Expanse finale feels post

[sabotabby]

I did this in the other place but I should probably do this here. If you have feels about the Expanse, consider the comments section a free place to scream about them. My thoughts under the cut.

• This was a masterful finale and they did almost everything right.
• If I have any critiques, it's that I don't like it when a finale needs One Last Big Battle with every major character in it. And also that I would have liked Drummer and Naomi to hook up. Those are my only critiques.
• I'm glad it ended with book 6 because 7-9 are more depressing and my babies deserve a happy ending.
• My favourite bit was Holden and Drummer conspiring to have Holden take the presidency of the Transport Union only to resign and give it to Drummer. It did a really nice job of portraying a white dude ceding power to an Indigenous queer woman without it seeming tokenizing or white savior-ish.
• I also really loved how anticlimactic in many ways the last battle was. It was Naomi's science smarts, not any military prowess, that won the day, and the real climax was the very quiet last supper on the Roci.
• Also Avasarala's outfit at the end was very good.
• I've read all the books so there weren't really any shocking developments to be had, but it was so well filmed and edited that they had me in suspense, worrying that it wouldn't turn out like the books.
• I am actually not too sad about it ending even though it's consistently been the best thing on TV for 6 years, because I'd rather shows I like have a well-thought out, cohesive ending than dragging on for years and going to shit. I am fine if we don't see the Laconia plot and also fine if we do.

Comments

[smhwpf]

So awesome.
Naomi and Drummer have to get together. I mean polyamory is a thing in the Expanseverse, right? Or she can just ditch Holden.
Holden making things work by just stepping out of the way was also great. A lesson for white men everywhere.
Should we crowdfund for the books 7-9 stories, or would they just be too dark?

[sabotabby]

Drummer is canon poly and Holden has 8 parents. I actually don't despise Holden as much as some people do—I think I would actually like his character a whole bunch if he wasn't constantly contrasted with every other character in that show who is more interesting. But by Generic Whitebread Male Protagonists he is actually pretty cool. It's just that when he's on the same show as fucking Drummer, it's like, "whhyyyyy Naomi what is wrong with you??? Drummer is right there."

So my main objection to 7-9 is that I don't need to see [spoiler] or [spoiler] or [spoiler] die on my TV screen, and the show would be significantly less compelling without them. I don't think it's the darkest arc over all, but I also don't think that Duarte is as interesting an antagonist as Mao or Inaros. I liked the books a whole lot but I don't know that they would translate as well on screen.