Canon TOS/TMP Starships-of-the-line

[Crazy Eddie]

The Redemption War in TNG could be reinterpreted in that context, where the Klingon military isn't actually that large and most of the combatants were really just private militias whose allegiance to the Empire was theoretical at best. That would, however, require quite a bit of tinkering with the internal logic of "Redemption" and "Yesterday's Enterprise."

Yesterday's Enterprise isn't so much of a problem, since much of the "facts" gleaned from that episode take the form of speculation by a bunch of war-torn officers from a parallel universe. And yes, I know it supposed to be an alternate history based on our own but that really doesn't work logically, since the key event (a big explosion at Narendra) is a natural event in the timeline without any external interference. As a result, the outcome of the Ent-C's adventures started and ended 20 years before Picard finds the anomaly, with an alternate timeline not even on the cards.

The only other reference to the Ent-C and Narendra is in Redemption during Selar's introduction. But then it is merely referred to as an "incident", with no mention of alternate timelines or Klingon armadas fighting the Federation. So in the Prime timeline we really don't know what happened at Narendra.
Together with interpreting the battles in Redemption as the result of private militias, the events of TUC seem ever more plausible in a TNG set up.

You're kind of throwing "Yesterday's Enterprise" under a bus with this explanation, but there are no obvious problems. Hell, for all we know the lack of Data's head in San Francisco is what triggered the War timeline in the first place

 

[Mytran]

Under the bus? Not really; the Narendra III event in the prime timeline may have been more or less the same as the one in the war timeline - or it may not.
We've got wiggle room either way, since the majority of the scenes in YE are logically from a parallel rather than an alternate timeline.

It's interesting that you should mention Data's head, since that whole timeloop business could only exist in the non-war-timeline (unless we are to believe that Warpicard took time off to have adventures in the past).

So, you could be right! From a certain point of view

 

[Ithekro]

The main difference between the incidents at Narendra III seems to be whatever happened after the Enterprise vanished. One can assume that the Romulans bombed the planet and Enterprise has gone before the Klingons noticed she was there. But in the timeline where she returns, not only is she at least partly repaired, she has tactical knowledge of the Romulan warships to give her an advantage. She fights on for a little while longer until defeated by the Romulans would would them attempt to take her in tow to Romulas. The Klingons would have sensor report by them of Enterprise fighting and falling valiantly for a Klingon world. More so if they took some Romulans with them. We know there were survivors since Yar lived. We don't know if the Enterprise made it to Romulas or if Yar scuttled her (or if the Romulans left her as a wreck instead of a prize.) Or if the Klingons manage to get ships there while the Romulans were cleaning up and saw the wrecked Enterprise and prevented the Romulans from having that prize (A warrior's death).


Thus the name Enterprise shifts from being the old thorn in the side of the Klingon peoples to being the name of a true warrior's ship. Regardless of how they are shown dismissing the next Enterprise for its luxury, they also know quite well that it can fight. Enterprise, for all its holodecks and comfy chairs has a lot of impressive firepower in the eyes of a klingon warrior.