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The captain getting assimilated and killed by his crew would've been real ballsy for TV at the time.
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May 6, 2017 05:50
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coyo7e posted:The pilot is constantly hopped up on uppers and downers to either stay awake, deal with G forces, or to keep an edge in combat. He was clearly tweaking like a sonofabitch in that episode where he's hiding in that asteroid crater waiting to evac everyone, even though it never showed him taking anything - he definitely did counter his space-beer binge though. Ok I see what you mean now, but 'drug binge' seems like a too-recreational way to characterize 'he takes a cocktail of drugs during flight that keep him from having a stroke or passing out due to high g forces'. In the all alone episode I didn't get the impression that he was tweaking, just alone, bored, and getting a little stir crazy. YMMV. A year to go. 
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May 6, 2017 16:27
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coyo7e posted:The pilot is constantly hopped up on uppers and downers to either stay awake, deal with G forces, or to keep an edge in combat. He was clearly tweaking like a sonofabitch in that episode where he's hiding in that asteroid crater waiting to evac everyone, even though it never showed him taking anything - he definitely did counter his space-beer binge though. Hahahahaha. You bring a lot of baggage to your TV watching, don't you?
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May 6, 2017 16:44
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I dunno if you noticed, but it's not just the pilot - everybody gets combat drugs to help cope with the effects of high acceleration on the body. I mean, they live in space. It's not exactly an all-organic farm-to-table diet up there, you know? You have to do all sorts of crazy poo poo to the body just to live. If you think people aren't also popping bone density medication, well, they are; it's in the books. And Holden gets to take anticancer drugs for the rest of his life after he got cooked on Eros.
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May 6, 2017 18:23
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Kesper North posted:I dunno if you noticed, but it's not just the pilot - everybody gets combat drugs to help cope with the effects of high acceleration on the body.
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May 6, 2017 18:43
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Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if Alex popped some focus drugs over the commercial break, but that's not exactly a character flaw/indicative of him being a binging addict. Just what people do in space.
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May 6, 2017 18:56
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I never said he was a binging addict, you all are projecting your own hangups onto what I said. In the universe that has been created, he is high as hell of a lot of the time and the novels make it clear that he's often not behaving, well, totally normally. My point was that the sequence where he's obviously binge-drinking and then gakked out on some kind of amphetamine cocktail to counter it, are really weird to watch when there's nothing to show how he went from "whooooaaaah I can't hold onto a ladder in null-G! to ake it to my station!" to "whooooaaahh I'm tweaking like a sonofabitch!" It all plays like "oh well the pilot is kind of goofy and kooky", there's no masks or injections or patches - he's just abruptly acting like an ADHD grade-schooler after making a scene out of getting too shitfaced to keep his empties in a garbage bag in a null-G environment. I wouldn't even be surprised if they did have the (iirc, double-injection) IVs that everybody is subject to while in space and in a combat or high gee situation but instead, his character is just made to look like a buffoon, on top of sounding like a buffoon because I mean come in, an Indian guy with a Texan accent as his only defining character trait (well, except from being high a lot)? coyo7e fucked around with this message at 19:02 on May 6, 2017 |
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May 6, 2017 18:58
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coyo7e posted:I never said he was a binging addict, you all are projecting your own hangups onto what I said. In the universe that has been created, he is high as hell of a lot of the time and the novels make it clear that he's often not behaving, well, totally normally. He doesn't act weird given the contexts presented. He was bored and expecting them to take a while on ganymeade, so he drunk a lot of cheap beer (obv because he's a Texan). And no the novels don't make it clear he's behaving irregularly. Out of everyone in the books, he's probably the most Joe Shmoey of them all: genial, chubby, hung up on a failed marriage.
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May 6, 2017 20:00
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The books also establish there are sobriety drugs to get you sober fast if you need to.
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May 6, 2017 20:07
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Way back in season 1, when the Donnager picks them up, isn't Alex going through some sort of withdrawal, and Shed is trying to give him something right when the gauss round hits? I thought that was a weird thing they focused on and then subsequently dropped.
