especially the lies

Part of the reason why Garashir is so near and dear to my heart is that it's acted out intentionally on the parts of both actors. It wasn't just a happy accident, it wasn't just the chemistry. Andy Robinson looked at Alexander Siddig on set and said, "By God, I will play my character as wanting to fuck this man" and he did, and Sid responded perfectly, and now thirty years later Garak and Bashir are canon and married. They talk about them in interviews. They talk about them with fans. Before Lower Decks, they acted out multiple fanfics where Garak and Bashir got together in some fashion. Hell, they have WRITTEN fic with romantic undertones.

My biggest "He would not say that" currently is Miles O'Brien being communicative about the O'Brien polycule. Like, y'all genuinely believe that Miles "Irish Emotional Repression Champion Six Years Running" O'Brien is having an open and honest conversation with his wife about opening their marriage? Did we watch the same show? All of the polycule stuff is 100% orchestrated by Keiko and Miles has to be tricked into all of it like a child being fed hidden vegetables in a pasta sauce. It's so good for him and he genuinely loves it but he's whining and complaining about it the entire time.

I think I've said if before but s7 of ds9 should have been entirely about garak, damar and kira hiding in the trenches

damar, on his 5th bottle of mila's home-brewed kanar that hits 10 times harder: and he knew I'd lie to protect him anyway...

This: