http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSpock

"Captain, the Goggles Do Nothing . Your posterior is still as wide as it was before."

Mr. Jaggers, Great Expectations "Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule."

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"Captain, the logical course of action in this situation is to let the inhabitants of Pupolon fend for themselves. We need the device keeping the planet's orbit stable, or risk endangering the very existence of The Federation. I am aware of the consequences for the local population, Doctor, but simply rushing in to 'save the high priestess' will leave us open to a Klingon ambush with a 78.52% probability of outright destruction.



I realize this is a hard choice, Captain, but the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few."

When put in a Power Trio (or Freudian Trio) with The Kirk and The McCoy, this character becomes the Superego: a character who will always think before acting. The Spock is an archetype that can be loosely summed up as the tendency to apply rules, reason and the greater good to all of his/her decisions. This character can exist by themselves, but more often, they will have a more emotional and humanistic counterpart to contrast their decisions. The main difference between the two archetypes is that while The McCoy will leap before looking, The Spock's solution to problems will have a balanced and well-thought out approach.

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The Spock's relationship with his crewmates/comrades is often tense, because this character type is willing and able to ruthlessly consider ethically troubling situations without batting an eye — especially situations where people might be ordered to die. While his counterpart The McCoy is interested in doing the right thing regardless of cost, The Spock is more interested in the end result. For him, everyone, (including himself) is expendable if it is necessary to complete the mission, and he has no problem treating people as such.

The Spock maintains audience sympathy by being willing to Take a Third Option and also by being as ruthless about his own life as the lives of his crewmates, if not more so. Even better, he is utterly unflappable in the face of serious problems or danger; his friends know that no matter how terrifying or hopeless things get, he will never lose his cool and will not stop working on a solution to save everyone (which The McCoy does respect about him). And finally, he is perfectly willing to hear out The McCoy himself.

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The Spock will at times become a Tin Man, though this varies with the writing, and will often have No Sense of Humor. When he has emotion, he may sometimes express it with a Fascinating Eyebrow and nothing more. Since Smart People Play Chess, if The Spock plays a game, it will invariably be a variant of chess.

Closely related to The Stoic, Agent Scully, Emotionless Girl, and Little Miss Snarker. Often becomes a Straw Vulcan, but occasionally ends up on the winning side of Emotions vs. Stoicism. Probably sides with the Enlightenment in Romanticism Versus Enlightenment. Well Intentioned Extremists often come across similarly when they believe they're working for the greater good. See also Spock Speak.

This character type is Shoot the Dog personified.

Named (obviously) for Spock from Star Trek. Compare their eternal opposite, The McCoy.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Comic Strips

Linus often performs this function for Charlie Brown in Peanuts. Likewise Schroeder to Lucy (and occasionally Charlie).

Fan Works

Advice and Trust: Rei always tries to be logical and rational. Her mindset is: logic makes things clearer and simpler. And thanks to that mindset she starts out to break Gendo's control upon her. She was being ordered to take a bunch of pills whose purpose was turning her into an emotionless doll. Asuka and Shinji warned her that her medication regimen was hazardous to her health. She researched, and her research proved Asuka was right. Ergo, Rei stopped taking her medication.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: Harry is too young and emotional to be this, but he sees it as an ideal, and always tries to ignore his emotions and make decisions based on pure logic. Occasionally a bit of a deconstruction, as his "purely rational" decisions often come across as cold or even cruel, and may be leading him to become a dark lord. For Example, when he rationalizes that killing a unicorn to extend Quirrel's life is no worse than killing a cow to eat, even though his gut instinct tells him not to.

For Example, The Spectrum Game: Inigo is a rare Only Sane Man variant. While he does get angry easily, it takes him quite a lot to get him to act on or express his anger. He is a coldly logical Stepford Smiler and Stoic Woobie who definitely comes off as calmer than his teammates.

The Naruto Fan Fic Team 8 puts Shino (along with the rest of the Aburame clan) into this role, in contrast to Naruto and Hinata. However, Shino himself is actually noted to be relatively emotional and expressive compared to the rest of his clan.

Films — Live-Action

Reservoir Dogs: Mr Pink is the most logical of all the crew, especially when he acts as the foil to Mr White. The first scene shows him refusing to throw in money to tip the waitress, giving his reason as to why. He is later distrustful of everyone, and disgusted that Mr White gave Mr Orange his real name and hometown, considering anybody, even the dying Mr Orange, could be the rat. Not only is he right about everything, but he is the only character to survive the film. Subverted in that Mr. Pink is anything but cool—he's both logical and wildly neurotic.

Subverted in that Mr. Pink is anything but cool—he's both logical and wildly neurotic. Dr. Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters (1984). In the sequel, he says that his parents did not believe in toys and he seems to be nigh-immune to the mood slime which makes the two most "positive" Ghostbusters try to kill each other. In the commentary for the original film, Harold Ramis notes that he deliberately played Egon as a Spock-like character. He also notes that there is only one scene where he actually shows emotion, when Walter Peck tries to have the Ghostbusters arrested for an explosion that he caused himself. For the record, Egon was affected by the mood slime in the novelization and script of the movie. He was, however, the first to overcome its effects.