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May 6, 2017 22:38
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Hubbardologist posted:Way back in season 1, when the Donnager picks them up, isn't Alex going through some sort of withdrawal, and Shed is trying to give him something right when the gauss round hits? I thought that was a weird thing they focused on and then subsequently dropped. Just watched that, I thought he was just nervous.
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May 6, 2017 22:58
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Yeah, he was just freaking out because they're stuck in a jail cell during a space battle.
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May 6, 2017 23:40
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Idris Elba would have played a better Bobbie Draper
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May 7, 2017 00:26
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a foolish pianist posted:Yeah, he was just freaking out because they're stuck in a jail cell during a space battle. And as former MCRN, he understands the implications of the situation better than anyone.
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May 7, 2017 03:09
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Snowman Crossing posted:Idris Elba would have played a better Bobbie Draper Idris Elba could do a one man show of Sunset Boulevard and make it work though
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May 7, 2017 03:43
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Platystemon posted:And as former MCRN, he understands the implications of the situation better than anyone. Yeah it's this. He's the only one who really knows how dangerous the situation is at the time, the rest have never been in a space battle or have any experience with it.
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May 7, 2017 04:05
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Should we compile a list of plot hooks that have been setup but never resolved? - Fancy self-healing armor from S1 when the Donnager is under siege. Might have just been a throwaway.\ - I can't remember, wasn't the chip Fred Johnson took from Lopez's armor something to do with stealth tech?
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May 8, 2017 17:45
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AlternateAccount posted:Should we compile a list of plot hooks that have been setup but never resolved? That chip was a recording of the Donnager fight. Johnson used it as "evidence" that the ships that attacked the Donnager were built on Earth. Yes they were stealth ships, but I'm assuming he can't develop his own stealth ships based on a recording.
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May 8, 2017 17:48
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I totally forgot about those weird boarding troops, they really played up how mysterious and almost alien they were with never before seen super bio-tech.
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May 8, 2017 17:50
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AlternateAccount posted:Fancy self-healing armor from S1 when the Donnager is under siege. Might have just been a throwaway.\ I need to go back and watch the scene, but I'm pretty sure self-sealing after minor damage is a standard feature good combat suits in this setting; I don't think it was anything proprietary or related to the Protomolecule. Showing the attackers' suits doing it was probably intended to show that they were well-equipped professionals. Edit: I found the scene. Yeah, Holden does give it a weird look. I dunno, still reads more cutting-edge than Protomolecule-related to me. Toast Museum fucked around with this message at 17:58 on May 8, 2017 |
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May 8, 2017 17:55
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In the books self-sealing seems to be a standard feature on any military grade (or high quality in general?) suits. Along with automatic medic systems that shoot you full of amphetamines and painkillers when necessary.
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May 9, 2017 20:42
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bloom posted:In the books self-sealing seems to be a standard feature on any military grade (or high quality in general?) suits. Along with automatic medic systems that shoot you full of amphetamines and painkillers when necessary. I think my disconnect between the books and the show is that the books describe sealant being pumped into holes, the show in "CQB" showed the Protogen armor actually growing back with the original material regenerating. I think this was the show just trying to be overly fancy while trying to indicate that the soldiers were from a well funded and technically sophisticated adversary, not ragtag Belter terrorists using off-the-shelf hand me downs. But it's out of place if they don't show comparable UN/Martian gear also regenerating the same way, and I'm betting they won't. So in context of what is actually shown you can't be faulted for thinking it was supposed to be some fancy protomolecule derived tech, of a sort that does start showing up in very vague and less personal ways very late in the books.
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May 9, 2017 20:52
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Doing a series reread, and the introduction of book-Drummer in book 5 shows they have a pretty strong dedication to accurate characterization through casting/directing decisions. Book Drummer is pretty much a cipher with minimal characterization fulfilling some basic plot beats, but check it. Nemesis Games posted:Instead, he made a short, impatient sigh and walked back out as the head of security came in. She was a thin-faced woman Fred called Drummer, but Holden didn’t know if that was her first name, her last, or just something she went by. “How’s it going?” Fred asked. “Nothing we can’t handle,” she said. Her voice had a crisp accent that Holden couldn’t place. Show runner to thin-faced woman: "I need you to do a crisp, businesslike, but weird accent." TFW: "What should it sound like?" SR: "It shouldn't sound like anything at all." TFW: "Hold my beer."
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May 10, 2017 14:33
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Number Ten Cocks posted:Doing a series reread, and the introduction of book-Drummer in book 5 shows they have a pretty strong dedication to accurate characterization through casting/directing decisions. Book Drummer is pretty much a cipher with minimal characterization fulfilling some basic plot beats, but check it. That's pretty god damned hilarious because she definitely nailed the "accent you can't quite nail down"
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May 10, 2017 21:48
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flosofl posted:That's pretty god damned hilarious because she definitely nailed the "accent you can't quite nail down" Cara Gee has seriously stolen the show, you could tell me they ditched the books entirely to focus the next 5 seasons on Drummer hijacking the Roci and running around the System putting holes in people's heads while smuggling beers and I would buy eight copies each of the Blu-Ray.
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May 10, 2017 21:54
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I totally read "Hold my beer" in Drummer's voice that wall will explode and turn into a door 
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May 10, 2017 22:16
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I'd thought Cortazar, the protomolecule scientist, was wholly a show invention, but a scientist by that name is briefly mentioned in the epilogue of book 5 and presumably will feature some in book 7 onward. The early introduction and Anderson Dawes connection makes me wonder how they'll shift the endgame factions and key personalities if they get enough seasons to go that far, similar to how they made Mars more directly involved in the Ganymede protomolecule stuff in the show.
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May 13, 2017 16:15
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Cortazar is the main character in the Vital Abyss side story.
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May 13, 2017 16:30
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Grand Fromage posted:Cortazar is the main character in the Vital Abyss side story. Which I enjoyed and feel is worth reading. It is not at all required to enjoy the show, it just adds a wrinkle and is good on its own merits.
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May 13, 2017 19:22
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Has anyone else noticed how prevalent the tattoos of literally semi-obscure screwdriver (often security-type) bits, are integrated into Belter tattoos? I mean there are a hell of a lot of folks with Triwing-(for working on gameboys) and torx-head bits tattooed somewhere up-front and personal. I mean I know the history of Phillips and all that, but it's such a weird detail.
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May 13, 2017 20:34
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Pander posted:Which I enjoyed and feel is worth reading. It is not at all required to enjoy the show, it just adds a wrinkle and is good on its own merits. I read it and thought it was terrrrruble. A total boring slog. They really salvaged the corn out of that turd for the show.
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May 14, 2017 05:09
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Are the books any good?
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May 14, 2017 14:19
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Elias_Maluco posted:Are the books any good? Yes. The show does most characterization better, some (Holden and Prax) worse, and usually does some nice consolidations and simplifications of the plot, but the books have some good extra detail and world background that helps with the show. Also book 5 is at least 20% from Amos' POV while either bantering with Avasarala or enduring...difficult circumstances, which can't fail to be amazing. Number Ten Cocks fucked around with this message at 20:46 on May 14, 2017 |
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May 14, 2017 14:39
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The pacing of the first few books us great but the pacing of season 2 is very iff
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May 14, 2017 15:47
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If they get enough seasons and keep the pattern of ending each season at the midpoint of a book, I'm 75% sure these are how the next four seasons will end: (For Caliban's War and the first three of these, all key events occur right around 42% of the way through the book for some reason. Everything double spoilered with a mild degree of vagueness.) S3: Abaddon's Gate: Holden gets his protomolecule history lesson on the station, cliffhanger on the marines shooting at Holden and forcing the slow zone lock down and ship disasters. S4: Cibola Burn: That huge reactor blowing up and evacuating the settlement. Either a cliffhanger with them waiting for the shockwave to hit, or more likely they come out and find the aftermath. S5: Nemesis Games: The BIG EVENT happens. We see why the show-UN got moved to NYC from the Hague. Amos begins filming his Escape from LA remake, Alex and companion get space ambushed, Naomi does something to try to get a message out (probably changed to save Alex instead of Holden), the coup on that station Holden is on starts. S6: Babylon's Ashes: The Rocinante ambush, unexpected triumph, and even more unexpected tragedy with the death of a certain passenger. Maybe also feature something about Prax sending out the experimental magic food recipe.
