Good lord. In a season of terrible acting and ridiculous plotting set amongst pretty cool visuals, the season finale was the worst offender. I think my eyes stayed rolled entirely back into my skull during the whole thing.
Where do I even begin?
AI-Hari getting everyone to drop centuries of enmity and more recent violations just because he says the history they've been taught all their lives is wrong. How would he even know? Why would they believe him?
Yes, it is interesting how he was privy to that tidbit of information. You would think that's something the Cleons would want hidden as deeply as possible, known only to themselves and their Shadowmasters. However, it does sort of jive with the backstory that was constructed for Seldon in the prequel novels, in that they established that he had been a player at the highest levels of Imperial politics, rather than just some eccentric academic who hit upon a game-changing theory. However, the portrayal here goes beyond that, in presenting Seldon as a Dumbledore-level plotter and manipulator. (And everyone connected with him...is Harry.) We also see that with his inspirational speech to the grunt workers on the ship before Raych murdered him. After all, a good cult leader has to be a good politician too, and get everyone top to bottom to buy in.
Getting back to the very first episode and the destruction of the Star Bridge, remember, the two people who set off the bomb were...an Anacreon and a Thespin. Why would two blood enemies find common cause to pull off a spectacular terrorist attack at the very heart of the Empire, unless they knew something the rest of their peoples didn't?
So the Foundation is cool with being told the past 35 years of hardship and toil was in service of a complete lie? And they just turn around and accept AI-Hari's new directives without a complaint?
That's taken fairly directly from the the books. Seldon did indeed emerge from the Vault (but as a pre-recorded image) and tell the Foundation what their true purpose was. And Mari at least did complain...just not directly to AI-Hari.
Having two AI copies of Hari bouncing around also gives off some serious Desty Nova (from
Battle Angel Alita) vibes.
Why on earth were Hugo's eyes so distractingly, obnoxiously blue? I don't recall noticing that before (with him or any other Thespin character, in case they try to say it's a thing with them).
Because Thespis is really Arrakis, and all the inhabitants are jacked up on Spice donchaknow ;D
No, seriously, it is a thing with them. The Thespin ambassador and his entourage from the early episodes all had those unnatural, penetrating blue eyes. Hugo had some kind of subcutaneous implant that allowed him to mask his true eye colour; for some reason he wanted to hide the fact that he was a Thespin. By the end of series 1, he no longer felt that need.
Does anyone really believe the relationship between Salvor and Hugo? Absolutely no chemistry at all.
There is one way in which the series is shaping up to be like the early books, and that is that it's arc-driven rather than character-driven.
Obviously she can't get TOO into him, otherwise she wouldn't go haring off into space looking for Gaal.
I find it completely unbelievable that psychohistory can "make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people" (to quote Wikipedia because I'm too lazy to go back and see exactly how it was described in the show) and, it is stressed over and over, not individuals, yet Hari Seldon can predict that one misjumping warship will be found by a small group of people who will also somehow involve his cultists (because, really, that's what they are) on Terminus.
No argument there. However, AI-Hari did make it sound like he had been tracking the appearances of the Invictus for some time, found a pattern in them, and used it to test his predictive theories. In the later books, Trantor itself served as the test case, as it was the most heavily populated planet in the galaxy, which makes a lot more sense.
I thought that with Terminus already cooperating with Anacreon and Thespis that we wouldn't get to see the Foundation go all ComStar, but DSG has already mentioned a "Church of the Galactic Spirit" for S2. Assuming the story picks up where it left off after the near-140 year time jump, the Foundation could indeed evolve into a church-like cult without Sal around to keep them grounded, in stark contrast to the books where that step was pretty much a cynical ploy to expand their influence in the Outer Reach. It would also make them a credible rival to the Luminists.
The biggest travesty IMO was ending S1 without having established the Second Foundation. Recall that in the books, it was pretty much up and running even before the Terminus colonists left Trantor! But we have two mentalists together with a Prime Radiant now, so it's pretty clear Sal and Gaal will start it. The only question is where.
IIRC, last time we saw Salvor in the pilot seat of Hugo's ship, he had to coach her what to do but suddenly she's knowledgeable enough to take it out on a long journey all by herself?
Some time had elapsed since her first experience with the ship, and as she pointed out, after Hugo took over as captain of the Invictus, the Beggar wasn't his ship anymore. Presumably she spent some of that time learning to pilot the ship without him.
Speaking of Salvor and Gaal, how hilariously inept of them to try to hide the identity of the person Gaal was rescuing.
Um, they're trying to show us what it's like from Gaal's perspective...?
Why did Gaal's pod have a window? Seems like a stupid design. And why is a pod like that, capable of interstellar, albeit sublight, travel and long-term (wasn't Gaal's trip something like 130 years?) life support of its occupant, wake up said occupant and rely on them strapping themselves down for reentry? Wouldn't it make sense for part of its standard procedure to be ensuring the safety of the occupant for the entire trip? Why does the person even need to be manually strapped down at all? I highly doubt they are freely floating in that goop and just sloshing all around as the pod makes it way through the galaxy. There must be some kind of, I dunno, inertial dampeners or force fields or something to hold them in place during the journey so they're not banging up against the inside of the pod. Why would that cut out just when it would be so very useful?
I hope we get back to live Comic-Com panels soon, because I would so love to see you at one taking the writers to task over details like this ;D. Sure, what you describe makes more sense, but it's *surprisingly* low on dramatic tension.
You know what really pissed me off? THEY DIDN'T SHOW THE MEGA-FLARE! WE WERE PROMISED A MEGA-FLARE DAMMIT!!!
(And no acknowledgment of it from the Imperial side, either!)
That #2 Anacreon guy (was his name ever mentioned? ah, who cares) suddenly being all "I want a good future for muh kid" rang false considering he was totally onboard for his boss' plan the whole time. I can't think of a single moment until the end of the previous episode where he expressed the slightest doubt or disloyalty to the plan. But suddenly, because the plot calls for it, he's all about peace with the ancient enemy of his planet and the people he had been ready to massacre half a season prior.
When you serve a leader who rules by fear, of course you're on board with the plan...until there's no reason for you to be.
Pretty much everything about the Terminus/Anacreons/Thespins plot was godawful and a drag on the rest of the show. That's not to say the Empire side of the show didn't have its flaws too, but on the whole it was more enjoyable.
Dusk and Day getting into a slapflght in the throneroom? More of that kind of thing, please.
Bye bye whiny Dawn. Seriously, that guy was a total downer. I laughed out loud when Demerzel snapped his neck.
I thought he was the only really sympathetic member of the whole Imperial household. Then again, I have personal experience being trapped in a gilded cage where you know you're different from all of the cage's other occupants.
I refuse to believe that Dawn could have hidden his differences from his brothers. Once he was old enough to understand that he was different and what that would mean for him, maybe, but his colorblindness and lefthandedness would have been noticed far earlier than that and he would have been replaced.
Again, not much argument here. He would have had to keep it hidden not just from the other Cleons, but from Demerzel as well.
And not all the differences were defects: remember, he was a better shot than the others.
And I do not at all buy Day's "you robbed me of my legacy" schtick. In the 8 episodes we had with this iteration of the Cleons, that was never once established in either dialogue or actions.
Although it did lead to his delicious psychological torture of Azura, so I'll let it slide.
That was quite a shift in Day's perspective from the start of the episode to the end. What he did with Azura was exactly what one would expect of a Cleon, an acknowledgment that Dawn would have to be liquidated not just for his "imperfections", but for becoming distracted from Imperial life. It was only after hearing what Dawn had to say, and reflecting on his experience on The Maiden, that he finally decided to spare Dawn. Dusk's reaction suggests that he never left Trantor in his life and willingly denied himself the opportunity to experience different perspectives.
(And how do we know that Day would actually follow through on what he told Azura he would do to her family and friends?)
Demerzel's agonizing wail while ripping off her human face? The most unintentionally hilarious thing in the entire season, I think. I hope it gets memed to hell and back.
It's not clear why Demerzel did that, but there are two obvious explanations:
1) From a robot logic perspective, her killing of Dawn was formally equivalent to what Giskard did in
Robots and Empire, letting the Spacer plot to kill Earth proceed knowing it would spur humanity to spread throughout the galaxy, even though it caused direct short-term harm to the Earthers. Her version of the Zeroth Law seems to be ensuring the integrity of the Cleonic Dynasty, and to fulfill that requirement she had to kill Dawn, but doing that was obviously allowing (causing!) lethal harm to a member of said dynasty, and she cracked under the contradiction. (This is, of course, assuming that she didn't do it to spite Day for ordering her to murder Halima.)
Another reason she may have done it was to avoid seeing Day and Dusk go all Cats of Kilkenny on each other. Removing the source of the animus restores the household's internal stability, but still causes the contradiction.
2) Not sure if she was made aware of the contamination of the Cleons' genetic line (including the mummified Cleon I), but if she was, then she cracked under the strain of knowing that not only did she fail in her primary task, she's been protecting a purity that no longer exists and hasn't for some time. Why does she need to keep serving them if that basic condition is no longer met?
(Not really a complaint, because it was a brilliant solution to balancing a long timespan within the story with maintaining cast continuity, but does anyone else think the writers came up with the whole Genetic Dynasty thing because they realized Cleon is an anagram of clone? Ha!)
I thought it was so obvious it wasn't worth mentioning.
I really shouldn't have expected much from a David Goyer show, so more fool me for even giving this a chance, I suppose. I wanted to give the show a chance because a) more science fiction on television is always a good thing, b) Jared Harris, and c) as hammy as he can sometimes be, Lee Pace earned a lot of good will from me with Halt and Catch Fire. Didn't work out this time, but oh well. I'll probably check out some reviews of S2 to see if it improves any but I'm not holding out much hope.
For those of you who liked it, I'm glad you found something to enjoy. I may not have, but that's okay.
Oh come on! That hamminess is what suits Lee Pace so well to those high-and-mighty fantasy roles he goes for! Thranduil, Ronan, Galactic Emperor...an actor needs to be a bit OTT...
If you only want to keep up through reviews, may I suggest you check out Pete Peppers on Youtube. He covers most of the major plot points and has some interesting analysis. The geek-pop culture sites that I follow at least (IO9 and Den of Geek) don't consider this series worth their time and effort.
cheers,
Gabe
