What a lovely image.
Wow!
I'm starting Babylon's Ashes now. Hopefully I can catch up before the final book this fall..
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The Expanse Season 5 |OT| Last Man Standing
- Thread starter Deleted member 16516
- Start date
Wow!
I'm starting Babylon's Ashes now. Hopefully I can catch up before the final book this fall..
OP
OP
I hope you enjoy it!
You've also got The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales to complete before The Lord of the Rings: Second Age premieres hopefully in December.
What a lovely image.
Truly lovely.
And makes me remember how much I dislike the last book.
Don't miss For All Mankind as well. Second season starts later this month!
That would really be perfect. Shamefully overlooked game. Probably the most real feeling space RTS game out there as the ships are actually quite autonomous. I remember enjoying watching them simply maneuver through space
Hey y'all, first time posting in this thread. Have absolutely loved this series from start to finish, and am already having withdrawal. I really enjoy how the setting is very "grounded". The space battles have an incredible feeling of tension and weight behind every shot fired. It's not just a laser light show (nothing against those when done well, though). And the characters are some of the best I've seen in sci-fi, both from an acting and personality standpoint. Ashford and Drummer are among my favourites.
The finale was amazing, but I'm wondering about what happened at the very end: were those red swirling entities the same things that killed the builders? Did Marco know that was going to happen? It seems like they got tricked into thinking they'd get a new system, but instead got "fed" to that void of destruction. Or did it just...happen...? It was very chilling, and I'd love to know more.
Also, maybe the actor deserved it, but what a crappy way for Alex to go. It reminded me of that Simpsons episode with Poochie. The more I think about it the funnier it gets. He says that cheesy one-liner, then it's almost like they used a freeze frame of him taken from any prior episode (I'm being flippant, but just roll with it), added some blood and call it a day. Then Jim goes and basically says "It could have happened to ANY of us at ANY time!" Crazy, huh? 😂
Alex was a great character, and I'm annoyed the actor turned out to be that guy (believe women), but that was such a weird and abrupt end.
The finale was amazing, but I'm wondering about what happened at the very end: were those red swirling entities the same things that killed the builders? Did Marco know that was going to happen? It seems like they got tricked into thinking they'd get a new system, but instead got "fed" to that void of destruction. Or did it just...happen...? It was very chilling, and I'd love to know more.
Also, maybe the actor deserved it, but what a crappy way for Alex to go. It reminded me of that Simpsons episode with Poochie. The more I think about it the funnier it gets. He says that cheesy one-liner, then it's almost like they used a freeze frame of him taken from any prior episode (I'm being flippant, but just roll with it), added some blood and call it a day. Then Jim goes and basically says "It could have happened to ANY of us at ANY time!" Crazy, huh? 😂
Alex was a great character, and I'm annoyed the actor turned out to be that guy (believe women), but that was such a weird and abrupt end.
Thought it would be interesting to go back to this now that Season 5 is over.
- Sunday after Season 5 ended: ~1500 posts
- Season 4:
- Sunday after the entire season aired: 604 posts
- By February 7th, 2020: 777 posts
- Overall: 903 posts
Meanwhile, the weekly release schedule of season 5 roughly doubled the amount of raw posts about the show on this forum in the same amount of time, and involved a much larger number of people.
Seems like the weekly release schedule is a huge win for engagement and attention the show got, and also beneficial to people who cannot binge 10 hours.
How is it beneficial to people who cannot binge though? Everyone still has to dodge spoilers when they enter the thread as soon as an episode airs.
No doubt that there is more long term engagement which works better for the companies producing/distributing the show however.
Avoiding this thread for a few hours or days until you can watch a single hour is pretty easy.
A whole lot easier than avoiding spoilers in threads and twitter and TV websites all over the place for weeks or months until you can watch it, especially when TV writers are generally careless with spoilers for bingeable shows since they assume everyone else can spend the same amount of time they can.
Also, even if you do happen to get spoiled, better to get spoiled about a single episode instead of the entire season before you've even watched any of it.
A whole lot easier than avoiding spoilers in threads and twitter and TV websites all over the place for weeks or months until you can watch it, especially when TV writers are generally careless with spoilers for bingeable shows since they assume everyone else can spend the same amount of time they can.
Also, even if you do happen to get spoiled, better to get spoiled about a single episode instead of the entire season before you've even watched any of it.
Based only on what's been shown on the show, the Barkeith was attacked by something that looks very close, graphically, to the portrayal we've seen of the destruction of the ring builders. They're the pretty clear #1 suspects for what happened.
