We have a lot of episodes going head-to-head in these finals this time around!
....and then there's little Code of Honor, who just sits in the corner, eating paste, splashing about in their own wastes, without a single point to their name for the entire thread.
Only the holograms used painsticks. Not the actual crew.
Ah okay, I misremembered that part as the Pulaski and co joining in on the paddlin', yes, just standing there and smiling while Worf does his Klingon stuff is a lot less severe than the scenario I misremembered.
However, the Betazed culture possibility is an interesting thought, and would be a good reason to not be there. That would have been nice to hear in dialogue for multiple reasons, not the least of which is more storytelling possibilities.
I still say just being deeply uncomfortable with it is already a good reason not to be there.
But yeah the Betazoid culture part is complete (but not entirely uninformed) projection on my part. It just seems like if you gave Betazoids a bunch of pain sticks and told them to perform a ritual they'd just pile the sticks in the corner and then do something vaguely New Age-y while naked.
Yeah it would have been interesting to hear, especially since we hear so little about them.
Though Of course this goes both ways; if Deanna nopes out of a Klingon activity calling "Betazoid!" then that automatically gives Worf a carte blanche to decline any participation in Betazoid rituals.
Though I can't really accept the empathic feeling pain part... she could still sense his pain from almost anywhere on the ship. Whether it's the same room or on the other side of the ship makes no difference.
Troi's powers are vaguely defined, but from the scene where she accompanies Picard to a horsey ride on the holodeck, she's alright standing next to the horse, but declines mounting it because she might "lose herself in the animalistic mind". So there's probably some safe distance.
Thank you for making my day!!
