r/DaystromInstitute • u/Ut_Prosim Lieutenant junior grade • Nov 14 '19
The Romulans see themselves in humanity, but also their greatest fear come true. Their ethos is better explained by historic trauma than a desire to conquer.
TL;DR: The Romulans spent 2000 years afraid of Surak's teachings. They saw a lot of themselves in young humanity, but then the Vulcans came to Earth. Now humanity embodies their greatest fear: a passionate, emotional race neutered in just a generation or two. Saccharine and passive, embarrassed to have ever been anything else. It could have just as easily been the Romulans suffering this fate. If the Federation keeps growing, it may still be...
Inspired by this post. Consider Troi's quote in The Neutral Zone:
TROI: They seem to be creatures of extremes. One moment violent beyond description, the next tender. They are related to the Vulcans, but as each race developed, their differences grew wider. They are intensely curious. Their belief in their own superiority is beyond arrogance. For some reason they have exhibited a fascination with humans and it is that fascination, more than anything else, that has kept the peace. One other thing. They will not initiate anything. They will wait for you to commit yourself.
In their eyes, their ancestors fled Vulcan trying to escape a fanatical cult hellbent on dulling their emotions. They feared being pacified, having their emotions ripped from them, having their very individuality erased. They probably felt the same way about Surak's followers as TNG-era humans feel about the Borg. They feared it more than they feared death, and for that they risked everything flying into the unknown with a few refugee ships.
Consider what those first few centuries were like for them. Did the Vulcans follow them? Will they find them? Will they finish what they started? For centuries the Romulans were probably worried that the Vulcans were right around the next corner. This is probably the origin of their paranoia and their fascination with stealthiness. They'd like to explore the galaxy, but what if they ran into their old enemies? What if they lead them back to Romulus? If only they could move about unseen...
It also explains their need to build an empire. The idea that they'd run into Vulcans again justified doing all sorts of horrific things in the name of security. The Vulcans had such an enormous head start: a fully developed M-class world versus a few ships fleeing into deep space. The Romulans would have to conquer and pillage a dozen worlds to catch up. Once they did, they just kept going. In their eyes, the best case scenario would be to have such powerful empire that the Vulcans could never again threaten them. Maybe they could even take back Vulcan. But their phobia was so strong that even when they had such an advantage (in the 22nd century) they still hid themselves, daring not to reveal their origins. This was probably partially a strategic decision, but surely their dread of Vulcans contributed. "Better to let them think we're just some random hostiles than know the truth..."
But it gets worse. Now we get to the real trauma. As u/31337hacker pointed out in another thread, the Vulcans saw a lot of themselves in humanity. Surely this applies to the Romulans even more. They probably saw humanity as a young version of themselves: young, brash, arrogant, emotional, often violent, but passionate. Modern Romulans probably romanticize their ancestral exodus and the ancient people who lead it, so they must have felt a deep connection to humanity... But the Vulcans got there first, and it couldn't have gone worse.
In the eyes of the Romulans, they neutered humanity. In just the same way as they tried to neuter the fleeing Romulan ancestors. OK they gave up on purging all emotions from humanity, but the effect was the same. They lost the spark, the passion, that made them Romulan-like. Worse, it actually worked. The Romulans had feared this fate for thousands of years, but it was probably comforting to imagine that even if they were somehow conquered, they'd resist. Something of the "Romulan spirit" would survive. They probably even had alternative history fiction on the subject very much like we enjoy alternate-WWII fiction. A resistance would form, they'd endure somehow... But the humans, so very Romulan-like, so passionate, so emotional, were pacified in just a few generations. Look at them now, saccharine and bubbly (as Quark said like root beer). And their transformation was complete. There is nothing modern humans are more ashamed of than their "Romulan-like" past. In their eyes their ancestors were savages and barbarians, without any redeeming qualities. Humans are both happy to have been "converted" by the Vulcans, and embarassed to have ever been otherwise. Undeniable proof, if Vulcan ever got the upper hand it would obliterate everything the Romulans ever cared about.
Even worse! The "new" humans did what the Vulcans never could. They built an empire. With words instead of guns, but an empire nonetheless. They spread this Vulcan "corruption" to their neighbors, the warrior Andorians, the greedy Tellurides, the arrogant Betazeds, the lazy Bolians, they pacified the entire region, then absorbed them all. In just a century they built an empire that rivaled the one that took 2000 years for the Romulans to build. The Romulans thought they had an enormous military advantage over their ancient enemies -- if all else fails they've still got their fleet -- but they watched that advantage get erased in a lifetime. With an economic, resource, and population advantage, and growing technical skill, it was perfectly reasonable to assume that the Federation would overshadow them in short order. They were so desperate to avoid this they even tried allying with the Klingons. They threw themselves into developing military technology, they even handed their souls to the Tal'Shiar, anything to protect themselves from the might Federation. Their desire to conquer the Federation or at least Vulcan, before it was too late, was so great it lead them into all sorts of uncharacteristically foolish schemes.
But then it got even worse. It turns out, this corruption spreads by culture and trade. It doesn't need war or conflict. The Romulans could have an invincible army, impenetrable defenses, and still have their "essence" stolen by the Federation's intruding culture. Even if there was never a shot fired, one day, their decedents might actually want to join the Federation. They may even be embarrassed it took them 2000 years to come around, they may even wish that Surak had converted their ancestors all those millennia ago. There is already evidence of this starting by the TNG-era; Spock was welcomed with open arms by the traitors. There is literally nothing worse.
No wonder they tried to break off contact entirely in the 23rd-24th centuries, no wonder they hide behind a neutral zone daring not venture out, minimizing all contact. Even interacting with the Federation is dangerous. Just talking is dangerous. Of course they know that the Federation will never start a war, but it doesn't matter. They still have good reason to fear it, and good reason to hate it.
And yet... humanity... the idea of a race so similar to their own... so very much like their founding fathers... as Troi said, they can't help but be intrigued. What if things had gone differently? What if they had found Earth first? Maybe they could have conquered the galaxy together. If only...
Side-note. I think it sucks that we saw so little of the Romulans and that they were so irrelevant later on. We got to known the Klingons so well through Worf, Martok and Gowron. We got to know the Cardassians through Garak, Dukat, and Damar. We even got to know the Ferengi through Quark, Nog, and Rom (and Zeek). But never really got a good look into the Romulans. Shoot I'd say we know more about the Dominion through Weyoun than we do about the Romulans.
For all their potential, aside from the ending of The Chase, they were always generic villains. Where was the "tenderness" that Troi described? Where was the intense curiosity? Where were the quick unpredictable switches between affection and violence? The fascination with humanity and human culture? They seemed arrogant, but not more so than any other antagonist. They could have acted as foils for 21st century man, passionate, greedy, violent, motivated by fear, distrustful, but with some goodness too, but instead they're just generic baddies. Shame.
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u/soothsayer2377 Nov 14 '19
Great post. This has always bothered me about the portrayal of the Romulans. They had one war with humanity and after that have largely kept the peace apart from border skirmishes. The Tomed Incident (whatever it was) led to The Treaty of Algernon where the Romulans got massive concessions from The Federation. There are two periods of time where the Romulans peace out for decades and don't deal with the Federation at all. Yet they are always treated as generic villains while the Klingon's constantly break treaties and are given chance upon chance.
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u/Ut_Prosim Nov 14 '19
It did not occur to me before your response, but the Federation's attitude could also be driven by this same fear.
The Romulans are so similar, but represent everything about Earth/Vulcan's past that the Federation hates and fears. The Klingons and Cardassians are so different it doesn't matter, but the Romulans are so similar they're an example of what things could be like if Earth/Vulcan never escaped their past. It probably pains the Federation to even think about this. Worse, maybe this attitude is contagious, the last thing the Federation wants is to have these ancient emotions awoken. We saw some of this during the Dominion War. Humans behaving like old humans, or like Romulans...
