@@emilefamon1012 we are humans, forgiveness is written In our genes. I am not religious but my inner moral would push me towards forgiveness and would also prevent me to decide fate of billions just because Individuals wronged me or even did these horrible things to my family. I just don't like that she in the show decided it without properly thinking and contemplating, literally decision was made in a way that is not usual for any decision even ones way way smaller then answering to alien race that could annihilate humanity forever.
@@bca-jf9cg Chinese people under Mao and the like....and those cultural revolutions after Mao.... The people that killed her father made her hateful mindset and personality.... to see the world (China in that time period ) and people of the world ( again people of China in that time period) for making that unimaginably horrible mistake... Anyway what I mean is she had never experienced any other ideologies and lifestyles OUT Of CHINA under super mad and brutal dictators.... The same goes for the writer of triplet of 3 body problem books and its spin offs.... Mr. Liu Cixin No doubt that he's a super genius writer in sci-fi.... but please if you have extra time, search about his ideologies and beliefs and you will understand why he wrote those almost Dooms and Glooms for humanity's end....
If I remember the books correctly, humanity was doomed the moment they bounced the signal through the sun. Some pacifist Trisolaran sent the message, but knew it was futile because other listening posts (or maybe his/her superiors?) would still be aware of Earth's transmission.
When the “Do not answer” showed up on screen for the first time I literally gasped. Such a simple yet powerful way to capture the terror of the Dark Forest Hypothesis (which, to my surprise, Liu coined as a phrase himself!)
"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth." Mfs really had to beat her father to death for believing in science.
In the book she is further beaten down by life. Spoilers! Both her parents died to the denunciations, her mother even went crazy. Her teacher, who she sometimes visited and was close to, commited suicide cause she couldn’t take anymore of the purges. Her sister abandoned their family to save herself from their politically dangerous legacy but later died anyways . She got lucky to not be punished as a traitor and just got send to a quiet rural work camp. There she made a friend, she helped him write a letter to warn of environmental degradation and when the political currents shifted and he was gonna get in trouble, he blamed her for the letter, even though she only wrote what he dictated. Later she suffered years of isolation in her job in the video, and her peers take over her work and take all the credit for her discoveries. And even after the kind alien scientist warned her not to respond or else the other aliens would triangulate Earth’s locations, she was just so disillusioned . Also had to kill her boss who was going to steal the alien discovery info, and accidentally killed her husband in the process. And after leaving she meets a rich guy who hates humanity and makes a society to plan for the Alien’s arrival, but he takes over the whole organization and kicks her out. And after going back to a calm life, her own daughter committs suicide due to the aliens going after scientists and making her crazy. She really was hurt by everything in her life. She didn’t even want to exterminate humanity, she was of the “better that aliens guide us than more of this human stuff, lest ask them for help”. But it all got out of hand. She is the most screwed over character in the whole series, pressing the button was not even the end of bad things happening to her. If she wanted to kill all humans at least then she would be evil and that’s that, but no.
Underrated comment. I never thought of that this way. Maybe they're both trying to escape their own personal hell, which end up in even worse hell they both didn't foresee.
@@ChandlerLawsonPlaysthey are not hive mind. They just can’t hide things from each other. Their thought is transparent to each other but others do not automatically know what you are doing.
In the 2nd book, there was a bit more background to this story: as soon as the Shan Ti traitor carried out this action, he/she was immediately caught by the Shan Ti Master, and the traitor knew he/she would be immediately caught, but he/she did it anyway. The Shan Ti Master had to wait for 8 years to find out that the traitor's action had no effect, as Wenjie answered anyway. What I find inexplicable in the book was the traitor's ultimate fate, but I am not going to spoil it here. @@ChandlerLawsonPlays
To anyone wondering why the San-Ti was not able to determine Earth's location just from the first broadcast since it was not elaborated in the netflix series. The aliens can only determine the direction of the source but cannot determine the distance of its origin to the San-Ti's location. However, with the second broadcast and thus the time between the first and second broadcast received by the San-TI, the distance of Earth from the San-Ti can then be determined.
They (San-Ti) might have considered sending a smaller colony because there was no way of knowing how far away we were: by the time they got there their planet could have been torn apart already by their suns. @@NRV0
Sounds reasonable, but there *are* other ways to determine the origin of the signal. For example, it must have come from a planet, which must be orbiting a star. If they could detect a signal coming from one direction, then they could have detected any stars along that direction, as well. The first star's system would likely be the origin, and even if it weren't, it would still be worth investigating.
@@NRV0 There's a cut line from the book mentioning that there are millions of stars in our direction. It's possible they could still find Earth, but they would have to look at every single star.
I neither like nor dislike Ye Wenjie. I'm just fascinated by her, and I sympathize with her. Even though I wouldn't press the button myself, I can see how a person who had been so uniquely traumatized as her would do it. She watched her father be tortured and executed publicly after being betrayed by her own mother, was subjected to the depravity of an actual concentration camp, saw firsthand the destructive nature of industrial development, and when she finally grasped at any opportunity to rise above her tribulations in life, she was bullied and exploited by men with inferior minds to her own. Yeah, it kind of makes sense why she may have lost faith in humanity.
That's the genius part, you understand her mindset and exactly why she did it. But as it's said later on in the series "who gave you the right to decide for all of us?". No matter what she had been through, this was the most evil malicious act committed by any human in the history of the species.
And thus the first Interstellar Trolling commenced….when confronted with the knowledge that earth was doomed from her single message, Ye Wenjie responded with the very same message that she sent the Trisolarans…..”LOL K”
"You lie but not exclusively out of fear? for no reason as well? incomprehensible bugs, creepy little fks, We'll do the world a service by ending you" Probably Shan Ti
“What happened next was the longest half hour of her life. During this time, Ye adjusted the transmission frequency to the optimal frequency for amplification by the solar energy mirror, and increased the transmission power to maximum. Then, putting her eyes to the eyepiece of the optical positioning system, she watched the sun rise above the horizon, activated the positioning system for the antenna, and slowly aligned it with the sun. As the gigantic antenna turned, the rumbling noise shook the main control room. One of the men on duty looked at Ye again, but said nothing. The sun was now completely above the horizon. The crosshair of the Red Coast positioning system was aimed at its upper edge to account for the time it would take for the radio wave to travel to the sun. The transmission system was ready. The Transmit button was a long rectangle-very similar to the Space key on a computer keyboard, except that it was red. Ye’s hand hovered two centimeters above it. The fate of the entire human race was now tied to these slender fingers. Without hesitation, Ye pressed the button.” Excerpt From The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu Zine is so brilliant 👏🏻👏🏻
@@havenht YES...they are so bad. Every single time it switches to Jin or Jovan I roll my eyes. Just got done watching episode 2 and you can feel them acting. That's never a good sign. Auggie and Jack are okay while Ye is amazing.
