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While I could hear “I haven’t decided yet” in Garak’s voice, and this is very funny, I don’t think it fits with in-universe Garak. He’s not a psychopath killing people at random — he had specific reasons to kill the people he did, and generally with surgical precision. I can’t see him planning to just kill someone for no particular reason.
(sorry for being that guy and criticising a joke)
(I still upvoted!)
I think it does fit with Garak because it’s one of those things that is said very lighthearted in tone and with a smile, very obviously joking
… except with the tiniest of subtle doubts that he might not actually be joking after all
This is unlike Garak at all. He would never close for the week. What about all his customers?!
I have to respectfully disagree (also I bloody love that we are debating the psychological nuances of a fictional character from a show that ended, what… 25-ish years ago?)
I can’t recall, off the top of my head, Garak ever telling a joke per se. He got his enjoyment out of subterfuge and misdirection - did he kill that ambassador or was he just a gardener, which was extra intriguing because earlier in the show you didn’t really know what his previous line of work was, you just had suspicions. But if he did then it was in the past and it was an assassination in line with his job. He can get off on hinting about that kind of thing, and his colleagues can go along with it, because it was in the past and it was a professional hit, so the people around him don’t have to worry about him doing the same to them. It’s like listening to vets tell war stories, even if they killed a whole lot of people you know it was for their job and a good cause. They can even joke about it, because it’s in the past.
But in this joke it’s implying that he’s just going to kill somebody at random, because he hasn’t decide who that person is going to be. He isn’t in the Obsidian Order at this point, so he’s not assassinating to protect Cardassia. In Pale Moonlight he assassinates, openly even, but it’s for a good cause and it is indirectly sanctioned by Sisko. His style of humour was basically masterful (and kind of dark) trolling, not blunt “har har I’m going to kill someone” jokes. I guess you could infer that he might be killing someone in a professional context, and maybe there are multiple targets so he hasn’t decided which target to kill yet, but obviously it’s a short form meme so there isn’t room that kind of context. As is, it feels like a poor caricature of who the character really was.
That said, the joke is still funny and I have no idea why I’ve typed this much about a fucking meme instead of working 😂
I totally get your perspective on this, and I think your analysis is closer to Garak’s character. He was always very sly and subtle.
But the joke was funny so I’m happy to let it slide.
My interpretation wasn’t that he was going to kill a random person though, it would be more like this:
Words said: I am going to kill someone and it will be totally random
Interpretation: Garak is not going to kill anyone because he’s just a tailor and that was a joke
Reality: Garak maybe is going to kill someone but it won’t be random at all because this is an assassination
DS9 did leave the door open a lot of the time about whether Garak was still involved with the order or not so he does have that genuine air of mysterious uncertainty about him.
He didn’t say he wanted to kill someone at random, he just said he hadn’t decided yet. Reads to me more like he has a shortlist of enemies and he wants to take some time off to kill one of them
But isn’t that at random? He’s a tailor at this point in the show, not an intelligence officer assassinating targets for his job. Doesn’t “I have a list of enemies and I might kill one of them” sound slightly psychopathic? Garak does come close to being revenge-driven when he reconnects with Tain and rejoins the Obsidian Order, stating he has people he wants to take care of (such as Dukat), but I don’t believe he outright says he’s going to kill them, it’s something much more subtle and discrete.
I agree, I don’t think Garak would just kill people for revenge like that, but he probably has a list of people who should die for the greater good (whatever that may be).
Very nicely done. I laughed like a crazy person
