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One thing that is very important to me about Julian Bashir is that he is genuinely pretty perceptive and emotionally intelligent, more so than he sometimes gets credit for in fandom. And this is especially true after the first season or two, when he matures and develops as a character.

There are numerous moments in which he delivers accurate insights into people’s internal states. In “Defiant,” he recognizes that Kira is lashing out because she’s overworked. In “Life Support,” he reads between the lines in his exchange with Winn and recognizes the underlying insecurity that’s guiding her actions, and calls her on it. In “Nor the Battle to the Strong,” he realizes that there’s more going on with Jake’s mood than just the stress of being in battle, and that something’s bothering Jake that he can’t bring himself to voice. In “The House of Quark,” he understands that the reason Keiko’s upset is that she misses having a career. In “Statistical Probabilities,” he realizes that Sarina has feelings for Jack, and uses that to get through to her. Etc.

Furthermore, he’s good at listening and at managing emotionally high-stakes situations. He talks Miles down from suicide in “Hard Time”; he soothes Jadzia’s nerves about going back to Trill in “Equilibrium”; he listens to Kira when she unpacks her feelings about her father’s death and about watching Ghemor die in “Ties of Blood and Water”; in “The Wire,” he gets Garak to trust him in handing over the switch to turn off the implant, and for the most part maintains his composure even with Garak lashing out while in withdrawal and actively trying to get a rise out of him. In all of those situations, he’s pretty calm and measured in his approach, and he knows what to say to these people to get through to them.

Yes, he also has trouble navigating certain social interactions. He has interpersonal habits that grate on people, particularly his mile-a-minute infodumps. And sometimes he’s too absorbed in his own stuff to pick up on the subtext of what’s happening around him - for example, the (hilarious) exchange in “His Way” when Jadzia alludes to the situation with Kira and Odo and he has literally no idea what she’s talking about. But he is capable of quieting down and going into serious mode and listening when the situation calls for it. And when he’s focused on a person or situation, he is good at putting the pieces together and intuiting what’s going on. When he doesn’t do that, and instead rushes to conclusions about what someone else feels or wants - as in the situation with Sarina, or when Ezri’s trying to confess her feelings to him and he assumes she wants to get back together with Worf - it’s often willful obliviousness borne out of emotionally self-protective impulses.

During my TNG rewatch my Ukrainian partner exclusively referred to Alexander as either Sasha or Sanya as in their culture they never refer to someone with their full name outside of formal events, instead using a shortened version.

This made me curious and I asked if Worf's name could be shortened like this. It took them a minute but they figured they'd call Worf either Vova or Vanya.

Since no one in the Rozhenko family ever uses these shortened names I've come to two possible conclusions:

Helena and Sergey didn't want Worf to feel like they were trying to make him Human so always used his Klingon name.

The Rozhenko family is both the most overly formal and loving family in Star Trek.

OKAY OKAY OKAY

So to shapeshift, right, is to become that thing, isn't it? I'm sure that's how the Founder, and later Odo explains it. The changelings aren't just pretending to be that thing, in a way they're being that thing?

Okay so I'm a little unsure now that I'm actually writing this out so the rest of this maybe isn't as much sense as I thought it was....

BUT. If the above is correct it suddenly occurred to me another reason other than 'lack of practice' that Odo could struggle to imitate humanoid faces...

Could it be that he has too much of his own, distinct personality? Becoming a humanoid is to become them, to understand them entirely as a person (which is why Founders are the perfect infiltrators, and also why they hate being solids: their changelinghood is eclipsed by their target's personhood, even if they do of course hang onto their objective and knowledge from being a changeling).

But Odo developed as his completely own person, first. Changelings in the link don't seem to have a sense of "self", they are a communal species, but Odo is utterly himself. And so could it be that he is unable to put aside everything that makes him him in order to become and truly understand another person?

Or, in other words, the changelings who don't see humanoids as being proper 'people' can treat becoming them much the same as becoming a bird - they are understanding a different sort of lesser life form, and the fact that a humanoid has its own thoughts and feelings is non-consequential because they are on such a different order to a changling's.

