I've read a couple of fanics where T'Pring does not end up being the "bad guy" necessarily. Ahem maybe one or two where it pushes Kirk and Spock together (wink wink) and another couple where she chooses Kirk because she doesn't want either Spock or Stonn to die and she'd rather have some guy she never heard of die (Kirk) - OK maybe not all that ethical.
Yes, I know why she chose Kirk - because if he won, he wouldn't want her, Spock would be dead, and she'd still have Stonn. I've got a fanfic in the early stages where he surprises the crap out of her by accepting her. No Stonn for her!
Did T'Pring have any other way getting out of her marriage to Spock? T'Pol got out of her marriage ahead of time without bloodshed and Tuvok meditated his way out, the other Vulcan on Voyager used the holodeck or something but that was done post TOS. I mean if I knew anyone who was trying to get out of an arranged marriage I would be on her side. I would help her get away or hide or call the police or whatever. However we all seem to be on the man's side here.
I wouldn't know about T'Pol, since I haven't watched more than maybe half a season of Enterprise, if even that.
It sounds logical to us, in RL 21st-century North America (or other western countries) that there should be a legal way to get out of an arranged marriage via the courts. In fact, arranged marriages in which either of the participants is given no choice are illegal here. That said, there's a community in Bountiful, BC, Canada that's a Mormon offshoot where they practiced polygamy and successfully kept themselves out of jail for awhile by claiming their Charter rights were being violated on the basis of religion; that's been quashed now, and we've been informed that one man had 24 wives and over 140 children, while another man had 9 wives (number of children was not specified). That community would traffick teenage girls across the border to a similar community in the U.S., for the purpose of arranged marriages.
But would it be logical to Vulcans to use the courts? There's a story on the website linked in my sig in which Spock and the Enterprise's Assistant Science Officer (a half-human/half-Antari woman) decide to marry. They have to get permission from Kirk and Starfleet to wed, and everything seems to go swimmingly until T'Pring files to stop the wedding, claiming that Spock is already married - to her.
So Spock has to go to Vulcan and get this settled... and it turns out that T'Pring actually doesn't want to marry him. Her solution is to get a settlement of land from Spock's clan. Sarek, of course, is outraged and tells Spock that the only logical thing for him to do is to go ahead and fulfill the old marriage agreement with T'Pring, because he is NOT going to give up any of the clan lands to her or her clan.
Anyway, Spock figures out a solution that results in T'Pring getting a monetary settlement, the land is saved, and Spock and Ruth marry and live happily ever after... so far (this fanfic series takes place over several decades).
I'm not sure why you brought Tuvok into this. His problem was that he went into pon farr without his wife being available. He wasn't trying to get out of anything other than death because he had nobody to get him through that time.
The only reason I'm on the man's side in this is because T'Pring used Vulcan law in a particularly vicious and cruel way. I do not approve of arranged marriages, so please don't assume that I do just because I disapprove of T'Pring's method of getting out of hers. She acted like everything was Spock's fault, when I daresay he wasn't any more in favor of the marriage than she was.
The situation is somewhat different in TOS as Spocks going to die. I think when T'Pring says its the only way out I think it the only way out without her losing status.
Except she did lose status. She became "the property of the victor." Even though Spock didn't keep her, he gave her to Stonn, in the same way that he could give away his lyre, his books, his meditation robe, or anything else he owned. In accepting her, Stonn became her new owner. It would be up to Stonn whether or not they became bondmates (aka married).
If what happened on ENT is true and T'Pring could have gotten out of it beforehand giving Spock time to find someone else then T'Pring deserves all the hate we give her.
As mentioned, I never saw the episode pertaining to T'Pol's marriage or how she got out of it. I have a hard time believing that a society that prides itself on peace and logic wouldn't have a legal way to void marriage contracts without requiring someone's death.
I guess T'Pring didn't trust the courts, or thought that Sarek - one of the highest-ranking men on the whole planet - would easily find a way to quash any petition she made to dissolve the pre-bonding contract. So she used the only other legal way available, and Sarek wouldn't be able to do anything to prevent it.
(yes, I know that someone will mention that Sarek and Spock were not on good terms, but Sarek would never allow anything to happen in the courts that would sully his clan's standing in the community, period.)
