#⌬ –– connection.「 naomi nagata. 」

[rocicrew]

“You are the central fact of my life,” he said. “Knowing you. Waking up next to you. It’s been the most meaningful thing I’ve done. And I am profoundly fucking grateful that I got that. I think of how easy it would have been for us to miss each other, and I can’t even imagine what that lifetime would have been.”

[talesfrommedinastation]

The Knight is Crowned King

“I am saying it is time to put aside the trooper, the CT number, the clone who served under a sergeant in a Republic that no longer exists. It is time for you to become the captain that we– your people –need you to be.”

Tech stood up straight. “Then, if that is the case, Camina, I have a request.”

“Say it.”

“Get me a tattoo gun. Now.”

-Camina Drummer and Tech, Far Past the Ring

————————-

I really can’t thank @cloned-eyes enough for this wonderful piece that they did. She she taki taki!

It is Camina Drummer giving Tech the infamous 'collar' tattoo of The Belt in her presidential office, LDS mural still behind her.

For me, this culminates the spirit of Far Past the Ring, especially for canon characters Camina Drummer and Tech.

The story was initially conceived as a fun little romp for Clone Force 99, where Tech would meet a Belter engineer, they’d chat, maybe have a short romance, and move on with their lives.

This was February 2023.

But after Plan 99 aired a month later…well, we all went a little nuts. I did, too. Blame the Wellbutrin.

Also, blame me taking folklore classes at Berkeley as an undergrad. I decided the short story was going to become something bigger, and Tech was taking center stage.

On that note, I was so angry for Tech.

I was angry for all of his potential as a character, thrown down the mountain on Eriadu.

So, I decided to whip out the ol’ English 251 notes I had from years ago, and chart out Tech’s own Hero’s Journey, through the world of The Expanse meeting the world of Star Wars.

But I did not want Tech merely limping off into the sun into a simple, happy ending. No.

I wanted him to face challenges, fight, win alliances, and be received as the goddamned hero that he is.

To quote Campbell himself from The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

And who better to bestow this mighty power and crown unto Tech then Camina motherfuckin’ Drummer.

If you haven’t seen The Expanse, know that Camina Drummer goes through the Hero’s Journey of Hero’s Journeys herself. She rose from an orphan working the docks on Ceres, to a foot soldier for Anderson Dawes, a director under Fred Johnson, the first commanding officer of the largest vessel in human history (The OPAS Behemoth, later Medina Station), and then, the first president of the Transport Union, arguably the most powerful person in the universe.

It isn't an easy journey: she's shot, beaten, breaks her spine, loses the love of her life, watches loved ones get murdered in front of her, and is abandoned by those who professed to love her.

But Camina Drummer never gives up. She fights to the end to make things right. Girlfriend is rewarded....and now she passes that onto Tech.

After all, Camina’s people, the Belters, adorn themselves through tattoos. They live their lives in space, in the vacuum, where jewelry can be lost, damaged or hurt the owner. So they tattoo.

Years ago, cheap suits were supplied by Inners for Belters under their governance. They demanded Belters to work and extract resources from the Kuiper Belt and other outer planets in order to make them rich. The helmet connections ot the suit would often burn the wearer's neck, as seen below on Anderson Dawes.

In many ways, it is also a symbol of the yoke of slavery, of a chain around one’s neck.

Although younger Belters now wear better vacsuits, they still wear the tattoos to remind them of what their ancestors went through, seen on Naomi Nagata below.

A symbol of pain is now a symbol of what Belters are fighting for–freedom. Which they earn.

So, by getting that tattoo, done by Camina Drummer, the hero and president of the Belt, is our Tech getting crowned.

It’s right after Camina makes him their Chief Systems Engineer as well as a commander. He bled and fought for his chosen people, and he is rewarded as such.

It's him saying I'm here, I'm one of you, and your leader is the one putting it on me.

Oh, and in true fairy tale hero’s journey mode, Tech also gets a beautiful Belter ‘princess’...Sjael Drummer, Camina’s cousin.

Once again, something that originally wasn’t in the cards last year, but I wanted a full Hero’s Journey and I was damned if Tech wasn’t going to get it!

Tagging those that have commented and enjoyed the story: @eyecandyeoz @perfectlywingedcrusade @megmca @skellymom @cdblake1565 @thecoffeelorian @supremechancellorrex @that-salmonberry-punk @autistic-artistech @deezlees @littlefeatherr @nahoney22 @freesia-writes @eelfuneral @yeehawgeek @isthereanechoinhere96 @sued134

[diver5ion]

[always-tilting-at-windmills]

[hideoussundemon]

fuck it, FUCK IT, roci posse polycule.

first of all, obviously, holden. dear, sweet holden, with his big dumb heart and his eight parents, would be SO DOWN for this polycule. it’s a no-brainer for him. they’re all so special to him in their own ways. obviously he’s chugging his I Love Nami Nagata Juice every day and everyone knows it, but when his heart flips at one of alex’s dumb jokes and the sight of amos and his ✨arms✨ does things to him, he doesn’t even question it. holden grew up in sunlight and breeze and eight sets of loving arms, and no matter how far he runs from everything else on earth, that’s the one thing that he’ll always carry with him. holden doesn’t know how to love except with every part of himself, for every part of himself.

amos. amos, who doesn’t think he’s capable of love, who looked at each member of the roci posse and decided that he would die for them, because they were worth it, worth more than him, who associates ‘goodness’ with the word ‘crew’ — it’s a no brainer for him too, but in a different way. bc of course he’d sleep with naomi if she asked, and alex is a scruffy kind of cute that he’s always liked, and holden has that voice and that smile and those eyes, and he’s never been one to make himself pick and choose. but every day they let him know that it’s more than that, that he has his place here as more than just the protector, just the monster, and that it doesn’t matter that the way he loves looks different, feels different, because it’s theirs, and their love is his too.

alex would probably be the first to hesitate. maybe it’s martian culture, not taking more than your ‘fair share.’ maybe it’s shame — he already had a family, a love, that he abandoned; what right does he have to three more? maybe it’s the creeping feeling that he’s the odd one out, naomi and holden have their connection, and amos has always had his own thing with both of them, and where does that leave room for him? but this is the man who took to the stars to find out where he belongs, where he feels right, and despite all his fears he knows it when he feels it. this is his family and maybe he couldn’t get it right last time, but dammit, he will now.

and listen. listen. naomi nagata. this is a woman scorned, a woman broken and rebuilt by her own two hands, who fought tooth and nail for a home she could call her own despite everyone and everything that told her she didn’t belong, didn’t deserve it, didn’t deserve love, and she even believed it. just think about it: she was left with nothing, and now she has three people who love her more than anything, and she knows for sure that this is hers to keep. she was hurt by the person who was supposed to love her, again and again, and now every time she looks at, lays with, touches her boys, it feels like a rebellion. it feels like a victory. it feels like peace at last.

[jbk405]

So “Why We Fight” had a rough start, probably the roughest of any episode of season six so far.

The Martian attack on the ring gate was unnecessary, and both it and the response come back around to a post I made a few days ago that Chrisjen Avasarala is being portrayed as significantly less competent here than she was in the novels, or even earlier in the series.  The problem isn’t that she’s “soft” in her decision making like she feared she was becoming -- which carries a whole lot of sexist baggage by the way -- it’s that she hasn’t been able to control or influence her own side so things are spinning out of control.  The problems between Earth and Mars didn’t just disappear in the novels after the initial Inaros attacks, but Avasarala was able to focus them on the greater mutual threat and held them together through pragmatic, focused dealings.  So the risk of their alliance fracturing and the different factions going off on their own wasn’t there.  Not because they’re suddenly in love with each other, but because they’re smart enough to adhere to the thousand old adages about not dividing your forces.  It’s skill we need here, not “strength” (which the characters seem to be equating with “Choose military force each time” and which is contrary to the very moral of the series).

Plus, having Kirino be the one to lead the attack seemed like a bizarre spit in the show’s own face.  She is a character created specifically for the show with no book counterpart, and she was the one who extended the olive branch in the Earth-Mars war.  She saw an opportunity for peace and she took it, even though it was a risk, because she saw that it was the best option for her own side and with that combination of pragmatism and optimism she saved countless lives.  To have her be the one that leads the stupid, ill-advised assault after Mars says “I’ll do it myself if you’re too much of a wimp!” is ridiculous.

However, as I was beginning to think that the episode would wind up in the negative column, they did turn it around in the back half.

Camina’s storyline continues to just break my heart.  I did not expect her and Naomi’s scene to go that way, but my heart was goddamn breaking.  I’ve said that Camina is deeply in love with Naomi, we’re talking drawing-hearts-in-notebooks-”Mrs. Camina Nagata”-I’d-Choose-You love.  And that has brought her nothing but pain and heartache and pain.  And she still loves her, but so much has happened that it is poison now.  It really does look like Naomi has “sold out”, and even though we know she hasn’t, and even though deep down Camina herself knows she hasn’t, to see her with her living crew and big political connections and apparently choosing the Inners over the Belt.....goddamn.

The meeting between Chrisjen and Camina was fascinating.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it seemed to me like Shohreh Aghdashloo and Cara Gee were performing as though the characters were reciting their lines from a script.  Like they had already worked this all out over the phone and were now performing for the masses to try and sell it to the Belters.  Their word choice and tone seemed deliberately artificial.  If true, this says a lot.  It’s also interesting because Chrisjen most definitely is a liar, and Camina knows that.  Chrisjen has never let the truth stand in her way, she’s lied publicly and privately since the very first season.  Some of this only we-the-audience know about, like how she fed Frank DeGraaf false information to try and suss out information from the Martian government, and let him twist afterwards.  However she also publicly blamed Fred Johnson and the OPA for the creation of the stealth warships and instigating the conflict while trying to backdoor connect with him at the same time, and Camina worked for Fred when this went down.  To try and present herself as “I may have been evil before, but I was trustworthy evil” and to have Camina agree says that they are deliberately trying to sell this meeting.

All told not the best episode of the season, but not a total loss, and I can clearly see where they are leading to for the finale next week.  I had hoped for more, but at least it wasn’t all bad.

[jackoshadows]

Hello! I'm just about to finish the first season of The Expanse and I thought I'd come to you to ask this question. :) So I started watching The Expanse yesterday and while I find the plot interesting, I'm having a bit of trouble getting immersed into the story. I was wondering if you could tell me if the show gets more interesting, or the characters? I think it's the characters that I'm finding it hard to connect with to continue on past the first season. Anyway, I thought I'd ask, considering I'm a non book reader of the series who knows very little about it, since sometimes a first season isn't always the best (Black Sails, The Last Kingdom, etc.). I don't mind spoilers. :)

This is actually a very common opinion. I still liked it but a lot of people find season one hard to get through and a slog. Many of them stopped watching and only got back into it after it became a cult hit.

The story takes place in 3 locations - The Canterbury crew, Ceres station with Miller and on Earth with Avasarala. It's a bit complicated and slow and it takes time to get attached to these characters, but it's worth it believe me! We don't really get to know Amos and Naomi and Holden and Alex and Miller and Avasarala until after half the season.

I have heard it said season 1 episode 4 - CQB - is where a lot of people started to find the show interesting and the Canterbury crew really start forming bonds. The three separate plots also start to come together later in the season. Miller's mystery of the missing girl, the political intrigue on Earth and whatever is happening with the Canterbury characters.

Another interesting thing about The Expanse is that Space is a also character on it's own. Space is dangerous and brutal. These people have to fight against physics to live in space. The Belters - people living in the asteroid belt - have different physiology due to low G. They are taller and thinner with brittle bones. People on space ships walk around in Mag boots to deal with lack of gravity. Lack of friction is a thing - ships have to flip and burn (i.e) turn around and accelerate in the opposite direction to slow down. We see physical phenomena like the Coriolis effect when someone pours a glass of water on Ceres, a ship spinning to create artificial gravity, how weapons fire in space etc.

This is also a show with a lot of diversity and a ton of interesting, fully fleshed out and complex female characters. In fact I would say that the best part of this show is the female characters - Naomi Nagata, Camina Drummer, Chrisjen Avasarala, Bobbie Draper etc.

It's not necessary to read the books to watch the show. In fact I find the show to be better in many ways to the books. The books were written by GRRM's former assistants - Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and the story has similarities to GOT in it's political intrigues and conflicts and a bigger non human threat looming on the horizon. However the show also has an excellent showrunner in Naren Shankar who has managed to artfully combine book characters into show versions and adapted the books to TV excellently.

So yes, I would tell you to keep watching. Season one is the slowest, season 2 increases the pace and season 3 is pretty damn awesome. The characters start to bond as well as develop in individual ways more in season 2 but by the end of season 1, I think you will like them.

Hope this helps and sorry for the length of this post. I love this show lol and I think asoiaf readers who like science fiction will love it as well.

[marvelousgeeks]

Well, it’s Valentine’s Day weekend and what better excuse to just write about our favorite ships on screen right now? Granted we don’t ever need a reason talk about ships, but we’ll always take up the opportunities.

Naomi Nagata and Jim Holden The Expanse

No couple on screen could be apart for an entire season and still make you feel as though they’re together—as though they’re connected in every way that two people can be. Naomi and Jim are as real as it gets, as beautifully reassuring as a couple can be. It’s never a walk in the park for them (hopefully someday it can be), but being together makes everything easy—having each other makes knowing a kind of strength that’s transcendent, everlasting, and palpable even when they aren’t in the same room. They’re ceaselessly making each other better—they’re the very reason the other feels at home. What they do is a constant risk, and they are met with challenges more often than not, but they believe in each other with a fervency so strong, they would never dare to step in the way of something the other wants to do. No matter how difficult, no matter how heartbreaking, even if need be, they would let the other go because this relationship is freeing. They are bound to each other through an unbearably strong adoration, but they would never confine the other. There is a trust between them that’s unlike anything we’ve seen, and that trust comes from the profundity of their love. It comes from an understanding so deep, they know. They always know that in each other, no matter how far, they always have a home.

Continue Reading

[fuckyeahwarriorwomen]

Copy of article below thge cut, should the original ever go away

Leading up to the 20th anniversary of the March 10, 1997 premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Yahoo TV is celebrating “Why Genre Shows Matter” and the history of how these shows have tackled universal themes (e.g. how much high school sucks) and broader social issues.

Perhaps because they seek to imagine the world that’s possible rather than the world that is, genre shows have a long tradition of striving to expand the horizons of what’s possible for women on television. Within the realm of space operas alone, there’s a direct line that connects Lieutenant Uhura’s prominent perch amongst the Enterprise‘s largely male bridge crew on the original Star Trek to The Expanse‘s fiercely independent engineer, Naomi Nagata. And each point along this continuum helps inform the next: commanding officers like Babylon 5‘s Susan Ivanova and Voyager‘s Kathryn Janeway are linked by a devotion to duty, if not necessarily temperament, while Killjoys‘ scrappy bounty hunter, Yala, could have been a student of Firefly‘s highly-skilled soldier, Zoë Washburne. On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate the accomplishments of one such influential intergalactic heroine.

Her name is Aeryn. Officer Aeryn Sun if we’re being formal, one of the interstellar outlaws at the center of Farscape, the wildly ambitious Australian/American space serial that ran from 1999 to 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel. Bred from birth to be a loyal Sebacean soldier in the Peacekeeper army that patrols her section of the galaxy, Officer Sun switches careers after inadvertently ending up aboard a living spaceship named Moya that’s occupied by a motley crew of jailbreakers. These convicts-turned-comrades include towering warrior Ka D’Argo, blue-hued priestess Zhaan, flatulent deposed despot Rygel XVI, and John Crichton, an Earth-born astronaut who is very, very far from home. Created by Rockne S. O’Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company, Farscape enjoyed a bumpy four-season stateside run that ended prematurely when the network declined to fund a fifth and final year. (Sci-Fi later aired, but didn’t finance, a wrap-up miniseries, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, in 2004.)

