#Dominion Tag

[theimaginatrix27]

I've been in the Star Trek fandom spaces long enough, time to talk publicly about a thing that I am injecting into every fic where it is relevant

So if you've been paying attention to my blog the last couple months, you will know I am a huge fan of @enbygesserit 's work. They write the absolute best Dominion lore and fic I have ever had the pleasure of reading/encountering, and I eat up each new piece like my favourite confectionery.

What I am about to discuss predates any exposure I had to their work by at least thirteen years.

And the ship it surrounds was my DS9 OTP for two entire decades (before I discovered the O'Brien polycule and now my DS9 otp is a "One True Polyamorous tangle", but moving on).

That ship being Kiraodo. My heart broke when Odo confessed his love to an apparently dying Kira, she said she loved him back, and that was the clue for him to realise she was not Kira at all. And then when the Female Changeling Voice of the Link told him Kira would never love him because he was a Changeling, I was a tiny sad twelve-yo who thought, "But I love him!" And then I wanted it to be a thing.

And when I found out it was a thing in canon but they had to part ways at the end of the series, I was happy and sad at the same time.

I was a teenager, I didn't know the relationship felt awkward to some (though to be fair I still hated Children of Time and what the alternate/Gaia Odo did, but I address that in another fic so it's fine). I just wanted the sad Changeling and the fiery Bajoran to prove the mean Changeling wrong.

But also, I acknowledged to myself, even in 2009-10, that it would not be fair to Odo at all to make him leave his people again so quickly. I felt sympathetic toward the Changelings/Founders even as a teenager who had not and would not see DS9 in its entirety (curse you, cable TV! You with your reruns and exorbitant prices making it so hard for us to keep you for more than a few months at a time!) Anyways, I knew even then that I didn't want to take Odo away from his people again, even for him and Kira to be together.

So what was my solution?

Here were the canon points I considered at age nineteen (I was creating the bare bones of the Galactic Warp AU at the time and also had a strict must-adhere-to-canon policy for any fanfic ideas I'd had at the time):

The Great Link turned Odo into a solid.

The baby Changeling in The Begotten turned him back, at the cost of its life (but maybe not if it hadn't already been dying).

Therefore, it is canonically possible for a solid to become a Changeling.

What if Kira had been Changelinged?

WHY IS THAT NOT CANON?

I have this as a significant plot point in any Kiraodo content I'm going to write, so if you see Kiraodo becoming a thing in any fic, expect to see Changeling Kira show up somewhere.

"But wait!" someone yells. "You just said you didn't want to take Odo from his people, and Kira's Bajoranness is a huge part of her identity! And you're gonna just take that away from her?"

No, actually. You think the Prophets give a shit whether or not Kira's corporeal form is solid? Fuck no, they're not corporeal and time is not linear for them! The Kira is always the Kira. The Kira is always of Bajor. The Kira is always beloved of the Prophets.

This holds true in every single fic in which I have inserted this. Kira doesn't always become a Changeling full time (some of my AUs have magic), but more importantly, She never stops being Bajoran in the ways that really matter.

Which, if this had been a canon episode, would have been emphasised by the Prophets themselves and I am not taking critique on this.

"But the Founders would never do this in canon!" I hear you cry. "They hate solids and the Voice doesn't like Kira especially!"

First of all, the convoluted love triangle between Odo, Kira and the Voice was stupid.

Second of all, it doesn't even have to be them who do it, we got other more powerful entities around! Q was basically banned from DS9, sure, but what if Kira and Odo weren't on DS9?

Here's my idea for how this could have happened in canon, if the writers had really wanted to sell us the ship.

Odo and Kira have been away on a mission together (doesn't matter where, they just have to be off the station). It's sometime in Season 6, post the Dominion occupation of DS9. When the runabout returns, Odo coms the station and says he needs to give them warning about something, and they're going to have to take him at his word, however hard that may be.

"What's wrong?" Sisko asks. "And where's Major Kira?"

In response, Odo holds up his bucket. There is a Changeling in goo form inside.

"There was an—incident while we were returning from our mission. It was successful, by the way."

Sisko stares at the screen intently for a moment.

"Are you saying," he asks slowly, "that Major Kira was replaced by a Changeling?"

"No, Captain," Odo responds. "I am saying this Changeling is Major Kira."

Cue opening theme!

And possibly this would be a two-parter! I feel that with the whole theme of DS9 being nuance, and with the Dominion being such a big deal, it deserves to be!

