Q Versus Garak

I loved them both!  When I was watching TNG I loved Q.  He was my favorite character even though he was only in, like, six episodes.  How could you not love Q?  He was obviously bad but he was good too.  Well, he didn't star that way.  They originally used him to help bash mankind but De Lancie exuded so much charm, I couldn't fault the character or the way they were writing him at first at all. 

 Of course, I've always been attracted to the most flawed hero of a story.  A good guy who can get away with being bad.  Q's games were almost always bad and since he had immortal powers, they were always over the top in creativity and "teaching" of whatever lesson he had in mind.

Ultimately though, Q was linked inextricably to Captain Picard.  He crossed over to DS9 and Voyager but, although he was still personally irresistible, it never had quite the same magic and effect. It was a continuing trend to be a foil to the show's leader, but with Picard it was special and you really felt that he had a vested interest in Picard's reactions in all of his games.  It gave him the appearance of being a good guy even though he was actually quite neutral.

Garak, on the other hand is exactly the type of bad good guy that was an endless source of thought provoking entertainment.  He was the perfect chameleon. He wasn't immortal and his presence on the station, though seemingly normal, was also a little unclear.  Bad? Definitely at one point, but also no because he was different than other Cardassians in his core beliefs.  Good?  Yes, but no, we weren't even certain about that either since the line was fudged numerous times.  He swayed back and forth but always managed to align himself with the good side in the end.

He also had individual connections with many of the characters on the show.  Bashir "found" him so to speak being curious about spies and espionage activities.  But  he had a distinct way of annoying others on a personal level as Q so thoroughly embedded himself under Picard's skin.

His past could garner both sympathy and revulsion  Even though he only appears in about a third of the total episodes, he's one of the most complex characters ever developed and leaves me missing him as much as I miss Q. 

I guess my pick in this battle is Garak, but not by much.