Worf wasn't a bad father, the writers just refused to let him be one
Posted by OhNoIBoffedIt@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 15 comments
Posted by OhNoIBoffedIt@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 15 comments
RedditOfUnusualSize@reddit
To add to your point, as much as I like Suzie Plakson's performance and K'Ehleyr as a character, she obtained sex from Worf under false pretenses, and then dumped him with the resulting child. This isn't something the fans like to consider, as both Plakson and K'Ehleyr are really popular among the fanbase. But it's straightforward reading of the text. K'Ehleyr knew that Worf had conditions for having sex; they had previously broken up specifically because he was not going to mate unless they first got Klingon-married. She knew this hadn't changed. Yet she was horny and wanted to get her rocks off, so she had sex with Worf anyway, then told him to pound sand when he immediately initiated the marriage rite.
If the genders were reversed, I don't think there's any real dispute that this would be treated like a sexual assault. It's sex by false pretenses. This is not a criticism of sex without marriage; what K'Ehleyr does with her private recreation time is her own business. Rather, it's a criticism of the fact that the episode specifically writes out any possible misinterpretation, or "I didn't understand" grey area. Worf was extremely clear about his boundaries, and Worf has just as much a right to set terms under which he will have sex, and have those be respected, as anybody else. And K'Ehleyr very specifically did not respect those boundaries. Yet Worf was not allowed to be mad, and was very much treated as being in the wrong and a stick-in-the-mud who doesn't appreciate K'Ehleyr. And the implication is that Worf is supposed to suck it up, because after all, K'Ehleyr is a straight-up hottie and anyone in their right mind would take that opportunity if it arose.
And then in the very next episode we see her, she shows up with a son he didn't know about, right after he's accepted a discommendation that affects the son he didn't know he had, she gets murdered, and she leaves him holding the bag. I know it should not matter, but I can't help but point out that if the genders had been reversed, and K'Ehleyr had been forced to parent a child as a result of sex by false pretenses, I can't help but think that the writers, as well as the fanbase, would have cut K'Ehleyr all kinds of slack for being a crummy, conflicted parent that they never cut Worf. Add on the fact that, yeah, Status Quo was God, and while there was certainly some light continuity within the series, the parent-child relationship was never what interested the writers, and yeah, I think Worf as a character catches a lot of undeserved flak, because the writers dropped some very critical balls in writing the character as a parent. The meta-level analysis is, I think, instructive.
Fancy_Toe1451@reddit
Well obviously as a fictional character it was the writers fault he was a bad dad. That is given. We just have to accept that as baseline. All we can do is talk about the implied motivations and the reasons they gave him for being a bad dad.
Gullible-Fee-9079@reddit
That's an interesting take. "Dukat wasn't evil. The writers just made him out to be evil."
rrrbin@reddit
Picard wasn't a good example at all, a lot of effort was put in the scenarios to make him look like one.
Also, Q was not omnipotent. What you saw happening was just coincidental occurrances that were put in the script on purpose.
rxt278@reddit
My problem with Worf's parenting is that it is out of character for him to constantly take the easy way out. Worf is otherwise depicted as someone who always chooses the honorable, more difficult path. He would have viewed being a dad as extremely challenging, a battle to be won through excellence, and thrown himself into the role. He would have seen nurturing his offspring as an extremely honorable, macho thing to do. He'd have *researched* it. If anything, they should have had an episode where he collapses from sheer exhaustion from being a working, single parent, and his friends would step in and help him raise the toddler.
They should have also had Alexander age like a human. It was just a matter of convenience to the showrunners that he aged so fast.
Doctor_Titties@reddit
When Worf and Jadzia are talking about having a kid Worf gets real serious about it. You can tell he regrets how he raised (or didn’t raise) Alexander and he wants to be a better father to his possible new child. He even babysits Yoshi to practice for having a new kid. It’s too little too late, though, and the damage is done to Alexander.
OopsAIIBots@reddit
Shoddy premise. "It was bad writing" doesn't absolve the character of anything. Worf abandoned his son. He abandoned his brother. Out of universe explanations have 0 relevance.
OhNoIBoffedIt@reddit (OP)
They absolutely have relevance. Because it wasn't just a case of bad writing. It was a case of the episodic television having serialized consequences. When the writers wrote Worf as actually interacting with his son, every time, they wrote him as trying. As a struggling father trying to do right by his son. That's clearly the intent, that's clearly where they were going with it. The reputation that he was a bad father wasn't because he was written that way. It's because he was written as if the kid didn't exist until they couldn't get away with it anymore.
OopsAIIBots@reddit
Yeah, like a bad dad. He tried a little bit... nd when it didn't yield immediate results, he abandoned the situation.
That sounds like.. a lot of deadbeat dads. Some of them are good at their jobs and actually decent as friends.
Worf being a bad dad is pretty much established Canon, I don't think you're going to find a lot of people who will agree with your take. It seems like you're looking for a way to rationalize worf''s behavior and you're going outside of the universe to do it.
ImperatorNero@reddit
I also don’t agree with chalking it up to ‘bad writing’. I know it’s a different show with different writers but Sisko might be one of the best television fathers ever. Certainly in Star Trek.
We should reflect on the fact that Worf was written to be a poor parent because even an honorable man who tries to take his duties and responsibilities seriously, almost to a fault, failed. It happens. It doesn’t make him a bad man or a bad character, it does make him a bad dad.
His struggles with connecting to family, even the adopted family that raised him with love and care, are intentional plot elements. His entire character is about someone who doesn’t quite fit in wherever he goes but still managing to make a place and to make connections. I would say that’s his character growth.
balthazar_edison@reddit
Replace "work wasn't a bad father" with " discovery wasn't a bad show" and you see why you're argument is BS.
Dartagnan1083@reddit
It stuck loops back to decisions made with writers and showrunners.
We could have had a season of Discovery that wasn't the Burnham Show and let other characters drive the plot...but decisions were made, and bad habits held on.
Conversely, We could get an episode (or more) where Worf could, in a fell swoop,
-take proper steps to better fatherhood -be a good security chief -withstand the dreaded barrel
But the writers instead decided we'd watch Dr. Crusher resign from starfleet to live on Planet Ireland and let an alien be her radioactive Hitachi...but decisions were made, and bad habits held on.
Haruspex_Rex@reddit
I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make. Every character is only what the writers make them to be. Worf was written as a bad father, so that’s what he is. Now, the writers and show runners don’t really think the whole Alexander plot lines through. I think they just introduce him because they thought it would be cute to have a little kid and it would be funny to see Worf struggle to parent. No one gave it a thought beyond that. Ultimately, that lack of planning made the character be a deadbeat dad.
Ueatsoap@reddit
But at the end of the day isn’t he exactly what the writers make him?
BitcoinMD@reddit
Isn’t that the same thing?