The original cast of ‘Farscape’ (Credit: Everett Collection)

One of the joys of Farscape is that its defining house style is the lack of a defining house style. Episodes can range from standalone homages to body-switching comedies and vintage Loony Tunes cartoons to densely plotted multi-part stories that don’t conclude with conventionally happy endings. The primary constant amidst this narrative and tonal juggling is the turbulent love story between Aeryn Sun and John Crichton. Revisited today, Farscape stands as something of a bridge between eras of space opera, linking the last wave of episodic space adventures like Star Trek: Voyager and Stargate: SG-1 to the intensely emotional serialized narratives that later drove Battlestar Galactica and its ilk. Aeryn is both a traditional and transformational figure as well; raised to be an impersonal enforcer in the Imperial Stormtrooper mold, she comes to live out a promise that John makes to her in the very first episode: “You can be more.”

“Oh, I’ve got chills down my arm,” says Aeryn’s alter ego, Claudia Black, as she reflects on the character and those prophetic words nearly two decades later. “Her evolution as an individual takes off in an extraordinary way [after that].” Over the course of Yahoo TV’s hour-long conversation with the Australian actress, it’s clear that she does regard Aeryn as an individual unto herself, one who took on a life that sometimes superseded the actress’s own. “I was always happy to hand the character off,” Black says. “I would say [to the producers], ‘If I’m going in the wrong direction then please find someone to serve Aeryn, please. Because she deserves to have the full love of a person who can give you what you need.’ She was honestly such a privilege to play, and I never abused that privilege.”

And Black very nearly didn’t get that privilege. The role had already been cast when she first auditioned for Farscape, but the creative team encouraged her to read for Aeryn anyway. That reading later led to a screen test opposite Tennessee-born Ben Browder, who would be playing John Crichton. (Interestingly, Browder’s casting is, in part, what opened the door to Black inheriting the role from the English actress who had originally been chosen as Aeryn. “Because of the Australian co-production agreement, if they brought in a lead actor from America, the second lead had to be Australian,” Black explains. “So thank god for our union!”) Immediately recognizing the crackling onscreen chemistry between them, Browder pushed hard for her to land the role over network skepticism. “I was a controversial choice for sure,” Black says now. “I was just lucky in the end.”

Whatever the circumstances of how she got the role, Black climbed aboard Moya with strong ideas about how to play Aeryn. Superficially, the character is part of the wave of warrior women that swept through genre shows in the ’90s and early ’00s, whose ranks included Xena, Buffy, and even Cleo of Cleopatra 2525 fame. But as conceived by O’Bannon and carried forward by executive producer David Kemper, who became a driving creative force behind the show, Aeryn cuts against that archetype as well. Unlike Xena, she doesn’t necessarily relish battle; it’s something that’s been programmed into her. (Although, as Aeryn memorably remarks in The Peacekeeper Wars: “Shooting makes me feel better!“) She also reverses the arc traversed by Buffy and Cleo, which begins with them in places of perceived weakness — as a cheerleader and exotic dancer, respectively — and leads towards empowerment.

Because of her militaristic upbringing, Aeryn starts from a place of fierce strength. Her journey over the lifespan of the show, then, becomes about softening what Black describes as Aeryn’s “jagged edges” without surrendering her agency. “I’ve always loved science fiction because of the way it affords us an opportunity to look at humanity from an outsider’s perspective,” Black says. “And Aeryn really gets to experience it firsthand the best way that humans can, which is through love, in all of its forms. When I look at humanity, and my own life, we have to break before we can grow. That’s really what happened with Aeryn; she became stronger with softer edges.” (For the record, Aeryn may start out as a superior fighter to Buffy, but Black says that Sarah Michelle Gellar would easily mop the floor with her in real life. “Sarah has a black belt in karate, and I have two left feet! I always felt like a bit of an imposter [as Aeryn] just on the physical front. If I could push the reset button, I’d go back and get good at some form of martial art.”)

But that stronger-to-softer arc is also more treacherous to navigate than a traditional empowerment story, flirting, as it does, with the fanboy-friendly stereotype of the buttoned-up ice queen whose resolve (and inhibitions) melt when love, generally in the form of a strapping male hero, comes her way. The risk of falling headlong into that tired trope is something Farscape had to deal with throughout its run, especially as the core of the show was always the romance between John and Aeryn.

And while that romance takes a number of unexpected twists and turns — most boldly in a Season 3 storyline that saw Aeryn committing herself fully to a cloned version of Crichton, only to see him die and then have to re-learn how to love the original John — it ultimately culminates with two staples of a standard love story: a marriage proposal and a pregnancy. “It seemed pretty clear to me that Rockne’s intention in the pilot was that this was going to be a love story for the ages,” Black says. Not only that, but it was a love story penned by a largely male writing staff who had their own opinions about how to depict Aeryn’s gradual acceptance of Crichton’s love that sometimes ran counter to Black’s feelings. “I recall moments where they wanted me to be more vulnerable with Aeryn, and I didn’t want to be because I didn’t think it was time and I didn’t think she was ready,” she says. “But it wasn’t my place to say.”

Nevertheless, she persistently found ways to make her voice heard, whether it was by talking one-on-one with specific writers or her co-star, who was equally eager to avoid certain genre show clichés. Black recalls one instance early on in the show’s run when Browder actively pushed back against Sci-Fi’s directive that John Crichton demonstrate the same sex drive as James T. Kirk. “They wanted Crichton to have an alien girl of the week. Ben put his foot down and said, ‘No, he’s not that kind of guy. This isn’t the story I want to tell.’ And on my side I was saying, ‘Yeah, what does that say about Aeryn if she’s going to fall in love with a guy [like that]?’ We wanted to investigate and have them experience the more positive aspects of attraction, as well as what’s worth fighting for and what’s worth dying for,” she says. “Maybe the show would have continued longer if we’d been able to please the network! They know what they’re going to need in order to keep [viewers] interested and tuning in. But we’re very proud of what we managed to make regardless, because of those choices.”

The ongoing battle that Black personally waged throughout Farscape‘s run was ensuring that Aeryn maintained control over her own body. In the genre shows of her era, the female leads were stronger and savvier than ever, and that translated into fashion choices that expressed their own body confidence and sexuality. Xena rode into battle in a heaving breastplate, while Buffy fought vampires in halter tops and Relic Hunter‘s Sydney Fox always donned a tight tank top before exploring some ancient tomb. But flashing cleavage, leg, and midriff also made those characters desirable pin-ups for the male audience courted by networks and advertisers. (Farscape added its own version of a pin-up type midway through the first season in the form of Chiana, a grey-skinned con artist with a plunging neckline and a voracious sexual appetite.)

But those fashions didn’t make sense for a soldier fighting in an army where men and women’s bodies were interchangeable. In fact, Black remembers reading a very specific direction to the makeup department in the production notes for the pilot. “When I take my Peacekeeper helmet off [for the first time], the note read in big print, ‘She looks masculine.’ They thickened my eyebrows — which are already thick! — and shaded my face in very minimal makeup. All of the on-set gallery images of me in the first season are with that very masculine makeup.”

Aeryn in her ‘masculine’ Season 1 appearance (Credit: Everett Collection)

By Season 2, though, Aeryn’s appearance underwent a noticeable change; her hair got longer and straighter, and her Peacekeeper uniform gave way to outfits that walked a line between practical and revealing. Black, who describes herself as a feminist, agreed to these cosmetic changes as she felt they were part of a “natural progression” for Aeryn. “I was honoring where she had come from at the same time having to find a way to let her grow into whatever it is she was going to become,” she says. (This clip from Farscape‘s aforementioned Looney Tunes-inspired episode, “Revenging Angel,” neatly summarizes — and satirizes — the female body types commonly featured on genre shows that Aeryn deliberately defies.)

Already objectively beautiful, Aeryn’s sexuality continued to emerge as she grew into her new self. Even so, Black could sense it wasn’t emerging quickly enough to satisfy certain expectations. “I felt that I was being pushed to show more flesh than was necessary,” she admits, pointing to one incident in the show’s fourth season where it was written into the script that Aeryn would sit poolside in a bikini. “I just said, ‘I will get in a bikini for you if it makes sense, but this woman’s world is falling apart.’ It was the last thing I thought Aeryn would do [in that moment]. It felt really frivolous and superficial to me.” (Black had already donned a bikini to play pregnant Aeryn in a hallucinatory scene in the Season 4 premiere. “They not only had me in a bikini, but they gave me a pregnant belly as well, which is really hard to pull off and make it look naturalistic,” she says.)

Black remembers shooting down an even more egregious bit of flesh-flashing in an earlier episode. As an international production, Farscape frequently shot extra scenes for certain ad-free European markets that would fill the time normally allotted for commercials. The cast referred to these filler sequences as “Euro scenes,” and they rarely involved big story or character beats. According to Black, this particular episode dispatched D’Argo and Aeryn on a planetside mission, and the writers cobbled together a Euro scene that she describes as “absurd.” “They said, ‘Let’s have a scene where we cut to them by a lake, and Aeryn turns and sees a bunch of soldiers across the lake. Aeryn takes off her clothes, swims across the lake, and fights these soldiers completely naked, then comes back to D’Argo and off they go.'”

In later seasons, Aeryn naturally progressed towards more revealing fashion choices (Credit: Everett Collection)

“There were so many things about it that were so bizarre,” she continues. “I said, ‘You know what, please explain this to me, how this honestly can fit in.’ In the end, they just said, ‘All right, fine — we won’t do it.’ That’s what I felt I was having to haggle for a lot of the time: my right to keep my clothes on until it was appropriate. I’ve always felt as an actor — and I’m sure other females have felt like this as well — that when you sign on the dotted line and enter the business that somehow you’ve given your body away as a piece of property, and you spend the rest of your career haggling for pieces of it back.” And the actress credits Browder with backing her up in her fight for Aeryn to be in full control of her own femininity and, by extension, her destiny. “Aeryn is really as feminist as I am, but she’s nothing without Crichton, which is an interesting statement to make,” she says. “So as much as we praise Aeryn, we must give full credit to Crichton and to Ben for shaping him the way that he did. It’s the space that he gives her. He’s such an exquisite champion of her growth and development, that it becomes possible for her to grow to her full size.”

In the 13 years since the concluding Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, rumors have occasionally flown about Farscape‘s return. At one point, there was talk of a webisode series following John and Aeryn’s child, D’Ago Sun-Crichton, but funding never came to fruition. (The show did continue in comic book form for a time, but publication ceased circa 2011.) Black, whose recent credits include stints on The CW genre shows Containment and The Originals, has no updates on any future revivals, and jokes that if Aeryn and Crichton ever do return, they’ll be “tired, ornery, and not really wanting another battle.”

Claudia Black as Dahlia on ‘The Originals’ (Credit: Annette Brown/The CW)

In a way, though, Aeryn’s larger battle has already been won. One of the breakout characters on Battlestar Galactica — which premiered in December 2003, nine months after Farscape‘s series finale — was Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, who displays some of the same steely spine, and jagged edges, of Officer Sun. And today’s genre TV landscape is populated with women who, consciously or not, reflect Aeryn’s assertiveness, independence, and refusal to conform to societal (or genre) norms of appearance or attitude, whether it’s Orphan Black‘s Helena, Sense8‘s Nomi, or Jessica Jones.

For this Scaper, she lives on off-screen as well. When my wife and I learned that we’d be having a daughter, we thought about all the things we wanted for her life. To know that she, and she alone, is in control of her body. To be strong in the face of injustice. To be confident in her own power. And to know that when she chooses to give her heart to another person, that person will be her champion, and give her the space to grow to her full size. And so we picked a name that, for us, would embody all of our hopes and dreams for the individual she’s becoming with each passing year.

Her name is Aeryn.

[thctearoom]

Brief 3: Essay

An Essay in Video Interpretations

“Are you anything like that animal?” Kenzo Gabriel, like so many people who meet and interact with Amos Burton, falls into the trap of seeing the space brute as just another unemotional and psychopathic thug in the Belt but he, like the others, would be wrong. Amos Burton is one of the many intriguing yet complicated characters that viewers are introduced to in the Syfy television series The Expanse which focuses on a future in which mankind has colonised the stars. When the spaceship and the crew that Amos is working with become involved in a conspiracy to jump start a war between the planets Earth and Mars as well as the asteroid belt dwellers known as the Belters, Amos finds himself caught up in the churn as the rules of survival change.

Viewers and fans have a front row seat of seeing Amos for the man that he really is and have shared their views and interpretations of him in various online mediums. The use of computers, the internet and editing software has allowed some fans to broaden their reach in ways that are vastly more engaging than simple pen to paper or words on a screen hurled out into the void of the internet. By creating 1-3-minute videos uploaded to social media sharing sites such as Youtube, they can reach a wider range of viewers and content consumers by combining voice-overs and dialogue, music and entertaining visuals into visual evidence of their own interpretations of specific characters or media content.

One such content maker published an interpretation of Amos Burton (Shainira, 2017). The video opens with a voice over of Kenzo Gabriel, questioning the integrity of James Holden, the crew’s Captain, and comparing him to Amos in such a way that paints Amos as a clear antagonist and someone to fear and distrust. This introduction sets the tone for the rest of the video and provides the instantaneous hook that this ages generation needs in order to remain engaged with new content. Kenzo Gabriel’s inspection is further evidenced by the second use of a voice over and dialogue by another character, Paolo Cortázar, whom says:

You want to be that real boy again, to feel how you felt before the world broke you. But you cauterized that, in order to survive.

Paolo implies within this moment that Amos was self-made, that the way in which he behaves, his values and his views are directly connected to his instinct and need to survive in a harsh and cruel world and that there is no going back to the way he was before this trauma happened to him. Throughout the video these implications are repeated and drawn clear when even Alex Kamal, a member of Amos’ crew and a friend, questions what made Amos the way that he is “What happened to you?”, further implying that something in Amos’ past is what crafted him into the man that he has become now. When a second crew member and friend, Naomi Nagata, attempts to explain that for all of Amos’ intimidating qualities and behaviour, that he isn’t the animal or the villain that many mistakes him for “He’s not crazy and he’s not evil.”. This contrast between two perspectives impact the audience by creating two conflicting ideas of who and what Amos is, is he an unemotional brute or is he a man doing the best with what has happened to him?

The continuous use of direct quotes taken from the series allows for even first-time viewers and non-fans to come to a clear and visible understanding of Shainira’s interpretation of the character as being a frightening and intimidating force, “Whatever leash you had him on, you better get him back on it.”, whilst simultaneously hammering home that he is still more than that. As difficult as he appears to be to control he does have a certain perspective on the world that explains his clean cut and black-and-white viewpoint, “There’s only three kinds of people in this world. The bad ones, the ones you follow and the ones you need to protect.” The use of such dialogues allows for the viewer to clearly see how Amos is duo faceted and how he is one or the either to different people as well as creating a haunting and aggressive tempo and beat of the video that keeps the viewers engaged and on the edges of their seats.

Furthermore, the video combines these voiceovers with music. Evil Prevails is a stirring tune, beginning quietly, it fills the listener with a sense paranoia, a need to be alert and aware that conjures feelings of being watched or followed. As the music continues it slowly begins to grow louder and louder, the beat becoming faster and causing a rise of intensity and action whilst still maintaining a powerful atmosphere of lurking danger. The continuous high and low, rise and fall of the base beat causes the listener to feel as if this moment will never end, trapping them in a constant state of vigilance until the sudden peak and finality of the music itself. Cut off at its apex and leaving the listener’s heart racing long after the music itself has ended.