As for what Marco knew - on-screen he's talked almost exclusively about Earth, Mars, the Belt, and the relationships between them. Whenever he talks about the rings, it's in ways that are political rather than technological. He also doesn't have any more of a scientific background than is typical for a normal Belter. There's no reason he'd have any knowledge of the rings beyond what's public. It's entirely likely that you as a viewer know more about the rings than Marco does as an inhabitant of his universe.
The Martians do now have their new system. The ship that got destroyed was one ship from a fleet, and before it got destroyed it was receiving transmissions from the system they were headed to (the rest of the rogue fleet are already there). This isn't the case of their plans being wrecked or anything - they have the planet they wanted, they have the protomolecule, they have Cortazar, they're just down one ship.
As for whether it just happened, that's where the answer becomes a spoiler. I will be vague enough that it won't be much of a spoiler, but tagging it anyway:
None of the characters in the Expanse understand the rings enough to know (or cause) what happened at the end of season 5. There is a reason for it though.
I have to say, I prefer a staggered release schedule. I really don't enjoy bingeing - I don't even like watching more than one episode at a time, but prefer to kind of digest an episode of something - and having the series play out over weeks lets it get more mindshare than it would otherwise.
I know this isn't what you mean, but the board game is actually not bad at all.
Agree with this 100%, the season dragged so hard it was a struggle to get through, and we've really enjoyed all previous seasons. The Naomi storyline was the absolute worst, she was unbearably annoying for most of her scenes, of which there were many. Relieved it's over... hoping next season is much more in line with the others.
Seriously could give zero shits about the naomi family drama. I really like the actress and character, but I could not deal with her this season. Her and her punk kid were just urg. They spent entirely way too much time on that entire thing. Didn't really like how everyone was split up this season. The only storyline that was decent was Amos. Definitely my least favorite season so far.
Different strokes. The Naomi family drama (extending out to Drummer and crew) was all great to me, and I really got tired of Amos' version of The Road after a while.
Just realized the Barkeith is a Donager class dreadnought.
Sauveterre didn't took the smallest ship in his secession !
Sauveterre didn't took the smallest ship in his secession !
yeah the thing that got me hard into the show and books was (1) the protomolecule and its effects on humanity as a civilization (2) the politics between the various factions and how different they each view the human race. Almost all of that was gone this season, there was little to no nuance to Naomi, Marco Inaros, the Earth storylines, etc. It was all black and white "these are the bad guys, these are the people caught in the middle, watch them Game of Thrones each other".
Naomi's story was just awful, it was constantly "let me go do something! SHIT I FUCKED UP WHY DIDN'T I THINK THIS COULD HAPPEN". I guess Holden's tactical and strategic genius finally rubbed off on Naomi. I woulda loved more Drummer and belter viewpoints, a big chunk of that felt really missing and its bizarre given how much time we spent with Naomi fixing cables. Or just more Avasarala and Bobbie, it was a real bummer we barely got any time with them together.
I thought the Naomi arc this season was one of the best-acted and emotional of the entire run. Some incredible cinematograpy as well. In terms of character moments, it might well be my favourite season yet. The finale was tremendous. Overall, I'd say 3 -> 5 -> 2 -> 4 -> 1.
While the performances were great, the season does fall a bit flat following the 1 season per book format. I'd rather they either go into book 6 material or give a better perspective on how earthers and belters are reacting to the events happening around them. Instead we got a lot Naomi family drama that really didn't amount to anything significant
Thanks very much for the big brain answer! That all makes sense about the Barkeith.
As for the reason, I suppose it'll be a bit like when we first learned about the "speed limit" inside the rings. Looking forward to the answers becoming clear.
Assuming you've read the books, can you recommend them to someone who loved the show and enjoys sci-fi literature in general?
I know this isn't what you mean, but the board game is actually not bad at all.
Is there a digital version with computer AI?
Totally agreed. Naomi's story dragged so much. Her whole arc this season could have been conveyed across four episodes max. I couldn't believe we stuck with her repetitive family drama and escape attempts clear through to the finale.
There are so many other things I'd rather have seen. Any of the stuff you mentioned would have been much better.
She calls him from prison in an earlier season, basically saying that it might sound pathetic, but she doesn't really have anyone in her life any more, and didn't know who else to use her call on. She says she just remembered that he was nice to her on the Roci on their journey back (as a prisoner). He's taken aback, but seems to come around fairly quickly.
Yep, no hesitation recommending them.
After she was captured at the end of season 3, she was returned to Earth for trial (and conviction and sentencing, since her guilt was not exactly in dispute). It was the crew of the Rocinante that took her back. She spent much of that time with Amos. Since she'd been posing as a fake engineer team lead (and gradually learning enough about engineering that she wasn't totally faking it at the end), he had her performing engineering tasks on the ship under his supervision rather than just dumping her in a locked room.
None of this is shown on screen, so it's easy enough to miss (and you're definitely not the only person who doesn't remember it) - most of the details are crammed into a two-minute scene near the beginning of the first episode of the fourth season when Clarissa calls Amos from prison to thank him for that.
As for why he cares, he recognises that she's like him to some extent. Broken, but aware of it, and looking for a way to live with that. He's also bluntly honest and he can quickly get over it if someone who is threatening him stops being a threat.
On the flip side, Clarissa, facing a life sentence for blowing up a ship full of people, would not find most people easy to deal with after that, except Anna (who was not around her after season 3) and Amos. So Amos was kind of her only option for any kind of companionship since the end of season 3.
Also she wanted to confirm that he had purposely left the controls on the airlock unlocked during a certain job on the Roci, giving her the option to space herself, as a kindness to her. Which he had, since given the reverse circumstance he would have appreciated having the option.
It's kind of an affecting scene, so i remembered it very well, but it was easy to forget since it was all packed into that first setup episode in Season 4
Oh shit yeah, I forgot that (very important!) detail.
Not that I know of. I think you can play it on tabletop simulator, but that requires other players.
I loved Naomi's story arc. Best character arc this season and allowed Dominique Tipper to showcase her excellent acting chops. It was a very human story in the middle of this Earth-Mars-Belter conflict. It's a story of a mother trying to save her son. And yeah, Naomi could not do much because she was helpless stuck among the enemy. She managed to send a signal to Holden about the Roci being sabotaged, she nearly convinced her son to change sides, she escaped by herself, she tried to engineer a signal from space wreck and finally used herself to draw people away from the Chetzemoka. Her time in the Chetzemoka is about her perseverance. About how hard it is to survive in space. About her using her wits to survive.
And we did get an insight into the Belters. We got to hear from Marco, Filip, Karal, Sakai, Naomi, Cyn, Drummer, Oksana, Josep, Michio etc. We see Cyn telling Naomi why Marco is right. We hear Sakai's justification to Holden for what she did. We see Naomi explaining why this is wrong to Filip. We see Drummer caught in the middle.
We have been hearing about how the Belt has been oppressed for 5 seasons now. And this is the Belt strikes back. There can be no nuance to a terrorist strike on civilians. But we did see Earth strike back at Belter civilians on Pallas station - reminiscent of real world actions. The show was dissecting how easily extremism can happen, how civilians are almost always the casualties in such conflicts.
Honestly, Amos' story this season is what I found disappointing. I don't know why we need Peaches and Amos just works better as a character with the Roci crew. The devastation on earth should have been more profound. Instead we just got Amos and Peaches walking around the countryside, stealing a ship and making it back to Luna. And Avasarala lost her husband and shed a few tears. That's all we got from a couple of asteroids hitting earth.
I really didn't mind Holden, Alex and Bobby sitting out this season. Marco and the destruction of earth should be the focus.
So ranking the seasons, 3 > 1 > 5 > 2 > 4
And we did get an insight into the Belters. We got to hear from Marco, Filip, Karal, Sakai, Naomi, Cyn, Drummer, Oksana, Josep, Michio etc. We see Cyn telling Naomi why Marco is right. We hear Sakai's justification to Holden for what she did. We see Naomi explaining why this is wrong to Filip. We see Drummer caught in the middle.
We have been hearing about how the Belt has been oppressed for 5 seasons now. And this is the Belt strikes back. There can be no nuance to a terrorist strike on civilians. But we did see Earth strike back at Belter civilians on Pallas station - reminiscent of real world actions. The show was dissecting how easily extremism can happen, how civilians are almost always the casualties in such conflicts.
Honestly, Amos' story this season is what I found disappointing. I don't know why we need Peaches and Amos just works better as a character with the Roci crew. The devastation on earth should have been more profound. Instead we just got Amos and Peaches walking around the countryside, stealing a ship and making it back to Luna. And Avasarala lost her husband and shed a few tears. That's all we got from a couple of asteroids hitting earth.
I really didn't mind Holden, Alex and Bobby sitting out this season. Marco and the destruction of earth should be the focus.
So ranking the seasons, 3 > 1 > 5 > 2 > 4
How they handled Alex's death was extremely bad, in a series where all the main characters have plot armor metres thick and all of the Rocinante crew should have probably died a few times over with the stunts they were constantly pulling (particularly Naomi), just having one of them just end up as "oh lol he is suddenly dead lmao" was very weak. GoT final season level bad.
They should have just retired him in between seasons going back to Mars to his son, maybe with a text or voice file from him being shown. The directors and writers might call it "we finally wanted some consequences to happen", but that's undermined by the fact one of the main characters only died as consequence of real life events, rather than the actual plot through the character's actions.
