So at the end of DS9, Odo returns to the Great Link to stay with his people and to teach them his knowledge about the solids. But I was wondering how quickly he could accomplish this. I mean when he linked he changed the female changeling's mind in less than half a minute. Seriously half a minute to change a lifetime's distrust (and possibly hatred?) of the solids? Either that virus made the female changeling more receptive to Odo's ideas or Odo is their next Messiah or something crazy like that. Then he returns to the Great Link and in a matter of minutes the link is being rapidly cured, but then so would Odo's ideas being spread around. But it would probably takes months for Odo, perhaps even longer to really convince his people of his views and to make them more accepting of solids. Plus he has a Dominion to reform and change at the same time. But what if his work was done? The question I've always asked myself (and it's probably being covered twenty times some more on this site and others) is whether Odo is permanently staying in the Great Link or is he staying until his task his done? My hunch is that he would probably leave the link for a bit, if his work was done, check on Kira (how many months or years since they last met) and then? God knows...
Good point Sandoval, but I think that applies to carbon based lifeforms and not silicon based ones...
How did the female changeling put it? "The drop becomes the ocean"? The way I see it, once Odo returned to the great link, he effectively ceased to exist as a separate entity. So he can't leave, since he no longer exist.
But don't forget that the female changeling also said 'the ocean becomes the drop'. The way I see it sentience is merged somehow, and yet it can be separated. Besides if the female changeling never had her own personality why does she refer to herself in the first person? Besides in the last episode of season 4 Odo spent a brief period of time in the great link, sure he came out of it humanoid (or mainly humanoid) but his personality did not change and it certainly was not lost.
The link is so completing for a Changeling, it's addicting. On the station we saw how he would link with the Female Changeling for days, and not notice time passed, and he became hungry for more, and didn't care what was happening outside. Nah, Odo may bring a tolerance for solids to the Great LInk, but, he's with his people now, he won't be leaving, unless it's for a very short trip for some reason.
For all we know, Odo and the remainder of the SS were made of Turtle Wax and coated with Rain-X and Scotch Guard on the outside.
In this episode it was said http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Alternate_(episode) Dax or Mora Pol said, that the new found lifeform is silicon-based, like Odo.
She also said "The ocean becomes the drop." So it is interesting. The entity "Odo" should be able to re-form itself and leave the Great Link and re-join the Great Link again as wanted/needed. However, to agree with what EyalM posted, the actual molecules, memories, knowledge and emotions that made up the Odo that we knew have been absorbed by the Great Link. The Great Link can then reproduce them and produce an "Odo" but not exactly the same one that went into the link. That's the way I interpret it. For all the good things DS9 did, they did not do a great job explaining how Changelings work. Could they change themselves into literally anything? Odo was able to turn part of himself into a Bajoran communicator that appeared on his uniform. Could he turn himself into a spare mechanical part if need be? Such a mysterious species.
I disagree. When Odo linked with the female Changeling, they didn't cease to exist as individuals and become a Tuvix-like merged entity.
Yes. What's the point of saying it? He probably is making an analogy, meaning Odo cannot be.... "waterlogged" with other changelings in their fluid state like a wood board would after being underwater for a while, because he IS a changeling already.
That is the idea that the writers have said they intend, but it makes no sense. For almost 7 years Odo was committed to justice above all else. Then in Season 7, out of the blue, Odo goes totally out- of-character and forsakes his commitment to justice for the sake of instead worshiping plot contrivance, while holding blind loyalty to Federation murderers. That happens when Odo-indefensibly-agrees with Sisko to do nothing to stop the Federation's genocide against the Founders. The ending in WYLB is an equally ludicrous extension of that ludicrous, character-bastardizing plot contrivance. As a person who holds justice above all else, Odo would rebel against the genocidal Federation, and lead the second wave of the Dominion War a short while after he goes to back to the link. He would convince himself of that, and all the Founders would support him. Odo would have no reason to have promote pro-solid propaganda to the Founders. Only a totally different character, a new Odo that bears no resemblance the Odo that was featured for 95%+ of the show's screen-time, might do that. Even if he did, they would never accept it. At most, Odo could say he met a few decent solids. But that pales in comparison to the fact that the solids are genocidal maniacs who have confirmed through the genocide disease everything that the Founders already believed about them. In other words, none of Odo's cutesy stories about a few decent individuals could ever overcome the fact that on the whole, solids are mass murderers. Ergo, the question in the OP depends on which frame of reference one wants to go with. If we are talking about the true Odo character, he would cure the Great Link in 2 minutes, spend a few months planning war strategy with them, then come through the wormhole with the full force of the Dominion and take over the AQ. If we are talking about the mindless drone Odo character, he would spend a few months in the Great Link, and then, extending the writers' absurd logic, all the Founders would magically become mindless drones too, overlook the Federation's attempt to wipe them out via genocide, and love every solid for the rest of eternity.