T'Pol's Father

[Linda]

Okay, I will try jumping in here after reading most of this thread and skimming the rest. Do we all agree that Vulcans are highly emotional people at the core and have developed meditation and some heavy cultural rules to repress said emotions? Look at how Tolaris lost control after experimenting with emotions and I don't know of anyone who has proposed that was because he is a Romulan - though I guess some fan fic writer has or will come up with a story about that. So I would think we would not need Romulan blood in T'Pol's family tree to account for her emotions being near the surface, though her having a Romulan parent has been a good plot point for stories. I think that if you craft a story so T'Pol's background makes sense and the plot is exciting or at least interesting, it would be a good read for most of us who are interested in the character, no matter what our personal take is. If I had time, I would read everyone's stories here as the writing seems of high quality on the fan fiction scale! Anyway, I find it fun to scratch any Vulcan and find a highly emotional being one or more layers under that smug skin of emotional denial.

[WarpGirl]

Well I agree Linda but dang I was gonna play with Tolaris having some connection to the Rommies!

[Rigil Kent]

Well I agree Linda but dang I was gonna play with Tolaris having some connection to the Rommies!

I did play with that back in Endeavour: Vigrid.

I suspect most of the people who automatically dislike the idea of them establishing T'Pol's dad as a Romulan do so because it seems like more sloppy writing. They so often had her acting more emotionally than was appropriate for a Vulcan, but rather than just stick with the notion that not all Vulcans are the same, they seemed to be poised to blame all of that previously bad writing on her biology (which has another insidious subtext if you think about it.)

[WarpGirl]

That's right you did Rigil! And very well too. I wanna know how Linda imagines T'Pol's father.

[aadarshinah]

I dunno. You could make an arguement saying that, if Vulcans and Romulans are genetically identical, the emotional training is all taught. If T'Pol's father was Romulan, he might've been less strict with T'Pol about emotional control when she was a child than a Vulcan father would be.

[WarpGirl]

It is all taught. Basically an out of control Vulcanoid is a raging, paranoid, psychopath. Because that's the way their alien brains are wired. Rommmies actually do have various mental diciplines, some of them ripped off from Surak. But I can't see how a Rommie hiding out on Pre-TOS Vulcan could afford to draw attention to himself by being lax in his daughter's emotional dicipline. Although I admit its likely he's much more tolorent than his wife.

[aadarshinah]

Not lax, just... less strict.

Example, six-year-old T'Pol smiles. T'Les and most Vulcans tell T'Pol never to do it again and, I dunno, force her to meditate twice as long that day. T'Pol's father simply says never to do it again and leaves it at that.

[WarpGirl]

Oh OK I understand now. Sorry.

[Asso]

For me, T'Pol's father had something of Trip.
Not rarely daughters seek in their soul mates, maybe unconsciously, a trait which reminds them their father.
So, it doesn't matter who her father was. What matters is who Trip is.

[WarpGirl]

I'd rather die than marry a man like my dad. I don't need the stress.

[Asso]

Maybe that's true for you; many other women do it.

[Alelou]

We seldom do it consciously; something about the guy just makes us feel like we're home. It could be traits familiar from our moms, too.

Later, that exact same thing will probably absolutely make us NUTS.

Same rule applies to guys and their parents.

[WarpGirl]

All I meant was it isn't a hard and fast rule.

[Alelou]

Rule or not, since you're not conscious of it when it happens, there's not a whole lot you can do about it except -- I don't know -- maybe ignore that intense feeling of falling in love and go spend five years in therapy instead.

[WarpGirl]

So you're saying that all people unconsciously must choose mates with traits their parents have. Um OK how would you know that?