Basically the plot would first involve a flashback to Q popping in while Kira and Odo are arguing about something Changeling-related or whatever, going "You know, I've been watching you and yours for a while now—from a safe distance of course—and frankly, I've been surprised by the lack of nuance with regard to the Founders."

And Kira's all, "Oh come on, don't you start with this high-and-mighty attitude! I read all the records about you after your last visit to Deep Space 9, you don't have any room to talk!"

"And neither do you," Q fires back. "You think your terrible acts were justified, don't you? Oh, you know they were dreadful, the fact that you could be so violent distressed you so! But when it comes down to it, you can sleep at night, because you helped drive out the Cardassians and set Bajor free. But when the Dominion imposes their order on their part of the galaxy because they used to be oppressed and were traumatised, you sit there on what moral high ground you have and pass judgment on them!"

"I don't need to hear this! Especially not from you! Sisko made you stay away from the station—from us! Now get off this runabout and leave us alone."

"Oh, you do need to hear it, Nerys. But if you insist on me leaving, let me do so on my terms. Don't worry, my little firework, I'll make sure you don't need my help undoing this." And he snaps his fingers and disappears.

And Kira's form begins to melt and she barely has time to call Odo's name before she dissolves into Changeling goo.

Back on DS9, everyone's a bit frantic after seeing the runabout footage, which confirms Odo's story. He links with her and is able to help her reform after a little time, during which we get to hear panicked Kira thoughts and some cool visuals of what the link is like for her. We get a scene after she's able to shift back into herself where Jadzia quips that she's got purple hair and Cardassian neck ridges or something, which is not amusing to her at all.

Then there's a whole discussion on how they're going to fix her before the rest of the Federation finds out, because "Are they going to believe the testimony of one rogue Changeling and the footage from a runabout computer? What if they decide Kira's a threat and take her into custody?"

And the answer is pretty obvious, especially after Julian examines a sample of her matrix and discovers traces of her dna are still in it.

They have to take her to the Great Link so she can be restored to solidity. The Founders are rather good at genetic manipulation, after all. It'll be fine!

Except they're at war, and the Voice does not like Kira, which forms the majority of the conflict, as they have to convince any Dominion forces they meet that "Seriously, we are not here to fight, please don't blow us up, we just want to help our friend, yes we mean it, don't fire!"

And in the end Kira has to pretend to be a Founder just to get the various ships to leave them alone, and it's weird as fuck for her but she makes it to the Great Link and the Voice is there and doesn't believe her at first until they link and she gets proof from her memories.

Which leads to Kira finding out about the morphogenic virus early, and being incensed, because "Look, I don't like you, but that's crossing multiple lines! I'd never have signed off on that if it were up to me, and I know Sisko wouldn't either! Doctor Bashir's brilliant—he can help you, I'm sure of it."

"Even if we did not help you right away?"

"I can wait, if I have to. I'm kind of getting used to this whole thing. It's been—an interesting experience."

And after another link to confirm that yes, she means that and it's not even in a bad way, the Voice consents to help her regain her solid status and she goes into the Great Link, gets a small taste of the Founders' collective trauma and is deeply moved by it, bursting into tears when she emerges, once more humanoid. There's a whole final scene about how she wishes more people in the Federation could have experienced what she did, and then she goes to write a log entry on the whole thing or something.

But this would absolutely change the trajectory of the war because that's how DS9 works, so it wouldn't just be handwaved away. in subsequent episodes, Julian is able to find a cure—possibly with help from within the Dominion itself because the Founders would very much like to not die and Julian is being Julian at them and they're taking a real liking to him.

And the galaxy is saved because Q did a thing! But also Kira understands Odo better after this and their relationship is all the richer for it.

*Starts chanting* It should've been canon, it should've been canon, it should've been canon, IT SHOULD'VE BEEN CANON!

[betweenlands]

i walk into the literature convention wearing a shirt that says ask me about the uniquely complex conditions of live improvisation, limitation of expression by narrative and physical constraints, meta-awareness of a specific audience, video editing/framing choices, and amateur enthusiast storytelling that contribute to virtual improv roleplay* being a fascinating nascent artform that is uniquely suited to telling stories that cannot be told in any other format and everyone cheers & claps & whoops & hollers and then they read the smaller text saying *especially within Minecraft builds, maps, servers, streams, and videos and then everyone boos & yells & shoots me with lasers and guns & blows me up with grenades & hits me with 2x4s

[mcytblrsexymen]

thanks for playing!