Juror #4 (the stockbroker with wire rim glasses) from 12 Angry Men. He's one of the longest holdouts against Juror #8, but unlike #10, who is motivated by bigotry, or #3, who is projecting his family issues onto the case, #4 is simply not convinced by the circumstantial logic that #8 offers as reasonable doubt and sticks to the defendant's inability to remember the movies he claimed to see. He only changes his vote when #8 quizzes him on the last double-feature he saw and he's unable to remember basic details himself, proving that the defendant's claim is plausible after all.

Sunshine. When the crew out to save the sun (and the world) are down to five members and their oxygen supply is cut, they realize they only have enough oxygen for four people to make a return trip. Michelle Yeoh doesn't bat an eyelid in suggesting they murder one of their own (whom happened to be already wracked with guilt for a mistake that led them into this predicament in the first place) instead of all five of them dying from lack of oxygen, and it didn't take much convincing for two other crew members to accept the idea.

The Avengers: Iron Man fits The Kirk, and Captain America fits The McCoy. Black Widow being the most calculating and logical of the group would fit this. Although in terms of Iron Man and Captain America alone, these two show a different dynamic with Steve being this. He is the tactician of the team and less of an ideological hero than he was in his own movie, while Tony is clearly dismayed at how calm he is following Coulson's death and has a moment where he wins Bruce over through sheer compassion.

Abe Sapien in Hellboy; very logical and curious, abide to the rules and always thinks in the greater good if not in love with a Elven Princess that is

CLU from TRON: Legacy was programmed by Flynn to work as a Superego for the Grid: his creator's lack of foresight, however, has made him grow into a dysfunctional one, obsessed with perfection at the expense of flexibility.

Literature

Live-Action TV

Myths & Religion

Hades is usually portrayed as the unemotional ruler who wouldn't allow exceptions to the rules of the Underworld.

Radio

Journey into Space: In The Red Planet, James Edward Whitaker is cold, emotionless and never makes small talk due to his conditioning by the Martians. His shipmate Frank Rogers finds him creepy and off-putting and can hardly even stand to be in his presence after only two days. This presents a problem considering that the two of them must share Freighter No. 2 during the fleet's six month journey to Mars. Lemmy has much the same reaction to Whitaker as Rogers does. Several members of the Martian expedition, including Rogers, Grimshaw, McLean, Dobson and Harding, are later conditioned and display the same characteristics as Whitaker.

Tabletop Games

Alchemical Exalted have a trait called "Clarity" that tracks how much of this personality they accumulate; as they grow in Clarity, they become increasingly focused on pragmatic and efficient solutions and will place lower priority on compassionate activity, at the cost of becoming increasingly less emotional and having difficulty relating to other people (they also have some Charms that can harness Clarity to grant increased cognitive ability). Clarity is reduced by prolonged meaningful interaction with normal human beings (or, in the case of some Alchemicals, immersion in memories from their past lives).

Warhammer 40,000: Among the Primarchs, there was Ferrus Manus on the Imperial side and Perturabo among the traitors. Both tended to be the most dispassionate and calculating Primarchs, and their Legions followed suit - although Perturabo's claim is a little weakened by his towering resentment and susceptibility to brief spasms of uncontrollable fury. Adeptus Mechanicus supporting character tends to be this to whatever Inquisitor, Space Marine or Imperial Guard protagonist they follow around, especially if they have had the cybernetic surgical procedures of Clear Thoughts, excising the parts of their brains capable of emotions.

In Magic The Gathering, White and Blue often play this role, with White focusing on social structures and Blue on logic and reason.

Theatre

Toys

Kopaka, the resident Stoic in BIONICLE.

Transformers: Almost all versions of Shockwave are what you get when this type of character is a villain. Cold, calculating, and unflinching. The original comic version even decided to overthrow Megatron, because it was the logical thing to do. And later on, he handed back power to Megatron, again because it was perfectly logical for him to do so. Best encapsulated by this quote from another Shockwave: Shockwave: Ultimately, I serve only one master: Pure logic.

Video Games

Web Animation

The AI Delta from Red vs. Blue is logic personified. Literally. Ironically, Delta is probably the most humane of the various Freelancer AIs, despite his noticeably incomplete understanding of human nature.

Dreamscape: Kai is this, Eleenin is The McCoy, and Drake is The Kirk. They're the three stoic human protectors of the planet. Kai is this because he is a stickler for taking the most logical approach to things, and pushes those who are reluctant to follow through to do so anyway.

Web Comics

Web Original

Lady Ink from The Book of Stories OCT. Of course, she is a personification of order and structure, so it makes sense. Flame Warriors: Android, who is emotionless and only notes illogic in other flame warriors' arguments.

Western Animation

Real Life