Very true, however that does not change the fact that Spock's katra is asking why he was left behind. As Sarek says later, "One alive, one not, and both in pain". It would appear to me that Spock had some instructions for McCoy but for whatever reason the meld didn't work as well as he hoped. Perhaps he should have said "Remember really well" during the meld.
I don't think it unravels at all. If you take into account that Spock's body wasn't actually dead in that episode, despite what Henoch might have believed. Spock (and Chapel) also had the experienced assistance of Sargon and Thalassa for all the musical-chairs mind transfers that eventually occurred. This very experience might have been what prompted Spock to decide on his will as stated. If he found the experience particularly difficult he may have decided to spare anyone else the burden. His change of heart during the Genesis crisis may have been something akin to his Galileo 7 gamble.
Re: My Conclusions If Saavik wasn’t raised as a Vulcan, what’s with the Vulcan logic stuff like “Humor is a difficult concept, it is not logical” and “This is not logical, these coordinates are deep inside a lifeless planet”? While we’re talking about it, if the coordinates are so far beneath the surface, what’s the relevance of the planet’s lack of a natural ecosystem?
Re: My Conclusions She wasn't raised "on Vulcan", but she has certainly been force fed lots of Vulcan heritage "as a Vulcan" by Spock, Sarek and Amanda since her rescue from Hellguard. They were examining the last coordinates entered into the transporter, expecting them to designate a region of the surface of uninhabitable Regula, a planet with no natural ecosystem. But the coordinates were bizarrely "deep inside", which is when they realize that there must be a cavern of some kind, perhaps capable of preserving life, but inside the planetoid. ie. the Genesis Cave.
Re: Saavik I didn't say that Saavik wasn't raised as a Vulcan. The novelization states that she wasn't raised on Vulcan. You only quoted one statement meant to serve as a summary of a paragraph in previous post. Here's what that quote was referring to: I admit even that seems thin, but Saavik's half-Vulcan nature did actually originate in TWOK script although there is no mention of it in the final product of the movie. I think that he half-Romulan orphan backstory was included in the novelization of TWOK to explain why Saavik was crying at Spock's funeral (at the director's insistance because of the emotional impact it has on the scene - think about it - if a Vulcan is crying, then the death of Spock is really sad). Then, the same author used that backstory again in TSFS novelization to explain why Saavik hadn't questioned if Spock had transfered his katra to anyone or had wondered why Spock's body hadn't been returned to Vulcan.
Re: Saavik No, the backstory was expanded by Vonda McIntyre, from the one line in the shooting script where Spock tells Kirk that Saavik's half Romulan, to make Vonda's novelization more interesting, and to give some much-needed background to the characters of Peter Preston and Saavik, whom Vonda features heavily, in order to pad the story out to novel length. She certainly didn't do all that to explain away one tear in one scene of a movie that she didn't even see until after she turned in her manuscript. I just checked the script and the funeral scene says, of Saavik, only that she is watching attentively, along with Sulu, Uhura, Chekov and David, and that "SAAVIK wears her hair down..." No scripted mention of tears at all, so Vonda would have been oblivious to the director's choices. The ShoWest presentation/long trailer is linked here: http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2007/07/saavik-shes-half-romulan-jim-many-fans.html