It is not about asking help. She did that because of revenge regarding his family and the world in which she end up living. The message is just the way how she expresed her hatred toward everything and everyone.
@@georgewilliamgutarracampos6262it was really bad luck, of all people she was the one who got the message and communication and as weird as its gets the author makes another female character fck up humanity's plan on saving itself later in the books or story. Its like the man just made another Eve eat the forbidden apple which lead humanity's suffering from original sin. While the male characters try hardest as they can to save humanity especially one wallfacer who saves humanity with quote unquote a push of a button like this one how poetic. However female chracters will also have their redemption.
This doesnt jive with her responses in present day. She really thought theyd come and make everything better. That's why the "you are bugs" scene broke her so thoroughly
Reminds me of a short story: Scientists were excited to receive their first confirmed alien message, until they translated it: "They are coming. We couldn't stop them."
Another similar story Scientists sent signals and transmissions into the skies, hoping for an answer. One day they got a message back, It read ”be quiet they are listening”.
This was the scene that made everything click for me. The realization of what this show is really about gave me chills. (I had no prior knowledge of the book trilogy or the series)
I was frustrated by that scene. Often it's not fearlessness that drives people, but desperation. The idiot also didn't explain the multiple levels of the tale: for children, it's a cautionary tale. For teens, it's about the coming of age. Edit: oops, I was thinking of the scene where he was explaining Hansel & Gretel. Still, both stories were poorly explained to the "Lord."
@ytechnology he also didn't explain how all recipients of the story know ahead of time that it's not something that actually happened and is meant to be taken as a lesson. Therefore it is not a lie. I don't think it was so much the fact that we tell stories that did it, I think it was more about the fact that in his explanation combined with what else they know about him they came to know of humanity as assholes. Either that or they never had any intention of cohabitation with Mike's crew and this is just part of the plan. Are the sophons lying when they show their planets story with aesthetics from earth's past? They're telling a story that's not actually true there, either. They would also know about these stories and the context of them if they had perfect knowledge of humanities history... I think they were just fucking with mike
Imagine the CGI cost for Season 2 and 3. How the hell would you even depict the 4D tombs? It would make the "inside the blackhole" scene from Interstellar look like child's play.
@@jamiemontgomery5289they aren’t a hive mind. They just can’t lie or deceive as their communication is not like our voices, they just think and it automatically gets communicated out. So the alien scientist was disillusioned with his life (bad job, was getting old, couldn’t find someone to reproduce with him) and dislutioned with his empire too, and he sacrificed himself to warn Earth. Unfortunately he didn’t explain why Ye Wenjie shouldn’t answer. And since he can’t lie, he was punished severely for his treason when the others found out.
imagine being an author this good, that without even introducing a single alien, you managed to show empathy, compassion or simply "humanity" from them
1:00 that printout is from the "Wow! signal" detected in Ohio August 15, 1977. Neat reference! ("6EQUJ5" is not a message, it's just a representation of signal strength.)
It took me so long to learn that the “Wow!” Was just a comment on the strength of the signal, a huge surge in intensity over a period of like 70 seconds, which was highly irregular compared to what they’d normally see.
Someone correct me, but in my memory of the book I’m pretty sure she goes further than saying “we can’t save ourselves” and actually refers to us as “a wretched species” or something like that - which makes sense given what she’s witnessed and the white hot rage she feels after the confrontation with her father’s murderer.
I like this Netflix version of this scene over the tencent one which had over the top lighting and overly dramatic acting. This one is simple and ominous. No distractions from the tension.
@@dieantler no. She jeopardized our entire civilization and its future because of a bad event that happened in HER country. That's childish and selfish. In real life, I'd hope we wouldn't be that stupid but we know that we already are 😔
you could argue the san ti listener is the one being arrogant here considering it just assumes they can go and conquer this world, when apparently they don't even know how far away it is yet lol
@@Fear_the_Nog ignorance and/or malice. 1. ignorance if she actually believes she has the knowledge to conclude that humanity cant "save itself". 2. malice if she did it out of spite to what happend to her in life. in both cases she is not someone who should make a decision like that at all :D
@@Razerfreak1 yeah I don't think she was thinking, or believing, or concluding...so much as feeling in that moment. She's visibly shaking. There is so much repressed rage within her for so many years, it isn't even calculated spite at this point, just a pipe breaking. To her, her society itself is malice. Not condoning the button pushing, but I can understand why she did it.
@@Fear_the_Nog she had enough time to think about what shes doing. emotional acts and decisions happen in split seconds. after that u start calculating, at that point its malice. she didnt send the message in a blink of an eye, she planned, every single latter.
Even aside from dooming all the innocent people of the world, Ye Wenjie’s mistake was assuming that the Trisolarans would be better. It’s like opening the gates of Hell to get back at your high school bullies.
Dumb take. Did you miss the part where her father was betrayed by her mother and beaten to death by a mob right in front of her, then she was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured? Or her reaction at the massive environmental destruction wrought by the CCP? Or the fact that everywhere she went there were unrepentant, monstrous people seeking to exploit or destroy her if she didn’t do whatever they wanted? Not “high school bully” behavior by a longshot. So of course she would settle into the belief that literally anything is better than the status quo.
@@georgeofhamilton Says the person that the only reason of Ye Wenjie betrayal is from high school bullies. When her trauma extended far beyond. This is why people living in the comfort on their home never understand the suffering of others.
Ye Wenjie is probably the closest "villain" I've seen that achieved what X-Men's Magneto did. Both of them are victims of circumstances pushed to make terrible decisions by the course of their lives. And while you can't entirely justify their actions, boy can you certainly sympathize with how they ended up there. Had I lived through the Holocaust or the Cultural Revolution in China I might come out the other side more than a little disenchanted with the entire human endeavor and experiment as a whole. The best villains are those whom the audience looks at and says, "There but for the Grace of God go I."
I wish we didn't sympathise with monsters and treat it as some kind of dark romanticism. If a monster is created, you kill the monster, the origins are irrelevant.
She's me every time I get a "let's table this for now, we'll do some blue sky thinking and circle back in the next go-round. Can someone capture some bullet points in a slide-deck for next time we meet? (then names yours truly in a put-on inquisitive tone)" in a meeting set up to specifically do said blue sky thinking so we wouldn't have to have any more "go-rounds." Seriously, Cthulhu can wake up already.
Still having problems with watching the rest of the show after this. This scene, even though I knew it was coming, gave me such a horrific feeling of dread and anxiety. It's been two days, and I still can't get myself to watch the rest, even if I want to. Fantastic show so far.
I feel like the most shocking aspect of 3 Body Problem is the way the aliens suppressed technological advancement. That's the truly mind-blowing thing an advanced alien civilization could bring about. All the stuff about massive space battles, laser gun fights, that's just humanity projecting our technological fantasies.
It felt like a spin on the old joke about every great disaster movie starting with a scientist being ignored. Here the scientist is ignored as SHE actively instigates disaster...
There's still a likely chance that they will bring this up in a later season. While I also loved the turkey & the shooter analogy when it was mentioned in book 1, I think it's much more relevant to the things that happen in book 3
I wanted to see the moment she killed her husband by cutting the rope like in tencent it was disturbing. Her husband loved her but she never did and hated humanity and was so numbed by it . The Tencent version the story was slow but so detailed that her thought process was so visceral to the viewers and when it was the ultimate moment to cut the rope I think that impact was much stronger than pushing the red button .
For me the best scene of the series. I was thinking: "Why is she responding?! She knows that they probably are humanity's doom. I'm not continuing this series, if characters just do nonsense here..." ! But then I've read her message... and it's so deep
Ye Wenjie's reaction was 100% in response to the absolute brutality seen in Mao's 1960s era "Cultural Revolution" in China. That was preceded by Stalin's Russia then followed by "The Killing Fields" in Cambodia and the many atrocities in the Middle East. No creature - NONE - is as cruel to its own kind as Humans are to one another. Larry Niven wrote a science fiction book where aliens pay a fee to attend a terrestrial university's history course. The Aliens - basically a cross between a gorilla and a cat - learn about ancient Carthage. It was besieged, taken by Ancient Rome, all the males over 12 were slain by spear or sword, the women and children were sold into slavery, then the town was reduced to rubble, and finally the land was salted so nothing could grow. The Alien had never seen such primitive brutality.
@@SWAT616 I missed some of the show. In the book, Ye Wenji murders her husband and a friend to defend the secret of contacting the trisolarians. Was that shown in this series?
@@Easy-Eight and then finds out she's pregnant and grows close with the villagers nearby as they care for her and her child. She teaches their children theres a reason her organization splits into two and she realized she was wrong and can now only hope that the trisolarans would foster humanity not wipe them out. She died regretting her decision.
"No creature - NONE - is as cruel to its own kind as Humans are to one another." Bullsh-t, dude. Nature is scary as sh-t and plenty of animals do some incredibly brutal things - even to their own kind - like killing and cannibalizing babies. The only difference between a human and a lion or a bear, etc, is that we have the intelligence to enact cruelty on an industrial scale.
In addition to all the other points in this thread, there's also the fact that she assumes that higher levels of technology MUST mean higher levels of morality. She has a combination of a natural human bias in favour of herself and her profession (science), has absolutely nobody else to talk to and discuss things with (because she's a political undesirable in a dictatorship), knows that she's smarter than the brutal idiots and mediocrities around her and is intellectually arrogant because of it (and has no equals who could give her constructive feedback and a reality check), has a complete lack of faith in any higher power other than her own reasoning (she has no religion or deep philosophy and the state government is obviously corrupt and incompetent), and despite hating the Maoist "our philosophical perfection will make us triumph over our enemies" propaganda she has unconsciously adopted some of its underlying assumptions and lacks the historical knowledge to disprove it (eg both the Spanish and the Aztecs were slaving, warmongering, pillaging aristocracies willing to commit massacres for their gods, so the destruction of the Aztecs was due to differences in technology and disease-resistance rather than being fairly out-competed or having their beliefs rendered obsolete by any philosophical superiority of the Spanish.) These are the sorts of traits that could make a highly intelligent person do something that a much stupider person would realise is a terrible idea. Add in the trauma, and the fact that she's misanthropic enough to have no HOPE for humanity but caring enough to WANT to save it from itself, and it makes total sense that she'd throw herself (and everyone else) on the mercy of the conquerors.
@@mzytryck You should not have brought the Aztec and the Conquistadors into the conversation. Yes, the Spanish were power mad pillagers. However, the Aztec's idea of a fun time was to go into a village, take them captive, and sacrifice all the men on a bloody alter. It's not that the indigenous people loved the Spanish. It's just the Spanish didn't believe in absolute whole sale slaughter, brought a stable government, and were tolerable. Also, the Spanish men were boffing indigenous natives. They quickly settled with the locals. That's a thing not really talked too much in a history book. One big reason why the French did so much better in Canada than the British is they took indigenous wives. If a guy's an in-law then you're a lot more chill towards him. Face it, Jean marries local Indian maiden. Father of the bride is happy they have strong kids. Jean helps the local tribe when fishing. They are your in-laws, *you're going to have to be chill* . I am worried that you put "science" as more moral than religion, it's not. People are corrupt all over. Scientists lie and cheat all the time. Nothing is perfect and all institutions have their issues. Look at the 2024 American college system: it's collapsing. Harvard University is full of people who plagiarize one another's work. Modern colleges BRAG they practice discrimination on race. If colleges were subject to the same "hostile workplace" standards of 1998 then they could be sued for the horrible way they treat men in 2024.
Ye Wenjie is somehow like Anakin Skywalker. They ain't pure evil. And what they did are not entirely their fault. They made a deadly choice at the critical moment and there is no turning back. And 1 more similarity, with a little spoiler: They both redeemed themselves at the final moment of their lives. (For Ye, it's the conversation with Soul which makes him a wallfacer)
@@beegest_yoshi I think her best choice is to tell the dark forest theory directly to Wade. And Wade will definitely has the balls and power to execute the deterrence to SanTi. Wade doesn't show up in the original novel until the 3rd book. So she told the theory to Luo Ji before she is captured. While in the TV show, Wade directly interrogated Ye. She has no reason to tell it to Soul, who looks pretty unlikely to use the information correctly. I think it's a bug on the story lol
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilisation is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound.
it's not about asking for help, she did that because of revenge regarding her family and the world in which she end up living in. the message is just a way to express her hatred toward everything and everyone. deep down she know that what she's doing could bring ruin to everything and everyone. maybe she even want that. so to her it's actually a win win situation no matter what they do, she'd still win. damn, that's crazy.
The scene reminded me of "The Guardian" podcast, where various academics pondered on the ods of humanity surviving the coming decades. What struck me was the observation that we like to imagine that our civilisation can only be threatened by outside factors. Think Hollywood style asteroid impacts or all the alien invasions, of which this series, is another example. The truth is that climate change is far likelier civilisation killer, but it doesn't make for an attention grabbing blockbuster. If anything, the San-Ti should hurry up. Humanity doesn't have 400 years.
She wasn't a traitor in the book. She just asked for help because she thought humanity couldn't take care of itself anymore and needed a guide. She thought an advanced civilization would be wise and caring and an invasion would be positive.
I get why she sent it. Some people think one should be patriotic no matter what but what if you're country is failing you despite holding one of the better jobs you don't have good housing, you can't afford to raise a family you pretty much just work and none of the politicians you can elect will make things better. At that point you might be desperate for a change, any change and if someone tries to overthrow you're failing leaders you don't stand in their way. As Martin Luther King once said ignoring peaceful protests lead to less peaceful protests and the only way to stop something like this from happening is to improve the average person's life. Whats chilling about this scene is its more realistic than most sci fi movies. I study science as a hobby and I'm not sure its a good idea to broadcast messages into space whenever a more advanced species encounters a less advanced species it doesn't work out well for the less advanced species. However radio signals weaken with distance and unless we made our radios alot more powerful I don't think they would travel light years.
maybe this isn't covered in the netflix series (they had to condense a lot of storyline into a 8 episodes), but Ye Wenjie discovers a way to bounce radio waves of a particular frequency and power off the sun. The first contact is through experimenting with this method, the second contact is in this scene
Zine Tseng is so unfathomably beautiful. Her portrayal of Ye Wenjie is so powerful this gives me chills. The shot of her looking through the telescope with her eyes covered is beyond haunting. I can't stop thinking about this.
the novel said the crosshair is not aimed at the center of the sun, but the edge, so that when the signal reaches the sun 8 minutes later, it would hit the center of the sun.
People claiming she's evil and made bad decision because she's "a woman".. Uh.. Are we reading the same book? She is so desensitised, traumatised by the red revolution that took away her sister, father's lives and changes her mother. Humanity are always violent with each other.. And her action to let them know our position probably was a causality of the murders and violence she endured, witnessed unnecessarily. The first scene where her father was tortured was scarier than any of the alien scenes.
It's that and her concern for the ecological damage being done around her. It's why she wants the San-Ti to take the planet away from us before it's too late to save it.
Also don't forget about the scene with the one-armed Red Guard earlier in this episode. You would think someone who now has gone through her own nightmare in 1960's China would be able to now sympathize with Ye, even just a little. But no, the Red Guard revealed an even darker layer of how evil humanity can be.
@@CylonLaband if it turned out the San-Ti was a more benevolent race in the same way there are technologically advanced, she would've been hailed as a savior of humanity.
In the book I really could not disagree with her logic. Conversely, I really *hated* the eco-warriors who took the tri-solarian side. They were generally not a lot different that ANTIFA malcontents, spoilt rich kids.
Even within the confines of China, no one could've known if there would come a time that China was gonna ever be stable during Mao's reign. In some ways, Ye was tempted at the thought of having power at any cost (same as Mike Evans) Ye and Evans is probably partly inspired from China's current leader Xi Jinping, whose dad was also persecuted in a "struggle session" during the cultural revolution.
This scene is synonymous to the fact that if you’re in a jungle and whether it’s wise to call out. Anyone, anything can hear your call. Find out where you live and then come knocking, friendly or not.
There's only three books in the series (plus one spin-off which some don't consider canon). I imagine there'll be no more than 2 extra seasons if they intend to do one book per season.
For all those, telling she should not have sent. Given if the situation was real, it would have been picked from a dozen locations, there would be dozens of people who would respond to such messages, i am talking about Scientist, Let alone normal individuals.
I haven't gotten full body chills from a piece of media in years But my god The way how the message was so simple and terrifying from the pacifist genuinely dropped my jaw and gave me those full body chills. Derek Tsang, and especially Cixin Liu are masters of storytelling
I love how she pushed all the keys to ampilify the signal to the max.... I WOULD have personally not only sent it once, I would have been there everyday boosting the signal over and over and over again
I just finished the first book - how crazy is that a human presses the button to destroy her species, while the listener on the other side responds to save humankind. In the end, humans betray their own kind. Can't wait to read the other two books and watch this series.
seeing this and learning being in Space is like a universal Cold War where if they locate you, you probably get destroyed makes you think if it was a good idea for the Voyager to send that Golden plate in 1977 , maybe it was a blessing the universe is so big we will never contact anything.
Little by little the night turns around Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn Lotuses lean on each other in yearning Under the eaves the swallow is resting Set the controls for the heart of the sun Over the mountain watching the watcher Breaking the darkness waking the grapevine One inch of love is one inch of shadow Love is the shadow that ripens the wine Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Personal circumstances, however tragic and brutal will never excuse putting the rest of humanity in unknown danger by taking such a stupid risk and guaranting a certain portion of humanity dying, the moment she chose to hit the button she was no better than her tormentors. She was nuts and a total villain. Great actress, like terrific, cos she really pissed me off. But the show highlights that academic intelligence doesn't equate to wisdom or emotional maturity.
Hot take: Ye actually saved humanity by contacting the trisolarans, because with the trisolar crisis humanity has to consider that maybe alien civilizations aren't motivated by a universal code of conduct
Nope. Ye doomed humanity. I read the book series. The Trisolarians don't kill off earth. Another set of Aliens find out about the Trisolarian location, blow apart their sun, defeat a secondary Trisolarian fleet in an evacuation, then they destroy our solar system by reducing it down to two dimensions.
@@Easy-Eight That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that even before the crisis, humanity had the widespread belief that if an alien civilization was advanced technologically, it definitely had a superior moral compass. This mindset wasn’t likely to change as the years went on, but then the Trisolar crisis happened and humanity had to contend with the idea that being superior technologically didn’t mean being superior morally.
A shame they weren't able to include the brief segment in the book where they include the perspective of the San Ti that sent the warning. *Book Spoilers* It wasn't out of altruism as one would hope. Much like Ye this San Ti's life was miserable, stuck in a small room searching for signals from intelligent life. But when he got Red Coast broadcast he realized it wouldn't improve his life. In fact if San Ti leadership learned of it they would cut down on the number of communication positions including his. Low level but highly specialized, aka no chance of finding other work. And San Ti over a certain age who don't have a job and/have a mate are executed as a population control measure. So to keep his precarious position necessary and also "make his life glow a little" it send earth a warning so it was at least an informed choice. Unfortunately he didn't realize this warning would be read by the ultimate doomer.
This scene is truly horrifying. But unlike anything requiring a buttload of manpower, she's alone. Like, a single person doing a seemingly trivial task, sending a radio signal, is setting in motion the end of humanity.
Would you push the button?
No, I would consult with fellow humans
No. Just in case if I accidentally destroy the world
@@nerminsnowhuseinbasic9340who beat your father to death for believing in science and sentenced you to hard labor for many years.
@@emilefamon1012 we are humans, forgiveness is written In our genes. I am not religious but my inner moral would push me towards forgiveness and would also prevent me to decide fate of billions just because Individuals wronged me or even did these horrible things to my family. I just don't like that she in the show decided it without properly thinking and contemplating, literally decision was made in a way that is not usual for any decision even ones way way smaller then answering to alien race that could annihilate humanity forever.
@@nerminsnowhuseinbasic9340 Says the person who has never been tortured in life.
Everyone talks about the "you are bugs" scene but for me this was the standout.
It gave me chills, humanity doomed by a single response.
I think humanity doomed by those who killed Ye’s father
So true this scene gave me goosebumps
@@bca-jf9cg
Chinese people under Mao and the like....and those cultural revolutions after Mao....
The people that killed her father made her hateful mindset and personality.... to see the world (China in that time period ) and people of the world ( again people of China in that time period)
for making that unimaginably horrible mistake...
Anyway what I mean is she had never experienced any other ideologies and lifestyles OUT Of CHINA under super mad and brutal dictators....
The same goes for the writer of triplet of 3 body problem books and its spin offs.... Mr. Liu Cixin
No doubt that he's a super genius writer in sci-fi.... but please if you have extra time, search about his ideologies and beliefs and you will understand why he wrote those almost Dooms and Glooms for humanity's end....
@@Talia.777 Yeah, those who follow Karl Marx's ideology are ruining the western world to this day.
If I remember the books correctly, humanity was doomed the moment they bounced the signal through the sun. Some pacifist Trisolaran sent the message, but knew it was futile because other listening posts (or maybe his/her superiors?) would still be aware of Earth's transmission.
The ultimate "should I send this email?"
Better have no regrets afterwards.
You shouldn’t…
If you hesitate, you probs let shouldn’t send it.
She let that intrusive thought win
@@Clarity520 She did put up something of a fight with the intrusive thought before hitting "send".
When the “Do not answer” showed up on screen for the first time I literally gasped. Such a simple yet powerful way to capture the terror of the Dark Forest Hypothesis (which, to my surprise, Liu coined as a phrase himself!)
"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth."
Mfs really had to beat her father to death for believing in science.
In the book she is further beaten down by life. Spoilers! Both her parents died to the denunciations, her mother even went crazy. Her teacher, who she sometimes visited and was close to, commited suicide cause she couldn’t take anymore of the purges. Her sister abandoned their family to save herself from their politically dangerous legacy but later died anyways . She got lucky to not be punished as a traitor and just got send to a quiet rural work camp. There she made a friend, she helped him write a letter to warn of environmental degradation and when the political currents shifted and he was gonna get in trouble, he blamed her for the letter, even though she only wrote what he dictated. Later she suffered years of isolation in her job in the video, and her peers take over her work and take all the credit for her discoveries. And even after the kind alien scientist warned her not to respond or else the other aliens would triangulate Earth’s locations, she was just so disillusioned
. Also had to kill her boss who was going to steal the alien discovery info, and accidentally killed her husband in the process. And after leaving she meets a rich guy who hates humanity and makes a society to plan for the Alien’s arrival, but he takes over the whole organization and kicks her out. And after going back to a calm life, her own daughter committs suicide due to the aliens going after scientists and making her crazy.
She really was hurt by everything in her life. She didn’t even want to exterminate humanity, she was of the “better that aliens guide us than more of this human stuff, lest ask them for help”. But it all got out of hand.
She is the most screwed over character in the whole series, pressing the button was not even the end of bad things happening to her. If she wanted to kill all humans at least then she would be evil and that’s that, but no.
@@yucol5661Right.
😅 I thought you was quoting an ancient Chinese verse then you hit us with Mfs
her
@@Kev376 oh shit i didnt notice. My bad.
2 traitors of their species making first contact! Goosebumps
Underrated comment. I never thought of that this way. Maybe they're both trying to escape their own personal hell, which end up in even worse hell they both didn't foresee.
How can the Shan Ti have traitors if they are a hive mind? This part confused me.
@@ChandlerLawsonPlaysthey are not hive mind. They just can’t hide things from each other. Their thought is transparent to each other but others do not automatically know what you are doing.
In the 2nd book, there was a bit more background to this story: as soon as the Shan Ti traitor carried out this action, he/she was immediately caught by the Shan Ti Master, and the traitor knew he/she would be immediately caught, but he/she did it anyway. The Shan Ti Master had to wait for 8 years to find out that the traitor's action had no effect, as Wenjie answered anyway. What I find inexplicable in the book was the traitor's ultimate fate, but I am not going to spoil it here. @@ChandlerLawsonPlays
@@billyhe2724 Yeah and in the book, the Shan Ti pacifist was some dude alone on a space station so there was no one around to read their mind.
To anyone wondering why the San-Ti was not able to determine Earth's location just from the first broadcast since it was not elaborated in the netflix series. The aliens can only determine the direction of the source but cannot determine the distance of its origin to the San-Ti's location. However, with the second broadcast and thus the time between the first and second broadcast received by the San-TI, the distance of Earth from the San-Ti can then be determined.
I'm curious, if she didn't send a reply was it only a matter of time though?
Question is that when they started developing the Sophon?
They (San-Ti) might have considered sending a smaller colony because there was no way of knowing how far away we were: by the time they got there their planet could have been torn apart already by their suns. @@NRV0
Sounds reasonable, but there *are* other ways to determine the origin of the signal. For example, it must have come from a planet, which must be orbiting a star. If they could detect a signal coming from one direction, then they could have detected any stars along that direction, as well. The first star's system would likely be the origin, and even if it weren't, it would still be worth investigating.
@@NRV0 There's a cut line from the book mentioning that there are millions of stars in our direction. It's possible they could still find Earth, but they would have to look at every single star.
