Just how good WAS Lwaxana anyway?

[Myasishchev]

I don't think it's bizarre at all, rather, it shields the developing minds of the children until they're old enough to distinguish between their own thoughts and feelings and those of others.

Why would telepathy/empathy imply an inability to distinguish between one's own thoughts and those broadcast. I don't commonly mistake my friends' speech for my own, or my own speech for my own inner dialogue.

Telepathy/empathy is a sensory function, not qualitatively different in that regard from sight or hearing--but one learns how to interpret sensory information in a meaningful way in infancy. It's also a form, maybe the primary form, of Betazoid communication.

I also would expect the ability to mature reasonably slowly, so that the adolescent Betazoid would have time to get used to it. Or else it would mean a tough rite of passage for Betazoid teens.

It would surely be a tough rite of passage indeed. Developing telepathy in adolescence would be akin to hearing for the first time when you were thirteen, and then beginning to learn to speak. I doubt it would go all that well.

On the other hand, this would explain why Tam Elbrun was supposed to be so much better at it than everyone else.

Also, it raises the issue of the negative thoughts I brought up earlier--goodness, it would be pretty merciless to throw that on someone in adolescence, to discover pretty suddenly that behind the politeness of everyday social interaction is a lot of tongue-biting and outright animus. Then again, maybe Betazoids don't tone it down at all (Lwaxana doesn't), since it would be pretty useless in adult interactions...

Wasn't there an episode that Troi said that she could hear her grandparent telling her stories as a child

Ha, probably. Consistency wasn't a strong suit for Trek, and Betazoids are no exception. "Betazoids can't read Ferengi" but "Deanna Troi can totally read Ferengi." Hybrid vigour indeed.

 

[Anji]

She was teasing him because he was so stuck up in those days. We all saw the kinda guy she went for which was Timicin. He was so much the opposite of Picard.

I would've loved to play Lwaxana. She annoyed so many people and had so much fun doing it.