Icon from a picrew by grgikau. 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.
WHY were Ezri and Ziyal not a thing?? They were a) born the exact same year (according to the Star Trek wikis b) both very passive and creative people c) both have traumatic experiences which they could’ve worked through together d) both have weird controlling parents so they would absolutely Get Each Other e) generous? have a massive love of life? but also have opposite qualities like Ziyal is more extroverted and Ezri introverted, Ziyal spent too much time away from her evil dad and Ezri too much with her possessive mom, cardassian/trill relationship possibility, both were thrown into the world too young, i could go ON
Every single scene with Ziyal and Garak would have worked better if he was a father figure and not a romantic interest.
Her father abandoned her. She is welcomed by neither Cardassia or Bajor. Neither is he. Doesn’t it seem a lot more likely that she would view him as a mentor? A surrogate father? Someone that can teach her about Cardassia without the rose-tinted glasses and understand her longing for a place that doesn’t want her.
Family is central to Cardassia life and Garak has never even been allowed to call his father his father. So imagine that Ziyal becomes like his daughter. Imagine how deep and meaningful the connection can be between a girl abandoned by her father that already lost her mother - and a man for the first time getting to have a family.
Garak would have been reluctant at first of course, but Ziyal decides to adopt him and that’s that.
That would really have been an interesting relationship to explore. The romance? Not so much.
Also then you have the weird mom/dad dynamic between Kira and Garak which I would have loved to see.
All the “family dinners” where Ziyal insists they all eat together and Garak and Kira smiles politely to each other over the hasperat.
Imagine Ziyal’s skills if she was raised and taught by Kira and Garak. Her character could be so interesting!
I can see such an interesting character arc in front of me where she lives on the station, trains and explores her Bajoran heritage. Through her we explore more of Bajoran society and identity and what it truly means to be Bajoran.
Then when the war comes on Cardassia, she’s a bit older (She’s now the age her aged up character was, so a young adult/teen). So she decides to join Kira and Garak and teach the Cardassian resistance to fight like Bajorans.
Her unique perspective proves invaluable and she grudgingly earns the respect of the Cardassian fighters.
By that time Garak and Kira view her as their daughter, she’s been with them for years, but she’s now a young adult. In this last part of the show we see that she’s no longer a child trapped between two worlds but she’s taken part of both worlds and forged it into a new, stronger identity. Her identity then becomes part of the whole story arc of the show, as Ziyal is the symbol of what Cardassian society must become - they must embrace part of Bajoran culture and emerge from the chaos as something new, but stronger.
That scene where Damar kills his friend instead of Kira - instead it’s Ziyal he doesn’t kill. His old Cardassia is dead. The new Cardassia is here.
What could have been, if the writers hadn’t made Ziyal’s whole arc about Garak and then never had any other ideas about what to do with her.
this is too ambitious for me to finish inking tonight, so meanwhile have some super rough sketches of a kind-hearted girl and her two new yet fiercely devoted parental figures. Bonus:
I get the whole Jake and Ziyal pairing idea, but I’ve always liked the idea of Ziyal hooking up with Alexander Rozhenko.
Bonding over the trials of having mixed ancestry? Conflicting feelings about their fathers? Struggling to find their place in the universe? Check, check, and check.
Also, can you IMAGINE Dukat trying to make friendly with Worf either legitimately or for some ulterior motive and Worf just noping out of every conversation because he doesn’t have time for this shit.
I mean. Kira introduced Ghemor to Kirayoshi and Ghemor said that he was the closest thing he had to a grandson so like,,,, just imagine if he had met Ziyal too Blease i just want to see these three being a cute little unconventional family
And as a bonus it would piss off Dukat so much lmfao
Thank you! And thank you for the prompt. ive never written jake/ziyal even though i love them as a pairing and theyre such a missed opportunity on ds9!! Here’s the fic!:
Sometimes it was strange to be in a relationship with the child of your father’s mortal enemy. Sometimes it felt like they were living in some kind of cheesy old holonovel: two young adults on either side of a terrible war, falling in love during the worst historical event of their lives.
But most days, it was just…life.
