The Expanse season finale discussion thread
I've read the books up until Cibola Burn, so my impression comes from comparing my experience watching the story to reading it as told in print.
Season 3 was incredibly rushed through and little of any character's motivations or thought are clarified as they still make more or less the same decisions. Two noteworthy characters (Pa, Bull) combined into one character (Drummer) whose actress only does one vocal and facial expression, which I happen to mirror every time she gets air time.
Show Ashford, an arguably much more sensible and intelligent man than Book Ashford, is unreasonably suddenly deemed necessary to reflect Book Ashford without any clear change in motivation.
So many things are done weirdly on the show that didn't need be done. Those are a few examples off the top of my head. What do you think?
Are we even watching the same show? Sure, Drummer has a less than expressive face - but that makes nuance in that face all the more important. Not everyone needs to be some latte girl who goes from ear to ear smile to emoji frown for people to understand emotions.
Ashford became a changed man when Drummer saved him at her own expense, but that doesn't mean it was a change for the better. You see that when he threatens to space people (Diogo) - he has reverted to the sort of Belter he used to be, the sort of Belter Drummer thought was necessary. On the flip side, Drummer changed to suit Nagata - it was a flip.
I have read the books as well, but it is honestly shooting yourself in the foot to compare the 2 - you'll only end up hating one or the other, might as well pick one and not bother.
I agree -- Show Ashford's wisdom isn't enough to handle the situation as it unfolds from a 'mere' mass casualty event to the potential destruction of the Solar System. He thought he was doing the right thing. It only so happened that Drummer trusted Naomi who trusted Holden enough to proceed with a better plan, with inside knowledge. If we assume that Holden is crazy, untrustworthy, or otherwise compromised -- then Ashford's plan actually makes sense.
I didn't read the book and honestly think that different media should not be compared as they are bound to different constraints.
Having said that, I think that part of your feeling is due to the series being on the verge of being cancelled. Even if not officially announced when it was still in production, these kind of things are known by who works in the industry.
Luckily, Amazon picked it up so maybe we will have more good quality content from that series.
The thing is, the show brilliantly handled the difference in constraints the each medium puts on the story and had managed to strike balance, and it did it so perfectly up until the finale. Hence my disappointment with this particular episode as a book reader.
I've seen similar frustration from Book of Ice and Fire readers who watch Game of Thrones, and having not read those books, I can see how they felt.
She's kinda Sam, too. But I guess a lot of Sam's stuff got assigned to Naomi.
Terribly sorry in advance about the late reply. I didn't find much to do here, so I didn't check often.
Books are often more enthralling than their adaptations for film or TV. The Expanse is no exception.
I've actually enjoyed much of the show and was never disappointed by pacing or background, until the last two episodes aired. Only those episodes suffered from an honestly good attempt to rush through the story much more rapidly than it went in the books. Almost no one on forums here or Reddit who hadn't read the books disagreed with the pacing, for instance, but I found the episode rushed. My reading affected the way I perceived the show, but it was just my impression of the how other chapters of the story were given more time to mature compared to the chapters shown with in the finale.