Why do people hate Lwaxana Troi?
- Thread starter Draconarius King
- Start date
Maybe it's just a coincidence, although I doubt it, but as far as I am concerned every episode (TNG or Ds9) where she's in is at best mediocre and at worst very bad.
I don't generally hate her, I generally thought she was annoying (though there were a few genuinely good appearances). Then again, she was meant to be annoying.
Characters meant to be annoying to other characters have to be genuinely funny to the audience. It didn't work for Neelix, and it didn't work for Lwaxana.
Another commonality they have is that they had their best episodes in those rare cases the writers decided to use them as actual characters, rather than as plot devices to annoy other characters. (For Lwaxana, that would for example have been part of The Forsaken, for Neelix Fair Trade or Jetrel). But that's a subjective assessment of course.
I don't think they have what it takes to create a character that is both annoying to the others and not eventually becomes annoying to the audience.
Lwaxana was a character I could've done without after her first appearance; I found her as annoying and unwatchable as much as how my heroes expressed every time she showed up.
Personally, I don't like snobs and if there is one thing that L. Troi is, it's a snob. She's constantly throwing her titles at people's faces (Holder of the sacred chalice of who gives a damn) as if it mattered to them. All she does is annoy them and she's certainly not gaining any respect that way. The Federation is supposed to be democratic in nature, so titles are meaningless. If you want to impress us, tell us about your accomplishments (and not the thing you've just inherited).
Let's not forget though that Lwaxana is the Betazoid Ambassador. She all but admits to Odo that the various trinkets she mentions in her title are old junk, but her JOB is to push Betazoid culture. It's quite likely she personally doesn't give a hoot about her titles and possessions but collective Betazoid cultural pride requires she flag them up to others.
There's a similar character in Star Trek Online - Ambassador Thrass who is a Gorn but representing the Klingon Empire (by 2410, they've annexed the Gorn Hegemony). He's incredibly bombastic and dismissive of the Federation (the Klingons are initially at war with them again in STO) but, in quieter moments, you realize he's like that because it's EXPECTED of him, both by the Klingons and those he's dealing with on their behalf.
There's a similar character in Star Trek Online - Ambassador Thrass who is a Gorn but representing the Klingon Empire (by 2410, they've annexed the Gorn Hegemony). He's incredibly bombastic and dismissive of the Federation (the Klingons are initially at war with them again in STO) but, in quieter moments, you realize he's like that because it's EXPECTED of him, both by the Klingons and those he's dealing with on their behalf.
I've never disliked Lxwaxana Troi. I thought that she was actually very funny personally, but the thing that may have put a lot of people off her may very well be the fact that she's a very needy, full-on in-your=face kind of individual (a little bit of a drama queen if you like) but who knows.
Well, she's offensive to Worf for no reason. She treats him like an imbecile and never says his name properly.
I don't know. I didn't know until quite a bit later. I think she is taken too seriously when she wasn't supposed to be. She was basically there for comedy. Maybe some people don't like that stuff. But then she is seen as something on a par with Wesley.
Yes, Wesley seems like he's been designed to be hated.
I enjoyed her fine in the first appearance, but they should have left it alone after that. There were far better guest characters that I would have rather saw again.
I think we're also meant to assume that her claims about what Picard is supposedly naughtily "thinking" about her are deliberately false. That's not just rude, offensive, snobbish, or annoying. It's defamation, slander & as such, a form of harassment.
For someone meant to be an ambassador of Betazoid culture, I'd think constantly lying about what you are telepathically reading from people would be rather ill advised, even if as Deanna states, it's meant as a joke.
Edit:
Which raises another interesting point. She's always going on about how her manservants, & Picard & probably other men are having pornographic thoughts about her, a lot of which we know are false, especially in Picard's case
But what can we deduce from their reactions is how most people actually feel about her? They find her annoying & a pain in the butt to deal with. Well, I'd think it would be a special kind of torture to be telepathic, & every single person who you interact with can't stand your presense at all, even at times your own daughter
Wouldn't that be horrifically tragic? Even psychologically scarring to know people's most frequent reaction to you is "Oh god, please no. Not that annoying pain in the butt again". You'd slit your wrists being subjected to those thoughts all the time, no?
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Is it if no one is taking it seriously. At the end of the day she is just playing with everyone. She did similar with Deanna minus the your attracted to me bit of course.
Lwaxana does her best to puncture any feelings of pomposity among others because, if they can admit they aren't "all that", then she can too.
I don't know if having to tear down others before you can admit your own vulnerabilities is the right way to go about it, but then I can't tell if people are being confident because they are self-aggrandizing, genuinely deserving, or masking vulnerability... Lwaxana CAN.
The former deserve to be knocked down a peg or two.
The genuinely deserving will appreciate the reminder than they are still vulnerable, and so are everyone else.
The latter may learn not to hide who they are quite as much. I mean, here's the Betazoid version of royalty and she's no more confident, deep down, than you are. Take pride in what you CAN do, and don't big yourself up beyond that because it's not true to who and what you are.
I don't know if having to tear down others before you can admit your own vulnerabilities is the right way to go about it, but then I can't tell if people are being confident because they are self-aggrandizing, genuinely deserving, or masking vulnerability... Lwaxana CAN.
The former deserve to be knocked down a peg or two.
The genuinely deserving will appreciate the reminder than they are still vulnerable, and so are everyone else.
The latter may learn not to hide who they are quite as much. I mean, here's the Betazoid version of royalty and she's no more confident, deep down, than you are. Take pride in what you CAN do, and don't big yourself up beyond that because it's not true to who and what you are.
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The character was there just so Gene could get Majel onto the show, just like he tried to do with her as Number One for TOS initially, and then later for Nurse Chapel. I found Lwaxana a bit annoying at first, but as time went by, I didn't mind her so much, some of the episodes were quite good, touching sometimes, and there was some funny moments as well. Although I do think, although they did turn out to be, at least decent episodes, I thought, that her appearances on DS9 were rather gratuitous, the writers just sticking Majel in there so she could be in all ST shows.
I thought she was good as number one, the only reason they didn't keep her there is because of the misogynistic attitude of the time.
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