Lost opportunity for Federation during the Dominion War

[DavidLeeRoth]

In one episode Odo takes the form of the Female changeling to fool a Dominion crew. If Odo was capable to taking her form and imitating her, why didn't he do that more often? He could have ordered entire fleets to stand-down. Odo didn't even need to link with her in the finale, in order to convince her to end the war. He could have just imitated her. Once she was captured, Odo could have pretended to be her and ended the war.

Also, I was wondering, why did Odo get sick from the Changeling illness last, when he was infected first?

[Xaios]

DavidLeeRoth wrote:

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In one episode Odo takes the form of the Female changeling to fool a Dominion crew. If Odo was capable to taking her form and imitating her, why didn't he do that more often? He could have ordered entire fleets to stand-down. Odo didn't even need to link with her in the finale, in order to convince her to end the war. He could have just imitated her. Once she was captured, Odo could have pretended to be her and ended the war.

It would have made a lot of sense from a logistical point of view, but I don't think it would have been in keeping with Odo's character. He seemed to be generally averse to impersonating humanoids, likely due to his general lack of ability in that regard. Even though he was able to imitate the female changeling's form better than most humanoids, he would have probably been more reluctant to do so.

There's also the small matter that changelings can sense each other. While the female changeling was the most visible, it's likely she wasn't the only one around, and that another changeling would have been able to figure out that he wasn't her.

DavidLeeRoth wrote:

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Also, I was wondering, why did Odo get sick from the Changeling illness last, when he was infected first?

The virus was specifically tailored so that Odo would act as a carrier without manifesting symptoms. Section 31 had no idea how long it would take after they infected him at Starfleet Medical before he'd finally link with the other changelings, so they knew they'd have to make the illusion last, possibly indefinitely. They couldn't afford to have the symptoms of the virus manifest before he linked, otherwise the jig would have been up. Eventually it did affect him, but that's probably based on an imperfection in the design of the virus.

[USS Firefly]

Don't Changelings have to input codes for redeploying fleets?

[Pavonis]

Do Gods need to fill out forms before expecting their worshippers to do their bidding?

[Loskene]

Pavonis wrote:

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Do Gods need to fill out forms before expecting their worshippers to do their bidding?

In triplicate, because soul crushing bureaucracy follows you farther then heaven.

[TheRoyalFamily]

Wasn't the virus linked to how often they changed shape, something about morphogenic matrices and whatnot? Odo didn't really do it too often, relative to the other Changelings; I'm assuming here that being in the liquid form counts as constantly "shapeshifting." It was only when he started shapeshifting like crazy when he was working with the Cardassian resistance that he got sick (and he deteriorated much more rapidly than the female changeling, who did the bare minimum of shapeshifting).

Also, and probably more importantly, Odo was a solid for a time after his infection. He didn't seem to get sick that much later than the rest of the link; I figure either the time he was a solid reset the clock for him, so to speak, or it just wasn't counting while he was a solid (doesn't seem to matter that much).

[InklingStar]

I figure that Odo was initially a carrier of the virus, and not susceptible himself. After he went solid and back, he was fine, until he linked with the Female Changeling during the occupation arc. Then he was infected just like everyone else.

Regarding the main topic, you would think that in an era with such good spoofing technology (fingerprints, voice patterns, images, are all easily faked) there would be multiple layers of authentication, especially for the leader of a major war power.

[Pavonis]

On the Federation side, sure, even among all the Alpha Quadrant powers you'd expect multiple layers of authentication needed. But for a polity built around the protection of shapeshifters that have conditioned their subjects to view them as Gods...no, I can't see the Founder's letting their subjects "test" them. The Vorta, maybe, might need to authenticate their identities, but the Founders themselves? They say jump, and their subjects don't even ask "How high?", they just do it.

So, yeah, it should've been possible for Odo to imitate the Female Founder indefinitely, until some conflicting orders made some Vorta start asking questions....

[Timo]

Also, and probably more importantly, Odo was a solid for a time after his infection. He didn't seem to get sick that much later than the rest of the link; I figure either the time he was a solid reset the clock for him, so to speak, or it just wasn't counting while he was a solid (doesn't seem to matter that much).

Exactly. The sentence that the Link dished out to Odo in "Broken Link" cured Odo of the disease, right after he had infected everybody in the Link. Odo then remained disease-free until staying behind in "Call to Arms" and linking with the infected Female Founder at the beginning of the next season...

Sort of simpler than making him an "immune" carrier who isn't really immune after all. And there's a good dose of irony there, in the Founders saving Odo by punishing him.

On the imitation issue, I doubt Founders really give orders to the Jem'Hadar all that often. Most Jem'Hadar won't even have seen a single Founder in their brief lives: they take their orders from the Vorta. Sure, Odo could pretend to be a Founder by demonstrating that he is a Changeling, perhaps even taking the shape of a known Founder leader, but that would be an extraordinary event, not something he could keep up for any number of times.

If Christ the Savior appeared to the fleet at D-Day and told them that it would be a good idea to turn back and wait for a week, they probably would. But if He did that again the next week, the troops would probably again listen to what Eisenhower or Montgomery had to say on the issue.

Timo Saloniemi