#ezrys

We do NOT talk about Terry Farrell and Nana Visitor’s extremely open support for Kiradax enough oh my god this is amazing

Ezri (bajoran) x Kira (trill) "Kira accepted Ezri on her own terms more than any of the men who pursued her and would love her Dax or not, though the symbiont does help deepen their bond"

Jadzia (Trill) x Worf (Klingon): "Absolutely beautiful together. and nothing bad happened, nothing, because if i didn't see it it cant be real"

The way that Ezri picks things up with Kira almost like Jadzia never left, their bond transcending hosts because not only does Dax know Kira is good people but Ezri can see it too.

The way Kira uses the lessons she learned from Jadzia to be more open, let herself experience joy, open herself to new people, to support and stand by Ezri as she becomes her new self, unflinching loyalty even in the shadow of Jadzia’s death.

For Ezri’s part in the relationship, we see clearly that everyone who mattered to Jadzia does matter to her, independently. It isn’t just the worm. She has assessed those memories and interacted with these people on her own and come to the conclusion “these are MY friends to.”

We see it with Ben, Kira, Leeta, Rom, Julian before the romance, Worf after they fuck and get it out of their system. She’s not a helpless little baby who dated Julian because she was filtering Jadzia feels and didn’t know who she was, he clearly had some kind of appeal, probably in that he was a dork like her and a major change from being with someone as intense as Worf, who she clearly did not love the same way Jadzia did. Totally makes sense, totally her choice. And it always felt like Jadzia never went for Bashir because she was waiting for him to grow up, and season 7 Bashir definitely has, so the part of it does that come from Jadzia makes sense to.

But as much as Bashir has generally matured as a person over the course of the series, his handling of himself in relationships really hasn’t. He’s better at starting romantic conversations and initiating relationships than he was in season 1, but he never gets better at keeping them. Melora, Sarina, shying away from taking things further with Garak until life pulls them apart. Ezri is an extremely kind person but her patience is not infinite, and while she is a counselor, I don’t think she likes her romantic partners to be projects the way Jadzia sort of did. She didn’t have the patience for trying to pull Worf further from his macho Klingon chauvinism the way Jadzia continuously had to, she just bluntly told him that she wasn’t into it and his empire was a joke. Her dates are not her patients, and good, that’s how it should be, she shouldn’t have to take on that emotional labor.

But Julian needs a therapist. Ezri will not be both. At the least, he needs someone who gets him on a very deep level it’s arguable that only Garak does. Likewise, Ezri needs someone who gets her and likes her for her. Kira can offer that, I think if they met Lenara would be able to offer that. Leeta would be able to offer that if she wasn’t in a presumably monogamous marriage.

But Julian can’t. He’s too hung up on Jadzia.

I think “if Worf hadn’t come along it would’ve been you” was Jadzia and Ezri both sparing Julian’s feelings.

Ezri thought dating him was a good idea at the time, Jadzia felt bad for not giving him a chance, and they wanted him to feel good about it

In reality, if it wasn’t for Worf she would’ve finally gotten serious with Nerys or go find Lenara and reassociate like crazy (Ezri will also do this after the inevitable breakup with Julian, possibly both when she realizes she’s poly)