Can A Romulan Mind Meld
- Thread starter JoeRalat
- Start date
Onscreen, we haven't seen enough to disprove a Romulan ability to mind meld or neck pinch.
I'd just expect that whatever "natural", biological readiness there is in the Vulcanoid body for performing those acts always requires intensive training and a good discipline of mind in order to become a practical ability. And Romulans are just too hotheaded to do good melds or pinches, although they might have other, more crude and aggressive mental abilities of interest.
Say, we still don't know who the Remans are - a separate slave species, or horribly mutated Romulan exiles? If they are merely mutated Romulans, then the Viceroy's abilities to do long distance telepathy in ST:NEM could speak for general Romulan telepathic skills.
Timo Saloniemi
I'd just expect that whatever "natural", biological readiness there is in the Vulcanoid body for performing those acts always requires intensive training and a good discipline of mind in order to become a practical ability. And Romulans are just too hotheaded to do good melds or pinches, although they might have other, more crude and aggressive mental abilities of interest.
Say, we still don't know who the Remans are - a separate slave species, or horribly mutated Romulan exiles? If they are merely mutated Romulans, then the Viceroy's abilities to do long distance telepathy in ST:NEM could speak for general Romulan telepathic skills.
Timo Saloniemi
I've assumed that the Vulcans get their mental abilities from the discipline of logic. The Rommies may have these abilities but can't focus them as effectively.
[Insert evil laugh.]
It should be possible for a Romulan to learn to do the neck pinch, since we have seen non-Vulcans do it like Data and Odo.
no but they can throw lightning bolts...wait a minute...
Sybok could mindmeld yet he chose not to control his emotions at all. We don't really know enough about the Romulans to say either way. Maybe JJ will answer the question for us.
When did Odo do it?
It's possible that even if they could mind meld that they'd choose not to do it anyway. During Enterprise's time it was considered taboo to mind meld with other people. It could be that this philosophy continued into Romulan society, and was intensified by their new culture's paranoid nature.
Speaking of that, maybe they just flat out don't want to mind meld? When you share your mind with someone you can expose all of the secrets that you know without really meaning to do that. The Romulans are pretty secretive and mysterious, after all.
Speaking of that, maybe they just flat out don't want to mind meld? When you share your mind with someone you can expose all of the secrets that you know without really meaning to do that. The Romulans are pretty secretive and mysterious, after all.
Despite the Romulans and their common ancestry with the Vulcans there is many subtle internal physiological differences between Vulcans and Romulans. Due to many centuries, the Romulans have never embracing logical principles and kept there extreme emotions. Due to this the Romulans physically and mentally developed differently then there cousins the Vulcans.
So no the Romulans cannot do the mind meld because they lost the ability to do so. But yes they could perform he neck pinch if they were trained to do so.
That's all stated pretty definitively.... is there a source for your self-assured explanation?
I think Romulans could learn it as well as most Vulcans, but there is a cultural difference that would make it a repulsive practice to most Romulans. The mind of the melder is revealed in great intimacy. Romulans in general would not be able to open themselves to such a degree, for cultural conditioning reasons, not due to lack of discipline, the Romulans are highly mentally disciplined.
We do know that a Romulan can be melded for interrogative purposes, as in STVI, but if I were running an RPG on it I would make the Romulans, in general, highly resistant to such things, and when Spock was able to pull it off he was of very high level, and even then only barely succeeded.
We do know that a Romulan can be melded for interrogative purposes, as in STVI, but if I were running an RPG on it I would make the Romulans, in general, highly resistant to such things, and when Spock was able to pull it off he was of very high level, and even then only barely succeeded.
We know that the Vulcan and Romulans are cousins, centuries ago some vulcans left when there homeworld centuries ago when the Vulcan was at war with itself. It was a time when Vulcans were once an extremely violent and emotional people (even by Earth standards) who waged almost constant warfare on one another (TOS "Balence of Terror"). Due to this, its more then likely why Romulans are still violent and emotional. The only reason Vulcans changed is because the teaching of Surak which were based purely on logical principles. Emotions were to be controlled and repressed.
We also know that over time both the Romulans and Vulcans do look differently, so the same can be said that changes happened internally and mentally. Evidence by Dr. Crusher's failed attempt to treat a Romulan, who had suffered advanced synaptic breakdown, with methods that are used successfully to treat Vulcans. (TNG: "The Enemy")
Also we know Vulcans possess much greater physical strength then humans, Romulans have shown that they are at least equal in strength to humans.
Vulcans evolved on a planet which is mostly desert, as far as we know the Romulans did not.
There have been nothing shown that the Romulans posses any telepathic abilities unlike there cousins the Vulcans, which is needed to perform a mind meld.
The Vulcan nerve pinch is a form of martial technique, anyone who is properly trained can do this and is not limited to strickly vulcans. Being Picard performed the nerve pinch in (TNG "Starship Mine"). Also Odo & 7 of 9 used the nerve pinch!
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Remember that telepathy plays an important role in Vulcan mate-finding, and probably in other aspects of procreation as well. It's probably something that long precedes Surakian logic or even sentient thought. No wonder that it's a taboo among the stiff Surakians when it's so intimately tied to their sex life! It could remain such a taboo with the Romulans for the same reason, even if they are a bit more easygoing about letting their emotions carry them.
There's this discussion about how Spock performed a "mind rape" on Valeris in ST6:TUC, with sexual innuendo to this apparent act of utilitarian torture. But if we look more closely at what mind melds are all about, it would seem that Spock essentially engaged in sex with Simon van Gelder in "Dagger of the Mind" to discover his secrets. It's pretty obvious why he would hesitate... But it might become easier later on, as Spock would begin to apply rigorous logic to the act.
The surprisingly readily melding 24th century Vulcans could simply be modern ultra-Surakians who have decided to shed their taboos and logically make use of their sex lives in everyday affairs. Then again, Tuvok is still painfully shy about his Pon Farr, despite melding left and right. Oh, well...
Timo Saloniemi
Well I think that from what we have seen from both species that both have went in totally different directions physically (internally & externally), mentally, technology wise which is expected after centuries. Due to this it is concievable that the Romulans lost the ability to perform mind melds which needs someone who has telepathic abilities which from what we have seen the Romulans are not capable of, which is something that the Romulans lost over time due to nonuse.
I think the synaptic watchamacallit not working on the Rom when it would work on a Vulcan points to differences in brain structure radical enough to preclude the ability to mind-meld. As further evidence:Spock is running an underground movement on Romulus at one point. Don't you think if the Tal Shiar had mind-meld abilities the moment they captured one person in the movement everyone would have been found out?
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