#bajora

I feel like we didn't go into their (former) caste system in any meaningful way, and that could have been interesting.

I also always I wanted to find at least one thing that made them biologically and mentally different from humans. Back when I was on the show, I tried to push the idea that they had a heightened sense of smell and that the things they smelled could trigger powerful memories. Like with humans but amped up to 11.

So for example, Kira could still smell faint traces of all the deaths that had happened on the station and was haunted by that. And maybe she could smell other people's adrenaline and such. And that Odo didn't smell like anything which was actually part of her attraction to him because it eliminated a lot of baggage. But I could never sell the showrunners on that one.

They really wanted to keep Bajorans as human as possible and looking back, I totally get where they were coming from.

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I can't think of anything specific, no.

(Reblog for larger sample size!)

Okay well now you've got me beyond curious

In humans, smells can strongly evoke memories. My thought was, for the Bajorans, their keen sense of smell would often evoke strong memories, both good and bad. So, for example, Kira could still smell the people who died on the station and that made it hard for her to be chill about the Occupation while being constantly reminded of it. Likewise scents of certain foods or flowers, etc, might trigger recollections of her parents or other lost family members, for better or worse.

So my thought was Bajorans tend toward nostalgia and PTSD because it's how they're wired. Because sometimes they're led by their noses.