^ I was introduced to the Klingons mostly through their TNG/DS9 depiction as well. But I always found the “space viking” thing a bit too reductive. I mean sometimes it gets really ridiculous, like there’s an episode of DS9 where Klingon soldiers use Bat’leths instead of disruptors during an actual military battle.

But on the other hand, the TOS/TOS-movie Klingons didn’t exactly have a well-defined culture beyond “generic vaguely Eastern stand-in for the USSR/China”, valuing collectivism over individuality. The TOS writers (I think it was Gene Coon) said that the Klingons were based on the USSR and China, but also a little bit on Imperial Japan during WW2, and the original script for the TOS episode “Errand of Mercy” explicitly refers to the Klingons as looking like “Orientals”. I think it was this strain of their thematic DNA - based on Imperial Japan - that evolved into the “Space Viking”/Samurai-esque honor-based warrior culture of the TNG era. The USSR metaphor was kind of obsolete after 1991 (I still blame Gorbachev for the Praxis disaster), but Samurai/Space Vikings can be cool in any era.