On Daniel, the Goa'uld, and the Tok'ra

In the discussion on Dominion, I raised the objection that Daniel would never condone ( a certain spoilery plot point )

. A lot of people made some very insightful comments in disagreeing with that statement. Since this is a little too long to go into a comment in reply, and the chance to write some long-held meta is always fun, I’m going to explain my reasoning here. While most of this is based on canon, some of it is based on how I interpret canon, which of course moves it into the realm of personal fanon. With that caveat, anyone is welcome to disagree, and discussions are always a good thing. 

( Proceed with caution! Spoilers for Dominion. )

Would he step aside and let others argue for it? Yes, I can see that. But that’s not what we saw in Dominion – we saw him arguing in favor of the idea. That was what I saw as being too OOC for our Daniel. And even now, after all the choices he’s made and the new, unhappy cynicism of his S9-10 personality, I still like to think of him as our Daniel. :)

ETA: There's a rather long discussion in the comments that really takes the whole thing off-topic. I always welcome digressions and even civil rants, but I do want to emphasize that the point of this essay is not to suggest that Daniel can't work with the Tok'ra or has to struggle not to hate them; instead, I am suggesting that considering Daniel's history, his acceptance of the Tok'ra had to be a conscious effort, that he would feel doubly betrayed if they betray their own ethical stand, and that it's hugely OOC for Daniel to not only approve the suggestion, but to advocate it.