Lwaxana is literally a leader of Betazed who likes to wreak a lot of havoc but is still loving. Chaotically Good, she taught Alexander (and Worf) how to have fun (practically the aunt of Alexander), she was confident enough to split away from her husband who’s gender-fascist culture dictated Lwaxana couldn’t meet her baby, was married and interested in a changeling, had children with many different species. Plus, when she was sick she literally disrupted the Bajoran Festival of Peldar Joi and everyone got really interested in each other. And also got super interested in the captain of her daughter’s starship… God if there is a more Chaotic Good character I don’t know who it would be.
She also serially sexually harassed Odo on DS9.
That’s true. She also did it to Picard.
One of the questions I always have about Lwaxana regarding Picard and Odo is whether she was actually incorrect in her telepathic understanding of their feelings about her.
We saw that she was an incredibly powerful telepath. Riker observed right from her first visit to Enterprise that she always knew exactly what you were thinking and let you know it. She makes no distinction between what people say verbally vs what she’s hearing telepathically. And as Riker notes, she calls people on their thoughts all the time.
In the show, Picard and Odo’s protests that they have no interest imply that Luaxana’s telepathy is failing when it comes to men of her age that she finds attractive. Basically, she’s shown as being so desperate for love as an older woman that she’s getting their thoughts wrong.
But do we actually have evidence that her telepathy is compromised when she hears others’ thoughts about herself?
Quite the contrary. Even when distracted by her own situation she was able to uncover major threats to the Federation.
In personal relations then, if what she heard didn’t line up with what they were saying, and she persisted based on what she heard from their minds, should it be considered harassment?
One of the questions I always have about Lwaxana regarding Picard and Odo is whether she was actually incorrect in her telepathic understanding of their feelings about her.
Well i think i recall a DS9 episode where she admits she cant read changelings minds, so Odo she cant read.
That said…I cant recall if i saw this in shitty daystrom, or if it was a dream. But i have a theory that Picard was unusually resilient to telepathy and able to override emotions above all else for the job. Riker was a horn dog, so no doubt she knew he was honking his horn to her daughter from day 1. But Picard was always a company man, and being a cue ball, probably into some more mature women.
My theory is that she knew the man had some kinks in the closet and likely kept some memories of Lwaxana in his spank bank when wondering what could have been. She picked up on it and decided to fuck with him incessantly throughout the show for it, knowing full well he was a trained company man and would never give into emotions like that, at least when stone sober. But she knew what he whipped it to in the sonic shower, he knew she knew and it became the most dangerous game of chess of him trying to make sure she didnt just blurt it out, while playing icarus and riding as close to the twin stars of her bussom as he could to store it in his spank bank without crossing the line.
As for Odo, i think she couldnt read it (again I think i saw it in an episode) but was able to seduce him to get that changeling d, which she encouraged him to “change it up” to be of a perfect fit. And thus, became quite enamored with his graces.
Those are my running theories.
In personal relations then, if what she heard didn’t line up with what they were saying, and she persisted based on what she heard from their minds, should it be considered harassment?
Probably not on Betazed. But personally I identify more with the Devore Imperium on this subject.
“chaotic good” - i like that, perfect.
The Odo thing, mentioned in earlier comments, well, Odo was a bit of a fascist so I can live with Lwaxana making him very uncomfortable.
Yeah, all security chiefs are practically fascist or hardcore, overbearing traditionalists in Star Trek (maybe except La’An). Why they choose to portray them that way? I think someone has a secret agenda. Edit: And admirals. Almost every admiral we see is in some way corrupt.
People who are drawn to positions like these are often conservative (I’m not saying facist), so it makes a lot of sense to me. In real life you can see that with the police and other security-centered jobs for example. And it makes a lot of sense, since these positions are about keeping things „in order“ which is a very fundamental conservative value if you think about it. So rather strict, inflexible security chiefs are very believable to me.
I’ve already said as much in a comment on the other thread, but Lwaxana is amazing. She’s the only ST character that Barrett got to play that was truly fleshed out, and it shows how amazing an actress she was. I’m so glad to see SNW doing her TOS era characters justice.
I need to find a list of all Lwaxana episodes and binge them. :D
My favorite character in all of Star Trek. Just absolute chaos most of the time, but in a few episodes (“Dark Page” and “The Forsaken” to name a few) shows some real depth and serious acting chops on the part of Majel.
