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MerelyAFan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 5:48 pm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_SqnbWXok

I think Odo was the last time Trek really successfully executed the outsider commenting on humanity character. Neelix was far too happy go lucky and inane to offer any interesting impressions and even Seven of Nine fell into her socialization arc to really bring anything deep in commentary. Phlox and T'Pol weren't much better, with the former never feeling remotely insightful and the latter too inconsistently written.

Taurian Patriot wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 6:12 pm

MerelyAFan wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 5:48 pm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_SqnbWXok

I think Odo was the last time Trek really successfully executed the outsider commenting on humanity character. Neelix was far too happy go lucky and inane to offer any interesting impressions and even Seven of Nine fell into her socialization arc to really bring anything deep in commentary. Phlox and T'Pol weren't much better, with the former never feeling remotely insightful and the latter too inconsistently written.

Thinking on it, one of the things that seemed to make DS9 interesting was that the whole show was about that outside perspective. Quark stepped into the role frequently along with Odo, Garak and Kira got some shots in once in a while, and even Sisko starts feeling like one after the first few seasons. The fact that all of them were willing and able to dunk on humanity's presumptions was kind of refreshing.

Just the other day I was watching "Crossfire" - the episode where Kira falls in love with Shakaar - and Auberjonois's ability to express himself wordlessly through a face full of putty makeup was fantastic. He's just sitting there listening to her talk, and through his eyes you can watch his heart breaking.

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:03 pm The thing about Odo that always got me (and his race in general) was that he felt sexual attraction to Kira. I find it hard to believe that such a creature would have such a concept. He may have a personality and has taken male form, but he is still a puddle of goo. This would be like a giraffe finding Kira sexy.

And on that note, why is it only women he finds attractive and no one else? He can choose his genitals. How did he form a gender in the first place?

Nightbeat74 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2020 4:44 am you know i can see some dissident vorta might come see odo as the GOD of justice.The one who went against all other GODS and the dominion because he judged them as evil. it is fittingly ironic for odo.

Orel wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:42 am

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:03 pm The thing about Odo that always got me (and his race in general) was that he felt sexual attraction to Kira. I find it hard to believe that such a creature would have such a concept. He may have a personality and has taken male form, but he is still a puddle of goo. This would be like a giraffe finding Kira sexy.

And on that note, why is it only women he finds attractive and no one else? He can choose his genitals. How did he form a gender in the first place?

I think a lot of it has to do with the Bajoran scientist who studied him. Since the overwhelming majority of his early interaction with humanoids was with that one fellow, and since we do see that other Changelings, when isolated from the Link when they first become conscious, have a tendency to mirror those around them (that one changeling Odo picked up and adopted), it is likely that Odo presented as male in imitation of the scientist who, for all Odo's resentment of him, was a guiding figure. Or out of habit--consider that Odo was only conscious for, what, 20 years before the end of DS9? For 7 of those, he lived in a laboratory. If his first humanoid presentation is modeled on that Bajoran scientist, it's entirely possible that he just "got comfortable" in that shape. It might be something analogous to neural plasticity in humans and the oft-stated idea that children have much easier times learning multiple languages than adults.

Which might actually explain a lot of Odo--his difficulty imitating faces resulting from a limited range of faces to imitate, for example. Odo is akin to a feral human child--lacking the right stimuli at the right developmental times, he's always going to be at least a little hampered compared to the others.

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:03 pm The thing about Odo that always got me (and his race in general) was that he felt sexual attraction to Kira. I find it hard to believe that such a creature would have such a concept. He may have a personality and has taken male form, but he is still a puddle of goo. This would be like a giraffe finding Kira sexy.

And on that note, why is it only women he finds attractive and no one else? He can choose his genitals. How did he form a gender in the first place? And to go back to my giraffe example... He is a creature that can become any animal. Is it not just as likely that a puddle of goo would find ALL sex with ALL creatures equal? And before anyone says it, no, i am not trying to write a weird porno. I actually got the idea off the Greek gods - Poseidon spent half his life as a horse banging other animals. And why not? He's a god and thus not bound by our concepts. Odo is goo, therefore not bound by our concepts either.

"To become a thing is to know a thing". Odo knows how to be a heterosexual human/Bajoran man - and that's about it. His powers are wasted on him imo.