But the thoughts and feelings of a humanoid are so similar to Odo's that -- in a way, because he understands them more -- he has more of an awareness of their individuality and difference to himself, and therefore cannot imagine them the same way he does a bird. He is distinct, and they are distinct, and shapeshifting isn't about copying, it's about becoming, and Odo could never become someone else because it would mean becoming less than himself.

This is a ramble and I don't know if it makes any sense but it's lit up my brain and I'm definitely feeling like

very fond of “julian ends up becoming close friends with over half the people he was trying to hit on” as a character trait for him.

he just strikes me as someone who tends to stay in good standing with most of his exes or casual hook ups and is being invited to their weddings and it’s not awkward in the least because julian is just happy for them.

I’ve seen a post talking about Deep Space Nine being pre-9/11 show and I’ve never felt that more than Kira talking to Tom Riker and literally going “dude you’re so bad at being a terrorist, you don’t have that dog in you, if I was in your shoes right now I would’ve been murdering everyone I could because I was a an effective terrorist and that’s what an effective terrorist would do”, and it’s not presented as Kira being evil or unhinged, she’s just making a (correct!) observation about the situation.

Rom is genuinely so rad like. Imagine having enough charisma to successfully unionize your workplace as a FERENGI of all people, striking against your own family member, even after getting severely threatened by the FCA completely refusing to back down until all of the worker demands are met. only to quit his job anyways immediately after getting the demands for the other workers. Absolute chad

sisko loving baseball is literally so weird. like imagine your boss was obsessed with like jousting or something. he talks about jousting all the time, when you go into his office he picks up his jousting stick and just kind of holds it while he talks to you, and then as you get to know him he starts inviting you and your coworkers to go watch simulated jousting videos with him. then one day his bitchy rival from college shows up and reveals that he not only learned jousting, but taught it to his employees. like he did this JUST to torment your boss, despite the fact they havent seen each other in YEARS. so your boss challenges the bitch to a jousting tournament and he just??? signs you up??? so you learn how to joust, you joust against the bitch rival and his employees, and then you lose

“haha odo is so beige and bland and boring despite being a literal shapeshifter” like ok yes I laugh at those jokes too and find them funny I literally have no issue with them but sometimes I also wanna talk about how that’s kind of the whole point of his character.

like odo’s abilities and way of being is so unlike any other known species in the alpha quadrant that it’s shown to be disturbing and off-putting to a lot of people — or at the very least that’s what he was led to believe. like we see this in the alternate where mora tries to convince him he’ll either be locked up in a prison or put in a zoo to gawk at if he’s perceived to have committed any sort of crime or transgression.

so despite being able to literally become anything he can think of, he chooses his default presentation to be as standard, bland and uninteresting as he possibly can. male, always in a beige uniform, very standard hair cut.

odo is so plain because he was made to be afraid of being literally anything else

so i just finished season 2 of DS9 for the first time and i have so many thoughts about quark and his relationships with the crew; specifically ben, kira, jadzia, and odo. throughout the season, we see quark either trying to connect to these four — albeit in his own grating way — or proving his worth to them after a major fuck-up. (this is the case for jadzia specifically; he inadvertently put her on danger in invasive procedures [2x03] risked his own life trying to save her. we see them hanging out in playing god [2x17], so we know they’re cool and that jadzia forgave him. this should go without mentioning jadzia sticking up for the ferengi more than once throughout the season, specifically to kira, and insisting there’s more to them than their money grubbing ways.)

with ben, quark attempts to connection with him over a drink in second sight [2x09], only for ben to turn him down — presumably because he has too much on his mind and quark is quark, but the way the camera lingers on our favourite bartender, we can see how the rejection ate at him. the rejection sensitivity is dialled up even further in shadowplay [2x16] when quark attempts to get playful with kira, only to be told she utterly despises him for collaborating with the cardassians during the occupation — forcing him to realize that their snark isn’t a game and that she legitimately doesn’t like him, to the point where he says (verbatim) that he wishes he hadn’t brought it up. this comes up again in the jem’hadar [2x26] when he mentions to odo that kira specifically doesn’t like him, showing how much he internalized that conversation and ruminates over it even with the passage of time — and that’s still not all!

in the collaborator [2x24], there’s a specific exchange between odo, kira, and quark that’s very relevant to the theme of quark feeling rejected and isolated by the crew. transcribing it doesn’t quite do it justice, so i’ll just link the scene itself:

TL;DR: these two show up and quark immediately gets defensive and nervous. given his interactions with odo on a regular basis + kira’s recent (and completely understandable) anger, he figures them confronting him together probably spells out trouble for him. and unfortunately, in typical odo fashion, he doesn’t exactly make him feel any better:

quark: you want something from me, don’t you?

kira: how’d you guess?

odo: it’s simple. we’ve been here more than a minute, and we haven’t insulted him, threatened him, or arrested him.

quark: exactly. so what is it?

quark values odo’s opinion a lot. and while i’m sure odo was just playing around and being sarcastic, this is the last thing quark needed to hear in that moment and solidifies in his mind that he’s only of any value to the others when he’s useful, which ultimately culminates in this confrontation with ben after they’ve been captured by the jem’hadar:

i’ve seen this clip before, but it was only last night, after having seen season 2 to completion, that i finally had the full context for it — specifically, for quark’s emotions, and why he went on his little tirade. he isn’t angry at ben specifically; he’s angry at the entire DS9 crew for (in his mind) treating him like an annoyance that’s only worth speaking to when he gives them something in return. i believe he brings up his species as a whole rather than Just Himself for two reasons: 1, it gives him a roundabout way to express his outrage without getting too vulnerable, and 2, he is attempting to rationalize why he’s faced with the indifference and the animosity that he is. chalking it down to speciesism helps him rationalize why this is happening, but the alternative is also pretty devastating: that they just don’t like him as an individual.

but here’s the kicker: they DO like quark! ben lets him come along on the camping trip despite his wishes to spend time with jake and only jake. he engages in conversation with him, feeds him, and is pretty damn amiable towards him despite quark’s incessant complaining. he defends quark to eris when she expresses annoyance over him. meanwhile, odo specifically joins the rescue mission to make sure quark gets home safe (in his own words!!!) and even tells kira she’d miss quark if anything were to happen to him — they ALL would — and she agrees!

the tragedy is that all of these things are discussed when quark is out of earshot (no pun intended) or just not paying enough attention. but despite his growing disillusionment with them, quark is willing to resort to violence (something he’d really rather avoid) to protect his friends; first demonstrated in invasive procedures and then coming full circle when he lethally shoots a jem’hadar trying to hurt ben, who returns the favour by making sure quark isn’t left behind despite eris’ insistence. and this time, quark IS around to hear that someone cares about him; not just anyone, but the station’s commander, which certainly gives him the validation he’s been craving all season long.

while i can’t find the clip, i think quark’s little monologue to the gloomy morn at the beginning of the episode describes it best; he isn’t just their bartender, he’s their confidant and their friend — or desperately wants to be. unfortunately, his learned / cultural behaviours, impulsivity, and selfish tendencies (as demonstrated when he abandons morn to scurry after his boytoy, aka odo) drive a wedge between him and the people he’s come to want the approval of so badly… and despite his glaring flaws and their often flippant treatment of him, they manage to like him anyway. big ears just needs to listen better, it seems — or maybe his friends need to make their affections a little more obvious.

i just. man. it’s such a subtle arc, one you probably don’t notice unless you’ve been watching a bunch of episodes consecutively like i have (not to mention my, ahem, keen eye on a certain ferengi…), but it’s so satisfying. they didn’t have to do all that for him and they did. this show and its attention to character detail is incredible and i can’t wait to see what else it has in store for me. 🖤

how... does odo see? when changelings morph a form that has eyes, do they create the cellular structure necessary for their function? or can their goo perceive light without ocular structure? maybe each of their cells can function as an eye on its own?

Season 2 Observations - What the DS9 crew call each other

I'm back with my spreadsheet and armed with new facts. Let's go! (For Season 1 Observations, see here.)

This is a bit longer and there was still more I wanted to include - if you want to check out the raw data yourself, you can view the spreadsheet here!

Sisko

Is slightly more likely to introduce himself as "Benjamin Sisko" (6x) than "Commander Benjamin Sisko" (5x) - though this is often followed in both cases by "of the United Federation of Planets" or something similar.

Kira, Odo and Quark mostly call him "Commander", and rarely "Sir" - all are extremely consistent with season 1. (37:8, 16:2 and 11:0 as compared to in s1 35:8. 15:2 and 9:0)

Miles and Julian are more likely to call him "Sir", but use "Commander" often as well. How often has changed for them both since Season 1: > Julian has moved from using both equally, to using "Sir" twice as often. > Miles has moved from using "Sir" three times as much to almost using both equally (40:35)

Dax still uses Benjamin almost exclusively (24x), although she will use "Commander" on occasion (2x).

Is most often referred to as "Commander Sisko (22x), followed by Sisko (12x) - O'Brien is the only one to use "Sisko" more frequently.

Kira

Most often calls herself "Major Kira Nerys" (4x).

Everyone, apart from Dax, almost always calls her "Major".

Dax exclusively calls her Kira (2x) - Bashir and Sisko have both also called her this (2x and 1x respectively).

Is most often referred to as "Kira" (13x), followed by "Major Kira" (6x) - a change from Season 1 where the "Kira: Major Kira" ratio was 5:18 > Odo bucks this trend: as in season 1, he refers to her as "Major Kira" 2 times and "Kira" only once.

Odo

Introduces himself as "Chief of Security Odo" (2x).

Is called "Odo" by everybody; Kira (7x), Dax (7x), O'Brien (4x) and Quark (24x!!!!) will use this most often.

Sisko and Bashir are more likely to call him "Constable" - 13:8 and 2:1 respectively. > Kira and Dax never call him "Constable" > Miles uses it almost just as much as "Odo" (3:4) > Quark calls him it twice

Is almost exclusively referred to as Odo by everyone - Kira referred to him as "Constable Odo" once, and O'Brien as "the constable" once.

Trends are consistent with Season 1, apart from Kira stopping using Constable entirely, and Bashir, Dax and O'Brien actually speaking about/ talking to him more than two times this season!

Julian

Refers to himself most often as "Julian" or "Julian Bashir".

Sisko, Kira, Odo and Quark exclusively call him "Doctor" - apart from Kira calling him "Julian" once, on his request!

Dax and O'Brien more often call him "Julian" (9:1 and 12:5 respectively) > After Armageddon Game, O'Brien only calls him Julian.

He is still referred to as "Doctor Bashir" most often by Sisko, Kira and Odo

Jadzia still refers to him mostly as "Julian".

O'Brien now refers to him mostly as "the doctor" or "Bashir" (2x each), as opposed to "Dr Bashir" in S1 (2x) > Quark similarly uses "Bashir" most (3x), followed by "the doctor" (2x)

Jadzia

Refers to herself as "Jadzia" most often (5x), but 4 of those times are in the episode Playing God where she is talking in the third person about herself. > She also calls herself "Dax" (2x), "Jadzia Dax" (2x) and when talking to Klingons in Blood Oath, "I who was Curzon Dax" and "You knew me as Curzon Dax".

Sisko and Kira call her "Dax" most often, followed by "Lieutenant" (22:11 and 7:5 respectively). > No change from S1 for Sisko, but Kira only began to call her Dax this season. > Kira also first calls her Jadzia - unprompted! - in Blood Oath. > Sisko only calls her "Old Man" once.

Odo, O'Brien and Quark exclusively call her "Lieutenant".

Julian exclusively calls her Jadzia, but only twice.

Sisko, Kira and O'Brien usually refer to her as "Dax" - the latter two exclusively. > Sisko uses "Jadzia" just as much (6x), but only in the episode Invasive Procedures, when talking about her as opposed to Verad Dax who has stolen her symbiont. > Once again, this is same as S1 for Sisko, but a change from exclusively "Lieutenant Dax" (1x) for Kira.

Julian most often refers to her as "Jadzia" (4x), followed by Dax (2x).

Miles

Calls himself "O'Brien" most often (4x) - "Miles O'Brien" (6x) is skewed because of his repetition of it (4x) under torture in Tribunal.

Everyone most often calls him "Chief". > For Odo, this is equal with "Mister O'Brien" (2x each), and for Quark this is equal with "O'Brien" (1x each).

"Mister O'Brien" is still used at a similar rate by Sisko, being used about four times less frequently than "Chief" in both seasons. Kira only uses it once, in early s2, compared to "Chief" 14x - she used both equally in S1.

Sisko, Bashir and Dax most often refer to him as "Chief O'Brien", a change for all of them from S1. > For Sisko, this is followed by "Mister O'Brien", his most common use in S1. > For Bashir this is followed equally by "O'Brien", his most common in S1, and by "the chief".

Kira and Quark refer to him as "O'Brien" more often.

Odo uses both "Chief O'Brien" and "O'Brien" equally (2x each)

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Thanks for your interest in this, it's definitely encouraged me to keep going! Not sure if this is the correct tag etiquette, but I thought I'd tag those of you who seemed keen to look at more data - let me know if you don't want this to happen in the future! (Or indeed if you want to be added to the update list!) But 100% thank you so much for your kind comments about this project - I'm glad to see it's not just me who likes to nerd out over cold, hard data! (Also feel free to talk about stuff in the comments, there were so many tag comments I wanted to reply to aha 😅)

@joelleity @elainemorisi @istherewifiinhell @dumbnerd13-42 @yourea--stubborn--man @writteninsilences @worfianism @mickstart @ilovefredjones @tomthefanboy @ds9official @ussdefiant @autisticburnham @daforged @loudfederationscreeching @deepacenine @thethirdromana @tocautiouslygo @transhologram

what strikes me about “Far Beyond the Stars” is how they cast Odo as the one who upholds oppression through complacency. because Odo’s been shown to be very beholden to the status quo - he prides himself on his neutrality, sees himself as only being subject to justice and truth. That was the thrust of “Things Past” - he doesn’t feel guilt over collaborating with the Cardassians, but over the fact that he failed at properly exacting justice under the premises of their rule. He tries to be benevolent from within the system, but doesn’t consider the fact that the system itself might be flawed (though he arguably starts to reconsider this at the beginning of S6). So his AU role here made a lot of sense for him, tbh.        

the thinggggg the thing about kira and jadzia is that. jadzia is so so so full of joy and the measured, steady, unshakeable optimism of someone much older than she is. but she wasn't always like that, she was a lonely, anxious, nerdy kid who "grew up" 300 years in the span of a single medical/spiritual operation. and a big part of that experience was the dedicated training she got towards knowing herself, knowing her needs and desires and how to meet them, so that she wouldn't get drowned out by the rest of dax. right

and she comes to ds9 and she meets kira, a lonely, anxious fighter who was an adult by the time she was 10, who never had the opportunity to know more about herself than what was strictly necessary--that she is strong, that she makes a good leader, that she can do anything she sets her mind to. but she never figured out what she might like to set her mind to, because freedom was the only thing it was possible to want.

and jadzia sees her old self in kira's face, in the bowstring-tight lines of her, and jadzia takes her by those aching shoulders and says Hey. do you want to know yourself? do you want to know what joy is? do you want to play?

Odo’s morality

I was talking with @weaver0fwords about why it is that Odo never acknowledges Quark’s more good deeds, like the food/supply smuggling he did for Bajorans during Terok Nor, or why Odo, someone who is concerned more with justice than law, strongly disapproves when (for example) Quark arms the Maquis and similar groups. It’s very likely (given Odo’s close monitoring of Quark) that Odo knew about Quark’s smuggling during the occupation and yet he never mentions or acknowledges it at any point in the show, and when you do have Odo finding out about Quark’s illegal activities that seem to be for a good cause, he’s usually annoyed/disapproving in a way that indicates that he still very much has a low opinion of Quark. This got me thinking about how I think Quark’s morality has been very influential on Odo and that Odo and Quark have a kind of symbiotic relationship when it comes to moral action. There’s less evidence of it in canon, but I also think Kira had a similar influence on Odo’s morality. Both Quark and Kira through their contrast with Odo’s values help define for Odo what he is willing and not willing to do.

