neither the mirror universe RPGbook, nor what we see of them in Rise like lions supports this... but opinioins? The changelings being a pacifistic people who defend their member worlds from either a resurgent Terran empire, or the klingon cardassian alliance thoughts?
Uh, no. In effect the Mirror Dominion is the same as the Prime Dominion. I keep wondering where the idea - that every member of the mirror universe is on the opposite moral side as his/her Prime twin - is coming from.
I think the better understanding is that people in the MU are opportunistic more than idealistic (or maybe ideological).
The Mirror universe does not exist in terms of morality as traditionally understood. At least the Terran Empire doesn't. It's all about spheres of influence and personal benefit. And it may be personal benefit in terms of an individual, or in terms of an individual and their family, or themselves and their friends, or all paradoxically at the same time depending on the mood and situation. It's always looking out for themselves, though. Morality does not have a place, because it's an artificial definition anyway, and isn't one they use. It's basically the Mafia, plus a moral existential problem. Of course, that's a hindsight explanation for a 1960s one-off that was meant to be fun space pirates, with no idea the series would last 50 years rather than maybe 5.
The Mirror Universe stopped having any plausibility for me when Vic became a real person. In Enterprise and TOS, it could have been an alternate universe where political and social forces drove people toward nastiness. In Ds9, however, the mirror universe became a fantasy playground, as though Holosuites were not enough.
My problem was more with DS9's Mirror Universe basically saying democracy failed. The narrative set up in TOS was being the change you wished to see, and making things good...and DS9's narrative was that that change and good only destroyed the Terran Empire.
Some possibilities: - Mirror Vic may be an android - It might actually be Felix, the designer of the program, and not Vic. IIRC, he was only referred to by his last name... As for the MU Dominion, I think it only appeared in a cliffhanger scene in a novel (with counterparts of Eris and Taran'atar). They appeared to act exactly the same as their regular universe counterparts.
Why would the MU Dominion be pacifistic? The "evil" humans were shown to be the only ones any different than their regular universe counterparts. All the other aliens (Vulcans, Klingons, Cardassians, Bajorans, Trill, etc.) were only changed by the direct or indirect actions of the Terran Empire. They would have been exactly the same as the regular universe despite that. No reason to think the Dominion would be any different.
I'll just say that given how OTT the MU is in general, having Vic, or at least the actor who plays him, show up in any capacity was hilarious to me. You've already got an increasingly improbable concept (do we really think so many of the people we know from the Primeverse would actually be there?), might as well go for broke. I don't know about a pacifistic Dominion, but one where the Founders opted for optimism rather than pessimism could make for an interesting take I think.
In fairness, having the Mirror Universe mirror things was its original point. It was a fairly simple Upsidedownland concept that worked best as a one-shot whose mechanics you didn't have to think about too much, kind of a shame that they pushed it beyond that.
^ That's exactly what I just tried to do. Either MU "Vic" is an android, or he's somebody other than Vic. Nobody actually *called* him Vic, did they?
Arguably similar to the Great Klingon Appearance Change, sometimes things are better left unexplained.
It took a real life Vic Fontaine to make you find the MU implausible? The MU was meant to be campy tongue in cheek fun. Vic Fontaine is just an extension of that. But I don't get how you could believe that the exact same people with the exact same genes could somehow be born in two completely different universes almost without fail, but you couldn't believe that a hologram in one universe could be a real person in another. Who knows, maybe MU Vic Fontaine was the real Vic Fontaine who fell through a time portal. I think Enterprise got MU right when they realized it was Game of Thrones in space. It must have been written by the Enterprise writers from the other universe. Because it follows that in the mirror universe, the writers of Enterprise have a perfect understanding of what makes Star Trek entertaining. Hmm...Game of Thrones in space. Syfy channel, get on it.
And look at the way he acted, running around with dual Buck Rogers-style pistols. I bet James Darren had a shitload of fun doing that scene.