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The Expanse

I know @Gamesguy wasn't impressed by the battle scenes. To be honest, I thought they were pretty weak; flashy, but it missed, it think, having characters make decisions for understandable reasons. There's no sense that the characters are trying to win a fight to accomplish specific objectives; there's just a fight going on, so of course there's fight-scene stuff happening. Also, having a prisoner just standing there in the CIC was just a giant pile of 'um, what'.

Still, I'm enjoying it. Chrisjen Avasarala is the best worst person.

The Leviathan Wakes is on my list, but there are three other books in front of it.
 
The Captain heading off the bridge isn't actually an issue for me. The missiles took another 5 minutes to reach, and it took the ships another 10 minutes after that to get into "close" range.

This is a setting with advanced automation & control systems, and cruel physics of being ridiculously isolated where offense supremely trumps defence. About the only thing the Mars crew could have done is attack earlier, and even that wasn't guarantied to let them survive.
 
It's also worth noting that the authors of the novels are both on board as conceptual consultants for the show, and one of our contacts (we know their lawyer) has indicated they've been given more creative control than is usual for that job. So there's good odds that the quality and fidelity to the novels will continue, at least for next season or two.:)
 
It's pretty interesting so far, although they killed off my favorite character, Mr. Twitchy Medic. I also have trouble caring that much about the cop segments.
 
So far I haven't seen any of this series (hardly watch any TV), but it's been on the periphery of my consciousness. Those of you watching it, would you recommend it to someone who loves Firefly but couldn't get into (new) Battlestar Galactica?
 
Premier said:
So far I haven't seen any of this series (hardly watch any TV), but it's been on the periphery of my consciousness. Those of you watching it, would you recommend it to someone who loves Firefly but couldn't get into (new) Battlestar Galactica?
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Uh. . . maybe? It's hard to say because in terms of world building and overall feel I'd say that The Expanse is about halfway in between Firefly and nBSG. It has a lot of features of Firefly, like being set in a single multicultural, linguistically distinct solar system, being one of the very few space operas to focus meaningfully on the underclass, and massive corporate / government conspiracies spanning multiple worlds.

On the other hand, it's grittier and more morally ambiguous than Firefly was. Nowhere close to nBSG in those regards, but still.

Basically, I'd say that it's definitely worth trying, but there's also a decent chance it won't agree with your tastes.
 
I think I'll give it a try. My main problem with nBSG was, I think, that several characters consistently shattered my suspension of disbelief with their irrealistic/crazy/retarded behaviour and actions after about 30 seconds of screentime.
 
Premier said:
I think I'll give it a try. My main problem with nBSG was, I think, that several characters consistently shattered my suspension of disbelief with their irrealistic/crazy/retarded behaviour and actions after about 30 seconds of screentime.
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Oh. In that case, you'll love The Expanse. There haven't been any idiot balls introduced yet, and there's a good chance that it'll be at least a couple seasons before some douchebag changes that.
 
Man. Admittedly I was worried at first because of Syfy's track record, but I have been delighted to be proven wrong. A rich universe with a lot of nuance to it, at least from my uncultured perspective. I'm really enjoying it.
 
Man, I did not think that Anderson station was that bad in the books. TBH I like the new version (assuming it is a new version and I didn't just forget what really happened).
 
Well then, things are getting interesting aren't they? A mysterious fourth faction playng the rest, some sort of bioweapon which I assume was the glowey ball of doom back in Episode 1. Miller continues to amuse with his smooth guy act even as everything falls apart around him, and Avasarala continues to be best worst person.
 
Adam Jensen is in the latest episode, with his Adam Jensen voice, and I find this hilarious.
 
On the topic of familiar voices, the actress who plays Avasarala was one of the Quarian Admirals in ME2+3. I knew I'd heard her before somewhere...
 
Growl said:
On the topic of familiar voices, the actress who plays Avasarala was one of the Quarian Admirals in ME2+3. I knew I'd heard her before somewhere...
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Shala'Raan, I think. The one that was Tali's surrogate aunt figure.

EDIT: Can I say that I just don't get what problem Holden has with Amos and that I'm getting a bit fed up with Best Worst Person's white knight complex?
 
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Tachikoma's Aunt said:
Shala'Raan, I think. The one that was Tali's surrogate aunt figure.

EDIT: Can I say that I just don't get what problem Holden has with Amos and that I'm getting a bit fed up with Best Worst Person's white knight complex?
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Amos is more than willing to act like your standard issue D&D player character (aka he has no issues killing anyone who gets in his way even a little). Holden.... isn't. He's pretty much the opposite in fact.
 
prometheus110 said:
Amos is more than willing to act like your standard issue D&D player character (aka he has no issues killing anyone who gets in his way even a little). Holden.... isn't. He's pretty much the opposite in fact.
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Eh, not really. Pretty much everyone Amos has killed / considered killing on screen stood / stands a pretty good chance of causing his or Naomi's death(s). Death is a bit more than a minor inconvenience.

Take the last episode: spys lie professionally, and the only evidence they have that he isn't going to sell them out / has already done so is said spy's word. Wanting to airlock a bitch in that situation is perfectly reasonable. Ditto for wanting to shoot the Martians before they can kill him / Naomi.

I mean, I kinda get not wanting to trust a man who only seems to trust / care about one other person (who is not you), but when the individual they value is a friend of yours who has fairly consistently follows your lead. . . *shrugs* Doesn't really strike me a pressing issue.
 
Tachikoma's Aunt said:
I mean, I kinda get not wanting to trust a man who only seems to trust / care about one other person (who is not you), but when the individual they value is a friend of yours who has fairly consistently follows your lead. . . *shrugs* Doesn't really strike me a pressing issue.
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Admittedly, Amos doesn't listen to Naomi as much since he found out that she knew about Holden logging the distress call.
However I also wouldn't say he's acting like a typical DnD murderhobo. If you just escaped from people you know nothing about trying to blow you up for no apparent reason (other than using your death to start a freaking stellar war), your old ship and the only outsiders who knew what happened are space-debris, and you have a good chance of getting blamed for the whole shitshow... as well as tortured and/or executed if you're ever caught, not letting that happen just becomes top priority. Unfortunately, that kind of stands in conflict with the jobs of spies and the Martian Navy patrol, even if they aren't "the baddies". Spacing/shooting them is just the easiest, most direct solution to the problem they present.

Really both still mostly want the same thing, a way out of this mess. It's just that, contrary to Holden, Amos doesn't give a fuck about taking the high road. He seems like a practical guy, doing whatever needs to be done - Holden still wants to do the right thing. Throwing random "innocents" under the bus is what those assholes who shot them up in the first place were doing.

Avasarala also wants to do right it seems, but at the same time the ends very much justify the means for her. She's a lot more hypocritical than Holden is, but to me that makes her more interesting than him as well.
 
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Tachikoma's Aunt said:
Eh, not really. Pretty much everyone Amos has killed / considered killing on screen stood / stands a pretty good chance of causing his or Naomi's death(s). Death is a bit more than a minor inconvenience.

Take the last episode: spys lie professionally, and the only evidence they have that he isn't going to sell them out / has already done so is said spy's word. Wanting to airlock a bitch in that situation is perfectly reasonable. Ditto for wanting to shoot the Martians before they can kill him / Naomi.

I mean, I kinda get not wanting to trust a man who only seems to trust / care about one other person (who is not you), but when the individual they value is a friend of yours who has fairly consistently follows your lead. . . *shrugs* Doesn't really strike me a pressing issue.
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It's still, you know, killing someone. It's not "perfectly reasonable." It's cold-blooded murder of a defenseless individual based on what they assume are lies. Holden is... perfectly reasonable in that situation.
 
Omicron said:
It's still, you know, killing someone. It's not "perfectly reasonable." It's cold-blooded murder of a defenseless individual based on what they assume are lies. Holden is... perfectly reasonable in that situation.
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No. If someone with the capacity to call down assassins and / or a godsdamned fleet on you and your friends, and you have absolutely zero assurance you can trust them, is defenseless, you fucking kill a bitch. Anything else is just plain stupid.

Morals are a luxury for when one's life is not under a clear and present threat. Because you can't :turian:be moral:turian: if you're dead.

Plus, there's the factor of Holden & Co. being they only people in the solar system that can prove that the MRCN did no nuke the Canterbury and stop an interplanetary war from breaking out. And that Holden is refusing to even attempt to get the truth out. Now, personally I think that's the right call, but under conventional morality? Holden is far worse than Amos is--he's fixing to get at least several orders of magnitude more people killed than Amos could if he killed ten people every single day for the rest of his life.
 
So is Avarsala Iranian or Indian ?

Overall digging the middle east/north Indian influences in the world building. Its like Firefly but instead of US-China CoDominium a more wider melting pot. Very cool and refreshing departure from the future being America in space.
 
galahad said:
So is Avarsala Iranian or Indian ?

Overall digging the middle east/north Indian influences in the world building. Its like Firefly but instead of US-China CoDominium a more wider melting pot. Very cool and refreshing departure from the future being America in space.
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Going from the books, Indian.
 
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