Jake certainly couldn’t find any reason to complain. Here he was in a room Odo had let he and Ziyal use as an art studio, eating a jumja stick and trying not to get the PADD in his hands too sticky. He and Ziyal were sat on the floor, as had become their custom, knocking elbows as he wrote and she continued her painting.
He glanced up from the world he was creating in his head and found Ziyal focused intently on a red flower on her canvas. Her brush stroked new lines into it, giving it shading that made it look real. Touchable. He only wished he had a flower like that to give her; something that wasn’t replicated.
All he had were words. And some of them were misspelled.
“Ziyal,” he said, lowering the jumja stick and wiping his sleeve across his face. “What’s your favorite type of flower?”
Ziyal didn’t respond at first, still carefully applying the paint to her canvas. But then she tilted her head and made an acknowledging sound to let him know she’d heard him.
“I think…lilacs. From Bajor.”
“Bajoran lilacs?” He winced at the obviousness of his question, but relaxed as Ziyal chuckled in her uniquely kind sort of way. “And, er,” he said, “What’s your favorite food?”
“Gagh.”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Really?”
Ziyal turned to him in total seriousness. They locked eyes for a moment, and then she burst into giggles as she shook her head.
“No,” she said, “I have to admit I’m not fond of that one. Maybe…root beer.”
“Root beer?”
“And hoddoggs.”
Jake’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Hoddoggs?”
“Yes,” she set down her paintbrush and leaned back against the wall. “The food we eat on the holosuite. When you take me to bazeball games.”
A slow smile spread across Jake’s lips.
“Hot dogs?”
“Yes! That’s it.”
“Also,” Jake laughed, “it’s ‘baseball’.”
“No!” Ziyal gasped, “Have I been saying it wrong this entire time?”
Jake nodded. Ziyal lightly smacked his arm with a little pout on her face.
“You never told me that before! Your father didn’t either.”
“He didn’t?!” Jake shook his head with a smile. “He must really like you. He corrects everyone on baseball terms.”
“Yeah,” Jake shrugged, then looked deeply into her eyes. “You are.”
They held each other’s gaze for a short moment before they both turned away with blushes on their cheeks. They both looked at their respective crafts, Jake pretending to scrutinize his writing while Ziyal added yet more shading to the same flower.
Then, slowly, they turned back toward each other.
“Hey,” Jake said quietly, “Do you wanna get dinner soon? I heard a shuttle brought in fresh fruits from Bajor this afternoon.”
“That sounds lovely.” Ziyal quickly began storing her paints and brushes. “And afterward…I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk in the garden.”
“Garden?” Jake set down his PADD and stood, helping Ziyal to her feet with an extended hand. “We don’t have a garden on the station.”
Ziyal brushed a finger through her hair, looping it back over her ear. “You do now. I, er…I designed a holosuite program. It’s nothing special, but…”
“I’m sure it’s awesome.”
“Awesome?”
“Yeah, like, awe-inspiring. ‘Awesome’.”
“I like that word,” Ziyal grinned.
“It fits you.”
Jake blushed as soon as he said it. He almost retreated right then, or at least backtracked on his words. But then Ziyal set her hand on his warm cheek, and planted a light kiss on the opposite cheek.
He covered her hand with his trembling fingers and looked into her eyes with a dazed expression.
“You’re pretty ‘awesome’ yourself, Jake.”
She caressed his face as she walked away, then grabbed his hand in her own. She pulled toward the door, then giggled and doubled back as he continued to stand there slack-jawed.
“Come on!” She urged. “The replimat will be busy soon.”
“I’m coming,” he smiled.
Glancing back once more, Jake looked over their art projects and wondered if this was what happiness was. Looking back at Ziyal, he knew his answer.
amazing how the DS9 writers had the perfect ziyal x garak storyline fall into their laps - an exile becoming a father figure to a traumatized young girl whose biological father is not only a war criminal but a selfish prick, and thereby healing said exile’s own trauma over being exiled by his own father - and make such overwhelming narrative sense for the characters that andrew robinson refuses to play garak as anything other than fatherly/avuncular towards ziyal, but instead they spent multiple episodes stupidly refusing to follow this extremely logical trajectory by trying to convince us it’s some starcrossed romance…between a teenager-ish girl and a gay man in his fifties. when i tell you heteronormativity is the ghetto…
