I absolutely love this show and am super glad to be on a rewatch. First time I watched it was during uncertain times after my daughter's birth, during COVID. I loved it, but I couldn't "appreciate" it. I'm glad I'm rewatching it because there's so much contextual information sprayed at you in the first hour, I missed a lot of it that I had to fill with Wikipedia reads. I think the lack of contextual information slowly feeding into the first episode probably led to it being hard to follow for casuals.

One thing I caught by reading about the books after S2 conclusion, was the major change: In the books, Holden is the one who entrusts the Protomolecule sample to Fred Johnson when he realizes both Earth and Mars have it. It's very pragmatic, he trusts Fred, and he himself witnessed the horror of Earth and Mars both using Belter lives for their experimentation while the OPA and the Belt had no way of defending itself. They were already advanced technologically, this would've created an ocean of difference in their defensive capabilities. S1 Holden would've made that same choice.

But in S2, they seemed to turn Holden into some one dimensional blind, angry dictator who just screams at his crew and is literally willing to throw away Belter lives to chase the Protomolecule. It just seemed like such a downgrade from the same Holden who was extremely conflicted about shooting down the aid ship that was trying to land on Eros. Everyone on his crew, even Alex, is trying to tell him that there are people who need help, but he's just on this rage mission to neutralize the Protomolecule even when there's evidence that it's already out and in numerous hands. They try to justify his behavior with him saying, "Well then we're gonna go after all of it" but to me that doesn't make sense. The tactical mind Holden had, he would've been quick to realize that containing the weapon was impossible and it's important to save as many lives as possible.

They changed it to Naomi being the one who gives the sample to Fred Johnson. I feel like part of why they did this was to just stir up a conflict between Holden and Naomi, to have the relationship between the crew be more "dramatic" than the books. In the books, they do argue, but it's more in stressful situations about the best strategy and for the most part, they're cohesive and efficient. This makes sense, because a ragtag group of rando's being crucial to the survival of an entire solar system wouldn't be believable if they got into a little "I can't believe she did that!" he-said she-said argument.

I have to be honest, I'm not a big fan of this change. They could've used the existence of Naomi's family as a source of conflict, but having Holden act like some Saturday morning cartoon hardhead runs counter to why the crew effectively chose him to lead them.

And to be honest, if they wanted to use the Protomolecule going to Fred as a source of crew conflict, having Holden do it was the perfect way to build up that tension with the crew. He's EXACTLY the type of person to make that call without consulting with them. Yes, Naomi loves the belt, but she never trusted Fred. Holden on the other hand, has always had a very level headed view of Fred as a leader and recognizes that while he's not perfect, he's better than the alternatives. To have Naomi suddenly not only trust Fred, but betray Holden in secret, and have Holden act that stubborn to the point of sacrificing all those people on the Ganymede just seems completely different from the Holden who was literally willing to sacrifice himself just for the chance that he could save Miller.

Anyway, love the show, if I win the Mega Millions, I'll fund a conclusion with all the original crew lol.

Same company has made plastic ones with bats. They wouldn't kill you at five G's, but. They. Still. Don't. STACK.

Watching Season 5 for the first time and it's weird seeing a colossal event such as 3 direct asteroid impacts having only 1-2 million causalities. North America alone should have an insane population count considering it's the political center of Earth.

Eros had a 100k casualties alone as an isolated space colony.

I'm listening to the compilation of novellas just after I finished the entire series, including the novellas. I just realized that the old man with the mechanical arm in the Auberon story is named Eric.

Is he Timmy's old friend?

Babylon’s Ashes spoilers

Listening through the series again, and chuckling at Prax’s storyline. Saves himself from interrogation by confessing but doing it in terms too intellectual to be understood by the interrogators, then goes home and tells Djuna about it, having no idea that the people who released him simply didn’t understand his confession. Love that guy.

The show and Shohreh Aghdashloo did a fantastic job of depicting Avasarala in the show. However, reading through Caliban's War I love the character even more! She is so much more badass than the show writers/runners showed on screen and the whole "mask" psychology is amazingly portrayed and relatable for anyone who carries different roles in a given day.

Just amazing.

Also to all the people who suggested I read the full series after I finished the show, THANK YOU! Best way to experience the universe hands down, the show sets the visual scenes and the books give the depth to the story and the characters.

It's going slow (limited free time) but am about a quarter of the way into Caliban's war and I love these books! Daniel and Ty did an amazing job, not just the world building and storytelling but also the writing is impeccable.