#bareil

From September 11, 2013.

Song is "Shake It Out," by Florence + The Machine.

why?

“ you rap about vedek bareil everytime. it’s embarrassing.”

i wont i promise

*one beer*

Well, since I created him, I can probably speak to that.

Bareil was added to show a positive, progressive side to the Bajoran faith in contrast with Winn. We planned the Bareil/Winnn struggle for control of Bajor to be big thread going forward in Season 2 and beyond, but after the opening three-parter of Season 2, Paramount wanted less Bajor and more Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion story began to assert itself, which meant less time for the Bajorans.

Initially, we even thought that Bareil might end up Kai, further dividing Kira's loyalties. But we realized that Winn was the more interesting and challenging character. So we made her Kai instead.

like obviously i get wanting her to be gay, kira deserves to be gay, and seeing her constantly paired up with guys can be grating

but bareil is a vedek who champions peace and cares about bajor and its future and stability so much that he literally works himself to death to establish a fair peace treaty with the cardassians

and shakaar is literally the leader of kiras former resistance cell. he becomes prime minister after standing up to kai winn alongside kira, using the tactics they used for all those years. theyve known each other a long time, later find they have feelings for each other, and then eventually split amicably, remaining friends. he doesnt have the MOST interesting personality, but hes steady and kind, and these episodes add a lot of great dimension to kira

if they sometimes come off as boring, i think its because they do their job narratively and dont eclipse kira in their episodes, and instead further her journey