#i’m in the middle of a tos rewatch right now
ok sorry for longposting but i dont have any drugs so this is how im entertaining myself now. For me, sisko being the pragmatic™ captain comes through less in episodes for the uniform/in the pale moonlight/etc than it does in the way he’s able to manage everyone around him on an episode to episode basis by matching their energy and style of communication to be efficient as well as nice
kira initially treats him as a threat to her goals and assumes he doesn’t care what they are so he only pushes back on her as much as she challenges him, but compromises and even defers to her judgement when she’s honest about why she wants what she wants (also i’ve been rewatching s1 and in ‘progress’ there’s this great moment when he’s trying to order her back to the station as gently as possible and kneels down next to her instead of looming or demanding that she stand at attention, it’s a very sweet little detail). bashir is ignorant out of inexperience and acts before he’s done thinking, so sisko clearly tells him how, not just when he’s out of line, walks him through his more impulsive decisions step by step, entertains questions that aren’t immediate challenges and even offers anecdotes about his own life to convince him to do things he doesn’t want to. jadzia is younger and newer to the chain of command as curzon, and likely leans on ben’s input far more frequently than she would if she were still his superior, so ben reflects what he learned from curzon back to her honestly, without any illusions about how she’s kind of a better person, and comes to her for advice in turn to confirm that it’s herperspective he values. when he has to intervene in odo’s investigations or pair him off with another officer, he stays clear and firm about why that’s necessary and what the new chain of command is because he knows odo flounders without certainty. he can quote the rules of acquisition to quark at the drop of a hat and has no problem openly telling garak he’s blackmailing him. i joke about him being completely impervious to dukat/weyoun/eddington/etc’s mind games but it’s not like the antagonists in the series don’t give him a lot of moral grief, it’s that he refuses to engage with them while they’re actively trying to undermine his goals
the reason his Moral Ambiguity Moments work so well is because his deep, willing understanding of other people always informs his actions, so when he has to outplay someone to protect the lives of his compatriots, or even uphold necessary morale – or when, like in in the pale moonlight, he grievously misjudges someone’s character – it’s a much more tragic twist on the same qualities that make him a compassionate leader, an effective diplomat, a trustworthy protector, a tender & nurturing father
