Characters / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Gul Dukat

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Gul Dukat

"One man's villain is another man's hero, Captain."

Played By: Marc Alaimo

"I have unfinished business on Bajor. They thought I was their enemy? They don't know what it is to be my enemy. But they will."

— "Waltz"

One of the major recurring antagonists of the series. Dukat was formerly the Prefect of Bajor during the Cardassian occupation, and commander of the space station Terok Nor, the Cardassian name for Deep Space 9. With the Occupation over, he is "merely" a gul (i.e., captain), but in practice acts as a de facto ambassador between Cardassia and the Deep Space 9 crew, particularly in the first several seasons.

Over the series Dukat wavers between Anti-Villain, Punch-Clock Villain, Nominal Hero, and shades between them. Eventually his repeated failures and humiliations break him and drive him mad, but he's still sane enough to be a competent and dangerous wild card. Dukat decides to embrace his role as the antagonist of the little narrative he's cooking up in his own head, and he becomes a Dark Messiah dedicated to the absolute destruction of his enemies, including Bajor, Deep Space Nine, and especially Benjamin Sisko.

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#-C

• 0% Approval Rating: In-universe, Dukat is almost universally reviled by the Bajorans for overseeing the occupation and exploitation of their homeworld as Prefect for a quarter-century. Additionally, the humanitarian Federation, which acts as protector to the Bajorans following the end of the Occupation, also has a rather dim view of him because of the aforementioned actions. And, it can be reasonably assumed, he's attained this status among his fellow Cardassians in the wake of the Dominion War, when he put them in harm's way by having them join the Dominion — both through constant warfare and an eleventh-hour genocidal wrath by their erstwhile allies.
• Abhorrent Admirer: To Kira. Initially Played for Laughs but then played much more darkly. The reveal late in the series that he had kept her mother as a mistress/willing-prisoner/willing-Sex Slave for several years during the Occupation adds a few new layers of creepiness.
• Action Dad: Dukat has fathered at least nine children (seven in wedlock and at least two out of wedlock), and he's a capable commander and warrior, which he handily demonstrated when he and Kira liberated Ziyal from a Breen work camp.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: After the ship transporting him to Starbase 621 is destroyed by his fellow Cardassians, Dukat drops completely off the map. He becomes an archaeologist in the interim, learning all he can about the Pah-wraiths by reading ancient Bajoran texts and collecting various relevant artifacts.
• Affably Evil: Dukat can be quite charming when he wants to be. He is perhaps the most likeable version of Hitler ever put on TV. Marc Alaimo deserves a lot of credit for making a murdering dictator into someone who you could legitimately cheer for. Case in point, in "Indiscretion" he makes trying to kill his half-Bajoran love child sympathetic. Nonetheless, despite such instances, this is ultimately a subverted trope, with Dukat more accurately being Faux Affably Evil (see below).
• Always Need What You Gave Up: Subverted somewhat. Even before the wormhole was discovered, Dukat reluctantly gave up his position as Prefect and evacuated his old space station when the Bajoran Occupation ended. Afterwards, especially after the Bajoran system becomes a more valuable and strategic location following the discovery of the wormhole, he increasingly seizes upon almost any opportunity to stick around and work with the station's new Starfleet/Bajoran administration on a variety of regional/political issues while pursuing his ulterior motive of regaining influence on Bajor.
• Ambiguous Situation: In "Covenant", just before he comes up with his mass suicide scheme, Dukat prays for guidance from the Pah-wraiths. So, is the mass suicide scheme something he came up with on his own to cover his ass over his out of wedlock child, or did the Pah-wraiths, for reasons of their own, tell him to carry it out? Knowing both Dukat and the Pah-wraiths, either is possible.
  • With his character arc as the Emissary of the Pah-wraiths in mind, it arguably makes things more ambiguous in "Waltz": is Dukat really hallucinating due to madness, or are the Pah-wraiths taking the forms he sees to draw him further down the path to becoming The Antichrist for them?
• Ambition Is Evil: Dukat's career peaked as Prefect of Bajor, and since the end of the Occupation he's been eking out an existence as a public servant and bureaucrat. He hits rock bottom several years later after he publicly acknowledges Ziyal, his daughter to a Bajoran woman^note Imagine what would have happened to a Nazi general if he had proudly admitted to having a half-Jewish daughter; his friends abandon him, his family disowns him, and he loses the last scraps of influence he had with the Central Command and gets kicked down to being a mere freighter captain. And then, his own government refuses to act on intelligence he gathers to help fight back against the Klingon invasion. Knowing full well how far someone can rise in wartime, he restyles himself as a rebel and mounts a guerrilla war on the Klingons — but his followers (minus Damar) fail to materialize. Eventually, he aligns/sells out his people to the Dominion, becoming Cardassia's head of state, head of government, and supreme military commander. He claims I Did What I Had to Do in order to save Cardassia from the Klingons, but almost everybody (even a good deal of Cardassians) don't buy that his own personal ambition and thirst for revenge against everyone who wronged him wasn't the major factor.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Presided over a planetary occupation that brutally used the Bajorans as slave labor, even carrying out pogroms from time to time.
• And I Must Scream: Sealed away in the Fire Caves with the Pah-wraiths... forever.
• The Antichrist: By Season 6, when he aligns himself with the Pah-wraiths, he essentially becomes this for the Star Trek universe, clashing with Sisko's Messianic Archetype.
• Anti-Villain: Considered by some fans to fit this trope. Dukat's behavior from Season 6 onward was a deliberate move by the writers to avert that.
• Ax-Crazy: In "Waltz", Dukat is shown in the throes of psychosis. He fires weapons at his hallucinations and beats an injured Sisko with a pipe.
• Back from the Dead: In the series finale, Winn poisons Dukat to become the sole inheritor of the Pah-wraiths' power, but the Pah-wraiths choose him as their Emissary instead — reviving Dukat, restoring his natural appearance, and endowing him with supernatural powers.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: After allowing a Pah-wraith to possess him, he said he could feel its love for the Bajoran people. Everyone else who had ever been possessed by a Pah-wraith described feeling nothing but hatred.
• Bad Samaritan: Dukat promises Commander Sisko that he'll always be watching... just in case Starfleet needs help maintaining the station... sure. Somewhat zig-zagged as Dukat does comes to the crew's aid on numerous occasions. However, in the long run, this just makes him bitter towards them for not respecting him more despite all he did for them — ignoring all of the terrible things he also did to them and to others.
  • In "Waltz", Dukat saves Sisko and transports him to a desert planet after the USS Honshu is destroyed. We later learn that Dukat saved Sisko so that he could demand his respect before killing him.
• Batman Gambit: In "Indiscretion", Kira guesses that Dukat told her about his daughter and his intent to kill her because he was counting on Kira refusing to let him do it.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: While on the run from both the Federation and the Dominion, Dukat underwent surgery to resemble a Bajoran and live among them. Pretty eerie.
• Believing Their Own Lies: From the subtle (turning a single game of Kalevian montar in which he cheated into a regular thing with Odo, "Duet") to the blatant (his rambling breakdown in "Waltz",) Dukat repeatedly demonstrates that the famed Cardassian photographic memory is capable of being quite selective. He has a very revealing conversation with Weyoun in "Sacrifice of Angels", where Dukat all but admits that the thing he resents the most about the Bajorans is that they're not grateful for all the things he did for them during the Occupation.
• Beneath the Mask: Throughout much of the series, Dukat's cruel, sadistic, and bigoted personality is buried underneath layers of arrogance and charismatic charm. It only comes to the surface when he's either under great distress, such as in "Waltz", or when he's drunk on his own power, such as in "What You Leave Behind".
• Benevolent Boss: Subverted and Deconstructed; the first thing Dukat did after being made Prefect of Bajor was a sweeping series of changes to make the lives of the enslaved Bajorans better, cutting labor camp output quotas by 50%, abolishing child labor and improving food rations and medical supplies, leading to a 20% drop in the camp death rates. However, even if the Bajorans would have considered him to be "not as bad" as the Prefect he replaced, they wouldn't like him for it because he was still enforcing the Cardassian occupation, so they continued to resist. Dukat came to resent to Bajorans for not appreciating his "compassion", but in truth he never really cared for the Bajorans at all — he only wanted to be idolized by them for the sake of his ego.
• Beyond Redemption: Because of Sisko's belief that the universe was all different shades of gray, he initially believed that Dukat was not as evil as the Bajorans said that he was and could have potentially atoned for his past actions. Come the episode "Waltz", when they're trapped on a desolate planet, Dukat goes completely insane from the hallucinations that he saw throughout the episode, culminating in a Heel Realization. It is then that Sisko comes to realize that there really are people like Dukat who are completely evil. Because of this, when Sisko is brought aboard the Defiant, he vows that he will eliminate Dukat the next time they meet.
  Sisko: Sometimes life seems so complicated. Nothing is truly good or truly evil. Everything seems to be a shade of gray. And then you spend some time with a man like Dukat, and you realize that there is such a thing as truly evil.
  Dax: To realize that is one thing. To do something about it is another. So what are you going to do?
  Sisko: I'll tell you what I'm not going to do: I'm not going to let him destroy Bajor. I fear no evil. From now on, it's him... or me.
• Big Bad: He starts off representing the threat of Cardassian re-occupation, and although he occasionally partakes in an Enemy Mine scenario, by the end of Season 5 he's firmly in enemy territory for the rest of the show.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Alongside the Female Changeling, Weyoun and (before he rebelled) Damar; by Season 7, Dukat is no longer involved with the Dominion War, instead acting out his own schemes to take revenge on Bajor and Sisko.
• Big "SHUT UP!": In "Waltz", he directs this towards the hallucination of Kira, who is both incessantly taunting and laughing at him, after which he starts haphazardly firing a phaser in random directions following his exclamation:
  Dukat: ENOUGH!!!
• Bigot with a Crush: Despite his deep-seated hatred and resentment towards the Bajorans, Dukat nonetheless continues to pursue Bajoran women almost exclusively, especially Kira Nerys.
• Blind Obedience: Dukat expects this from all of those under his command or authority, including from members of his own family. Case in point, this exchange from "In Purgatory's Shadow" with his adult daughter:
  Dukat: Ziyal, I know we haven't spent much time together, but I think you know me well enough to realize that when I give an order, I expect to be obeyed.
  Ziyal: I'm not one of your soldiers.
  Dukat: No, you're my daughter.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Lays it all out in "Sacrifice of Angels", when Weyoun suggests that they just eradicate Earth's population in order to prevent rebellion. And skip all of the genuflecting and begging? No way!
  Weyoun: Why not?
  Dukat: (slightly tipsy) BECAUSE! ... A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place! To force them to acknowledge your greatness!
• Break the Haughty: The end of the Occupation of Bajor was a step down for Dukat. The pullout from the Bajoran system was tacitly — though admittedly not officially — put on his shoulders; doubly so when the wormhole turns out to have been sitting right under his nose. The show sets this up as a possible Heel–Face Turn for Dukat, forcing him to work alongside Sisko's crew for the good of the Alpha Quadrant. Of course, he sells out the entire Quadrant in exchange for power the first chance he gets.
• Breakout Villain: Initially appearing in only two episodes of Season 1 (including the pilot episode), he becomes increasingly prominent from Season 2 onwards, and integral to the show's narrative from Season 4 through the end of the series. Additionally, thanks to Marc Alaimo's brilliant portrayal of a charismatic and complex villain, Dukat has grown in stature over the years among the Trek fandom to the point where numerous sites have frequently listed him either in the top tier of lists of greatest Star Trek villains (sometimes in the number two spot behind Khan Noonien Singh) or, in more recent years, even surpassing Khan and taking the number one spot as the franchise's greatest villain, including on the franchise's official website, StarTrek.com.
• Can't Take Criticism: Whenever he's criticized or accused by anyone, Dukat's tone of voice becomes noticeably more irritable. By the time of "Waltz", he claims to be the victim of Malicious Slander since the Occupation of Bajor ended, believing his own delusion that he was a benevolent administrator during his time as Prefect:
  Dukat: My name and reputation have been slandered and twisted ever since the end of the Occupation of Bajor. I've been vilified by ignorant, small-minded people throughout the quadrant for the past six years.
• The Charmer: Arguably one of the most effective tools in Dukat's arsenal is his charm. Because he has such a charismatic personality, he can usually convince others that what he's saying is sincere. Of course, this doesn't work with everybody, much to his chagrin.
• Combat Pragmatist: Whenever he's in a combat situation, Dukat will do whatever it takes to come out on top, even if it means bringing about unnecessary death.
  • In "The Maquis, Part II", to disable a Xepolite ship with its shields up, Dukat advises using phasers to pierce the shields and destroy their bridge, then use the tractor beam to tow the wreckage back to the station. It would work effectively, as well as kill everyone onboard.
  • In "Return to Grace", after conducting a transportation swap with the crews of the Groumall and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey they were facing, Kira now expects the stranded Klingon crew to face humiliation when they reach their superiors. Dukat, however, has other plans…
    Kira: It worked. All our people are here and all thirty-six Klingons are on the freighter. I can just imagine that Klingon Captain explaining this to his superiors.
    Dukat: He won't get the opportunity. (Dukat fires the disruptors, destroying the Groumall)
    Kira: Was that necessary?
    Dukat: You're the terrorist. You tell me.
  • In "Apocalypse Rising", when the holofilters on Dukat's Bird-of-Prey malfunction, it's suggested that Worf should speak to the other Klingon Bird-of-Prey hailing them. Dukat prefers another solution...
    Worf: I might be able to convince them that…
    Dukat: I have a better idea. (Dukat fires the disruptors, destroying the other Bird-of-Prey)
    Worf: You should have let me speak to them!
    Sisko: Was that really necessary!?
    Dukat: It was either that or trust in Mister Worf's ability to lie! And frankly, I have more faith in my weapons!
• Con Artist: Essentially how he seduced Bajoran women during the Occupation, with an apparently fool-proof system. Step 1; get a younger officer to harass one of them. Step 2; intervene and punch the guy. Step 3; turn on the ol' Dukat charm and apologize to the lady for her poor treatment. Step 4; take her back to his quarters. During "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night", an older Cardassian watching this play out quotes the script to an incredulous Kira, having seen it several times already.
• The Corrupter: Beginning in "Covenant" and continuing throughout the series' final arc starting with "Penumbra", Dukat assumes this role as an agent of the Pah-wraiths and is particularly successful in corrupting Kai Winn in order to bring about the Restoration of Bajor.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Cardassians tend to plan ahead, and Dukat's counterinsurgency program in "Civil Defense" was ready for pretty much every possible scenario. However, the only one it didn't account for was the failure of the self-destruct mechanism, as the program presumably shuts down on its own after the reactor overload fails to destroy the station. Additionally, Dukat's superior at the time programmed in a response to Dukat attempting to flee the station, having suspected that he would try to save his own hide if the Bajorans got the better of him. The transporter is blocked and Dukat's codes are rendered void, locking in the station self-destruct while telling him to "die like a Cardassian".
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Subverted. While he doesn't actually die in the series finale, he is trapped with the Pah-wraiths in their dimension for an eternity once the Book of the Kosst Amojan is destroyed. It thus becomes a Fate Worse than Death.
• Cult Colony: Dukat has set up a colony devoted to the Pah-wraiths on Empok Nor by the time of "Covenant".
• Cultural Posturing: Prior to the depths of his Fantastic Racism being exposed, his public attitude towards the Bajorans was essentially this, casually dismissing their "backward" culture and "superstitious" beliefs.

D-G

• Dark Is Not Evil: Dukat and his Pah-wraith cult preach that the Pah-wraiths are loving beings wrongly cast as villains in a story written by the Prophets. The audience, and Kira, are well aware that it's a load of bunk.
• Dark Messiah: When he decides to align himself with the Pah-wraiths, he becomes essentially the Space Antichrist to Sisko's Space Jesus. Although he's still scheming, his belief in them seems largely sincere.
  • He became one to the Cardassians, as well. Dukat hoped to be canonized as one of their greatest leaders. However, judging by the catastrophic results of his pact with the Dominion (at least 7 million soldiers dead over the course of two years, at least 800 million civilians dead in an eleventh-hour genocide attempt by the Dominion, and the Cardassian Union in a state of total collapse), he probably goes down in history as the worst monster Cardassia ever produced.
• Day of the Jackboot: After a year-and-a-half of democratic rule, Cardassia is once again controlled by a fascistic government — in this case, Dukat and the Dominion.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart: In the Confederation timeline, his skull is one of many displayed in Picard's trophy case. He died fighting for Cardassia, suggesting he was a better person in that timeline, or at least a much lesser of two evils.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments. Case in point, these exchanges during "The Maquis, Part II":
  Odo: (Describing the Maquis' arsenal) Six ship-mounted high energy disrupters, three particle accelerators, two hundred photon torpedoes and a dozen pulse cannons.
  Kira: With that kind of firepower, the Bajorans could've launched a full-scale assault on Cardassia.
  Dukat: And lost.
  (Later…)
  Kira: So if they fire at us, we have orders to shoot back?
  Sisko: That's correct. We'll target their warp engines and weapons arrays, try to disable them.
  Dukat: How noble. I hope the Maquis will be as obliging to you.
• Deal with the Devil: To become more powerful, he aligned himself with the Dominion, then the Pah-wraiths.
• Death Glare: Dukat gives Kira a classic one in the episode "In Purgatory's Shadow" when he feels "betrayed" by her for allowing a friendship to develop between his daughter Ziyal and Garak, the latter being a sworn enemy of both himself and his family.
• Demonic Possession: Serves as a willing vessel for the Pah-wraiths more than once.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Arguably the closest thing Dukat has to a possible Freudian Excuse that can explain his actions and motivations. Of course, his Narcissism and Moral Myopia prevent him from recognizing why he won't receive any genuine affection.
• Determinator: Dukat is willing to go to virtually any lengths to achieve power or otherwise come out on top in any given situation.
  • This particularly defines Dukat with regards to Bajor. Ever since he became Prefect, he increasingly attached his identity with the planet and its people, occasionally bordering on believing it to be his destiny to "guide" and "uplift" the Bajorans. He very reluctantly gave up his position and was forced to evacuate his old station when the Occupation ended. After the Bajoran system became a more valuable and strategic location following the discovery of the wormhole, the blame for the withdrawal was largely heaped on his shoulders. To add insult to injury, not long after taking over Deep Space 9, Sisko was almost immediately recognized as the Emissary of the Prophets and becomes increasingly beloved by the Bajorans. Thereafter, Dukat increasingly seizes upon almost any opportunity to regain his influence over Bajor. Although not above using underhanded methods, such as being involved in supplying arms to a Bajoran extremist group with ties to Central Command, Dukat preferred being more overt, often coming to the aid of the DS9 crew to work with them on a variety of regional/political issues while still pursuing his ulterior motive of regaining his influence. Once he gains vast political power following his alliance with the Dominion, his first major offensive military action is to retake his old station, with the hopes of eventually reestablishing control over Bajor. Even after he loses both his political position and the station, suffers both a mental breakdown and Heel Realization, and even after aligning himself with the Pah-wraiths, Dukat still finds rationalizations to see himself as integral to Bajor's destiny. This obsession ultimately leads to his downfall when he is forever trapped in the Fire Caves.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: Says this almost verbatim when he coldly mocks Kai Winn following her rejection by the Pah-wraiths, who choose him to be their Emissary, instead:
  Dukat: Did you really think the Pah-wraiths would choose you to be their Emissary? (Laughs)
• Didn't See That Coming: Only four times in the show is he ever really taken by surprise. The first is is when he tries to beam off a station while a "Bajoran riot" was in progress (actually an old automated defense system the DS9 crew accidentally activated), only for the defense system turn out to have been hacked by his former superior, who calls him a coward, revokes his access, and tells him to die with some dignity. The second is when he's informed Major Kira is pregnant with O'Brien's baby. The third when Weyoun chugs down some poisonous kanar (Weyoun then informs him Vorta are immune to most poisons). And, of course, when the Dominion ships he was expecting fail to emerge from the wormhole.
• Dirty Coward: He has his moments. While he was in command of Terok Nor, Dukat's immediate superior went so far as to install a program into the station's computer that prevented Dukat from beaming away if the self-destruct was active, and locking out his command codes if he tried, a measure meant to guarantee that Dukat couldn't abandon a sinking ship.
• Dirty Old Man: Given the fact that he is older than most of the DS9 crew (see Older Than They Look and Vague Age), and that he has a rather…unhealthy interest with Kira, this trope can easily apply.
• Disney Villain Death: Tackled into a pit in the Fire Caves. When the furnace burned up the Tome of Eldritch Lore he was holding, Dukat's power vanished and he burned up, too. Of course, this is ultimately subverted because Dukat doesn't really die; he's trapped with the Pah-wraiths in their dimension for an eternity.
• Disproportionate Retribution: From "Waltz" onward following his Heel Realization, in retaliation for the Bajorans not returning his "affections" after what he did to "help" them during the Occupation, Dukat vows an apocalyptic vengeance against Bajor and all Bajorans.
• Do Wrong, Right:
  • In "The Maquis, Part I", while Dukat is bothered that a Maquis member died in Cardassian custody, he apparently has no qualms about how an interrogation is carried out as long as the subject doesn't die. And given what is known about Cardassian interrogation techniques…
    Sisko: No one is going to buy your suicide story. I don't care what he did. This kind of barbaric disregard for life will gut this treaty.
    Dukat: If it means anything, I entirely agree. I told Evek he was a fool to let Samuels die. A good interrogator doesn't allow his subject to die. You lose the advantage.
  • In "Sacrifice of Angels", when planning for a conquered Alpha Quadrant, Weyoun speculates that Earth will be the origin of organized rebellion against Dominion rule; therefore, they should eradicate its population early. Dukat tells him bluntly that he can't do that. When Weyoun asks why, Dukat states that a true victory isn't to kill your enemies outright, it's to make them believe they were wrong to ever oppose you and to force them to acknowledge your greatness. However, Dukat doesn't rule out genocide if the aforementioned approach isn't successful.
• Dragged Off to Hell: In the series finale, this happens in a two-step process. First, Sisko tackles Dukat into the deep caverns of the Fire Caves, already alight with fire. Then, the Book of the Kosst Amojan, the key to his newfound powers as Emissary of the Pah-wraiths and which Dukat is holding, is destroyed by the fire. This combination both robs him of his power and destroys his corporeal form, trapping him in the Pah-wraiths' dimension for an eternity.
• Drinking the Kool-Aid: Averted. Dukat has the Pah-wraith cultists on Empok Nor following him obediently and unwaveringly, right up until Kira reveals that he planned to trick them all into killing themselves while he escaped scot-free to cover-up his indiscretion with Mika.
• Driven by Envy: This especially defines his relationship with regards to Sisko. Having been Prefect of Bajor for nearly a quarter-century, Dukat becomes one of the most reviled figures in Bajoran history, whereas Sisko, not long after taking over Deep Space 9, is almost immediately recognized as the Emissary of the Prophets and is increasingly beloved by the Bajorans. Dukat, of course, deeply resents Sisko for this (in addition to commanding his old station), and this jealousy becomes increasingly apparent as the series progresses, culminating in their showdown in "What You Leave Behind".
• Droit du Seigneur: This is essentially Dukat's attitude with regards to Bajoran women during the Occupation. Because he was Prefect of Bajor, he felt he was within his "rights" as overseer of the planet to have sex with whichever women he wanted, irrespective of consent.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: During the climax of "What You Leave Behind", following his reanimation after Winn's poisoning and his acquiring of immense power bestowed by the Pah-wraiths, Dukat does an effective job of Chewing the Scenery.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Needless to say, Dukat is noticeably frustrated and bothered by the fact that neither the Bajorans nor Sisko appreciate all the various things he did to "help" them, feeling that he is owed at least their respect, if not admiration.
• Easily Forgiven: Ziyal shrugging off her father's attempt to murder her. What this says about Cardassian culture, one can only speculate.
  • In "Tears of the Prophets", Dukat states that he bears Damar no ill will for having killed Ziyal, insisting that it was instead Sisko's fault.
• Egocentrically Religious: While his belief in the Pah-wraiths is largely genuine, it certainly helps that they made him their Emissary, a position which entitles him to the worship and reverence that he always believed he deserved.
• Entitled to Have You: His opinion of Kira. What starts off as creepy to begin with only gets creepier during the Dominion occupation of Deep Space 9, and even worse when it turns out her mother was one of his comfort women. No amount of blatant disgust and hatred on Kira's part shakes Dukat of his stubborn desire that he and Kira have/should have a relationship.
• Establishing Character Moment: In "Emissary", when we first meet him during the unofficial hand-off of authority between himself and Sisko, Dukat not only immediately states his disapproval of withdrawing from Bajor, but that he would very much like to "assist" the new administration:
  Dukat: Excuse my presumption, but this was my office only two weeks ago. I'm not used to being on this side of the desk. I'll be honest with you, Commander. I miss this office. I was not happy to leave it.
  Sisko: Drop by any time you're feeling homesick.
  Dukat: You're very gracious. And allow me to assure you that we only want to be helpful in this difficult transition. You're far from the Federation fleet, alone in this remote outpost, with poor defense systems. Your Cardassian neighbors will be quick to respond to any problems you might have.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: This dynamic is best exemplified through Dukat's relationship with his daughter Ziyal. Despite the various atrocities he committed during his tenure as Prefect of Bajor, Ziyal is still willing to show love and affection towards her father, and this arguably brings out the best in him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • He genuinely cared for his illegitimate daughter, Ziyal, and her death drives him over the edge. It's strongly hinted that losing Ziyal made him lose his one Morality Chain and went from Well-Intentioned Extremist to evil. He also seemed to genuinely love her mother, Tora Naprem, given that he sent them away from Bajor once the Occupation was ending for fear of what would happen to them, and he cries at her grave.
  • In "Defiant", Dukat remarks he was supposed to take his son Mekor to a fair, but can't because of the current crisis. Sisko's attempt to tell him that Mekor will understand one day doesn't work.
    "When my son looks back on this day, the only thing he'll remember is that a Federation officer, on a Federation ship invaded his home, and kept his father away from him on his eleventh birthday, and he won't look back with understanding. He'll look back with hatred, and that's sad."
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dukat cannot understand why the Bajorans wouldn't submit to his "kinder and gentler" implementation of Cardassian rule during his time as Prefect of Bajor.
• Evil Counterpart: The parallels between Dukat and Sisko are numerous. They are both outsiders who were assigned to deal with Bajor. Sisko's mission was to support the Bajorans, while Dukat's was to exploit them. Dukat saw himself as a guiding father-figure to the Bajoran people and they hated him for it, while Sisko became that figure against his wishes and they love him for it.
  • In the Season 4 episode "To The Death", Weyoun offers Sisko the chance to become the uncontested ruler of the Federation and the Alpha Quadrant, which Sisko rejects immediately without hesitation. In the Season 5 episode "By Inferno's Light", it is revealed that Weyoun made the same offer to Dukat; he is now the de facto leader of the Cardassian Union, which has joined the Dominion and will soon begin conquering the Alpha Quadrant. Whereas Sisko rejected the offer without hesitation, Dukat accepted it just as quickly.
  • "Covenant" juggles the possibility of whether Dukat really is a born-again man who has found religion or whether (as Kira alleges) he's just drinking in the power of his subjects and indulging in his own idealized version of the Occupation, with himself in Sisko's place on his own version of Deep Space 9 to boot.
  • Even the fates of the two men mirror each other: Dukat becomes the Emissary to the Pah-wraiths as Sisko is to the Prophets, and like Sisko, he ends the series in the company of the gods to whom he owes allegiance; Sisko ascends to join the Prophets in the Celestial Temple, while Dukat is trapped in the Fire Caves with the Pah-wraiths for an eternity.
  • Dukat is also ostensibly one to Garak. Whereas Garak is an exile who is truly devoted to Cardassia and is willing to suffer all sorts of ruin if his people ordered it, Dukat is a high-ranking official who will do whatever it takes to rule Cardassia, even if it means selling out his entire planet.
• Evil Gloating: Dukat has a few laughs at the DS9 crew's expense — both individually and collectively, directly and indirectly. This is most apparent in "Civil Defense".
• Evil Is Angular: Needless to say, Dukat has fairly angular and somewhat gaunt facial features which, combined with being Lean and Mean, suitably complements his overall darker morality.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Earlier on in the series, in the Season 2 episode "Cardassians", we learn that during the waning years of the Occupation, Dukat arranged the kidnapping and subsequent adoption by Bajorans of 4-year-old Cardassian Rugal Pa'Dar, the son of Kotan Pa'Dar, a civilian rival of Dukat's. Dukat then planned to use this fabricated abandonment to politically disgrace Pa'Dar because the latter supported ending the Occupation of Bajor, which Dukat opposed. Once Dukat ended up on the losing end of that debate and his career and reputation subsequently suffered, he saw the opportunity to exact his revenge on Pa'Dar, which is ultimately foiled by Bashir and Garak.
  • In "Civil Defense", while condescendingly posturing to the DS9 crew that he might be willing to help them out in disabling the counterinsurgency program, Dukat takes a moment to laugh at the sight of Garak crouching for safety.
  • In "The Way of the Warrior", when Garak warns him that the Cardassian Union is about to be invaded by a Klingon armada within the hour, Dukat takes the time to trade insults with Garak about how with the Obsidian Order gone, Garak's exile is all but permanent. Garak has to be the one to remind him that he doesn't have the time to trade insults with him.
  • In "Return to Grace", Dukat openly muses that, following his reassumption of power, he plans to have Gul Marratt, an up-and-coming officer he believes is having an affair with his wife, posted to the Cardassian embassy on the icy Breen homeworld, which for a Cardassian is practically considered a Fate Worse than Death.
  • In "By Inferno's Light", now that the Cardassians are allied with the Dominion, all the Cardassian prisoners in Dominion prisons are freed. However, in one of his first acts as supreme ruler of Cardassia, Dukat orders that Garak be locked away in a Dominion prison in the Gamma Quadrant...forever.
  • His rant against Bajorans in "Waltz" includes this rather revealing comment:
    "Of course I hated them! I hated everything about them. Their superstitions and their cries for sympathy. Their treachery and their lies. Their smug superiority and their stiff-necked obstinacy. Their earrings, and their broken, wrinkled noses!"
• Evil Sounds Deep: Dukat has a deep, resonant baritone which, combined with his charming personality, can easily deceive others as to the depths of his vileness.
• Evil Virtues: He's a decent commander, and inspires loyalty in the men who serve under him. In fact, we never see him harm another Cardassian (not even Garak can make that claim — he kills them by the truckload).
• Evil Wears Black: Inverted somewhat. The Cardassian uniform he wears throughout most of the series happens to be black; while he's wearing said uniform, he is generally helpful to the DS9 crew until mid-Season 5. Ironically, it's when his intentions become increasingly dark and malevolent that he switches to more neutral-toned civilian clothing during the final season.
• Eviler than Thou: Winn Adami poisoned him and offered his limp form as a sacrifice to the Pah-wraiths in exchange for becoming their Emissary. Zigged Zagged when Dukat sprang back to life and set her on fire. Unlike the conflicted Winn, Dukat's hatred for the Bajorans was beyond peer.
• Explosive Decompression: In "Waltz", while he and Sisko are passing the time waiting for someone to pick up their distress signal, Dukat mentions an incident early in his career in which he had to clean up the mess when this happened to some other Cardassians on a ship he was serving on, and how he couldn't sleep for a week afterward.
• Face–Heel Turn: Subverted. While he was never much of a "Face" to start with, Dukat was nevertheless a semi-reliable Friendly Enemy to the crew of DS9 up through Season 5. In "By Inferno's Light", he sells out his people to the Dominion, and thus firmly reestablishes himself as one of the show's main antagonists.
• False Flag Operation: As depicted in the Terok Nor novel Day of the Vipers, in 2323, the Cardassians initiated an elaborate false flag operation against Bajor, framing the Tzenkethi. Utilizing captured Tzenkethi ships, the Cardassians attacked Bajor, during which many Bajoran ships were destroyed or severely damaged, causing massive damage to the Bajoran Militia. The Cardassians then came in and destroyed the Tzenkethi ships. This allowed them to gain a military base in the Bajoran system in order to "protect" it, and relegated the Bajoran Militia to a minor role until it was disbanded at the beginning of the Occupation of Bajor several years later. Dukat, as a young officer in the Cardassian military, took an active part in this false flag operation that led to increased Cardassian control of Bajor, eventually leading to the planetary occupation he would one day oversee.
• Family-Values Villain: Family is extremely important in Cardassian culture; Dukat is married and has seven children. This eventually leads to Dukat's disgrace when he publicly acknowledges that he had a daughter out of wedlock with a Bajoran woman.
• Fantastic Racism: Dukat describes the Bajorans as "children" in need of Cardassian guidance, and clearly deeply resents that they don't appreciate him. In "Waltz", however, he reveals his true hatred of the Bajoran people. He can't even contemplate accepting them as equals, and if they won't acknowledge his superiority and worship him, he would rather see them all dead.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Pride: Dukat has HUGE pride issues. For instance, during the Dominion occupation of Deep Space 9, Dukat oozes pride. He's overconfident in the Cardassians' ability to hold off Federation forces and deactivate the self-replicating mine field. However, when Federation and Klingon forces reach Deep Space 9 and no Dominion reinforcements emerge from the wormhole, he's blindsided. He also spends most of "Favor The Bold" / "Sacrifice of Angels" not doing much to oppose the Federation because he's so sure of his own greatness and victory, that he can't even entertain the notion that he might lose, and thus takes no steps to avert it. Similarly, he's obsessed with being seen as a good man who does no evil. He's fully deluded himself that he did good for the Bajorans during the Occupation, despite managing forced labor camps and ordering mass executions of civilians and relatives of known Bajoran Resistance members. It's even his pride that leads him to side with the Dominion, on the condition they install him as their Puppet King on Cardassia Prime.
  • Lust: Dukat compelled multiple Bajoran women to sleep with him during his time as Prefect. His lustful behavior gave the Bajorans yet another reason to hate their Cardassian occupiers. Furthermore, one of his comfort women bore him a half-Bajoran, half-Cardassian daughter, a fact that alienated his family and created public scandal when it came to light years later. Even his downfall as leader of the Pah-wraith cult is partly due to this because of his indiscretion with one of his followers.
• Fate Worse than Death: Dukat ends up sealed in the Fire Caves alongside the Pah-wraiths, to be trapped there for an eternity.
• Faux Affably Evil: Although Dukat is generally effective in convincing others that he's Affably Evil, he truly belongs in this category in light of his past atrocities. In "Indiscretion", a quote from one of Kira's friends sums up Dukat's approach succinctly:
  Razka Karn: The voice of the new Cardassia, so compassionate, so understanding. Almost makes you forget that five years ago he was working Bajorans to death in forced labor camps and shooting anybody who tried to stop him. Almost makes you forget.
• Fighting for a Homeland: Subverted. While Dukat ardently believes himself to be a Cardassian patriot first and foremost, it's evident from both his actions and words that, whatever patriotic feelings he may have, his own interests and ambitions ultimately come first. This is contrasted with both Garak and Damar, whose support for Cardassia is more genuine and selfless.
• First-Name Basis: He has a tendency to refer to Major Kira by her given name, as part of his delusional grasp of reality. Additionally, from "Waltz" onward, he also refers to Sisko by his given name.
• Foil:
  • A classic foil dynamic exists between Sisko and Dukat. To start with, the similarities between the two men are numerous. Both are outsiders who were assigned to deal with Bajor, and subsequently develop strong associations with the planet and its people. Both are career military officers with distinguished service records. Both men care deeply about their families and suffer personal tragedy when their families are affected. Even the fates of the two men are similar: Dukat becomes the Emissary to the Pah-wraiths as Sisko is to the Prophets, and like Sisko, ends the series in the company of the gods to whom he owes allegiance. However, while Sisko leads his crew through respect and seeks the opinions and beliefs of others, Dukat relies on Blind Obedience and threat of force to keep subordinates in line and intimidate any potential opponents. Additionally, while Sisko was sent to Bajor to help the planet and people recover from a half-century of occupation and exploitation, Dukat was sent to Bajor to manage and exploit the planet and its people. Furthermore, while Sisko actions, even his more morally dubious ones, are ultimately motivated by the greater good, Dukat actions are ultimately motivated on what will best advance his career and reputation. Finally, while Sisko ascends to join the Prophets in the Celestial Temple, Dukat is trapped in the Fire Caves with the Pah-wraiths for an eternity.
  • The conversation between Dukat and Weyoun near the climax of "Sacrifice of Angels" highlights the differences between the former's ego and the latter's pragmatism. Dukat toasts himself for a victory that he hasn't won yet, while Weyoun warns him that their fortunes can still go south. Weyoun then wants to annihilate Earth's population to prevent any rebellions from starting there, while Dukat would rather keep everyone alive so that they can acknowledge his greatness. This builds upon their established character traits — Dukat is motivated by self-aggrandization, while everything Weyoun does is in service to the Founders.
  • Dukat even serves as a foil to his fellow Cardassian and loyal adjutant Damar. On the surface, they appear to be very similar to each other: both men are arrogant and condescending, both are seasoned military officers in the service of Cardassia, and both are willing to go to great lengths to achieve their goals. However, upon closer examination, they are quite different overall. While Dukat is an upper-echelon officer with a penchant for political intrigue in order to put himself into positions of power and dominance — such as switching sides following the civilian overthrow of the Central Command and his opportunistic alliance with the Dominion, Damar is a dutiful, forthright soldier with no political ambitions other than to serve the Cardassian Union; his tenure as Cardassia's supreme leader highlights his lack of ease in the role. Additionally, while Dukat generally acts without remorse or regret, Damar is plagued with doubts and frustrations about Cardassia's alliance with the Dominion. As writer Hans Beimler said of Damar's drinking problem that began in early Season 6: "He's not drinking because he's an alcoholic, he's drinking because he has a conscience. There's something he doesn't want to deal with. He knows Dukat's deal with the Dominion is wrong, wrong, wrong. And so he's drinking." His drinking problem lasts until the mounting losses and decreased independence Cardassia experiences in the war propel Damar into a Heel Realization and soon rebels against the Dominion, even going as far as to seek aid from his former enemies. By contrast, Dukat, after going through both a severe psychological breakdown and being confronted with his past crimes as Prefect of Bajor, rejects his Heel Realization in "Waltz" and starts pursuing a destructive agenda of revenge against all those he feels have "wronged" him — chiefly, the Bajorans and Sisko.
• Four-Star Badass: He can hold his own in hand-to-hand combat, even against several Klingons at once. Not so great at strategy, however (see below).
• Friendly Enemy: He likes to consider himself as this to Sisko and the DS9 crew, and allies with them on several occasions. The feeling isn't mutual.
• The Gadfly: In his "lighter" moments, Dukat likes to verbally spar with others in order to gauge them psychologically and establish a position of superiority and dominance, particularly with Sisko and Kira.
• General Failure: He's both a competent administrator — at least as far as running a planetary occupation goes — and a decent tactician in the midst of battle. However, he's repeatedly shown to be inept at grand strategy. In particular, during the early months of the Dominion War, he wasted precious resources and ships on battles that didn't need to be fought, rather than prioritizing the disabling of the minefield at the wormhole to allow both a constant flow of supplies and reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant, which would have likely ended the war sooner. It serves as a constant frustration to Weyoun, which is probably why Damar isn't allowed much of a say once he steps in as the new leader of Cardassia.
• The Generalissimo: He convinced himself that the Bajorans were lucky to have him as their "master" during his time as Prefect of Bajor, and that he cared for them as if they were his own children. Around 15 million of them died during the Occupation, with over 5 million (one-third of the total) perishing during his own tenure as Prefect!
• Glory Hound: Dukat is willing to use questionable and/or underhanded methods to get the fame he desires and feels he deserves.
• A God Am I: Dukat acts as such after the release of the Pah-wraiths and being granted supernatural powers by them during the climax of "What You Leave Behind".
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: During the Occupation, Dukat encouraged, or at least ignored, bad behavior from his underlings so that he came off better and more reasonable by comparison towards the Bajorans.
  • Additionally, when he wants to appear dominant relative to his Federation associates, Dukat will flip the dynamic. In "The Maquis, Part II", Sisko tries to peacefully talk his way aboard the Xepolite ship, and when it doesn't work, Dukat steps in with a more threatening offer that they accept.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In "Return to Grace", Dukat eagerly shares tales of Shakaar's reputation as The Casanova in an attempt to turn Kira against Shakaar so that he can move in and gain her affections.

H-L

• Hazy-Feel Turn: Introduced as an Affably Evil Anti-Villain of sorts who was genuinely charming and likeable and often helped to save the day; at the same time, most of the crew were wary of him at best due to his past as the de facto dictator of Bajor, and many of his actions post-Occupation were still self-serving and in some cases downright villainous, not to mention he was largely unrepentant about everything he had done. It comes to a head when he sells out his people to the Dominion, both to finally defeat the Klingons and the Maquis and also to obtain the level of personal power he felt he deserved, putting him firmly and unambiguously in "Heel" territory for the remainder of the show. Word of God is that audiences found him to be far more Ambiguously Evil than originally intended, and that at the end of the day he was always a bad guy.
• Hearing Voices: In "Waltz", Dukat starts behaving a lot like Gollum. He hallucinates Damar, Weyoun, and Kira speaking to him, with the latter two mocking him.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: When he captained the one-ship Cardassian resistance to the Klingon invasion and occupation of the Cardassian Union.
• Heel Realization: He actually embraces it, and generally becomes a less complex villain afterwards.
  Dukat: That's right, isn't it?! I knew it. I've always known it. I should've killed every last one of them! I should've turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! I should have killed them all!
• Hero Killer: Dukat has the distinction of being the first recurring villain in Star Trek to kill off a major character (i.e., one listed in the opening credits) in the franchise (in this case, Jadzia Dax) in the episode "Tears of the Prophets".
• Hero's Evil Predecessor: Sisko, a Starfleet officer assigned to oversee assistance to Bajor to help it recover following the end of the Occupation, succeeds Dukat, who presided for 23 years as Prefect of Bajor, during which the planet and its people were subjected to exploitation, terror, and other deprivations.
• Hiding Behind Religion: In "Covenant", the debate surrounding Dukat during his time as leader of the Pah-wraith cult revolves on whether this trope applies or whether he has become a true believer.
• History Repeats: His time as a cult leader on Empok Nor in "Covenant" was a thinly veiled attempt to recreate the days of the Occupation again, with him serving as the kindly "master" of a new Terok Nor/Deep Space 9 with a flock of Bajorans who worship him as the Emissary of the Pah-wraiths. But just like the Occupation, his desire to bang Bajoran women (birthing yet another half-Cardassian love child with a married woman) and his hypocritical suicide pact with his followers, not to mention his obsession with bringing Kira into his fan club, causes the whole thing to implode, sending him fleeing in disgrace once again.
• Homage: Since Dukat was the first recurring arch-villain of the franchise, it seems appropriate that he and Sisko have their Reichenbach Fall moment. Like Holmes and Moriarty, there is an impression that Dukat and Sisko were long-term adversaries, when in reality, Dukat purposely never crossed paths with him for a year after "Waltz." And like "The Final Problem", the hero survives the fall.
• Honor Before Reason: At the climax of "Waltz", disregarding the pragmatic advice from his hallucination of Damar, Dukat leaves Sisko alive and even alerts the Defiant to his location after taking off in the stolen shuttle. The way Dukat sees things, he can't very well exact the ultimate revenge on his enemy if the Emissary isn't around because he died on a barren planet.
• Hopeless Suitor: Essentially, this is his relationship with Kira Nerys in a nutshell. Despite his delusional pursuit of her affections, he is simply unable to grasp that Kira, who sees him as a brutal dictator responsible for many crimes against her people, would never even consider a mere friendship with him, much less a romantic relationship. And all of this is before the reveal that her mother was one of his comfort women.
• Horrible Judge of Character: His hallucinations during "Waltz" don't exactly line up very well with the actual thoughts and personalities of the people they're imitating. Damar in particular proves much more nuanced and flexible than Dukat saw him, and Dukat actually knew and worked with Damar for years.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Probably the worst thing to happen to Dukat was becoming Prefect of Bajor. Before then, he was just a promising officer in search of distinction. Not only did the blame for Cardassia's withdrawal fall on his shoulders, but the added humiliation of giving up the wormhole added insult to injury. In his selfish drive to regain everything he has "lost", Dukat continues to lose and lose and lose until, finally, he has nothing at all—save his vendetta toward the individuals he blames for ruining his life.
• Hypocrite Has a Point:
  • When he finds Damar depressed and drinking to cope, Dukat tells him to grab hold of himself and be the leader Cardassia needs. Even though all of Damar's problems were entirely Dukat's fault, he was right about Damar needing to get over his self-pity.
  • He believes that the Occupation made the Bajoran people stronger, and ultimately left them better off. While he was clearly just rationalizing away his culpability in the Occupation's atrocities, the episode "Accession" showed that the Occupation forced the Bajorans to abandon their Fantastic Caste System, and that they were indeed better off without it.
• I Banged Your Mom: He kept Kira's mother as part of a harem of sex slaves during the Bajoran Occupation, and then drops the revelation on her years later as a power move in his predatory relationship with her. Kira, understandably, does not take it well.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Dukat's immediate rationalization for any morally dubious, ethically dubious, or even heinous act he commits or is otherwise involved in. This is especially true with regards to anything that has to do with his time as Prefect of Bajor.
• I Have No Daughter!: When Sisko points out that the Dominion's plan to destroy the station would have killed Ziyal, Dukat claims that Ziyal, having made her choice to defy him and stay on DS9 rather than live with him, is no longer his daughter.
• I Just Want to Be Loved:
  • Twisted though it may be, Dukat continually strives to get the respect and adoration of others. Unfortunately, he has a habit of seeking it from people who have every reason to despise him; he wanted the love of the Bajoran people while he oppressed them, sought Kira's affections, and wanted Sisko's respect and validation, but Dukat's narcissism and Moral Myopia prevent him from recognizing why he won't get any of it.
  • Everything he does in regards to the Bajoran people is a twisted attempt to get them to see why they should adore and worship him. He tries it with the Bajorans during the Occupation, then with Kira, later with the Bajoran followers of the Pah-wraiths, and then finally with Kai Winn. All of them reject him when his charm ultimately fails and they come to recognize him for the vile monster he really is. It's doubly damning when in "Waltz", Dukat admits that he always hated the Bajorans with a white hot fury because he could never charm them into loving him.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Dukat can't comprehend that Kira doesn't return his feelings. After all, he managed to woo her mother, turning her into one of his comfort women.
• I Reject Your Reality: Dukat is so stubborn and full of himself that every time something doesn't go his way, his mind rewrites the memory of said event into something more favorable.
• I Should Have Done This Years Ago: Said practically verbatim in "Waltz" near the end of his Motive Rant, and signifying the beginning of his madness-induced Heel Realization:
  Dukat: I should have killed every last one of them! I should have turned their planet into a graveyard the likes of which the galaxy had never seen! I should have killed them all.
• Identity Breakdown: He suffers one in "Waltz" in the wake of his Heel Realization. Between that episode and "Tears of the Prophets", Dukat is in the process of remolding his identity, ultimately aligning himself with the Pah-wraiths and carrying out their agenda from the end of Season 6 through the series finale.
• Immune to Mind Control: Dukat no sells an attempt by a Vulcan Maquis member to mind-meld with him to extract information, which he puts down to Cardassian mental discipline. He immediately follows this up by teasing his captors as being amateur interrogators, all while a gun his held to his head.
• In the Blood: According to Garak, who implicated Dukat's father for treason, the accused had only one regret: that his "ambition had outweighed his patriotism". Like father, like son.
• Incest Subtext: Dukat's long-term "interest" in Kira has a disturbing aspect after the reveal that her mother was his mistress.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: In "Waltz", when Dukat is at his most vulnerable psychologically, the audience gets to see what triggers his insecurities more than in almost any other episode he's in. The manifestations of Weyoun, Damar, and Kira can be argued, based upon their dialogue, to represent different parts of his psyche: Weyoun represents his fear of weakness, Damar represents his ego/ambition, and Kira represents his self-doubt. Additionally, as seen with both the Weyoun and Kira hallucinations, humiliation, mockery and reminder of failure sets Dukat off in a rage more than anything. This potentially suggests that deep below all that arrogance, charisma, and posturing, Dukat is a deeply insecure man whose mental stability is contingent upon praise, adoration, and success.
• Insane Admiral:
  • Word of God says that Dukat was unraveling long before Ziyal's death. His obsession with vindicating himself and reclaiming DS9 led to many costly and unnecessary battles for Cardassia and the Dominion. Later, a drunk Dukat starts complaining, yet again, about how little the Bajorans appreciated the ways in which he "advanced" their planet — and how, in a just universe, there would be statues of himself erected on the planet. Then Weyoun realizes he's nuts.
    Dukat: Perhaps the biggest disappointment in my life is that the Bajoran people still refuse to appreciate how lucky they were to have me as their liberator. I protected them in so many ways, cared for them as if they were my own children. But to this day, is there a single…statue of me on Bajor?
    Weyoun: I would guess not.
    Dukat: And you'd be right. (Both laugh) Take Captain Sisko, an otherwise intelligent, perceptive man. Even he refuses to grant me the respect I deserve. (Dukat drops Sisko's baseball onto the floor.)
    (Weyoun starts to laugh)
    Dukat: You find that amusing?
    Weyoun: Not at all. I find it (Laughs)…fascinating.
    Dukat: Laugh all you want. History will prove me right.
  • In the Season 6 finale, the Dominion still humors him when he suggests appealing to the Pah-wraiths back on Bajor. This gives Dukat just enough leash to shut down the wormhole, which ultimately foils Dominion reinforcements a second time. Then Weyoun realizes he's really nuts.
    Weyoun: You're right, Dukat, you have changed! You've gone from being a self-important egoist to a self-deluded madman – I hardly call that an improvement!
• It's All About Me: He talks a good game about patriotism & self-sacrifice — but Dukat blows with the prevailing wind. Starfleet, the Bajoran militia, the Klingons, the Dominion, the Pah-wraiths... he'll support or oppose/attack anybody if it gets him back in a seat of power and influence again. His inaugural address to the people of Cardassia rings hollow when one considers this.
  Dukat: You should see the monument they're erecting in my honor at the gateway to the Imperial Plaza.
  Sisko: Is that why you sold out your people to the Dominion? For a monument?!
  • When rescuing him from Klingons in "The Way of the Warrior", Jadzia bets Sisko that Dukat would complain about having a guard assigned to follow him around before thanking Sisko for the rescue. She won that bet.
  • After the Klingons invade, Cardassia's new civilian government pressed for a diplomatic solution, which flew in the face of Dukat's pride. He actually has the gall to tell Major Kira "I am the only Cardassian left!", apparently refusing to consider that there are other Cardassians, including those from his own crew, that also have a strong desire to fight the Klingons and liberate their space.
  • It can even apply in other matters, especially when it involves his amorous fixation with Kira Nerys. For instance, in "Apocalypse Rising", he is personally offended that Kira is pregnant, initially assuming the father is First Minister Shaakar.
  • Dukat concludes that Kira has allowed Ziyal's friendship with Garak because she knows it will anger him. He also refers to caring for his daughter as a favor to him, and doesn't register Kira's correction that it's about Ziyal.
  • His conversation with Weyoun in "Sacrifice of Angels" is also insightful, where Dukat all but admits that what he resents the most about the Bajorans is that they're not grateful for all the things he did for them during the Occupation — irrespective of the suffering he caused.
  • Even by the end of the series in "What You Leave Behind", while appearing to selflessly devote himself to the cause of the Pah-wraiths, it eventually becomes clear that Dukat's motives are, in the final analysis, still self-serving, using the Pah-wraiths, to an extent, as a means to an end – his own glory:
    Dukat: Benjamin, please, we've known each other too long. And since this is the last time we will ever be together, let's try to speak honestly. We've both had our victories and our defeats. Now it's time to resolve our differences and face the ultimate truth: I've won, Benjamin. You've lost.
• Jerkass: Dukat is smug, petty, and needlessly cruel.
• Jerkass Dissonance:invoked This became a problem. Eventually, even the actor got in on the act; Marc Alaimo believed that Dukat was generally a nice guy, and was saddened when he had to punch an old man in Season 7.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The simultaneous death of Ziyal and Dukat's fall from power drive him mad and largely strips away his already twisted and self-serving sense of morality, focusing his hatred on the people who first defied him: the Bajorans.
• Just the First Citizen: In Season 4, he was briefly promoted to Legate, the Cardassian equivalent of Admiral, until the revelation of his half-Bajoran daughter Ziyal emerged and ruined his career. Once he allied with the Dominion and began his rule as de facto dictator of his homeworld, Dukat chose to be a simple "gul" as a gesture of apparent modesty:
  Dukat: I prefer the title 'gul'; so much more hands-on than legate, hm? And less pretentious than the other alternatives: president, emperor, chancellor, first minister… emissary.
• Kavorka Man: During the Occupation, one of Dukat's hobbies was to have sex with every woman on, or in orbit of, Bajor. His taste for Bajoran women is undiminished in the present.
• Kicked Upstairs: At the start of the series. It's his frustration at his inability to fix this that contributes to Dukat's turn toward the Dominion.
• Kneel Before Zod: The Bajorans stubbornly refused to, which enraged him. In "What You Leave Behind", Dukat uses his newly-acquired telekinesis to force the Emissary — Bajor incarnate — to bow before him.
• Knight Templar: For much of the series, Dukat firmly believes that he is the hero. Even after both his Villainous Breakdown and Heel Realization, he still attempts to find rationalizations and justifications for his actions, and he never really becomes, nor does he see himself as, a Card-Carrying Villain.
• Lack of Empathy: Like any true sociopath, Dukat is fundamentally incapable of genuinely emphasizing with others, and always views their misfortunes as either an annoyance or something that he can utilize for his own ends.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Getting entombed in the Bajoran equivalent of Hell for an eternity can arguably be seen as a more than appropriate punishment for one of the planet's most despised figures.
• Lean and Mean: Unlike many other high-ranking Cardassian military officials, who are usually shown to be either stocky or overweight, Dukat is shown to be lean and relatively fit throughout the series.
• Leave No Survivors: How Dukat handles enemy combatants in an engagement. While he is willing to consider allowing civilians to survive in order to "recognize" why it was wrong to oppose him in the first place, enemy combatants are given no quarter. This is most apparent in his dealings with the Maquis and the Klingons, preferring to destroy even a disabled ship rather than leave any survivors as a show of mercy.
• Legacy Seeker: Dukat is not only concerned with his image in the present, but he is equally concerned with how people have viewed him in the past and how people will view him in the future. He is frustrated that the Bajorans haven't "honored" him with statues for his "kinder and gentler" methods during the Occupation, and he is thrilled that monuments are being built in his honor on Cardassia following his assumption of power there.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He did genuinely try to make the Occupation less brutal during his time as Prefect, lowering work quotas for Bajoran slave laborers and abolishing child labor, among other things. However, his problem is that he thinks this makes him an underappreciated hero of the Occupation, and thus entitled to the Bajorans' gratitude, while failing to acknowledge that he was still presiding over a brutal, genocidal planetary occupation and is still responsible for many atrocities against the Bajoran people.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Early on in the series, Dukat, having fallen out of favor with the Central Command following the withdrawal from Bajor, is not brought into the DMZ weapons smuggling conspiracy. This later backfires on the Central Command, as it motivates Dukat to work with Sisko and his crew to expose the conspiracy (to preserve the Treaty, but largely out of vindictive spite).

