[DS9] Sons of Mogh

[Madner Kami]

Kurn does reappear, but only in Beta-Canon (and voiced by Tony Todd):

[...]

Rodek appears in the game Star Trek Online as a General in the Klingon Defense Force, joining the player in battle against Tzenkethi forces. Following the mission to liberate Martok from his imprisonment at a Son'a facility in the Briar Patch, Rodek discovers the truth of his past. He chooses to return to his former identity and he and his mate B'irja take up residence on Deep Space 9 to continue assisting the Alliance against the Tzenkethi.

[...]

Also goes down a bit differently in the IKS Gorkon/Star Trek Klingon novel series by Keith R. A. DeCandido.

True, but with the canonization of the Odyssey-class, it stands to reason that the events of STO are closer to alpha canon than these books these days. But then again, elseworlds-stories vOv

[BlackoutCreature2]

Kurn does reappear, but only in Beta-Canon (and voiced by Tony Todd):

[...]

Rodek appears in the game Star Trek Online as a General in the Klingon Defense Force, joining the player in battle against Tzenkethi forces. Following the mission to liberate Martok from his imprisonment at a Son'a facility in the Briar Patch, Rodek discovers the truth of his past. He chooses to return to his former identity and he and his mate B'irja take up residence on Deep Space 9 to continue assisting the Alliance against the Tzenkethi.

[...]

I was never particularly happy with how this played out in the game. As Rodek he should've been pissed that his entire life was basically a lie. As Kurn he should've been pissed that his wishes were completely ignored by his own family. Klingon honor can be weird at times, but I'm not sure how he can even accept himself as living an honorable life when the life he's living is due to completely ignoring generally accepted Klingon traditions and expectations. I'm also amazed we've never seen more pushback from other Klingons towards him when they find out about this mess. Yet he just seems to just accept it without issue and moves on. I know STO can't use Michael Dorn anymore because of union reasons, and even if they could this kind of family drama and psychological strife would probably be difficult to adapt into a compelling video game mission, but it still feels like they glossed over a lot to get to a generally happy ending.

[HighPriest]

I think the mindwipe isn't considered that controversial for a few reasons.

1. It's fulfilling Kurn's wish. While there are probably many out there who don't agree with assisted suicide, especially in a case like this where it's a matter of being an exile from society rather than a slow, painful death or the like, ultimately Kurn WANTED to die originally. It's why he came to see Worf - to die and restore his honor. This ultimately fulfills his wants, even if it took a while to get there.

2. The fact that he's not dead at all. It's entirely possible that in the future, his memory could be restored if the opportunity arose, so it's not like the story is being closed off forever with his death. It's just putting the toy away in the box for a while should they ever need it again.

3. Kurn isn't human. The values and beliefs of the Klingons are different and Trek already teaches tolerance and acceptance in different cultures and their viewpoints, and in this case it's honoring those beliefs and customs just in a roundabout way.

Now, it's debatable whether Kurn should have given his consent in this first (Bashir certainly should have gotten it first by his own beliefs as a Doctor, but there you go), but it's possible from the writers' perspective Kurn would have believed this to not be acceptable - only physical death would have satisfied him - and thus if he isn't aware of it it works, but really just feels like a case of "To include the discussion or asking would have put the episode over and it was felt this worked better."

I feel like all of these reasons have some issues for me.

1 and 3 have the same objection... a factory reset does nothing to actually consider Kurn's beliefs, which appear to be that as a dishonored warrior, he will have no place in Klingon Valhalla. At least according to Memory Alpha, that's the purpose of the ritual - it restores the honor of a disgraced warrior, so he can take his place among the honored dead. It's not just to put him out of his misery as an exile from his people - this is his eternal spiritual redemption.

Whatever Bashir does to Kurn in terms of memory, I really doubt Kurn would be able to buy it as providing him with a "fresh" soul, considering what is generally shown of Klingon beliefs. This is a people that believe in dishonor to the seventh generation. Amnesia is pretty unlikely to be an acceptable get-out-of-dishonor-free card when the afterlife comes. The memory eraser button, from Kurn's standpoint, would just be an anesthetic to numb the pain of dishonor until he regains his awareness of it in the afterlife.

In other words, they're not respecting his beliefs or traditions at all. They're just sort of... getting him out of the way, in a way that can make them pat themselves on the back and say "oh what a good thing we've done, and Kurn will now be totally ok, because obviously Klingon heaven isn't a real place" in their smug Starfleet way.

