How exactly do the Klingons justify using cloaking ships, a strategy which necessarily involves sneaking up on an enemy and catching them unaware? Wouldnāt sneak attacks conflict with their notion of honour?
Wouldnāt sneak attacks conflict with their notion of honour?
That depends. The definition of honor is not universal in Star Trek. Hell, itās not even universal on Earth. According to bushido, a Japanese moral or āhonorā code, if you sneak attack and your opponent is unprepared then thatās your opponents fault. Not yours. In the Star Trek Universe, Klingons see things very differently than humans when it comes to honor. A good example would be the TNG episode Ethics where Worf insists on an honorable death despite this horrifying Crusher. Worf also said in DS9 that āIn war, nothing is more honorable than victory.ā
That being said, the Klingons are INCREDIBLY hypocritical when it comes to honor even by their own standards. For examples, look at literally anything to do with Worf and the Klingon High Council. Ezri Dax said āI see a society that is in deep denial about itself. Weāre talking about a warrior culture that prides itself on maintaining centuries-old traditions of honor and integrity. But in reality, itās willing to accept corruption at the highest levels.ā
So the Klingons being okay with cloaking boils down to one of two reasons, at least for me. The first option is that theyāre in denial about the fact that itās dishonorable. The other is that their alien way of looking at Honor just happens to cover cloaking as something thatās okay.
What a great comment. This makes me think about cults in society today and how they use indistinct notions like honor to manipulate others by making the moral decisions seem ambiguous through a system of rules that is not rigid but flexible. Changing rules can be justified by using a reinterpreted ideal.
A while back I am also thinking of this question, which led me to think about Klingon Honor, which led me to think of the meta origin of Klingonās Honor comes from Samuraiās honorā¦ which resemble āfaceā
From there, I posted the version 1 of how Klingon Honor is a Mistranslation of Face in here: https://startrek.website/post/432321
Version 2 is at reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/158nyup/klingon_honor_itself_is_a_mistranslation_both_in/. Itās far more refined.
TLDR: Klingon doesnāt have Honor; they have āfaceā (due to meta reason of translating āfaceā to Honor). If you think about face, even cheating is allow; and if you consider cloaking is a type of cheating, then itās not against face. Oh, and a society that focus on face will inevitablely have a high level of corruption dominated by those in power, be it China, Korea, or Klingon.
Winning is the most honorable thing a Klingon can do.
Is it dishonorable for an Owl to strike down a mouse, snatching it before it has any chance to react? I would say no. You could see the tactics of a Klingon Bird of Prey in the same way.
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By killing anyone who says theyāre dishonorable?
How exactly do the Klingons justify using cloaking ships, a strategy which necessarily involves sneaking up on an enemy and catching them unaware? Wouldnāt sneak attacks conflict with their notion of honour?
As another Klingon points out, the only honour is in victory.
The Klingon code of honour is pretty flexible, and there seem to be a lot of different interpretations of it. Some more dogmatic Klingons, like Worf, might find it dishonourable, and avoid cloaking if they can, but there are other Klingons who are less adherent to tradition, and would freely make use of cloaking as they wished.
