#circle comics

I wanna clarify; despite obviously including bits from Miles O'Brien's Wikipedia page, this isn't necessarily a dig against his character as a whole. Moreso this zine was made in anger towards the way showrunner and actors talk about the character — and the idea of a "default" kind of human existing to begin with. It's an uncomfortable reminder that Star Trek was, despite it's reputation as a very politically progressive show, made by a bunch of middle-aged American men and a handful of people who still felt that they had to cater to that group as the "default."

In my opinion, Miles O'Brien is the least relatable character on DS9. Yet, he's apparently the one I'm meant to relate the most to. His very bro-dude relationship with Julian is the only "real" relationship on Star Trek, that is to say, the only one the writers or actors felt they could personally relate to — therefore the only one that matters, I suppose. It's upsetting to realize that a lot of people spend their whole lives squinting at the screen, trying to find some way to relate to the straight white men that star in every movie, to then be told that the "stranger" or more "unique" characters are unrelatable and Star Trek needed an "everyman" to ground it, even if this everyman comes off as comically conservative in his post-scarcity space utopian society.

I think it speaks to a lack of practice, when seasoned sci-fi writers creating a world full of aliens completely fail to "relate" to a character because they aren't human enough; much in the same way that white men struggle to relate to characters of color or characters with a different gender or sexuality, while the reverse is expected as the norm, and calls for representation of the wide spectrum of human existence is treated as whiny. This is also very noticeable with characters of different neurotypes; hence I guess why it's supposed to be a funny gag when O'Brien can't listen to his friend talk about their special interest for five minutes without complaining. Then again, I guess middle-aged allistic Americans who kind of hate their wives deserve to be represented too...

Either way, hearing all this out of the mouths of widely loved actors and writers of a show that's otherwise very good at making me feel seen is... A rude reminder that DS9 was made in the 90's, lol. And, this goes without saying, I may be a little extra sensitive to this kind of thing due to how personally tired I am of having to be patient and understanding with incredibly privileged people while they continue to throw hissyfits every time you ask them to please stop pulling their favourite microagressions. I don't wanna have to "relate" to another everyman. I never wanna have to consider the emotions of the Everyman ever again, real or fictional. I'm so burnt out on patience. But I guess that's a me thing.

(And, because I can see this one coming; no, I'm not interested in discussing why Miles is actually really cool or totally bi-coded or how he wants to fuck Bashir, or whatever. You're completely free to those headcanons and I understand that it's hard for me to post an artwork like this and not leave at least some people feeling accused, but I really don't want to fight. I don't like the character, but we don't have to feel the same. We all have different interpretations. I'm not calling you racist for liking Miles O'Brien as a character, yeah? This is a meditation on the way the writers and directors talk about Miles, and the way they seem to interpret him.)

Also, yes! I did cut a hole in one page to work as a TV. Demonstration (ft. my cat) below: