Kira Nerys

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Character
Name: Kira Nerys
Occupation: member of the Bajoran Militia
Relationships: romantic relationships with Vedek Bareil, Shakaar and Odo; carried child for O'Briens
Fandom: Star Trek, ST: DS9
Other: Memory Alpha article, Kira Nerys at Wikipedia
Pen and ink drawing of Kira by Joey Rodrigues
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Kira Nerys is a major character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, played by Nana Visitor. Major and later Colonel Kira (Bajoran naming style puts the surname first) was the second in command under Benjamin Sisko on the Federation space station, Deep Space Nine. Of Bajoran race, she was a member of the Bajoran Militia, rather than a Starfleet officer.

Kira is an unusual Trek character; she spent her childhood as a terrorist fighting the Cardassians, starts out hostile to Starfleet, and has a strong religious faith in a largely atheist universe. Her closest associations are her friendships with Odo, Jadzia Dax, Tora Ziyal (Gul Dukat's illegitimate daughter) and the O'Brien family, whose child she carries. Her friendship with Odo eventually turns into romance, and she also gets to snuggle up with Bajor's first minister, Shakaar, and a leading candidate for Kai (the planet's religious leader), Vedek Bareil. As Dukat puts it, You do like powerful men, don't you?

Fan Perspectives

Kira is a reasonably popular character with fans. In a 1995 poll including all Trek characters, she came sixth of the DS9 characters, and was the second most popular woman after Jadzia.[1]

Fans often discuss her relationship with Dukat, both in canon and in fanworks.

[F]anfic as therapy is hardly something unique to slash. Kira/Dukat stories love to walk on the dark side and are frequently beset with all matters regarding the mother/daughter relationship, the role of the tormentor and the resistor, sexual and psychological power struggles, guilt, and shame, as well as redemption, forgiveness and salvation. (Julia Houston)[2]

The most honorable and upright of characters have dark sides and flaws, while the most vile and amoral have bright spots of virtue, and nowhere is this duality more apparent than in the characters of Kira and Dukat. Kira, one of the heroes of the show, has a violent past for which she still hasn't forgiven herself. When we meet her, she's a racist (perhaps understandably, but it's certainly not admirable) and is unwilling to trust or cooperate with anyone -- she believes only in herself. ...
Even when taking innocent lives as a Resistance fighter, she always saw her world in clear, black-and-white terms. She was fighting for a righteous cause -- Bajoran independence -- against evil fascists who relentlessly butchered her planet and her people. When we meet her, she is still thinking in those terms: Bajoran good. Cardassian evil. It doesn't cross her mind that there are nuances -- that, just as she can justify her own acts of violence, her enemies had their own reasons for what they did -- until Dukat confronts her with his own views on the occupation. (Bluemarie)[3]

Fanfiction

In fanfiction, Kira is frequently paired with Odo, as in canon. There's also a fair amount of Kira/Dukat, much of it featuring dubious consent. Shakaar tends to appear mainly in Odo/Kira stories as an unsuccessful rival or angst generator. There is a little femslash, with the most common pairing probably being Kira/Jadzia Dax. The Intendant is another frequent f/f partner. Gen fanfiction often focuses on her background as a terrorist and her difficulties adapting to life in peacetime.

Kira-centric fanfiction can be found at Archive of Our Own, Bajorarama, fanfiction.net and Trekiverse archives. Odo's PADD hosts Odo/Kira fiction.

Notable Works

Kira/Odo

Kira/Dukat

F/F

Gen

Fan Art

Kira is a popular subject for fan art. Artists include BGM, Leigh Grimes and Wendy Bradtke.

Fanvids

Example works include:

Fanzines

Additional Art Gallery

Archives and Fansites

Meta

References