“Great men do not seek power; they have power thrust upon them.” — Kahless
John and I continue to watch Outlaws of the Marsh, and we keep remarking at how much the Outlaws remind us of Klingons. A few episodes back, we watched a scene that was remarkably similar to one from Deep Space Nine. Seems Klingons and Song Dynasty bandits have the same ideas about how to deal with incompetent leaders (oh, if only we had a few of them around during the last administration).
Some background: over the course of the last several episodes we’ve been watching, Lin Chong was framed, sent to prison, escaped, and was taken in by a group of outlaws living on Mt. Liang. He’s also been further characterized as a righteous man who has a very gentle demeanor – unless someone breaks a key moral law. So put him in the stocks and make him walk for miles to the next province to be thrown into jail, and he won’t say a word against you; heck, he’ll even give you money for wine. After all, you’re just doing your job. But betray him to a group of assassins, and he’ll show you no mercy, even if you beg and plead for your life. The importance of gratitude is shaping up to be a major theme of Outlaws so far: there have been several characters who were taken in by rich and powerful men, only to stab their benefactors in the back – and later come to violent (and, mostly, well-deserved) ends.
Chao Gai, known as the "Heavenly King."
While Lin Chong is hanging out with the Mt. Liang cabal, another group of outlaws is forming in Shangdong Province: seven assorted ruffians and strongmen under the leadership of the wealthy Chao Gai. These guys, the “Righteous Seven” have sworn to fight government corruption. Word gets out that they’ve stolen a shipment of jewels and silks intended to be a birthday present from one government bigwig to another, and they too take shelter at Mt. Liang. (Of course, they all swear an oath that they didn’t steal the birthday presents “for personal gain.” For the story to work, you have to put aside your cynicism and accept them as Robin Hood-style heroes.)
But the leader of Mt. Liang, Wang Lun, doesn’t want to let the Seven stay, fearing they’ll take over. After he not-so-subtly tries to give them the brush-off, Lin Chong denounces him as an incompetent leader and a “man without honor” and runs him through with his sword. Everyone then exclaims that Lin Chong should take the role of leader, but he insists that Chao Gai would be the most appropriate choice. They argue back and forth for a bit, in a manner amusingly reminiscent of my parents and John’s vying over who will pay the bill in a restaurant (“No, no, we’ll pay. You paid last time.” “No, it’s okay!” “Courtney, take the check away from them!” – it’s so Chinese!) until Chao Gai relents and Lin Chong sits him down on the leader’s chair.
Watching this, John and I were reminded of the nearly-identical scene in Season 7 of Deep Space Nine, in which Worf denounces Gowron, kills him in a bat’leth duel, is upheld as the new chancellor, but insists Martok would make the better leader. We watched that same scene right after Outlaws, and the parallels were striking: there’s a symbol of the transfer of power, in this case the Chancellor’s robe; the would-be leaders both try to cede their title to one another; and Worf also claims Gowron is unfit to rule and lacks honor.
Gowron. Yes, his eyes always look that way.
Okay, so Lin Chong doesn’t roar over Wang Lun’s dead body, and Gowron doesn’t try to pay off the crew of the Rotarran with silver ingots and jewels. Still, it’s interesting that nearly-identical scenes should exist in two very different media. The Star Trek writers probably hadn’t read Outlaws of the Marsh, but the Klingons definitely seem inspired by Asian warrior cultures. Or maybe it’s archetypal: when you get a bunch of belligerent guys together, make them obsessed with honor, and create a power imbalance, things just tend to play out the same bloody (and entertaining) way.
Update:
By way of comparison, here’s the scene from DS9:
And the corresponding scene from Outlaws:
