I just spent the last few nights watching almost all of your three body videos. Incredible. New fan of Quinn. Such brilliant summary of the whole story. Amazing breakdown of concepts. This is quality.
If anyone is interested, here's the actual Einstein joke explained: > So, Einstein dies. He finds himself in heaven, and he has his violin. He's overjoyed. He loves his violin. More than physics. Even more than women. This introduction sets up Einstein as a representation of a civilization, with his violin symbolizing the civilization's technological capabilities and achievements. > He's excited to find out how well he can play in heaven. He imagines he'll be pretty damn good. So he starts tuning up, and the angels rush at him. "What are you doing?" they say. "I'm getting ready to play." "Don't do that. God won't like it." "He's a saxophonist." Einstein's eagerness to showcase his musical abilities in heaven mirrors a civilization's desire to demonstrate its advancements and make its presence known in the universe. The angels' warning not to play because "God won't like it" suggests that revealing one's capabilities to a superior civilization can lead to unfavorable consequences. > So Einstein stops. He doesn't play, but it's difficult. He loves music, and there's actually not much to do in heaven. And sure enough, from high above, he hears a saxophone. It's playing "Take the A Train." Despite the warning, Einstein struggles with the temptation to engage with the superior civilization (God), much like how a less advanced civilization might be tempted to initiate contact or compete with a more advanced one. > So he starts playing "Take the A Train." The saxophone stops, and God appears. He marches over to Einstein and kicks him in the balls, which hurts, even in heaven. Then he smashes Einstein's beloved violin to bits. When Einstein gives in to temptation and starts playing, God swiftly retaliates by causing him pain and destroying his violin. This represents the potential consequences of a less advanced civilization revealing its presence and capabilities to a superior one, resulting in its destruction. > Eternity without music. Heaven has become hell for Einstein. And, as he writhes on the ground, holding his smashed balls, an angel comes over and says, "We warned you." "Never play with God." The punishment inflicted upon Einstein serves as a warning to other civilizations: "Never play with God," or in other words, never attempt to engage or compete with a superior civilization, as doing so can lead to dire consequences and the loss of everything they hold dear. The joke, as told by Ye Wenjie, is a cautionary tale about the risks of revealing one's presence and capabilities in a universe where the intentions of other civilizations are unknown, as described by the dark forest theory in cosmic sociology. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining silence and avoiding contact with potentially hostile civilizations to ensure survival.
I loved that they turned the cosmic sociology primer into a good, bad Einstein joke. When I watched, I thought she was going to go into the whole axioms thing after the joke, but instead it was a mic drop.
I'm just happy people are finally rememebering Hu Wen exists. Not because he is super important, but because it proves the show isn't making up things to pad for casting... all the people we're there. Some of the details got changed, and they're mixing things up here and there, but the core of the characters are still there. (Random aside, I am convinced Auggie is going to be the second Swordholder, since it will play better with her feelings over Judgement Day)
Isn't it Jin Cheng (Cheng Xin) that will be the second swordholder? What are the reasons that many think Auggie will be one? It is shown that Jin Cheng is naive and very attached emotionally on humanity, which the book Cheng Xin is a representation of empathic moral values of humanity after Deterrence Era, and she will be in contrast to Thomas Wade in his ideology of "Only Advance".
@ChengXin-fu2ih In the book, Cheng Xin is indeed the second swordholder. But Wang Miao does not go to the future in the books. Nor do they spend much time with his guilt over making the nanowire that ultimately killed a bunch of people. Auggie feeling guilt over the Judgement day will mean that, if she holds the sword, when the time comes to use it to broadcast and ultimately doom even more people, she won't be able to. Cause it's either that or be Saul/Luo Ji's perfect waifu, but that feels like a waste of the character.
Beware spoilers for the show and books below: Yes I agree that in the show they seem to be setting up auggie to be the second sword holder. They made a point to emphasize her value of humanity and helping those in need. They also set up bad blood between Auggie and Wade which also mirrors the rivalry of Cheng Xin and Wade in the books. It seems as if Auggie and Jin Cheng are gonna interchangably represent Cheng Xin and AA in the books.
Nice one! I thought that would be Jin but you're right, Auggie seems a good option. Also it seems she has something with Saul so that would make quite a scene.
Really nice comparison, one small correction @34:19. The image is that of Nataraj at CERN. Natraj is Shiva doing what is called the Tandava dance. As given on the CERN website: "In the Hindu religion, this form of the dancing Lord Shiva is known as the Nataraj and symbolises Shakti, or life force. As a plaque alongside the statue explains, the belief is that Lord Shiva danced the Universe into existence, motivates it, and will eventually extinguish it. Carl Sagan drew the metaphor between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the 'cosmic dance' of subatomic particles."
This is one of those divine interventions, I literally got into science fiction yesterday night because of this guy, I couldn’t sleep because I stayed up the night before messing my sleep schedule, so I was wide awake at 2am and somehow TH-cam recommended me a 4.5 hour video of the TBP sci-fi series and thought “ahh what the hell” finished that one video in one sitting snuggled up under my covers letting my mind go wild, I just ordered the series of Amazon and am looking for more into sci-if novels, so thanks!
If you enjoy Cixin Liu's hard sci-fi, I recommend that you also read Peter Watt's "Firefall" duology, starting with "Blindsight". I really enjoyed the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy ("The Three-Body Problem" series), but I prefer "Blindsight" over all of them. Happy reading!
He's reading an anecdotal comment then laughing at his fans then quoting the book. Rinse and repeat. People and mainstream media do that with anecdotal tweets all the time.
Regarding Saul being Luo Ji, Luo Ji was also described as a one-night-stand kind of guy. I wanted to use the word womanizer but that might be too harsh a description. I also didn’t realize Saul would be manifesting Luo Ji until the last few episodes but his outlook on life and overall demeanor in the whole Netflix show are almost one-to-one Luo Ji’s described traits leading up to his nomination as a Wallfacer in hindsight.
Also this is a really random thing but Changing "Trisolarans" to "The San Ti" has the added benefit of making the title of the first book hit harder. Because "San Ti" = "Three Body". So the title "Three Body Problem" now refers both to the difficult astronomical conditions of the Trisolaran homeworld, and to the fact that earth "Has a problem with the San Ti"
@@IronKurone naw, Tri Solar is “Three Sun.” It’s a good, sci-fi-sounding translation that focuses on what the bodies in the problem actually are, but you still lose the play on words.
I think the Einstein part of the joke does have some relevance, in that it gives a hint for the interpretation. It helps triangulate the point. Make noise and you'll get killed, with fermi's paradox and game theory explaining how and why you'll get killed.
I envy you. You can only read something for the first time once. I average about 20-30 books a year and this trilogy went straight to my top 5 favorite.
They began setting up Saul as Luo Ji right away in episode 1, with Saul mentioning that if you don't accomplish anything significant in science by a certain age, you never will. I felt that was an important line to build the character
About the ETO raid, in the book, the girl that Tatatina may took the role of threatens to kill everyone with a mini nuke if they don't let Ye Wenji go. Dai Shi called it bullshit then one guy in his team toss her some scale, the first 2 "bombs" did nothing, but the third one makes it tip, that guy stops smirking. Dai Shi immediately come up with a plan, he tells the girl that they have found her mother, when she is distracted, he shoot the bomb, thus neutralizing it. When asked how he know about her mother, Shi said that he know jack shit about it, but people like her definitely lack a mother in their life.
Da Shi is by far the best character in the books. I wish there could’ve been a way for him to be in all three books 😭❤️ And yeah, I don’t think people are realizing that Tatiana is supposed to represent Shen Yufei, from the Frontiers of Science group. She’s basically the recruiter just like Shen, she’s sly and conniving like her, and sneaks around, getting away with stuff mysteriously like Shen too. The main differences are that Tatiana is seen doing more gruesome shit (killing Jack), and very clearly is going to serve a purpose in the next season and is actually favored by the trisolarans after they had decided to cut off humans. They both have a very cruel and cold mind though, and have no real family other than the cult group they are a part of. (Shen has a husband, but in the book it even states that there’s no real passion or love in their relationship.)
Episode 5 was a BANGER. My 2 favorite sequences from the first book in 1 episode. The nanowire boat scene and the sophons being built scene. I was worried how they would be handled on screen and I was happy with both. The sophons scene was done much better in the book and I wish the show went more in depth with it. Like how in the book it goes into all the failed attempts and stuff. But I was still happy with how they handled it. The nanowire scene with judgement day however was done better on screen than it was in the book. I like how they didn't hold back on the brutality and it felt more impactful emotionally because in the book it is kind of just breezed over and never mentioned again. I really do enjoy this season overall. I am very excited to see how they are gonna handle the droplet attack and possibly even the dimension strike if they take the show that far.
That scene didn't make sense at all. They could have swarmed in and captured the adults and left the children. But they commit brutal murder by using the nano fiber
@@XxfieryfirexXWade and Da Shi actually discuss the idea of sending in some small unit of soldiers into the ship (this idea is brought up in the book as well), but this would give Evans and his people time to destroy the drive. using the nanofibers took so little time and caused so much chaos that before Evans even realized what was going on, it was already too late to do anything.
@@lunajka Doesnt make any sense whatsoever. A recon operation would have taken care of that. It doesnt make sense that they annhiliate the children on board as well. which is sick and pointless The nano fiber was so slow as well. if they could destroy that technology( which is again weird of how it got to earth faster than the san-ti) the guy easily would have . I liked the show. but its got tons of plot holes
I really hope they do the droplet attack well. As for the nanowire, my bf said, "Couldn't they have just cut the bottom?" He watched it with me knowing nothing of the books and only some of the basics.
the "I can't believe Saul smokes weed" is fucking hilarious given who the character is. I cannot fucking wait for season 2 when he goes FULL hedonist, I remember laughing at the Luo Ji sections in the book so many times, it's gonna be even funnier in the show
And i wait for *SPOILER*......Zhang Beihai/Raj grabbed a ship and ran away into deepspace like a coward. Lol... his character was so strong before that.
@@HobiAIsee I appreciated the pragmatism of dipping out. And that was always his MO. It's not like he was a badass who ran away, he was a badass in order to run away.
Love your take Quinn- you are objective and fair and also cool-headed. It’s so refreshing to hear from someone else who loves the books but didnt come to this adaptation expecting a 1:1 and appreciate ALL the adaptations for bringing different things to the table. I honestly feel better after listening to this video because I thought I was the only one in the world thinking the same as you and thought I was going crazy. Thanks for all you do !
You are the reason for my obsession with this series of books. I’ve been a subscriber for a decent while (off & on since YT keeps removing my subscriptions to several content creators I enjoy!) I listened to every video on your playlist when I wanted a refresher for this series & am so incredibly thankful for finding a kindred spirit who loved the Netflix adaptation as much as myself. Thank you for also comparing characters to their counterparts in the novel, as I was able to see most but needed help remembering the 1st book better. Superb as always!
I liked both the tencent and netflix version. I love the books, so obviously I would've loved it, if it was scene to scene but it wouldn't have worked for the show. I don't have any problem with the slow pacing of the first book so I don't mind tencent 3B (30 or 26 ep) About the netflix 3BP: cramming 30 ep worth of content in 8 ep is hard. It was too slow and too fast at few places. It does let the audience breathe and doesn't let the audience think about the gravity of the situation. I think it would've been better if it was 10 ep instead. But I think they did a good job with adapting something that hard to translate on the screen. I would've liked it if the characters were not familiar with each other at the beginning and they slowly starts to bond. As it feels weird that all the saviours of the world knew each other and belonged to the same friend group. It reduces the scope of the series.
Yeah, the friend group is my biggest complaint with the show. It makes it feel like a CW superhero teen show. So ridiculous that they all got picked as the saviours of the world.
@@OWlsfordshire Atleast its not as boring and sleep inducing like Tencent version. Media is suppose to be entertaining, not a propaganda or cringe compilation.
Thanks as always for a great video. I was disappointed with the omission of Manuel Rey Diaz as his Wall Facer plan, his character , backstory and Humanity’s reaction to his plan was so intriguing and savage. Maybe his plan will be adapted to another of the Wall Facers in the next series though.
I think Rey Diaz will be one of the adapted wallfacers. Bill Hines seems to be the one that was cut, though I hope the mental seal shows up in another context.
@@n8y00- Meh, I don't think we need the mental seal tbh. 🤔 How crucial was that to the main story really?? How did it end up affecting anything, re: the San Ti??
Excellent deep dive on my favorite books of all time! One thing you said was that the raid at the ETO meetup was more action-heavy in the show to make it more watchable, but it actually was a very action heavy scene in the book - actually even more than the show. In the book, Ye Wenjie had Pan executed by having one of her bodyguards break his neck...then when the raid happened, one of the bodyguards was holding a mini-nuclear device. Da Shi fired a round into it causing it to have a miniature detonation, and there was a big shootout to follow. I believe it's implied that the explosion caused Da Shi to get radiation poisoning, which was one of the reasons he went into hibernation (there was no cure in the present). Overall I think they did the scene pretty well, but clearly they were saving the budget for the incredible sequence in Ep. 5. Just my thoughts - keep up the great work!
The Netflix show is really good. They "globalized" a Chinese centric story without anything feeling forced or weird. Good representation without being preachy and unrealistic. I almost forgive them for the final seasons of the show who must not be named.
I read this series years ago and I was so sad at how hard it was to find in-depth conversations about it! Now I have found your channel and I am so, so, so grateful. I feel very similarly to how you do regarding the Netflix series! I really think the development of the characters, as well as the excellent acting, elevated them and added an extra dimension (hehe) to the story, and I appreciate how they added diversity to the main cast while preserving the nationalities that are actually meaningful to the story and the characters, like Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans, and also Sophon taking on an Japanese appearance... I do miss the sense of scope of the books, both the scope in space but especially the scope in time -- but then I can just reread the books to experience that again :) At any rate, thank you so much for your insightful, interesting videos on 3BP!
My only real complaint with the show is that some of the shows of San-ti power, like the “you are bugs” scene are a bit too overblown and make it kinda hard to understand why the san-ti can’t just take over already or completely destroy humanity without even having the fleet show up. I felt like in the books the shows of power were still very impressive, but were very clearly within the power of the sophons. Some of the events in show arguably really shouldn’t be within the power of the sophons, at least from my interpretation and make the power seem kinda hand-wavey.
@@Ytremz This creates a plot hole of "why doesn't it hack a factory to produce terminators?" Essentially, it would result in a different movie where the alien could terraform Earth from a distance before the arrival of the main fleet.
@@putty-e2872 I had the same thought too, but I was able to explain away these potential plot-holes fairly easily / plausibly. Essentially, the buffs allow the sophons to induce 'strategic chaos' in existing tech, as we see in this first season, but logistically, they would still likely need humans to do anything more than that. The more complex the scheme for the sophons to bypass these obstacles (sourcing materials, new fabrication processes, inventory / resource management, shipping, etc.) the more likely their plans would be to get detected by humans and shut down.
I didn't know anything about the Three Body Problem; just took a chance watching the Netflix adaptation ... Totally hooked! Just did a marathon viewing and now I've been hooked learning more from your videos, Quinn! Thanks for all the insight!
I read the books and I like both versions. But your coverage has helped me to understand the American version. I didn't appreciate it on my first viewing I was confused trying to align the imagery with the text. But I love the American version a lot now.
Unfortunately my wife wouldn't watch this episode because of the Judgement Day scene, but this is the exact type of science fiction she loves. But she can't watch children dying... I showed her the Sophon scene at the end of episode 5, and she was flabbergasted, she loved it. But I imagine there will ve many more scenes of children suffering or dying, so she won't watch the series with me... Great video, Quinn! You've been my source for sci fi novels and other media for years. Thank you for doing what you do!
58:35 Dammm I completely forgot about that. That scene was so cool in the book, with the TriSolareans realizing they F*up and were about to be annihilated by the tiny civilization 😅
The netflix show doesn’t make you feel the existential dread the same way the book makes you feel and that feeling was deep. It touched my soul in a way I never felt before. In fact I didn’t feel it at all when watching the show. Other than that it is a good show.
I do know what you mean. I feel in part the first season had to unfortunately somewhat curtail the intensity of the dread in order to keep moving forward and get setup for season 2. If I had been show runner, I'd have leaned way more heavy into ending one of the early episodes with the DO NOT ANSWER part and really make that hit in the chest. That moment was the thing that stuck with me more than anything in the first book, and the series just laid it out and kept moving. And then the rest of the dread and uncertainty later on, once we knew about the sophons, wasn't as claustrophobic feeling.
@@scottwatrousthese are respectable opinions and while I do understand these choices, the first book of this trilogy can actually stand on its own without the other two books.
100% agreed. I enjoyed the show but outside of the first episode with the winking universe and slightly with the 'you are bugs' scene I did not feel that existential dread. Well put.
Yeah, if I had one critique it'd be that the show took the sci-fi a bit too literal. Yes, there's a lot of science talk in the series, obviously. But thematically, emotionally, the story has way more of a Lovecraftian cosmic horror feel to me. I was surprised to learn it was the GOT guys behind this and someone like Mike Flanagan, who already has a working relationship with Netflix, wasn't considered. Him together with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead would be a perfect team to tackle Remembrance of Earth's Past.
You "spoiled" the whole thing for me long before now. If you hadn't I don't know that I would have watched it. It was great. I think I am finally going to read it.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that makes sense! The Sophon was bending the light... I was confused about why the cop couldnt see that guy murdered against the window
it's so wierd to complain its not exactly like the book, ive never seena good adaption that is exactly like the books, different mediums require different changes, LOTR is a great example.
6:55 and 1:47:36 I mean... people will call me crying out victim cards but I really am convinced that people don't recognize Saul, a black man, as intelligent and then go on to talk about "forced diversity" adhere to a certain group of people
Who are these people complaining about smoking, drinking, and cussing, in a TV show??? I'm glad they are showing people smoking again. The people complaining like that are why we have so much censorship now a days and it needs to stop. Great review Quinn!
I was pleased to see Paul from Heavy Spoilers give you a huge shout out in his break down. You're far and away the BEST Sci Fi channel on here, but I'm still hoping to one day hear you read the Hyperion books & Orphans Of The Helix.....
Really liked this first season. I’m almost done reading Deaths End so I’m really glad I at least started the 3rd book before watching the season. If they adapt season 2 and 3 well it will be amazing! I hope Netflix doesn’t give up on it like they did with 1899!
1899’s cancellation, after falling in love with Dark many years ago & being so obsessed with the husband/wife creator’s work, made me so viscerally angry. We better not lose 3BP too!
@@FigmentForeverthe sad thing is I had only watched one episode of 1899 before I saw the news that it was cancelled so I didn’t bother watching any more. Also Dark is incredible!! I occasionally go back a binge the entire series
@@westworld237- Even though it never got any further seasons... 1899 was still REALLY good as just one individual season, no joke! I would finish it! It ends with a really dope twist that I didn't see coming. 😌 It was so cool.
Thank you so much, Quinn, for your reviews. Also, Don't forget Ball Lightning is about Ding Yi's backstory and the official part of the 3 Body universe.
You are the very best thing on TH-cam I haven’t even started the series yet, although I did watch both Chinese series. I’m enjoying watching your critique before starting .
This channel is the reason I got in the books, and it was worth the read even the spon off was good. Cheers and thank you for recommending these awesome sifi books 🎉
for people complaining about "forced diversity": if you walk into any western research lab you will see that those groups are quite diverse. As they are a mix of the smartest Phds from all over the world that got grants to work in those institutes. So this is not forced diversity. This is actually the realistic version of it. In the western world 50% of Phd graudates are women. I dont get the stereotypes argument either. How is Saul a black stereotype? Cause his character traits have nothing to do with race (he's a nihilist dude that only lives for the moment, but that loves and will protect his friends to death). Auggie I didnt even notice she was suppose to be latina until that village scene (and im latino). Her biggest character traits is being a genius with a similar moral dilema to Oppenheimer (how is that a latino stereotype?). I bet that the same people complaining about this are the same people who love The Departed without realizing or caring that the source material is asian.
Actually ur western research labs are majority Asian and Indian lol I understand ur point though in all honesty protect your friends lol I think you lost the plot, I guess it’s cultural difference in reading , u see want to protect friends chinese see pure hubris “for I would rather betray this world than let this world betray me”😂 the idea of this avengers get together against alien threat is actually the opposite of what the world view on how Chinese views humanity, it’s just different culturally
While that's true in the western world, it is very different in the east (which is where the book takes place). But to take the main male character of the book and split his character up into 2 women is very much forced diversity. Forcing a character to fragment into other characters that are seen as "underrepresented" in film, like splitting an atom, is obvious, and unlike science its completely unnecessary/ pandering. The fact that the show substitutes time that should be allotted for slowing the pace down and letting scientific revelations breath, let the plot breath so we can feel the pressure of the unknown impending doom (which makes the book a masterclass)... but instead use the time for dialogue like accidentally misgendering someone (episode 1 funeral scene) and making sure the character backtracks the severity of her heinous and diabolical statement immediately in the middle of a serious conversation about their dead colleague. Then you get a random bar scene where they again, choose to use our precious time and their millions of dollars per episode to show us a dumb white guy assume women aren't smart while trying to hook up with the two characters that are supposed to represent 1 male character from the book. I had to reread that while typing but I just rewatched it and... yup. They then proceed to school the super dumb white male by proofing just how accomplished they are in their academic studies before rolling their eyes. This doesn't further the plot in a single beneficial way which is really disappointing given how rushed the story is for the show. There is 100 percent pandering and "wink wink nod nods" in this show and this incredible and timeless story suffers greatly from it. Although I'm not surprised since the writers are the same ones that forgot about a huge subplot in game of thrones until the last 3 episodes, undid a character arc from the books, then made a really shitty and poorly thought-out character the king (later seasons thought out).
