One of the reasons Odo is like one of the best characters to ever do it is because the writers were like, "He was raised in a lab, he doesn't know who he is, he's in love with his best friend but she doesn't know it, he's reclusive and blunt and has the most extreme daddy issues imaginable, he's got all the angst and he still manages to be a sarcastic bastard" and today, writers would make that character some conventionally attractive, gloomy bad boy who's either eighteen or twenty-something but the DS9 writers slapped on, "And he's played by a middle aged man" and that - THAT the's secret, right there.
What’s extra wild is that he’s actually not that old when he first takes that form.
I should probably have made this an original post but eh I’m here now—
There’s something in I wanna say the Writer’s Bible on Odo that says he would take the shape of a younger man if he could, and I know it’s from the writing room, but I disagree. I understand that changeling better than you I guess, sorry.
Odo was constantly infantilized by Dr. Mora to strip him of any agency. Yes, he copied Dr. Mora’s form, but looking like an adult means he has a better chance of being treated like an adult— a being worthy of having agency in their life. Of course Odo likes looking middle-aged— he looks mature, worthy of respect and agency, experienced and therefore more intimidating, and is less likely to be lusted after. He would not prefer to take the shape of a younger man. Be so serious
One thing I find so so so fascinating and endearing AND tragic about Odo is the fact that in many ways, he is still a child in changeling years - which makes Rene Auberjonois's casting even better to me because it makes him extra alien and complex.
Odo presents himself as this commanding, experienced man but when he's confronted by intense emotions that a child should likely not have to feel (yearning, deep trauma, lonliness), he almost always completely shuts down. He was basically groomed into fascism at an early age so when we hit the arc where Gul Dukat takes over DS9, of COURSE he reverts easily back into that complacency when the Founder manipulates him. Of COURSE he likes kids and takes a great interest in their growth. In so many ways, he is a kid.
Kids like to appear older than they are, especially if they've been through intense trauma and abuse and that is Odo.
