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Comment by IkmoIkmo | Hacker News Reader

Great news! I'm absolutely loving the third season, despite not really being a fan of the protomolecule concept. I know the series revolves around it. It's a bit like the white walkers in game of thrones. You go from the super interesting political intrigue about socioeconomic imbalances, oppression, imperialism and geopolitical relations in the solar system / Westeros, to fantasy/magic/sci-fi-bs of glowing supernatural creatures. Absolutely hate that personally, but I like both shows nonetheless and the Expanse has something special. Can't wait for new episodes!

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I also had mixed feelings about the protomolecule (for the same reason as yours), but in later parts of the books it contributes to the plot in a meaningful way (that is, it's but just a bogeyman). Can't say more without spoiling it :)

The way I see it, politics is about balance of some kind... e.g. if either Earth or Mars had a huge advantage, they would have already won. (Of course it’s possible for things to fall out of balance, e.g. US vs Soviet Union, but that usually happens rather slowly...) The protomolecule is what throws things out of balance, so things become interesting again!

One aspect of the protomolecule that I quite enjoyed was the manner in which Earth, Mars, and the Belt attempt to control and leverage it to assert their dominance or, at least, maintain a balance of power. It speaks to the fact that once "Pandora's Box" is opened, technologically speaking, it becomes a fact-of-life that must be adapted too. Drone technology, for example, is a relatively new form of tech with potential to be used for productive AND destructive purposes, and there are no obvious answers as to how it should be handled.

I agree so much. The first season was amazing with the split story line between the main crew and Miller on Ceres but it all went downhill when the proto-molecule was introduced and suddenly there were massive shootouts (with characters who admitted only episodes earlier to never having killed/fired a gun)

I really love the political aspects and cultural differences between the various factions though.

Isn't announcing you've never fired a gun in a fictional work an example of Chekov's Gun? By announcing it the narrative is setting up the "dramatic tension" ahead of when the character is confronted by a situation potentially requiring firing a gun or killing someone.

That's kind of ironic. Although macgyver said he hated guns and managed to never fire them

Didn’t he build a shit ton of bombs to “solve” various problems though?

I never said he was a pacifist, he just doesn't fire guns

> I really love the political aspects and cultural differences between the various factions though.

Same here, I was quite annoyed when the books veered away from the excellent political stuff into the silly alien monster stuff.

If anyone is looking for a book series that doesn't veer away, I'd recommend John Scalzi's Collapsing Empire. If anyone knows any others please suggest!

I've read the books but I haven't seen this season of the show. In the books they kind of alternate with one book being more about the protomolecule and the next being more about politics.

It might make you happy to know that I found the the later books too concerned with politics and not enough about the mystery of the protomolecule.

I found the whole concept a lot easier to swallow in the context of a TV show than in the context of the books. I suppose it's because they didn't really try to explain it in the show as much?

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