OMG, Karen. You can't just ask people why they're white!

Is there any explanation for why Seska's complexion isn't green?

DS9 was full of Cardassians, and none of them were white.

 

Cardassian skin is gray.

--Sran

 

Put her up against any other Cardassian in any other series.

She is white.

 

Where to begin with this?

 

I can see that. That doesn't explain why you asked about her skin not being green. Cardassian skin is gray.

--Sran

 

My apologies.

I must have caused you two personal offense by perceiving the colour on my monitor as a shade of green instead of grey...

 

Maybe we should just leave quietly. No one has to know we were here.

--Sran

 

Seska was surgically altered to appear Bajoran. The first time we saw her after her defection, she said she was "in the process of restoring [her] Cardassian physiology," and her makeup was sort of an intermediate stage between Bajoran and Cardassian appearances, with subtler ridges and pinker skin than the Cardassian norm. Apparently the "process" never got much further than that, since she retained that in-between look for the rest of her time on the series.

 

I seem to remember a few of the women were very pale in their greyness, like the reporter?

 

Backward Kazon science sucked.

Of course, Seska could have been having to take drugs (Like transsexuals need hormones daily.) to maintain his Bajoran appearance, and this wasn't a reversl but a new medium between the two species becuase she stopped taking the drugs or run out of the drugs.

Although thingys daughter who looked like Kira was supposedly a sleeper even unto herself, but a sleeper unaware of their true identity can still have some illness woven into their backstory that allows for them to think they need medication for something innocent.

But yes, the colour they settled on was disturbingly nonCardassian.

Unless Seska was naturally an albino which made the transpeciesation process easier?

 

The women were given blue highlihts in the "spoon" and on the neckbones to look more feminine since apparently there was concern that all that make up hid female features. I think -that- is what had more to do with the light application of Seska's makeup more than anything else, though Christopher did mention the in universe explanation of being in the process of restoring her anatomy.

 

I always wondered if that was spoonshadow or a naturally occurring blue.

 

The blue spoon has appeared on every Cardassian female except Seska, Ziyal, Asha and Jil Orra. I would guess that it is a secondary sex characteristic, rather than just makeup. If it were makeup some would choose not to wear it, or there would be other spoonshadow colors to choose from.

And when Kira was made to look Cardassian, I'm pretty certain she wouldn't take the time to blue herself.

I'm guessing Seska never got all the way back to Cardassian simply because Kazon medicine was primitive compared to that of the Cardassians.

 

Ziyal was only half-Cardassian, and Jil Orra was a child, so your hypothesis that it's a secondary sex characteristic has merit. It may be something that develops at puberty.

--Sran

 

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT RULZ!

 

Kazon lacked the proper medical technology for her to fully restore herself back to Cardassian. I guess skin pallor remained the altered Bajoran.

 

Except this is a universe where every member of a given species generally has the same hairstyle and fashion sense.

 

.

...why can't those four you mentioned be the outliers who choose not to wear the makeup?

 

Ziyal is kind of dorky, I could see her not wearing it. Even though she is an artist she's not artistic in her clothing or manner.

 

Two of them were children, one was half Bajoran, and one was surgically altered. Every normal, adult, 100% Cardassian woman has had the blue spoon. That's why I'm guessing it's probably natural.