The McCoy: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"What's that, [[The Spock|Spock]]? '[[Straw Vulcan|Logic]]?' If we listened to your cold reasoning, you'd have us look for that stupid [[Cosmic Keystone]] while innocent people suffer! [[Emotions vs. Stoicism|The greater good]]? Better in the long run? [[Exclusively Evil|The Klingons]] will kill us in five minutes if we go to rescue the high priestess unprepared? Dammit man, dare we call ourselves [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|human]] if we'' don't?! ''[[Insult Backfire|What do you mean 'Thank you?]]'''"}}
That said, they help keep the drama of a situation ''personal'' both for the characters and the viewer, reminding us just why the [[Littlest Cancer Patient]] deserves for [[The Hero]] to use the phlebotinum that [[It Only Works Once|only works once]] on him rather than to [[You Can't Go Home Again|get them home.]] To be fair, the [[The Spock|Spock]] can be just as compassionate, but is tempered with detachment and enough forethought to realize that [[Emotions vs. Stoicism|the right answer might not be the correct one]], ([[Straw Vulcan|illogical as that sounds]]).
The McCoy still functions as an admirable character, however, due to his absolute devotion to his Moral beliefs and his refusal to give in to what others may tell him. For him, there is no such thing as acceptable losses. And if you start claiming that [[We Have Reserves|numbers can be lost]] or that [[A Million Is a Statistic]], you can expect a thorough [[What the Hell, Hero?|chewing out for your coldness]]. In the McCoy's mind, every life matters and everyone deserves to be saved. While [[The Spock]] sees people as numbers in the greater picture, The McCoy sees people with real lives and emotions.
Also,
The McCoy is the [[Honor Before Reason]] [[Trope]] personified, and may occasionally be a [[Strawman Emotional]].
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* This personality archetype is, with a few exceptions in certain characters (namely Usopp and Robin, and then only occasionally for either), a prerequisite for joining the [[One Piece|Straw Hat Pirates]]. It also seems to be the default personality for the majority of the characters aligned with good, period.
* Similarly to the above, many characters in [[Bleach]] are compassionate honor-before-reason-or-logic types. The Gotei 13 can actually be split up evenly based on how they reacted in the Rescuing Rukia saga: those who sided with Ichigo and co. are this, while those who fought against them in the end (counting out instances like Kyouraku fighting Chad before he sympathized with their goals) are [[The Spock|Spocks]], except for Kurotsuchi and Kenpachi, who are just loose cannons in this regard.
* In ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', Sayaka and Madoka are the
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', the brothers form a [[Freudian Trio]]: Alyosha as an idealistic [[The Kirk|Kirk]], Ivan as the cold, rational [[The Spock|Spock]], and Dmitri is the emotional
* Marianne Dashwood in ''[[Sense and Sensibility (novel)|Sense and Sensibility]]'', in contrast to her sister [[The Spock|Elinor]]. Possibly the [[Trope Maker]], considering this is one of the first known intentional uses of it (Austen intended the sisters' [[Emotions Versus Stoicism]] to be a metaphor for [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]). Also notable as one of the few cases where
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books, Harry, Ron and Hermione start out as [[The Kirk]],
* Ned Land from ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'' is an emotional harpooner who isn't excited about going around the world on the ''Nautilus'' and simply wants to return to civilization, in contrast to Aronnax's [[The Kirk|Kirk]] and Conseil's [[The Spock|Spock]].
* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' novel ''[[Star Trek: Vulcans Forge]]'' Rabin(an earlier friend of [[The Spock|Spock's]]) is like this, though more [[Beware the Nice Ones|friendly]] and less crotchety then ...Mmm...the real
* Anne Shirley in [[Anne of Green Gables]]
* Matteo in ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]''.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* The [[Trope Namer|trope is named for]] [[The Medic|Doctor Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy]]. He not only stressed humanism, [[Strawman Emotional|he was all but dominated by his emotions]], to the point that he seemed to find ''no'' value in logic whatsoever, even in situations where it would fit... um, logically. There are many ''[[Star Trek TOS|Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episodes wherein, had they listened to
** There's a clear ideological bent this way in Starfleet medical school in
*** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' had Kira Nerys, while Odo was usually the more logical one.
*** ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'' used [[The Captain|Captain Janeway]] in this role, while Tuvok and Chakotay would ''try'' to balance ''her'' out with logic.
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*** ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' had "Trip" Tucker (engineer).
* ''[[Firefly]]'': [[Genki Girl|Kaylee]] often was the one who was more about the right thing, like not abandoning [[Child Soldier|River]] and [[The Medic|Simon]].
** [[The Medic|Simon]] is a [[The Spock|Spock]] in most cases, but he turns into a
* Jack O'Neill in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' was more often than not
** Daniel himself is more often
*** Both Jack and Daniel could turn into
*** While Teal'c is usually the Spock, he has had his time as the [[McCoy]]; usually when someone does something sends him on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]. There was an entire episode dedicated to such an event.
* ''[[Lost in Space]]'' had its own [[Freudian Trio]] with Will Robinson, the Robot and Doctor Smith. Ironically, the most logical of them all, the Robot, would frequently prove his great titanium alloy heart by performing a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] for the crew.
** Although Doctor Smith was closer to [[The Spock]] with his self-serving interests, he had quite a few [[Pet the Dog]] moments of humanistic behaviour himself.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Willow and [[The Heart|Xander]]
** When Willow was kidnapped, the Scoobies (especially Oz) were
*** Buffy herself was
* [[Doctor Who]] has a tradition of this, when the companions usually act as the heart and the moral compass for the often aloof and alien Doctor. Barbara was the first companion to somewhat "humanise" the unpredictable and sometimes callous First Doctor. In the new series, Donna lived and breathed this [[Trope]], especially as the Tenth Doctor's characterisation grew darker and darker.
* Ironically, Jack McCoy of ''[[Law and Order]]'' is not
* Sheldon, from ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', insists that since he's [[The Spock|Spock]] and Leonard is [[The Kirk|Kirk]] then Leonard's girlfriend Stephanie must be
* Wilson from ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is a prime example of this [[Trope]]. He is a stark contrast to House himself, who doesn't give a damn about anyone. In the words of his snarky counterpart, "You love everybody. That's your pathology.".
* Sam is very much
* Delenn in [[Babylon 5]] is definitely a
* [[Power Rangers]]. In general, all the colors are this, although Reds tend to be the most McCoy-ish. (Cole, Casey, and Conner all get special mentions, though really any rookie Red counts.)
* Zhaan, Chiana, and to a lesser degree Jool served as
* "Doc" Soto in [[Alcatraz (TV series)|Alcatraz]] seems to be slipping into this role in opposition to Hauser's [[The Spock|Spock]].
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* Conrad from [[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]] is not a very [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|humanitarian/sentimentalist]] example, but he is the only part of the main triad (himself, [[The Kirk|Hanna]] and [[The Spock|Zombie]]) that is freaked out by the general supernatural weirdness of the comic. He's pretty much a staple [[Only Sane Man]] who questions everyone else's logic and peculiar calmness in the face of things that should scare the crap out of normal people like him.
* Arcturus Winrock from [[Suicide for Hire]] pulled a HUGE McCoy on Hunter when he killed a cancer patient.
* In [[Harkovast]] Scatterpod plays
== Web Originals ==
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Global Guardians]], both Arachne and Ultra-Man fill the roll of
* Mudd from [[The Book of Stories OCT]] was this.
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== Real Life ==
* [[Winston Churchill]] was a
** [[The Spock|Spocks]] seem to end up as a [[Number Two]] in [[Real Life]] as much as Hollywood.
* Maria Theresa often seems to come off as a
* A number of political controversies seem to be about [[Emotions vs. Stoicism|McCoyness versus Spockness]]. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|No Examples Please!]]
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