History Main / StrawVulcan

* The Straw Vulcan [[AgentScully cannot believe in the paranormal]]. Logical enough in RealLife, where the existence of such forces are debated, but this can lead to such characters coming off as being [[FlatEarthAtheist blind or in denial]] if they live in a universe where such things are shown to be real.

See DumbIsGood, YouFailLogicForever, GivingUpOnLogic, SimplemindedWisdom, [[DontThinkFeel Don't Think, Feel,]] and MeasuringTheMarigolds. Compare StrawHypocrite. The existence of this character means that the writer falls on the Romanticist side of RomanticismVersusEnlightenment.Contrast to EmotionsVsStoicism. {{Opposite trope|s}} to StrawmanEmotional.

* The Incubators in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' regard human emotion as nothing more than an energy source, and often fail to understand why Madoka and the rest of the cast get sad or angry at how the Incubators are using mankind. The entire conflict is due to Incubators believing the energy release gained from a magical girl turning into a witch is far more valuable to a greater amount of people than one person's happiness, and go so far as to compare Incubators use of humans to how humans raise cows for milk and beef. They believe there's a fair trade in the wishes and technology the Incubators have provided humans for their actions, and refute any claims they've lied or tricked the rest of the characters, since the Incubators never directly lied and only omitted details about the contract the magical girls make.

* ''VideoGame/TheTuringTest'': Tom firmly adheres to the view that impulses must be suppressed because they lead to wrong decisions.
-->'''Tom:''' You can always trust a machine to be logical. I will always do the right thing. \\
'''Ava:''' You will always do the logical thing.

!!Examples

* DissidiaFinalFantasy: [[spoiler:Onion Knight]] gets this, spelled out in that story's ending narration: [[spoiler:"He thought that avoiding mistakes and making decisions based on logic - instead of emotion - was the only way to reach the truth. But the boy has learned ... that he can tap into immeasurable strength when he searches deep inside his heart."]]

* ''ComicBook/TomStrong'': Averted by Quetzalcoatl-9, a supercomputer created by parallel-universe Aztecs. He states straight-up that he is trusting Tom because it's the logical thing to do; they're in a textbook Prisoner's Dilemma, and trust, on average, yields slightly better results.

* Played truly bizarrely in one route of ''Zero Escape VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', where Phi, in discussing the Prisoner's Dilemma and Ambidex Game, continually refers to "Betray" as the "logical" and "rational" decision... despite going in depth on how it's sub-optimal for both the group and the individual, meaning that it's ''illogical'' and ''irrational'' by real-world rather than Straw Vulcan definitions of logic, unless for some reason you were applying logic with the goal of "Make the least advantageous decision."

* Morrigan from VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins has this role in your party. The most striking example being her objection to help out with the situation in Redcliffe, because it presents a huge delay in your quest to stop the Darkspawn, despite the fact that helping them would get the Grey Wardens some crucial allies for their fight against the Darkspawn. [[spoiler: It turns out later that she was deliberately conditioned to not want to help people while growing up, and her arguments are rationalizations.]]

* Morrigan from VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins has this role in your party. The most striking example being her objection to help out with the situation in Redcliffe, because it presents a huge delay in your quest to stop the Darkspawn, despite the fact that helping them would get the Grey Wardens some crucial allies for their fight against the Darkspawn.

** "The Ice Warriors" features a completely logical computer that the scientists are dependent on, that is completely useless once the OutsideContextVillain shows up as there is no perfect solution and it has not been programmed to anticipate this sort of thing. Everyone else in the setting is completely aware that the computer is useless, except for, unfortunately, [[PointyHairedBoss the person actually in charge]] who remains slavishly devoted to it.