(an image ID is under the cut, as well as in the image description. the artists credits and their social media links are also listed under the cut - go check them out!)

hey y'all. we've been quiet a bit. that being said, we have one last thing before we get this event behind us.

this was a really special thing to be a part of. what started as a silly joke we didn't think would get very far ended up being a cultural event within the fandom. thousands of votes, participation from everyone, a thing we'll never forget. we can't express enough how exciting it was to be a part of everything. we, the mods, had a fantastic time with everything. a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience, you know?

but it wasn't us that made this what it was. it was you all.

we just want to say, from the bottoms of our hearts: thank you. thank you for all the campaigning - for a while, it was practically all we could see. thank you for all the fic - we have a canonized ao3 tag, that's wild. thank you for all the art - several fandoms were practically revitalized by this and it was beautiful to watch. thank you to the ccs who went along with the bit - it was a delight to have you playing in here with us. thank you for the stories you told with this. for the narratives you created. for alliances we would have never seen coming, for betrayals, and most of all for being here, together, doing this. thank you all so much for making this what it was.

anyway, so this art is my thanks to everyone. i commissioned a number of artists from as many different fandoms involved as i could find in hopes of capturing some of the chaotic energy of what might be some of the single most insane two weeks of my life. (and click on the piece so tumblr compression doesn't ruin it - there are SO MANY FANTASTIC DETAILS to look at!)

cheers, everyone. thanks for playing. you've made something special that i don't think we could ever create again, and it was a moment to remember.

<3, second and the sexyman mod team.

ART CREDITS:

confetti @bdoubleowo: goodtimeswithscar, technoblade, ldshadowlady, scott smajor

genesis frog @aroaceacacia: joe hills, saintstarling, itssubz, rtgame, composition, lighting/shading adjustments

siren @chronophobica: zombiecleo, grian, ranboo, tubbo

fluffy @fluffy-papaya: pixlriffs, vikingpilot, zloyxp, rythian

colten @malewifeph1lza: slimecicle, captainsparklez, jschlatt, dream, illumina

kish @kishdoodles and brynn @brynnticus: docm77, aimsey, mythicalsausage, orionsound, clownpierce, eddie the rabbit, owenjuicetv, seapeekay, ashswag, lighting/shading adjustments

td @paradoxalriven: quackity, ethoslab, stage

thank you <3

image ID: a portrayal of the mcytblr sexyman competition, as done by seven different artists, each with their own artstyle. it portrays many mcyters crowded around a stage, onto which a spotlight shines on the finalists. scar and joe are posing at each other in competition. to the right, quackity is climbing onto the stage, boosted by etho. around the stage there are a number of additional mcyters; technoblade, ldshadowlady, scott smajor, saintstarling, itssubz, rtgame, zombiecleo, grian, ranboo, tubbo, pixlriffs, vikingpilot, zloyxp, rythian, slimecicle, captainsparklez, jschlatt, dream, illumina, docm77, aimsey, mythicalsausage, orionsound, clownpierce, eddie the rabbit, owenjuicetv, seapeekay, and ashswag can all be seen cheering on contestants, talking to each other, and watching the competition. there are additional nondescript shadows around the stage in the background, implying an even larger crowd. the image also has the logo for the competition on it.

[chambers003]

oh man i’m slammed back into life series mode and i cant stop it even though i full well know it could be a scam. but it might not be. and i need to do something about it!

so i’m holding my traditional poll. i’ve held this three times, [poll 1], [poll 2] and [poll 3], with the most recent one being when we knew secret life was coming.

PLEASE ramble in the tags i LOVE hearing your thoughts and i LOVE getting weird justifications for smps i’ve never heard of. and it doesn’t have to be just smps either, someone submitted the hunger games on one of these it was great i respect it

[neunhofferart]

Does Chaos Theory take place before dominion? Is there some sort of timeline?

Yep! It takes place before Dominion. September 2022 is when our show is set.

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

WAIIIIIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT HOW DID I JUST NOW LEARN AFTER ALL THIS TIME--

Like, I've known about the religious aspect of Javert's death! Catholic theology taught that suicide was a mortal sin, meaning a sin that would send you to hell--Javert, who is described as exactingly religious (viewing religion as another authoritative structure, in contrast to Valjean's personal faith), was so distraught over the error and failure of his worldview, that he broke what he'd regarded as a sacred rule to punish himself and condemn himself to hell. I've known this! And it's agonizing!!

But then I read a YouTube comment of all things, and maybe this is an old take but it just eviscerated me:

At the time of Javert's death, suicide was a crime in France.

His last act was to break the law.

Mr. Hugo, I'd like to retire now, you're giving me too many emotions to process.

[conarcoin]

MCYT-related fandoms that should be Yuletide eligible

Yuletide is an annual holiday fic exchange for rare fandoms! Nominations are currently open, more information here. You must be 18+ to participate in Yuletide.

Bolded fandoms were nominated last year. This only names canonical fandoms, but you can also nominate fandoms that aren't canonized on AO3.

The list is long, so if you want the shorter list of ineligible fandoms, those would be: 3rd Life SMP | Last Life SMP Series, Dream SMP, Empires SMP, Hermitcraft SMP and Lifesteal SMP. Everything else is eligible.

100 Hours Hardcore SMP

30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP

Afterlife SMP

Aimsey SMP

Area Unknown SMP

Art of Survival SMP

Bear SMP

Cogchamp SMP

Color Crew (Video Blogging RPF)

Content SMP

Dominion SMP

Enderbomb (Webcomic)

Epic SMP

Evolution SMP

Fable SMP

Fairy Tail Origins (Web Series)

Fuga Impossível (Web Series)

Generation Loss (Web Series)

House Builder Gang | HBG SMP

iDots SMP

IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series)

Kaboodle SMP

Karmaland SMP

Legacy SMP

Mer SMP

Mianite (Web Series)

MindCrack RPF

Minecraft Diaries - Aphmau (Web Series)

The Misfits (Podcast)

MyStreet - Aphmau (Web Series)

My Inner Demons - Aphmau (Web Series)

New Life SMP

Ordem Paranormal (Web Series)

Origins of Olympus (Web Series)

Origins SMP

Outsiders SMP

Pirates SMP

Rats SMP

SadSMP

SDMP | Sleep Deprived SMP

Shady Oaks SMP

Showtime SMP

Siege SMP

SkyBound SMP

Sleep Deprived (Podcast)

Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series)

SMPEarth

SMPLive

SOS SMP

Stampy's Lovely World (Web Series)

Team Crafted

The Cube SMP

The Group Chat - TheGroop (Podcast)

The Haunted - RejectedShotgun (Web Series)

Tiredtwt (Video Blogging RPF)

Tortillaland SMP

Vault Hunters SMP

WHITEPINE - IvoryTV (Web Series)

WitchCraft SMP

X Life SMP

Yandere High School (Web Series)

[lunarthing159]

If I Had A Nickel For Every Time I Watched A Two-Colored Block Person With A Lore Centered Around Being Messed With By A Greater Entity, Had Voices In Their Head, And Got Possessed At Least Once I'd Have At Least 4 Nickels, Which Isn't Alot, But It's Weird It's Happened At Least Four Times

[allelitewrestlings]

[dollar-store-sparklez]

alright folks!! i have important ao3 news for fans of smaller smp series

according to this email i received from ao3 staff (nary if you see this youre mvp)

it means that if your fandom gets 10 different authors you should be added to the list to get an official fandom tag

this does NOT mean you should post filler or spam in order to hit that number as that might result in the number being raised, but it does mean you should encourage your friends to post their own fics!

this is great news bc we now have a real number and written confirmation that smp fandoms are on the list to get fandom tags even if it will likely take some time.

in conclusion: we poppin the biggest bottles in the dominion fandom tonight boys

[theimaginatrix27]

I have realised that Odo is the reason I started paying attention to Deep Space Nine

I was talking about this with @roguetelepaths on Discord, but there was enough information for me to make a proper post out of it, so here I am, doing that.

See, when I was a kid, I usually got drawn into a show by acquiring an interest in a particular character. I first became aware of Farscape because of Rygel, I started hanging around when my father was watching rented episodes of Voyager because of Captain Janeway/the Doctor/Tuvok (they're tied, I'm sorry), Teal'c drew me into Stargate: SG-1 (closely followed by Daniel).

With Deep Space Nine, this character was Odo.

Before I go on, you should understand a couple things.

My Dad had cable when I was eleven/twelve.

I did not live with him, and did not see him every weekend, so I did not always have access to this cable service.

I therefore did not have access to Star Trek series in order for a very very long time.

There was a Trek block on one of the mixed-bag sort of channels this cable service had (there were several, but this was before Australia had a dedicated Sci-fi channel). It was on Saturday evenings and had TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager, in that order, starting at 7-30. If it wasn't Saturday night, I probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay up to watch Voyager, but it was, so I was.

