Do you think there was anything Feds could do to prevent the Dominion War?
- Thread starter Photon
- Start date
By heart of stone, there were enough indications that the Founders would use covert methods to manipulate the Federation. So outside of outright surrender, no.
They could have stopped sending ships to the Gamma Quadrant and/or collapsed the wormhole once it became obvious they were encroaching on someone else's territory.
yup, I looked at this guy in a new light after the series ended http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tahna_Los too bad for the alpha quadrant he wasn't able to collapse the wormhole in that episode.
With the wormhole gone, the Founders would still be inclined to turn all Solids into dust - but if they reached our corner of space a century later, they wouldn't stand a chance, considering the rate at which UFP weapons tech seems to be evolving and the apparent stagnation of the Dominion.
Then again, such stagnation suggests the Dominion hasn't been expanding much, or else it wouldn't be known for its stability. Perhaps the Founders would never come for us without the wormhole, and we'd have to go to them, this by default making them the underdogs?
Or was this Pax Dominia (two or perhaps ten millennia, depending on which Weyoun's propagandist speech you listen to) just another Pax Romana, with constant brutal warfare at the borders, and slight expansionist aspirations, even though the central areas enjoy stability?
Timo Saloniemi
Then again, such stagnation suggests the Dominion hasn't been expanding much, or else it wouldn't be known for its stability. Perhaps the Founders would never come for us without the wormhole, and we'd have to go to them, this by default making them the underdogs?
Or was this Pax Dominia (two or perhaps ten millennia, depending on which Weyoun's propagandist speech you listen to) just another Pax Romana, with constant brutal warfare at the borders, and slight expansionist aspirations, even though the central areas enjoy stability?
Timo Saloniemi
After looking back over the final scenes of The Search II, I'm entirely certain that if the Founders could not subvert the Federation from within, they would choose war. War was unavoidable.
Weyoun makes multiple references to stability and lack of credible enemies. Those are synonyms for stagnation in the weapons race sense, and would spell disaster against the Federation, which was constantly fighting its betters, and subsequently evolving, adopting Borg tech and whatnot, at an alarming pace.
In contrast, we never hear of the Dominion having gone to war. The Jem'Hadar only do police work, and some in Gamma consider even them, rather than just the Founders, to be mere legend.
Timo Saloniemi
Better first contact with the Cardassians, establishing a peaceful long-lasting alliance.
Their weapons and ships technology might be slightly more advanced than the Federation's but probably not by that much, certainly not by more than a century at the very most (even during the Dominion war we see the Federation improving their defenses to their weapons very quickly - the main edge they still had at the end of the Dominion War was the speed at which they could build ships and breed Jem'Hadar). On the other hand, the dominion has existed either 2000 or 10.000 years according to Weyoun quotes, so if either one of those is actually true, they haven't progressed very quickly during that time.
By The Search, the only thing they could have done is mine the wormhole before they had enough ships to establish an AQ base.
Even if they stopped encroaching on their territory it was too late, the Founders thought any solid they did not control is a genocide threat.
Even if they stopped encroaching on their territory it was too late, the Founders thought any solid they did not control is a genocide threat.
It was unavoidable because the writing said it was; it's amazing what a mess that war was and if things got really bad, Sisko can pull a get out jail free card and hop into the Wormhole and ask his God wannabe's to grant his wish to make the Dominion disappear.
And if it were avoidable , it would have been because of the writing.
A war is a mess? Go figure...
Complaints about <insert scifi war here> being exactly like <insert Earth war here> may have some validity to them, but at least the bit where a war is automatically a clusterfuck where the winners just fuck it up a bit less than the losers ought to ring true for every such pairing.
Timo Saloniemi
Complaints about <insert scifi war here> being exactly like <insert Earth war here> may have some validity to them, but at least the bit where a war is automatically a clusterfuck where the winners just fuck it up a bit less than the losers ought to ring true for every such pairing.
Timo Saloniemi
War was unavoidable. The first batch of Jem'Hadar the crew encountered mentioned how eager they were to fight the Klingons and see a bat'leth in action. That tells you the Founders were aware of both the Klingons and the Federation before their debut in "The Jem'Hadar" in season 2. The major Alpha quadrant super powers were marked for conquest before the ever making first contact with the Dominion.
The discovery of the wormhole expedited the process of the Dominion's plans.
Now, if you want to pose the question whether there was anything the Fed could've done to win the war faster against the Dominion. Sure. They had options the didn't use in the show.
The discovery of the wormhole expedited the process of the Dominion's plans.
Now, if you want to pose the question whether there was anything the Fed could've done to win the war faster against the Dominion. Sure. They had options the didn't use in the show.
The Federation could have collapsed the wormhole if they really wanted. No wormhole = no war.
After that, even if there were Founder spies loose in the Federation who succeeded in doing a horrific amount of damage through subterfuge, it still wouldn't equal what the war did.
Yes, the Founders would still have it in for the solids and they'd probably take the slow path to invade a century later. But regardless of who was more advanced by then, or who was stagnating, or who finally won: That wouldn't really count as the same war .
Let's not forget what Sisko pulled in Sacrifice of Angels; when things got bad he could just go to his God friends and wish them away. He could've done this before the Dominion War started, by season 5 Sisko fully accepted his role as the Emissary after "Ascension".
Sisko wished away the entire Dominion? I'm pretty sure that never happened, since he only pleaded with the prophets to stop a single fleet and even that they only agreed to because he browbeat them into understanding that Bajor was in serious physical danger that only they could stop. Ninety percent of the time the Prophets didn't give a damn about anything in the physical world. Even when they did, they usually contented themselves with just giving cryptic advice because they only care enough to actually act when their own existence is on the line, either directly or through an existential threat to Bajor (since they are 'of Bajor').
Nothing that happened prior to SoA was actually big enough to make the prophets get off their asses and move against the Dominion.
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