It's not "forced diversity". From the perspective of the entire series and not just the first book it makes a lot more sense to make the change they did. Wang was only relevant to the first book. Replacing him with characters who remain relevant to the whole series makes perfect sense, and is the kind of simplifying many adaptations do. It works better, to be honest. The rest of what you bring up are things taken from the book, so why is it a problem that the show adapted those aspects? @@dylanamaral1663
Forced diversity is mostly an issue when shows/movies incorporate it into their script at the detriment of the story. 3 body problem did not do that at all but of course, the changes alone are enough to make anti woke alpha youtubers and their followers throw earthquake equivalent tantrums.
I'm from Venezuela, and I was really curious to see how Manuel Rey Diaz was portrayed in the series, so I was a little disappointed when they removed it. But to be honest, it is the most logical decision, for several reasons. On the one hand, when Liu Cixin wrote the series, Hugo Chavez was still alive, and the author created a fictional character who imagined what a possible successor to Chavez could be. Nowadays, it is known who Chavez's successor was, who also ended up becoming a true dictator, and possibly the showrunners of the series wanted to avoid the political discussion that could arise from introducing this character, even if they kept him being the original Manuel Rey Díaz.
the character and their contribution to luo jis plan is still similar. I think using the kurdish fighter is also a good change considering their struggle against more advanced enemies.
Diaz is more technical. I think the female among the Wallfacers is the one taking Diaz place. She's more technical. On another thought. The Netflix mixed up the character of Wang into 5 characters. So it is also possible that the character of Diaz was broken into those other two characters (the male and female wallfacers) apart from Saul. This makes sense because the other two Wallfacers apart from Diaz and Luo Ji, didn't make any significant difference, they died in the books
I'm hoping to learn how they were able to produce the VR headsets, and can the San-Ti-Trisolaran's see into the future? (the countdowns are based on future moments).
@@M4rt1nX yeah, I thought that too, because they are all working together (ETO), but if I shared technology with primitive people, they wouldn’t be able to create or produce it.
I thought about making a chart with book characters on the left and show characters on the right then connecting them with lines that define which aspects of each character translates into the respective counterpart with each line having a little snipped like "nanomaterial expert" on the line. I think this would help us keep track. There are some future aspects they are setting up such as a clear romantic connection between saul and auggie which we can predict how that will play out. But, I think this would be something Quinn would be much better at as well as having an audience to show that chart to.
Regarding 34:45, that is actually Nataraja, a depiction of Lord Shiva in Hinduism, performing the Tandava, the Dance of Destruction, whereby the current universe is destroyed (pralaya) for a new one to begin.
I liked how Netflix made Judgment Day a family cult ship unlike the ship filled with psychotic terrorists in the Tencent version. I believe Will Downing (Yun Tianming), from Season 2 to the Season Finale, will have the most interesting and saddest character arc like Cooper from Interstellar (a man who traverses into space but can never return home to Earth). Imagine if the first San-Ti entity Will meets is the pacifist who tries to tell Ye Wenjie to not reply.
@@spamfilter32The San-Ti traumatized Auggie more so than the other Oxford Five. The aliens inadvertently killed her mentor, caused two of her friends to die, and forced her to give up her life's work. Plus, having her invention that is used to help people being turned into a weapon was the last straw. Auggie is similar to Andrew Wiggin's reaction in Ender's Game when he realized he participated in the genocide of an entire alien species before he learned there were survivors. Both didn't want to use their inherent talents and intelligence to commit murder on a massive scale (there were a thousand people on Judgment Day).
I'm super surprised that you're hearing so much negative feedback about this show (I generally stay off social media, sooooo...I'm blissfully out of the loop). It has been a while since I read the books, but this show is hitting those essential beats, and it's really giving me that creeping sense of dread I felt in the books. Adapting something this complex would be such a daunting task - I think they did a fantastic job. I pity the team who tries to adapt 'Children of Time', that is one big story!!
It's fun being from way back when and seeing Quinn get big, but now he is skyrocketing due to being the right guy in the right place at the right time. Our very own wallbreaker, we love ya Quinn!
My cousin Wang Suk Kok in China tried to memorise these books in order to impress girls. His country has 40 millon more men than women. He hopes to feel the warm embrace of a female companion before he turns 50 this year. He has resigned himself that if he is not successful he will have to reluctantly turn towards males.
The sci-fi book fan meltdowns lately surrounding both Dune (where I am familiar with the source material) and now this show (where I haven't gotten around to the source material yet) are hilarious.
I'm actually shocked that apparently some book readers were upset with the first season?? I overall was very pleased with it and thought it was faithful to the source material.
I love your videos and you have convinced me to get the books, I enjoyed the tv series but after watching your videos I think the last 2 episodes hit better for book readers that understand the whole story, really looking forward to getting to read it and watch your other videos!
Great analysis of the Einstein joke and what Ye Wenjie was doing with it. I think it is more elegant than what she does in the book by straight up telling Luo Ji the first two axioms of cosmic sociology. However, it doesn't explain why in the show the San-Ti immediately view Saul as a threat that needed to be eliminated. She successfully camouflaged her message just like Tianming does with the fairy tales. There is no immediate reason to view Saul as a particularly dangerous Wallfacer In the book, the sophons would have heard the conversation between Ye Wenjie and Luo Ji in teh cemetery, which is why they knew Luo Ji was the biggest Wallfacer threat, because he had the building blocks to establish Dark Forest deterrence. Because the show takes a more circumspect approach to giving Saul the Dark Forest deterrence idea, the San-Ti don't know that he has been given the building blocks for that approach. From what has been revealed in the show, it doesn't make sense that the San-Ti would see Saul as such a major threat yet. Unless they just assume that one conversation with Ye Wenjie is reason enough to kill Saul.
I think I agree. It will make for a great 'aha!' moment in the show when ppl will understand what she was hinting at and since we know absolutely nothing about the Trisolarians in the show at this point yet. However if we would know that they can't understand metaphores and hidden messages like in the books then it wouldn't work.
I really like your take on the show, very considered and fair. For instance, you mentioned the music and it is superb. The undertow of mounting dread it conveys in certain scenes...
Your original videos of 3BP pushed me to read the books, very grateful for that. However I don't agree with about half of this, there's a lot of glossing over, but I won't reply beat by beat to a 2 hour video.
I think they improved on the books they made more about the characters than the books are, human interactions and relationships, which is necessary on a tv show.
The Three Body Problem netflix series got me buying all these classic science fiction novels. I'm currently waiting for the books of the trilogy to come in.
They say PDC near the end. The detective guy protecting Saul says PDA or PD something and then the short liaison guy says that it's the PDC and the detective guy says PDC
I was excited for this show thanks to your coverage of the book but started hearing bad reviews. I took the leap and binged it last night and man, I sure hope it doesn't get canceled. I love what I saw and I don't understand the bad reviews from people.
I think Netflix completely failed to present the "paranoia" feeling that was quite present in the books. Sophons in the Chinese TV Series were shown pretty neatly, simply drone shots, but "if you know, you know" kind of thing. It's absent from the Netflix version, the total nightmare of the "Dark Forest" and all.
I feel like people dont like the concept of opposition. I seem to observe it towards the character of Auggie and her rift between Wade. Wade is a very direct, charismatic no bullshit, get shit done type of character, very enjoyable character to watch, so it obviously garners him some popularity between the emsemble. Deserved too. But i feel like wade would be incomplete if he had no moral counter in the narrative. Since shes the moral opposition of his plans, she's immediately disliked, the one who gets in the way. One could find her annoying, sure, but shes very much needed, we need auggie to cry for the victims his path creates, otherwise there's nothing in the story to remind the viewer that the actions he pursues have costly consequences. Without that moral opposition Auggie gives to the story, everyone gets to agree guilt free of wade's "by all means" aproach since he usually gets results, that imo only drives everyone to be desentitized of human loss. Not to say everyone has to like Auggie or her reasons etc, but that her role is important to complement Wade's in the story. Also what i get from your video is that pretty much people really do love to hate on the adaption for "differences from the books" but clearly havent read the books. hilarious!
The Netflix version is very different from the Tencent version, with the Tencent version being more suspenseful, but they both captured the essence of the horror of the original book. The Netflix version's characters weren't as endearing as Tencent's were for me, but they weren't bad and I did grow to care about them by ep 6. Will and Jack were my favourite characters in the Netflix version and Jack's death made me feel sad. And Will... man I really got attached to him. I feel like the universe winking scene was better in Tencent's version than in Netflix's, and sometimes the cgi is a bit rough in Netflix's version. Netflix's version did dumb down the science more to be accessible to more general audiences, but I still think people can understand the main principles in the Netflix version and that's great bc now my family's able to understand what's going on lol. Overall, while I really liked the Netflix and Tencent versions, I personally I still like Tencent's more. My mom and brother love the Netflix version more though.
Absolutely agree. The Netflix version seems like a cheap, loosely integrated and poorly adapted Western characterization. All the greatness of the book has been lost. There is no dread, no existential crisis that feels palpable or emergent . It’s rushed and the characters are shallow with no real connection with the plot. It’s a complete letdown. Stick with the book and the Tencent version.
Regarding the bugs at the end, if I recall correctly, there was a segment on news in the show, about cicadas swarming. Cicadas are famously known to remain dormant for 13 or 17 years then they swarm. If humans are bugs, then I think this is foreshadowing that the humans will decline then swarm after many years. From what I understand from reviews of the books, this will be the case.
Wow mannn prepared a PowerPoint😆😆😆But yea avid trilogy lover and I love the Netflix show! What I love the most is that when talking to non book readers on Reddit, I find that most of their questions have answers in the show, addressed in later books, or explained by common sense. Wouldn’t watch the Tencent one anytime soon tho. If I had the time I’ll just listen to the audio book or read it again😅
This is so sad to hear as the Tencent one was great and in my opinion such a better companion to the books than the Netflix series, which is enjoyable but hardly hit the notes that made me go a little crazy for the 3BP series. The actors in the Tencent one were amazing. Oh, well.
Just finished your mega compilation video- my lord.. well done. Really makes me want to read the series! I couldnt wait for the show to come out- and have just begun it- but so tempted to read it all now. Thanks for taking the time. So impressive.