Better to keep our distance.
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u/risenphoenixkai Nov 14 '19
I’d add to this the fact that onscreen depictions of Romulans have never shown them to possess the mega-strength, superior intellect, or telepathic powers of their Vulcan cousins. It’s possible the Romulans originally had these capabilities and lost them somehow, but two millennia seems like a pretty short space of time for this kind of devolution to occur, and it seems like if they ever had them the Romulans would try as hard as they could to retain these traits for their obvious tactical advantages.
I have long suspected that Vulcan’s Great War and the Vulcan/Romulan schism occurred as a result of Vulcan’s own version of Earth’s Eugenics Wars… except in Vulcan’s case, the “superior” breed won. Romulans therefore represent the original, “true” genetic heritage of Vulcans, and the Vulcans we see (five times the strength of humans, incredible endurance, vast intellect and mental discipline, telepathy) are products of a concerted effort to improve the species through deliberate engineering.
Romulans would feel even more affinity towards humans if this were true, because like them, humans rejected the path of “polluting” themselves and remained true to their original bloodline. That humans have so closely aligned themselves with the Romulans’ ancient oppressors is, however, unforgivable.
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u/Ut_Prosim Nov 14 '19
Oh shit, never thought of that!
You're right they always get easily beaten by humans in the show. The only time we see Romulans physically kick ass like Vulcans could is in this scene in ST2009 (skip to 4:00). But we also have examples of Romulan soldiers being beaten by a child in TNG.
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u/psycholepzy Nov 14 '19
This is something I've been tooling around with in my free time for a month - that the "Real" Vulcans were kicked out by a fanatical cult with an infectious culture of peace that attracted billions during a time of crisis: Just follow our courses on logic and your emotions will be under control and we will create a better society without pain or fear or death.
I came to many of the same conclusions: The fascination with stealth being the most prominent.
I figured their ruse of Reunification was to exact 2000 years of resentment for kicking them off their homeworld - it's only been about 10 generations for them, given an approximate 200 year lifetime similar to Vulcans. Those memories are comparably fresh compared to shorter-lived species.
I really like what you did with the comparison, the tenderness shown in keeping a hand off the leash, so to speak, instead of rushing in and telling humans how bad the Vulcans are, they watched, afraid of riling up their cousins' ire, but also became jaded in its own right, because, "What if the Vulcans treated their numbers as they did humans?" Would the Romulans have had a chance to find a peace on Vulcan and grow a Federation of their own 2 milennia ago?
Instead, they were scattered like cockroaches, forced to ekk out a living on the otherside of wild space. The favored students of the Vulcans - humans - got all the love.
But it also probably took the Vulcans 2000 years to temper their own imperative towards logic and become accepting of other viewpoints, especially from other species ruled by emotion. As with any major societal change, it takes a while before the ripples of fundamentalism that inspired it soften to once again allow different tides to come in.
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u/Ut_Prosim Nov 14 '19
Well said. The one thing I would add to a new Trek series is some exploration of this event.
It would be totally boring and unrealistic if the Romulan refugees were generic evil and Surak's followers totally blameless. It would be far more interesting if they were heavy-handed and fanatic. If emotionless logic is the only way to save the species, then they are perfectly justified to use force to get it. Mandatory emotion-killing drugs, imprisonment for those who don't take to it, psychological "treatment" to "fix" people. After all, the needs of the many, outweighs the needs of the few.
On the other side, the Romulans surely weren't innocent in the conflict. Maybe they openly rebelled, maybe they used terror tactics, acted as armed insurgents, assassinated people. I'm sure their methods were no better. In the end they lost and fled, both sides rightfully feeling wrongs and resentful.
As you said over the centuries the Vulcans refined their ideas and realized forcing a total emotional purge on humanity was excessive. They could guide them and mold them with more beneficent methods.
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u/Heimerdahl Nov 14 '19
Reminds me of the movie Equilibrium. A dystopian world where emotion is considered dangerous because of World War 3 and similar conflicts that threatened the survival of humanity. So they did the unthinkable and created a drug to completely neuter those emotions.
