I might be missing something, but with card actions limited to one use per turn (unless otherwise noted), why do bother the revealed strongholds (Lion and Crane) require you to bow them in order to use their abilities?

Wondered if anyone had a theory here, or if I had just missed a previous explanation...

Wouldn't bowing them remove the holding bonus as well?

Maybe there are other cards that have "Bow your Stronghold" as a cost?

Possibly there are ways to bow a card -- any card. Or specifically bow Strongholds so their abilities can't be used.

Might have been hold-over wording from a time when abilities were not once/turn.

It's been specified in the rules that "Character abilities may only be used once per round, unless otherwise specified, like the Wandering Ronin (Core Set, 127)." (Emphasis mine).

I don't think FFG has yet mentioned any inherent limitation on Stronghold abilities, or Attachment abilities. Note how the Jade Tetsubo also requires you to bow the attachment in order to use it. In the LotR LCG, which I play a lot as you can probably tell by my avatar, exhausting (that game's term for bowing) attachments is how their abilities become limited to once-per-turn, because there are lots of effects that can ready characters but no effects that can ready attachments. (By design; I'm sure there will never be ready-an-attachment effects in LotR. I'm not so certain about that in L5R, but I think it's very unlikely that any such effects will show up in the Core Set).

So the Stronghold bowing is how you would keep track of its once-per-turn limitation. And that also opens up room for them to, someday, create card effects that ready Strongholds or Attachments. Such effects would be incredibly powerful, if they ever did show up.

Bowed characters don't add their skill to the conflict, could the same be said for attachments and even holdings?

The use of bowing the Stronghold would be to limit its use and force the strategic choice of use. That would seem to be the most logical reason to add this as the cost.

1 hour ago, RandomJC said:

Bowed characters don't add their skill to the conflict, could the same be said for attachments and even holdings?

It is an intriguing idea.

Another possibility is that some cards might allow additional uses of other card's abilities. Bowing as a cost means that you need both a straighten and a additional use for some abilities.