In an attached clip from the video “game” Star Trek: Klingon (in-universe an educational holodeck program), a holographic Gowron violently shakes the player and yells player, “When I say jump out of an airlock, you will JUMP OUT OF AN AIRLOCK!”
My question is, outside of edge cases where it’s actually necessary to win a battle, would this level of order-following actually align with proper Klingon theology?
I feel like this would be an honorless death (kind of like if your commander told you to stab yourself with a d’k tahg), and thus if you were actually given an order like this, the proper Klingon thing to do would be to challenge your commanding officer to honorable combat. I could see a more Martokian view that honor demands you follow your commander, though, but I feel like even he would have limits.
I can think of three explanations for what Gowron said: 1) It’s simply a hyperbole. 2) Gowron isn’t exactly a beacon of Klingon honor (as seen in the last episodes of DS9), so maybe it’s a misinterpretation. 3) It’s a mistake in the program. Either it’s a glitch if it was made in cooperation with the Klingons or it was done entirely by Federation researchers who messed up a bit.
Obviously, this game falls more in Memory Beta territory, but I’d argue it’s reasonably canon, as it’s basically screen (live action or animated) Star Trek and a song in this game was later canonized in DS9.
Hyperbole to emphasize the importance of following orders in battle, even if you think it’s a mistake.
Ours is not to reason why; Ours is but to do and die
I feel like this would be an honorless death
Agreed. And the trainee knows that. And the trainee should know that their commanders know that issuing such an order unnecessarily would bring dishonor on both the trainee and the commander. And yet, the commander is talking about a situation where this order is issued.
Either the commander intends to dishonor themselves and the trainee, or, the order isn’t “unnecessary”.
The point is that the captain wants his orders obeyed instantly. Reaction time matters.
How about a Worfian view on on honor:
In war, there is nothing more honourable than victory.
Worf would absolutely jump out an airlock, drunk on honour, if it would actually mean victory.
But Worf wouldn’t jump out just to die for Gowron’s lulz.