This show made the mythos more accessible to the general audience. A literal adaptation would have been a disaster. People complain about everything. Forget them.
having not read the books - i enjoyed the Netflix show very much i did try the Chinese show - but it was unbearably slow not saying that the Chinese one is bad - but the showrunners made great decisions in adapting this for the american taste I am vietnamese BTW… i follow my culture and am americanized
Don’t get why they went to great lengths to assassinate Saul but why didn’t a Sophon just take down his plane? We saw this was possible when they toyed with Wade on the plane at the end. Also, a Sophon obviously hacked the cars that tried to run over Saul. Plot armor just when he is flying?
The sophons are not all mighty but that's a legit question like why don't they try harder to kill him? In the books the TriSolareans uses ETO to assassinate Luo Ji (Saul) and they don't want to draw too much attention to him (hence freak car accident) but that fails so they let ETO try more direct attempts.
My only complain is that saul is too much a normal guy for me. In the books the character was a crazy lazy guy that was gifted with great imagination and later evolved into something he never wanted to be just because he had to
I’m pretty frustrated with your comment because at this point in time he is EXACTLY like the guy in the book. In personality anyway. I don’t even understand your comment. You want the show to show us some cheesy daydreams of some unimportant character at this time ? What ? You’d lose the audience immediately
No one seems to remember that Luo was borderline schizophrenic. He dumped an actual girl to date an imaginary girl and even went on a road trip date with her. Saul is definitely more balanced.
Really enjoyed this. I wouldn't have known about 3 Body Problem if it wasn't for your videos, Quinn. I very much agree the series is a Sci-fi masterpiece. I think it will be a series that inspires other Sci-fi authors for generations.
Came from the book with a greater appreciation of bugs. They are durable and persistent. They also play an important part of the ecosystem. Liked Jin Cheng because it was good to see a Kiwi Chinese actress playing a Kiwi Chinese character. Many top NZ academics do their PhD research and academic careers in US, UK and Australia.
I think a big reason a lot of people are saying the things like the paper boats and staircase project and all that weren't in the book, is because they don't realize that this season contains parts from all three books, and those things are all in the third book, so I'd bet a lot of people just haven't gotten there yet.
That Judgement Day episode really was extraordinary- the (highly metaphorical) scene where you see the paper cutouts of children being sliced in half by the nano wire put a chill through me
SPOILER WARNINGS actually Ye wenjie is much more complicated character than series show, she is not a devil, In the book, Ye's thought has changed three times, At first she feels the crazy of humankind through culture revolution, and she feels betrayed by her most trust person(Bai mulin), then she feels love and warm from Yang weining(this character is actually a good person, really really good not like Netflix adoption), during this period she thought Perhaps this crazy and betrayal only belongs to that particular period, until she read some history of humankind books, from witch-hunting movement to slave-trade, mankinds have always been creatures of carzy and ignorance. and during this period she sent message to trisolarans, Ye believes trisolarans are more moral than humans, and they can help humans transform society. therefore when She had to kill her husband, who probably loved her the most, for the secret of the existence of the Trisolaran, completing the transformation of Ye Wenjie to ETO commander-in-chief. however During her pregnancy she is cared for by the villagers of Qijatun and she begins to believe in the goodness of humans again. But after the Cultural Revolution she visits the people who hurt her during CR period, they refuse to apologise to her, seeing the harm they did to her as a piece of history. Even so, she still had a glimmer of hope for humanity, and within the ETO organisation, she liquidated the Adventists (the faction that wished for the destruction of the world by the Trisolaran). After recognising that the Trisolaran were far crazier than humans, she began to construct a sociology of the universe, and an answer to the Fermi Paradox. In doing so, she hoped to help humanity fight back against the Trisolaran invasion.
Ye did not hesitate to murder her husband as collateral damage WHILE PREGNANT because she needed to kill her boss who discovered her unauthorized transmission. She's an ice cold monster. How is she not a devil?
As someone who really only read the first book but knows what happens afterwards, after the first book ends and we got into new territory, i enjoyed it more and more so i imagine that's how it went for people who were totally new.
Bummed I was only able to catch a small bit of the livestream as I was at work. And I always love your analyses and Dune material. In fact, you are the one who got me to read ROEP a year-and-change ago. But I did have some of the criticisms you cited. Thing is, I *WANT* to like it, I loved the books and am very pro adaptational changes if intelligently done, as in Dune… 1. Cursing/Smoking/Drug Use: I don’t have issues with having these things in fiction. I think it’s the context. A large portion of the curses in the book were by the police, military, industrialists etc. I’ve had the privilege of knowing (through coincidental fate) a number of screenwriters in L.A., as well as physicists, technologists and professors. The ‘Oxford 5’ characters act and speak much more like the hard-living screenwriters than they do the physicists as a whole. I think people vibe this and it feels off. China is much more of a smoking culture, but even in that context, book Da Shi gets called out for the habit. Luo Ji was considered a wastrel and a bit of a joke in academic circles so the drunkenness showed his attitude toward the wallfacer program. A few others were under extreme stress. So if it had been just ‘Saul’, ‘Jack’ and maybe ‘Auggie’ (after she started seeing the numbers) that I think is different than just having the pub-crawling hipsterism be the group’s default setting. And I’m sorry, as an ABC I can tell you, “time is a mother***ker” is something a screenwriter with a chinstrap smoking clove cigs would say, not a 70 year old Chinese woman and physicist who lived through the Cultural Revolution. Although in fairness, perhaps I and others may be being less charitable due to the sense D&D are dudebros who love their ‘edginess’ and so are just injecting it 2. Having the ‘Oxford 5’ being a friendgroup is a good change and makes sense to tie together the seasons. 3. The universe visibly blinking is a good example of the general dumbing-down of the material that bothers me. Instead of the background radiation of the universe being interrupted, it’s the most blunt, ‘Independence Day’ level version that makes the assumption you can’t explain the most basic scientific idea to the audience in favor of Marvel-style spectacle. Yet seeming to alter the background radiation of the *entire universe* is actually far more mind-boggling. I think a good adaptation could have simply and briefly explained it, and the audience would have gotten it with the scientists absolutely freaking out. But I feel like in general the adaptation doesn’t trust the audience. Again, going back to Dune - I think part of what made DV successful is trusting his viewers. 4. This dumbing-down also seen in the beginning of the Virtual Reality sections, because I felt it didn’t build any mystery about the eras or what was happening. They just immediately infodumped it in seeming fear that this would be strange, offputting and complicated for the viewer. 5. I agree, the Cultural Revolution segments were better in that they went where the CCP wouldn’t allow the Tencent version to go, making Wenjie’s actions connect more effectively. The Tencent version was elevated by young Ye’s actress. Alhough with the Silent Spring section, I did notice D&D’s desire to inject sex and relationship drama. 6. The nanowire sequence was very spectacular and I liked this a lot including the inclusion of the children on the boat to show the cost of doing these things is traumatic. That’s an improvement on both the book and the Tencent series as well.
Still watching the video but small correction. Ep 3 starts with Lord Shiva, in his Nataraja form. Kali is the Goddess of Death, Shiva is the destroyer. That statue depicts Shiva’s dance which he does every cycle which destroys the universe so it will be reborn anew for the next cycle. So it’s actually very poignant to future themes in the series. Edit: Oh he was corrected soon after. I’m leaving my comment just for the second part and how it might be relevant to later themes in the series.
Thanks, my lord. I will dehydrate until next video.
🤣
Rofl😂😂😂
It's the same down here in Houston. Just roll me up and smoke me lol.
😂
lmao dude, this sent me
I just spent the last few nights watching almost all of your three body videos. Incredible. New fan of Quinn. Such brilliant summary of the whole story. Amazing breakdown of concepts. This is quality.
That was me a few months back! Lots of great content on this channel to binge on!!! 💥
What!!! 2 hours of 3 body talk, I'm re-hydrating for this!
If you survive we all survive
😂 Best. Comment. EVER!
@@Bokmoh haaaaa!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
If anyone is interested, here's the actual Einstein joke explained:
> So, Einstein dies. He finds himself in heaven, and he has his violin. He's overjoyed. He loves his violin. More than physics. Even more than women.
This introduction sets up Einstein as a representation of a civilization, with his violin symbolizing the civilization's technological capabilities and achievements.
> He's excited to find out how well he can play in heaven. He imagines he'll be pretty damn good. So he starts tuning up, and the angels rush at him. "What are you doing?" they say. "I'm getting ready to play." "Don't do that. God won't like it." "He's a saxophonist."
Einstein's eagerness to showcase his musical abilities in heaven mirrors a civilization's desire to demonstrate its advancements and make its presence known in the universe. The angels' warning not to play because "God won't like it" suggests that revealing one's capabilities to a superior civilization can lead to unfavorable consequences.
> So Einstein stops. He doesn't play, but it's difficult. He loves music, and there's actually not much to do in heaven. And sure enough, from high above, he hears a saxophone. It's playing "Take the A Train."
Despite the warning, Einstein struggles with the temptation to engage with the superior civilization (God), much like how a less advanced civilization might be tempted to initiate contact or compete with a more advanced one.
> So he starts playing "Take the A Train." The saxophone stops, and God appears. He marches over to Einstein and kicks him in the balls, which hurts, even in heaven. Then he smashes Einstein's beloved violin to bits.
When Einstein gives in to temptation and starts playing, God swiftly retaliates by causing him pain and destroying his violin. This represents the potential consequences of a less advanced civilization revealing its presence and capabilities to a superior one, resulting in its destruction.
> Eternity without music. Heaven has become hell for Einstein. And, as he writhes on the ground, holding his smashed balls, an angel comes over and says, "We warned you." "Never play with God."
The punishment inflicted upon Einstein serves as a warning to other civilizations: "Never play with God," or in other words, never attempt to engage or compete with a superior civilization, as doing so can lead to dire consequences and the loss of everything they hold dear.
The joke, as told by Ye Wenjie, is a cautionary tale about the risks of revealing one's presence and capabilities in a universe where the intentions of other civilizations are unknown, as described by the dark forest theory in cosmic sociology. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining silence and avoiding contact with potentially hostile civilizations to ensure survival.
I'm so glad someone else brought this up - felt I was going crazy that no one has been talking about how it's an analogy for the Dark Forest!
Ah, I just commented this but more concisely. I was shocked Quinn thought it was irrelevant when it was a pretty obvious reference to the Dark Forest.
She definitely ain't gonna be popular in stand up comedy that's for sure
I loved that they turned the cosmic sociology primer into a good, bad Einstein joke. When I watched, I thought she was going to go into the whole axioms thing after the joke, but instead it was a mic drop.
@@XxfieryfirexX Yeah, I agree, thought the fact it wasn't funny was a huge clue. This specific scene is better in the book.
I'm just happy people are finally rememebering Hu Wen exists.
Not because he is super important, but because it proves the show isn't making up things to pad for casting... all the people we're there. Some of the details got changed, and they're mixing things up here and there, but the core of the characters are still there.
