#tain is an evil asshole but I really dont think he intended to be. hes just a bad person

[codenameregnar]

Let me just start by saying thank you for the initial post and getting me started thinking about what Tain’s side of the story must look like from his perspective. It’s not really something I had ever thought about much but you’re right, I bet he was so immeasurably disappointed in him because he knew Garak was smarter and better than this because he had spent so much time effort and energy in making sure of that. I do agree that Tain only loves Cardassia and the people in his life when they bend to his will, when they are extensions of himself. But Garak is intrinsically an extension of him, being his only son. He can’t help but love him.

In my opinion there has only ever been one time that Tain was selfless, and thats when he let Mila live when she got pregnant. One could make a case that risking his position by letting them live in his house, molding Garak from a young age, and eventually sending him to Bamarran was selfless as well, but to me that all was colored with the ulterior motive of control over Garak and an insurance of his legacy. However I’m certain Tain viewed all those things as totally selfless and altruistic and coming from a place of love, and thus weakness. But letting him live in the first place is a huge risk and complication to Tain’s life (he’s said as much) and I think him taking that risk actually did stem from actual love and from his own brand of sentimentalities that he views as weakness in himself. Which is exactly why he drilled that into Garak so hard. And so I think the nail in the coffin of his disappointment is that he saw his own sentimentalities that he views as his own liability so clearly on display and frankly out of control in Garak, who is the embodiment of Tain’s weakness. Garak reminded him of himself and it made him furious, because Garak was supposed to be better than that. He had spent his whole life believing he was doing Garak favors by sticking his neck out for him and giving him the opportunities to move up in the world and take his rightful place in the Order and molding him into the best (most like Tain) version of himself he could be, and the Palendine situation was only proof that their entire bloodline was tainted with sentimentality, which is not something Tain could afford or even face.

He loved him as much as he knew how to, as much as he could allow himself to, and I really think he wholeheartedly believed all the torture he put him through was him doing Garak a favor. Like I said, I don’t doubt most of it was out of a desire for control, but I think Tain thought it was 100% out of love. And yeah, that’s a great point about The Wire and Improbable Cause. He so desperately wants Garak back, both because he genuinely thinks it’s what’s best for him and because he wants that control over him again. He even says in The Wire that he misses him, and I do think he meant it and only felt comfortable enough to say that because he knew Julian wouldn’t understand the implications but that Garak would, and he was ok with him knowing it. It was his own manipulative form of an apology. ‘I do love and miss you, and I only wish you hadn’t forced me to exile you. If only you would have listened.’ There was truth to it but, as it is with everything he does, he was going to use that glimmer of vulnerability to twist Garak in his direction. Which is exactly how he got Garak to stay so loyal for so long: by allowing him only breadcrumbs of connection between them. By weaponizing his own very real sentimentalities. In the same vain, all the shit in Improbable Cause was just one big test, and when he passed Tain immediately welcomed Garak back with open arms and immediately trusted him again. Because he needed someone was loyal and easily manipulated as Garak back in his ranks, but also because wanted his son with him by his side at his greatest victory. He wanted to know that Garak would (by his standards) end up ok and that (again, by his standards) he didn’t fail as a father or mentor. He wanted the best for Garak at every turn, he just has a really fucked up idea of what that is, because he is power hungry and narcissistic.

It’s always a two fold thing with him. Two things can be true at once. He did really love him, but he was also a manipulative monster who needed everyone around him to bend to his will, most of all Garak. The more love he has for someone, the more they must submit to him, and the more of a betrayal it is when they fail to do so perfectly. Idk, I just find Tain’s side of their relationship so endlessly fascinating. Because I genuinely think he saw himself as giving and selfless and bending over backward to do right by Garak in the face of very difficult and dangerous odds for him to do so. I really don’t think he thinks of himself as a manipulative and controlling villain when it comes to how he treated Garak; he's so up his own ass and such a narcissist that in his mind he only thought he was trying to help Garak and give Garak a better life and he truly can’t see how a lot of his actions were first and foremost to benefit him. But I also think he really did love him in the only ways he knew how to, and he wasted no opportunity in giving Garak the chance to redeem himself and prove himself worthy of that love.

So I read A Stitch in Time and one result of that which I was certainly not expecting was that I feel so much sympathy for Enabran Tain. Garak's life is a tragedy, but Tain's is a fucking black comedy.

I mean, he's a terrible person and an absolute shitbag, but can you imagine? You have this kid. You go to all the trouble of arranging for him to be raised in a family situation where he won't be rejected from society for being your bastard. You get him into the nicest indoctrination school where he can hobnob with plenty of uppercrust kids. You get him a job in your Order and all the proper training. And he's actually, like, really good at it. But he has this fatal flaw of being completely incapable of not making stupid, short-sighted, emotional decisions.

A scene I imagine has to have happened just prior to Garak and Tain's confrontation at the end of part II:

Like goddamn. When Tain asked "what's your plan for getting rid of her husband?" and Garak's just like "plan what plan." Dude. I'M disappointed, I can only imagine the guy who's job it is to know and plan for everything isn't at least as disappointed.

I know he didn't actually, but do you think there was ever a time when Tain wanted to be like, You know what. Just go back to Tolan and become a gardener. Join that illegal hippie cult. It's fine.