At the moment, they're not allowed to.
One presumes there's not many survivors left if Nero has the gall to call himself and his crew "the last of the Romulan Empire."
Was blowing up Romulus a good idea?
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Perhaps, but I would think that Nero would be an unreliable source of factual information.
Still, one should assume there's some truth to his claims, in order to explain why he's so batshit crazy and bent on destroying the Federation.
I always understood that Nero's hatred was fueled by the death of his wife and son, no matter how nobly he cloaked it with comments about representing the "Romulan Empire."
However, his crew wouldn't have followed Nero on a crusade against the Federation that would make them labeled terrorists just because of his own personal loss. Presumably they lost their families and loved ones too, or is there still a thriving Romulan Empire with few casualties from the loss of Romulus and those who were lost were all related to someone on Narada? Damn unlucky ship.
Large losses would be inevitable in any planetary "death" - however Vulcan was destroyed in a manner of minutes and a few were able to be rescued, and when added to the Vulcan diaspora (which was rather limited in scope) there were around 10,000 total Vulcans in the galaxy.
The danger posed by Hobus was known... and there would have been time for at least a portion of the Romulan people to escape from the system. In addition, the Romulan Empire was quite extensive, with representatives and soldiers on hundreds of worlds. So the chances are the many millions of Romulans survived the death of their home planet.
The danger posed by Hobus was known... and there would have been time for at least a portion of the Romulan people to escape from the system. In addition, the Romulan Empire was quite extensive, with representatives and soldiers on hundreds of worlds. So the chances are the many millions of Romulans survived the death of their home planet.
The Romulans are among my favorite aliens in Trek. Personally, I thought it was a mistake to destroy both Romulus and Vulcan. Vulcan I could deal with since it was an alternate timeline, and was supposed to be different. Romulus, I never quite was on board with, since it was in the Prime timeline. Just was not necessary, and I had always believed we would one day see Romulus become allies in the same way the Klingons had. Both Unification, with Spock remaining on Romulus to become the "Romulan Surak," and Nemesis ending on a note of the Federation and Romulans may strike a new treaty, seemed anti-climatic after Star Trek 2009 just blows up Romulus.
Or could have been another Romulan planet that Nero's family was on. Still the same motivation for revenge without destroying Romulus.
They killed billions on Vulcan in the same movie. I don't think they gave a shit. They had the entire remaining Vulcan population at 10,000, making them an endangered species, when you'd think after a thousand or two years in space, since the Romulans left at least, there'd be more of them off homeworld. Or with enough planetside and orbital ships and personal shuttles to increase that number by a lot.
I'd love it if the Romulans began massive planetary evacuation the moment they began looking to a foreign scientist in Spock to aid their plight, but Abrams & Co. did not think of or present any of that in the movie. But if Nero says they're the last of them, that may be retconned (for idiocy) later, but the presentation is that they're the last of them.
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That makes Vulcans incredibly vulnerable to attacks. They're pretty much like a small village now.
Given that both Romulans and Vulcans were expansionist and, arguably, imperialist, there should have been plenty of colonies with plenty of surplus population.
Not canon, but the IDW comics suggest there are others elsewhere and the 10,000 is those who were on Vulcan proper at the time of the disaster.
It isn't always necessary to consider the feelings of a fictional race of people. When it comes to the main story and focus of any Trek film, it doesn't matter if Spock was one of 10,000 or one of 10,000,000,000.
In some respects, the story telling potential of Spock being one of a few is greater than Spock being one(half) of many.
It isn't necessary that I shut my brain off to enjoy someone else's lesser entertainment either. If a race of people can be disregarded 'Cause Laziness, then they can be regarded 'Cause Talent. What am I paying for?
No, I don't find genocide an unserious matter. Use it well, or fuck off.
Genocide in a "real - world" situation is no laughing matter, that is for sure.
However, in fiction, especially in science fiction the idea that an entire race, planet, or sometimes even galaxy has been eliminated due to requirements of the story isn't uncommon, and it doesn't indicate a callousness or laziness on the part of the writer. The emotional impact of both the destruction of Vulcan and Romulus was given a tremendous amount of attention in nuTrek, to the point that it weighed heavily on the actions of multiple characters, indeed it was central to the entire plot.
However, in fiction, especially in science fiction the idea that an entire race, planet, or sometimes even galaxy has been eliminated due to requirements of the story isn't uncommon, and it doesn't indicate a callousness or laziness on the part of the writer. The emotional impact of both the destruction of Vulcan and Romulus was given a tremendous amount of attention in nuTrek, to the point that it weighed heavily on the actions of multiple characters, indeed it was central to the entire plot.
In order: Yes, yes, and no.
All of which is completely reversible. They can have it all back in one wave of a magic wand.
It seemed pretty hackneyed to me. The specifics DonIago is talking about and I commented on were not well presented.
They were going to wipe out the entire Prime Universe Isolinear, Mr. laser Beam, but were mercifully stopped. That unnecessary step was not taken.
The problem with the Vulcan and Romulan genocides is that they seem to be steps not needed to be taken either. Not in the light-toned movie Abrams presented. A good villain almost(?) never needs that level of motivation. Lip service was given to the pain the characters felt, but both it and the deaths themselves were sauce for the romp through the Trekverse presented. The level of destruction was that of a thousand Munich or Schindler's List or The Killing Fields movies, yet it's all just part of the fun(!) of taking a trip to the Trekvers, kids!
The movie worked despite its genocidal components, not because of them.
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