the HONORABLE thing to do

[RobertScorpio]

Star Trek's Klingons claim to be an honorable race. (I find them to be just the opposite at times). But even if they are, are they the most honorable.

SCIF has had many races that claim to be honorable. In your opinion, what alien race in all of scifi is the most "honorable" and why do you think so?

Rob

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

Wouldn't that depend on each species' definition of honor? Thus why Klingons clearly think their actions are honorable for the most part, while you might disagree. Even within species, different races have varying ideas of what constitutes honor. Muslims and most Westerners would have points of contention, I think.

 

[Silvercrest]

This goes back to the trope that all members of an alien race embody a common quality; i.e. Vulcans are all logical and all have bowl haircuts, Ferengi are all greedy, and so on. It treats them as if they're all stamped out of a mold, which generally doesn't make for a very interesting alien race.

That said, I have to vote for the Jem'Hadar (who in fact are stamped out of a mold!). They follow a strict hierarchy and sense of order. They revere their gods even when it's obvious their gods care nothing for them, obey orders without question (mostly), and do their duty even when they know it will kill them. That's samurai honor at its best.

Edit: Ha, it appears Base Delta Zero and I are thinking on similar lines. That's why I said samurai honor, not Western honor.

 

[Lt. Trull]

the most honorable race: the Horta...

 

[RobertScorpio]

Wouldn't that depend on each species' definition of honor? Thus why Klingons clearly think their actions are honorable for the most part, while you might disagree. Even within species, different races have varying ideas of what constitutes honor. Muslims and most Westerners would have points of contention, I think.

It is clear, I think, that older Klingons (KANG-KOLATH) didn't think to highly of the TNG era Klingon's and their honor. So even the klingons have issues between themselves as to what honor is. I think some Japanese and other Oriental races would have points of contention, I think.

Rob

 

[Silvercrest]

So... doesn't that kind of invalidate your original question?

 

[RobertScorpio]

So... doesn't that kind of invalidate your original question?

No..it just means that either the klingons have honor or dont. Durass hardly acted with honor, nor did Gowron. But Worf seems to think his people are honorable. Well which is it?

Rob

 

[Silvercrest]

So... doesn't that kind of invalidate your original question?

No..it just means that either the klingons have honor or dont...Well which is it?

The answer is that some do and some don't. Klingons aren't stamped out of a mold, and you can't brand them all the same way. If you insist on seeing them all as one extreme or another, you're going to be confused or disappointed. Just like humans.

Anyway, your original question wasn't about Klingons. It was about "the most honorable race", and may be invalid if you don't have a definition of "honorable".

 

[Caliburn24]

We only have a limited sample size, but Wookies in Star Wars always seemed extremely honorable.

Chewbacca honored his life-debt to Han while he probably would have preferred to live a normal Wookie life.

I'm not sure which other Sci-Fi characters have given up their entire life just to honor a debt.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

The Klingon concept of honor as presented in TNG is actually extremely limited, one could almost say debased.

Their "honor" seems to consist of a single rule: Never back down from any confrontation. It's really vanity and immaturity calling itself honor. They don't appear to place any emphasis on truthfulness, the restraint of violence during peacetime, fair and courteous treatment of non-combatants and prisoners, etc. - all of which would, to me at least, be absolutely necessary before you could pretend to call yourself an "honorable warrior".

 

[Silvercrest]

I agree with you about the Klingons, but much of the rest of your definition is only the Western version of honor. It's not universal.