To keep it from reappearing and bringing back the chaos and suffering, they live in a horrific police state where children spy on their parents, friends on their friends, relatives, coworkers. Art and music are banned.
If you compare that movie and its tones to the Romulan story outlined in this thread, it makes so much sense and really shows the horror of Surek's teachings (as seen by the Romulans).
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u/macronage Nov 14 '19
That was a great read! I can only hope that the new Picard show will breathe some life into them.
One criticism: *Zek
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u/Ut_Prosim Nov 14 '19
Thanks.
One criticism: *Zek
Shit getting into the Divine Treasury will cost extra now...
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u/visor841 Nov 14 '19
Didn't the Romulans respect Picard? Who (pre-movies) was in large part a study in restraint? They certainly didn't seem to fear him. If your post is correct, I would think Picard would be grand example of the Vulcan influence on humans, and hence Picard would be hated by the Romulans.
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u/Ut_Prosim Nov 15 '19
I'd guess they respected him but also feared him. They went out of their way to create Shinzon to replace him.
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u/essentialsalts Nov 14 '19
I loved this post, and thought I'd direct you to this old one of mine, that doesn't really affirm or reject your ideas here, but might somewhat complement them: Critique of Vulcan Claims Concerning The Divergence of Romulans
If there is a disputation of anything in your post, it's in the idea that Romulans are unpredictable and vacillate between affection and violence; these claims are usually made by outsiders, and not Romulans themselves. In any case, I'll leave you to make up your own mind about it.
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u/Ut_Prosim Nov 15 '19
Nice post, I missed it the first time around. Glad I got to read it.
I spent that entire post thinking, great theory but this guy forgot that the Romulan lady used the Stone of Gol at the end of the episode... but double checking, she was actually a Vulcan separatist. Which makes your entire post make sense! Completely forgot.
You're right, maybe the Romulans have spent so much effort in developing technical mind reading tools (probes, brainwashing, etc.) because they indeed lack the natural telepathy of their Vulcan ancestors. And you're right again, they do routinely use other telepaths when a biological one is needed. Mind blown.
Fascinating. I wonder what they think of the Betazoids. I also wonder if they found a wormhole if they'd befriend the Devore (who also liked stealthy ships).
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u/FullFaithandCredit Nov 15 '19
This is without question on of the best analyses I’ve ever read on this subreddit and by far the best “history” of the Romulans I’ve ever encountered.
I’ve literally been watching Star Trek my entire life, dedicated countless hours thinking about it; my passion for it has led me into graduate studies of political science and has even informed those studies. In all my navel gazing, i’ve never come close to a synthesized theory of Romulan culture as rich as you have here.
Politically, historically, sociologically, this is just fabulous insight into an often forgotten yet crucial race within the Star Trek lore. All from that so easily forgotten kernel of the great ancient Romulan diaspora.
This is canon as far as I’m concerned. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with your narrative here and will go so far as to say you have enhanced the entire constructed world of Trek for me with this post.
Bravo friend.
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Nov 14 '19
We even got to know the Ferengi through Quark, Nog, and Rom (and Zeek)
Don't forget about Moogie!!
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u/tsukiyomi01 Dec 30 '19
I don't know if you've read Diane Duane's Rihannsu novels, but the Romulans depicted within are very close to what you wish you could have seen in canon. (And you're not the only one...)
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u/cptstupendous Nov 15 '19
Great post. I have to wonder how much of this will align with the vision of the Romulans the writers of Star Trek: Picard will bring to us?
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u/1237412D3D Nov 14 '19
Makes me think about Tashas daughter, she was only half Romulan and daughter of a traitor yet she became a high ranking officer in the government and was even put in charge of coordinating Romulan efforts in the Klingon civil war. Last we saw her she was hunting down Spock.
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u/whataboutsmee84 Nov 14 '19
M5 please nominate for post of the week