(Random aside, I am convinced Auggie is going to be the second Swordholder, since it will play better with her feelings over Judgement Day)
Isn't it Jin Cheng (Cheng Xin) that will be the second swordholder? What are the reasons that many think Auggie will be one? It is shown that Jin Cheng is naive and very attached emotionally on humanity, which the book Cheng Xin is a representation of empathic moral values of humanity after Deterrence Era, and she will be in contrast to Thomas Wade in his ideology of "Only Advance".
@ChengXin-fu2ih In the book, Cheng Xin is indeed the second swordholder.
But Wang Miao does not go to the future in the books. Nor do they spend much time with his guilt over making the nanowire that ultimately killed a bunch of people.
Auggie feeling guilt over the Judgement day will mean that, if she holds the sword, when the time comes to use it to broadcast and ultimately doom even more people, she won't be able to.
Cause it's either that or be Saul/Luo Ji's perfect waifu, but that feels like a waste of the character.
Funny name, who? when? Now that explains it, Jack Rooney also sounds funny.
Beware spoilers for the show and books below:
Yes I agree that in the show they seem to be setting up auggie to be the second sword holder. They made a point to emphasize her value of humanity and helping those in need. They also set up bad blood between Auggie and Wade which also mirrors the rivalry of Cheng Xin and Wade in the books. It seems as if Auggie and Jin Cheng are gonna interchangably represent Cheng Xin and AA in the books.
Nice one! I thought that would be Jin but you're right, Auggie seems a good option. Also it seems she has something with Saul so that would make quite a scene.
Really nice comparison, one small correction @34:19. The image is that of Nataraj at CERN. Natraj is Shiva doing what is called the Tandava dance. As given on the CERN website: "In the Hindu religion, this form of the dancing Lord Shiva is known as the Nataraj and symbolises Shakti, or life force. As a plaque alongside the statue explains, the belief is that Lord Shiva danced the Universe into existence, motivates it, and will eventually extinguish it. Carl Sagan drew the metaphor between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the 'cosmic dance' of subatomic particles."
That is why the episode is titled "Destroyer of worlds". Shiva assumes the Nataraj form when he destroys existence. Nice symbolism there.
This is one of those divine interventions, I literally got into science fiction yesterday night because of this guy, I couldn’t sleep because I stayed up the night before messing my sleep schedule, so I was wide awake at 2am and somehow TH-cam recommended me a 4.5 hour video of the TBP sci-fi series and thought “ahh what the hell” finished that one video in one sitting snuggled up under my covers letting my mind go wild, I just ordered the series of Amazon and am looking for more into sci-if novels, so thanks!
I had this experience a year ago. You won’t regret delving deeper!
welcome aboard man. check out DUNE! ASAP~
yooooo thats nuts, i did this exact same thing a few months ago. ruined my sleep schedule but didnt regret it at all.
If you enjoy Cixin Liu's hard sci-fi, I recommend that you also read Peter Watt's "Firefall" duology, starting with "Blindsight". I really enjoyed the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy ("The Three-Body Problem" series), but I prefer "Blindsight" over all of them. Happy reading!
Good luck on the ride. And one hell of a ride it is :D
People really complaining about swear words and marijuana? That’s about as silly as it gets lol
Right? 😂 Such Boomer energy jeez
i dont even hear that complaint lol not sure where he got that
@@KabbalahSherry zoomers are the new boomers. They're even bringing back prudishness.
He's reading an anecdotal comment then laughing at his fans then quoting the book. Rinse and repeat. People and mainstream media do that with anecdotal tweets all the time.
they should watch the boys lol
Regarding Saul being Luo Ji, Luo Ji was also described as a one-night-stand kind of guy. I wanted to use the word womanizer but that might be too harsh a description. I also didn’t realize Saul would be manifesting Luo Ji until the last few episodes but his outlook on life and overall demeanor in the whole Netflix show are almost one-to-one Luo Ji’s described traits leading up to his nomination as a Wallfacer in hindsight.
1. Never heard of books
2. Watched show
3. Was intrigued but slightly confused
4. Googled confusing things
5. Found Quinn
6. Life changed.
Also this is a really random thing but
Changing "Trisolarans" to "The San Ti" has the added benefit of making the title of the first book hit harder.
Because "San Ti" = "Three Body". So the title "Three Body Problem" now refers both to the difficult astronomical conditions of the Trisolaran homeworld, and to the fact that earth "Has a problem with the San Ti"
Trisolar also means three body I think.
@@IronKurone naw, Tri Solar is “Three Sun.” It’s a good, sci-fi-sounding translation that focuses on what the bodies in the problem actually are, but you still lose the play on words.
@@kennethyu3950 Okay thats fair.
@@kennethyu3950 we do refer to stars as astronomical "bodies"?
@HY-vz3ks Don't be pedantic. Yes they are celestial bodies but solar applies to exactly one type, thus the name.
Augustine honestly seemed way more like Cheng Xin to me than Jin. I can tell because I absolutely loathed her
I think everyone hates Xin, and for good reason. She's the "You only had one job" meme.
I think the Einstein part of the joke does have some relevance, in that it gives a hint for the interpretation. It helps triangulate the point. Make noise and you'll get killed, with fermi's paradox and game theory explaining how and why you'll get killed.
Really enjoyed the show. 3 Body Problem was already on my reading list but now it has moved all the way up to next in line
I envy you. You can only read something for the first time once. I average about 20-30 books a year and this trilogy went straight to my top 5 favorite.
Glad to see this channel growing. Undoubtedly one of my favourite TH-cam channels to listen to. Thanks for all your content. Keep up the good work.
They began setting up Saul as Luo Ji right away in episode 1, with Saul mentioning that if you don't accomplish anything significant in science by a certain age, you never will. I felt that was an important line to build the character
About the ETO raid, in the book, the girl that Tatatina may took the role of threatens to kill everyone with a mini nuke if they don't let Ye Wenji go. Dai Shi called it bullshit then one guy in his team toss her some scale, the first 2 "bombs" did nothing, but the third one makes it tip, that guy stops smirking. Dai Shi immediately come up with a plan, he tells the girl that they have found her mother, when she is distracted, he shoot the bomb, thus neutralizing it. When asked how he know about her mother, Shi said that he know jack shit about it, but people like her definitely lack a mother in their life.
Da Shi is by far the best character in the books. I wish there could’ve been a way for him to be in all three books 😭❤️
And yeah, I don’t think people are realizing that Tatiana is supposed to represent Shen Yufei, from the Frontiers of Science group. She’s basically the recruiter just like Shen, she’s sly and conniving like her, and sneaks around, getting away with stuff mysteriously like Shen too. The main differences are that Tatiana is seen doing more gruesome shit (killing Jack), and very clearly is going to serve a purpose in the next season and is actually favored by the trisolarans after they had decided to cut off humans.
They both have a very cruel and cold mind though, and have no real family other than the cult group they are a part of. (Shen has a husband, but in the book it even states that there’s no real passion or love in their relationship.)
Episode 5 was a BANGER. My 2 favorite sequences from the first book in 1 episode. The nanowire boat scene and the sophons being built scene. I was worried how they would be handled on screen and I was happy with both. The sophons scene was done much better in the book and I wish the show went more in depth with it. Like how in the book it goes into all the failed attempts and stuff. But I was still happy with how they handled it. The nanowire scene with judgement day however was done better on screen than it was in the book. I like how they didn't hold back on the brutality and it felt more impactful emotionally because in the book it is kind of just breezed over and never mentioned again. I really do enjoy this season overall. I am very excited to see how they are gonna handle the droplet attack and possibly even the dimension strike if they take the show that far.
That scene didn't make sense at all. They could have swarmed in and captured the adults and left the children. But they commit brutal murder by using the nano fiber
@@XxfieryfirexXWade and Da Shi actually discuss the idea of sending in some small unit of soldiers into the ship (this idea is brought up in the book as well), but this would give Evans and his people time to destroy the drive. using the nanofibers took so little time and caused so much chaos that before Evans even realized what was going on, it was already too late to do anything.
@@lunajka Doesnt make any sense whatsoever. A recon operation would have taken care of that. It doesnt make sense that they annhiliate the children on board as well. which is sick and pointless The nano fiber was so slow as well. if they could destroy that technology( which is again weird of how it got to earth faster than the san-ti) the guy easily would have . I liked the show. but its got tons of plot holes
I really hope they do the droplet attack well. As for the nanowire, my bf said, "Couldn't they have just cut the bottom?" He watched it with me knowing nothing of the books and only some of the basics.
if you read the books it will explain it so much better than the show does.@@XxfieryfirexX
the "I can't believe Saul smokes weed" is fucking hilarious given who the character is. I cannot fucking wait for season 2 when he goes FULL hedonist, I remember laughing at the Luo Ji sections in the book so many times, it's gonna be even funnier in the show
And i wait for *SPOILER*......Zhang Beihai/Raj grabbed a ship and ran away into deepspace like a coward. Lol... his character was so strong before that.
Has a taste of 'not liking that he's a black man' and everything that goes with that!!
I forget that some people (especially in Asian countries) still believe all the propaganda about weed lmao
@@HobiAIsee I appreciated the pragmatism of dipping out. And that was always his MO. It's not like he was a badass who ran away, he was a badass in order to run away.
@@HobiAII disagree about the coward thing. It was the best option at the time. Thanks to that humanity survives outside the solar system
Love your take Quinn- you are objective and fair and also cool-headed. It’s so refreshing to hear from someone else who loves the books but didnt come to this adaptation expecting a 1:1 and appreciate ALL the adaptations for bringing different things to the table. I honestly feel better after listening to this video because I thought I was the only one in the world thinking the same as you and thought I was going crazy. Thanks for all you do !
You are the reason for my obsession with this series of books. I’ve been a subscriber for a decent while (off & on since YT keeps removing my subscriptions to several content creators I enjoy!) I listened to every video on your playlist when I wanted a refresher for this series & am so incredibly thankful for finding a kindred spirit who loved the Netflix adaptation as much as myself. Thank you for also comparing characters to their counterparts in the novel, as I was able to see most but needed help remembering the 1st book better. Superb as always!
I liked both the tencent and netflix version.
I love the books, so obviously I would've loved it, if it was scene to scene but it wouldn't have worked for the show.
I don't have any problem with the slow pacing of the first book so I don't mind tencent 3B (30 or 26 ep)
About the netflix 3BP: cramming 30 ep worth of content in 8 ep is hard. It was too slow and too fast at few places. It does let the audience breathe and doesn't let the audience think about the gravity of the situation.
I think it would've been better if it was 10 ep instead. But I think they did a good job with adapting something that hard to translate on the screen.
I would've liked it if the characters were not familiar with each other at the beginning and they slowly starts to bond. As it feels weird that all the saviours of the world knew each other and belonged to the same friend group. It reduces the scope of the series.
Yeah, the friend group is my biggest complaint with the show. It makes it feel like a CW superhero teen show. So ridiculous that they all got picked as the saviours of the world.
@@OWlsfordshire Atleast its not as boring and sleep inducing like Tencent version. Media is suppose to be entertaining, not a propaganda or cringe compilation.
Thanks as always for a great video. I was disappointed with the omission of Manuel Rey Diaz as his Wall Facer plan, his character , backstory and Humanity’s reaction to his plan was so intriguing and savage. Maybe his plan will be adapted to another of the Wall Facers in the next series though.
yes，Manuel Rey Diaz is a very key wall facer, I think Netflix deleted him because he was fighting with US🤣
How do we know that's the Wallfacer they deleted? @@peefly9566
I think Rey Diaz will be one of the adapted wallfacers. Bill Hines seems to be the one that was cut, though I hope the mental seal shows up in another context.
They may put Rays role to Kurdish lady Leyla. Second season
@@n8y00- Meh, I don't think we need the mental seal tbh. 🤔 How crucial was that to the main story really?? How did it end up affecting anything, re: the San Ti??
Excellent deep dive on my favorite books of all time! One thing you said was that the raid at the ETO meetup was more action-heavy in the show to make it more watchable, but it actually was a very action heavy scene in the book - actually even more than the show. In the book, Ye Wenjie had Pan executed by having one of her bodyguards break his neck...then when the raid happened, one of the bodyguards was holding a mini-nuclear device. Da Shi fired a round into it causing it to have a miniature detonation, and there was a big shootout to follow. I believe it's implied that the explosion caused Da Shi to get radiation poisoning, which was one of the reasons he went into hibernation (there was no cure in the present). Overall I think they did the scene pretty well, but clearly they were saving the budget for the incredible sequence in Ep. 5. Just my thoughts - keep up the great work!
The Netflix show is really good. They "globalized" a Chinese centric story without anything feeling forced or weird.
Good representation without being preachy and unrealistic.
I almost forgive them for the final seasons of the show who must not be named.
We shall never forget what they did the the lasr season of the show that who must not be named.
I read this series years ago and I was so sad at how hard it was to find in-depth conversations about it! Now I have found your channel and I am so, so, so grateful. I feel very similarly to how you do regarding the Netflix series! I really think the development of the characters, as well as the excellent acting, elevated them and added an extra dimension (hehe) to the story, and I appreciate how they added diversity to the main cast while preserving the nationalities that are actually meaningful to the story and the characters, like Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans, and also Sophon taking on an Japanese appearance... I do miss the sense of scope of the books, both the scope in space but especially the scope in time -- but then I can just reread the books to experience that again :) At any rate, thank you so much for your insightful, interesting videos on 3BP!
My only real complaint with the show is that some of the shows of San-ti power, like the “you are bugs” scene are a bit too overblown and make it kinda hard to understand why the san-ti can’t just take over already or completely destroy humanity without even having the fleet show up. I felt like in the books the shows of power were still very impressive, but were very clearly within the power of the sophons. Some of the events in show arguably really shouldn’t be within the power of the sophons, at least from my interpretation and make the power seem kinda hand-wavey.
100% agree. they buffed the sophons too much and created polt holes.
The fact that they can take over airplanes and cars pretty much means transportation goes 100 years.
I liked the buffs! I didn't see anything that would theoretically be out of scope for the capabilities of a multidimensional hypercomputer 😂
@@Ytremz This creates a plot hole of "why doesn't it hack a factory to produce terminators?" Essentially, it would result in a different movie where the alien could terraform Earth from a distance before the arrival of the main fleet.
@@putty-e2872 I had the same thought too, but I was able to explain away these potential plot-holes fairly easily / plausibly. Essentially, the buffs allow the sophons to induce 'strategic chaos' in existing tech, as we see in this first season, but logistically, they would still likely need humans to do anything more than that. The more complex the scheme for the sophons to bypass these obstacles (sourcing materials, new fabrication processes, inventory / resource management, shipping, etc.) the more likely their plans would be to get detected by humans and shut down.
I didn't know anything about the Three Body Problem; just took a chance watching the Netflix adaptation ... Totally hooked! Just did a marathon viewing and now I've been hooked learning more from your videos, Quinn! Thanks for all the insight!
I read the books and I like both versions. But your coverage has helped me to understand the American version. I didn't appreciate it on my first viewing I was confused trying to align the imagery with the text. But I love the American version a lot now.
Unfortunately my wife wouldn't watch this episode because of the Judgement Day scene, but this is the exact type of science fiction she loves. But she can't watch children dying...
I showed her the Sophon scene at the end of episode 5, and she was flabbergasted, she loved it. But I imagine there will ve many more scenes of children suffering or dying, so she won't watch the series with me...
Great video, Quinn! You've been my source for sci fi novels and other media for years. Thank you for doing what you do!
58:35 Dammm I completely forgot about that. That scene was so cool in the book, with the TriSolareans realizing they F*up and were about to be annihilated by the tiny civilization 😅
The netflix show doesn’t make you feel the existential dread the same way the book makes you feel and that feeling was deep. It touched my soul in a way I never felt before. In fact I didn’t feel it at all when watching the show. Other than that it is a good show.
I do know what you mean. I feel in part the first season had to unfortunately somewhat curtail the intensity of the dread in order to keep moving forward and get setup for season 2.
If I had been show runner, I'd have leaned way more heavy into ending one of the early episodes with the DO NOT ANSWER part and really make that hit in the chest. That moment was the thing that stuck with me more than anything in the first book, and the series just laid it out and kept moving.
And then the rest of the dread and uncertainty later on, once we knew about the sophons, wasn't as claustrophobic feeling.
@@scottwatrousthese are respectable opinions and while I do understand these choices, the first book of this trilogy can actually stand on its own without the other two books.
100% agreed. I enjoyed the show but outside of the first episode with the winking universe and slightly with the 'you are bugs' scene I did not feel that existential dread. Well put.
It's just the first season...
Yeah, if I had one critique it'd be that the show took the sci-fi a bit too literal. Yes, there's a lot of science talk in the series, obviously. But thematically, emotionally, the story has way more of a Lovecraftian cosmic horror feel to me. I was surprised to learn it was the GOT guys behind this and someone like Mike Flanagan, who already has a working relationship with Netflix, wasn't considered. Him together with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead would be a perfect team to tackle Remembrance of Earth's Past.
You "spoiled" the whole thing for me long before now. If you hadn't I don't know that I would have watched it. It was great. I think I am finally going to read it.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that makes sense! The Sophon was bending the light...
I was confused about why the cop couldnt see that guy murdered against the window
it's so wierd to complain its not exactly like the book, ive never seena good adaption that is exactly like the books, different mediums require different changes, LOTR is a great example.
6:55 and 1:47:36 I mean... people will call me crying out victim cards but I really am convinced that people don't recognize Saul, a black man, as intelligent and then go on to talk about "forced diversity" adhere to a certain group of people
Who are these people complaining about smoking, drinking, and cussing, in a TV show??? I'm glad they are showing people smoking again. The people complaining like that are why we have so much censorship now a days and it needs to stop. Great review Quinn!
I was pleased to see Paul from Heavy Spoilers give you a huge shout out in his break down. You're far and away the BEST Sci Fi channel on here, but I'm still hoping to one day hear you read the Hyperion books & Orphans Of The Helix.....
Really liked this first season. I’m almost done reading Deaths End so I’m really glad I at least started the 3rd book before watching the season. If they adapt season 2 and 3 well it will be amazing! I hope Netflix doesn’t give up on it like they did with 1899!
1899’s cancellation, after falling in love with Dark many years ago & being so obsessed with the husband/wife creator’s work, made me so viscerally angry. We better not lose 3BP too!
Or raised by wolves. I was really sad when they cancelled that one
@@CosmicCosmo1- Raised by Wolves wasn't Netflix, it was HBO Max. But I was super bummed about their cancelation too. 😒🔥 Really pissed me off.
@@FigmentForeverthe sad thing is I had only watched one episode of 1899 before I saw the news that it was cancelled so I didn’t bother watching any more. Also Dark is incredible!! I occasionally go back a binge the entire series
@@westworld237- Even though it never got any further seasons... 1899 was still REALLY good as just one individual season, no joke!
I would finish it! It ends with a really dope twist that I didn't see coming. 😌 It was so cool.
Thank you so much, Quinn, for your reviews. Also, Don't forget Ball Lightning is about Ding Yi's backstory and the official part of the 3 Body universe.
You are the very best thing on TH-cam
I haven’t even started the series yet, although I did watch both Chinese series.
I’m enjoying watching your critique before starting .
49:10 Episode 5 - Judgement Day
1:02:40 Episode 6 - Stars Our Destination
1:11:40 Episode 7 - Criosleep
1:14:10 Saul is Luo Ji
1:23:32 Episode 8 - Wallfacers
1:33:37 The Bugs Scene
1:36:37 Conclusion and Superchats
This channel is the reason I got in the books, and it was worth the read even the spon off was good. Cheers and thank you for recommending these awesome sifi books 🎉
for people complaining about "forced diversity": if you walk into any western research lab you will see that those groups are quite diverse. As they are a mix of the smartest Phds from all over the world that got grants to work in those institutes. So this is not forced diversity. This is actually the realistic version of it. In the western world 50% of Phd graudates are women. I dont get the stereotypes argument either. How is Saul a black stereotype? Cause his character traits have nothing to do with race (he's a nihilist dude that only lives for the moment, but that loves and will protect his friends to death). Auggie I didnt even notice she was suppose to be latina until that village scene (and im latino). Her biggest character traits is being a genius with a similar moral dilema to Oppenheimer (how is that a latino stereotype?). I bet that the same people complaining about this are the same people who love The Departed without realizing or caring that the source material is asian.
Actually ur western research labs are majority Asian and Indian lol I understand ur point though in all honesty protect your friends lol I think you lost the plot, I guess it’s cultural difference in reading , u see want to protect friends chinese see pure hubris “for I would rather betray this world than let this world betray me”😂 the idea of this avengers get together against alien threat is actually the opposite of what the world view on how Chinese views humanity, it’s just different culturally
While that's true in the western world, it is very different in the east (which is where the book takes place). But to take the main male character of the book and split his character up into 2 women is very much forced diversity. Forcing a character to fragment into other characters that are seen as "underrepresented" in film, like splitting an atom, is obvious, and unlike science its completely unnecessary/ pandering. The fact that the show substitutes time that should be allotted for slowing the pace down and letting scientific revelations breath, let the plot breath so we can feel the pressure of the unknown impending doom (which makes the book a masterclass)... but instead use the time for dialogue like accidentally misgendering someone (episode 1 funeral scene) and making sure the character backtracks the severity of her heinous and diabolical statement immediately in the middle of a serious conversation about their dead colleague.
