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I was watching the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, "The Alternate", wherein Doctor Mora and Odo were reminiscing about when Odo was a young blob, and Odo said something about seeing (first sentient life I think).

Dr Mora corrected him saying that he didn't have eyes at the time so he couldn't "see".

But that got me thinking that it was a sort of odd comment because of course he doesn't have eyes now either, or does he? I understood he just shapeshifted to look like he has eyes... Dr Mora even commented on his inaccurate ears... it seems hard to believe he couldn't get the basic shape of ears right but could manage the fine intricacies of a visual system...

Does he have eyes? If not, how can he see? Or what changed about him that he can see now when he couldn't as a nipper?

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    When the USS Odyssey explodes he covers his eyes; youtu.be/fm7pPzYbNwY?t=151 – Valorum 11 hours ago
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    It's possible the material he's made of is generally sensitive to light similar to the regions of photosensitive cells seen in the simplest stages of eye evolution, but to see focused images he needs to form lenses and some pupil-like hole in front of them (similar to a pinhole camera) just like in the evolution of more advanced eyes. But maybe he wouldn't need to form a specialized retina or optic nerve if information-processing and light sensitivity is distributed through all parts of him, including where the retina would be. – Hypnosifl 11 hours ago
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    In one of the books focusing on him, it's stated that maintaining eyes equivalent to humanity takes effort, so when resting in good form, he tends to form much more primitive organs that only take in shades of light and darkness if he wants to see what's going on in his room. – FuzzyBoots 11 hours ago
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I've seen every episode of DS9, and I'm pretty sure Odo's mechanism of vision was never clarified within the series itself. Having done a quick web search, I was also unable to find any clarification from alternate sources, only guesses and speculation.

So unless there's something I've overlooked, there appears to be no canonical answer to this question.

So far as speculation goes, he may in fact be capable of replicating the functions of real, humanoid eyes; it's likely that other Changelings can at least, since they could apparently imitate humanoids so accurately that the deception could not be uncovered by sensors (DS9: "The Adversary"). Odo mentioned that he had no sense of smell (DS9: "If Wishes Were Horses") or taste (DS9: "Meridian"), but perhaps he invested more time and effort into perfecting the functionality of humanoid eyes, since sight is more important to the life he leads than those other senses.

It also seems likely that Changelings have some unknown means of perceiving at least some aspects of their environment even when they're not in humanoid form. Changelings have been shown to navigate through ducts in liquid form on a few occasions, and Laas could navigate through space while taking the form of an organic vessel of some sort. Laas could also apparently hear and respond to his name being spoken by Odo while taking the form of a blanket of fog on the DS9 Promenade (DS9: "Chimera"). The fact that an infant Odo couldn't see while in liquid form could be attributed to his fledgling stage of development.

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