Saw another bad faith take about T'Pring being a murderous bitch, gotta write another fic that paints her in a warm and sympathetic light
I'm tired of seeing this argument. The 'Making them fight to the death was too far'. I'm asking you to have empathy for a woman.
Transcript, T'Pring: You have become much known among our people, Spock. Almost a legend. And as the years went by, I came to know that I did not want to be the consort of a legend. But by the laws of our people, I could only divorce you by the kal-if-fee. There was also Stonn, who wanted very much to be my consort, and I wanted him. If your Captain were victor, he would not want me, and so I would have Stonn. If you were victor you would free me because I had dared to challenge, and again I would have Stonn. But if you did not free me, it would be the same. For you would be gone, and I would have your name and your property, and Stonn would still be there. It is incredibly obvious to me that Vulcan society as portrayed by TOS heavily favors men in marriage. (I will not be taking other shows into account, IE: "It's shown in SNW that T'Pring can end the engagement at any time so she's evil and bloodthirsty for making them fight!" T'Pring's actions are in the context of TOS and everything else came after, thus having no bearing on what she does in TOS. It doesn't matter how Vulcan society is LATER characterized in THIS episode.) The Pon Farr in TOS only affects men and women are there to sate the pon farr. It's been made literally impossible for a woman to reject a man wholesale. T'Pring cannot say "I do not want him" - it is an illegal action to do so. The BEST she can do is say "I have another man." The kal-if-fee hinges on having two champions fight for a woman's hand. This implies that there must BE two champions, that T'Pring must have another man ready and willing to fight for her or she'll be Spock's wife regardless of her own desire.
Words like 'property' and 'freed' are used when describing T'Pring's potential marriage to Spock and it is plainly stated that T'Pring's ONLY lawful option for any kind of divorce is by the kal-if-fee. From T'Pring's wording it's obvious that she feels trapped by Spock, why shouldn't she? He's a man who's a stranger to her and we see throughout the episode/series that Spock is from an incredibly powerful family and is a legend in his own right. ("She's probably from a powerful family herself!") Yes, undoubtedly. She calls Stonn HER consort, implying she DOES have a good deal of power, royalty in her own right I suspect but crucially we don't really SEE that. We can assume, but T'Pau is there for Spock's family, those are his family's grounds, Spock is the one we know has an ambassador father, who has the status of a legend. It's implied, in many ways, that T'Pring is (while wealthy and powerful) NOT on the same level as Spock. They are not on equal footing. TOS Vulcan society is portrayed as one where women are legally property of their husbands. About becoming angry with Christine Chapel for making and offering him soup, Spock says that women should only be 'servants' to their own men [husbands] and to serve others is undignified.
This isn't just the case in this episode. In Journey to Babel there's this exchange between Amanda and Kirk.
Kirk: It sounded like [he commanded you]. Amanda: Of course. He's a Vulcan. I'm his wife. It's notable that Amanda does not say 'the ambassador' or 'Sarek' - implying that this behavior is due to him being an important figure or a facet of his personality. No, it's stated that because he is Vulcan he expects his wife to obey him. It's such an innocuous thing too, he just tells her 'continue the tour' but it's telling that this IS acknowledged by Amanda herself as a command which she intends to follow. It is explicitly NOT a suggestion and it's portrayed as natural. "Of course" this is how a marriage works. To Amanda, this isn't an issue. She has a bond of trust with Sarek and they obviously love each other very much, as demonstrated by the episode. I have no doubt that their relationship is friendly and caring. They fell in love with each other, chose each other, etc. I wouldn't even argue if someone said that Sarek probably wouldn't become upset with Amanda for 'disobeying' him. The point here isn't "Sarek and Amanda are in a bad relationship" it's that on Vulcan it's expected for a woman to serve her man absolutely. Whether or not that's how Sarek and Amanda's marriage actually functions (I doubt it), it's how it's EXPECTED to. Now imagine if you were expected to have a relationship with that sort of potential power imbalance with a total stranger. A rich and powerful stranger. Can you imagine? Especially when there's a man you know and trust and care for so close, willing to be with you, a man you actually WANT who you're certain won't treat you poorly. Can you imagine being asked to give that up, or even risk giving that up - to risk that man's death on the CHANCE that the stranger with total control over you might be merciful? On TOS Vulcan a wife is 'servant' a wife is 'property' a wife is to be 'commanded' - these are things which characters OTHER than T'Pring say, so it is not her subjective opinion on how Vulcan women are treated in this society. A wife is expected to serve, regardless of desire, because her husband commands it. Even things such as what she'll do in his absence are able [and expected] to be determined by him. I am not saying that T'Pring had NO other choice. She could have, perhaps, reached out to Spock. The kal-if-fee isn't explained in detail, while it's heavily implied she requires a male champion to become wedded to instead of Spock, could she have #girlbossed it and chosen herself as champion? Maybe she could have gone outside the law and refused him without issuing a challenge, etc. What I'm asking is, why is that what you're looking for? Why can you only empathize with T'Pring if she had LITERALLY no other option? T'Pring is her own character, living her own life separate from Spock. She doesn't know Spock, they haven't spoken to each other since they were engaged at seven years old and she comes from a culture wherein men essentially rule over their wives. Why can't you grant her charitable interiority? Why do you jump so quickly to vitriol and blame and assume her actions were malicious at worst and "too far" at best? Why are you so timid in your praise but so eager in your invective criticism?