Then you get a random bar scene where they again, choose to use our precious time and their millions of dollars per episode to show us a dumb white guy assume women aren't smart while trying to hook up with the two characters that are supposed to represent 1 male character from the book. I had to reread that while typing but I just rewatched it and... yup. They then proceed to school the super dumb white male by proofing just how accomplished they are in their academic studies before rolling their eyes. This doesn't further the plot in a single beneficial way which is really disappointing given how rushed the story is for the show.
There is 100 percent pandering and "wink wink nod nods" in this show and this incredible and timeless story suffers greatly from it. Although I'm not surprised since the writers are the same ones that forgot about a huge subplot in game of thrones until the last 3 episodes, undid a character arc from the books, then made a really shitty and poorly thought-out character the king (later seasons thought out).
It's not "forced diversity". From the perspective of the entire series and not just the first book it makes a lot more sense to make the change they did. Wang was only relevant to the first book. Replacing him with characters who remain relevant to the whole series makes perfect sense, and is the kind of simplifying many adaptations do. It works better, to be honest. The rest of what you bring up are things taken from the book, so why is it a problem that the show adapted those aspects? @@dylanamaral1663
Forced diversity is mostly an issue when shows/movies incorporate it into their script at the detriment of the story. 3 body problem did not do that at all but of course, the changes alone are enough to make anti woke alpha youtubers and their followers throw earthquake equivalent tantrums.
hahahaha... "forced" diversity... ya'll are really just self reporting now huh?
Dude, just found your channel a few weeks ago. Love your deep dives. Keep up the amazing work.
I'm from Venezuela, and I was really curious to see how Manuel Rey Diaz was portrayed in the series, so I was a little disappointed when they removed it. But to be honest, it is the most logical decision, for several reasons. On the one hand, when Liu Cixin wrote the series, Hugo Chavez was still alive, and the author created a fictional character who imagined what a possible successor to Chavez could be. Nowadays, it is known who Chavez's successor was, who also ended up becoming a true dictator, and possibly the showrunners of the series wanted to avoid the political discussion that could arise from introducing this character, even if they kept him being the original Manuel Rey Díaz.
Manuel Rey Diaz is a very important wall facer，should not be deleted at all
Perhaps they interchanged the gender, maybe his the lady who fought ISIS in the Netflix version.
the character and their contribution to luo jis plan is still similar. I think using the kurdish fighter is also a good change considering their struggle against more advanced enemies.
I think the Chinese general is the new Manuel Rey Diaz, isnt he?
Diaz is more technical. I think the female among the Wallfacers is the one taking Diaz place. She's more technical. On another thought. The Netflix mixed up the character of Wang into 5 characters. So it is also possible that the character of Diaz was broken into those other two characters (the male and female wallfacers) apart from Saul. This makes sense because the other two Wallfacers apart from Diaz and Luo Ji, didn't make any significant difference, they died in the books
When the Count rolled up Follower after she dehydrated, I literally jumped up out of my seat! Omg, I'm re-reading the books. I'm so excited for more!!
Really Liked the show. Worth the watch.
I haven't read the books but leaned everything about the story through your videos.
I'm hoping to learn how they were able to produce the VR headsets, and can the San-Ti-Trisolaran's see into the future? (the countdowns are based on future moments).
@@greg.peepeeface I assumed that the Trisolaran's shared the technology to create the VR-Game because it was convenient for them.
@@M4rt1nX yeah, I thought that too, because they are all working together (ETO), but if I shared technology with primitive people, they wouldn’t be able to create or produce it.
@@M4rt1nXi also only know the story from quinn. are the tri solarians the same people as the san-ti?
@@Meilk27 Yes, they are originally called San-ti in the Chinese version and Trisolaran's in the translated books.
I thought about making a chart with book characters on the left and show characters on the right then connecting them with lines that define which aspects of each character translates into the respective counterpart with each line having a little snipped like "nanomaterial expert" on the line. I think this would help us keep track. There are some future aspects they are setting up such as a clear romantic connection between saul and auggie which we can predict how that will play out. But, I think this would be something Quinn would be much better at as well as having an audience to show that chart to.
1:49:03 "That's when you start to lose me, Emperor Potato"
This quote just made my list of the best things Quinn has ever said
Regarding 34:45, that is actually Nataraja, a depiction of Lord Shiva in Hinduism, performing the Tandava, the Dance of Destruction, whereby the current universe is destroyed (pralaya) for a new one to begin.
I liked how Netflix made Judgment Day a family cult ship unlike the ship filled with psychotic terrorists in the Tencent version.
I believe Will Downing (Yun Tianming), from Season 2 to the Season Finale, will have the most interesting and saddest character arc like Cooper from Interstellar (a man who traverses into space but can never return home to Earth). Imagine if the first San-Ti entity Will meets is the pacifist who tries to tell Ye Wenjie to not reply.
Yes, that makes the horror of it that much more traumatic for Dr. Salazar.
@@spamfilter32The San-Ti traumatized Auggie more so than the other Oxford Five. The aliens inadvertently killed her mentor, caused two of her friends to die, and forced her to give up her life's work. Plus, having her invention that is used to help people being turned into a weapon was the last straw. Auggie is similar to Andrew Wiggin's reaction in Ender's Game when he realized he participated in the genocide of an entire alien species before he learned there were survivors. Both didn't want to use their inherent talents and intelligence to commit murder on a massive scale (there were a thousand people on Judgment Day).
I did not. It shows how Americans media is obsessed with bloody stuff.
Will will survive, the Santi will revive his body. He will definitely reunite with Chen Zing
We won't see the pacifist Santi. He betrayed them so you can imagine what they did to him
I'm super surprised that you're hearing so much negative feedback about this show (I generally stay off social media, sooooo...I'm blissfully out of the loop). It has been a while since I read the books, but this show is hitting those essential beats, and it's really giving me that creeping sense of dread I felt in the books.
Adapting something this complex would be such a daunting task - I think they did a fantastic job.
I pity the team who tries to adapt 'Children of Time', that is one big story!!
Including those paper boats is a nice foreshadowing.
It's fun being from way back when and seeing Quinn get big, but now he is skyrocketing due to being the right guy in the right place at the right time.
Our very own wallbreaker, we love ya Quinn!
Love this. Makes me want to rewatch the whole series...midway now. You're so smart and thoughtful quin.
My cousin Wang Suk Kok in China tried to memorise these books in order to impress girls. His country has 40 millon more men than women. He hopes to feel the warm embrace of a female companion before he turns 50 this year. He has resigned himself that if he is not successful he will have to reluctantly turn towards males.
Bot lmwo.
The sci-fi book fan meltdowns lately surrounding both Dune (where I am familiar with the source material) and now this show (where I haven't gotten around to the source material yet) are hilarious.
I'm actually shocked that apparently some book readers were upset with the first season?? I overall was very pleased with it and thought it was faithful to the source material.
Saul was done right.. more intelligence more vices
Are you trying to confess anything 😂
He’s definitely more likable and less douchey than Luo Ji
I love your videos and you have convinced me to get the books, I enjoyed the tv series but after watching your videos I think the last 2 episodes hit better for book readers that understand the whole story, really looking forward to getting to read it and watch your other videos!
I really enjoyed the last 2 videos on this subject. Thank you for your hard work, Quinn!!
You didnt mention it in the character breakdown but Raj is being setup as Zhang Beihai most likely
I'm a smoker. In the show smoking is a BRILLIANT subtle way to constantly highlight humanities self destructive nature.
You're the reason i even knew what this was. Now im obsessed. Ready to hibernate until next season.
I hope season 2 starts with the San-TI POV scene from the end of book 1. When the pacifist technician receives the first message.
That single pacifist implies so much about San Ti culture, it’s fascinating to me
Great analysis of the Einstein joke and what Ye Wenjie was doing with it. I think it is more elegant than what she does in the book by straight up telling Luo Ji the first two axioms of cosmic sociology. However, it doesn't explain why in the show the San-Ti immediately view Saul as a threat that needed to be eliminated. She successfully camouflaged her message just like Tianming does with the fairy tales. There is no immediate reason to view Saul as a particularly dangerous Wallfacer
In the book, the sophons would have heard the conversation between Ye Wenjie and Luo Ji in teh cemetery, which is why they knew Luo Ji was the biggest Wallfacer threat, because he had the building blocks to establish Dark Forest deterrence.
Because the show takes a more circumspect approach to giving Saul the Dark Forest deterrence idea, the San-Ti don't know that he has been given the building blocks for that approach. From what has been revealed in the show, it doesn't make sense that the San-Ti would see Saul as such a major threat yet. Unless they just assume that one conversation with Ye Wenjie is reason enough to kill Saul.
I think I agree. It will make for a great 'aha!' moment in the show when ppl will understand what she was hinting at and since we know absolutely nothing about the Trisolarians in the show at this point yet.
However if we would know that they can't understand metaphores and hidden messages like in the books then it wouldn't work.
Thank you so much for the stream. It’s so hard to find something like this in Chinese internet, too many haters spamming false information.
I really like your take on the show, very considered and fair. For instance, you mentioned the music and it is superb. The undertow of mounting dread it conveys in certain scenes...
Your original videos of 3BP pushed me to read the books, very grateful for that. However I don't agree with about half of this, there's a lot of glossing over, but I won't reply beat by beat to a 2 hour video.
I think they improved on the books they made more about the characters than the books are, human interactions and relationships, which is necessary on a tv show.
The Three Body Problem netflix series got me buying all these classic science fiction novels. I'm currently waiting for the books of the trilogy to come in.
They say PDC near the end. The detective guy protecting Saul says PDA or PD something and then the short liaison guy says that it's the PDC and the detective guy says PDC
Thank you, Quinn -- You introduced so many of us to Three Body long before it became popular. I expect Liu Cixin probably follows your channel. 😀
A FANTASTIC real-time presentation! A very talented man.
I was excited for this show thanks to your coverage of the book but started hearing bad reviews. I took the leap and binged it last night and man, I sure hope it doesn't get canceled. I love what I saw and I don't understand the bad reviews from people.
I think Netflix completely failed to present the "paranoia" feeling that was quite present in the books. Sophons in the Chinese TV Series were shown pretty neatly, simply drone shots, but "if you know, you know" kind of thing. It's absent from the Netflix version, the total nightmare of the "Dark Forest" and all.
I feel like people dont like the concept of opposition. I seem to observe it towards the character of Auggie and her rift between Wade. Wade is a very direct, charismatic no bullshit, get shit done type of character, very enjoyable character to watch, so it obviously garners him some popularity between the emsemble. Deserved too. But i feel like wade would be incomplete if he had no moral counter in the narrative. Since shes the moral opposition of his plans, she's immediately disliked, the one who gets in the way. One could find her annoying, sure, but shes very much needed, we need auggie to cry for the victims his path creates, otherwise there's nothing in the story to remind the viewer that the actions he pursues have costly consequences. Without that moral opposition Auggie gives to the story, everyone gets to agree guilt free of wade's "by all means" aproach since he usually gets results, that imo only drives everyone to be desentitized of human loss. Not to say everyone has to like Auggie or her reasons etc, but that her role is important to complement Wade's in the story.
