Why are the Betazoids described as an empathic species in SFA? Troi was an empath, but that’s because she’s half human. Lwxana and the Betazoid “delegates” in LDS are all telepathic. They all regularly use telepathy to speak to each other and to humans they’re close with. Why are the Betazoids in Academy signing to each other to communicate subtly instead of thinking?
Also, was the Betazoid president’s taking off of the speech device supposed to be symbolic of something in lore? I know the actsman is Deaf, but is there some kind of link between Deafness/muteness and the psionic wall?
Based on what @ValueSubtracted mentioned, maybe the signing is something to do with when you’re Tan Elbrum-level powerful, telepathic communication isn’t a good idea?
Also, I felt like they did demonstrate some telepathic, not merely empathic, ability in the episode; I’ve only watched it once, so I can’t quite recall my evidence, but it seemed they could get surface-level thoughts beyond emotion, like “you’ve lost someone” instead of just “grief”. I wonder if it’s a consent/pushing too hard thing, somewhat like soothing and rioting in Mistborn; if the average Betazoid tries to get beyond the surface level of thought, the target will be able to tell, and their privacy will feel invaded.
I’ve been digging a little deeper, and in “Ménage à Troi”, Deanna tells Lwaxana that it’s “impolite not to speak aloud” when amongst non-telepaths. It’s very possible that the president is simply deaf, and they were using sign language to maintain those manners.
Yeah, that was the feeling I got. President is deaf. They were avoiding being subtle. Gotta say it’s kinda funny to see aliens using ASL, though. I know it’s no sillier than all of them speaking English, but it’s a little more visual so it did kinda make me chuckle
I guess if “Federation Standard” is just American English, the common sign language might as well be ASL…
Exactly. It’s objectively not any sillier, just made me chuckle somehow. I guess it was surprising but in the same moment I had no idea why it should surprise me, y’know?