#founders and shapeshifters = changeling

[anonymousmothman]

I love star trek fanart so much because people will put tails on any species that isn't human . Cardassian? Understandable, they're straight up reptiles. Weyoun? I get it... it's a little critter. Andorian? Vulcan? Bajoran? I love it so much. Even if it "doesn't make sense in canon" it's so real to me. I think everyone deserves to have a tail because tails are cool as shit.

[slippery-domjot-balls]

[ikilledamanforthisurl]

DS9 THE BEGOTTEN...............😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[walkingstackofbooks]

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

[writergeekrhw]

so before it was decided that odo was a founder, who were the founders? were the founders as a category made up to give odo back story? if so, was there an alternative structure for the dominion envisaged?

Odo came first. He was always a shapeshifter. As we were figuring out the Dominion, one of the first things we thought of was "What if Odo's people ran the Dominion?"

So there was never an alt. The main consideration was how fast to reveal that the Founders were changelings.

[gplusbfics]

Picking up on my Garashir New Wave series afer more than a year, I take Depeche Mode's "Walking In My Shoes" as the inspiration of another short fic. Not quite a drabble, but with fairly minimal plot. They talk a lot.

Setting & Time: DS9, following episode "Broken Link." Garak is in the brig.

Summary: After attempting genocide of the Founders, Garak finds himself in DS9's brig. He has no idea how he's going to manage six months of boredom without going mad. Until one day he has a somewhat unexpected visitor. Would the doctor berate him or, as he sometimes did unknowingly, flirt?

Excerpt: After the rage he'd felt in the face of the female Changeling's threat – wiping out the Cardassian race – he couldn't miss the opportunity for preemptive revenge. So, when he'd seen the weapons arrays were unattended and Odo, Sisko, and the doctor were on the surface, he'd seized the moment and attempted to rid the universe of as many of the loathsome shapeshifters as possible. Alas Worf had to show up at just the wrong moment and thwart his plans. Damn that Klingon.

And of course I have to share the video!

[theimaginatrix27]

I have realised that Odo is the reason I started paying attention to Deep Space Nine

I was talking about this with @roguetelepaths on Discord, but there was enough information for me to make a proper post out of it, so here I am, doing that.

See, when I was a kid, I usually got drawn into a show by acquiring an interest in a particular character. I first became aware of Farscape because of Rygel, I started hanging around when my father was watching rented episodes of Voyager because of Captain Janeway/the Doctor/Tuvok (they're tied, I'm sorry), Teal'c drew me into Stargate: SG-1 (closely followed by Daniel).

With Deep Space Nine, this character was Odo.

Before I go on, you should understand a couple things.

My Dad had cable when I was eleven/twelve.

I did not live with him, and did not see him every weekend, so I did not always have access to this cable service.

I therefore did not have access to Star Trek series in order for a very very long time.

There was a Trek block on one of the mixed-bag sort of channels this cable service had (there were several, but this was before Australia had a dedicated Sci-fi channel). It was on Saturday evenings and had TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager, in that order, starting at 7-30. If it wasn't Saturday night, I probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay up to watch Voyager, but it was, so I was.

Unfortunately for my future self, it was smack in the middle of the time period during which my brain was tuned to Dragon Ball Z all the time unless I had to focus on something else. Also I was like, eleven. My life had been pretty complicated already so I wasn't a sweet summer child who thought nothing bad ever happened, but I was not yet equipped to properly grasp the complexities of the Trek I was exposed to, especially DS9.

I know I was present when this channel ran Move Along Home (I can still remember the Allamaraine chant, though I did not process most of the rest of that episode), and I think I at least saw an ad saying that Saturday's episode was If Wishes Were Horses, if only because Rumpelstiltskin was in that episode and that's a weird thing to have in a Sci-fi show, my little brain thought. (I had not yet been exposed to Q. That's a story for another day).

The first episode I actively remember choosing to watch was The Forsaken. Because I'd seen the ad for that, and wait, this guy turns into a liquid? Cool! I wanna see this now!

This was also the first time I ever saw Lwaxana Troi, as far as I recall, so I got one hell of a first impression of her (I liked her very well by the end). But I was here for Odo, and I zeroed in on him. And learned both about his biology and witnessed a rant that established his personhood in my mind—it is not in fact nice to treate a shapeshifting being like a source of entertainment.

By the end of the episode, I was absolutely ride or die for this character. And he's the reason I started paying attention to DS9.

The only other episode I clearly remember watching during this period was Heart of Stone, because it was another Odo-centric episode I was fortunate to be present for, and this first experience of that episode had me absolutely shipping Kiraodo (I have discussed that before in my Kiraodo post), but before that, there was the reveal of where Odo got his name, and that absolutely pulled at my little twelve-year-old heartstrings, which is why I absolutely wanted his love for Kira to be reciprocated, because are you kidding? He just said his name meant "unknown sample"/"nothing", I was so wanting to hug him after that, and then he confessed love for this other character, and I love him, please let Kira love him too... (Also this was my first encounter with the Voice of the Link/the Female Founder, owing to how many episodes I'd missed due to extenuating circumstances beyond my control, and I wanted the mean Changeling to be proved wrong.)

So those two episodes informed my view of Odo for the next several years and beyond, and for a while there, he was hands-down my favourite character on DS9.

Over the next few years, however, my Odo love dropped to a simmer in the back of my mind because I had zero access to any Trek owing to moving away from my Dad and our subsequent permanent estrangement (long story, don't wanna get into it, it's ... there's a lot of underlying stuff irrelevant to this post). Eventually, Mum was able to get cable for us, a few months at a time, and that cable service had a Sci-fi channel now, and I had a connection in my bedroom, and could watch Star Trek without having to ask to use the family TV, and I got back into the Trek series I'd watched parts of with Dad, but grew to like them on my own terms, for my own reasons.

And at some point, I got to watch The Begotten (before Broken Link because I was at the mercy of reruns and also life made me miss episodes frequently).

And I already loved Odo thanks to the above experiences, but watching him with a baby of his own species (before Mora showed up) was so heartwarming, even if he was sad about being a solid at the time. And then the baby sacrificed itself to give him his powers back, and Oh no there went my heart again. And this basically cemented my love for Odo and his storyline and his people (even the ones that were mean to him sometimes).

I love the whole cast now, I was falling in love with the other characters when I watched The Begotten, but Odo is the reason I even started watching the show, and I have him to thank for my deep abiding love for it today.

And in light of this, it's no surprise I jumped onto the Dominion Fan train so fast. Odo needs a hug, I've always known this, but the more I learned about the Dominion races the more I realised they all did/do.

I can't undo the bad writing choices the showrunners made, or those other fanfiction authors have made, but I sure as hell can be niceys to them in my own stories.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to do something about my Dominion Week backlog. Dx

[chaotic-hypnotic-erotic]

DS9 "The Begotten"

The main story of this season 5 episode is - Odo gets his shapeshifting powers back, after the Founders took them away in season 4's finale "Broken Link."

So this is what they did to make this happen.

Quark sells Odo a baby Changeling they'd only just discovered. Odo realises he's going to have to do some parenting. There are arguments with Dr Mora Pel, the Bajoran scientist who tortured Baby Odo when the latter was just a gravy stain on a lab bench.

The Baby Changeling begins to learn ... then they start dying, and Odo can't save it. It dies, but it restores Odo's morphogenic matrix, and Odo becomes a blob again.

Only ...

Well, two things. One, they did not have Section 31 just yet.

And two ... they did not have the morphogenic virus story yet - that was to come in season 7.

However ...

During season 7, when they revealed the existence of the virus, they pinpointed the exact date when Odo had been infected.

The date, in season 4, when Odo had visited Earth.

Which meant that Odo had been a carrier of the virus during "The Begotten" in season 5.

And Odo had passed on the morphogenic virus to the dying baby Changeling.

He'd unwittingly killed the closest thing to his own child.

[hphmmatthewluther]

To your founder ocs, pretty please <3

What would you miss most if it was gone?

Thanks for the ask!

For Lam, it would most likely be his new home in Scotland. Going back to the way things were, his peasant life...not exactly something that would be nice for him.

For Rousalie, it would be her family. She cares for them so so deeply and wants the best for them, and so cherishes it with all her heart.

Finally for Betwixt, it'd be their ability to shapeshift. They've never exactly settled on a face throughout their life (something changelings can do sometimes) and so to have a face that was stuck like that...terrifying.

[themovieblogonline]

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Brings Back A Classic Deep Space Nine Villain