Also what i get from your video is that pretty much people really do love to hate on the adaption for "differences from the books" but clearly havent read the books. hilarious!
The Netflix version is very different from the Tencent version, with the Tencent version being more suspenseful, but they both captured the essence of the horror of the original book. The Netflix version's characters weren't as endearing as Tencent's were for me, but they weren't bad and I did grow to care about them by ep 6. Will and Jack were my favourite characters in the Netflix version and Jack's death made me feel sad. And Will... man I really got attached to him.
I feel like the universe winking scene was better in Tencent's version than in Netflix's, and sometimes the cgi is a bit rough in Netflix's version. Netflix's version did dumb down the science more to be accessible to more general audiences, but I still think people can understand the main principles in the Netflix version and that's great bc now my family's able to understand what's going on lol. Overall, while I really liked the Netflix and Tencent versions, I personally I still like Tencent's more. My mom and brother love the Netflix version more though.
Absolutely agree. The Netflix version seems like a cheap, loosely integrated and poorly adapted Western characterization. All the greatness of the book has been lost. There is no dread, no existential crisis that feels palpable or emergent . It’s rushed and the characters are shallow with no real connection with the plot. It’s a complete letdown. Stick with the book and the Tencent version.
@@jrbethke but you don't agree.... You just want to trash it.
Regarding the bugs at the end, if I recall correctly, there was a segment on news in the show, about cicadas swarming. Cicadas are famously known to remain dormant for 13 or 17 years then they swarm. If humans are bugs, then I think this is foreshadowing that the humans will decline then swarm after many years. From what I understand from reviews of the books, this will be the case.
Wow mannn prepared a PowerPoint😆😆😆But yea avid trilogy lover and I love the Netflix show! What I love the most is that when talking to non book readers on Reddit, I find that most of their questions have answers in the show, addressed in later books, or explained by common sense. Wouldn’t watch the Tencent one anytime soon tho. If I had the time I’ll just listen to the audio book or read it again😅
This is so sad to hear as the Tencent one was great and in my opinion such a better companion to the books than the Netflix series, which is enjoyable but hardly hit the notes that made me go a little crazy for the 3BP series. The actors in the Tencent one were amazing. Oh, well.
Just finished your mega compilation video- my lord.. well done. Really makes me want to read the series! I couldnt wait for the show to come out- and have just begun it- but so tempted to read it all now. Thanks for taking the time. So impressive.
This show made the mythos more accessible to the general audience. A literal adaptation would have been a disaster. People complain about everything. Forget them.
having not read the books - i enjoyed the Netflix show very much
i did try the Chinese show - but it was unbearably slow
not saying that the Chinese one is bad - but the showrunners made great decisions in adapting this for the american taste
I am vietnamese BTW… i follow my culture and am americanized
Don’t get why they went to great lengths to assassinate Saul but why didn’t a Sophon just take down his plane? We saw this was possible when they toyed with Wade on the plane at the end. Also, a Sophon obviously hacked the cars that tried to run over Saul. Plot armor just when he is flying?
Because Dashi was with him obviously!
I don’t think it is possible, the plane was probably an illusion.
The sophons are not all mighty but that's a legit question like why don't they try harder to kill him?
In the books the TriSolareans uses ETO to assassinate Luo Ji (Saul) and they don't want to draw too much attention to him (hence freak car accident) but that fails so they let ETO try more direct attempts.
@@zando5108 Da Shi is a talisman against a Sophon sabotaging an airplane to make it crash?
I looked at that as all an illusion.i don't think they can physically do anything but illusions
I decided to watch it based on your recommendation and was not disappointed! Now the wait til season 2 arggghhhh.
Yes, it‘s clear that both series are adaptations, but the target audience is different, so dont be mad, just enjoy.
I have been bingeing everything you have done on 3 Body Problem. Now I need to buy the three books and the 1 made by a different author.
My only complain is that saul is too much a normal guy for me. In the books the character was a crazy lazy guy that was gifted with great imagination and later evolved into something he never wanted to be just because he had to
I’m pretty frustrated with your comment because at this point in time he is EXACTLY like the guy in the book. In personality anyway. I don’t even understand your comment. You want the show to show us some cheesy daydreams of some unimportant character at this time ? What ? You’d lose the audience immediately
No one seems to remember that Luo was borderline schizophrenic. He dumped an actual girl to date an imaginary girl and even went on a road trip date with her. Saul is definitely more balanced.
Really enjoyed this. I wouldn't have known about 3 Body Problem if it wasn't for your videos, Quinn. I very much agree the series is a Sci-fi masterpiece. I think it will be a series that inspires other Sci-fi authors for generations.
i didnt realize saul was luo gi until the car crash
Came from the book with a greater appreciation of bugs. They are durable and persistent. They also play an important part of the ecosystem. Liked Jin Cheng because it was good to see a Kiwi Chinese actress playing a Kiwi Chinese character. Many top NZ academics do their PhD research and academic careers in US, UK and Australia.
I think a big reason a lot of people are saying the things like the paper boats and staircase project and all that weren't in the book, is because they don't realize that this season contains parts from all three books, and those things are all in the third book, so I'd bet a lot of people just haven't gotten there yet.
That Judgement Day episode really was extraordinary- the (highly metaphorical) scene where you see the paper cutouts of children being sliced in half by the nano wire put a chill through me
SPOILER WARNINGS actually Ye wenjie is much more complicated character than series show, she is not a devil, In the book, Ye's thought has changed three times, At first she feels the crazy of humankind through culture revolution, and she feels betrayed by her most trust person(Bai mulin), then she feels love and warm from Yang weining(this character is actually a good person, really really good not like Netflix adoption), during this period she thought Perhaps this crazy and betrayal only belongs to that particular period, until she read some history of humankind books, from witch-hunting movement to slave-trade, mankinds have always been creatures of carzy and ignorance. and during this period she sent message to trisolarans, Ye believes trisolarans are more moral than humans, and they can help humans transform society. therefore when She had to kill her husband, who probably loved her the most, for the secret of the existence of the Trisolaran, completing the transformation of Ye Wenjie to ETO commander-in-chief. however During her pregnancy she is cared for by the villagers of Qijatun and she begins to believe in the goodness of humans again. But after the Cultural Revolution she visits the people who hurt her during CR period, they refuse to apologise to her, seeing the harm they did to her as a piece of history. Even so, she still had a glimmer of hope for humanity, and within the ETO organisation, she liquidated the Adventists (the faction that wished for the destruction of the world by the Trisolaran). After recognising that the Trisolaran were far crazier than humans, she began to construct a sociology of the universe, and an answer to the Fermi Paradox. In doing so, she hoped to help humanity fight back against the Trisolaran invasion.
here is a sentence can summarise her life in a quote from the book by Ye Wenjie "I lit the fire, but I couldn't control it."
Ye did not hesitate to murder her husband as collateral damage WHILE PREGNANT because she needed to kill her boss who discovered her unauthorized transmission. She's an ice cold monster.
How is she not a devil?
As someone who really only read the first book but knows what happens afterwards, after the first book ends and we got into new territory, i enjoyed it more and more so i imagine that's how it went for people who were totally new.
Bummed I was only able to catch a small bit of the livestream as I was at work. And I always love your analyses and Dune material. In fact, you are the one who got me to read ROEP a year-and-change ago. But I did have some of the criticisms you cited. Thing is, I *WANT* to like it, I loved the books and am very pro adaptational changes if intelligently done, as in Dune…
1. Cursing/Smoking/Drug Use: I don’t have issues with having these things in fiction. I think it’s the context. A large portion of the curses in the book were by the police, military, industrialists etc. I’ve had the privilege of knowing (through coincidental fate) a number of screenwriters in L.A., as well as physicists, technologists and professors. The ‘Oxford 5’ characters act and speak much more like the hard-living screenwriters than they do the physicists as a whole.
I think people vibe this and it feels off.
China is much more of a smoking culture, but even in that context, book Da Shi gets called out for the habit. Luo Ji was considered a wastrel and a bit of a joke in academic circles so the drunkenness showed his attitude toward the wallfacer program. A few others were under extreme stress. So if it had been just ‘Saul’, ‘Jack’ and maybe ‘Auggie’ (after she started seeing the numbers) that I think is different than just having the pub-crawling hipsterism be the group’s default setting.
And I’m sorry, as an ABC I can tell you, “time is a mother***ker” is something a screenwriter with a chinstrap smoking clove cigs would say, not a 70 year old Chinese woman and physicist who lived through the Cultural Revolution.
Although in fairness, perhaps I and others may be being less charitable due to the sense D&D are dudebros who love their ‘edginess’ and so are just injecting it
2. Having the ‘Oxford 5’ being a friendgroup is a good change and makes sense to tie together the seasons.
3. The universe visibly blinking is a good example of the general dumbing-down of the material that bothers me. Instead of the background radiation of the universe being interrupted, it’s the most blunt, ‘Independence Day’ level version that makes the assumption you can’t explain the most basic scientific idea to the audience in favor of Marvel-style spectacle. Yet seeming to alter the background radiation of the *entire universe* is actually far more mind-boggling. I think a good adaptation could have simply and briefly explained it, and the audience would have gotten it with the scientists absolutely freaking out. But I feel like in general the adaptation doesn’t trust the audience. Again, going back to Dune - I think part of what made DV successful is trusting his viewers.
4. This dumbing-down also seen in the beginning of the Virtual Reality sections, because I felt it didn’t build any mystery about the eras or what was happening. They just immediately infodumped it in seeming fear that this would be strange, offputting and complicated for the viewer.
5. I agree, the Cultural Revolution segments were better in that they went where the CCP wouldn’t allow the Tencent version to go, making Wenjie’s actions connect more effectively. The Tencent version was elevated by young Ye’s actress. Alhough with the Silent Spring section, I did notice D&D’s desire to inject sex and relationship drama.
6. The nanowire sequence was very spectacular and I liked this a lot including the inclusion of the children on the boat to show the cost of doing these things is traumatic. That’s an improvement on both the book and the Tencent series as well.
Glad I found this video with a full deep dive. A few other TH-camrs clickbaited me and all they gave was the basic summary.
I didn't like the first book and I didn't like the tencent version but I loved the Netflix show. Watching the show made me buy the 2nd and 3rd books!
Still watching the video but small correction. Ep 3 starts with Lord Shiva, in his Nataraja form.
Kali is the Goddess of Death, Shiva is the destroyer. That statue depicts Shiva’s dance which he does every cycle which destroys the universe so it will be reborn anew for the next cycle.
So it’s actually very poignant to future themes in the series.
Edit: Oh he was corrected soon after. I’m leaving my comment just for the second part and how it might be relevant to later themes in the series.