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I love a sentient spaceship with Absolutely Zero Chill

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final first-time watching the show thoughts:

I'm sad it's over 😭 what am I supposed to do now?? 😭😭

getting the whining out of the way:

the relationship between the crew made me...sad. 🥲 This is my least original thought. It seems like most people who start with the books think this. I would say a solid portion of the comments my 'just finished the books starting the show now!😊’ reddit post got were like 'so…heads up about the drama...' This is also essentially the font of all of my other issues with the show, so this really will be a short list because this was really it at the core. The added drama just did not do it for me in comparison to their relationship in the books. This also prevents me from accepting the 'but the show is the second draft of the books!' explanation for changes because why would you write a 9 book series where at the heart is a genuinely loving and respectful relationship between first 4, then 6, people who consistently call themselves family, and then in your second draft be like 'hm, but should we make it seem like they hate each other instead? yes, let's do that.'

To be fair, I don't think this is what anyone means when they say it's a second draft, I think they're referring more to the way that the books definitely didn't have everything planned out from the start, like the character backstories, so they could go back in and introduce things earlier. And I have seen people say this specifically was a showrunner decision, that they wanted to start the characters from a worse place and show them grow together. The problem is they don't even begin to feel remotely cohesive until season 4 of 6 (5 and a half, really) so imo they did not do that successfully. People who prefer the show try to claim it feels earned but...I can't agree. They never quite come together for me. Having one of your mains say 'I might not go back' in the penultimate episode and then trying to claim it's equal to the book relationship is...incorrect. But TV writers just love drama and people being bad at their jobs, while I love genuine emotion and people being good at their jobs and I think, despite my love of television, that will always be a problem between us.

I gave that one two points to try and break up the wall of text paragraph and also since it's basically all my issues in one it gets two bullet points.

This is the most nitpicky complaint that is not related to the above and mostly I've just been trying to find a place to say it without giving it its own post because it's so nitpicky it doesn't really deserve that kind of callout...but Bobbie wore blue the whole last season and I get it was supposed to be because she was working for the UNN but it just kept reminding me of That One Chapter (you know…that one 😭) in Tiamat's Wrath where Bobbie is like 'I really wish I wasn't wearing blue, I'll never feel right in blue' and I thought that was just MEAN iykyk 🥲

This aired on American network TV so Avasarala didn't get to call a single person a cunt 😭 even when they really deserved it (Errinwright)

RESCINDED COMPLAINT: I rescind my issue with Naomi going off on the Behemoth. I still wish it was done a bit better. It just ends up making her feel kind of flaky. Like she leaves them because of OPA nostalgia and then she's like 'oh wait misplaced that nostalgia, gotta get back to the Roci'. I think it would have worked better if someone like Drummer had specifically asked her to come be chief engineer, that would have given her more concrete reasoning for going to work for the OPA. Still hate that she left (see above 'font of all criticism' issue). BUT. The Naomi/Drummer breakup scene was worth it. Ugh okay that was good drama. Naomi begging her not to fire the missile? Drummer shouting at her 'I'm sorry! If I killed them, I'm sorry!' while Naomi ignores her and storms away. Like. Okay. Yeah. That was good.

More good:

I would die for Camina Drummer

I don't like thinking of this as a second draft as in 'we're fixing the first' but an alternate draft if that makes sense? In that sense, I really like some of the alternate decisions they made, like bringing Avasarala and Earth in from season 1, Bobbie going to the Ring, the changes to the Ilus plot. I'm not saying I disliked how they went about these things in the books -- and in some cases technically prefer it (like people point out it doesn't reeeaaally make sense for Bobbie to go to the Ring, it's kind of insane they reinstate her at all after what she does in season 2, but it is fun. I wish she went with them to Ilus too just for her observations) -- but I also enjoyed the alternate versions. Even stuff that I didn't necessarily love, like the changes to the Mars plot around season 3/4, had some good moments. like the bomb going off and shattering the dome was just so cool I couldn't even be mad.

Camina Drummer

Also, as much as I feel like we lost a lot of the main characters in adaptation, the secondary characters got more time to shine, since it's not as close a POV. I particularly liked Errinwright, like yes, evil, but he was so interesting. 'Time is short and I'll be brief', what a moment.

Have I mentioned how I would die for Camina Drummer??

No but seriously, Camina Drummer is THE example of a minor character (or...several minor characters) getting so much more depth and focus and I did love that for her. 10/10 would die for Camina Drummer.

See also my new 'stern but competent dark haired woman with 10 minutes of screentime' Capt/Admiral Sandrine Kirino, who does not exist at all in the books, and only really exists in the show to have one speech about the nature of war, take a gamble in the name of peace, sass Avasarala, and then die as one of the biggest victims of the compression of Babylon’s Ashes down to 6 episodes. (That fight was a bit rushed.) I mean I get it, she was at best the minor-est of the minor characters and we had a LOT to get through in season 6, but I wish her exit had a tiny bit more fanfare. Just for me and the two other people who posted about her on here. (I’ve been through all…10 posts in that tag.)

But yeah. Mainly Camina Drummer.

The effects were also great. Obviously dependent on cash flow but I felt that even in the early SyFy seasons, you could tell they knew where to splurge and where to save. Yes some of the effects didn't look great, but when they needed to (the first flip and burn of the Canterbury, everything on Eros post-protomolecule taking it over, the opening shot of season 3 that pulls out from Venus to Earth to Mars) they looked good. Time to reluctantly praise Amazon, they did a good thing by writing them a bigger budget check, the effects in the later half were truly excellent.

ok that's it for now, though it is unlikely I will stop annoying people with these posts, the expanse-posting will continue until morale improves etc etc... 😅

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I did not realize that apparently there is already going to be a part 2 to this movie, it’s NOT set in space sadly, but I’m guessing it’s to do with the weird people who showed up at the end?

Honestly, I did not know what to make of the weird people so there being another movie does…make sense.

Anyway I only found this out because I checked the tag and found a whole bunch of people insanely excited for the weird dude in the wig and tracksuit to show up which is also how I found out that he played the vampire in Sinners (did not recognize him) and also how I found out apparently a whole bunch of people are obsessed with the vampire in Sinners. Huh.

Whole lot of finding things out this morning

The next ‘28 [unit of time] Later’ movie should be ‘28 Decades Later: Zombies in Space’

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I finished the show 🥲 what am I going to do with my life now???

The answer, obviously, is ‘start the audiobooks over from the beginning’ but self-consciously because I still feel a little bit called out by Martha Wells having ART starting ‘Worldhoppers’ immediately from the beginning again in Artificial Condition 😂

‘Why We Fight’ was a little shaky for me, as you can gather from my posts earlier lol, but I think the finale brought it back together. Idk if they’ll ever get the chance to make the final trilogy but, despite the issues I occasionally had, I’d definitely watch. Maybe once they get that chance they’ll be able to do the full timeskip instead of the abbreviated one they were probably setting up. See y’all in 30 years lol

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It should have the continued theme of ‘absolutely terrible survival instincts’ that seems pretty endemic to sequels of this series 😂

I did actually like it (better than Weeks) but god, the decisions were frequently. Bad.

The next ‘28 [unit of time] Later’ movie should be ‘28 Decades Later: Zombies in Space’

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The next ‘28 [unit of time] Later’ movie should be ‘28 Decades Later: Zombies in Space’

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i try to be chill but my brain writes essays about everything

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I was so distracted by the sudden weird flirty vibes, I forgot the actual worst part of the scene: having Amos pull a ‘I might not go back’ in the penultimate episode.

Which to me doesn’t even feel in character for the show version, though I probably should have seen it coming given how they changed the ‘I can lock you out of weapons controls’ conversation from a genuine offer of help to a threat/fight.

It really is the weakest part of the adaptation by far, that they completely scrapped what was the best part of the books, that the books pulled off a found family* better than most things that advertise themselves as being about a found family, and yet with the show I’m here in the penultimate episode wondering if these people even like each other.

(*tumblr really hates the term found family right now but I don’t think it trips either of the usual complaints I see people have about the term on here: 1) they call themselves family a lot, so it’s not just ‘people having friends’, and 2) it doesn’t remotely fit any sort of nuclear family structure and no one is trying to make it into that)

why did they give Amos and Bobbie weird flirty vibes in the penultimate episode instead of unpacking Bobbie’s reaction to finding out Holden purposefully disarmed her torpedo which could have ended the whole conflict

I feel like they’re trying to give her another way in to the crew now that Alex is gone but…why did it have to be the weird flirty vibes with Amos….

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why did they give Amos and Bobbie weird flirty vibes in the penultimate episode instead of unpacking Bobbie’s reaction to finding out Holden purposefully disarmed her torpedo which could have ended the whole conflict

I feel like they’re trying to give her another way in to the crew now that Alex is gone but…why did it have to be the weird flirty vibes with Amos….

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“You’re so quiet, what’s wrong?” I’m creating my own fantasy world to escape from reality so shut up.

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I do feel a little bad because half the country, including most people I know, are #suffering in this heat wave and I’m like ‘damn, should have brought a cardigan to eat my lunch in the park’

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Today a very friendly Golden Retriever came up to me and I said "hey buddy :D" and the owner asked "do you know each other?" like his dog had a social life he didn't know about

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Murderbot 1.07 Complementary Species

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i be like “it is what it is” and almost vomit from anxiety

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the self-indulgent fanfiction will continue until morale improves

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friday. motivation is at an all time low. urgh.

📚 currently reading/watching/listening to:

✨ [ audiobook ] A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine: I have not actually started this one! But I just finished catching up on all the Murderbot books (🥲) and in a shocking twist of fate, my library actually had this available. Truly shocking it had something I actually wanted to read. Some of you may know my loathing of CloudLibrary and it's absurd catalogue issues, but it managed to pull through for me this one time, starting it this afternoon.

🌎 [ book ] Dawn - Octavia Butler: I really know how to pick my Butler reads. A few years ago I was really, really stressed about climate change and thought that was a good time to read Parable of the Sower. Now I'm really stressed about nuclear war and I'm like 'good time for Lilith's Brood!' It's at least more in the background, compared to climate change in Parable, I haven't even had a single panic attack about it. It's really interesting though, I'm almost done and will definitely be continuing the series.

🌌 [ tv ] The Expanse: I have five episodes left and I'm really in my feelings about it. Everyone is going through it, including me, the viewer 🥲

🛸 [ tv ] The X-Files Millennium: I'm about midway through the first season, surprisingly the wife is still alive, Frank is actually a pretty good dad (the brooding detective types are never actually good dads???), and the show is slowly becoming a Mark Snow showcase. The last couple episodes have had insanely good scores. Also Brad Dourif was back lol.

🤖 [ tv ] Murderbot: I actually liked the last episode (there were no Sanctuary Moon scenes)

🐚 posting:

🌲 new chapter of 'way out there'

🌌 posted a new expanse book tag 'outside'

🏖️ to do list:

get out of anxiety spiral. I'm feeling #Bad still. Still feel like everyone hates me. Feeling like I'm being hunted by tigers while just sitting still at my desk and not in the fun 'I'm listening to a stressful audiobook' kind of way, in the oops feeling #Bad way

lunchtime yarn store run: I'm working on my first triangle shawl which I'm really enjoying. however I absolutely underestimated how long I needed the cord to be. Good god this thing is getting wide. Things are getting dicey with the cord I'm using and I still have like 6 inches left. AND they got a better color that I needed for something, so I'm going to go snag it.

run around in a big (3.5 mile) circle

tomorrow is Pride so I'm going to do stuff for that and then go to the beach because it's actually going to be sunny and I need beach time. I was going to go to one of the better beaches but then I realized that Pride was probably not the day to move my car, I live right downtown and would never find a spot if I moved for sure, so we're going to the walking-distance beach instead.

at the beach, planning on starting Trials of the Jedi. I've been putting it off since Tuesday because I'm so worried it's not going to stick the landing and also I'm sad it's all over, but I'm getting to the point where spoilers are going to start to leak, so I need to get over it and just read it.

that's all, hope you're all having a good week and not feeling like you're being hunted by tigers (nervous system, can we maybe not??)