This is one of my favorite topics so I decided to expound a bit more on what I think Odo’s morality is as depicted in the show, and how I think Quark and Kira shaped that morality.

Keep reading

There’s a post about how we need more female characters who genuinely care about people but are really bad at caregiving, and honestly that fits Kira Nerys really well. I’m thinking of Starship Down where she’s tasked with looking after Sisko and keeping him conscious when he has a head injury, and she just starts visibly flailing despite making an effort to hold it together. “Listen up…. because there’s going to be a test later” and then trying to keep him alert by droning on about duty rosters because she gets Task-Oriented when things are in dire straits and does not know how to scale things to a more personal level with someone she has a working relationship with.

Like, so much of how she deals with emotionally fraught situations is by getting up and doing something about them (even so far as traveling back in time) or just keeping busy to avoid dwelling on the matter at hand. When her father was dying, her response was to go out and kill some Cardassians about it, and then order another attack upon his death, rather than sit by his bedside. When Bareil died (pre-resurrection via mad scientist noodling) she went right back to work despite Bashir telling her she didn’t have to. It is a trauma mindset from someone who witnessed a lot of death and suffering and had no choice but to pick up and keep moving and keep fighting. And when she has to sit down and really focus on someone else’s vulnerability, it’s very uncomfortable for her. She cares very deeply about the people around her but she’s clumsy about it.

ive figured out why i like him so much- hes got the gender. oh to be a vaguely human-shaped goo with a deep gruff voice and the personality of a middle-aged suburban chainsmoking mother.

Julian Bashir meeting an alternate universe version of himself who still goes by Jules. Jules doesn't fake eye contact as well as Julian. When he speaks, it's mostly in short direct sentences, as few words and as to the point as possible. He can still ramble for an hour on a topic he's passionate about though.

Julian realising in slow horror that Jules is also a doctor. Jules also works for Starfleet. Jules is also stationed on DS9. Jules is friends with his own Garak, who thinks he is delightful and intelligent and interesting. Jules is still friends with a Miles O'Brien who thinks he is a little weird and off putting but will fist fight anyone who talks bad about him. They still play darts and racquetball, though Jules isn't quite as good, he and Miles still treat each other as friendly rivals.

Jules, who is still a diligent and dedicated professional, who takes pride in his work as a doctor, and whose parents were arrested and charged before he ever set foot on Adigeon Prime. Jules, who mended Kukalaka and continued to stitch him up for years to come just like Julian.

The slowly dawning horror Julian has at realising that this is who he might have been, and that Jules is, in fact, fine. He wasn't top of his class, but he's still a damn good doctor. He can't work for three days straight without sleeping, but he's no less dedicated. He's not as physically adept, but he's doing fine. He's loved. He's fulfilled. He's happy.

Julian Bashir isn't sure how any of that is making him feel about himself at all, nor does he know why he finds himself crying himself to sleep that night.

Odo said he'd always felt an unshakable intrinsic sense of justice, so inherent that it must be a trait of his species as a whole, making it the one thing he could trust, the one thing he knew about himself: that he is just, that there are others like him who are also just. But when he meets the other changelings, he realizes he was wrong, that they don't care for justice. "I've devoted my life to the pursuit of justice, but justice means nothing to you, does it?". The other changeling replies to him that "it is not justice you desire, Odo, but order, the same as we do", leaving there a question. If she is right, then Odo has misunderstood himself completely all his life. If she isn't, then he is different from the people who are supposed to be his equals, his family, his home. This question should tear him apart, but he doesn't hesitate for even a second. He knows the answer, and even if the implications and consequences are bound to be devastating, he replies: "I already have a link... With these people". His family. His home

Odo and Justice (based on early Season 2)

Odo is first introduced as DS9′s Chief of Security, a no-nonsense workaholic who is driven by his commitment to justice and isolated by his status as the only known shapeshifter in existence.

In S2E8 Necessary Evil, we learn that before he served as a detective on DS9 during Cardassian occupation, Bajorans sought him out to solve their small disputes because of his outsider viewpoint. During the early stages of his entrance to society, he was able to rely on this identity for himself. Justice was a way for him to participate in society and find a place where he belongs. It enabled him to gain respect that otherwise could be difficult to come by as a shapeshifter learning to act like a humanoid.

[Image description: A screenshot of Odo saying to Gul Dukat, “I suppose I’m considered a neutral observer.”]

His role as detective and arbiter enables his shapeshifting abilities to be something valuable rather than something that drives him apart from the rest of society. It helps unite the “other” and humanoid parts of him, although it still leaves him on the fringes of society (more on that later).

In S2E12 The Alternate, Odo meets a major challenge to his relationship with justice and, by extension, his identity. When Dr. Mora says that the creature who destroyed the lab and attacked Julian could be him, Odo panics and can’t accept it.

[Image description: A screenshot of Odo saying to Dr. Mora, “I do not commit criminal acts! It is not in my nature!]

If Odo has been unknowingly acting on the wrong side of justice, his entire worldview breaks down. If he is not the fair arbiter he considers himself to be, he loses everything he has built for himself in humanoid society.

This explains why he clings to the concept of justice so desperately. He can understand justice, and he can understand his place in society through justice. He depends on it to guide him, to provide stability and a framework for interaction with others—and a reason for others to need him.

However, this worldview holds him back. To continue being a “neutral observer,” he must continue being an outsider. He can only integrate into society up to a certain point because if he stops being the outcast, he stops being the “neutral observer.”

This may be one of the reasons for his emotional repression and his resistance to accepting appreciation and affection. He relies on maintaining that distance because, from early on, he was not only sensitive about his differences—he needed them. If he admits to himself that he wants something more than his job and justice, wants the acceptance and affection and vulnerability that come with being included in deeper social ties (even when others are happy to give it to him), his outsider status is disrupted. (This also makes his relationship with Kira interesting because he does seem to be willing to have a more emotional connection with her.)

What’s sad about this is that he doesn’t need to keep that distance…

(Basically S2E12 really struck something in me and I needed to get out my thoughts about Odo. Disclaimer that I’m only halfway through Season 2 so there are definitely layers of his character that I haven’t seen yet, but I’m really enjoying his character and am looking forward to more of his development and backstory!)

never getting over the way the very second episode where garak appears establishes immediately that julian is an absolute ride or die idiot for this man.

interrupts his commanding officer in a tense meeting with dukat on the basis of garak alluding to something. wakes his commander up at like 3am to request a runabout without even having asked garak why. only pushes back properly exactly once and then immediately goes back to solving whatever puzzles come out of garaks mouth.

absolutely pathetically infatuated to the point of just tossing all higher brain functions in the bin except interpreting riddles.

Absolutely transcendent move from Star Trek to write a shapeshifter character who's kind of bad at it. You're like, "oh so he can impersonate other characters?" and they're like no he's not very good at faces :(

Rewatching ds9 means understanding that Odo and Julian are two sides of the same coin. Of freaks. What you mean you two are chasing the two most infamous criminals of the station. Aren't YOU the chief of security and YOU the chief of the medical staff?

Also neither of them want to change Garak or Quark to be better. Like Odo isn't all "I know you can be better and be rehabilitated into society" NO he LIKES to chase and stalk Quark around the station. And Julian isn't better. He is like "omg you were a spy?? And you are exiled??" *twirls his hair* "Have you heard about James Bond?? In fact a have this holo program..."

Freaks the both of them that's why they are my favorites

Edit: as a lot of you pointed out YES they both have madical trauma and father issues and they have been experimented on. We should look into this like what are the odds.

Kay I can't get over "Improbable Cause"/"The Die is Cast" because Garak stabs Odo in the back without a moment's hesitation the second he gets the invite to return to the Obsidian Order/Tain/Cardassia/Whatever, and then he tortures Odo nearly to death looking for info on the Dominion and all he gets out of Odo is that Odo really wants to go home to his people and join the Great Link despite Everything, but when Odo gets the chance to go home, despite how much he wants to, he sticks to his morals and refuses.

