Help me understand the situation with the Klingons and the war

[Leonardo T. Dragon]

Okay, I'm now four episodes into Discovery I don't understand the situation with the Klingons. At all. As in, I don't get their motivations for the war and who is leading them now 6 months later.

Here's my understanding of the situation:
-- In "Vulcan Hello", T'Kumva finds and turns on the ancient beacon of Kahless. This summons the various Klingon houses to him. There he persuades them to war on the Federation because "the Federation lies" and they've forgotten what it means to be Klingons. Apparently this works and the war starts.

-- In the "Butcher's Knife" we find out that the war has been going on for six months. The Federation is developing new weapons, etc. The Klingons are attacking but Voq, the new disciple of T'Kumva has been sitting on his keester in a broken vessel that happens to be the only ship in the Klingon fleet with a cloaking device. It's taken them 6 months to affect repairs in which time he and his crew have been seemingly forgotten. They're starving and no one has come to their aid-- even though their ship has technology that no other Klingon vessel possesses.

I don't get it. The excuse to start the war was flimsy at best. Seriously. There's literally no motivation for it to be happening other than "canon says so." However, the fact that Voq's ship has been sitting there for half a year makes even less sense to me. It has a cloak-- which means that it should have been a priority to salvage and recover that tech. However, in half a year neither the Federation nor the Klingons have gone back to check on it? At all?

Furthermore-- if "T'Kumva's annointed successor" has been absent, who is leading this war? There has to be a central figure otherwise a United Federation of Planets could have just rolled over the individual warring houses like a steam roller.

Seriously-- what am I missing? Is this just bad writing?

 

[CorporalClegg]

 

[Butters]

The Klingons start the war for political reasons. A cynical power grab over the twenty four divided houses. Could just ad easily started a war with the Romulans or the Breen, but the feds are a natural enemy.

 

[Spider]

So far the Klingons in Discovery are unimpressive, at least to me. I get the story line, Klingons want war, which they always do, silly plot details aside. I've even grown accustomed to their new looks, which don't bother me anymore like they used to. I just can't get around how they sound, I have to mute their scenes and just read the dialogue.

As to their motivations, meh. They're Klingons, standard pull-out enemies with no depth. Discovery is going to attempt to give them depth, which could be very interesting, or continue to be as boring as they've been so far. That's kind of a wait and see type thing I guess.

I just wish they'd take the marbles out of their mouths and speak English.

 

[Longinus]

It really doesn't make much sense.

 

[Tenacity]

So whose running the show?

The Klingon high command (if there is such), or are the individual houses independently prosecuting their own pieces of the war on different fronts, with little or no co-ordination?

If the central idea is that the war brings the empire (and the various houses) together, then they would be combining forces.

But then one head of house arrives and grabs the cloaking device for his own houses use.

 

[nutshell]

So whose running the show?

The Klingon high command (if there is such), or are the individual houses independently prosecuting their own pieces of the war on different fronts, with little or no co-ordination?

If the central idea is that the war brings the empire (and the various houses) together, then they would be combining forces.

But then one head of house arrives and grabs the cloaking device for his own houses use.

I like this. Explains why the tech has been sitting there. Each house is afraid to move for the tech because it will reap hell from the others. Eventually, Kor goes for it.

 

[Shawnster]

And Voq is still being pushed as the Klingon that is going to unify the feuding houses. He has to sacrifice everything first.

 

[alex08060]

The Klingon empire is not united, each member of the high council which are usually head of their own house only care about their affairs instead of the empire as a whole. Tradition probably force them to start the war with the federation otherwise they can’t be bothered about ‘remain Klingon’ as the federation (which is stronger than non aligned planets and will be more difficult to defeat) didn’t bothered the empire . So when Micheal killed T’Kumva the original torch bearer of the beacon of Kahless, the council decided they don’t need to listen to Voq. And would have allow him to rot if not for the cloaking device from his unknown ship.

I suspect some 3rd part wanted a war between the federation and the Klingon empire.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The short version is this:

* The Klingon Empire was divided into 24 factions and groups.

* T'Kuvma is one of those factions.

* T'Kuvma lights the Beacon of Kahless which is a sacred calling of the clans like the Beacon of Gondor

* T'Kuvma shows the Federation on their border and that they're about to pass into their territory and start corrupting them with their values/ways.

* T'Kuvma fights their fleet and shows he as one house can beat them (or at least fight them well)

* He is then martyred as a hero.

