Nero's hatred of Spock makes no sense.

[MichaelStivic]

Spock was the only person who attempted to help Nero and the rest of Romulus.

Of all people why travel through time (and waste 25 years of his life)in an attempt to kill the single person in the universe that tried to help him? Why not just go back in time and save Romulus?

If he insisted on revenge why not kill the people who refused to listen to Spock?

Am I missing something here? If not Nero's motivations make zero sense and he may be the dumbest of all trek villians.

1.) Nero and Spock did not purposefully go back in time.

2.) Nero put great trust in Spock to save his planet and he came to believe that Spock not only let him down, but never cared about saving Romulus in the first place.

It makes perfect sense to me.

 

[T'Paul]

All you have to do is completely ignore logic and you won't have a problem with Nero's actions anymore.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

That's kind of a stretch isn't it? Besides 99% of the people who are going to see this film have no idea the Countdown comic even exists.

And those 99% of the people probably don't care.
They're probably satisfied with "Nero = bad guy. And back to the story."

Like anything, if you want details, they're there to fill in the gaps. Novels have been filling in the gaps of the movies forever now. It's not crucial. But they're there if people REALLY want more.

 

[VOODOOXI]

From what I gathered in Countdown, Nero fell out with Spock because he perceived Spock as too sympathetic to the High Council's reasons for rejecting Nero's proposal (they didn't trust the Romulan Empire with all the advanced tech they would have had to share). Add to that a heavy dose of garden-variety racism (Nero blamed all Vulcans for letting Romulus die) and there you go.

In any event, as Salvor has already pointed out, Nero and the other Romulans are, well, emotionally compromised by having witnessed the destruction of Romulus. Indeed, even the act of shaving their heads and tattooing their faces, a variation on an ancient Romulan mourning custom (according to Nero they normally just painted their faces, and the paint would fade along with their grief), was meant to keep them in a permanent state of anger toward the Vulcans and the Federation. People who let their emotions dominate their thinking can do some strange and otherwise unthinkable things. Just ask Spock.

That's kind of a stretch isn't it? Besides 99% of the people who are going to see this film have no idea the Countdown comic even exists.

It's not a stretch at all. Everyone has their breaking point. Most of us just haven't reached it yet. Nero, on the other hand, has been driven way past it. Once that happens, all bets are off.

Yeah, but my point is that Spock was the only person attempting to help Nero. It makes zero sense that Nero would go through all that trouble to try and kill Spock.

 

[sidious618]

It made enough sense to me even if it wasn't fully logical.

 

[VOODOOXI]

That's kind of a stretch isn't it? Besides 99% of the people who are going to see this film have no idea the Countdown comic even exists.

And those 99% of the people probably don't care.
They're probably satisfied with "Nero = bad guy. And back to the story."

Like anything, if you want details, they're there to fill in the gaps. Novels have been filling in the gaps of the movies forever now. It's not crucial. But they're there if people REALLY want more.

That's a cop out. Most people who will see this have no idea about these books and comics. The film should stand on it's own. As a matter of fact this film was made specificly for people who have no knowledge of Star Trek and it's extended universe of material.

I agree that most people don't really care and will enjoy the film any (as did I) but again Nero's motivation for hating Spock is confusing at best and kind of dumb at worst.

 

[Mr. B]

The Nero/Spock thing made no sense... but really, did any of Nero's actions or feelings make any sense? His world got destroyed and rather than use time travel to prevent disaster he just wants to go around and blow up Federation planets... ridiculous.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Nero was mad.

The actions of madmen rarely make sense.

 

[T'Paul]

The Nero/Spock thing made no sense... but really, did any of Nero's actions or feelings make any sense? His world got destroyed and rather than use time travel to prevent disaster he just wants to go around and blow up Federation planets... ridiculous.

Well apparently the method of time travel shown in the film doesn't affect Nero's original timeline.

However, there were dozens of methods available to him that would have worked.

 

[emacs]

Am I missing something here?

yes.

to loose so many of your beloved would cause tremendous emotional anguish that it's conceivable rationality isn't among your strongest features. Nero seemingly blind hatred is a symptom of his inner turmoil.

 

[chi]

i didn't read the Countdown comics but it sounds like it could've helped me understand the reasoning behind Nero's hatred. the movie kinda glossed over that fact and it still left me wondering about his motive.

 

[Bisz]

to loose so many of your beloved would cause tremendous emotional anguish that it's conceivable rationality isn't among your strongest features. Nero seemingly blind hatred is a symptom of his inner turmoil.

Sorry, but 'he was very, very, very sad' is not an excuse for the enormous bits of information explaining the entire Spock-Nero situation that were missing from the movie.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I didn't need Countdown to understand his motivations at all. You'd be surprised what people are capable of doing when facing the end of the world. The Apocalypse has a way of turning regular people into monsters.

 

[RoJoHen]

I thought all the information you needed was there, but it could have been expanded upon and made a little clearer. Old Spock's mindmeld with Kirk simply should have lasted a few more minutes so that the explanation didn't feel so rushed.

That said, my mom figured it out easy enough, and she's normally not very good at picking up on things in movies.

 

[Ptrope]

Nero was mad.

The actions of madmen rarely make sense.

The film doesn't actually create that scenario, either. Nero is angry, not insane - not the same kind of "mad." His thirst for revenge is shown to be coldly rational. Nero was stupid - and we were given to believe that Spock was, as well.

Well apparently the method of time travel shown in the film doesn't affect Nero's original timeline.

True; any successful attempt one makes to change events means one isn't in one's original timeline. And of all the people in the universe, Spock was the only thing other than Nero, his crew and his ship from his original timeline. But how small and arrogant must Nero be to place his revenge ahead of the lives of tens of billions of Romulans in his 'new' timeline? If he considers the Federation and Vulcan to be responsible, in this completely different timeline, why does he not care equally for the Romulans who he personally could save?

There's a story hiding in the facts of the film, one that could've been both exciting and far more true to the concepts of Star Trek, which Abrams and his writers all claim to have placed at the forefront of their efforts - about the only time that concept was ever addressed, however, was when Kirk offered to assist Nero and his crew as they were being swallowed by the black hole; then it was, "Well, we covered our asses, so die, m*****f*****."

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I don't agree one bit. He behaved in a seemingly rational manner, but he obviously lost it when Romulus blew up. Honestly, who wouldn't? Not only did he lose everything he cared about, he also got stranded in an alien time in the middle of fucking nowhere with no chance of going home ever again. That doesn't make him stupid, it makes him driven.

 

[guardian]

Yes, Nero's insane actions are not sane. His irrational actions are not rational, his rage is not well-thought out.

Oh wait, he's crazy---never mind.

Sometimes people want revenge more than they want a solution.

 

[Mr. B]

For a crazy person he was incredibly patient... so were all those folks on the ship with him.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Irrational breakdowns can lead to various conditions. Not all involve psychoses. He clearly wasn't psychotic, more like obsessive-compulsive, and someone with that sort of neurosis doesn't behave outside of socially acceptable norms, meaning they're coherent and don't talk to invisible people.

 

[Kelthaz]

The film doesn't actually create that scenario, either. Nero is angry, not insane - not the same kind of "mad." His thirst for revenge is shown to be coldly rational. Nero was stupid - and we were given to believe that Spock was, as well.

"I would rather watch Romulus die a thousand times, I would rather die in agony than accept help from you!"

Yeah, Nero, a poster child for sanity alright.