#theyre good men! kira wouldnt love them if they werent! and they serve narrative purpose! the writers werent just Pairing Her Off or

[loudfederationscreeching]

possibly controversial take but neither of kiras so called boring love interests (bareil and shakaar) are boring imo

like obviously i get wanting her to be gay, kira deserves to be gay, and seeing her constantly paired up with guys can be grating

but bareil is a vedek who champions peace and cares about bajor and its future and stability so much that he literally works himself to death to establish a fair peace treaty with the cardassians

and shakaar is literally the leader of kiras former resistance cell. he becomes prime minister after standing up to kai winn alongside kira, using the tactics they used for all those years. theyve known each other a long time, later find they have feelings for each other, and then eventually split amicably, remaining friends. he doesnt have the MOST interesting personality, but hes steady and kind, and these episodes add a lot of great dimension to kira

if they sometimes come off as boring, i think its because they do their job narratively and dont eclipse kira in their episodes, and instead further her journey

and both of these men are also instrumental in the buildup as kai winn as a villain (winn lets bareil die and opposes shakaar), all the antipathy that we feel for her is rooted in these arcs. so on that basis alone i think theyre worth being remembered positively