Unreasonably Funny. The Sudden Yell. The Actual Creature Itself Looking Like A Fucking Muppet. Jadzia's

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

scodo (scooter odo)

The fact that garashir became canon is 100% thanks to Sid and Andy who have both been very vocal about this ship and still talk about it 30 years later. They are the number one shippers of the pairing and I can't help but think it happened thanks to their dedication to it.

Fic idea I was struck with the other day and keep thinking about: a Vulcan adopts a cat.

category 5 kira event!!!

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.

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.

ive been told to add a disclaimer to this post that i have only seen the first two garak episodes so far but when bashir randomly mentioned him in shadowplay this was all i could think of

MY BITCH POSE IS NEEEEAASTY