Having viewed this series multiple times (not every single episode mind you, the oatmeal face people, bleh, that Game episode thing, meh) but having no favorite main cast, I simply don't see Kira in love with Odo. Like ever. That kiss on the promenade was more cringeworthy than that episode where Kira and Bashir are all over each other, which seemed much more natural.
DS9 also isn't having another passionate romance onscreen like Jadzia and Worf, a bickering Keiko and compliant Miles, a normal everyday romance like Sisko and Kasidy. This is something different.
I simply see a woman that decides to go for the greater good and acquiesce to Odo's bumbling overtures when he finally goes and makes them. Why? Simple. If the Federation lost, he could singlehandedly make or break Bajor no matter how much he repudiates his own people and that he is a loose cannon without her guidance. The changelings still recognized him as one of them and made no effort to repunish him after he regained his changeling body (5x12).
She experienced this just earlier in the season with the Station occupation where she got her wishes to become reality through him 6x01 where he got Bajoran security back onto the station via Weyoun. But he also eventually also became distant under the sway of the Female changling and her charms. He eventually redeemed himself in his belated role taking back the station but I think it unlocked another piece of the puzzle that she needed an avenue to control him.
But that instance wasn't the linchpin of her decision, that happened earlier, in the Children of Time (5x22) episode. The crux of the differences in character was that Kira was willing to sacrifice herself for people she barely knew for a few weeks while Odo did the exact opposite. His older self willingly sacrifice a community and people he knew for over 200 years just for his old obsession with Kira. Whether or not this was right is besides the point, it's a big difference in values the two hold. Kira was thoroughly appalled at this and why earlier she barely wanted to acknowledge his feelings at that point knowing what he was capable of.
While Wrongs Darker than Death or Night (6x17) about Kira's mother Meru being Dukat's mistress was pretty terrible and opened up too many plot holes, related to timeline, for me personally, it served as a prelude to Kira's own upcoming situation. Whether the orb was showing truth or perhaps merely a hallucinatory anxiety over Dukat's so-called reveal and Odo's less than spotless past like in Thing's Past (5x08), it did fully juxtapose fully with her upcoming reluctant position of Mistress to the powers that be. And contrasted vs how her mother benefited and came to enjoy it because of a few personal comforts much to Kira's dismay.
Whether this is to compares and contrasts to how her Mirror-verse was playing perhaps a similar but much more hedonistic role, it's impossible to say. Too much snippets there, not enough complete picture. But it shows no matter the universe Kira always seems to be romantically tied up in power one way or another to get things to go her way and normal-verse Kira has that track record too, although I think her feelings were more genuine in the previous two relationships they showed.
It's also why she let go of Odo so easily at the end. None of this is to say she doesn't care for Odo or hates him, but from her side the relationship was much more pragmatic rather than from the heart. She may have even loved him, but I don't buy for a second that she was in love with him.
IIRC, Nana Visitor said she didn't like the way the Kira/Odo relationship was written, as she seen it only as a brother/sister type thing or words to that effect, but she read it correctly from Kira's eyes without realizing why Kira went that route had nothing to do with love.
DS9 also isn't having another passionate romance onscreen like Jadzia and Worf, a bickering Keiko and compliant Miles, a normal everyday romance like Sisko and Kasidy. This is something different.
I simply see a woman that decides to go for the greater good and acquiesce to Odo's bumbling overtures when he finally goes and makes them. Why? Simple. If the Federation lost, he could singlehandedly make or break Bajor no matter how much he repudiates his own people and that he is a loose cannon without her guidance. The changelings still recognized him as one of them and made no effort to repunish him after he regained his changeling body (5x12).
She experienced this just earlier in the season with the Station occupation where she got her wishes to become reality through him 6x01 where he got Bajoran security back onto the station via Weyoun. But he also eventually also became distant under the sway of the Female changling and her charms. He eventually redeemed himself in his belated role taking back the station but I think it unlocked another piece of the puzzle that she needed an avenue to control him.
But that instance wasn't the linchpin of her decision, that happened earlier, in the Children of Time (5x22) episode. The crux of the differences in character was that Kira was willing to sacrifice herself for people she barely knew for a few weeks while Odo did the exact opposite. His older self willingly sacrifice a community and people he knew for over 200 years just for his old obsession with Kira. Whether or not this was right is besides the point, it's a big difference in values the two hold. Kira was thoroughly appalled at this and why earlier she barely wanted to acknowledge his feelings at that point knowing what he was capable of.
While Wrongs Darker than Death or Night (6x17) about Kira's mother Meru being Dukat's mistress was pretty terrible and opened up too many plot holes, related to timeline, for me personally, it served as a prelude to Kira's own upcoming situation. Whether the orb was showing truth or perhaps merely a hallucinatory anxiety over Dukat's so-called reveal and Odo's less than spotless past like in Thing's Past (5x08), it did fully juxtapose fully with her upcoming reluctant position of Mistress to the powers that be. And contrasted vs how her mother benefited and came to enjoy it because of a few personal comforts much to Kira's dismay.
Whether this is to compares and contrasts to how her Mirror-verse was playing perhaps a similar but much more hedonistic role, it's impossible to say. Too much snippets there, not enough complete picture. But it shows no matter the universe Kira always seems to be romantically tied up in power one way or another to get things to go her way and normal-verse Kira has that track record too, although I think her feelings were more genuine in the previous two relationships they showed.
It's also why she let go of Odo so easily at the end. None of this is to say she doesn't care for Odo or hates him, but from her side the relationship was much more pragmatic rather than from the heart. She may have even loved him, but I don't buy for a second that she was in love with him.
IIRC, Nana Visitor said she didn't like the way the Kira/Odo relationship was written, as she seen it only as a brother/sister type thing or words to that effect, but she read it correctly from Kira's eyes without realizing why Kira went that route had nothing to do with love.
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