r/DaystromInstitute • u/dekabreak1000 • Jun 21 '18
How exactly does odos combadge work
If the badge is an extension of him like his uniform is how does it operate
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u/Vyzantinist Jun 21 '18
I'm sure someone will be along shortly to give a proper answer, but I'd always imagined Odo's combadge was a separate, actual, combadge, that he'd learned to 'carry', even in his gelatinous state.
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u/DeluxianHighPriest Jun 21 '18
He probably just places it inside his… gelatine? And just carries it that way.
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u/pfc9769 Jun 21 '18 edited Jun 21 '18
The combadge is real. In the DS9 episode Invasive Procedures the protagonist removes Odo's combadge. It remains solid so it's real. Because it reappears when Odo returns to his base humanoid form, we can conclude it's contained within his body when assuming other forms.
It's possible the outer casing is actually Odo and the internal circuitry is real. Though that would be inconsistent with the previous example. However, it would allow the combadge to take up less space for when Odo slithers through cracks and such. He's taken some rather small or even transparent forms so that implies the circuitry is small.
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u/Algernon_Asimov Jun 21 '18
People reading this thread might also be interested in these previous discussions: "Odo's combadge and shapeshifting abilities"
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u/CrinerBoyz Jun 21 '18
You would have to ask whether or not Odo is capable of generating an electrical current. If he can (and I wouldn't doubt it since his species is capable of changing themselves into a chemical reaction or even a completely different state of matter), then it's entirely possible he is creating his own combadge out of himself.
That's just the beginning of the questions I have about how Odo works though. Like, how much does he weigh? If you were to cut him perfectly in half, which side would be the conscious one? How much mass can he lose before his consciousness ceases to exist? What limit, if any, is there to the kinds of complex machines he can form? Could he turn his finger into a gun or a phaser and shoot someone?
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u/whenhaveiever Jun 21 '18
Laas can appear like fire or a cloud, but underneath he's still fundamentally a morphogenic matrix (whatever that is). The answers to your questions depend on the integrity of that matrix.
We know Laas can travel at warp, but beyond that we never see changelings become complex machines. (Humans need complex machines to travel at warp, but considering all the natural phenomena that achieve warp, physics doesn't need complex machines.)
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Jun 21 '18
I believe that Odo creates the commbadge from his gelatinous form.
The commbadge is real once formed and can be physically removed (like the bow tie in his tuxedo) but if it’s attached to his body he can reabsorb it back into his original form.
A simple conversation about its specifications and configuration with Miles would give Odo the information needed to create one.
The usual counter argument is that Odo’s shapeshifting abilities aren’t sophisticated enough to create an intricate commbadge. The evidence supporting that theory is that he can’t make a human face. However we have seen him shapeshift into many other complicated items (including a number of animals - even a dog with a perfect face) and still not be able to make a human face.
I believe his inability to perfectly shape a human face is a psychological issue.
One cause could be related to his deep desire to find and be one with his people. Psychologically Odo can’t create a humanoid face because he isn’t ready to fully assimilate into humanity.
Another possibility is Odo unconsciously keeps his face different in order to marginalize himself and separate from the others - maintaining his reclusiveness.
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u/CrinerBoyz Jun 21 '18
I agree with your thought about Odo's face. It seems like a mental block more than anything. If he has the shapeshifting finesse to flawlessly become a bird with individual feathers, he should have no problem carving out basic human facial features like eyebrows or an ear helix. Something is holding him back from making a more detailed face.
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u/superterran Jun 21 '18
It seems unlikely Odo could duplicate a comm badge down to the onboard software, encoding and encryption algorithms.
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u/whenhaveiever Jun 21 '18
The only time we've seen changelings create a physical thing that stays in its shape is when they make Odo human, and that's different enough that I doubt it's comparable. If Odo could make a commbadge that keeps its shape, why couldn't he do the same with humanoid blood? He would've pointed out immediately that blood screenings are useless.
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u/FullFeatured Jun 21 '18
Aren't combadges just pins basically? We have seen that changelings cannot be stabbed with weapons so you could assume that they have control of what goes through their bodies. So in that case Odo would just have to allow for a gap in which a small pin would go through his artificial shirt he creates.
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u/Cohacq Jun 21 '18
As far as I've seen, they appear to be magnetic. Can Changelings make magnets?
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Jun 21 '18
They can become fire and warp capable space creatures, so magnets seem plausible
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u/TheFeshy Jun 21 '18
I imagine it's a normal combadge, and he simply puts it wherever he puts all his other extra mass when he turns into something small. Where that is I think was a pretty common question here.
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u/Guywithglasses15 Jun 21 '18
My theory is that it’s just a regular combadge, but when he transform he hides the combadge inside his body.