I neither like nor dislike Ye Wenjie. I'm just fascinated by her, and I sympathize with her. Even though I wouldn't press the button myself, I can see how a person who had been so uniquely traumatized as her would do it. She watched her father be tortured and executed publicly after being betrayed by her own mother, was subjected to the depravity of an actual concentration camp, saw firsthand the destructive nature of industrial development, and when she finally grasped at any opportunity to rise above her tribulations in life, she was bullied and exploited by men with inferior minds to her own. Yeah, it kind of makes sense why she may have lost faith in humanity.
This is exactly what I was thinking while I watched.
This is a great analysis. She's the perfect example in this situation as a pure individual, ironically something the San-Ti kinda lacks.
That's the genius part, you understand her mindset and exactly why she did it. But as it's said later on in the series "who gave you the right to decide for all of us?". No matter what she had been through, this was the most evil malicious act committed by any human in the history of the species.
Uh... what? She is the traitor of humanity. She also ran a murderous cult. She didn't give a F about anything other than her own rage.
Yeah, she later frames her intentions as some kind of enlightened thought. But I think she really did it from a place of nihilism.
And thus the first Interstellar Trolling commenced….when confronted with the knowledge that earth was doomed from her single message, Ye Wenjie responded with the very same message that she sent the Trisolarans…..”LOL K”
To which the aliens responded "You're bugs" - literal trashtalk 😂
@@gooberspread123
This deserves a Wojak meme so badly.
"You lie but not exclusively out of fear? for no reason as well? incomprehensible bugs, creepy little fks, We'll do the world a service by ending you" Probably Shan Ti
@@Htleverydaydang Man U got me facing walls now
"U ok hun?"
“What happened next was the longest half hour of her life. During this time, Ye adjusted the transmission frequency to the optimal frequency for amplification by the solar energy mirror, and increased the transmission power to maximum. Then, putting her eyes to the eyepiece of the optical positioning system, she watched the sun rise above the horizon, activated the positioning system for the antenna, and slowly aligned it with the sun. As the gigantic antenna turned, the rumbling noise shook the main control room. One of the men on duty looked at Ye again, but said nothing.
The sun was now completely above the horizon. The crosshair of the Red Coast positioning system was aimed at its upper edge to account for the time it would take for the radio wave to travel to the sun. The transmission system was ready.
The Transmit button was a long rectangle-very similar to the Space key on a computer keyboard, except that it was red.
Ye’s hand hovered two centimeters above it.
The fate of the entire human race was now tied to these slender fingers.
Without hesitation, Ye pressed the button.”
Excerpt From
The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu
Zine is so brilliant 👏🏻👏🏻
Very nice.
Literal chills down my spine... really makes you wonder what else is out there.
A good netflix series in a very long time
This scared the heck out of me fr.
You have no idea how spot on your comment was.
Based on a great book
In the original book Ye only sends "Let them come". Her motivations are revealed through narration.
Oh...you will find out what else is out there. Believe me. The San-Ti are pretty weak, too lolol. Let's say we are a 0.7 and the San-Ti are a 1.5.
this actress TURNED it out omfg could not stop watching her
why do you use that language?
@@rotyler2177Because they can
@@rotyler2177 woman
absolutely riveting
She is the best actress in the show
the group of friend are all bad actors/actresses. Also the girl that got shot in the leg are bad too.
She is the worst actress,only to please western editors’ prejudice on Chinese people or Asian people.🤮🤮
@@havenht YES...they are so bad. Every single time it switches to Jin or Jovan I roll my eyes. Just got done watching episode 2 and you can feel them acting. That's never a good sign. Auggie and Jack are okay while Ye is amazing.
@@GamingLarry20554Really? I thought Jin’s actor had a charm.
I agree because the friend group is so bad where did they find these people
The ants asking a 5 year old boy with a magnifying glass for help.
It is not about asking help. She did that because of revenge regarding his family and the world in which she end up living. The message is just the way how she expresed her hatred toward everything and everyone.
@@georgewilliamgutarracampos6262 I read the book. Her hatred is justified. What's amazing to me is China allowed it to be published.
@@georgewilliamgutarracampos6262it was really bad luck, of all people she was the one who got the message and communication and as weird as its gets the author makes another female character fck up humanity's plan on saving itself later in the books or story. Its like the man just made another Eve eat the forbidden apple which lead humanity's suffering from original sin. While the male characters try hardest as they can to save humanity especially one wallfacer who saves humanity with quote unquote a push of a button like this one how poetic. However female chracters will also have their redemption.
This doesnt jive with her responses in present day. She really thought theyd come and make everything better. That's why the "you are bugs" scene broke her so thoroughly
Very precise metaphor indeed! Humans are bugs and Trisolarians are "5 year old" compared to other advanced civilizations in the universe.
Reminds me of a short story: Scientists were excited to receive their first confirmed alien message, until they translated it: "They are coming. We couldn't stop them."
What short story is it ?
Which story?
That is the short story
Another similar story
Scientists sent signals and transmissions into the skies, hoping for an answer. One day they got a message back, It read ”be quiet they are listening”.
@@elementoon11 what story?
This was the scene that made everything click for me. The realization of what this show is really about gave me chills. (I had no prior knowledge of the book trilogy or the series)
Get used to that feeling. If Netflix stays faithful to the original books this is only the start of the fearful revelations.
This contact scene and Little Red Riding Hood story scene were the best.
Thats highlight of the movie..
I was frustrated by that scene. Often it's not fearlessness that drives people, but desperation. The idiot also didn't explain the multiple levels of the tale: for children, it's a cautionary tale. For teens, it's about the coming of age.
Edit: oops, I was thinking of the scene where he was explaining Hansel & Gretel. Still, both stories were poorly explained to the "Lord."
@@ytechnologyit wouldn’t have mattered.
@ytechnology he also didn't explain how all recipients of the story know ahead of time that it's not something that actually happened and is meant to be taken as a lesson. Therefore it is not a lie. I don't think it was so much the fact that we tell stories that did it, I think it was more about the fact that in his explanation combined with what else they know about him they came to know of humanity as assholes. Either that or they never had any intention of cohabitation with Mike's crew and this is just part of the plan. Are the sophons lying when they show their planets story with aesthetics from earth's past? They're telling a story that's not actually true there, either. They would also know about these stories and the context of them if they had perfect knowledge of humanities history... I think they were just fucking with mike
@iplaydodgeball imagine an alien race that can fold/unfold dimensions, but NOT understand metaphorical language and fictional stories
I swear if Netflix doesn't produce season 2-3, I will unsubscribe
Imagine the CGI cost for Season 2 and 3. How the hell would you even depict the 4D tombs? It would make the "inside the blackhole" scene from Interstellar look like child's play.
@@Six6SicksIf they can do multiple season Stranger Things, I'm sure the budget is not a problem.
