Quark’s refusal to take anything seriously made me really angry. about halfway through the episode i was hoping Worf would just decapitate him, although i thought it was pretty funny when Gowron is all like, “You tried to take down a great house… with money???!!! P’tach!”
I’m the total opposite. I find the whole Klingon obsession with honor annoying, so watching a Ferengi uncover an entire plot to take down a house because the Klingons couldn’t conceive of something so “dishonorable” is just funny lol
while I do find the Klingon rigidity around “honor” both annoying and, at this point, simply unimaginative and boring, I found the fact that Gowron was even willing to entertain the whole exercise, that the Klingon High Council itself was open-minded enough - in the face of their inflexible culture and honor, etc - to allow a Ferengi in and tell them where the bear shits without, ya know, getting all racist and xenophobic about it was pretty cool of them. In a way, all of that boring, annoying Klingon honor bullshit really served to juxtapose the silly Ferengi crap in a way that made them look surprisingly open-minded and flexible in this episode. and it was funny in this case.
so… as annoying and dull as it can be, it has its place.
on other occasions, as with when Kor met Jadzia for the first time and simply was happy to see his old friend Dax, recognizing Jadzia as the same person as he had know Curzon shows open-mindedness to gender-acceptance. This is extended to other Klingons explaining how women in their culture are seen as equals, warriors who fight alongside them in battle, etc., and other dialogue cues that, although there is a caste system with warriors on top, wrt sex, race, gender, etc, there is equality in there society.
edit: of note: I know that in my example from Blood Oath Kang and Trelane in Koloth cosplay didn’t accept Jadzia at first, but I’ll remind you that
spoiler
that was because they were really planning a suicide mission so they could die as old men with honor and they didn’t want Jadzia, a young woman, to die with them needlessly, a they certainly could get their vengeance without her.
That’s the thing though. I think people talk about “silly Ferengi crap” and while obviously they are intended as a sort of parody of American capitalism and all that, they are a ruthlessly logical species and culture.
I think the Klingons tolerated Quark because the situation was so strange, and Quark exploited the Klingon’s system of honor. The Klingons were shellshocked from the idea of a Klingon woman marrying a Ferengi to take over her house. I think they were genuinely a bit curious to see how a Ferengi would respect their rules, and it seems Quark demonstrated an adequate understanding of how their honor worked (even though he didn’t agree at all with it) for them to give him a chance. He used two trait which any good entrepreneur would have: the ability to take risky moves, and good social awareness.
you make a good point, but that point also happens to support my position. sure, maybe they were being a little less open-minded and a bit more self-serving in this case than i made them out, but they’re still pretty open-minded for a species which presents itself with such rigid cultural values.
What about the House of Quark. Does the presence of Klingons dilute the Ferengi frustration, or amplify it?
Quark’s refusal to take anything seriously made me really angry. about halfway through the episode i was hoping Worf would just decapitate him, although i thought it was pretty funny when Gowron is all like, “You tried to take down a great house… with money???!!! P’tach!”
I’m the total opposite. I find the whole Klingon obsession with honor annoying, so watching a Ferengi uncover an entire plot to take down a house because the Klingons couldn’t conceive of something so “dishonorable” is just funny lol
while I do find the Klingon rigidity around “honor” both annoying and, at this point, simply unimaginative and boring, I found the fact that Gowron was even willing to entertain the whole exercise, that the Klingon High Council itself was open-minded enough - in the face of their inflexible culture and honor, etc - to allow a Ferengi in and tell them where the bear shits without, ya know, getting all racist and xenophobic about it was pretty cool of them. In a way, all of that boring, annoying Klingon honor bullshit really served to juxtapose the silly Ferengi crap in a way that made them look surprisingly open-minded and flexible in this episode. and it was funny in this case.
so… as annoying and dull as it can be, it has its place.
on other occasions, as with when Kor met Jadzia for the first time and simply was happy to see his old friend Dax, recognizing Jadzia as the same person as he had know Curzon shows open-mindedness to gender-acceptance. This is extended to other Klingons explaining how women in their culture are seen as equals, warriors who fight alongside them in battle, etc., and other dialogue cues that, although there is a caste system with warriors on top, wrt sex, race, gender, etc, there is equality in there society.
edit: of note: I know that in my example from Blood Oath Kang and Trelane in Koloth cosplay didn’t accept Jadzia at first, but I’ll remind you that
spoiler
that was because they were really planning a suicide mission so they could die as old men with honor and they didn’t want Jadzia, a young woman, to die with them needlessly, a they certainly could get their vengeance without her.
That’s the thing though. I think people talk about “silly Ferengi crap” and while obviously they are intended as a sort of parody of American capitalism and all that, they are a ruthlessly logical species and culture.
I think the Klingons tolerated Quark because the situation was so strange, and Quark exploited the Klingon’s system of honor. The Klingons were shellshocked from the idea of a Klingon woman marrying a Ferengi to take over her house. I think they were genuinely a bit curious to see how a Ferengi would respect their rules, and it seems Quark demonstrated an adequate understanding of how their honor worked (even though he didn’t agree at all with it) for them to give him a chance. He used two trait which any good entrepreneur would have: the ability to take risky moves, and good social awareness.
you make a good point, but that point also happens to support my position. sure, maybe they were being a little less open-minded and a bit more self-serving in this case than i made them out, but they’re still pretty open-minded for a species which presents itself with such rigid cultural values.