I don’t think the Klingon leadership were ever lying to their people about why the war happened. I think everyone involved understood the simple soulist truth that a war is whatever the combatants can agree is a war, and therefore a bloodless war as a formality of cultural respect and independence is perfectly valid.
The realist viewpoint of “a war has to be between two people who hate each other and if they don’t then it’s not a real war” is not culturally universal. In fact, this episode reminded Me of what I’ve read of war in indigenous Australia. Wars did not usually involve any loss of life before colonisation.
Limerance@piefed.social 8 hours ago
Ritual combat is something Klingons have a lot of cultural understanding and respect for. This fits right in.
skfsh@startrek.website 6 hours ago
Aha. This is the reasoning that made the whole thing click for me. Thank you!