Character Insight No. 241: Best of Kira Nerys

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the Best Of series for Deep Space Nine with a look at Major Kira Nerys, the Bajoran major who serves as Bajoran liaison and second-in-command aboard the station.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp241
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp241
Major Kira transitioned from a lead antagonist of the Cardassians when they occupied Bajor to an important ally when the Cardassians got in over their heads against the Klingons and later the Dominion.  The highlight of Kira's transition with the Cardassians and character growth is seen in the episode Return to Grace, in which she and Gul Dukat are forced to have lengthy conversations while they track down a Klingon ship that destroyed a Cardassian outpost.

QUOTE (from Return to Grace, S4):
Major Kira Nerys: The fact of the matter is, I've already been where you're going. I've lived the life you're choosing - fighting, hit and run, always outgunned, living on hate and adrenaline... It's not much of a life. And it eats away at you, so that every day a little bit of you dies.

Kira is also an important character for helping the viewer understand the history and some of the religious beliefs related to the wormhole Prophets.  That leads the Major to state some compelling truths at times, including this quote from the episode Covenant.

QUOTE (from Covenant. S7):
Colonel Kira: I have always found that, uh, when people try to convince others of their beliefs, it's because they're really just trying to convince themselves.

Another similar quote about faith comes from the episode Accession, where Odo fails to understand some of Kira's logic.

QUOTE (from Accession, S4):
Odo: I don't understand.
Major Kira: That's the thing about faith. If you don't have it you can't understand it, and if you do - no explanation is necessary.

However, the high point for Kira's character and one of the best episodes in DS9 period was Duet, in which the complicated layers to the Cardassian-Bajor conflict are revealed in a series of Kira's interrogations of a Cardassian war criminal.  While she originally wants to kill the Cardassian, she eventually has a change of heart that is revealed in the final moments when another Bajoran kills him.

QUOTE (from Duet, S1)
Major Kira: Why? He wasn't Dar'heel! Why?
Kainon: He's a Cardassian! That's reason enough!
Major Kira: No!... It's not.

Major Kira was played by Nana Visitor, who is also known for roles as a child in One Life to Live and more recently in Family Guy.  She was also briefly married to Alexander Siddig, who played Dr. Bashir.  She's definitely one of my favorites, but I'm biased, having named my second daughter Kira as well.

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