Started manifesting itself in Odo RIGHT after Bashir found out Odo was infected?...
Wasn't is kinda wierd that the S31-created disease....
- Thread starter Mike Have-Not
- Start date
Yup. A bit forced, but at least the writers made the characters explicitly wonder about that.
Then again, S31 might have customized the disease so that it would only manifest long after Odo Linked with another Founder, thus giving it maximum chances of spreading. Odo could have been engineered to be a Typhoid Mary, spreading the disease efficiently because he did not have the symptoms himself at first.
The other explanation would be that the symptoms were psychosomatically triggered: Odo only got them after finding out that he should get them.
Timo Saloniemi
Then again, S31 might have customized the disease so that it would only manifest long after Odo Linked with another Founder, thus giving it maximum chances of spreading. Odo could have been engineered to be a Typhoid Mary, spreading the disease efficiently because he did not have the symptoms himself at first.
The other explanation would be that the symptoms were psychosomatically triggered: Odo only got them after finding out that he should get them.
Timo Saloniemi
Photon?
As Bashir warned Odo, constantly shapeshiftin' would excelerate the disease, and Odo shapeshifted a lot while workin' with Kira & Damar's resistance against the Dominion.
As pointed out in 'Chimera', once Odo & Kira started to date regularly, he didn't spend much time in his quarters, so its possible that aside from goin' from liquid to humanoid forms, he wasn't alterin' his shape while the disease incubated in him.
And don't forget, Odo was in human form for awhile, after bein' infected by Section 31.
And before that, he had been infected by the Great Link to force his return.
So, there was quite a bit goin' on before Odo started showin' symptoms of 31's disease.
That is interesting because the link existed almost entirely in its liquid form without shape shifting, the disease still progressed to the point of near death.
It was a killer, all right. The Great Link was looky pretty sick in WYLB.
^ Right, every dead Changeling has turned to a dark color and granular form at death, the same color as the link in WYLB.
I like the idea that Section 31 never gets stuff wrong. If they lose, they lose because they want to lose, because it's beneficial to their long game. They wanted to infect the entire Link before Odo started showing, and they wanted the cure to fall into Odo's hands, and they wanted him to trade it for peace, but they had to make it believable.
It's all rather elegant.
I just wonder if Sloan was sacrificed by his superiors or he volunteered to be sacrificed to save the day, or he only tricked them into thinking he was dead because Sloan's a marvelous bastard.
It's all rather elegant.
I just wonder if Sloan was sacrificed by his superiors or he volunteered to be sacrificed to save the day, or he only tricked them into thinking he was dead because Sloan's a marvelous bastard.
That bears repeating.
Why make them simple ill, when that would nake anyone more ill-tempered and deadly. The only purpose worth pursuing is to kill and Odo was certainly nearly dead whem they found the cure. This was no low grade fever. Me thinks.
Though I do see a counter espionage benefit to rendering them unable to shape shift. Good point. If I had my druthers I'd want to render them unable to command the Dominion.
3D Master
Rear Admiral
No, if they can't shape shift, they're either solid and will die, or are liquid and remain liquid. If they're liquid, they can't order the Dominion around, you effectively cut off its head, without killing anyone. Beating the Dominion after that, makes much easier, especially seeing as Jem'Hadar are so focused on the Founders being gods. What are they going to do then? You effectively beat the Dominion with minimal casualties on all sides. It's actually something that I would do and use. A non-lethal solution, and yet a full victory.
Okay. But I still side with the Founders own opinion of the diseases effect on them, and that was, that it was killing them and that there wasn't a thing they could do about it.
Agreed from S31's viewpoint as well. Even if frozen solid or liquid in some nonlethal manner, the Founders would have some means to convey their will to their closest lackeys, who could then easily go on pretending that their gods were all right. But if the Founders died for good, those lackeys would have much harder time trying to keep up the pretense, coming up with suitable orders and decrees by themselves, and the odds of the Dominion collapsing would be all the greater.
Just out of curiosity, would a merely "solid-frozen" Founder really be in danger of dying? Odo was probably about to die when the Romulan torture device was applied in "The Die is Cast", but then again, he's only an inexperienced child - perhaps he was exaggerating the effects he felt. And it was possible for Odo to assume a completely solid form for an extended period of time when the Link gave him a little boost in "Broken Link".
Timo Saloniemi
Just out of curiosity, would a merely "solid-frozen" Founder really be in danger of dying? Odo was probably about to die when the Romulan torture device was applied in "The Die is Cast", but then again, he's only an inexperienced child - perhaps he was exaggerating the effects he felt. And it was possible for Odo to assume a completely solid form for an extended period of time when the Link gave him a little boost in "Broken Link".
Timo Saloniemi
3D Master
Rear Admiral
He was turned into an actual solid, not assume a solid form. A changeling cannot remain solid indefinitely; it will die. Will probably take longer than Odo, but it would happen. And no, liquid, the founders would have NO way to convey what they want, they're liquid. Solid, they'd die. And the Founders would have no way of knowing what the real goal of the virus is, until it completes that goal. They would thus assume it was killing them, when in fact, it may not at all.
Is there a difference?
When Odo plays rock, he becomes rock for all practical purposes; he tells as much in "The Search" and "Homefront". When he plays humanoid, he cheats because the task is complex and he is young and inexperienced. But if forced to play humanoid with the sort of accuracy that adult Changelings can achieve, he would no doubt have a digestive tract, a pair of lungs, and all the other trappings of a regular humanoid.
Where is this established?
A Changeling child will get uncomfortable if it cannot regenerate often (Odo began with 16 hours in early S1, then went to 18 hours; he may have started out with 2 hours or something). Some Romulans believed once that they could kill a Changeling by forcing it to remain in one shape for a long time; they never achieved that effect. And we have seen Changelings die for assorted reasons, but failing to shapeshift was never really explicated as one of them.
They could always make waves.
Timo Saloniemi
In "The Die Is Cast," Garak tortured Odo with a device that would not allow him to regenerate. It was certainly detrimental to his health. It could be that the effect was only very painful, but it seemed to be much more than that.
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