Shainira has combined the music itself with sound effects taken from the show that complement the music itself, the sound of Amos taking a breath in the introduction is sharp and sudden, the sound of his footsteps as he climbs the ladder into the control room is added to the shrill beat of the music’s instrumental, the hiss of the ship doors opening or closing, the sharp sound of a bullet cutting through Sematimba and the blood splatter as it splashes against Naomi Nagata’s face, all of these sounds adding to the force of the music itself and the feelings that it elicits for the viewers of the video.

In the same manner in which sound impacts the listener, Shainira combines the music, voiceovers and sound effects with scenes taken from the television series, splicing together each medium to create their video interpretation of Amos. From the very first scene we are introduced to Amos, waking and sucking in a sharp breath with Kenzo Gabriel accusing him of being an animal, when combined with the low intro of Evil Prevails, creates a daunting visual and adds to the concept that encompasses the weight of Amos’ presence.

Another key moment that combines the music, voiceover effect and scenes taken from the series is when Alex Kamal is voiced lecturing Amos on what they do and why they do it, “That’s what people do, we help.”, something that is clearly shown as a subject of conflict with Amos who goes between helping others and committing extreme acts of violence as shown on three separate occasions where Amos assaults Joe Miller, pinning him against the galley table and appears to be able to strangle him or snap his neck, or the moment when Amos beats Roma into bloody submission with a can of chicken and holds even Alex Kamal, one of Amos’ closest friends, over the railing of the ship’s control room. Each moment of confrontation separated by someone stopping him from going too far, either Naomi Nagata with Joe Miller or Prax Meng with Roma, until Amos is shown threatening Roma with a gun and asking, “Are you gonna help us?”. The use of these scenes in rapid succession of each other creating an uneasy feeling of apprehension whilst simultaneously showing us the way in which Amos has carefully begun to evolve into becoming more concerned with the lives of those around him but maintains an explosive violence.

This is further evidenced when incorporated with the way in which he stops attacking Alex of his own volition rather than needing Naomi or Prax to stop him as they did or attempted to do when he attacked both Joe Miller and Roma. This single instance is short but for those who have seen the series would appreciate that sign of Amos’ growth and ability to control his own violent and aggressive impulses when he needs to.

The music and the combination of the sound effects and voiceovers used in the television series creates a sense of unity between the video and the scenes chosen from the series that other fan made video’s lack, such as NatalyaCorvus’ Bucky Barnes tribute video. While the scenes chosen had a specific intent to the video’s overall presentation, the song chosen lacked the appropriate impact as the lyrical use of the music itself distracted the audience and took away from the video’s aim and created a disconnect between what audiences were watching and what they were hearing. Where many fan tributes are only snippets of their chosen series or film with music slapped over the top, Shainira manages to encompass all mediums into their video seamlessly, showing an escalation of events and actions that builds while the music does as well and provides a clear interpretation of the character Amos Burton.

References

Brooks, C. (2015). Gangsta’s Paradise. On Awaken the Fire. Another Century. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGM3I33W70c Brown, J.F., Daniel, S., Fergus, M., Hall, S., Johnson, B., Kosove, A., Lancaster, L., McDonough, T. & Shankar, N. (2019). The expanse. Amazon Prime Video, Syfy. De Veer, C.T. (2013). Evil Prevails. On Utopia – original TV soundtrack. Silva Screen Records. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2YNn08n0ys NatalyaCorvus. (2017, June 12). Bucky Barnes – gangsta’s paradise. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VPb8KX72ZE Shainira. (2017, April 21). Amos Burton || What happened to you?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXxxLxCv2ec

[rocicrew]

Naomi + Clarissa 3 or 67

Naomi + filip 33

thank you for the prompts ! the first prompt will be answered on a dif post because this drabble ended up being longer than i expected anyway. i apologize for any mistakes, because my laptop has a problem atm and i ended up finishing this on my phone, so i can't edit it as i would want to.

When Drummer pinged her hand terminal, Naomi didn’t think anything of it. Except, maybe, some hope that she would be free later on to meet. The Roci was docked on Medina after taking a transport gig and they were enjoying their stay on the station and an opportunity to catch up with Drummer, Michio, and Josep.  

“Camina,” Naomi exhaled with a soft tone, after accepting the connection.

“Oye, Nagata”

The tone caused a chill to run down her back. Something was up, and in their experience, that never meant anything positive.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, not wanting to beat around the bush. 

“Was looking through crew lists mi, and there’s something you should see.”

Before Naomi had the chance to reply, the list was sent to her terminal. She couldn’t understand the reason behind it, but if Camina thought she should take a look, she had no reason to say no. Her eyes scanned the names, not recognizing any, until- Filip Nagata.

She had to hold on to the railing next to her to compose herself. What was this? A joke? Another cruelty of the universe that caused someone else to share the same name? Her mind could not think, no matter how much she tried. 

“Naomi, are you-”

“He’s dead. He was on the ship that disappeared. I saw it.” I did it; remained unsaid.

“I don’t know if it’s true,” Drummer’s voice was uncharacteristically gentle. “But you deserve to know.”

The pounding of her heart echoed in her ears. She tried to push through that and through the tears clouding her vision to focus on actually replying to Drummer.

“Taki, Camina,” her words were barely more than a whisper. “Truly.”

“Always, Naomi.”

Naomi assumed she’d end the connection, but Drummer said something else before closing. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.”

She did, and she now had a handful of people in her corner and ready to support her. But this had always been something she had to do alone.

So, she pressed on the contact and opened a new message recording her voice.

“Filip, if it's really you, I...,” her voice cracked and she had to pause for a moment. “I will be at the noodles place on level 3 in an hour. If you don't want to come, I understand. The choice is yours... But, I'd really like to see you.”

---

The place was half filled, enough to offer some kind of privacy but for their words to still get drowned out in others' conversations. The patrons were almost exclusively Belters, and he recognized Naomi at a table towards the back. Her hair was longer than he last saw her, some of her curls covering part of her face as she leaned forward to see something in her terminal, but— that was undoubtedly his mother.

As he slowly approached her, the whole situation was giving him whiplash. Suddenly, he was a couple of years younger at Pallas, and it would be the first time he would meet her. Just like then, she raised her head to meet his gaze, and time stopped. The urge to run away came, but he ignored it. She had given him a second chance. Filip could sit through one dinner.

He still had trouble believing she wanted to see him after what had happened. But Naomi hadn't lied to him, this wasn't a trick he had to decipher, and the choice had been left up to him.

“Filip,” her voice sounded in a bizarre in-between like she was uttering a prayer or seeing a ghost. The latter was easier to understand than the former.

“I’m sorry I didn't reach out earlier. I didn’t know if-”

If you wanted to see me, he wanted to say. But it was too heavy to utter. If I was ready to see you, sounded like an accusation he didn't want to make. So he left the sentence unfinished.

A veil of tears covered her eyes, and he knew that he wasn't that far behind. Part of him was angry still, that she had such an effect on him. He felt like a kid and he had spent years feigning that he wasn't. But unlike when he was with Marco, he didn't feel small. Just young. Maybe he was. 

Neither of them spoke for quite some time. There was too much to be said, and not enough words to explain it. 

But Naomi broke the silence first with a question that was the hardest to answer. Even talking about how and why he left the Free Navy seemed easier to answer.

“Are you happy?” she asked cautiously. “That’s all I want to know.”

Was he happy? Could he be happy after what he’d done? Those were questions he’d been too scared to look for the answer to. He was better than the last time she saw him. He was coming to terms not only with the effects of his actions but with what had happened to him. He was older, understanding Naomi better. Not fully, not enough to erase all those years he wanted his mother. But enough nonetheless.

“Don't ask me that,” Filip whispered, shaking his head and looking down at his plate.

“Hey, listen to me,” Naomi said as she took his hands in hers. “I spent nearly a decade making myself nothing, to live with myself after I left. I don't want that for you.”

He didn't realize he had been squeezing her hand the whole time, but she was holding it back with the same strength.

