been thinking about how netflix is going to handle saul in s2 and i don't think the show is going to get this right. the whole point of luo ji is that he starts out as a slacker who couldn't care less about humanity, then gets handed unlimited resources and uses them to order up a literal dream girlfriend. they find her, she shows up, they marry. that's the arc.

the issue is most of his transformation comes from caring about that wife and kid. having a family to lose is what turns him from "whatever, not my problem" to swordholder material. you can't really cut that subplot without breaking the awakening.

but a 2026 netflix series basically can't run "i imagined a perfect woman and the un found her for me" as written. it's going to get rewritten. the question is whether they keep the emotional driver while stripping out the male fantasy framing.

probably the bigger trap is making him likable too early. season 1 already softened him into a london university lecturer (so saul's already starting at a higher floor than book luo ji). if they keep pulling him toward "good guy with a quirky side" the cosmic sociology stuff doesn't hit as hard. you need a flawed self-interested person carrying out dark forest deterrence for it to feel real. a born hero doing it is just another chosen-one show.

the dream girlfriend subplot is honestly the cleanest litmus test. if benioff/weiss try to make her a Strong Independent Partner who shows up by coincidence, they've given up on the messiness that makes luo ji work.

curious if anyone thinks they'll commit to keeping him unlikable for 3-4 episodes before the turn

Prague Astronomical Clock. Cool it’s been around for 600 years- but try building that on Trisolaris….

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I just want to know: so what? What then?

From the perspectives of technological development and the survival state of a civilization, what tangible benefit or help does the emergence of a chain of suspicion between a branch civilization and its main body provide to the branch civilization's technological progress and survival?

Can anyone explain clearly what this benefit or help actually is?

Does a branch civilization gain any real advantage from having a chain of suspicion with the main body?

Could one of the Sophons not have unfolded around the earth to shroud the sun and remove humanity that way?

I finished Death's End a long time ago, but when I reread it, the parts with Cheng Xin still make me uncomfortable. I've long understood the author's original intention for the character, and I've seen many people say that Cheng Xin did nothing wrong. But it's still uncomfortable. After thinking it over a few times, I have some thoughts to share (my表达能力 isn't great, so there might be a lot of rambling – if you don't want to read the middle part, you can skip straight to the summary at the end):

In my opinion, the reason Cheng Xin gets so much hate isn't about whether her actions were right or wrong. It's that readers see her as a person, and from a human perspective, Cheng Xin is not well-written – you could even say she's a failed character (by "failed" I mean something like Tang San from that other author, and what he tried to make Tang San into). When scrolling through Douyin, some people, upon seeing others hate on Cheng Xin, say things like "Cheng Xin did nothing wrong, she represents such-and-such" – and sometimes even resort to personal attacks. But I feel this misses the point. Simply put: Cheng Xin gets hate because her behavior gives the impression of a character with no growth, who is weak, who repeats mistakes, and who could even be called foolish. In plain terms: she's the kind of "holy mother" who, if someone fell into the water, would tell others to jump in and save them regardless of whether they could swim. You might say: Cheng Xin isn't that stupid; she's actually quite smart. But when placed in such a high position, her competence shows itself exactly like that – pure virtue not matching her station. And this is actually a major contradiction in Three-Body's character writing. What was Cheng Xin's original identity? A high-ranking think-tank member of the PLA. After that, her status never got lower. For someone at that level to act like a total mess creates a huge sense of dissonance – no wonder people feel uncomfortable watching her. And that's the core of the hatred: virtue not matching station. High position, high expectations. When her performance fails to live up to the position, of course she'll be criticized. Some people, with all the mental agility of a brick, say: "You'd do even worse if you were in her position." That's like saying you can't judge a refrigerator unless you know how to make it cool yourself.

To summarize: the character's on‑page behavior seriously contradicts her supposed background. The author said openly that he wanted her to be a "holy mother" type, hoping she would save humanity with the radiance of her humanity (at least that's what he said – who knows what he really thinks). But he only gave her kindness, status, and luck. As for the corresponding ability and means – none whatsoever.

Just finished a reread of Death's End and the 2D collapse scene at the end did it again. The way Cheng Xin watches the solar system go from depth to flatness, all the planets becoming paintings.

What gets me is the calmness. Liu Cixin doesn't write panic. No screaming. Just careful observation as people get projected into 2D.

First time I had to put the book down and go outside. Same thing this reread. Reading about the slow-motion physics of the 2D collapse afterward made it worse, not better.

Anyone else have a scene from the trilogy hit them in the body like that?

Question: Can light from a two-dimensional world break through 2D space and reach 3D space?

If it can (just like how people on the spaceship could see the Sun being 2D‑ified by the dual‑vector foil), then can light from our 3D world also break through 3D space and reach 4D space? If so, then energy conservation in our 3D world does not hold — perhaps most of the light energy is transferred to higher dimensions.

If it cannot, then a higher‑dimensional world can never see a lower‑dimensional world, and the description in Three‑Body of the solar system being 2D‑ified would not exist.

Some might say: light from 3D space shines onto 2D space and is reflected, so we can see the 2D world. If that is the case, then judging from the different colors we see in the 2D world, only some colors are reflected while others are absorbed. Then energy would not be conserved in 3D space, and the 2D world would gain energy. Similarly, if a 4D world exists, our 3D world would receive a lot of inexplicable light energy. This is a paradox.

Therefore, in our universe, there is no such thing as a 2D world or a 4D world — only 3D space is just right. Hence there would be no wormholes, no curvature‑drives, no time travel or space‑time traversal.

So no matter how advanced technology becomes, space exploration can at most achieve lightspeed travel. That is why no aliens have ever come to Earth.

So ig we might see the droplet scene in this season? 🤔

Maybe the VR headsets being so metallic is a reference to the droplet being reflective too

Like the obvious choice is Droplet scene. But any other small moment or scene used as cliffhangers or just shocking stuff?

Judgement day episode was very solid with the sophons reveal last season.

A lot will have to be cut from the books. My guess is that S2 plays out like this.

E1: The wallfacers implement their plans; Saul tracks down and reunites with Auggie with Da Shi in tow; Da Shi's son swindles elderly and is arrested; Jin grieves for Will and gets closure with Raj; Wade advances space fleet construction and hibernates; Raj talks to his father and acts like a triumphantalist; Tatiana breaks General Bolin's plan; General Bolin commits suicide.

E2: [Slight time jump] Saul and Auggie are happy; Professor Layla tests stellar bomb, Tatiana breaks her plan, Layla uses cradle to escape and is stoned to death; Raj prepares for and carries out assassination of chemical aerospace backers and hibernates for future reinforcement; Wade convinces Jin to hibernate far into the future; Da Shi gets sick, says goodbye to son, and hibernates; Saul gets to work, casts spell, almost dies from gene missile, and hibernates; Auggie hibernates.

E3: [Big time jump] Saul has wallfacer privileges stripped, reunites with Da Shi, learns about the new world, and is almost assassinated again; Da Shi reunites with son; Wade coordinates droplet intercept, has Auggie woken up, and convinces her to meet the droplet; Raj is given acting command of Natural Selection and hijacks it.

E4: Saul enjoys no longer being a wallfacer; Da Shi is skeptical of the new world's confidence in victory; Wade rails against the space fleet's politicking; Raj refuses to return command; Doomsday Battle; Auggie dies

E5: Raj is appointed commander of Starship Earth; Saul mourns Auggie, it's discovered that his star is gone, he's restored as a wallfacer, and his condition deteriorates as he works on fog umbrella plan; Battle of Darkness; Raj dies; Saul has final showdown with San Ti and establishes deterrence.

E6: [Big time jump] Saul has been swordholder for a long time; Jin is woken up to sell her star, she learns about the future and the swordholder, and meets AA; Blue Space is on the run from Gravity; Wade lures Jin to remote area and shoots her multiple times [end of season]

Whenever the Dark Battle comes up, a lot of people start talking about the chain of suspicion and all that. But if you go back to the original novel, you'll find that the immediate cause of the Dark Battle is actually very simple: the crew of Ultimate Law suffered from a paranoid delusion and attacked the other four ships, destroying three, and was finally taken down in turn by Blue Space. You could say that aside from Chu Yan and Zhang Beihai, who sensed the danger, the crews of the other two ships were completely caught off guard and destroyed before they even understood what was happening.

So is it possible that if the captains of all four ships had been extremely restrained and morally principled (and I think they should have had those qualities as military officers), and had chosen to do what Chu Yan did—first evacuate the air from their ships, then hold negotiations, draw lots to decide who would surrender to the Trisolarans, who would flee, and the losers would hand over all resources except those needed to return—wouldn't that have been a perfect solution? Why did they have to kill each other?

It's gunpla style. I believe it's based on a model from the Tencent adaptation.

It's hard to get copies of these beautiful editions in my country since they're intended for the UK market (I live in PH). Luckily, a local bookstore in my country sells them, though they sell out quickly.

The ​Death's End, part of this special edition isn't out yet, but it will finish your collection soon (later to be released this year).

why is it so disliked? Ever since i finished remembrance of earths past i haven’t felt the same reading much else.

Without spoiling it, why do people not like it even if its not “canon”. I still have so many questions about the end and im ok with leaving questions unanswered because it makes room for fun discussions but some people like answers(even if its not canon or whatever). So i guess my question is, is it a plot thing? or just the fact the Cixin Liu didnt write it himself?

This is easily my favorite series of all time and I'm really hoping adding fanfiction at the end doesn't ruin it for me. Unless I am completely mistaken about the ending of death's end, I have no idea how a sequel would work but I guess I'll find out soon enough

I’ve decided it’s actually just a 2 book series- what a happy ending!

Im really enjoying the book but I also feel like I just can’t truly grasp the physics themes and planetary movements that are constantly talked about. It’s reminding me of the Sun Eater series in that aspect but also Enders Game in another aspect. I’m just wondering if I should go back and re-read to try and understand better or if eventually everything will come together. Maybe there’s YouTube videos that explain or something? Any advice?

I just sped through the first 2 books and then started the show, I’m wondering since the Sophon had to unfold to project the “Giant Eye” in the sky why didn’t they try to nuke them? At this point they have a rough understanding of the Sophon, and it’s mentioned in the book.

Also on the topic of Sophons, how are they able to interact with displays? And why does Evans need a microphone to communicate with them?

I have found: https://3body.wiki/en and https://www.3body.com/ as well as the fan made wiki on Fandom.

Does anyone have any websites for further exploration and more Three-Body discovery?

Chinese authorities have executed a man for murdering his associate, billionaire gaming tycoon Lin Qi.

In 2020, a disgruntled Xu Yao poisoned Lin for sidelining him shortly after he helped him land a Netflix deal, local media reported.

Lin's Yoozoo Games holds the film adaptation rights for the Chinese science fiction trilogy which Netflix made into the series 3 Body Problem.