Most of this reasoning is irrelevant to me simply because I don’t view each show as seperate. I watch DIS s1 and see this Klingons and can’t help but think “so what about Kang, Kor, or Koloth? How do they look right now?”
It doesn’t matter how cool or scary these new klingons look, they have four nostrils and elongated heads when before they were more like buff humans with ridges. That’s irreconcilable to me, regardless of how the actual aesthetic makes me feel when I watch an episode.
Taking it at face value, the Klingons looked like TNG, then they lost ridges, then regained them with even more than we’d ever seen before, then they lose them, then they go back to TNG? That’s annoying.
Just curious, how did you feel about the TOS-TMP-TNG distinctions in Klingon appearance in the 31 years before it was retconned in ENT? Especially because ENT kinda just skips over the TMP differences. I know a few people who remain really irritated that TNG was such a visual departure from TOS but 99% of fans I know weren’t bothered.
I don’t consider them different. I saw TMP for the first time after having grown up on TOS ans TNG and thought “oh they switched to TNG makeup for the Kirk movies?”
The irritation for TNG looking different than TOS also silly and misplaced. It’s 100 years later. That provides plenty of time in-universe for things to drift and evolve from one depiction to another. It’s the same reason why I have zero qualms in terms of continuity with S3 and s4 of Discovery.
I should clarify that people at the time of tng airing complained about the look of the series in general with the touch screens and carpets and stuff.
Rod at the time of TMP did imply the Klingon ridges were a retcon but it was never confirmed, and it’s unclear how we’re supposed to interpret the augment virus now with SNW reverting to the TMP/TNG look.
Personally I’d love for Kor, Kang, or Koloth to make an appearance without ridges in SNW.