this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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There's a DS9 episode featuring a klingon lawyer (I forget which episode it is). THe lawyer has a few pieces of dialogue where they view the legal process as a battle just like any other klingon views a fight. Since then it's been my head canon that plenty of klingons are around doing plenty of stuff other than fighting but view it in terms of hunting, battle (with something) and honour. I wish more of this were touched on in Trek.
Like ... klingon monks and religion ... what's the culture of pursuing that for a klingon?
From ENT: Judgement
There's another episode near the end of Enterprise, where Dr. Phlox is kidnapped to help a Klingon doctor make Klingon augments, using Dr. Soong's augment's DNA. It's pretty clear in that episode that, while there are Klingons that pursue other professions, they aren't thought of very highly by the warrior caste.
Also, they have a caste system, so there are definitely Klingons that have to do other jobs, and this likely would have been even more important in the distant past. General Martok in DS9 had difficulty rising through the ranks originally, because he wasn't from the warrior caste
The inventor of warp drive would be highly respected, Klingons respect power and warp and specifically matter anti matter reactions are hugely powerful and can (although rarely done) be made into extremely powerful weapons.
What's crazy to me, I also remembered this as a DS9 episode until I watched it during an ent run a week ago.
You may be thinking of Ch’Pok, the Klingon advocate from DS9: “Rules of Engagement”, where they were trying to extradite Worf on the grounds that he had destroyed a civilian transport.
And later:
It never ceases to amaze me how good the ST community is at remembering these things, despite the kind of staggering amount of media there is in the franchise. Thank you. That is what I was remembering!
Worf talks about this in TNG as well. Being a Klingon isn't just about violence. Anything can be a battle if you view it as an internal struggle. Worf described to some other Klingons how he viewed just being the only Klingon in Starfleet as an inherent struggle, and that by being a good representative of the Klingon people in his role, he was being honourable.
Also, in DS9, he asked (kinda) Klingons to join him in battle. They got there in time to help the harvest, and when challenged he said that time was their enemy.
Yeah, it's more like the traditional view of Islamic jihad, as I understand (note: I am not Muslim, and may have this entirely wrong, please feel free to correct me). It CAN denote war, but it can also denote the struggle of being a good student, or a good father, or struggling against the very forces of nature to bring in a good crop.
Thus, any hard-fought struggle, to a Klingon, can bring glory, though different kinds of glory. DS9 points this out with Garak's claustrophobia in "By Inferno's Light", with Martok stating "there is no greater enemy than one's own fears".
Too bad about Alexander tho.
Not a worthy battle, that stupid brat.
Fighting the very laws of reality sounds way more challenging than fighting that dude over there.
But what about boring jobs. Are there Klingon janitors? Klingon repairmen? Klingon construction workers?
There have to be Klingon chefs, right? Isn't replicated gagh inferior? Is blood wine just blood or are there Klingon vinyards?
They didn't always have replicators so there must have been Klingon factory workers
They find honor in their own way. They may find honor in serving vile gagh, hunting fresh Lingtas and Targs, cleaning up after the evil messy people. Their enemy may not be another person, another crew, another empire, but time, animals, falling-apart buildings, concrete/cement, messy people, vines and weeds, etc. Everyone finds honor in their own way. (but most of the time they are also fighting.)
Which also makes me wonder if climbing the ladder works the same throughout society. Can the apprentice still learning to forge a bat'leth kill the blacksmith and take over his business? Is that murder or did the p'tah have it coming because he couldn't defend himself anymore?
There is a klingon restaurant on the promenade on DS9. The Chef is also a passionate singer
A speck of dust! * pulls disruptor, pulverizes surface * For Kah'less!!
Well, that's optimistic.
Meanwhile, I'm over here imagining them summarily executing litterbugs.
It's the episode where Worf blows up that civilian ship on accident. I think it's Rules of Engagement.
Worf was setup!
/spoilers
I am thinking of the DS9 ep where Quark gets into Klingon financial shenanigans.
And I believe it's just the overcoming the challenge of building a house, declaring a "war on drugs" and actually winning it, discovering how to make an electromagnet as a way of conquering physics, getting into a fight over haggling on selling that rare Charizard card.
So same progress as Earth, just a different way of thinking? Probably totally inaccurate, but maybe a hint of Japanese culture?