Question: Two questions: 1. When Odo is being tortured, he tells Garak that he wants to return to the Great Link. Did Odo really want to return or did he just say that to get the torture to stop? 2. If Odo did want to return, why? Considering the atrocities the Founders committed, wouldn't he want nothing to do with them?
Garlonuss
17th Dec 2023
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)
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Answer: Part of the answer is found in "The Search: Part II" (season 3 episode 2). The female changeling told Odo that "the urge to return home was implanted in your genetic makeup. So he hardly has a choice in that. But being a sentient, thinking being, he recognizes the atrocities that his people are behind and he can't condone their actions. So it's a matter of his conscious mind warring with his instinctual gestalt. But on a more general level, we all instinctually wish to be among people who are like us. No matter how much he may like and love those around him and feel that emotion returned, there are numerous aspects of his life and existence that absolutely nobody on DS9 can empathize with or understand. And that's not even to address the pure joy and acceptance that is brought by the Great Link.
Garlonuss ★