Will the Dominion attack the Federation again one day?
- Thread starter indolover
- Start date
I doubt there will be another war between the Federation and the Dominion. One of the reasons why the war ended was because Odo was able to convince the Great Link that not all solids were evil (or needed to be controlled) and that the Federation was not really a threat to them.
If anything, I think the Federation and the Dominion will become allies in the Gamma Quadrant sometime in the future in the same way the Federation and the Klingons are on this side of the Galaxy...
If anything, I think the Federation and the Dominion will become allies in the Gamma Quadrant sometime in the future in the same way the Federation and the Klingons are on this side of the Galaxy...
The real reason the war ended was becausethe Great Link was dying and Odo was the only one who could save them. Also the Founders wanted Odo back. Both goals accomplished. Now the Dominion can't come back through the wormhole thanks to Sisko and the Prophets but if they develop transwarp or slipstream tech then we got us a whole new ballgame. Poor Odo though. Imagine him joining the link and then getting shouted down time and again as his people continue their fascist rampage through the galaxy.
The Dominion can come back through the wormhole anytime they want. They don't need slipstream or transwarp. It was really just a case that Odo finally convinced the Founders that the Federation wasn't out to invade or conquer them. Once they realized the Federation wasn't the enemy they initially believed they were, the war was over.
It doesn't sound plausible that Odo could do any convincing, considering how he was distrusted before. For all we know, the Link simply executed him the moment he had delivered the cure...
OTOH, the wormhole probably isn't passable unless the Prophets say it is. And with Sisko an inside man now, it's unlikely anything overtly evil or offensive would be allowed passage. Insidous infiltration is a possibility if The Sisko keeps the wormhole open for general traffic, of course.
Timo Saloniemi
OTOH, the wormhole probably isn't passable unless the Prophets say it is. And with Sisko an inside man now, it's unlikely anything overtly evil or offensive would be allowed passage. Insidous infiltration is a possibility if The Sisko keeps the wormhole open for general traffic, of course.
Timo Saloniemi
The thing was that the Founders still didn't trust the Federation (or solids) right up until the very end. It wasn't until after Odo merged with the Female Founder and shared the cure (among other things) that she called for a cease-fire. The cure alone wouldn't have been enough, IMO.
I don't think the Link killed Odo when he returned to them. They had plenty of opportunities to kill him before.
I also don't think the Prophets are really going to prohibit Dominion access through the wormhole unless they become a threat to Bajor again, and I kind of doubt that at this point.
I don't think the Link killed Odo when he returned to them. They had plenty of opportunities to kill him before.
I also don't think the Prophets are really going to prohibit Dominion access through the wormhole unless they become a threat to Bajor again, and I kind of doubt that at this point.
But had there not been a cease-fire, there would have been no cure, either. The cure alone would have been justification enough for ceasing the hostilities for the time being. And the delivery of that cure to the Link alone might have been justification enough for immediately restarting the hostilities.
However, it seems Kira got back from the Founder hideout world alive, and the final scenes of "What You Leave Behind" don't show a relaunched Dominion invasion, either. Not yet... But the delay might be of little consequence, and of little duration.
Timo Saloniemi
However, it seems Kira got back from the Founder hideout world alive, and the final scenes of "What You Leave Behind" don't show a relaunched Dominion invasion, either. Not yet... But the delay might be of little consequence, and of little duration.
Timo Saloniemi
I really don't think the Dominion War is still going on. It really did seem like it ended during the Battle of Cardassia.
But there was no Battle of Cardassia. The Dominion expeditionary forces bowed out unvanquished.
And that was just the expeditionary forces. What would have been left in Gamma would have been thousandfold stronger. If not at the time, then at least when needed. After all, the expeditionary forces were capable of multiplying their numbers enough to almost crush Alpha, even when completely isolated from home. If portable Dominion industries could do that, the industries back home should do much better.
Not much comfort in the "cease fire", then. It was in the terms of the Dominion, except for the minor detail of the cure. And Alpha handed over the cure, and with it their only trump card...
Timo Saloniemi
And that was just the expeditionary forces. What would have been left in Gamma would have been thousandfold stronger. If not at the time, then at least when needed. After all, the expeditionary forces were capable of multiplying their numbers enough to almost crush Alpha, even when completely isolated from home. If portable Dominion industries could do that, the industries back home should do much better.
Not much comfort in the "cease fire", then. It was in the terms of the Dominion, except for the minor detail of the cure. And Alpha handed over the cure, and with it their only trump card...
Timo Saloniemi
Huh?
I think 800 million dead Cardassians says otherwise. The final battle of the Dominion War took place at Cardassia Prime in the same way the Battle of Cheron ended the Earth-Romulus War.
Only in the sense they quit before they were vanquished.
What happened at Cardassia was that the joint Federation/Klingon/Romulan alliance--aided by the Cardassian resistance on Cardassia Prime itself--cornered the Dominion forces into a final stand. The Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant were on their last legs as alliance forces were going in for the kill. The Female Founder, however, refused to surrender and was going to fight to the very last man until cooler heads prevailed.
Exactly my point. Even if the Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant had perished (which was likely), the war could have continued with the bulk of the Dominion forces in the Gamma Quadrant. The war only ended because the Dominion saw no reason to continue the conflict. I really don't think the Female Founder would have surrendered if she still thought the war should continue.
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I'd say the fact that the Dominion was defeated in a war for the first time in millenia-long history shouldn't be underestimated.
The Dominion is based on the Vorta's and Jem'Hadar's belief in the infallibility of the Founders. Gods don't lose wars though.
So, I smell a Jem'Hadar revolt coming. Not instantly, of course. But I would measure the remaining lifespan of the Dominion in years and not in decades. The Jem'Hadar's addiction to Ketracel-White isn't sufficient to keep the whole thing together in the long run.