For all those earlier 'what ifs' I could offer my own 'what ifs' on T'Pring's side. Why would she contact Spock? Both from a cultural perspective [wherein women are the property of men] and a 'purely logical' perspective: Why would a man release a woman if having a woman is the key to saving his life? How would Spock benefit from that and if he doesn't benefit, why would he agree to it? Again, she doesn't know Spock. He is just a powerful man to her, a legend who owns her as wife-property. She might just be tipping her hand, increasing the chances that Spock will prepare for the battle and kill Stonn, the man she loves. Contacting Spock seems naively hopeful at best and downright stupid at worst given the culture and the fact that T'Pring, one more time, doesn't know Spock at all. Could she have girlbossed it and chosen herself as champion? Setting aside the fact that this doesn’t seem to be a viable option, would she have won? She isn’t shown to be physically strong. She isn’t shown to be unconventional. The challenge she invokes is ancient and all of her plans are within the bounds of Vulcan law.
“She should have just said no!” Unfortunately, T’Pring is from a culture where her saying ‘no’ is heavily implied not to mean anything. Again, she isn't shown to be unconventional. She's likely from a wealthy, powerful family and her personality is a factor in the decisions she makes. To me, it's a bit silly to say 'she could have just been a different person!'
“T’Pring should have just told Spock, she should have just said no, she should have just-” My, how easy! It’s amazing that T’Pring didn’t think of just saying ‘no.’ It’s honestly baffling that T’Pring didn’t just think of calling Spock up and telling him she didn’t want to marry him, actually. Almost as if there were structures in place which stopped her from doing that. Almost as if there were reasons she couldn’t, but no…that can’t be the case. There are a million reasons in Spock’s favor, of course - ways in which Spock could have been treated better, given more consideration, spared from more pain, but absolutely zero reasons for T’Pring to have made the choices she did. Naturally. Throughout this post I've shown many arguments against T'Pring, 'what if' scenarios that might be true and might make her bloodthirsty and evil, willfully and murderously cruel at the worst and mind numbingly stupid at best, if they were true. My question is why? Why are you working so hard to vilify this woman? Because her actions MIGHT have led to the death of Spock or Kirk? Because Spock was sad for a little while? Because, theoretically, Spock might have been hurt by her rejection? Because Spock and Kirk are the main characters and she’s just some bitch? I am asking you to spare some of that empathy for her and it's very telling that even in 2024 I encounter so much resistance to this idea. "It's fine that T'Pring didn't want to marry Spock, honestly, girlpower, of course it’s fine, but did she have to be so mean about it? She had choices." [General you] say and I am pointing to the society. I am pointing to the words 'property' and 'freed' and 'servant'. I am pointing to the way you spend so much time thinking of ways T’Pring could have been in the wrong that you can’t (and won’t) spare a second to think of ways she could have been in the right. It’s telling, the way [general you] fight so hard to find a way to still place the blame at her feet and her feet alone. It’s telling, the way I never see “The situation was fucked up, the society was fucked up, etc.” It is always “T’Pring is a racist murdering bitch who hated Spock and wanted him to die” at the worst and “T’Pring was within her rights not to want to marry Spock but the way she went about rejecting him was all wrong” at the best. I am pointing and I am asking you: Is that the best you can do? Is that all we can hope for? "I love female characters!" Until they put the men in danger. Until they do something you don't agree with 100%. Until they make a choice you don't like and aren't completely absolved of any free will in making it. Until they aren't perfect. "We need more complex female characters" You can't even handle T'Pring. "I love female characters!" But never at the expense of men.