Picard season 3 is honestly doing some amazing things on television with the lore of Star Trek and its long history. And the season is only 3 episodes in. Not only is this season acting as a true sequel to Star Trek: The Next Generation, it’s bringing in elements of other Star Trek series and franchises from the past. Season 1 already brought back Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager as a regular cast member. But the Picard season 3 villains are an even more of a deep cut of previous Star Trek shows. Read on to find out how the Picard season 3 villains are very familiar. Please note that the following will contain major spoilers for Picard season 3, up until episode 3 titled, ‘Seventeen Seconds’. Picard Season 3 Combines Many Elements From Previous Star Trek Like mentioned before, with the return of classic Star Trek: The Next Generation characters in Picard season 3, it’s the only show so far in canon that feels like it's set in the whole universe, not just its own little corner. Other shows and movies felt limited to featuring just the cast of their respective show and movies. With the rare exception of some cross-overs and cameos.Except in the case of Chief Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Worf (Michael Dorn) who both successfully transitioned from regulars on Star Trek: The Next Generation, to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But Picard season 3, so far, has brought back Picard’s old Number One in William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden), Worf, and Deanna Troi (Marina Spirits) in flashbacks. There are also many connections to other TNG characters like Geordi LaForge’s daughter in Sydney LaForge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut). But with the most recent episode of Picard, we really go deep into Star Trek lore with the reveal of the Picard season 3 villains. A Major Reveal Of The Picard Season 3 Villains On the run from this mysterious new warship called The Shrike, the Titan soon realizes that they have a saboteur on board who is leaving a trail for them to follow. While concurrently, Worf and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) are investigating the devastation caused by a stolen portal weapon. A weapon, that The Shrike keeps using against Picard, Riker, Crusher and Picard’s newly discovered son, Jack, all aboard the Titan. After Jack (Ed Speleers) and Seven discover the trail and put an end to it, An Ensign (Chad Lindberg) ends up attacking Jack. After a scuffle, the Ensign’s face ripples and changes. Intercut with this story is that of Worf And Raffi’s interrogation of a suspect, who is seemingly in distress from what might be drug withdrawals. However, they soon realize that it’s not withdrawals, but rather the inability to maintain his solid shape. It’s a Changeling!! Who Are The Changelings? The Changelings are a race of beings introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine who were responsible for the massive Dominion war featured in that series. They were beings that were primarily in a liquid state, which they stay in while on their planet, as part of The Great Link. Their liquid property allows them to shapeshift into any object or person, of any race, making them one of the more formidable Star Trek villains. Their one weakness is that after a certain time, they struggle to maintain their solid shape, without regenerating in liquid form for some time. While initially, the Dominion War was between a warrior race known as the Jem’Hadar, with the Cardassians eventually joining later. Later on, we learned that the Changelings, or Founders as tthe Dominion knew them, were behind the whole thing Eventually, the war ended. However, as Worf explains to Raffi, a small faction of Changelings broke off, vying for the destruction of Federation. And it looks like the Changelings are the main Picard season 3 villains. But what exactly their plans are is still a mystery. And how the Captain of the Shrike chasing Titan, Vadic (Amanda Plummer) factors into it all, is still unknown. But the introduction of the Changelings as the villains is a huge reveal and definitely makes Picard feel a lot more Star Trek, than previous shows, Given how they’re incorporating parts of the universe not just limited to TNG, but the entire franchise at their fingertips. Star Trek: Picard season 3 episode 3 is now streaming on Paramount+. What did you think of the new, but old, Picard season 3 villains? What do you think it all means for the rest of the season? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter at @theshahshahid. Read the full article

[wat-the-cur]

Today I found a song I associate with the founder, I’ve listened to it a couple times but I had trek on the brain today so 👀 the song is Dear Dictator by Saint Motel! (Also I hope your day gets better dude! Sending good vibes♥️♥️)

Oooh, you’re right! This really does fit the Founder. I especially like the line “It’s not too late to say you’re sorry, but it’s too late to truly mean it.” It really does make me think of the final time we see her. I don’t think about the Founder enough, actually and it is a tragedy, because she is pretty compelling! A song that reminds me of her, as well as the Dominion as a whole, would be “Forest” by System Of A Down. Much heavier than “Dear Dictator”, but the lyrics really evoke the relationship between the Founders and the Jem’hadar/Vorta. (Thank you, buddy! I should feel better tomorrow. ❤️) 

[siryl]

Portrait by Michael Hamlett of Constable Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

[trek-memes-blog]

Changeling Laas does not trust monoforms

[captaincrusher]

Since the Founders are authoritarian and also shapeshifters it would have been such a power move if the Female Changeling always made sure she was the tallest one in the room. She understands how solids view power, after all.

When she's with Weyoun she has her normal height but every time Dukat enters the room she just silently goes upward like she's on a height adjustable desk, to fuck with his ego.

[bensiskos]

Rating the names / nicknames for the founder

Female changeling/shapeshifter : 2/10, describes her but it’s so boring dude ad also changelings don’t have gender theyre goo

Female founder/the founder : 4/10 it’s ok it gets the job done she doesn’t have a name so y’know

Miss founder : 8/10 extremely cute but also tumblr user oudkee is only one allowed to use it because she’s the founders wife I think

Mommy founder: 6/10 hm.

Milf prime: 10/10 what more can I say

[hi-my-name-is-dotdotdot]

continuing my “going feral over ds9” posts -

the season four finale, Broken Link

(at the time of finishing writing I've watched up to season 5 ep 13 so there may be minor mentions of things that happen there, too)

most of it is just wondering what's wrong then being worried for Odo and then it drops two bombshells in like, the last five minutes and oh the SUSPENSE

SPOILERS! seriously. somehow I managed to avoid too many ds9 spoilers so far and I promise if you're planning to watch it and you haven't finished s4 yet you don't wanna read this, I promise

(at the time of finishing writing I've watched up to season 5 ep 13 so there may be minor mentions of things that happen there, too)

THEY MADE ODO A HUMAN

AND GOWRON (OKAY I'VE WATCHED THE NEXT ONE AND IT'S MARTOK) IS ACTUALLY A CHANGELING

first question: how did the Martok changeling get around the blood screenings? the Klingons were the ones who started them in the first place, I doubt they'd stop enforcing it

maybe he did something like what grandpa Sisko thought of in the episode where Starfleet tried to do a coup? absorb (somehow) some blood and have that be what's captured?

also how did no one catch him regenerating? it seems unlikely that no one ever walked into "Martok's" room in the middle of the night to be like "we have an emergency" or something

anyways. Odo. Odo, Odo, Odo. I feel like, if this was at the beginning of the show, it wouldn't be as tragic, but now?? here? it's such a tragedy because he was finally embracing his shapeshifting abilities

like, instead of keeping his bucket in the back of the security office he actually got his own quarters. and then he filled them with different things to explore shapeshifting with, he let himself liquefy anywhere in the room.

in the episode where Lwaxana came back and they got married we saw him having fun, even playing with his abilities for the first time.

I think this was also the first time he partially shifted (he made his arm into a blanket) instead of completely being something else as a disguise or just extending a limb to catch someone - to me, the first time we really see him flaunt his abilities since he's not only mimicking something that exists, he's mixing things together

and of course, now, when he's finally glad to be himself, just has to be when the Founders decide he needs to be punished for harming another changeling, and they decide that punishment will be to turn him into a "solid"

also, how is that possible? how does that work? you can't just change someone's species! and Odo apparently still has some sort of connection or echo to the Great Link (don't remember if this was this episode or a later one) so he's not 100% human (in s5e8 "Things Past" we get confirmation of this)

so it seems the Founders, instead of turning him into a solid, did something more like take away his ability to shapeshift out of that form

also, something that has confused me - Odo says that when a changeling is in the form of a thing, it's as if they are that thing, so if you scan them with a tricorder it'll just read them as that thing, so when Odo is in his humanoid form, he should scan as humanoid, yes? but when it comes to medical things, Dr. Bashir is always confused about him because he doesn't have organs or anything, the most he can do at first is scan Odo's density and see if it's changing

so, the point of that is, in one way it makes sense that if the Founders took away a changeling's ability, they might appear to truly be whatever form they're stuck in, but in another way, it doesn't make sense because even when in that form they usually don't grow organs or need to eat

speaking of, I'm assuming Odo is longer forced to regenerate every 16 hours? which really makes it seem like he's a human, so now I'm just confused

anyways. the point was, turning Odo human just as he was growing into embracing his shapeshifting abilities, no longer being so restricted (or embarrassed, as we learned in the first episode with Lwaxana) was tragic

IT ALSO DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

why human and not bajoran????

Kira's pregnancy arc makes it very clear that human and bajoran physiologies are very different, yet when they return Odo from the Link, Dr Bashir says "It's as if he's human" - not bajoran

yet, Odo was found by Bajorans, "grew up" (as much as he could while being a lab specimen, I suppose) on Bajor, mainly knew Bajorans and Cardassians until the occupation ended, and out of those two it's pretty clear his humanoid form is modeled after Bajorans. he doesn't have the nose ridges, but he's the first to admit he's not good with faces, and it's not like his face looks all that human either.

so why human and not bajoran?

well, later the show switches to calling him "humanoid" but I very clearly remember wondering "why human?" as soon as they found out, so...

and then! AND THEN! THE WAY HE GETS IT BACK IS SOMEHOW JUST AS TRAGIC

He gets a changeling baby.

Dr. Mora comes to the station.

He tries to spare the baby changeling any of the kinds of... discomfort... he experienced in Dr. Mora's lab but Starfleet is breathing down their necks and so he has to.

And it works!

And the baby connects with Odo! Almost makes a face, completely unprompted.

And then

they're dying?

the radiation was too much

and Odo just wants to hold them once before they die

but they disappear into his hands

and he feels it

he can shapeshift again

he r u n s out of medbay, becomes a (Tarkalean?) hawk and flies across the promenade

he can fly again

he's himself again

but he'll never forget the baby changeling that decided, as they were dying, to give him this gift