@@Six6Sicks thats what i have thought xD xD xD oh man, this could be so dope
@@Six6Sicksoh bro and when they are on pluto in the third book, and "the thing" happens. Just imagine it....
I swear if Netflix doesn't produce season 2 and 3, I will stop pirating its shows illegally.
When you realize it's just a single San-Ti that betrayed his race and tries to save humanity from his own race 😮
I thought they acted as one mind?
@@jamiemontgomery5289 That one abandoned his own race somehow.
@@jamiemontgomery5289try to. Outliers exist everywhere
@@jamiemontgomery5289they aren’t a hive mind. They just can’t lie or deceive as their communication is not like our voices, they just think and it automatically gets communicated out. So the alien scientist was disillusioned with his life (bad job, was getting old, couldn’t find someone to reproduce with him) and dislutioned with his empire too, and he sacrificed himself to warn Earth. Unfortunately he didn’t explain why Ye Wenjie shouldn’t answer. And since he can’t lie, he was punished severely for his treason when the others found out.
Why are they called the San-ti in the show instead of the Trisolaris like in the book?
imagine being an author this good, that without even introducing a single alien, you managed to show empathy, compassion or simply "humanity" from them
1:00 that printout is from the "Wow! signal" detected in Ohio August 15, 1977. Neat reference! ("6EQUJ5" is not a message, it's just a representation of signal strength.)
Of course ohio
Wow
So from August 15, 1977 we have to calculate 400 years.
It took me so long to learn that the “Wow!” Was just a comment on the strength of the signal, a huge surge in intensity over a period of like 70 seconds, which was highly irregular compared to what they’d normally see.
That's insane. All these small details that are correct, make this serie the best one I've seen in ages.
That last few seconds of hesitation before she hits send was the most heart-racing moments I’ve ever seen in a tv show
Someone correct me, but in my memory of the book I’m pretty sure she goes further than saying “we can’t save ourselves” and actually refers to us as “a wretched species” or something like that - which makes sense given what she’s witnessed and the white hot rage she feels after the confrontation with her father’s murderer.
Me before pushing the "send" button when texting to my crush:
"I cannot save myself. I will help you conquer me." :)
The music beeping out the Morse code for “SOS” in the background is such a masterful touch.
are you serious?
@@CRF250R1521 yeah! Listen closely
Which part is it? Can you timestamp? Ty!
@@xAeriesxniGt3 Starts at 2:29. Listen to the Violins. 3 fast, 3 slow, 3 fast.
... - - - ...
This scene gave me chills, imagine being the only human in history to make contact with an alien species and only having yourself to share this with.
In the novel a couple other people at the base found out about the signal. She then murdered them so no-one else would know.
I figure she wasn't the first, I mean something must have convinced the pharaohs to build such unnecessarily large and elaborate mausoleums...
@@InspirationSessions That "something" could be something else though
Such an incredible scene from a creative standpoint. So well shot and edited
I like this Netflix version of this scene over the tencent one which had over the top lighting and overly dramatic acting. This one is simple and ominous. No distractions from the tension.
Yep sometimes less and simple has more impact. Tencent plays it way over the top with swelling music and voice over the entire time
The single most deadly decision of all human history...
Leave it to an emotional woman to end humanity😂
Not that a whole revolution that killed her father? @@AshtonCoolman
Should have been a woman using an apple computer in the 80's
@@dieantler no. She jeopardized our entire civilization and its future because of a bad event that happened in HER country. That's childish and selfish. In real life, I'd hope we wouldn't be that stupid but we know that we already are 😔
@@AshtonCoolmanit wasn’t emotion she believed humanity wasn’t worth it because of her life experiences
truly one of the most brilliant scenes from the series which had many of those, a win for Netflix!
"The arrogance of one" has been the default setting throughout human history.
you could argue the san ti listener is the one being arrogant here considering it just assumes they can go and conquer this world, when apparently they don't even know how far away it is yet lol
This isn't arrogance. This is brokenness.
@@Fear_the_Nog ignorance and/or malice. 1. ignorance if she actually believes she has the knowledge to conclude that humanity cant "save itself". 2. malice if she did it out of spite to what happend to her in life. in both cases she is not someone who should make a decision like that at all :D
@@Razerfreak1 yeah I don't think she was thinking, or believing, or concluding...so much as feeling in that moment. She's visibly shaking. There is so much repressed rage within her for so many years, it isn't even calculated spite at this point, just a pipe breaking. To her, her society itself is malice. Not condoning the button pushing, but I can understand why she did it.
@@Fear_the_Nog she had enough time to think about what shes doing. emotional acts and decisions happen in split seconds. after that u start calculating, at that point its malice. she didnt send the message in a blink of an eye, she planned, every single latter.
Even aside from dooming all the innocent people of the world, Ye Wenjie’s mistake was assuming that the Trisolarans would be better. It’s like opening the gates of Hell to get back at your high school bullies.
Dumb take.
Did you miss the part where her father was betrayed by her mother and beaten to death by a mob right in front of her, then she was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured? Or her reaction at the massive environmental destruction wrought by the CCP? Or the fact that everywhere she went there were unrepentant, monstrous people seeking to exploit or destroy her if she didn’t do whatever they wanted? Not “high school bully” behavior by a longshot. So of course she would settle into the belief that literally anything is better than the status quo.
@@protodevilin I’m disappointed that you obsess over technicalities in analogies, but I’m not surprised.
@@georgeofhamilton Says the person that the only reason of Ye Wenjie betrayal is from high school bullies. When her trauma extended far beyond. This is why people living in the comfort on their home never understand the suffering of others.
Even chatbots have better reading comprehension than you.
@@georgeofhamilton Whatever you say hater who looks like not winning an argument. Pitiful.
Ye Wenjie is probably the closest "villain" I've seen that achieved what X-Men's Magneto did. Both of them are victims of circumstances pushed to make terrible decisions by the course of their lives. And while you can't entirely justify their actions, boy can you certainly sympathize with how they ended up there. Had I lived through the Holocaust or the Cultural Revolution in China I might come out the other side more than a little disenchanted with the entire human endeavor and experiment as a whole.
The best villains are those whom the audience looks at and says, "There but for the Grace of God go I."
Anybody who comes out of suffering to become 'villains' are nothing but selfish weaklings.
I wish we didn't sympathise with monsters and treat it as some kind of dark romanticism. If a monster is created, you kill the monster, the origins are irrelevant.