“What changed?” he asked in a low voice.

“I ended up in a place with people that care about me, about who I am. They love me. And, I stopped fighting it.”

“Your Inners?” Filip asked and he couldn’t shake away the resentment from his voice. 

“I’m not going to apologize for that.”

He did not come here to argue, nor repeat the same words he said to her before she nearly killed herself trying to escape from the Pella. He couldn't help but wince at the memory but silently thanked her for not bringing it up.

“And how- How do you live with the guilt?” Filip didn't mean it as an accusation. Truly, it was more of a confession. But he still noticed how she tried to hide that she nearly recoiled from the question.

“It’s not easy,” she began explaining, “Some days are harder than others. We can't change what we've done. But it matters who we choose to be after.”

After taking a deep breath, she continued, “And, if we stop living for ourselves then it’s not much different from Marco’s control.” 

It was then that Filip saw her. Understood parts of her he was denying to see and she was too guarded to show on the Pella. The story she told him about the airlock, why she risked dying. Both times it wasn't about leaving him, it was about her living. 

Filip wasn't sure if he was ready to forgive her for that yet. But he wanted to be able to do that for himself. Even if he still didn't know who he was nor how he wanted to live.

He didn't acknowledge her mention of his father. Neither accepting nor denying they'd been controlled by him. It'd been years later and he still hadn't been able to fully face that. 

“Have a job mi,” he started. “On a transport union ship. I do repairs, mostly. A friend showed me how to work a skiff and it's… I like fixing things,” he wasn't sure how coherent he was. Just let the thoughts out as they came without fully knowing why. 

Maybe a part of him wanted to convince himself that this was how he lived for himself. Maybe he wanted to tell her what kind of person he chose to be. Not a person that destroyed, but one that fixed. Wanting to make up for what he'd done. Maybe he wanted the approval he was sure his father wouldn't have given him.

Whatever it was, it was subconscious.

He wasn't looking at her when he said that, unsure what he wanted from her reaction.

“Do you have someone? A girlfriend maybe? Boyfriend?,” she paused for a short second before asking, “Partner?”

It was then that he raised his gaze and upon noticing the half smile on her face, he understood what she was doing. She was trying to lift some of the weight of the conversation. And maybe she was actually curious about the answer. Either way, he was grateful for the change of tone.

“Now you're starting to sound like a mother,” he didn't mean that in a bad way. Quite the opposite. Even if neither of them really had that experience. Filip couldn't really understand Naomi's expression but when she settled on a smile, he believed she'd taken it that way.

“No, I don't have someone yet. But the crew im good and it's decent pay, sasa?” he shrugged, the belter way, as he actually answered the question. 

Their talk stayed on less heavy topics, catching up with what had happened in their lives. And getting to know each other for what felt like the first time ever. 

As their food came to an end, Naomi had one last question to ask. “Why Nagata?”

“Do you have a problem-” Before he could even finish the question, she spoke. 

“No, no. Of course not. I was just wondering because we don't really…”  

She didn't finish, he wouldn't know how to finish that sentence either.

“It- it was something my father said. About how I couldn't see what I'd been given. He meant the cause, living for it, dying for it. I didn't want to do that anymore. But he was right because I remembered your words. That I had the choice to walk away…” he stopped, swallowing the lump in his throat before speaking again. “And, I did. I wanted a new start but I couldn't do that being the same person as before. You tried to give me that chance, so, I don't know, felt right.”

He was aware of the tear that was running down his cheek but he didn't want to acknowledge it. He was tired and angry of shedding tears for his parents' mistakes. (For his own mistakes, was something that was far harder to deal with.) But Naomi was wiping away some of her own, so maybe it wasn't wrong.

They said their goodbyes not long after. Naomi with a hug and a promise that the Rocinante would always have a place for him. Both were hard to accept at that moment.

He needed, wanted to pave his own journey.

However, he did agree in exchanging messages from time to time and seeing where that would lead them. There was still so much hurt that was unaddressed between them, but he walked away lighter from their meeting.

Maybe part of him was happy after all.

[boreal-sea]

saw ur post in the trans butch cusp tag and… have u considered that the reason u feel more connected to male characters than female characters is because male characters are actually written like real people?

Hi! Yes, of course I've considered that. And while I feel far less of a disconnect between myself and well-written female characters, I still find myself identifying more with male characters, in situations where other women would identify more with the female characters.

Take the Witcher, for example. I absolutely love how Yennefer is written. She's amazing, and complex, and human, and heroic. There are parts of her I identify with, but none of those things are directly related to her womanhood, and in fact the aspects of her character related to her womanhood I find difficult to identify with. I have never had a strong desire for physical beauty (even to use as a tool). I have never wanted children and don't consider becoming a parent an important part of my existence. I don't identify with her choice to use her looks to manipulate those around her. I don't like wearing dresses so literally ever outfit she wears (in the show specifically) is not my taste.

These are all great parts of her character, but these are aspects of her that I find unrelatable and in some cases alienating.

There have been several female characters I've identified with in my life, often in media where the only main characters are female though. Sailor Moon, for example. It's not that I've never, ever identified with female characters. I just find myself identifying more easily with male characters, their roles in the story, and their actions.

Oh! I thought of another female character I highly identify with: Naomi Nagata from The Expanse. She's AMAZING! Actually, all of the female characters in The Expanse are fantastic. I love them all. I have no favorite character from those books because they're all amazing - that's a lie. Avasarala is my favorite.

[always-tilting-at-windmills]

The way Amos is staring at Holden in the first picture. 😲😍

“I’m all right Amos...” (awww)

“Sorry, Cap. It’s alright.” (I love them!)

“Amos all we’ve been through...” (ohhh!!!)

“So, vent away..”

(Amos wants to talk about feelings?!)

And -

“Think about Amos”.....

Omg. Bobbie. Omg. She gets it. It blows my mind that she used his name first with Holden. But, she spent time on the Roci and is very skillful at reading people. 🧐

[wazafam]

Amos needs a moral guide in The Expanse season 5, but Clarissa "Peaches" Mao isn't the right replacement for Holden. Ever since The Expanse introduced Wes Chatham's Amos Burton, the mechanic has stood out from his crew mates. Amos struggles to know right from wrong in any given situation, and violence is his instinctive reaction to even the slightest threat, but far from an outright brute, Amos desperately wants to be a better person. To this end, he relies heavily on a few trusted loved ones to act as moral guides. Amos was first shown the way by Lydia in Baltimore, before coming to rely on Naomi during his stint on the Canterbury, and finally his captain on the Rocinante, James Holden.

Amos steps out alone in The Expanse season 5, visiting his old acquaintances (and a certain jailbird) on Earth. Had the trip passed without incident, Amos undoubtedly could've made his way without the help of Holden or Naomi. In a stroke of misfortune, however, he happens to be present when Earth is hit by a cataclysmic asteroid strike. Suddenly, Amos finds himself in a battle for survival, forcing his aggressive instincts out into the open - and the Roci crew are nowhere nearby. Amos realizes the need to reunite with Holden and Naomi before losing himself completely, and embarks on a journey to escape Earth alongside Clarissa Mao.

Related: The Expanse Episode Title Teases Earth's Fate

In The Expanse season 5's "Winnipesauke," Clarissa begins to assume the role of Amos Burton's new moral compass. She refuses to abandon any civilians on the luxury island, assuring every stranded worker that they'll be given an escape route. Erich and Amos are uncomfortable with the idea, but after seeing Clarissa take a stance, the mechanic follows her lead. Later, when the rapidly growing tribe are accosted by private security, Clarissa gets in the middle before a firefight can break out. Once again, Amos looked ready to throw down, but he takes heed of Clarissa and lowers his weapon.

It might appear that Clarissa has assumed Holden's role of helping Amos make better decisions, but while Peaches' advice might be preferable to none at all, she's no replacement for Amos' crew mates. Clarissa's heart is in the right place, but her actions ultimately lead to more casualties. On Clarissa's say-so, Amos lets the security goons walk, despite knowing they'll return in greater numbers. When the assault inevitably comes, the death toll is just as bad (if not worse) than it would've been if Clarissa had just let the two sides settle their differences in the first instance. While Holden always tries to avoid violence, he also wouldn't put his crew in danger - a balance that Clarissa's naive mindset is lacking.

The difference is one of upbringing. James Holden and Naomi Nagata might be idealistic, but they're also familiar with the harsh realities of the world. Clarissa, on the other hand, was raised in luxury. Her only two perspectives are that of a sheltered rich girl, or an inmate in a high security prison for ruthless killers - not exactly ideal qualifications for an aspiring moral guru.

Clarissa replacing Holden also contradicts the original reason Amos made a connection with her. Visiting her prison cell, Amos reveals his desire to save Clarissa - to drag her from the darkness and prove there's life beyond a homicide sentence. Amos is essentially looking to pass the lessons he took from Lydia, Holden and Naomi onto someone new, and as such, it makes little sense for Clarissa to suddenly flip the script and become Amos' savior in The Expanse season 5. Instead, Amos and Peaches will have a more unique, equal dynamic when she and Amos finally rendezvous with the Rocinainte crew - learning from each other and developing an attachment very distinct from how Amos interacts with Holden and Naomi.

More: The Expanse Season 5 Repeats A Season 2 Story

The Expanse Proves Why Amos Can't Easily Replace Holden from https://ift.tt/3acs2Cr

[aion-rsa]

The Expanse Season 4 Recap: Ilus, the Ring Gates and the Cliffhanger Ending

https://ift.tt/33wqYH6

Warning: contains spoilers for The Expanse season 4

At the beginning of The Expanse season four, the show’s characters stood at the crossroads of a brave and expansive new world, as did the cast and crew in their new home at Amazon. It was a marriage made in heaven. The Expanse was bigger, slicker, bolder, and grittier, but just as gloriously deep, rich and complex as ever. As season five gets ready to drop, let’s remind ourselves of the ups, downs, ins, outs, fights, smites and subterfuge of season four. We’ll start with the set-up and then look at each of the main locations/groups in turn, leading up to the season’s denouement and planet-busting cliffhanger. Major spoilers, obviously, ahead.

In the Beginning

Season three ended with the opening of the mysterious ring gates, and the 1300 habitable systems beyond them. Holden feared the beginning of ‘a blood-soaked gold rush’.

It’s a fear shared by UN Secretary General Chrisjen Avarasala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who wants everyone to stay put. The UN’s stance is backed by the Martian Congressional Republic (MCR) and many of the Belters. The balance of peace and power in the Sol system is precarious, and a mass exodus could destabilise human civilisation. Besides, no one group wants any of the other groups to rush in and gain the upper hand.

A convoy of Belter ships rushes the blockade on the Sol side of the slow zone. The Barbapiccola, containing refugees from Ganymede, makes it through and enters one of the ring gates. The Belters settle on a planet there and begin mining lithium. They name the planet Ilus.

Two ships are dispatched in the settlers’ wake. The first is the Edward Israel, owned by a corporation called Royal Charter Energy (RCE), which already had a UN-and-Mars-backed mandate to conduct scientific studies beyond the ring gates. The second is the Rocinante. Avasarala wants Jim Holden (Steven Strait) and his team to bring their knowledge and experience of the protomolecule to bear on this strange new world, and also act as adjudicators. Officially, at least. It’s not really in Avasarala’s interests for the situation on Ilus to run smoothly.  

Life on Mars

Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) spent seasons two and three in a whirlwind of defections, double-dealings and divided loyalties thanks to the cold war (and almost total war) between Earth and Mars, and the revelation of Mars’ role in the development of protomolecule bio-soldiers. Season four finds her somewhat adrift, living on Mars with her younger brother, David, and working for a company that dismantles decommissioned warships. She’s generally having a hard time readjusting to civilian life.

David gets embroiled in the criminal underworld, helping a gang to prepare illicit sense-enhancement drugs. Bobbie takes exception to this, so goes looking for the gang. She finds and beats down some of its members, in the process smashing up one of their labs and damaging their inventory. Her brother is kidnapped and forced to work off the debt incurred by the damage. Bobbie pleads for her brother’s release, a request to which the leader of the gang is willing to acquiesce, but only for a price: Bobbie has to leave a door unlocked at work so the gang can steal some military equipment. Reluctantly, she complies. When Bobby’s conscience gets the better of her she tries to report the gang to the police, only to discover that the high-ranking policeman who comes to log her report is the gang leader himself, Esai Martin (Paul Schulze). She later quits her job when her supervisor seems keener on getting in on the lucrative illegal action than in pursuing justice. Eventually she’s arrested for her part in the gang’s crime, and is only saved from prosecution when she agrees to accept Esai’s offer to work for his gang. Esai is motivated in his criminality by the pressing need to make enough money to secure passage off Mars and start a new life elsewhere with his family. He knows that the ring-gates, and the life and fecundity beyond them, have rendered Mars’ terraforming initiatives pointless, thereby dooming the planet to stagnation and, very possibly, extinction.  

Esai and his gang are later involved in the theft of another piece of Martian military tech, which is handed over to a team of Belters, who summarily execute the gang before retreating off-world. Bobbie witnesses this happening.  

Avasarala, Earth, and The OPA

The Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) faction represented by Camina Drummer (Cara Gee) and Klaes Ashford (David Strathairn) allies with the UN. They re-brand and re-purpose the Behemoth as Medina station, setting themselves up as gate-keepers of the rings, helping to enforce the UN blockade.  It’s hoped that this will grant them a place at the table and influence over the new galactic order.

Not all Belters are on board with this new paradigm, perceiving it as selling out; a capitulation to those who would still demean and exploit them.  Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) is the most vocal and militant voice of opposition. Marco is Naomi Nagata’s (Dominique Tipper) ex-beau and father of their child, Filip (Jasai Chase Owens), and while these days he styles himself a freedom fighter, it wasn’t always thus. When he was with Naomi, he tricked her into writing code that he claimed would merely disable other ships, allowing their faction to come to the rescue and extort payment for their time and trouble. However, Marco used the code to overload the reactor of a docked ship, killing hundreds of people. When the distraught and guilt-ridden Naomi left the faction she was prevented from taking their son, Filip.

Marco is apprehended by Drummer and Ashford for his part in capturing the UNN colony ship Soujourner and executing its crew. While aboard the Behemoth, Marco tries to win Ashford over to his world view, reminding him that the Belt will suffer a terminal decline of profit and influence owing to the exodus, and, besides, very few Belters, due to their space-bound physiology, will be able to take advantage of the brave new worlds beyond the ring gates. The heads of the various OPA factions assemble to decide whether or not Marco should be spaced (ejected into space sans suit) for breaking the fragile truce between the inner and outer planets. It’s Drummer who breaks the tie, reasoning that killing Marco would make him a martyr, and propel into action those factions loyal to his cause.

On Earth, Avasarala faces a leadership challenge from Nancy Gao (Lily Gao) who, in contrast to the incumbent, is a fierce advocate for embracing the change, opportunity and adventure that the ring gates represent. Avasarala’s campaign takes its toll on her ethics and her personal life, especially her marriage. She resorts to smears against Gao, and isn’t above attempting to use the problems on Ilus to her advantage. 

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The Expanse Season 6: How Will the Story End?

By Michael Ahr

TV

The Expanse’s Cas Anvar Won’t Be in Season 6

By Kayti Burt

OPA bigwig Fred Johnson (Chad L. Coleman) reveals Marco’s location to Avasarala, who wastes no time in dispatching a team of marines to the Pizzouza spacecraft to extract him. Marco, however, isn’t on board, and the resulting firefight between marines and Belters results in grave loss of life. The fallout critically damages Avasarala’s image, reputation and election chances, and moreover plays right into Marco’s hands. 