So Odo gets stabbed in the back, and tortured into revealing a shameful secret. He should kick Garak out on his ass and never speak to him again, but he doesn't.

So whereas Garak took the chance to go home without hesitation, Odo refused his own chance to go home with equal conviction, so Odo could sit on his moral high horse and judge Garak for giving into temptation, but he doesn't.

Odo might not forgive Garak for what he did, but he understands why he did it enough to stick around and be his friend despite it all. Like, the guy really says "hey you did a really shitty thing to me but I understand, let's get breakfast sometime."

Something about that just hits, you know?

My idea of Amanda Grayson is this double nature because she needs to be in a certain way to enjoy life on Vulcan but she also becomes much more fun as a character if you imagine her as being very human in certain aspects of her life and personality. Having that garden full of gnomes, occasionally calling Sarek “babe” and wearing party hats etc.

What I’m saying is: She made finger guns at Spock all the time while he grew up and he always viewed it as a strange and embarrassing yet seemingly necessary part of human culture. Which caused some initial confusion the first time he visited Earth. 

Another thing that occurs to me about Odo, Re: his "inability" to do faces, is that if *I* were a detective who could make myself look like anyone, I might not want that fact to be generally known. And if I were a changeling who resented having to pretend to be humanoid in order to operate in their society, I might do some subtle thing in order to set myself off from them; remind them that I'm not like them.

Anyways, Odo can do faces.

When you have a fictional man who's very good and gentle and compassionate but is also a BDSM sadist and has a lot of guilt and shame and general weird feelings about that... nothing sexier than that in the entire gotdamn universe

no six sentence sunday from me today

had a bad stomach-flu like reaction to some new medication I was taking and am currently watching DS9 while in a brain fog and having feelings about how Lwaxana Troi uses romantic overtures to avoid true intimacy or vulnerability with others and how Kira is such an amazing character whose growth over even just season one is impressive to watch. And remembering how much I enjoy hating Dukat. Honestly he's such a delightful villain because he does have layers and most of them are more arrogance and genocidal condescension.

Seriously, though. Lwaxana clearly uses romantic overtures to build walls around her. We see her do it with Picard, whom she genuinely likes but cannot connect with because she probably doesn't even realize that she's subconsciously protecting herself from suffering more losses by shoving people away. But when she, quite literally, lets her hair down with Odo - whom she initially behaves towards similarly to how she does with Picard - her choice to allow herself to be vulnerable with him in order to help him be more comfortable being vulnerable around her, something he isn't getting a choice in due to their unforeseen circumstances, is actually quite lovely. I know a lot of people don't like Lwaxana or her friendship with Odo but... I actually really adore it.

The thing that really gets me about Quark and Odo is that they’re not each other’s Most Important Person. Odo has Kira and Quark has Rom (though he’d never admit it). Only, Odo isn’t Kira’s Most Important, and Quark hardly ever actually shows Rom how much he cares— those relationships are uneven.

Quark and Odo’s dynamic is equal. They both spend at least half their time everyday trying to outsmart the other, and unlike their other relationships, this one is mutually balanced. They push and pull; ironically, they’re always on the same page, even if that page is (playing at) being rivals on different sides of the law. Quark understands Odo more than anyone else on the station, even Kira or Worf or anyone else who Odo would actually acknowledge as a friend. They may not be each other’s number one but they are each other’s second most important person in the world and it’s so entertaining to watch them pretend otherwise.

This plays like a really nice ending at first like "aw yeah Garak's a good guy in his own way after all :)" and then you rotate the events of the episode in your head a minute and realize that the only way any of this makes sense is if he was genuinely ready to turn them over to the military dictatorship and only changed course after Gul Dipshit was like "we can murder them and it will be epic and based" and Garak's mental calculus was "the terrorists are less of a threat to the military dictatorship alive than they would be as martyrs".

The quadrant's most charming and affable spook.