* Sokka of WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender is often put in this position when the Gaang is trying to help people. However, it's subverted in "The Fortuneteller", where they have to convince the people that the [[spoiler:volcano will erupt]]. Although a lot of times Sokka will act on instinct and emotion. Oftentimes he is actually very practical and logical in the non-straw sense. Over the course of the series though, he grows out of it. By the time of ''Legend Of Korra,'' when Sokka is a judge, his response to [[spoiler: a crime-boss being accused of blood-bending without a full moon,]] is more or less, "Yes, it's supposed to be impossible, but I've seen a lot of weird, seemingly-impossible crap in my life, and a ''lot'' of victims have come forth, so let's discuss it."

** Prowl plays the trope in a more straight-forward way. He is logical to a fault. This is presented like something good, since he is one of the best Autobot tacticians... and like something bad, since Prowl is downright unable to stand illogical things or let himself deal with their existence. He is capable stay paralized in the heat of a battle as he tries making sense out of whatever has got him perplexed. The Autobot's first bout against the Decepticons in [[ComicBook/TheTransformers the Marvel comics]] is a good example of it. As the Decepticons were shooting at them and its squad was scrambling around, Prowl remained still as he tried to understand why the nearby cars (they were in a parking) were not running away.

** [[spoiler:V.I.K.I.'s motivations]] are entire rooted in logical thought. Sonny even comments that he can understand the logic behind the plan perfectly, "but it just seems too... heartless." [[spoiler:V.I.K.I.]]'s motivations are logical for her premise, it's her premise/goal that is wrong. She is looking to save lives at all costs, but one could argue there was a much better way to go about the coup that wouldn't set up an us-vs-them mentality that would encourage humans to fight to the death. The problem is that humans want more than just personal survival. We would rather accept small risk if it means enjoyment or a meaning in life, and would be inadvertently encouraged to die for freedom when it's an AndIMustScream world dictated by robots. If she had started out with the premise of "I must preserve human happiness" instead of "I must preserve human life" things would have been far different. Of course, life, unlike happiness, can be quantified.

* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' King Taravingian is under a curse/blessing that causes his intelligence to fluctuate and he becomes less compassionate and moral the smarter he gets, with the result that every morning he takes an intelligence test of his own devising. His ability to change policy is dependent on the results of the test, and becomes restricted if he's too stupid ''or'' too smart. Fortunately, this precaution was put in place before he came up with that plan to make everyone below a certain level of intelligence kill themselves. He does note that the inverse relationship between intelligence and emotion isn't how it works for most people, it's part of his condition.

->''A mind all logic is like a knife all blade: it makes the hand bleed that wields it.''

* The Straw Vulcan will often commit the FallacyFallacy, dismissing a conclusion simply because it was based on invalid logic or on emotion. While the fact that an argument contains a fallacy is grounds for dismissing that argument, it does not prove that the conclusion is wrong. Basically, you can get the [[RightForTheWrongReasons right answer for the wrong reason]].
* The Straw Vulcan will only accept a guaranteed success. A plan that only has a chance of success is not "logical", even if the chance is the highest possible. This is actually a well-known ''error'' in logic, called the PerfectSolutionFallacy. Spock and Tuvok both did this regularly in the various Star Trek works. Although they didn't say it outright, whenever they mentioned having calculated low odds for the success of a given plan, it was obvious that they did not believe said plan should be attempted. This was typically responded to by one of the humans saying the equivalent of, "damn the torpedoes!" which was intended to prove that said human characters were inherently irrational.
* The story assumes that anything which doesn't fit a particular mathematical model of logic isn't "logical". Related to the PerfectSolutionFallacy, again, because you can only find truly perfect 1=1 solutions and conceive of perfect circles in abstract mathematics.
* Related to the PerfectSolutionFallacy: The Straw Vulcan will proceed to disturb everyone with doomsaying that their current plan "only has a 10% chance for us to succeed", and then the emotional protagonist proceeds to disprove him by saying "NeverTellMeTheOdds" and succeeding. Actually, when all other options are depleted, the plan that has a 10% chance of success is logically superior to other courses of action that have less chance of success. (And presumably doing nothing means a 0% chance) Bothering people with remarks about low chances of success in critical situations may degrade their morale and thus further diminish said chances, so it doesn't make logical sense to quote poor odds unless there's a better option that can be taken.[[note]]Or the "logical" character forgot to factor the other characters' personalities into the equation, so telling the others it's unlikely to work actually [[InspirationalInsult makes it MORE likely they'll try harder than usual and therefore succeed]], just to prove the "logical" character wrong.[[/note]] Pessimism for pessimism's sake in a time of need simply isn't logical, no need to be the sensitive guy of the cast to figure ''that'' out.