Fred Johnson visits the Behemoth, receiving from Drummer both a punch in the face and news of her resignation. Ashford vows to track down and kill Marco and wants Drummer to accompany him, but she declines on the grounds that she’s sick of politics and its machinations.

Ashford’s pursuit of Marco through the Belt leads him to a Martian naval officer, who reveals under interrogation the existence of a conspiracy involving Martians and Belters. When Ashford finally tracks down Marco, on an abandoned asteroid mine in the belt (from which there are also some asteroids missing) he’s prevented from killing him by the appearance Marco’s and Naomi’s son Filip, who emerges from the shadows to tip the balance of power in his father’s favour. Ashford is spaced, but before he dies he broadcasts a secret recording that incriminates Marco and will alert whomever receives the transmission to the conspiracy – even if Ashford never learned its exact purpose or shape.

On Earth, Avasarala is defeated by Nancy Gao. Avasarala dictates a conciliatory message to Nancy Gao, which ends thusly: “As for policy and the direction you’re taking the earth and all her peoples. Well, we disagree. One of us is wrong. I think it’s you… but I hope it’s me.”

Ilus/New Terra

When the Rocinante arrives on Ilus – or New Terra, as the UN would have it – there is already palpable tension and mistrust between the Belters and the crew of the Edward Israel. The RCE’s shuttle was downed on its way from orbit, resulting in deaths and injuries. Survivors of the crash include the group’s leader, the merciless Adolphus Murtry Burn Gorman); RCE security officer Chandra Wei (Jess Salgueiro); and exo-biologist Dr Elvi Okoye (Lyndie Greenwood). Violence is halted when everyone is swarmed by alien bugs, soon confirmed as protomolecule-based.

The planet is home to large structures that were built by the long-dead beings responsible for the protomolecule. Proto-Miller (Thomas Jane) appears to Holden and makes him go to one of the ruined structures to remove a root that’s blocking a connection. This turns on the structure and, it would appear, the entire planet, shaking loose forks of promethean lightning from the dark, oppressive clouds. Holden fires a torpedo at another of the structures when it too appears to activate.

Amos (Wes Chatham) and Murtry play detective for a time, discovering that the planet’s landing pad was blown up deliberately. In the ensuing stand-off between the Belters and the RCE group, Murtry shoots and kills one of the Belters. This violent act kills the potential bromance between Amos and Murtry. Both men are killers, but Amos, despite his shallow affect, follows a more honourable code of ethics, one that puts him at irreconcilable loggerheads with the ruthless Murtry. Amos is taken into custody while Naomi – still having trouble adjusting to terra firma, despite the help of acclimation drugs – helps a Belter woman named Lucia (Rosa Gilmore) escape the RCE’s clutches. She’s being pursued by the RCE because they know she was involved in blowing up the landing pad. Lucia explains to Naomi that it was only supposed to be an act of sabotage to buy the Belters more time. When it became clear that this act of sabotage would coincide with the arrival of the RCE’s shuttle, Lucia tried to abort the action, but was prevented from doing so by her co-conspirators. Holden and Alex (Cas Anvar) come to Naomi and Lucia’s aid as they’re hunted across the encampment, bringing some of the Rocinante’s firepower to bear. Alex takes Lucia and Naomi into orbit aboard the Rocinante, leaving Holden behind to plead with the two factions to evacuate the unpredictable, proto-molecule-soaked planet, with a little time left over to punch Murtry in the face and demand Amos’s release.

Neither faction wants to abandon the planet, or their claim to the lithium, but soon the planet itself renders Holden’s exhortations irrelevant. An island explodes, precipitating a shockwave and tsunami that threatens their survival. Worse still, the fall-out has somehow rendered the fusion drives on the orbiting spacecraft useless. There’s no prospect of escape or rescue. Everyone has to flee for refuge in one of the alien ruins.

Structures, slugs and synthesised drugs

Once inside, the survivors split into two factions, RCE on one side, Belters on the other, with Holden and Amos somewhere in the middle. They quickly discover that the structure is teeming with countless thousands of neurotoxic alien slugs and hostile micro-organisms. Everyone except Holden starts to go blind after being infected by the micro-organisms. Many others succumb to the fatal touch of the slugs. Murtry, becoming more unstable by the moment, reveals to his group his true objective on Ilus/New Terra. It isn’t the lithium he’s after, but the proto-molecule tech. He also wants to kill Holden and Amos.

Above the planet, Alex and Naomi devise a plan to tether the Rocinante to the Barbapiccola to prevent its decaying orbit from dragging it down onto the planet’s surface. Murtry keeps things interesting by ordering the Edward Israel to fire on the Rocinante.

The exo-biologist Dr Okoye works out – just in the nick of time – that Holden is immune to the micro-organisms because of the anti-cancer medication he’s been taking ever since he and Miller were exposed to radiation on Eros. She synthesises a cure, and the effects are reversed. In time, the waters recede enough for the survivors to leave the structure.

Meanwhile, proto-Miller again appears to Holden. The ‘real’ Miller is now battling with the protomolecule for control of the Miller ‘avatar’. In a moment of lucidity, Miller explains to Holden that the hat-wearing Miller he’s been dealing with is The Investigator, whose mission was to bring Holden and a dose of active protomolecule through the ring gates to activate the structures on Ilus. Miller, however, has identified a place on the planet where the protomolecule can’t go, where in fact all trace of it can be destroyed.       

Holden heads off in search of this weak spot. He’s led to a portal which transports him to another structure elsewhere on the planet, swiftly followed by Murtry and Chandra (with whom Amos had a brief ‘romance’), who are intent on killing him. Amos and Okoye follow. Amos fatally shoots Chandra, then Murtry shoots and disables Amos. Meanwhile, Okoye and Holden find a mysterious circular rift that Miller refers to as ‘the bullet’. While Holden rushes to aid Amos and incapacitate Murtry, Okoye stays behind to help Miller with ‘the bullet’. Miller merges with items strewn around the room to give him the corporeal form necessary to enter and plug the rift. His self-sacrifice not only saves Okoye, who is almost swallowed by the phenomenon, but returns everything to normal. All vestiges of the protomolecule are removed, the planet is ‘deactivated’ and fusion engines can function once more. The Belters and some of the RCE scientists decide to stay behind on Ilus. In orbit, Holden ejects the only piece of protomolecule that’s still aboard the Rocinante into Ilus’ sun. Murtry is a prisoner aboard the Rocinante, but the crew decides to let Lucia go.    

The Beginning of the End

Bobbie reaches out to Avasarala to tell her about the criminal conspiracy between Martian and Belter criminals/terrorists. Ashford’s message, which lends weight to this intel, is out there in the ether somewhere, but no one has yet detected it. Bobbie and Avasarala are now working together.

It was Filip who was with the team of Belters on Mars that stole the piece of military tech before eliminating Esai’s gang. The hardware taken was stealth tech, which we discover that Marco Inaros has used to cloak eight asteroids that are currently hurtling their way towards Earth.  

It’s going to be fascinating and harrowing in equal measure to see what a few million tonnes of space-rock will do to the tentative peace that’s barely holding the Sol system together, and how the various factions will make peace – or war – with the atrocity to come.

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Roll on season five.

The post The Expanse Season 4 Recap: Ilus, the Ring Gates and the Cliffhanger Ending appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[nimuelux]

Naomi Nagata Appreciation Week

Day 3: Favourite relationship. 

Naomi and Det. Miller.

“Are you doing this for Julie?”

[...]

“Nah, this mission... this is on me. But that sample? That’s on you. You do the right thing with it.”

“Good luck, kopeng mi.”

“Ya, oso to.”

Even though I like Naomi and Jim’s realtionship (before and after they’ve become a couple), and I LOVE that she and Amos are like sister and brother... my favourite is this one. They’re my belter children. 

I think Naomi has understood Joe’s feelings about Julie better than anyone else. She has realized there is a deep meaning in Miller’s quest, deeper than commitment, deeper than love. I think they share an important backstory for being belters both of them. That background made them able to connect in a very special way. I think that was clear to watch on screen.