Why does Ezri break the rejoining rules?

Question

In DS9 "Rejoined" we learn that Trills must not pursue romantic relationships with people their former hosts had romantic relationships with. The reason for this rule is that the symbiont transfer is all about experiencing new things in life. Trills who don't obey this rule are excluded from Trill society, so this is a very strict and important rule.

So what's wrong with Ezri?

At first she doesn't pursue the relationship with Worf because he ignores her - not because of some rule. Than she doesn't do it because she has a little crush on Bashir and started to dislike Klingon stuff. In "Penumbra" finally she overcomes those minor reasons against a relationship with Worf, appears to be completely oblivious to the major reason (exclusion from Trill society) and they "re-consummate" their marriage. Even later, when they broke up again, not a word about the rule.

Now we know that Curzon was more interested in women than in rules, so this might be why Ezri Dax doesn't care. Joran has no interest in rules at all. Does she come back on this topic to explain it somewhere?

Or was the rule suspended (and if so, in which episode)? Or was Ezri simply not informed about that rule since she did not undergo the preparation procedure? Does she have to suffer consequences for her re-consummation (again: if so, in which episode)?

Answer 1

Trill who are chosen to be joined go through a long process of study to prepare for the event, and it's during that process that the rules and expectation of joining are explained and drummed into the prospective host. It also contains some training on what to expect when the joining happens and the memories and experiences of the former hosts suddenly rush into the Trill's mind.

Ezri never went through that process and was never properly trained. So the normal rules and regulations for joined Trill aren't part of her psyche when she's joined. Since she had no training in how to cope with the influx of new memories, emotions and drives from the previous hosts she may also have undergone some psychological changes where strong elements of previous hosts would become part of her own emotional and mental make-up.

At least that's how I remember it - DS9's seventh season is not one I've watched in a while.

From Memory Alpha:

It is possible that this law only applies to two joined Trill. This would make sense considering three of Dax's hosts were friends with Benjamin Sisko, and Ezri Dax's decision to remain with Jadzia's old friends appeared to be perfectly acceptable to Trill society apart from some initial discomfort among the DS9 crew about how to relate to someone who both was and wasn't their old friend. This is also consistent with what René Echevarria said about Michael Piller's original idea for DS9: "Rejoined": "He felt they'd have a very strict taboo in order to avoid an aristocracy of the joined. Otherwise, they'd only want to hang out with each other, their dear old friends from five hundred years ago, and it would become a really screwed up society." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion): a relation between a joined Trill and a non-Trill (or even an unjoined Trill) would not present this risk.

Answer 2

I believe it was said that the rule of reassociations only applied to trill Trill marriages, not Trill with other species.