Basic Trope: An intelligent, stoic person, generally rounding out the Power Trio.
- Straight: Steven is an intelligent, seemingly emotionless man, who acts as a contrast to Kyle and Mark.
- Exaggerated:
- Steven has absolutely no emotions and does nothing before calculating all of the possible outcomes.
- Steven doesn't just hide his emotions, he obliterates them from his existence and focuses on logic and objectivity.
- Downplayed: Steven has above average intelligence and is less emotional(ly expressive) than the other characters. But he still shows emotion, just not as much as the others.
- Justified:
- Steven comes from a culture where pure logic is emphasized, and emotions demonized.
- Steven is The Sociopath with a moral code, but his Lack of Empathy causes him to mostly make decisions based on pure logic as a result.
- Steven strongly believes that emotions shouldn't cloud one's judgment when making important decisions.
- Steven is autistic and has trouble expressing his emotions.
- Inverted: The McCoy
- Subverted: Steven was played up as the Spock, but is less intelligent and/or more emotional than he seemed.
- Double Subverted: ... But it turns out that Steven was roleplaying as someone less intelligent/more emotional than himself.
- Parodied: Some values of Straw Vulcan played for laughs.
- Zig Zagged:
- Steven is the Power Trio in the form of one person, due to either being a Mood-Swinger or having a Split Personality.
- At first Steven appears to be The Stoic, but then he is shown to have wild emotions until someone tells him to get a grip. Then he reverts to his logical side, but still retains a spark of emotion that allows him to make decisions based on his instincts at times, but only after going over them logically ...
- Averted: Steven is just as intelligent and emotional as those around him
- Enforced:
- "We're filming/shouting out to Star Trek."
- "We need a character to be the other morality side - we already have one who's emotional and one that's sort of in-between."
- Lampshaded: "Oh, another organic computer with legs. How dull."
- Invoked:
- Steven actively tries to be logical and stoic whether his attempts are successful or not.
- A friend or family member teaches Steven how important it is to make keep his emotions under control and think ahead using logic in order to get ahead.
- Exploited: The Big Bad uses his knowledge of Steven's method of solving problems to give him a situation with an extreme moral dilemma where all the sides are equally logical.
- Defied: Steven manages to look on all sides of the issue, both emotional and logical.
- Discussed: "He's really stoic, isn't he? He's always butting heads with Mark."
- Conversed: "Why is there always a guy who runs on pure logic?"
- Deconstructed:
- Steven's stoic attitude leads to people calling him cold and ruthless, despite the fact that he's supposed to be the good guy.
- Steven's logic and rationale leave him to make massive amounts of unethical decisions that, while achieving the goal, render the victories hollow in a meaningful sense.
- Since Steven only views people as expendable drones, he realises that sacrificing them for The Needs of the Many is pointless by his own logic, because to him the many consist of other expendable drones whose needs are irrelevant. He stops making moral decisions altogether and focuses only on science for its own sake.
- Reconstructed:
- Eventually, though, the people that matter in the story respect him as intelligent and a needed logical facet to the group.
- Despite Steven's stoic nature and coldness, he surprises everyone by considering emotion, ethics, and instinct into his rational viewpoint. After all, those are all important factors that are to be considered when making decisions and neglecting them would be irrational. This makes his decisions more meaningful while also being more insightful.
- Steven in fact does care about others, which is why he wants to minimise suffering as much as possible, even if he acknowledges he can't save everyone.
Captain, the most logical course of action would be to go back to The Spock.