The Dominion is based on the Vorta's and Jem'Hadar's belief in the infallibility of the Founders. Gods don't lose wars though.
So, I smell a Jem'Hadar revolt coming. Not instantly, of course. But I would measure the remaining lifespan of the Dominion in years and not in decades. The Jem'Hadar's addiction to Ketracel-White isn't sufficient to keep the whole thing together in the long run.
to me, it depends on a number of things:
- whether Odo is successful in making his people renounce their hatred of solids.
- the Federation is not so lucky, should a next war take place. and let's be honest, it was lucky.
I think the more intriguing question will be what happened to the Dominion controlled worlds in the Gamma Quadrant. If its just a case of "Founders no longer hate solids", then would the Changelings simply release subject worlds from their control? Or have the Dominion held worlds become so dependant on their overbears that their financial, trade and security would collapse without them? Also, if news of the Founders' defeat in the Alpha Quadrant reaches the ears of subject Gamma Quadrant planets, will the Dominion face multiple uprisings or whole collalitions fightinging back against them? Will the Founders send in the shock troops? biological weapons? genocide like the Cardassians? Would Odo sit idlely by and allow it? And if the Founders turn peacable, what is the purpose of the Jem'Hadar? Will their very existance be neccessary if there is no reason to breed them for warfare? Allowing a sentiant species to go extinct deliberately doesn't seem exactly "moral" either when you're the ones responsible for engingeering them in the first place
when odo melted into the lake of goo, it learned some things it might not have been aware of before, like the federation not only delivering the cure, but the disease in the first place. if they are any smart they'll stay away from the alpha quadrant which is populated by paranoid people, answering a little information search by the dominion in seasons 2 and 3 with genocide attempts by cardassians, romulans, and the federation. they have also learned of the existence of the borg and their transwarp capability, probably a good time to secure the possessions, and to build up defences.
Robert DeSoto
Lieutenant Commander
They could attack again, but they would need to send a much bigger fleet. Their first invasion fleet was already big and it was later reinforced by five convoys of troops and more warships. They also had the entire Cardassian Fleet and all of its shipyards (which they pushed out to maximum shipbuilding capacity). But they still lost the war against the Federation.
So the next fleet they send will have to be much bigger. They also won't have the resources of the Cardassian Union anymore. So it will have to be much much bigger.
But the Founders can't just send the entire Jem'hadar military over to the Alpha Quadrant. They need the Jem'hadar to maintain order in the Gamma Quadrant too. So they might decide in the meantime, it's not worth sending so much of their military resources to the Alpha Quadrant.
But the Dominion is constantly expanding and breeding new Jem'hadar soldiers. So I'm sure one day, the Dominion will try again to "bring order" to the Alpha Quadrant. But they've learned the lesson from the first war and will send a really really huge invasion force.
So the next fleet they send will have to be much bigger. They also won't have the resources of the Cardassian Union anymore. So it will have to be much much bigger.
But the Founders can't just send the entire Jem'hadar military over to the Alpha Quadrant. They need the Jem'hadar to maintain order in the Gamma Quadrant too. So they might decide in the meantime, it's not worth sending so much of their military resources to the Alpha Quadrant.
But the Dominion is constantly expanding and breeding new Jem'hadar soldiers. So I'm sure one day, the Dominion will try again to "bring order" to the Alpha Quadrant. But they've learned the lesson from the first war and will send a really really huge invasion force.
I don't see why not. They can always build more back home!
The expeditionary force that entered Alpha Quadrant did just fine by building ships and soldiers of its own, without a single shipment of reinforcements from Gamma after the opening of hostilities in "Call to Arms". Logically, any similarly sized unit back in Gamma would have similar self-sustaining properties. So it would probably only take a year or two to completely rebuild the "Home Fleet" after the original ships and soldiers were sent to a crusade against Alpha.
And the absence of home troops would probably never even be noticed. After all, the Jem'Hadar are invisible. You can never know they aren't there. Your only way of finding out is to rise against the Dominion, in which case the Jem'Hadar either will appear and punish you, or then not. Who in his right mind would risk such an experiment?
Say, perhaps an Alpha agent comes to Gamma and tells the locals (quite factually) that the Dominion has sent its entire military away on an errand of vengeance. Said agent encourages the locals to try the above experiment. One planet works up the courage - and the Dominion sends its remaining, pitiful contingent of two Jem'Hadar ships to the planet and unleashes a plague there. The natives have no way of telling that those were the only two ships the Dominion could muster, and nobody is willing to try out a second experiment, nor agree to an experiment where fifty planets rebel in synch.
Timo Saloniemi
Robert DeSoto
Lieutenant Commander
If you were a Founder, would you really wanna bet your life and the fate this huge empire on two Jem'hadar warships?
What if the Karemma decide to stop selling torpedoes to the Jem'hadar and start loading up their own starships instead (assuming they don't already do that). Or what if another foreign power, not yet a member of the Dominion decides to attack? If all you have left is two Jem'hadar ships, a couple dozen "lightly armed shuttlecraft" from the Maquis could overthrow the Dominion.
You're right that the threat of the Jem'hadar will be enough to keep most people in line. But one constant in human nature is that no matter how big you are, there will always be some punk willing to take a shot at you. Being top dog only makes you the biggest target.
Also, remember the Dominion isn't a happy Federation where everyone joined willingly. People don't like being pushed around and being told what to do the way the Dominion does. Once word gets out that the Jem'hadar aren't around anymore, the shit will hit the fan.
If it takes an entire year, maybe two until the Dominion can rebuild the home fleet, I would be very nervous as a Founder during those years.
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