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May 15, 2017 15:17
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Elias_Maluco posted:Are the books any good? In the books Bobbie and Avarsala spend much more time on the Guanshiyin, so Avarsala has an extended sequence where she's trying to keep current on Venus and the protomolecule, contact her allies in the UN government, and gain any kind of edge over Errinwright and company, all the while growing more and more frustrated for being stuck on a slow boat cruising for the rear end end of nowhere and relying on enemy comms, until the crew will finally give her an excuse to have Bobbie take back the ship. It's really well written, and completely scrapped for the much faster pace of the show. Avarsala and company are also not kidnapped at gunpoint because you cannot disappear the third most powerful person in the UN on your private yacht, you idiots. And a lot of Bobbie's personal arc of coming to terms with her PTSD from Ganymeade is pared down. I'm a little disappointed that "Anything you can do I can do better" was cut, if only because of how well it could translate to screen. The show also does away with the dimension of the protomolecule on Venus being completely public knowledge and James Holden being a publicly known figure throughout the system. But then again, the show gives a much bigger role to Cotyar and casts him with Nick "You loving cunts" Tarabay, which is good. Books 3 and especially 4 are not very good so it'd be interesting to see if the show can improve on them.
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May 15, 2017 16:30
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Speaking of the books, are the later ones worth reading? I didn't enjoy anything but Amos's POV in book 5 and have been struggling to get started with 6. Book 5+ spoilers: Basically does the protomolecule stuff feature again? I didn't mind book 4 that much because the stuff featuring Miller was interesting enough to suffer to horny scientist lady and death mud slugs. Book 5 on the other hand is a big fat nothing despite Earth getting creamed, it's just "crew splits up at the beginning and gets back together in the end" with nothing about the bigger events being solved. Then book 6 starts with whatshisface's dipshit belter navy and I just can't read more than a page without being bored. It doesn't help that the last couple of books pretty much ignored the Belt/Inners conflict while focusing on the alien poo poo. Overall I think the weakest part of the books is that the author can't write villains at all. (Book 3)Clarissa is the only good one because she has several POV chapters establishing her as unhinged. Mao and his science crew are barely there and are carried by the protomolecule stuff being interesting. Other than that it's just some dudes/dudettes being totally cool with suicide/mass murder because, uhh, I guess they're crazy? e: v I never noticed there was a thread for it. BB is nothing but scifi/fantasy megathreads and it all kinda blurs together. bloom fucked around with this message at 18:11 on May 16, 2017 |
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May 16, 2017 17:27
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bloom posted:Speaking of the books, are the later ones worth reading? This belongs in the Book Barn Expanse thread since it has zero show content.
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May 16, 2017 17:33
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Number Ten Cocks posted:If they get enough seasons and keep the pattern of ending each season at the midpoint of a book, I'm 75% sure these are how the next four seasons will end: They really messed up the pacing on the show. Each book would be much better television if it wasn't straddling two seasons each. Hopefully they course correct in season three but I suspect your predictions are pretty accurate.
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May 16, 2017 19:24
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Hey goons, I just watched the first season of this on Amazon because it came when I was looking for Stargate (and discovering that SG-1 is no longer part of prime, what a loving travesty). I enjoyed it, mainly Miller being a hardboiled space detective and the neat hard science fiction stuff (asides from, y'know, stealth tech), although a lot of the stuff with Holden felt like they really didn't do anything proactive until they got the Roci, as they just kinda bounce around and horrible poo poo happens around them. Does S2 kinda improve this? Are there actual answers and poo poo explaining why the bad dudes wasted the second biggest non-terrestrial habitat? And why that creepy blue poo poo ate Adam Jensen? And does Adam Jensen come back, possibly as some kind of evil blue-glowy monster? Because goddamn I want it to not suck. Is it good? Where can I watch it? Syfy/DirecTV has the five episodes of S2 on demand, but it's not part of Prime Video.
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May 17, 2017 04:01
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