* The Straw Vulcan will be completely unable or unwilling to plan for unexpected and even illogical behavior from other parties. Perhaps the most common flaw of the Straw Vulcan is their inability to draw upon any knowledge which comes from being an emotional being. They seem unable to factor emotions, or any associated information, into their analysis; they are not so much "logical" beings as beings without a functional understanding of the nature of emotional processes.
* The Straw Vulcan, and by extension all logical thinkers, will be uncreative, or at least less so than [[HotBlooded emotional people]]. He will be unable to come up with an imaginative answer to an unusual problem, while the [[TheKirk emotional protagonist]], often despite having no real experience with this kind of situation, will be able to save the day. This is supposed to show that "logic" is inferior to "emotion" in that emotion can provide [[TakeAThirdOption a third and more favorable option]] to the logician's bad and worse options. Strictly speaking, this isn't so much about logic vs. emotion as it is about linear thinking vs. lateral thinking.
* The Straw Vulcan assumes that self-sacrifice isn't "logical", even though there can easily be situations where self-sacrifice is "logical".
* A Straw Vulcan will have to consider everything about the problem in full detail even in time-critical situations, while the emotional person will make the snap decisions necessary in this sort of situation. This will demonstrate how the "logical" Straw Vulcan is useless under pressure and therefore inferior to the emotional protagonist. The obvious flaw is that it's patently ''illogical'' to ignore time constraints in this manner. The technical term for this is "bounded rationality", as opposed to "classic rationality" which ''does'' assume that you have infinite time to gather information and consider.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[FantasticScience research magician]] Twilight Sparkle disregards repeated observational evidence of [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Pinkie Pie's]] [[SpiderSense "Pinkie Sense"]] because it's not SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic. Then, under the influence of [[AmusingInjuries severe repeated head trauma]] and possible [[BurningWithAnger stress-induced brain aneurysm]], she concludes that it "just makes sense," and that you [[ScienceIsWrong "just have to choose to believe"]] in things you don't understand. After the inevitable InternetBacklash, the creator of the show, LaurenFaust, apologized, saying that that [[AccidentalAesop wasn't meant to be]] the moral to take away from the episode.

-->'''Carrot:''' Personal's not the same as important, sir.

* ''TomStrong'': Averted by Quetzalcoatl-9, a supercomputer created by parallel-universe Aztecs. He states straight-up that he is trusting Tom because it's the logical thing to do; they're in a textbook Prisoner's Dilemma, and trust, on average, yields slightly better results.

* Played truly bizarrely in one route of ''Zero Escape VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', where Phi, in discussing the Prisoner's Dilemma and Ambidex Game, continually refers to "Betray" as the "logical" and "rational" decision... despite going in depth on how it's sub-optimal for both the group and the individual, meaning that it's ''illogical'' and ''irrational'' by real-world rather than Straw Vulcan definitions of logic, unless for some reason you were applying logic with the goal of "Make the least advantageous decision." If you don't know what decision the other player will make, it ''is'' the most logical choice. If they chose to ally, then you're better off if you betray than if you ally. If they choose to betray, then you're still better off if you betray than if you ally (at least in the standard version--there's supposed to be a motivation to betray if you know your opponent will do the same, forming a Nash equilibrium at betray/betray).

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', [[FantasticScience research magician]] Twilight Sparkle disregards repeated observational evidence of [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Pinkie Pie's]] [[SpiderSense "Pinkie Sense"]] because it's not SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic. Then, under the influence of [[AmusingInjuries severe repeated head trauma]] and possible [[BurningWithAnger stress-induced brain aneurysm]], she concludes that it "just makes sense," and that you [[ScienceIsWrong "just have to choose to believe"]] in things you don't understand. In defense of the show, after the inevitable InternetBacklash, the creator of the show, LaurenFaust, apologized, saying that that wasn't meant to be the moral to take away from the episode.

* Averted with First Lieutenant Lin from ''AdvanceWars: Dark Conflict'' (AKA "Days of Ruin", outside of Europe), a highly logical tactician who nevertheless concedes command of the army to Ed (Will in ''Days of Ruin''), on the grounds that he is better respected by the troops and civilians and will therefore be a more effective leader. At one point, she even commends Ed for giving an emotional speech to motivate the troops. There's also the scene where she had [[spoiler:Greyfield/Sigismundo at her mercy, and he tries to save himself by pointing out that [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim she'd be doing the same thing he did]]. She agrees... and shoots him anyway.]]

* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': Qui-Gon's actions on Tatooine. Supposedly, the mystical and mysterious Force leads him to bet everything on the performance of an unknown boy in a dangerous pod race -- a convoluted gambit that only a fellow Jedi can understand. The truth is much simpler: the situation is so dire (marooned on a remote planet with no comm, no FTL drive, no money to repair it, no ability to use a JediMindTrick on the one person who has a replacement drive, a moral code that won't let him steal it, and a high degree of urgency) that the strange bet is the best available option. FridgeLogic: Qui-Gon would rather pretend that he's being guided by the ineffable, infallible Force than admit to Queen Amidala that he's making a desperate gamble because he's run out of alternatives. He also neglects the obvious path of trading the disabled ship for a smaller working one.

It starts by having characters who think "[[YouKeepUsingThatWord logically]]" try to solve a problem - and they can't. Either they can't find any answer, or they're caught in some kind of standoff, or every answer they can think of has some tradeoff that's unacceptable to the other charactes, or they're even stuck in a LogicBomb-type loop. Once this is established, someone who uses good old human emotion comes up with a solution that the logical thinker can't. This provides AnAesop that emotion is superior and that the logical thinker shouldn't trust logic so much.

See DumbIsGood, YouFailLogicForever, GivingUpOnLogic, SimplemindedWisdom, DontThinkFeel, and MeasuringTheMarigolds. Compare StrawHypocrite. The existence of this character means that the writer falls on the Romanticist side of RomanticismVersusEnlightenment.Contrast to EmotionsVsStoicism. {{Opposite trope|s}} to StrawmanEmotional.

The word "emotion" is often used here in places where "intuition" or "instinct" might be more accurate: ''i.e.,'' instances where the subconscious mind reaches a correct answer faster than the conscious mind can perform a step-by-step reasoned analysis (such as, "Run!" or "Shoot!" or "I get a trustworthy vibe from this stranger,"); or feats of lateral thinking that involve bypassing the sort of rigid categorization systems that western philosophy traditionally favors. ''This'' sort of thing is a [[JustifiedTrope perfectly legitimate]] dichotomy, but the issue is rarely described this way, instead calling it "logic vs. emotion," which is probably less accurate.

See DumbIsGood, YouFailLogicForever, GivingUpOnLogic, SimplemindedWisdom, and MeasuringTheMarigolds. Compare StrawHypocrite. The existence of this character means that the writer falls on the Romanticist side of RomanticismVersusEnlightenment.Contrast to EmotionsVsStoicism. {{Opposite trope|s}} to StrawmanEmotional.

* Subverted by Paul Redeker in ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. While his rather [[EmotionsVsStoicism amoral]] plans to save [[spoiler: parts of]] the white population of South Africa during a black uprising make him universally despised, these plans end up [[spoiler: saving millions]].

See DumbIsGood, YouFailLogicForever, GivingUpOnLogic, SimplemindedWisdom, and UnweavingTheRainbow. Compare StrawHypocrite. The existence of this character means that the writer falls on the Romanticist side of RomanticismVersusEnlightenment.Contrast to EmotionsVsStoicism. {{Opposite trope|s}} to StrawmanEmotional.