Vulcans
cannot lieVulcans have no tells
Both Data and Riker would destroy Spock at poker.
In my head canon Riker is such a good guy for playing poker with his friends. He has zero chance of winning ever, but still plays for the fun of it.
We have a human with super cyber vision, this man can literally see through the cards. Now he might be staring at Trois tits most of the time (the TNG LaForge character was a bit of a creep), but still he can read all the cards. And it’s actual canon he can’t selectively filter, he gets it all at once.
Then we have a half human, half-Betazoid with psychic abilities. You ain’t bluffing, you can’t even hide your hand, she senses what you’ve got immediately. Sure she claims not to do that, but we’ve seen dozens of times she can’t control that shit.
Next to her we have an actual fucking robot. Not just a machine with super human speed and strength, but also just about the smartest dude you’ve ever seen. Although his intelligence and knowledge is limited by a severe case of plotitus, you know he’s counting the cards and stacking the deck. It’s even canon he does that subconsciously, he’s so used to cheating at cards, it’s become second nature.
And then there’s Worf, a proud warrior who doesn’t really like to play games, but doesn’t want to be left out. He absolutely sucks at playing cards, but they let him win anyways. I mean would you tell a Klingon warrior his pair of queens doesn’t beat your flush? Hells no, he’s likely to rip your head off by accident.
Riker has no shot at all, but he loves hanging out with the gang. So he’ll happily lose all night, as long as his friends are there having a good time.
And by round 3 it’s probably all gossip and booze (how does all that Andorian ale get onto starships anyway?), and Data playing all hands by himself because he’s lost patience with the slow biologicals.
I presume that they all behave on an honor system to not make use of their obvious advantages (Troi having the hardest time adapting) for the sake of a friendly game. Geordi has stated that he only glances after the hand. Data likely has a masking subroutine. Worf… is Worf.
We see that mindset called out in “The Neutral Zone” where the time displaced entrepreneur doesn’t have the self discipline to refrain from accessing shit he’s not privy to.
don’t forget that the damn robot keeps getting smarter
We never saw it on screen, but I’d bet McCoy cleaned him out more than once!
Vulcans lie all the time, even Spock explicitly lies in TOS (for example, in the “Enterprise Incident”).
Keep in mind that Spock is only half Vulcan. You’re absolutely right, of course, but I’ve seen “his human half is why spock does X” in a variety of arguments like this.
Tuvok in this case makes a better example. He’s 100% Vulcan, and was a literal spy.
I’m still surprised he pulled off the deception for as long as he did. The Maquis are comprised of disgruntled and resettled “freedom fighters” and then there’s 'ole stick in the mud Tuvok. Kinda stands out.
It doesn’t seem unprecedented for crazy Vulcans to be in the Maquis. For instance, we had the Vulcan gun runner Sakonna in DS9.
Or for Vulcans to go crazy at all, since there was that shooter on DS9 with the transporter sniper rifle
Also Krinn from Picard.
Chakotay was just really trusting.
By picking TOS, I’m making the point that “Vulcans Never Lie” was always intended as a lie, not something that got introduced by later Trek.
No True Vulcan Fallacy:
Person A: “No Vulcan can Lie.”
Person B: “But my uncle Stauk is a Vulcan and he Lies.”
Person A: “But no true Vulcan can Lie.”I don’t even understand how “Vulcans don’t show emotion” translates into “Vulcans are incapable of lying.” It certainly limits the reasons why they might lie, but you don’t need to show, or even have, emotion to be deceptive.
Case in point, some of the times where Data is possessed or coerced into lying.
Theirs is a culture rich in exaggeration. They even exaggerated a tendency toward honesty into a full blown racial stereotype.
And they reinforce it with logic and argumentation, reshaping any scenario to their will.
(/s, in case it’s necessary:-P)
…i will argue to the death that the sky is orange…
“no uncoded communications over an open channel” “you lied” “i exaggerated”
He can justify his way around lying like he did in TUC.
Valeris: A lie?
Spock: An error.
…an omission… …an oversight… …a speculation… muah…i love you and semantics
It took a good minute for me to decode that acronym.
I guess I usually don’t acronym that film and just refer to it as VI or by its full name
Spock, tell the robot you’re lying so it will emit smoke and sparks and we can get outta here.
