#i didnt even touch on the praying but yk the praying in the middle and the end hrfuirsr

[cityontheedgeofforever]

“Ties of Blood and Water” is such an underrated episode. It is so heartfelt, emotional and complex that I don’t even know where to begin.

Kira’s obvious love and adoration of Ghemor, his return of the sentiment; two people that lost their family in the occupation and have found a new family in each other, with the beautiful parallel of Kira showing her not-father her not-son but both are her family! Her crippling guilt about leaving her father to die alone, especially with him repeatedly asking her not to leave, and how seeing Ghemor, her father figure and also a Cardassian, one of those responsible for the occupation and therefor the death of her family, in a similar state, and using his past as an excuse to not visit him in the end before changing her mind. The gentle way Bashir tries to coax her to visit and later his support of her facing her fears and her trauma, not just of her fathers death, but her own guilt associated with it. The beautiful, beautiful ending of the camera zooming out and us seeing that she has buried Ghemor next to her father, on the hillside that was once barren end empty, now covered in bright green grass and beautiful flowers.

I feel like it stands so symbolic that in the end, she also does it alone, seeing as the only person who had come to see her, Furel, has now also passed away. The resistance camp is gone, and so is Furel, and so is the resistance as the occupation is over, and Bajor is healing; grass and flowers flourishing over the once barren rockside, and we know, like it -- Kira is finally healing too.