Why did the Changelings look like Odo?

[Captain Nebula]

Odo modeled his hair like Dr. Mora Pol, the Bajoran Scientist that worked with him when he was first found. Why did all of the other Changelings have hair just like Odo then?

[Pavonis]

To look like Odo, of course. I imagine if Laas had made it to the Great Link before Odo, they'd all look like Laas, with that vaguely Varalan forehead of his.

And Odo's face is more of a sketch of a humanoid visage, and the Founder's weren't too keen on reproducing humanoid appearance unless they were deliberately infiltrating the enemy. Odo's look was minimalist, and the Founder's liked it.

Alternatively, the Odo-type appearance of the Founders is their default appearance (perhaps a holdover from when they were Solids, too), and Odo himself just hadn't the experience to hold a more complex form than his default. Hence the Founders look like Founders when they're not mimicking another form, and naturally the young Founder Odo looks like one, too.

[Melakon]

Pavonis wrote:

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Alternatively, the Odo-type appearance of the Founders is their default appearance (perhaps a holdover from when they were Solids, too), and Odo himself just hadn't the experience to hold a more complex form than his default. Hence the Founders look like Founders when they're not mimicking another form, and naturally the young Founder Odo looks like one, too.

Also, Salome Jens' earlier appearance as the ancient humanoid in TNG's "The Chase" sort of looks like a precursor to the Odo makeup, so there might be a workable explanation there.

[Anwar]

I think that Odo is simply mistaken about his form being based off of Pol, and that his humanoid form is the default form all Changlings can assume when they want to. A holdover from their Solid days.

[dub]

Anwar wrote:

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I think that Odo is simply mistaken about his form being based off of Pol, and that his humanoid form is the default form all Changlings can assume when they want to. A holdover from their Solid days.

^^That's also the explanation I tell myself.

[Triskelion]

Odo was a celebrity. So they all jumped on the bandwagon.

[heavy lids]

Triskelion wrote:

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Odo was a celebrity. So they all jumped on the bandwagon.

Exactly. Everyone knows that Odo was the galaxies #1 trend-setter. He had more style than Kirk.

[Triskelion]

^

[Deckerd]

Timo will be along presently to tell you that you never saw the Founders except after they had seen Odo and the form he took for solids. Aside, of course, from the other scattered seed that Odo encountered, who looked nothing like the other changelings, who went on his merry way presumably already contaminated by Odo to die a horrible death. All of the changelings, Odo included, were capable of extremely sophisticated shapeshifting, so the excuse that he never got the hang of humans was frankly bollocks.

[TheRoyalFamily]

Deckerd wrote:

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All of the changelings, Odo included, were capable of extremely sophisticated shapeshifting, so the excuse that he never got the hang of humans was frankly bollocks.

That always bugged me. He can turn into a bird, capable of flight, which means rather complex feather patterns. Heck, his hair is more complex than his face. And he can do the double-nostril thing like the Cardassians

The only real explanation I can think of is that he practices his shape-shifting by surrounding other objects - so maybe he never just slimed anyone's face before

[Melakon]

He slimed Kira though.

[E-DUB]

I'm surprised that the changelings never, at least to our knowledge, imitated "hot chicks" to manipulate human males. Hey, I'm not saying it's right or wrong but it's a tactic that has been known to work. Right, Dr. Baltar?

[MacLeod]

Or perhaps they appear that way to make Odo feel more comfortable.

After all we do know of Changelings who appeared as O'Brien, Bashir and Martok.

[lurok]

E-DUB wrote:

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I'm surprised that the changelings never, at least to our knowledge, imitated "hot chicks" to manipulate human males. Hey, I'm not saying it's right or wrong but it's a tactic that has been known to work. Right, Dr. Baltar?

But isn't there that whole thing around Paradise Lost and there being several Changelings on Earth? For all we know one of them may well have been a 'hot chick' . Or guy. Either works for me.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

The real-life reason we had identikit Changelings? So idiot viewers could tell at a glance their species. The same reason why Romulans sprouted forehead bumps in TNG.