M-P

• Madness Mantra: After Ziyal's death, Dukat is reduced to literally being dragged out of a holding cell while whimperingly repeating "I forgive you... I forgive you..."
• Magic Plastic Surgery: While masquerading as "Anjohl Tennan", a Bajoran farmer. However, it literally happens in the series finale, when the Pah-wraiths restore his Cardassian features with a puff of fire.
• Mask of Sanity: After Ziyal's death he has a complete Freak Out Villainous Breakdown. Afterwards, he had a "miraculous recovery", according to the Federation doctors overseeing him during his time as a prisoner of war. Of course, he keeps pretending that he isn't having hallucinations and delusions. It only gets worse from there, although he somehow manages to still pretend that he's sane. The fact that he's about a hair's-width away from being a gibbering catatonic is not comforting when he goes completely Ax-Crazy. The fact that he honestly and truly believed that he and Sisko are old friends who are simply rivals, and is actually hurt by Sisko's cold demeanor in "Waltz", should already say something about his state of mind; that he might have deluded himself enough to believe this for quite a while should say something about his overall state of sanity before he went insane.
• Master Race: Dukat's justifications for the occupation of Bajor amounted to the Cardassians being superior to Bajorans in every conceivable way, with the Cardassians attempting to "uplift" those beneath them.
• Might Makes Right:
  • In "Waltz", he finally admits to Sisko that this is the reason why he thinks Cardassia was right to invade and occupy Bajor in the first place; the fact that they were a century ahead of Bajor on a military, cultural and technological level is what gave Cardassia the moral authority to rule over them. The fact that Bajorans were eventually able to force Cardassia to withdraw thoroughly bothers Dukat for this exact reason. It's such an issue in his mind that he actively deludes himself into thinking that the Central Command was mistaken about evacuating.
  • He believes so firmly in this trope, it's the second reason behind his downfall, after his pride/ambition. From his point of view, he's in his right as a conqueror to rule over Bajorans and take comfort women under his service. What he fails to realize is that trying to improve their conditions of life doesn't make them free, and treating comfort women like real people doesn't stop them from forcibly being taken from their families so they can become prostitutes.
• Military Coup: How Dukat came to power on Cardassia. Of course, he had plenty of help from his new Dominion allies.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Listening to him prattle on and on about the great sacrifices he's made for the Bajoran people, tossing out death statistics like they're nothing compared to his own hardships. Notably, he never actually killed a Bajoran himself; he just rubber-stamped atrocities.
  Dukat: Have you ever seen a dead man before?
  Odo: Yes. In your mines.
  Dukat: (airily) Oh, those are casualties.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Dukat is led to this in "The Maquis, Part II", after the Central Command not only abandons him to the Maquis, but also frames him for smuggling weapons into the Demilitarized Zone. Once Sisko and the crew rescue him, Dukat wastes no time in helping them undo the Central Command's gunrunning plans.
• Moral Myopia: Dukat is, first and foremost, a hero in his own mind, believing that the Occupation (and especially his actions therein) actually helped the Bajorans. He also sees himself as a staunch patriot fighting to strengthen Cardassia by handing it over to the Dominion. Upon his breakdown, Dukat notably tells a dead Ziyal that he "forgives" her for helping the resistance against his regime. Dukat eventually realizes that he was never really a hero and, rather than recognize the scope of his atrocities, largely embraces his self-imposed destiny as Emissary of the Pah-wraiths and would-be destroyer of Bajor.
• Moral Sociopathy: In tandem with his overall Lack of Empathy, Dukat follows his own system of determining what is right and wrong, all of which is contingent upon what best advances his own interests and goals, no matter the obstacles and no matter what harm is done in the process.
• Morality Chain: Ziyal kept Dukat from turning completely evil. In fact, he deluded himself to think of Ziyal as a sort of stand-in for the Bajorans as a whole, and that his generally benevolent treatment towards her was a way to further reinforce his delusion that the Occupation actually helped the Bajorans, both to subvert his conscience and satisfy his huge ego. Nonetheless, he did truly adore his daughter, and Ziyal's death is the tipping point for his madness.
• Murder Is the Best Solution:
  • Throughout "The Maquis, Part II", Dukat makes it unambiguously clear that he would rather have the Maquis killed than to either take them prisoner or allow them to escape. He's continually frustrated and irate when Sisko and the DS9 crew fail to kill the Maquis, considering their response to be weak and sentimental.
  • In "Indiscretion", as per Cardassian custom, he initially believes it would be easier for him to kill his Secret Other Family (in this case, his daughter, as his mistress was already dead) when they find the survivors of the Ravinok in order to protect both his career and his legitimate family. However, he ultimately can't go through with killing Ziyal.
  • In both "Return to Grace" and "Apocalypse Rising", rather than leave survivors as a show of mercy or allowing a non-violent resolution to a problem prevail, Dukat destroys two ships with dozens of Klingons aboard simply because in his mind, since they're the enemy, they need to be destroyed.
  • In "Covenant", Dukat tries to murder his mistress Mika in an airlock, lest she reveal their affair to her husband and the rest of his flock. When that fails, he convinces his followers to commit mass suicide before she recovers, lest they turn against him.
• Narcissist: Dukat is a raging egotist in love with the sound of his own voice, and who expects adoration from others, only to be puzzled and infuriated when they don't recognize his obvious "greatness". His belief that "a true victory is to make your enemies see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness!" is particularly telling.
• Near-Rape Experience: This can potentially apply during his interaction with Kira in his office during "A Time to Stand". Here, Dukat is at his most lecherous with her — not only trying to charm her as he's done before, but also preventing her from leaving twice (at one point, physically doing do), attempting to caress her cheek and giving her a Slasher Smile after doing so, and both staring at her and breathing heavily as she leaves.
• Near-Villain Victory: In "Sacrifice of Angels", Dukat's battle plan to envelop and crush the Federation fleet, although unnecessary and more focused on personally defeating Sisko than winning the battle, very nearly worked. It was only through the direct intercession of the Prophets that Dominion reinforcements were stopped from transiting the wormhole. Had that happened, even the 200 Federation & Klingon ships that broke through during the battle wouldn't have stood a chance against the Dominion armada of 2,800 ships.
• Never My Fault: This is another key component of Dukat's psyche, especially with anything related to his time as Prefect of Bajor. Millions dead? Dukat just implemented policy, he didn't make it! Slave labor camps? He dialed down the output of the mines by 50%!
  • When he's not blaming the Bajorans for the harsh measures he initiated during the Occupation, he points the finger at the Central Command for "forcing" him to use more brutal methods to subdue the Bajorans.
  • Even after becoming an agent of the Pah-wraiths, Dukat continues to believe that he was an effective Prefect, that he protected Bajorans from the worst of the Occupation, and that he is actually a good man. Instead, he now blames the Prophets for the Bajorans' problems.
• New Era Speech: Dukat delivers one after he removes the Cardassian civilian government from power.
  "You might ask, should we fear joining the Dominion? And I answer you, not in the least. We should embrace the opportunity. The Dominion recognizes us for what we are: the true leaders of the Alpha Quadrant. And now that we are joined together, equal partners in all endeavors, the only people with anything to fear will be our enemies. My oldest son's birthday is in five days. To him and to Cardassians everywhere, I make the following pledge. By the time his birthday dawns, there will not be a single Klingon alive inside Cardassian territory or a single Maquis colony left within our borders. Cardassia will be made whole. All that we have lost will be ours again, and anyone who stands in our way will be destroyed. This I vow with my life's blood. For my son, for all our sons."
• No Full Name Given: Dukat's first name is never stated in canon, though the non-canonical first name of "Skrain", introduced by Andrew Robinson in his novel A Stitch in Time, has been adopted by many fans. At one point he identifies himself as "Dukat, S.G." though it's been suggested by Word of God that this is a title (like Ph.D., M.D., or R.N.).
• No True Scotsman: After the Klingons attacked, the new civilian government pressed for a diplomatic solution, which flew in the face of his pride. He then flat out tells Major Kira "I am the only Cardassian left!"; see War Hawk below.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: His administration of a pipe is mostly implied rather than shown, but from Sisko's cold shivering and Dukat wiping blood off the pipe, one can infer how brutal it must have been. This is likely a shout out to Misery ("Waltz")
  • It didn't happen for real, but in "Far Beyond the Stars", Sisko was nearly beaten to death in a dream sequence by Dukat and Weyoun, both masquerading as plainclothes cops in early 1950s New York City.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Dukat fully intended to sever ties with the Dominion once the Federation was in his grasp. Weyoun was likely thinking along similar lines.
  Damar: I'd like to toss that smug little Vorta out the nearest airlock. (Dukat laughs) And his Founder with him.
  Dukat: Now, now, Damar, that's no way to talk about our valued allies. Not until this war is over, anyway.
• Not Good with Rejection: One of the few things that Dukat finds unforgivable is betrayal. Shown in varying shades throughout the series, it is showcased most explicitly in the episodes "In Purgatory's Shadow" - when he feels Kira "betrayed" him by allowing Ziyal to form a friendship with Garak, in "By Inferno's Light" - where he rejects his daughter following her decision to defy him and stay on Deep Space 9, and in "Waltz" - where he feels Sisko "betrayed" him by attempting to send out a distress signal on the comm unit rather than acknowledge him as a Worthy Opponent:
  Dukat: You know, Benjamin, I thought we had established a level of trust between us, but I was wrong. (Smashes the already destroyed comm unit) If there's one thing I can't abide, it's betrayal (Attacks Sisko with the metal pipe).
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Following the overthrow of the Central Command just prior to "The Way of the Warrior", Dukat aligned himself with the new, more democratic civilian government and became Chief Military Advisor to the Detapa Council. Of course, he sides with the new government not because he believes in democracy, but that doing so would best protect and advance his career and interests.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: As a heavy post-Occupation, he's generally ineffectual and occasionally comical, save for a few instances where his cruelty is evident. However, once he emerges from his secret talks with the Dominion, he's not so harmless anymore.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dukat presents his selling Cardassia to the Dominion as a necessity, an act of desperation meant to save Cardassia from the Klingons and the Maquis. Just about anyone who's ever met Dukat recognizes that it's more about his own advancement and to satisfy his massive ego.
• Off with His Head!: In an alternate timeline where the Federation never existed, the Cardassian Union is conquered by the brutal Terran Confederation. Dukat's skull can be seen in Picard's trophy room alongside other aliens executed by the Confederation.
• Offing the Offspring: Dukat intended to do this to Ziyal in "Indiscretion" so that no one back home learns of his Secret Other Family. He can't go through with it, though.
• Older Than They Look: You wouldn't know by looking at him, but he was already a seasoned military officer with the rank of "gul" and the Prefect of Bajor when Kira was 3 years old, making him at least old enough to be her father. See Vague Age below.
• Ominous Floating Spaceship: Deep Space 9 (Terok Nor) served as his personal castle, labor camp, and harem during the Occupation. Bajorans had to glimpse its menacing shape every time they looked up in the sky.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Starts to drift towards this status in the latter half of Season 6, and by the end of the show's run he has fully become this, eventually culminating in he and Winn planning to unleash the Pah-wraiths and lay waste to the universe.
• Opportunistic Bastard: This exchange between Sisko and Dukat in "The Way of the Warrior" rather succinctly sums up Dukat's approach when it comes to his career:
  Dukat: You are speaking to the new Chief Military Advisor to the Detapa Council.
  Sisko: Does this mean you've turned your back on the Central Command?
  Dukat: It means that as a loyal officer of the Cardassian Military, I am pledged to serve the legitimate ruling body of the Empire. Whoever that may be.
  Sisko: In other words, you saw which way the wind was blowing and switched sides.
  Dukat: It seemed like a good idea at the time.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Dukat's daughter, Ziyal, ends up dying in her father's arms.
  Sisko: It was a pleasure to have her with us, even if it was only a short time.
  Dukat: A short time was all she ever had.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Early in the series, Dukat gets more than a few sympathetic moments, which rather insidiously distract from the evils he has committed both before and during the show. This is a reason why he became a darker character later on; according to the showrunners, viewers liked him too much when he was supposed to be one of the main antagonists, so they took his character in a more sinister direction to ruin that likeable image.
  • Dukat could also be seen as a Deconstruction of the trope. He demonstrates himself to be a fully fleshed-out character, capable of respect, friendship, compassion, and even love. But the fact he's able to be a good person underscores how awful it is when he makes evil choices. Further, because he's a Cardassian, Dukat over-values his virtuous traits: he is generally better than many Cardassians and he thinks his enemies ought to be grateful to him for that. He doesn't understand that no matter his morality compared to his species generally, he's still a brutal, fascistic tyrant, and no amount of niceties on his part will wash that out.
  • The last good thing he did was a big one. While the sentiment had been brewing for a long time, it was ultimately a pep talk from Dukat that convinced Damar to finally pull himself together and be the leader Cardassia needed. This ultimately leads Damar to rebel against the Dominion.
• Photographic Memory: Like most Cardassians, Dukat is endowed with a long and sharp memory, which he attempts to utilize from time to time to his advantage.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Despite all of his affability and charm, Dukat is a cruel, sadistic, bigoted sociopath who will go to any lengths to achieve what he wants — up to and including genocide.
• Pragmatic Villainy: As the Prefect of Bajor. He did genuinely try to improve the life conditions of the Bajorans, but his Motive Rant in "Waltz" makes clear that it wasn't out of benevolence, but because it was the prudent thing to do to quell insurrections (and thus ensure his career). Most of his self-delusions are born of his inability to tell the difference between this trope and actual heroism.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: The last words he utters in the series before Sisko tackles him into the Fire Caves are directed towards Kai Winn in a coldly unsentimental manner. Of course, this is somewhat subverted in that he doesn't actually die, but is sealed away in Bajoran Hell for an eternity:
  Dukat: Farewell, Adami.
• Psychological Projection: Dukat, a man who reeks of arrogant pride throughout the series, accuses the Bajorans of this in "Waltz" during his Motive Rant:
  Dukat: Pride… stubborn, unyielding pride. From the servant girl that cleaned my quarters, to the condemned man toiling in a labor camp, to the terrorist skulking through the hills of Dahkur Province… they all wore their pride like some… twisted badge of honor.
• Puppet King: Dukat willingly became the pitchman for Dominion control in the Alpha Quadrant. As a reward, he became the de facto ruler of Cardassia, followed in quick succession by Damar and Broca, who were stooges of absolutely no importance to the Female Changeling. This is somewhat downplayed with Dukat, who was genuinely in charge of most of the Dominion military forces in the Alpha Quadrant, with Weyoun and the Female Changeling keeping him in check. However, once Dukat loses DS9, Damar, his replacement, is rapidly sidelined with little responsibility other than rubber-stamping Dominion orders. Broca gets even less power and is mostly just a yes-man.
• The Purge: While it's never shown or explicitly stated onscreen, it can be reasonably inferred from episodes such as "Ties of Blood and Water" and "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" that civilian rivals/dissidents (such as Tekeny Ghemor in the former episode) and military rivals/dissidents (such as Gul Russol in the latter episode) were executed during Dukat's dictatorship on Cardassia.

