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Captain Seafort wrote:

GrahamKennedy wrote:The contrast with Tuvok always struck me. Tuvok, under his emotional control... was an asshole. Seriously, he was rude, arrogant, inflexible, and just basically a giant dick to everyone around him. And when he lost control it was always horror and death and violence.

He was facing the prospect of a lifetime stuck on the same ship as Neelix.

Good point.

Maybe Vulcans are assholes without emotions and perhaps that is why they need to repress them. Whereas Spock's human side makes him easier to control the asshole-y-ish behavior.

That's kind of racist...

Captain Seafort wrote:

GrahamKennedy wrote:The contrast with Tuvok always struck me. Tuvok, under his emotional control... was an asshole. Seriously, he was rude, arrogant, inflexible, and just basically a giant dick to everyone around him. And when he lost control it was always horror and death and violence.

He was facing the prospect of a lifetime stuck on the same ship as Neelix.

Gods, I think anyone would snap under that...

I don't think anyone on the ship would have even blinked if Tuvok had just spaced Neelix. Hell, first episode after Kes leaves, "Well now that our elven nurse is out of here there's no more reason to tolerate your continued existence."

I think the writers in TOS had a better handle on what it meant to be a Vulcan. Not that they're emotion less, but that they're controlled. They have all the usual emotions, they just don't express them. Sure, there are some Vulcans who deep down inside are just assholes, but not all of them.

"Captain, I have committed murder. I must be confined to quarters for trial when we reach Federation space."

"Who was it?"

"Mister Neelix."

"Well... just don't do it again, all right? Back to your station, Mister Tuvok."

There have been Vulcan individuals who have displayed moral conscience and "good" thoughts inside them; T''Pol's mother, T'Pau, even the High Command leader that deposed V'Las for being a massive prick. Though broadly Vulcans do seem to have been "mishandled" in later TV and film series compared to the TOS versions.

Reliant121 wrote:There have been Vulcan individuals who have displayed moral conscience and "good" thoughts inside them; T''Pol's mother, T'Pau, even the High Command leader that deposed V'Las for being a massive prick. Though broadly Vulcans do seem to have been "mishandled" in later TV and film series compared to the TOS versions.

Yeah, one of the nicer things that Manny Coto did was "rehabilitate" the Vulcans by having that whole three ep arc with the conclusion of "Hey, we should all stop being assholes after all!"

Well, not all Vulcans have been nice. T'Pring, after all, from 'Amok Time'. Or the separatist from that two-parter in TNG. But yeah, there's been a lot of good ones. Just not all of them.