"Filthy Andorians"

[The Wormhole]

So while Tacoma the Klingon is delivering one of his oh so delightful Klingon language monologues, one of them he runs through the founding races of the Federation saying "Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and filthy Andorians." Why are Andorians the ones he singles out as "filthy"? After all, the Tellarites are the ones who literally are pigs wallowing in mud, wouldn't that be the very definition of filth? And given Andorians are themselves a warrior culture, shouldn't they be one Federation race the Klingons would actually respect?

 

[BillJ]

Tacoma. You win today!



That name got more of an emotional reaction out of me than anything Discovery did in its first two episodes.

 

[Kor]

Maybe he is prejudiced against their four-person marriage structures.

Kor

 

[Jedi_Master]

An Andorian must have insulted him in the comments section of Y'u tUbeh video.

 

[BillJ]

An Andorian must have insulted him in the comments section of Y'u tUbeh video.

 

[GulDucati_2017]

So while Tacoma the Klingon is delivering one of his oh so delightful Klingon language monologues, one of them he runs through the founding races of the Federation saying "Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and filthy Andorians." Why are Andorians the ones he singles out as "filthy"? After all, the Tellarites are the ones who literally are pigs wallowing in mud, wouldn't that be the very definition of filth? And given Andorians are themselves a warrior culture, shouldn't they be one Federation race the Klingons would actually respect?

Pigs actually wallow in mud and eat their own filth only because we make them live in those conditions. They're actually very clean animals if given space and good living conditions. I'm pretty sure the Tellarites don't squirm around in mud and filth, but I could be wrong. Maybe the Andorians are filthy in a non-literal sense, like they didn't fight with honor or something?

 

[The Librarian]

It makes sense to me. Andorians are close in culture to Klingons, and so to T'Kuvma they represent the future of his race under Federation rule. Vulcans may be the intellectual puppets of the Federation, but the Andorians are the dogs, once proud predators who now sit around waiting for humans to tell them what to do.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm pretty sure the Tellarites don't squirm around in mud and filth, but I could be wrong.

Well, they do take mud baths, at least. From Enterprise's Babel One:

ARCHER: Everything ready for our guests?
TUCKER: Well, just about. But my people are working triple shifts trying to finish that mud bath they wanted.
ARCHER: Mud bath?
TUCKER: Apparently the ambassador likes a good soak in the morning.

 

[Cox of Seagulls]

I always wondered what kind of relationship the Andorians had with the Klingons before the Federation was founded. I would have thought there would maybe be a mutual respect between two warrior cultures, but I guess not.

 

[Nyotarules]

Well, they do take mud baths, at least. From Enterprise's Babel One:

Mud is great for the skin.....humans should take em!

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Because they’re sneaky blue bastards!

(Actually, there was a female Andorian lieutenant commander that accidentally killed a high-ranking Klingon warrior and everyone blames her for starting the Klingon-Andorian Cold War. But that’s a story for another series.)

 

[Nyotarules]

I always wondered what kind of relationship the Andorians had with the Klingons before the Federation was founded. I would have thought there would maybe be a mutual respect between two warrior cultures, but I guess not.

I doubt it, Klingons seem too eager to kill and die, Andorians only do it when necessary. Vulcans before Surak seem to be more like drunkard Klingons on a good day and rabid Klingons on a bad one.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

So while Tacoma the Klingon is delivering one of his oh so delightful Klingon language monologues, one of them he runs through the founding races of the Federation saying "Humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and filthy Andorians." Why are Andorians the ones he singles out as "filthy"? After all, the Tellarites are the ones who literally are pigs wallowing in mud, wouldn't that be the very definition of filth? And given Andorians are themselves a warrior culture, shouldn't they be one Federation race the Klingons would actually respect?

Maybe the fact that they turned away from the path of conquest and war to peacefully cooperate and coexist with their Federation brethren is what makes the Klingons so disgusted with them.

 

[zar]

The Aenar are filthy, like that vermin Voq.

 

[The Wormhole]

I always wondered what kind of relationship the Andorians had with the Klingons before the Federation was founded. I would have thought there would maybe be a mutual respect between two warrior cultures, but I guess not.

In the novels there was one where the Enterprise from TMP era ended up in an alternate timeline where humanity didn't exist. Because of this, there's no Captain Archer to find Surak's true teachings, meaning Vulcans continued to fall under Romulan manipulation and eventually becoming one of the lead military powers in the Alpha Quadrant. The Klingons and Andorians formed an alliance to combat them. DTI novel Forgotten History, if you're interested.

 

[Sci]

First off, I think you're projecting a very human (and very Western) idea about what constitutes cleanliness vs. filth onto the Klingons. T'Kuvma might have no objection whatsoever to Tellarites for having mud baths; he might think that's just fine.

There can be any number of reasons T'Kuvma and some other Klingons might have prejudices against Andorians. If we accept the novels' conceit that the Andorians have four sexes, perhaps T'Kuvma and his particular Klingon culture is prejudiced against species that do not have the same sex/gender binary that Klingons do. (Maybe he'd really hate transgender humans!) Or maybe he thinks that the Andorians, as noted above, represent the future of the Klingon race, as people once powerful but now subservient. Or maybe he thinks the Andorians' particular ideas about violence and honor are morally objectionable according to his particular brand of Kahlessian standards.

There can be a lot of reasons T'Kuvma might have prejudices against Andorians. I suspect we won't know unless the show features Andorian/Klingon relations in some way.

 

[Blooded]

I'm hoping it gets covered in the first Discovery comics that start coming out next month. Those are focused on T'Kuvma, no?

 

[Phily B]

Maybe the Andorians used some kind of tactic that the Klingons saw as underhanded, even though it was perfectly legitimate and are just butthurt about getting their shit pushed in by them.

 

[guyute03]

Really hope we find out what "filthy Andorians" is a reference to, this season.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Tacoma is funny.

I'd say he called Andorians "filthy" because they ARE an aggressive warrior-styled race, now working with people they could/should have conquered by Klingon standards. If anything, I'd say the average Klingon of this era would consider an Andorian in higher esteem for their cultural similarities, but now see them as disdainful for working with people that in Klingon eyes are not worthy of honor or respect as a people.

Aside: I want to call Captain Georgiou simply "Jojo" because it's a) easier to spell, b) an affectation and meant endearingly, and c) pretty much how it sounds anyway. But I can't decide if it's racially sensitive or not. Once, a junior high classmate took to calling me Mark "Noodles", corrupting my last name, but a) that kid was an asshole, and b) it was more blatantly racist. OTOH, many Trek fans have nicknames for some characters. Chakotay = Chuckles, Tacoma here, etc.

Mark