Originally published at: Is the Klingon Bat'leth impractical? | Boing Boing
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Thank you for your first sentence.
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Check out scholagladiatoria Youtube video Star Trek KLINGON Bat’Leth ‘sword’ - Good or Bad? and you’ll see why this guy is wrong
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Matt Easton’s assessment:
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If the other guy has a stick, it’s very practical.
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Or a banana. Or a pomegranate. Or any fresh fruit, really.
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The real world is full of wildly impractical and ridiculous weapons. Why shouldn’t Klingons be every bit as ridiculous in their methods of possibly injuring themselves while trying to injure others? They’re just like us!
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If only there was a way to defend against an attack with a banana.
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All in all the review was rahter positive. Not the best of weapons, but still useful in the right circumstances.
For a movie prop where they had to come up with something unusual that fitted Klingons it’s great. It’s a weapon for an orc, not an elf.
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Hard disagree. A willingness to admit past error is far more admirable. Human governance would also look very different if we used that as the standard to judge our leadership.
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Probably the most impractical weapon in all of Star Trek was the weird poisoned boxing glove thing that made an appearance during the worst (and most racist) episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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First, you force him to drop the banana. Next, you eat the banana.
Haven’t you taken the fresh fruit defense class?
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Well, as a Black man in America, I have to agree. If not for America’s acknowledgment of past mistakes, albeit a glacial admission that’s still notoriously incomplete, I wouldn’t be having this conversation with you.
However, there’s more than one way to be admirable. I believe that being resolute in your convictions until the bitter end is commendable- even if it’s also dumb. Both things can be true.
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Is Bat’leth a weapon of war or only used for ceremonial duels? And do those duels mostly end with someone dead, or just disarmed and embarrassed?
My takeaway from the video is that a Bat’leth would be good for defense and giving your opponent cool scars (and maybe chopping off a hand or a finger) but not great for dealing killing blows. Kind of like how you use dueling pistols to settle a matter of honor rather than bringing a rifle.
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Agreed… although the space irish one is kind of up there, too…
I guess not racist, but… ethnicist?
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That episode has a little bit of something for everyone that no one needed.
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Ah yes, the Bringloidi (brionglóidi?) would be a close second for most racist / ethnically-troubling episode.
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I actually have to disagree. While “Code of Honor” isn’t great, the most racist episode in Next Generation to me is “Justice,” where the Enterprise crew lands on a planet known as a paradise for the most beautiful people…but they’re all white.
Those are the subtle biases that are genuinely racist to me. Code of Honor is obviously offensive, which is why I find it so funny. Like, who read that script and was like, “Yup, this is the one. Let’s get to work, guys.”
I love that episode because it’s such a racist relic from an unenlightened time. But then again, I have a weird sense of humor and a unique perspective as a Black fella.
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The crazy thing is that the original story for “Code of Honor” was going to have a primitive reptilian race, but someone presumably decided all that makeup would be too expensive and said “hey why don’t we just make them look like tribal African people during the period of European colonization?”
People recognized it as embarrassingly racist even at the time.
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