Q-T

• The Quisling: For Dukat, a few months of being a lowly guerrilla fighter made a pact with the Dominion look attractive. In a moment of sheer gall, Dukat later phones Sisko to suggest he convince the Federation to join the Dominion and get in on that action.
  • Prior to that, when the Cardassian people successfully overthrew their old government, Dukat quickly sided with them against his old bosses at the Central Command.
• Race Fetish: It wouldn't take a tremendous leap of imagination to conclude that Dukat has a somewhat creepy fetish for Bajoran women. With the exception of his Cardassian wife, who's occasionally mentioned but never shown onscreen, the only women we see him involved with or interested in are Bajoran.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: How he saw himself during the Occupation of Bajor. If only those "ungrateful" Bajorans had submitted to his rule, then there would have been no need for any mass executions. In relative terms, though, he actually was genuinely this by Cardassian standards: in the episode "Waltz", he talks about how he ordered all labor camp quotas reduced by 50% and abolished child labor. He then raised food rations and improved medical care, resulting in a 20% drop in mortality. In another case, after 200 Cardassians were killed by the Bajoran Resistance, he had 200 suspected Resistance members rounded up and shot — as opposed to enacting a "X civilians killed for every one of my soldiers" policy as many real-world military dictators have done.
  • Because Bajor is so isolated — and the writers burned through a half-dozen Starfleet Admirals before they found someone they liked — Dukat became the show's "Admiral" figure by default. He continued to serve in this capacity until his ultimate betrayal, whereupon Admiral Ross replaced him.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Between "Indiscretion" and "Return to Grace", Dukat went from being the chief military advisor to the Cardassian civilian government...to captain of a supply freighter. Ouch!
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When possessed by a Pah-wraith.
• Redemption Rejection:
  • From Sisko's point of view at least, he thought that despite Dukat's arrogance and generally unapologetic attitude towards the Occupation, because the latter was largely helpful to Sisko and his crew over the past several years in several instances that resulted in lives being saved, that it could have potentially opened Dukat up to an atonement down the road. However, by the middle of Season 5, all such illusions have been shattered:
    Sisko: You know, Dukat, I thought you'd changed in the last five years. I see I was wrong.
    Dukat: One man's villain is another man's hero, Captain.
  • In the episode "'Til Death Do Us Part", Dukat, in the guise of Anjohl Tennan, sternly encourages Damar to be a more assertive leader. Damar in turn urges Dukat to return to his position as leader of Cardassia, which Dukat rejects because of his new role as an agent of the Pah-wraiths. Had he reassumed the mantle of leadership, Dukat could have likely led the Cardassian resistance to Dominion rule, thus atoning for his opportunistic pact with them and assuring his legacy as a hero—at least in the eyes of his own people. Instead, he will go down in Cardassian history as the man who sold out his civilization, and therefore shares responsibility for all the disasters and atrocities that befall Cardassia both during and after the war, whereas Damar leads the Cardassian resistance and becomes that hero after dying in battle to liberate Cardassia.
• The Resenter: Like Sisko, Dukat once presided over Bajor as an outsider. The difference is that Dukat was reviled, whereas the Bajorans embraced Sisko as their spiritual idol. Ouch! Dukat didn't seem to understand the difference between being the head of a brutal, 50-year occupation and being the guy assigned to help them recover and chosen by the Bajoran deities.
• Rogue Soldier: Once Cardassia's civilian government refuses to act on the military intelligence gained from the Klingon Bird-of-Prey he captured, Dukat decides to become this to regain the glory he feels he deserves.
• Sanity Slippage: This begins for him in earnest after he is thwarted from a coup de grâce in the war, loses the station for a second time, and his daughter is shot dead in front of him...all on the same day.
• Save the Villain: About a half-dozen times, before and after he went insane.
  Sisko: Don't remind me.
• The Scapegoat: Dukat wasn't responsible for Cardassia's decision to abandon Bajor; in fact, by the end of his tenure as Prefect, the military situation with the Bajoran Resistance and political pressure from the Federation had become so pressing that his actions, at best, only delayed the inevitable end of the occupation. Despite this, because Dukat was the last prefect, he became a convenient patsy for the Cardassian Central Command to lay the blame on for the withdrawal of Bajor in order to save face, something he held resentment over for his subsequent stalled career and controversial reputation; it likely played a part in his decision to sell out Cardassia to the Dominion.
• Secret Other Family: He officially had a wife and seven children. Tora Naprem and their daughter Tora Ziyal were his secret family for years until the ship they'd been travelling on was discovered six years after being declared missing. Naprem had died in the crash, but when he took his surviving half-Bajoran daughter back to Cardassia, it caused ructions.
• Self-Serving Memory: Dukat will reminisce about the past in ways that frame him in a positive light. For instance, he recalls playing games of Kalevian montar with Odo like the two were good friends, while Odo points out they played once, and Dukat had cheated.
• Sexual Extortion: He was able to coerce a lot of Bajoran women into sleeping with him by promising better living conditions for their families. This includes Kira's mother.
• Short-Lived Leadership: Dukat's dictatorship of Cardassia lasts for less than a year before he suffers a devastating Villainous Breakdown and becomes a prisoner of war when Deep Space 9 is recaptured; he is promptly replaced by Damar, who lasts a little longer.
• Sinister Minister: As leader of the Pah-wraith cult.
• Slasher Smile: In "A Time to Stand", Dukat yet again tries to worm his way, unsuccessfully, into Kira's affections. It appears most eerily during this exchange:
  Dukat: I'm a patient man. I can wait.
  Kira: Wait for what? What do you think is going to happen here, Dukat? That you're going to wear me down with your charming personality? That I'm going to be swept off my feet by that insincere smile? Are you really so deluded that you actually believe that we're going to have some kind of intimate relationship?
  Dukat: Oh, we already do. (Attempts to caress her cheek, but Kira smacks his hand away in horror). Good day, Major. (Sports a twisted, sadistic smile) I have work to do.
• Slave to PR: It would be an understatement to say that Dukat is obsessed with his own image, wanting desperately to come across as a benevolent, selfless man who at his worst had to take "unfortunate measures" from time to time as Prefect of Bajor. Of course, the fact that he tries to justify his crimes rather than apologize for or otherwise atone for them ultimately makes his public relations campaign ineffective.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: At his most "friendly", he comes across as an Affably Evil Anti-Villain — partaking in Friendly Enemy scenarios, doing his utmost to convince others that he's Not Evil, Just Misunderstood, that during the Occupation he was a Well-Intentioned Extremist who had to take unfortunate actions for the "greater good", and wants to be seen if not as a potential friend, then as a Worthy Opponent by his occasional Federation associates; at his least "friendly", he comes across as a self-centered, insufferable Smug Snake. At his most vile, he wavers in-between least sympathetic to permanently unsympathetic — being a Politically Incorrect Villain who, at his most depraved, is a potentially Ax-Crazy, Omnicidal Maniac.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Zig-Zagged. He starts off as a Planetary Threat, having previously been the de facto dictator of Bajor during the Occupation. This is then subverted when he is Kicked Upstairs by the Central Command during the first several seasons and becomes a sort of Friendly Enemy towards the DS9 crew. It is then further subverted when he is demoted to a freighter captain, but he soon becomes a low-level Stellar Threat once he begins a guerilla campaign against the Klingons. He eventually becomes a lower-level Galactic Threat during both his dictatorship of the Cardassian Union and the early months of the Dominion War. It is then subverted yet again when he loses a decisive battle, loses his station (again), witnesses the death of his daughter, and becomes a prisoner of war. However, after he escapes from the Federation, his threat level slowly rebuilds throughout the remainder of the series, particularly when he aligns himself with the Pah-wraiths. He finally, and briefly, becomes a Major Galactic Threat — possibly even a Universal Threat — when he becomes Emissary of the Pah-wraiths during the series finale.
• Smug Snake: He thinks he has what it takes to outmaneuver the Dominion—the one run by a 10,000-year-strong collective of xenophobic Changelings with an army of literally worshipful, genetically engineered super-soldiers and super-slimy diplomats and administrators. The same Dominion that wiped the floor with the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order at the same time! In reality, Dukat was merely just imposing enough not to be an outright puppet of the Dominion. His successors had virtually no authority whatsoever, due in no small part to Dukat's example.
  • Pointing out to Sisko that the Cardassian legal system is swift and fair. Everyone tried is guilty, and Cardassians don't put the innocent on trial by mistake. This is thrown back in his face moments later when he finds out that Central Command was going to make him their fall guy regarding the Maquis.
• The Social Darwinist: His attitude towards the Bajorans in general, even when the depths of his Fantastic Racism aren't apparent. He believed that because Cardassia was ahead of the "backward" Bajorans militarily, technologically, and culturally, it was completely legitimate and justifiable for Cardassia to dominate Bajor and its people.
• The Sociopath: Essentially, Dukat in a nutshell. A self-centered and ruthless man, he uses others for his own benefit and will go to any lengths to achieve his objectives, no matter who gets hurt in the process.
• Sore Loser: Needless to say, in "Sacrifice of Angels", when the massive Dominion reinforcements fail come out of the wormhole, Dukat doesn't take it well and begins to panic, kicking off the start of his Freak Out Villainous Breakdown:
  Dukat: Victory was within our grasp! ... Bajor... The Federation... The Alpha Quadrant!! All lost!
• Stalker with a Crush: Whenever he's within proximity of Kira, he does his utmost to try to woo and charm her in the hopes that she'll fall for him. Kira, of course, will have none of it.
• Strategy Versus Tactics:
  • His expertise and competence in both close and grand tactics are evident in several episodes. In "The Maquis, Part II" and "The Way of the Warrior", he shows he can handle himself well in hand-to-hand combat. Additionally, he was able to survive for about a year conducting hit-and-run attacks while using a hijacked Klingon Bird-of-Prey. In "Defiant", he coordinated Cardassian ships and outposts from the main war room on Cardassia Prime to successfully track and subdue Thomas Riker. In "Call to Arms", he successfully directed Dominion forces in retaking Deep Space 9, and in "Sacrifice of Angels", he oversaw and directed the Dominion response to the Federation Alliance's Operation Return.
  • However, when it comes to grand strategy, he's pretty deficient. This is most evident during the early months of the Dominion War, when he wasted crucial time by using precious resources and ships on battles that didn't need to be fought rather than prioritizing the disabling of the minefield at the wormhole to allow both a constant flow of supplies and reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant, which would have likely ended the war in his favor much sooner. Furthermore, in "Sacrifice of Angels", because he can't even entertain the notion that he might lose, he makes no contingency plans to potentially avert abrupt changes in fortune.
• Sympathy for the Devil: When Ziyal dies in his arms. Even Sisko felt bad for him. Subverted later on when Sisko comes to see Dukat as a heartless monster after Dukat embraces genocide against the Bajorans for "everything they did to him".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • This is arguably first seen in "The Maquis" two-parter when Sisko, and later the DS9 crew, must work with Dukat to deescalate the growing conflict between Federation and Cardassian colonists in the Demilitarized Zone from breaking out into a full-scale war.
  • In "Defiant", when Sisko and Dukat work together to overcome Thomas Riker's threat to Cardassian territory, Dukat and his Obsidian Order observer, Korinas, suffer a serious case of this due to the long Interservice Rivalry between the Central Command and the Obsidian Order.
  • In "The Way of the Warrior", Garak and Dukat are forced to work together to protect the leading members of the Cardassian civilian government when the latter are sheltering aboard Deep Space 9, all while doing nothing to hide their animosity and contempt for each other.
  • In "Indiscretion", Kira is not happy at all to have to take Dukat along with her on the search mission for survivors from the Ravinok. Dukat, however, is a lot more pleased about it. This specific dynamic is again apparent later in "Return to Grace" when Kira helps Dukat and his freighter crew capture a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, much to her chagrin.
  • Dukat clearly wants to try to use the Dominion for his own ends, and only puts up with them as long as it takes to make Cardassia great again, meaning defeating and destroying the Federation and Klingons and retaking Bajor. The Dominion, in the person of Weyoun, has other ideas and sternly informs him in "Call to Arms" that he will honor the new non-aggression pact with Bajor. Dukat grudgingly agrees, with an unspoken "for now" evident in his tone and the glance he gives to Damar. This Cardassian-Dominion tension continues to grow during the occupation of Deep Space 9, and reaches a boiling point during Damar's tenure as leader of Cardassia.
  • During the series' nine-episode final arc, after Dukat's cover identity of Anjohl Tennan is exposed by Solbor, Kai Winn is utterly horrified that she is working with the infamous Dukat and, despite their continued collaboration in advancing the Pah-wraiths' agenda, have a noticeably more tense working relationship from then on.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Dukat came to Bajor with the firm intention of offering more carrot and less stick. However, rather than shower affection on their new master, the Bajorans rose up (to Dukat's astonishment) and eventually overthrew the Cardassian occupiers. Word of God says that Dukat's deep-seated hatred for the Bajorans is rooted in the fact that they refused to love him, ultimately resulting in his Heel Realization in "Waltz".
  Dukat: They thought I was their enemy? They don't know what it is to be my enemy, but they will. From this day forward, Bajor is DEAD!
• Thicker Than Water: Given that family is a very important part of Cardassian culture, this is a major factor as to why Dukat ultimately doesn't go through with killing Ziyal in "Indiscretion".
• Think of the Children!: In "Cardassians", Dukat plays this card during Rugal Pa'Dar's custody hearing. However, once it's revealed that he orchestrated the abduction of Rugal in order to exact revenge on the latter's father for political and personal reasons, this soon rings hollow.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: Dukat was essentially this during his time as Prefect of Bajor. With his "a rising tide lifts all boats" approach, he wanted to improve the lives of all of those under his authority, even if it meant either causing suffering in the process or cracking down on resistance regardless of his outreach. Overall, this approach fails, and he is left deeply embittered by it years afterward.
• Tragic Villain: Dukat genuinely thought that what was good for him was good for everybody. At the end of the day, all he wanted was for people to respect him. The tragedy is that Dukat fails to see how his actions always prevent that.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He manages to takeover Cardassia and re-take Deep Space 9 with Dominion help. In particular, Dukat is thrilled with the idea of ruling Bajor again, and struts around the station like a kid in a candy shop. He even takes over the Captain's Log.
  Dukat: Permanent Documentation File, Dukat, SG. Each day brings reports of new victories. The war continues to go well. The enemy is retreating on almost all fronts. It's only a matter of time before the Federation collapses and Earth becomes another conquered planet under Dominion rule. All in all, it's a good time for Cardassia...and the Dominion.

