Vulcan. He lived like a Vulcan and he died like a Vulcan. He set aside his fears and his desires and gave his life because it was logical, and he would be insulted to be held up as a paragon of humanity.
Damnit Jim, he was your best friend. Way to make it all about you.
I still love Sarek’s line from the Otherwise Untitled Star Trek Preremakquel:
“Marrying your mother was… logical!”
Most mushy romantic statement from a Vulcan EVER.
I KNEW there was a reason that bothered me, even the first time I heard it as a kid. Spock’s dual nature is a fascinating thing to explore, but…Kirk, why?
It’s a big problem for the entire franchise that they’re not merely human-centric, but treat “human” and “good” as roughly synonymous. It’s particularly grating here since Spock has literally taken being called human as an insult repeatedly (City on the Edge of Forever; Devil in the Dark; Even earlier in Star Trek II, when Saavik calls Kirk human, Spock responds like she’s just insulted his friend).
I really like that as he gets older, Spock becomes visibly more comfortable with his human heritage, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s spent his entire life ashamed of his humanity and embracing his vulcan identity, and Kirk turns around and erases that.
Yeah. I mean, I can ALMOST take it as Kirk trying to get one last friendly jab in, except…it really isn’t framed that way. It’s framed as the best thing he can say about Spock. -_-
It’s like…yeah, Spock’s not “completely” Vulcan, but that’s a line for HIM to draw. Hell, even my username here and on Patheos comes from a star trek novel involving mixed species characters–the “betwixt-and-betweens”, one character called them. (I’m not mixed race, just out of place in other ways.)
I have a LOT of headcanons about Vulcans and bigotry and xenophobia and how damned hard being in starfleet is for them, so I’ll restrain myself from further wall o’text, but I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who found that line hugely jarring.