Unfortunately for my future self, it was smack in the middle of the time period during which my brain was tuned to Dragon Ball Z all the time unless I had to focus on something else. Also I was like, eleven. My life had been pretty complicated already so I wasn't a sweet summer child who thought nothing bad ever happened, but I was not yet equipped to properly grasp the complexities of the Trek I was exposed to, especially DS9.

I know I was present when this channel ran Move Along Home (I can still remember the Allamaraine chant, though I did not process most of the rest of that episode), and I think I at least saw an ad saying that Saturday's episode was If Wishes Were Horses, if only because Rumpelstiltskin was in that episode and that's a weird thing to have in a Sci-fi show, my little brain thought. (I had not yet been exposed to Q. That's a story for another day).

The first episode I actively remember choosing to watch was The Forsaken. Because I'd seen the ad for that, and wait, this guy turns into a liquid? Cool! I wanna see this now!

This was also the first time I ever saw Lwaxana Troi, as far as I recall, so I got one hell of a first impression of her (I liked her very well by the end). But I was here for Odo, and I zeroed in on him. And learned both about his biology and witnessed a rant that established his personhood in my mind—it is not in fact nice to treate a shapeshifting being like a source of entertainment.

By the end of the episode, I was absolutely ride or die for this character. And he's the reason I started paying attention to DS9.

The only other episode I clearly remember watching during this period was Heart of Stone, because it was another Odo-centric episode I was fortunate to be present for, and this first experience of that episode had me absolutely shipping Kiraodo (I have discussed that before in my Kiraodo post), but before that, there was the reveal of where Odo got his name, and that absolutely pulled at my little twelve-year-old heartstrings, which is why I absolutely wanted his love for Kira to be reciprocated, because are you kidding? He just said his name meant "unknown sample"/"nothing", I was so wanting to hug him after that, and then he confessed love for this other character, and I love him, please let Kira love him too... (Also this was my first encounter with the Voice of the Link/the Female Founder, owing to how many episodes I'd missed due to extenuating circumstances beyond my control, and I wanted the mean Changeling to be proved wrong.)

So those two episodes informed my view of Odo for the next several years and beyond, and for a while there, he was hands-down my favourite character on DS9.

Over the next few years, however, my Odo love dropped to a simmer in the back of my mind because I had zero access to any Trek owing to moving away from my Dad and our subsequent permanent estrangement (long story, don't wanna get into it, it's ... there's a lot of underlying stuff irrelevant to this post). Eventually, Mum was able to get cable for us, a few months at a time, and that cable service had a Sci-fi channel now, and I had a connection in my bedroom, and could watch Star Trek without having to ask to use the family TV, and I got back into the Trek series I'd watched parts of with Dad, but grew to like them on my own terms, for my own reasons.

And at some point, I got to watch The Begotten (before Broken Link because I was at the mercy of reruns and also life made me miss episodes frequently).

And I already loved Odo thanks to the above experiences, but watching him with a baby of his own species (before Mora showed up) was so heartwarming, even if he was sad about being a solid at the time. And then the baby sacrificed itself to give him his powers back, and Oh no there went my heart again. And this basically cemented my love for Odo and his storyline and his people (even the ones that were mean to him sometimes).

I love the whole cast now, I was falling in love with the other characters when I watched The Begotten, but Odo is the reason I even started watching the show, and I have him to thank for my deep abiding love for it today.

And in light of this, it's no surprise I jumped onto the Dominion Fan train so fast. Odo needs a hug, I've always known this, but the more I learned about the Dominion races the more I realised they all did/do.

I can't undo the bad writing choices the showrunners made, or those other fanfiction authors have made, but I sure as hell can be niceys to them in my own stories.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to do something about my Dominion Week backlog. Dx

[roetrolls]

harlan's woodshed wednesday 🧍

[spiderh0rse]

Very haphazard dominion vikingpilot sketch. Not sure if this is what he'll always look like when I draw him, but I do like this! Just needs some fine-tuning.

[heckcareoxytwit]

Phoenix Jean Grey rises to fight Dominion (a.k.a Enigma or AI Sinister) in the dimension and save the future of mutantkind.

Rise of the Powers of X #5, 2024

[mogspawner]

idk if you guys remember me but I was that artist— I lost my old account and it’s probably for the better !! i was that scarce dominion artist, reposting here!!

[crimson-roots]

my turn with the png images !!