reluctant in a “please, don’t hurt me” way instead of a “please, I don’t want to hurt you” way. This can be Garak pov OR Julian OR Kelas pov tbh.
OLD NUMBER SEVEN by The Devil Makes Three
So! This is another Damar song! This is Damar at his lowest point when he is just starting to realize the Dominion is using Cardassia. And yes, it is a song about an alcoholic.
LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO by Taylor Swift
Yes, this is the fifth goddam TSwift song on this playlist. THIS is Garak singing “fuck you” to Enabran Tain in a way he never really let himself do. It’s just soooo Elim. I couldn’t resist.
I cannot get over how funny it is to be damar. This guy has to run errands for dukat and even after he’s promoted dukat orders him to go talk to ziyal. When damar says he should track the enemy fleet Dukats like “fuck you go do this personal thing for me” damars a gul now and he still has to run around like dukats little errand boy
And then Dukat gets exiled. Damar gets promoted again! Yet somehow he still is essentially the Founder’s and Weyoun’s errand boy.
cardassians come from a fascistic authoritarian state that heavily requires doublethink from its people, in varying layers of complexity
cardassians obfuscate meaning and emotion in many aspects of their culture (eg a trial has concepts of innocent and guilty but its purpose is to facilitate confession of guilt; romantic love and sexual attraction are communicated via levels of cold and hot debate, discussion, and argument)
and ALSO
cardassians have extremely keen memories, arguably eidetic ones
because of this eidetic memory, cardassians experience time differently to many other humanoids - to them, the past is just as present as the current time, and their memories do not fade with age or feel further away
interesting to think what these 2 sets of info combine to make, given that like
if you have a perfect memory and you experience your every memory as you did at the time - INCLUDING, presumably, recalling your emotions and your beliefs and standpoint at the time, how do you adapt your beliefs? how do you change?
for example, if as a child you had no idea the man who took an interest in your education was a relation, and you sought to please him purely because you learned to be sensitive to his high expectation, once you learn he was your father all along, how does that memory change for you? does it change at all?
do you at once recollect your feelings and analysis of the situation at the time and simultaneously your new ideas, and feel them at the same weight, alongside one another? do you struggle to put the old one aside?
it’s no wonder that cardassians specifically learn and teach stuff like layered and inferred meanings and stuff, and the idea that one thing can actually be two at once, but also like… it must also lead to a natural inflexibility and resistance to certain changes and adaptations, especially of philosophy and moral thought
or of loyalty 👀
I love thinking about stuff like this.
It’s also interesting when you think about something like Dukats mental breakdown after Ziyals death.
Like do you think he broke down because his personal philosophy changed on her so many times? He had the memories of loving her mother, loosing them both, having his own legitimate children with a seperate wife, rediscovering Ziyal, attempting to kill her, accepting her, loosing his original family because of her, disowning her, reaccepting her, and then she’s killed by his number 2…
If your reptile brain experiences memories as a constant and not as a distant, yeah you’d shatter after this. Unable to disentangle which memory is correct, which one you want to think about the most. Wether you were wrong constantly and correct once, what you could have done to change what happened.
Cardassians probably really struggle with trauma but their society forces them to ignore it. Alcoholism must be rampant on Cardassia, trying to muddy your thoughts and live in the immediate now instead of the non linear and ever present past.
I love thinking about alien cultures and philosophy. So fascinating.
YEAH especially thinking about how like. utterly reliant Damar is on drink and I think a significant part of his spiral is that like
he’s not meant, and doesn’t even particularly want, COMMAND, bc he’s just not comfortable with all the layers to everything, and if just seems like his brain and his self esteem are both constantly on fire
