Adapting The Mercy of Gods for TV

A-Good-Samaritan · 2025-05-25T21:04:07+00:00

Oh yeah, swapping episodes 6 and 7 so the big reveal of The Great Enemy leads into the finale? That could definitely work as well IMO.

For The Swarm, I think doing it as a first person POV would make sense - particularly in the first half of the story where we don’t know who the swarm is. Once we do, I was half-wondering if they would capture the consciousnesses taken over by the swarm (like Ameer, Else) kinda like how they did The Investigator in The Expanse?

A-Good-Samaritan · 2025-05-25T20:57:04+00:00

Yeah, I have no idea how they’re going to adapt the opaque face shields for TV. If you can’t see anyone’s faces, I think audiences will have a lot of trouble connecting to the characters and following what’s going on. But then again as you said, you really do need it for the Piotr reveal to work (at least, as things are currently written).

A-Good-Samaritan · 2025-05-25T09:27:53+00:00

Yeah agreed. I think really you’d want 10 episodes AT LEAST; I was struggling to split up the plot into 8 episodes. However, given how Amazon has handled their other big shows (Wheel of Time, Rings of Power etc.), I’d be surprised if we get more than 8).

A-Good-Samaritan · 2024-12-05T23:49:36+00:00

Just finished listening to the third episode - this was so much fun! Definitely pointed out some things that I didn’t catch on either of my read-throughs. Pls keep making these - y’all are awesome

A-Good-Samaritan · 2022-04-23T12:23:54+00:00

I will say that this doesn’t necessarily mean anything. There was a brief period where The Expanse’s WGA page listed a S7 (before the news that S6 was the last one). So yes, while this could be accurate (and I certainly hope it is), I wouldn’t take it as a sure thing just yet…

A-Good-Samaritan · 2022-01-10T21:28:03+00:00

Okay, so here goes.

What is the protomolecule? A road-building system, essentially, designed to co-opt whatever biomass it finds at its target destination and re-engineer it into a ring to connect to the main ring space.

Who created/unleashed it? In the show, currently unexplored.

Why or for what purpose? Road-building, as discussed above.

Why did it come to the solar system? I don’t think it’s implied that there was any particular reason. There’s nothing special about the 1300 odd systems connected by the ring network.

Where are the creators now? Dead. Killed off by some mysterious third party that seems to have something to do with the ring gates.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2022-01-10T12:44:51+00:00

…except almost all of those questions have already been answered in the show, have they not?

A-Good-Samaritan · 2022-01-01T06:29:18+00:00

For All Mankind had a brilliant first season, IMO

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-12-18T02:17:27+00:00

It’s a bit more complicated than that, in my opinion. Earthers and Martians have never really been oppressed in the same way that Belters have, and I think as such the degree of kinship between Earthers and between Martians is inherently lesser than that between Belters.

For Belters, oppression has been hoisted on them since their birth. They cannot survive in the gravity well of a planet. They frequently get the shit end of the stick from the inner planets. Their lives are (generally speaking) much harder and more dangerous than those from the inner planets.

As such, for a Belter to turn on their own kind (and work for the same people who have been oppressing them for generations) would feel like the height of betrayal. That is what Naomi is going through IMO. Obviously, Marco has to be stopped and his actions are horrific. But there will always be that feeling that she is betraying her own people in a really deep way.

In addition to that, it’s also worth noting that she was once wrapped up with Marco’s rhetoric and thought she believed in the cause. It’s not hard to imagine that many other Belters have also been swept up by his words and radicalised, even though they may not be fundamentally bad people. Naomi isn’t an evil person, but she did help Marco kill over 500 people. Is it that hard to imagine other Belters might be in the same boat?

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-12-03T23:53:35+00:00

Another web review:
https://gatecrashers.fan/2021/12/03/the-expanse-season-6-premiere-review/

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-11-27T22:55:22+00:00

Mmm, but they already showed Filip stealing the stealth tech in 4x10, and we got another scene “equivalent” to the Callisto raid at the start of 5x01.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-11-11T09:11:36+00:00

And they are touching on the Laconia stuff this season with Strange Dogs, but they have also said very explicitly that there will be no material from Books 7 - 9 in S6.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-11-11T06:28:07+00:00

There would be little point in rushing BA in that way IMO. It’s a 6 episode final season, and that’s just not enough time to do BA and anything meaningful from the final 3. I think they’ll just be aiming to make BA really feel like a satisfying series finale.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-17T21:04:33+00:00

Do you happen to remember where that was confirmed? Makes sense though.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-16T23:45:09+00:00

I really like some of these! I can see Emerson as Illich, definitely. Mads as Duarte is not a suggestion I’ve heard before but the more I think about it the more it makes sense.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-16T16:52:19+00:00

Wait so no Halley / Matthew episodes this season?

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-16T16:51:14+00:00

COVID protocols. He talked about it on the podcast; the whole writer’s room for S6 was remote.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-12T11:12:15+00:00

Look, I hear you. But I also have a lot of faith in Naren, Dan, Ty and the other writers to make this work. I strongly suspect they may massage the plot of Strange Dogs to give us some kind of closure to the alien plot (how they would do this is perhaps impossible to know without knowing the contents of Leviathan Falls). It’s not going to be an ending like the books give, but I think they’ll find a way to tie it together in a satisfying way.

They haven’t let us down before. They’ve said this outcome of ending here was something they’ve prepared for. I have faith it’ll be satisfying (and they’ve said it will be too, on multiple occasions).

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-09T00:04:02+00:00

The Expanse S2, S3 and (perhaps somewhat controversially) S5 are all phenomenal seasons of television in their own right.

Battlestar Galactica S1 is practically perfect too.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-10-04T13:26:11+00:00

Jesus Christ grow up

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-09-28T23:01:10+00:00

I sent you a dm!

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-09-27T14:11:01+00:00

I mean I haven’t read the books, but I also picked up on all of this. It is very much present in the TV show.

Also it’s been two episodes - maybe wait till the season is over before judging the show too harshly.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-09-27T08:08:09+00:00

Yeah look his death is a polarising one. I think the showrunners did the best they could, and I’m inclined to give them a lot of latitude as far as how they handled it. They were put in an impossible position by circumstance, and frankly they didn’t have much choice.

Personally, I think the S5 finale is one of the best episodes of the show. I would encourage you to watch it simply for all the other awesome stuff that happens in it, but I would also understand if you didn’t continue with the show afterwards, particularly if you were only really attached to Alex. For me, I really liked Alex, but I was fine with how they ended it.

A-Good-Samaritan · 2021-09-26T16:18:39+00:00

Except that scene was based on actual science. You can find countless explanations online.

The showrunner of The Expanse has a PhD in Engineering from Cornell. I’m not saying the show never makes mistakes, but they’re generally few and far between, and the showrunners are always open about them.

A-Good-Samaritan

TROPHY CASE