So, Odo changes his mass when shape shifting?

[Anwar]

Changlings can get around the blood test: They just contain some actual blood from another lifeform in their body and release it when they want to show they're "solid".

Of course, you can check the blood but there is the off-chance it is the impersonated person's actual blood (they took some for use, or just killed the poor guy).

 

[Timo]

Or then Changelings can separate into many pieces. We have no reason to think that Odo would understand the first thing about being a Changeling, as he is but an ignorant infant; something of a retard, too, considering that Laas of similar age had definitely mastered the art of falling into pieces.

As for blood screening, it was chosen as a Changeling-detecting method specifically because it didn't work. That's why a Changeling proposed it!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sandoval]

It's more or less a given that Odo has some secret pocket into which he can shove things such as extra mass.

Timo Saloniemi

I have one of those pockets in my jacket where I shove such extra mass as coins, chewing gum and other assorted trinkets.

Sando Sandoniemi

 

[WarpCore]

Or then Changelings can separate into many pieces. We have no reason to think that Odo would understand the first thing about being a Changeling, as he is but an ignorant infant; something of a retard, too, considering that Laas of similar age had definitely mastered the art of falling into pieces.

As for blood screening, it was chosen as a Changeling-detecting method specifically because it didn't work. That's why a Changeling proposed it!

Timo Saloniemi

Thanks. I never saw that episode as yet another Founder test of Odo. I'll have to watch for that next time I watch the episodes. With the Klingons, SF, and probably everyone else doing it for multiple seasons (even after Joseph Sisko's logic), I always just went along with the blood screenings and never gave it a second thought.

 

[Timo]

Yes, the funny thing is that Starfleet never did, too...

Then again, they didn't really stop looking for better ways to expose Founders. The phaser work done with Odo's help in "Homefront" had better odds of working, as it at least wasn't being actively undermined by "Alpha Quadrant leaders or experts" who actually were Founders.

I guess the blood test thing had gone out of vogue long before "Homefront", but Leyton resurrected it because it was such a nice way to spread paranoia. He himself knew how to fake the results - an excellent way to frame Sisko in "Paradise Lost" - so he must have known the test wasn't worth zip.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Anwar]

The very first time we ever saw them use the blood test, the guy doing it was a changling himself. So the Founders came up with the idea, obviously it was never going to work.

 

[Sean_McCormick]

Problem is, it did in "The Adversary".

 

[Timo]

How so? It served to put a non-Changeling under arrest, and failed to reveal the real culprit.

True, this was achieved through classic illusionist dexterity (switched vials), rather than through the Changeling doing something we previously believed Changelings to be incapable of. But that's even better from the Founder viewpoint, as the heroes survived to tell the tale of the trick "Bashir" pulled on them, and thus spread the misconception... Certainly "Bashir" would have been motivated in that situation to make its detached bit start going all amber-gooey, even if this weren't a biological necessity, as this is how it could frame Eddington.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Paradon]

Perhaps they weren't originally from this universe like species 8472 that also can change into human but with the help of techonologies. That's why Lol was able to survive in space.

 

[Anwar]

No, they said that they used to be Solids but eventually evolved into Changlings. I think they were one of the first species to arise from the Progenitors' genetic seedings of the Galaxy, which is why the Female Changling is played by the same actress as the Female Progenitor.

 

[tighr]

We have no reason to think that Odo would understand the first thing about being a Changeling, as he is but an ignorant infant; something of a retard, too, considering that Laas of similar age had definitely mastered the art of falling into pieces.

Laas was over 200 years old. Odo was probably in his 30s. If they were sent out into the galaxy at the same time, Odo must have been in stasis for the first 170 years of his life, because he has no recollection of that time. Laas even says that Odo is a lot like he was in his younger days, so Odo's sensibilities must be typical of 30-something year old Changelings.

The female Changeling also stated that she didn't expect Odo to return to the Gamma Quadrant for another 300 years. So by that metric, he is extremely young.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

I still personally prefer the idea that Odo exists partially or wholly in some other realm, and can take commbadges and possibly even people with him into that realm.

Timo Saloniemi

In the Animorphs series of kids' books, where kids morph into various animals, they have the pseudoscience explanation that the unused mass is extruded into another dimension during the morph. (But in that series, that was part of the reason why you'd get stuck in morph if you exceeded 2 hours.)

This is all very interesting. Somehow, I had never thought about the "loss" of mass during shape-shifting.

If that other dimension is inhabited, I wonder how the residents feel about having unknown masses mysteriously intruding into their world and then -just as mysteriously- disappearing. Maybe some of our UFO sightings are actually someone shifting some mass temporarily into our own dimension!

 

[Timo]

Remember the trick Nog played on Jake with Odo's bucket and some porridge, in "The Storyteller"? Supposedly, Odo in his resting form would be light enough to be lifted by somebody like Nog... Meaning that he spends a big part of his life with most of his mass in this "otherspace"!

For all we know, this other dimension indeed is inhabited - by the Changeling species. The Link might be on the other side, too, and all that would remain in our universe during Linking (or during demanding shapeshifting moments, or when a child does it) is this nearly massless amber goo that merely serves as some sort of a "reality anchor" and doesn't much represent the Changeling lifeform.

Laas was over 200 years old. Odo was probably in his 30s. If they were sent out into the galaxy at the same time, Odo must have been in stasis for the first 170 years of his life, because he has no recollection of that time.

Yup, I goofed on that. Apparently, time spent inactive or in a bucket won't count on a Changeling's education and thus on his "skill age" - yet soon after infancy, a Changeling learns to remain active for a greater percentage of time than Odo does, and will quickly gain an advantage in skill and experience.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sean_McCormick]

How so? It served to put a non-Changeling under arrest, and failed to reveal the real culprit.

True, this was achieved through classic illusionist dexterity (switched vials), rather than through the Changeling doing something we previously believed Changelings to be incapable of. But that's even better from the Founder viewpoint, as the heroes survived to tell the tale of the trick "Bashir" pulled on them, and thus spread the misconception... Certainly "Bashir" would have been motivated in that situation to make its detached bit start going all amber-gooey, even if this weren't a biological necessity, as this is how it could frame Eddington.

Timo Saloniemi

You are right. It' has been some time since i saw the episode and in my head i mixed the blood testing scene with the energetic resonance bla scene that revealed the ambassador to be the changeling.