U-Y

• The Unapologetic: Despite willing to concede that he has some regrets regarding his time as Prefect of Bajor, Dukat never explicitly apologizes for his actions overall during his time as Prefect, nor does he apologize for the Occupation of Bajor itself. To add insult to injury, he actually has the gall to argue that it helped the Bajorans.
• Unequal Pairing: All his relationships with his Bajoran mistresses during the Occupation count as this. He was the most politically powerful man in the system and they would be second-class citizens at best with a chance to have their families not starve.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Lampshaded in "The Way of the Warrior" when Dax makes a bet with Sisko that Dukat will start complaining before thanking Sisko for rescuing him from Klingons. Sisko loses.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Kai Winn.
• The Usurper: Following his pact with the Dominion, Dukat overthrows the civilian government on Cardassia and becomes de facto dictator of the Dominion-dominated Cardassian Union.
• Vague Age: Although Dukat's age and birthdate have never been stated in canon, it can be reasonably assumed that in "Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night", which largely takes place in 2346, where he appeared to be a fully-grown adult already at the rank of "gul" (captain) by the time he became Prefect of Bajor, that he is older than most of the DS9 crew, whose ages and birthdates are known in canon. In 2346, Kira (b. 2343) would have been 3 years old; Bashir (b. 2341) and Jadzia (b. 2341) would have both been 5 years old; Worf (b. 2340) would have been 6 years old; Sisko (b. 2332) would have been 14 years old; and O'Brien (b. 2328) would have been 18 years old. Additionally, he appears to be at least as old as Kira Meru (b. 2314), which would roughly set his birthdate either in the early 2310s or sometime in the 2300s.
  • In the Terok Nor novel Day of the Vipers, Dukat was a young officer and a new father, presumably in his twenties, in the year 2318. This means that Dukat was likely born sometime in the last decade of the 23rd century (2290s). For comparative purposes, this would not only make him older than most of the DS9 crew, but older than both the Enterprise-D/E crew and, with the exception of Tuvok (b. 2264), older than the Voyager crew as well. Additionally, from this information, it can also reasonably inferred that most of Dukat's seven children with his wife are already adults by the time we first see him in "Emissary". However in "Defiant" he mentions that he's missing his son Mekor's 11th birthday party because of the current crisis, so who knows; Mekor may have been one of his younger children.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • In "The Maquis, Part I", Dukat fires back at Sisko's "holier-than-thou Federation fair-play dogma" after their fact-finding mission in the Demilitarized Zone. He rightly points out that however justifiably angry Sisko is with Samuels' death in Cardassian hands, it doesn't change that Samuels did commit a terrorist act that killed 78 people when the Bok'Nor blew up.
  • In "Apocalypse Rising", Dukat has a reasonable justification for why he's leaving everyone at the Klingon headquarters. It's dangerous for him to stay, and if they're successful, they won't need his help to get back to DS9. If they fail, he won't be able to save them. Everyone concedes that he's right.
• Villainous Breakdown: In "Sacrifice of Angels", Dukat loses it when Dominion reinforcements fail to emerge from the wormhole, forcing a retreat from an advancing Federation/Klingon fleet. It gets even worse when Ziyal is fatally shot in front of him, and by his loyal adjutant Damar, no less.
• Villainous Valour: In most instances, Dukat does not shy away from combat, whether it be hand-to-hand or ship-to-ship. In particular, during the Klingon invasion of the Cardassian Union, Dukat is willing, even eager, to take the fight to the Klingons despite the odds being drastically against him. Of course, the motivation for this valor is not selfless, but self-centered.
• Villainous Vow: Following his Heel Realization, Dukat makes this ominous declaration:
  I have unfinished business on Bajor. They thought I was their enemy? They don't know what it is to be my enemy, but they will. From this day forward, Bajor is dead! All of Bajor!! And this time, even their Emissary won't be able to save them!
• Virtue Is Weakness: Like many Cardassians, Dukat has been engrained with the notion that outwardly expressions of joy, happiness, and other lighthearted emotions are a sign of vulnerability and weakness. In particular, this is his view of what childhood should be based upon:
  Dukat: Education is power. Joy is vulnerability.
• Voice of the Legion: In "Tears of the Prophets", Dukat gets a second voice layered over his normal one when possessed by the Pah-wraith he releases.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: He is arguably the poster boy for this trope, given his continual resentment that neither the Bajorans nor Sisko give him credit for being more merciful than other prefects of Bajor during the Occupation.
• War Hawk: Dukat saw Cardassia as destined to rule Bajor...then the Occupation ended. Then the Maquis insurgency began, and he found himself increasingly Locked Out of the Loop by the Central Command. Then the Klingons invaded, and he saw Cardassia's new civilian government press for a diplomatic solution. All of this flew in the face of his pride, so he waged a one-ship war on the Klingons and then forged an alliance with the Dominion. That still wasn't enough; he was planning to take the entire Alpha Quadrant before Sisko retook the station.
• Wardens Are Evil: In the Relaunch novel Fearful Symmetry, it is revealed that prior to his appointment as Prefect of Bajor, Dukat was the warden of a maximum-security prison on the Cardassia Prime moon of Letau for nine years, from 2337 to 2346.
• The Warlord: From the end of Season 5 in "Call to Arms" to Season 6's "Sacrifice of Angels", Dukat serves alongside Weyoun as head of all Cardassian-Dominion military forces and operations during the early months of the Dominion War.
• We Will Meet Again: He goes underground following the events of "Waltz", vowing revenge against Bajor and Sisko.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • We learn a rather disturbing and sadistic side to Dukat in the Relaunch novel Fearful Symmetry. In the episode "Second Skin", it is revealed that Obsidian Order agent Iliana Ghemor, daughter of Tekeny Ghemor, underwent extreme physical surgery and brain-wave recalibration, including a total memory transfer, designed to make her look like – and believe herself to be – Kira Nerys in order to infiltrate the Bajoran Resistance. In Fearful Symmetry, Dukat uses his authority as Prefect to cancel the actual replacement of Kira at the last minute. The real Kira is returned to the Dahkur wilderness with no memory of her capture, as Dukat honors his promise to protect Kira Meru's family. Dukat then takes Iliana, who now looks like and believes herself to be Kira, to a private, hidden section of the maximum security prison on Letau (a moon of Cardassia Prime), where he was previously the warden and where his former deputy there now runs it on his behalf. It serves as his personal refuge to celebrate his victories and to regroup following his defeats. For 14 years, between 2361 and 2375, Iliana lives in isolation at Letau, broken only by Dukat's visits to drug, rape, and torture her. Her suicide attempts are thwarted and she eventually gives up all hope. In 2369, Dukat nearly kills her in his rage over the withdrawal from Bajor and Starfleet's discovery of the wormhole. His final visit in 2375, while en route to DS9 in the guise of Anjohl Tennan, reaches new levels of depravity, and he remarks that they are now the perfect pair. All of this retrospectively adds a frighteningly sinister undertone when Dukat tells her father in "Ties of Blood and Water" that he knows where she is.
  • In "Covenant", before the climax, we get a scene of Dukat kneeling alone in prayer, begging the Pah-wraiths for a sign and for them to forgive his failings, letting the audience know that what Kira realizes is true: Dukat, whatever else he might be, has largely become a genuine believer in the Pah-wraiths.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In "The Maquis, Part II", Dukat angrily reproaches Sisko, Bashir, and Odo for not immediately shooting his captors when they storm where he's being held, so he attacks one of them to instigate a shoot-out before Sisko deescalates the situation. Dukat then does it again in the climax, growing increasingly irate as he realizes Sisko is going to let Hudson and the other Maquis escape. All of this ties back into his Combat Pragmatist mentality when it comes to warfare.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: This can arguably explain why, during the climax of the series finale, he starts acting like a Card-Carrying Villain. Following the Pah-wraiths both reviving him from the dead and bestowing upon him supernatural powers as their Emissary, Dukat quickly becomes Drunk on the Dark Side with his newfound awesome power. That, and that fact that he's been losing his sanity over the course of the past year-and-a-half, can account for his behavior.
• Worthy Opponent: Even as enemies, Dukat holds Sisko in high esteem and even craves his approval. The feeling isn't mutual, and by the end of "Waltz", Dukat abandons this pursuit and is determined to exact his revenge against Sisko for failing to see him as a worthy opponent.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": His attitude towards his actions during his time as Prefect of Bajor. He'd be outright indignant if anyone mentioned what the Cardassians had done to Bajorans.
  Dukat: This Bajoran obsession with alleged Cardassian improprieties during the Occupation is really quite distasteful.
• Would Harm a Senior: While under the guise of Anjohl Tennan, Dukat hits the elderly Bajoran cleric Solbor when the latter becomes a little too intrusive for Dukat's liking.
• Would Hit a Girl: Near the end of "The Maquis, Part I", Dukat clocks Sakonna in an escape attempt when she and her comrades attempt to kidnap him. He blindsides her again in "The Maquis, Part II" when he attempts to instigate a confrontation between his Maquis captors and his Starfleet rescuers.
• You Killed My Father: This is the source of Dukat's loathing for Garak; apparently, Dukat's father trusted Garak, which led to a trial, and given the Cardassian justice system, more than likely an execution. Garak seems to feel that the elder Dukat brought it on himself, which (unsurprisingly) doesn't mollify Dukat.
• You Talk Too Much!: Even the Dominion grew weary of his yapping. Weyoun buried him after the "Sacrifice of Angels" fiasco, telling the Founders that he was all hat and no cattle.
  • Kira's line in "Indiscretion" ("Captain Sisko's right; you are in love with your own voice.") was added as an in-joke regarding Dukat in general and Marc Alaimo in particular.
    Ira Behr: "No one can milk it like Marc Alaimo, even though there are times when you just want him to get on with it."
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He was planning to stab his Dominion masters in the back once they'd defeated the Federation and the Klingons for him. Exactly how he planned to do that is unknown, as his life went completely to hell before he got the chance.
  • A potential explanation is offered in the Relaunch novel Fearful Symmetry. During his time as leader of Cardassia, Dukat undertook several secret projects that involved quietly acquiring samples of "misplaced" Dominion technology, in preparation to lead a stronger Cardassia against the Dominion. Whether or not this would have been effective is purely speculative.
• You're Insane!: Everyone dismisses him as a sad crackpot when he espouses the doctrine of the Pah-wraiths. Dukat is unbowed, knowing he'll wipe those smirks off their faces soon enough.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Dukat spins this line to apply it to himself, but Sisko's not buying.

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