Now that we're on the subject of Kirk--thanks to Therin quoting an old post of mine--let me just make the counter-argument myself, without resorting to non-canonical sources: TOS Kirk grew up with a father, Trek XI Kirk without. Instead, he was saddled with a step-father who was, at best, a douche and a mother who was apparently so deranged by the loss of her husband that she became stupid enough to hook-up with said douche and selfish enough--apaprently--that she often skips out and leaves her boys to his mercies. This Kirk has only a little more in common with TOS Kirk than Shinzon had with Jean-Luc Picard.
People harping on the bar fight should cut Kirk some slack--he wasn't being particularly rude to Uhura, just persistent (and, with the games women run, oh, 123% of the time, persistence is required) and the Star Fleet guys came up and started trying to intimidate him with no real provocation. Indeed, that's what fans should be concerned with: four cadets took turns beating up a single civililan, one of them seemingly intent on beating that civilian to death, and yet at least two of them are still in Star Fleet, one of them posted to the explicit flag ship. The lot of them should have been dishonarably discharged and served a year or two at the 23rd century equivalent of Leavenworth. That they aren't establishes Star Fleet as little more than a cadre of thugs.
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