One Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character didn’t see his suffering end after the show ended

Gul Dukat wasn’t the only great Cardassian character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine featured one of the greatest Cardassian characters of all time, Gul Dukat, a true villain in every sense of the word. A man who did truly awful things, and all because he thought he was doing true good in this universe. Yet, what often gets overlooked with Deep Space Nine is that Dukat isn’t the only well-written Cardassian, as his right-hand man, Legate Damar, was just as crucial to the Cardassian arc and Dukat’s downfall and demises as anyone.

Damar was, for at least most of the series, just as nasty and vile as Dukat was. While Dukat served as the mastermind behind a lot of the turmoil that the Cardassians inflicted on the Bajoran people, Damar was willing to look the other way while innocent people were slaughtered.

Damar was a loyalist, to the cause and to nothing else, going as far as to kill Dukat’s own daughter, after the pair heard her confess to helping residents of Deep Space Nine escape the Cardassian invasion of the station. Due to the death of his daughter, Dukat went mad and Damar took his place in the hierarchy. But as time went on, Damar realized he didn’t like the weight of power or war, and eventually, he would grow tired of watching his men die for a war they no longer wanted.

After the Breen joined the Dominion, the Cardassians grew weary, and Damar lead the way. He denounced them as often as he could, partly due to the Dominion leaders giving away Cardassian territory to the Breen, but also due to long-standing hostilities between the two races.

It was because of the Breen involvement and the mounting guilt of the war, a pang of guilt that caused him to become a drunk, Damar would eventually leave his government behind and start a rebellion.

Due to this, the head of the Dominion murdered his wife and son in retaliation. But it didn’t end there.

The pain of Legate Damar was much greater than you saw on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Damar’s redemption arc, if you can call it that, was one that was fortified by losing his wife and son. Due to that, Damar became a name that was greatly respected among the Cardassian rebels and when the war came to a close, Damar was among the last casualties of it. Dying with many seeing him as a martyr.

While losing his wife and son was bad enough, and his own death seemingly being the end of the suffering that was his family, that wouldn’t be the case. In IDW’s ongoing Star Trek comic, issue #8, we find out that it wasn’t just Damar, his wife, and his son that suffered for his newfound desire for freedom.

It was everyone related to him. Every extended member of Damar’s family was murdered by either the Dominion or by the Cardassian authorities, save for his nephew, for some reason he escaped execution.

Though, like his late uncle, his nephew, is referred to as a reformer, someone who is interested in a fair and just way of life on Cardassia.

While we knew his immediate family had died during the show’s original run, finding out that everyone related to him, save for one family member, also died, really adds depth to the character’s suffering and the true price of freedom.