Iirc the rest of his group were called the grand communion of something, and they had trained and practiced shapeshifting for many years through their lives (centuries iirc) so they find it incredibly easy to adopt any form they choose, and they choose humanoid when interacting with lesser advanced humanoid forms.
Poor Odo is essentially a lost child that was raised by wolves (the DS9 community) and as such he’s a noob shapeshifter.
Have to watch DS9 again but remember the scenes where he encounters his abuser facading as his family as being particularly brutal and being annoyed he was put in that situation to begin with. Like the crew of DS9 didn’t recognise any issue until he’d involuntarily shapeshifted into a monster
By choice. Maybe they choose it to comfort Odo, or maybe because other humanoids recognize them as like Odo (the only shapeshifter they’d known before).
I could be wrong, but I also thought it was a conservation of energy thing. Like it took energy to hold humanoid form, so he just did the low-poly version for day-to-day stuff. Maybe I’m mis-remembering.
Iirc the rest of his group were called the grand communion of something, and they had trained and practiced shapeshifting for many years through their lives (centuries iirc) so they find it incredibly easy to adopt any form they choose, and they choose humanoid when interacting with lesser advanced humanoid forms.
Poor Odo is essentially a lost child that was raised by wolves (the DS9 community) and as such he’s a noob shapeshifter.
Even before he was on DS9, he was treated as a specimen by a scientist who would electrocute him for “science”.
Have to watch DS9 again but remember the scenes where he encounters his abuser facading as his family as being particularly brutal and being annoyed he was put in that situation to begin with. Like the crew of DS9 didn’t recognise any issue until he’d involuntarily shapeshifted into a monster
He does eventually learn to take the human form perfectly when he’s stranded on that planet for 200 years.
Yeah, but then why are the practiced shapeshifters also looking like shit when they turn human?
Maybe because they think humans are shit and it makes them feel filthy to look like that?
That would definitely be on brand for them
By choice. Maybe they choose it to comfort Odo, or maybe because other humanoids recognize them as like Odo (the only shapeshifter they’d known before).
I could be wrong, but I also thought it was a conservation of energy thing. Like it took energy to hold humanoid form, so he just did the low-poly version for day-to-day stuff. Maybe I’m mis-remembering.