Well, he is half-human . . . so why shouldn't he finally embrace that part of himself?
After TMP, embracing his human half is completely in-character.
Exactly. One of the few good scenes in Movie #5 was when he revealed his character growth to Sybok, explaining that he was no longer as conflicted or ashamed about his human heritage as he had been when he was younger . . . .
First, this is prequel (sorta), so it’s
before TMP. But even if you see diluting Spock’s personality as an ironic form of "character growth", where’s the fire already? See my argument about saving that stuff until he retires (so it can be confused with senility
).
Second, this is science fiction folks, not Mills and Boon (well actually …). Spock is one of the best characters ever developed and you guys want to send him to therapy!
He can see a shrink on his own time.
Third, that conflicted/ashamed business is just more human chauvinist propaganda. No pain, no gain (not actually a position I necessarily agree with, but it works with my current argument
)! How do we know his Vulcan side doesn’t make so-called "over compensation" a necessity? Certainly, when he let it go he became just another vengeful human (with pointy ears of course). Why would you want that? There are already "straight" humans behaving badly in the movie. NuSpock is very definitely "emotionally compromised". Hopefully it’s not permanent.
Actually I find it hard to believe I have to point out the value of repressed internal conflict and drama (given it’s a way of seeing Spock I learnt here myself)! Even if you don’t like the Spock character as originally presented in TOS (which seems to be the case
), you can’t deny his unique importance to the show. But you guys want to water that down to barely more than a bland nothingness because what? It will give him a more "healthy" world view? He’s a fictional character! Or do you think the original Spock was fine, but we’ve been there and done that, so the way to change things up is to make him more … like everyone else?
So far in the movie Kirk isn’t Kirk (yet?), Chekov isn’t Chekov, Scotty definitely isn’t Scotty, Uhura isn’t Uhura, Sulu is indeterminate (no pun intended) and now Spock isn’t Spock. Some of you guys must really love Bones.
All of which ignores the fact we don’t see a balanced Spock here where "Logic is the beginning of wisdom". We see a Spock who abandons logic and reason in favour of emotion and vengeance and a kind of intellectual hedonism.
Despite a few minor quibbles, Robert H. Blackman sums up some of these issues:
The audience receives the final message of the movie when the Spock of the original timeline converses with his younger self. "Do yourself a favor," he advises, "put aside logic and do what feels right." Such advice is admittedly a step up from Kirk’s inclination to destroy anyone unwilling to accept his help; nonetheless, one can hardly imagine a less Kantian message to crown the brave new timeline of Star Trek than Spock’s new therapeutic mantra.
…
Spock’s advice to put aside logic and to follow feelings, therefore, makes the subversion complete. Roddenberry’s character who most represents Kantian hopes for human reason and progress rejects his rational, Vulcan side. He becomes a convert to a new world, in which rationality ceases to be a guiding principle or goal. The implication is clear: the old Spock will rebuild and shape the remnants of Vulcan society in a new image that embraces the therapeutic over the rational.
…
In the final analysis, the new edgier characters in the reboot are merely reminiscent of the characters of STOS. They embody new ideals that do not reflect Rodenberry’s hope for human progress based on reason. Star Trek (2009) depicts a dangerous world, a world that pulses with demands for justice based upon feelings rather than universal rationality. It is a world in which error has no rights and vengeance is taken for granted. Perhaps, it is simply the case that Roddenberry’s Star Trek no longer resonates with audiences of a post-9/11 world. However, given all the possible parallel universes to which the original Spock could have returned, it is lamentable that it was to a post-Roddenberry universe that the creators of Star Trek (2009) chose to send him.
From: "A Post-Roddenberry Star Trek" by Robert H. Blackman
http://thecresset.org/2009/Michaelmas/Blackman_M09.html
*** Edit: By the way, being "… no longer as conflicted or ashamed about his human heritage as he had been when he was younger …" doesn’t mean it is right or necessary for him to embrace it in his own life.
Clearly this universe has already corrupted his reasoning ability. Heck, he even tells nuSpock not to rely on logic! 