2 also has issues. Worf ends up getting adopted into a major house, the House of Martok. Martok becomes Chancellor at the end of the series! Worf is his adopted... uh, son, I guess? But it doesn't exactly seem like he's dashing off to restore Kurn's lost memories and restore his house, something that it feels like Martok probably both could and would do pretty willingly, knowing the circumstances. At worst, he could get Kurn into the House of Martok pretty trivially... Ezri even got into the House of Martok, and that mostly seems to be because she was standing sort of near Worf for some parts of the last season. I don't really even remember Kurn getting mentioned in any of the Klingon drama after this - no matter how Worf rises and falls, it really doesn't feel like he's coming back.

Admittedly, if I remember correctly DS9 ends pretty quickly after Martok's ascending to the throne, so I could be wrong. Maybe Kurn's already shown up like 4 times and laughed away the whole issue on... uh, Picard, I guess? I haven't watched pretty much any of the new Trek.

[hypocratus]

Worf really doesn't have any time to even look for Kurn, as DS9 ends the war near the end of the series. There is also the question of if Kurn survived the war. Plus I suspect that there is some turmoil in the Klingon Empire when Worf kills Gowan and gives Martok the Chancellery.
Ezri Dax was already a member of the House of Martok, due to Jadzia Dax marrying Worf, if I am remembering correctly.

[CMWaters]

Worf really doesn't have any time to even look for Kurn, as DS9 ends the war near the end of the series. There is also the question of if Kurn survived the war. Plus I suspect that there is some turmoil in the Klingon Empire when Worf kills Gowan and gives Martok the Chancellery.
Ezri Dax was already a member of the House of Martok, due to Jadzia Dax marrying Worf, if I am remembering correctly.

It takes time for Ezri, but she is told she was accepted because Worf and IIRC Martok off camera considered her a "worthy successor to Jadzia". It wasn't an instant-in though.

[McAvoy]

Worf really doesn't have any time to even look for Kurn, as DS9 ends the war near the end of the series. There is also the question of if Kurn survived the war. Plus I suspect that there is some turmoil in the Klingon Empire when Worf kills Gowan and gives Martok the Chancellery.
Ezri Dax was already a member of the House of Martok, due to Jadzia Dax marrying Worf, if I am remembering correctly.

It wouldnt surprise me that Worf kept tabs on his brother the entire time.

It really doesn't seem like Word to completely ignore his brother like that even if he did pretty much removed himself from having a brother.

[CMWaters]

Worf really doesn't have any time to even look for Kurn, as DS9 ends the war near the end of the series. There is also the question of if Kurn survived the war. Plus I suspect that there is some turmoil in the Klingon Empire when Worf kills Gowan and gives Martok the Chancellery.
Ezri Dax was already a member of the House of Martok, due to Jadzia Dax marrying Worf, if I am remembering correctly.

It wouldnt surprise me that Worf kept tabs on his brother the entire time.

It really doesn't seem like Word to completely ignore his brother like that even if he did pretty much removed himself from having a brother.

I mean, he did pretty much ignore his son for a good while between TNG and DS9.

[McAvoy]

Worf really doesn't have any time to even look for Kurn, as DS9 ends the war near the end of the series. There is also the question of if Kurn survived the war. Plus I suspect that there is some turmoil in the Klingon Empire when Worf kills Gowan and gives Martok the Chancellery.
Ezri Dax was already a member of the House of Martok, due to Jadzia Dax marrying Worf, if I am remembering correctly.

It wouldnt surprise me that Worf kept tabs on his brother the entire time.

It really doesn't seem like Word to completely ignore his brother like that even if he did pretty much removed himself from having a brother.

I mean, he did pretty much ignore his son for a good while between TNG and DS9.

It's funny after I posted this then my brain said 'what about Alexander?'

He wasn't aware of what was going on with his son at all.

[CrypticMirror]

It's funny after I posted this then my brain said 'what about Alexander?'

More than Worf's brain ever did. How long after the Enterprise D crashed in Generations did it take for Worf to go back and go through the wreckage for Alexander? We saw Data looking for Spot, but we didn't even get that for Alexander... Did Worf have to ask one of the rescue starships to turn around and go back?

[clearspira]

The only father we've seen in Star Trek worse than Worf is Picard's. And you know the scary thing? He was trying for a kid with Jadzia.