They should have just retired him in between seasons going back to Mars to his son, maybe with a text or voice file from him being shown. The directors and writers might call it "we finally wanted some consequences to happen", but that's undermined by the fact one of the main characters only died as consequence of real life events, rather than the actual plot through the character's actions.
Thanks! Looking forward to starting them.
Gosh, I'd also completely forgotten Clarissa was the one that blew up that ship. Was wondering why Jim had that look on his face!
Damn somehow I missed that season 5 arrived in December!
It never popped up on my prime dashboard.
But I'm currently on episode 6 and to me this is great TV. Much better than season 4
Loving it
It never popped up on my prime dashboard.
But I'm currently on episode 6 and to me this is great TV. Much better than season 4
Loving it
The expanse is one of my favorite shows of all time. All seasons have been great honestly.
I do feel like we needed another episode or two this one, and the last one too. The shorter seasons while giving us some more focus, just leaves out some of the good stuff like small side stories about how the impacts of the politics affect random groups of belters, earthers or martians that then does or don't cross over with the main cast.
The ending sequences also felt a bit rushed but a lot of that was probably due to how they had to rewrite and reshoot parts of it. I don't know how else they could have handled alex but i wasn't a fan of it. Him being all casual with bobby, stopping the ship, talking to her. Then the cut to naomi and then back to the ship and hes dead all of a sudden. Holden sitting and explaining to naomi how it could happen to anyone of them !!! was very on the nose and not very typical of the show and the empty medical chair next to her made it seem like they didn't even try anything. Of course there's the whole thing where he hadn't resolved his storyline threads too but that was not avoidable. Oh well. The season was still great and I'm just nitpicking.
I do feel like we needed another episode or two this one, and the last one too. The shorter seasons while giving us some more focus, just leaves out some of the good stuff like small side stories about how the impacts of the politics affect random groups of belters, earthers or martians that then does or don't cross over with the main cast.
The ending sequences also felt a bit rushed but a lot of that was probably due to how they had to rewrite and reshoot parts of it. I don't know how else they could have handled alex but i wasn't a fan of it. Him being all casual with bobby, stopping the ship, talking to her. Then the cut to naomi and then back to the ship and hes dead all of a sudden. Holden sitting and explaining to naomi how it could happen to anyone of them !!! was very on the nose and not very typical of the show and the empty medical chair next to her made it seem like they didn't even try anything. Of course there's the whole thing where he hadn't resolved his storyline threads too but that was not avoidable. Oh well. The season was still great and I'm just nitpicking.
I really want to start reading the books, but I was sad to learn Klaes Ashford is a completely different (and much worse) character in the books.
For those of you who read them, are there cool/badass/funny characters that weren't in the show to make up for Klaes?
For those of you who read them, are there cool/badass/funny characters that weren't in the show to make up for Klaes?
Completed S5 now, still the best show in sci fi right now by a huge margin. Naoimi's story was incredible, I think what makes this show so good is that they keep that human element at the core of it.
How many more seasons does this show have in it, based on the original material?
How many more seasons does this show have in it, based on the original material?
I recently started this series, I quickly watched the first 3 seasons but I'm bored to tears by the first half of season 4, maybe in a year I will finally reach season 5
OP
OP
Book Bull is great, and there's a couple of characters that TV Drummer drew inspiration from that are pretty cool.
There's a character in Cibola Burns, a love interest of Elvi, that was omitted from the show who's quite fun.
OP
OP
Season 6 is confirmed as book 6, plus potential new material.
If the show were to continue, there's 3 books to complete the story, so potentially 3 seasons worth covering books 7-9.
Just wanted to say, that I loved The Expanse. I heard the first time that it exists when season 5 started. I watched some episodes and was hooked. I have to say that the first two seasons were my favorites though, the last one was somewhat entertaining, but also a lot of Naomi gasping for air and all the family drama nonsense.
Man, the universe offers so many possibilities. Is it worth reading the books after finishing the 5 TV seasons?
Man, the universe offers so many possibilities. Is it worth reading the books after finishing the 5 TV seasons?
OP
OP
You're welcome. I hope you enjoy the books.
I'd recommend reading the books yes. They're different enough from the TV show to provide some fresh perspectives on the characters and the world of The Expanse.
For now, reading books 1-5 would be ideal, as reading book 6 will spoil season 6 for you. Books 7-9 would be best read after season 6 ends.
Thanks, I have still some unused Audible credits waiting to be used and the reviews are good. Will use them for the first books in the series :)
Oh geez! For All Mankind starts up again in 2 weeks? Do you know when they announced that date? There was a trailer last year sometime, but I hadn't seen anything since.
I think it was a while back, but this trailer came out recently: