Re: Emotional Vulcans Galore: Why?
I'm not above admitting that I'm wrong: the thread title was evidently misleading. I can't change it now, it should have been: "Overly Emotional Vulcans: Why?".
Either way, you all make good points, and indeed you've helped me seeing ENT Vulcans in another light, as members of a decaying society. In some ways it's the same theme we saw in TNG and DS9 with the corrupted Klingon Empire.
I quite like antiquityscion's idea of emotions perceived on Vulcan as sex was in Victorian England. I agree with it, if we're talking about the pre-Awakening Vulcans. After all, if they strayed from Surak's teaching, it makes sense that along with mind melds and other subtleties they also exercised a looser control over their (powerful) emotions. I'd say that after that, Surak's teachings were observed much more closely and exaggerated emotivy was frowned upon in a much clearer way (see Sybok's exile and Tuvok's troubles as a teenager.)
Still, I see V'Las behaviour as exaggerated and sometimes borderline idiotic. He's far more emotional than the other Vulcans in the show, he'd be emotional even for being a Romulan or a Human. I mean, personally, I'm more Vulcan than he is, and I'm Human and Italian into the bargain (passionate people, they say.) I see it as a poor choice, because I'm ready to admit - and even to like - the idea of a corrupted Vulcan where emotions surface more often and Vulcans act more emotively; but I'm not ready to like such an exaggeration in such a highly-placed Vulcan. V'Las wanted to bring about the reunification with the Romulans; in the long term he probably wanted to advocate a more 'emotional' Vulcan society, abandoning Surak's teachings altogether, perhaps. It makes sense. What doesn't make sense to me, is how he forgot himself so much as to keep shouting angrily in front of others. We missed the opportunity, as said, to see the logical side of evil, and instead we got a commonplace cliché. A stereotypical bad guy.
But thank you for your insightful comments, they helped me understanding better how Vulcans are portrayed in the series.
I'm not above admitting that I'm wrong: the thread title was evidently misleading. I can't change it now, it should have been: "Overly Emotional Vulcans: Why?".
Either way, you all make good points, and indeed you've helped me seeing ENT Vulcans in another light, as members of a decaying society. In some ways it's the same theme we saw in TNG and DS9 with the corrupted Klingon Empire.
I quite like antiquityscion's idea of emotions perceived on Vulcan as sex was in Victorian England. I agree with it, if we're talking about the pre-Awakening Vulcans. After all, if they strayed from Surak's teaching, it makes sense that along with mind melds and other subtleties they also exercised a looser control over their (powerful) emotions. I'd say that after that, Surak's teachings were observed much more closely and exaggerated emotivy was frowned upon in a much clearer way (see Sybok's exile and Tuvok's troubles as a teenager.)
Still, I see V'Las behaviour as exaggerated and sometimes borderline idiotic. He's far more emotional than the other Vulcans in the show, he'd be emotional even for being a Romulan or a Human. I mean, personally, I'm more Vulcan than he is, and I'm Human and Italian into the bargain (passionate people, they say.) I see it as a poor choice, because I'm ready to admit - and even to like - the idea of a corrupted Vulcan where emotions surface more often and Vulcans act more emotively; but I'm not ready to like such an exaggeration in such a highly-placed Vulcan. V'Las wanted to bring about the reunification with the Romulans; in the long term he probably wanted to advocate a more 'emotional' Vulcan society, abandoning Surak's teachings altogether, perhaps. It makes sense. What doesn't make sense to me, is how he forgot himself so much as to keep shouting angrily in front of others. We missed the opportunity, as said, to see the logical side of evil, and instead we got a commonplace cliché. A stereotypical bad guy.
But thank you for your insightful comments, they helped me understanding better how Vulcans are portrayed in the series.