 

[alex08060]

Is T'Kuvma a member of a house ? it look as if he has no house like Voq.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Is T'Kuvma a member of a house ? it look as if he has no house like Voq.

We get a very brief flashback to get a sense of why T'Kuvma is the way he is. Basically, a bunch of Klingon hoodlems broke into his house and beat the crap out of him despite it being a nobleman's palace and him being the heir.

Basically, a very easy way to say the nobility of the Empire had fallen on hard-hard times.

Also, it's why Voq is so grateful to him as T'Kuvma took him into his noble house despite being a Klingon you'd normally leave to die at birth like it was ancient Sparta.

 

[alex08060]

The house must have been pretty bad since Voq is part of T’Kuvma house but Kol considers Voq as houseless.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The house must have been pretty bad since Voq is part of T’Kuvma house but Kol considers Voq as houseless.

L'Rell corrects him too.

But yes, the Klingon High Council disses T'Kuvma for letting Voq in before Voq speaks out about why that's what makes T'Kuvma awesome. I think it's also part of why his efforts fail. House T'Kuvma has no T'Kuvma members left to lead it. Just their torchbearer.

That and Voq shows he can't get a ship to go for six months and effectively misses much of the war.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I don't get it. The excuse to start the war was flimsy at best. Seriously. There's literally no motivation for it to be happening other than "canon says so."

Actually, there is no canon mention of a prior Klingon/Federation war. It's from tie-in novels and FASA RPG backstory booklets.

The Klingon motives are clear - they are disgusted by the mingling of species in the Federation, and fear becoming part of it. They want to remain pure and Klingon. Yes, it seems weak to us but that there are thousands of people in the real world with similar concerns and they make about as much sense.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Actually, there is no canon mention of a prior Klingon/Federation war. It's from tie-in novels and FASA RPG backstory booklets.

The Klingon motives are clear - they are disgusted by the mingling of species in the Federation, and fear becoming part of it. They want to remain pure and Klingon. Yes, it seems weak to us but that there are thousands of people in the real world with similar concerns and they make about as much sense.

It's also coupled with two more, slightly more understandable motivations.

1. The Federation is now RIGHT NEXT to the borders of Klingon space which they've been creeping up on for a century. They've gone from being Germany to Latvia for Space Russia.

2. It's a cynical but understandable plea that the Klingons should be fighting other races than each other.

 

[Timo]

As for why nobody rushes to Voq's aid, it's not as if anybody should really think Voq would be worth aiding.

Voq had two ships capable of cloaking. Neither of them demonstrated the ability when Kol was present. Supposedly those who were present for the demonstration then died, or became stranded with Voq. And it doesn't seem as if Voq would have had the means to call for help, either: his ship had lost some very basic things such as the ability to keep the crew fed, so the ability to communicate across interstellar distances may well have been lost, too.

Without the cloak, Voq is just about as important to the Klingon war effort as Marinus van der Lubbe was to the war effort of the Nazi Germany. And him having a cloak on his decrepit ship is just about as believable as van der Lubbe having the blueprints for a jet bomber in his back pocket.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[alex08060]

Basically when Kol found out about the cloaking device, he ‘rescue’ Vol and then betray him. There is even a chance he knows about the cloaking device early but waited until the crew is starving so he would need less work to convince them to join him.

 

[Mudd]

The causes and conduct of the war don't make sense. It's complicated but superficial TV, grounded in the understanding that if you throw enough contradictory nonsense at skiffy fans they will blog about how to make it fit together.

 

[Tim Thomason]

L'Rell corrects him too.

But yes, the Klingon High Council disses T'Kuvma for letting Voq in before Voq speaks out about why that's what makes T'Kuvma awesome. I think it's also part of why his efforts fail. House T'Kuvma has no T'Kuvma members left to lead it. Just their torchbearer.

That and Voq shows he can't get a ship to go for six months and effectively misses much of the war.

L'Rell herself is blood related to the House of T'Kuvma (her father being a member of said house, her mother being a member of House Mokai). So there are relatives of T'Kuvma, and probably many of them, just presumably no children or at least firstborn heirs.

Voq seems to have been adopted by T'Kuvma, a la Worf in the House of Martok, and furthermore, designated as T'Kuvma's heir. He brings this up to L'Rell, surprised that she didn't object and/or challenge him about it. Right now it seems that the House of Kor is going to absorb T'Kuvma's house or maybe elect a proxy to lead it after exiling Voq (and "killing him" in the Dr. Evil sense - by placing him in an easily escapable situation and then just assuming it all went to plan).