Ye Wenjie is me every time I get an "I hope this email finds you well" kind of message
She's me every time I get a "let's table this for now, we'll do some blue sky thinking and circle back in the next go-round. Can someone capture some bullet points in a slide-deck for next time we meet? (then names yours truly in a put-on inquisitive tone)" in a meeting set up to specifically do said blue sky thinking so we wouldn't have to have any more "go-rounds." Seriously, Cthulhu can wake up already.
Yup
Me everytime I see ‘kind regards’
I don’t get the joke
Still having problems with watching the rest of the show after this. This scene, even though I knew it was coming, gave me such a horrific feeling of dread and anxiety. It's been two days, and I still can't get myself to watch the rest, even if I want to. Fantastic show so far.
This scene was the most horrifying for me.
Make you feel like real.
My eyes filled up with tears watching it
This is honestly one of the best 5 min in television history…the editing, acting, music are all perfect 👏🏼
3 Body Problem is a true science fiction novel, not a work cloaked in a science fiction veneer while actually telling a tale of swords and sorcery
I believe that kind of thing is better defined as science fantasy. If that's not your cup of tea then avoid the science fantasies.
Toxic comment
I feel like the most shocking aspect of 3 Body Problem is the way the aliens suppressed technological advancement. That's the truly mind-blowing thing an advanced alien civilization could bring about. All the stuff about massive space battles, laser gun fights, that's just humanity projecting our technological fantasies.
@@wcnfv You can try the tencent's series, it's more rigorous.
Alien is the best scifi movie of all time anything else is beneath Alien
It felt like a spin on the old joke about every great disaster movie starting with a scientist being ignored. Here the scientist is ignored as SHE actively instigates disaster...
best comment on the video
This scene captures horror, mystery and aliens all at the same time
Im disapointed that the analogy of the chickens in the chicken coops was not there. That very scene is the reason why i love 3 body problem
There's still a likely chance that they will bring this up in a later season. While I also loved the turkey & the shooter analogy when it was mentioned in book 1, I think it's much more relevant to the things that happen in book 3
I wanted to see the moment she killed her husband by cutting the rope like in tencent it was disturbing. Her husband loved her but she never did and hated humanity and was so numbed by it . The Tencent version the story was slow but so detailed that her thought process was so visceral to the viewers and when it was the ultimate moment to cut the rope I think that impact was much stronger than pushing the red button .
3:28 has to be the best scene in the series
Ya'll need to read the books, you have no idea the chain of events this event really sets off. Mind blowing.
I’m in the middle book two. But is there more chains of events to be set off besides the alien invasion?
@@ludmilamaiolini6811 I won’t spoil anything but keep going, imo 3rd book is even better!
@@ludmilamaiolini6811You have no idea!
The worst part?
the flat Earther's are eventually right
For me the best scene of the series.
I was thinking: "Why is she responding?! She knows that they probably are humanity's doom. I'm not continuing this series, if characters just do nonsense here..."
! But then I've read her message... and it's so deep
Nothing deep about it. It's quite a shallow thought, shared by most teenagers today...
From her face itself as she types her messages, she really has come to truly despise humanity
@BlizzPort the sentiment that humanity will fuck itself up is shared not only by teenagers
@@vasvas8914 not only, but mostly
kinda speaks volumes
@@BlizzPortwell yeah. Because old people left a fucked up world for us to live in
Ye Wenjie's reaction was 100% in response to the absolute brutality seen in Mao's 1960s era "Cultural Revolution" in China. That was preceded by Stalin's Russia then followed by "The Killing Fields" in Cambodia and the many atrocities in the Middle East. No creature - NONE - is as cruel to its own kind as Humans are to one another. Larry Niven wrote a science fiction book where aliens pay a fee to attend a terrestrial university's history course. The Aliens - basically a cross between a gorilla and a cat - learn about ancient Carthage. It was besieged, taken by Ancient Rome, all the males over 12 were slain by spear or sword, the women and children were sold into slavery, then the town was reduced to rubble, and finally the land was salted so nothing could grow. The Alien had never seen such primitive brutality.
@@SWAT616 I missed some of the show. In the book, Ye Wenji murders her husband and a friend to defend the secret of contacting the trisolarians. Was that shown in this series?
@@Easy-Eight and then finds out she's pregnant and grows close with the villagers nearby as they care for her and her child. She teaches their children theres a reason her organization splits into two and she realized she was wrong and can now only hope that the trisolarans would foster humanity not wipe them out. She died regretting her decision.
"No creature - NONE - is as cruel to its own kind as Humans are to one another." Bullsh-t, dude. Nature is scary as sh-t and plenty of animals do some incredibly brutal things - even to their own kind - like killing and cannibalizing babies. The only difference between a human and a lion or a bear, etc, is that we have the intelligence to enact cruelty on an industrial scale.
In addition to all the other points in this thread, there's also the fact that she assumes that higher levels of technology MUST mean higher levels of morality.
She has a combination of a natural human bias in favour of herself and her profession (science), has absolutely nobody else to talk to and discuss things with (because she's a political undesirable in a dictatorship), knows that she's smarter than the brutal idiots and mediocrities around her and is intellectually arrogant because of it (and has no equals who could give her constructive feedback and a reality check), has a complete lack of faith in any higher power other than her own reasoning (she has no religion or deep philosophy and the state government is obviously corrupt and incompetent), and despite hating the Maoist "our philosophical perfection will make us triumph over our enemies" propaganda she has unconsciously adopted some of its underlying assumptions and lacks the historical knowledge to disprove it (eg both the Spanish and the Aztecs were slaving, warmongering, pillaging aristocracies willing to commit massacres for their gods, so the destruction of the Aztecs was due to differences in technology and disease-resistance rather than being fairly out-competed or having their beliefs rendered obsolete by any philosophical superiority of the Spanish.)
These are the sorts of traits that could make a highly intelligent person do something that a much stupider person would realise is a terrible idea. Add in the trauma, and the fact that she's misanthropic enough to have no HOPE for humanity but caring enough to WANT to save it from itself, and it makes total sense that she'd throw herself (and everyone else) on the mercy of the conquerors.
@@mzytryck You should not have brought the Aztec and the Conquistadors into the conversation. Yes, the Spanish were power mad pillagers. However, the Aztec's idea of a fun time was to go into a village, take them captive, and sacrifice all the men on a bloody alter. It's not that the indigenous people loved the Spanish. It's just the Spanish didn't believe in absolute whole sale slaughter, brought a stable government, and were tolerable. Also, the Spanish men were boffing indigenous natives. They quickly settled with the locals. That's a thing not really talked too much in a history book. One big reason why the French did so much better in Canada than the British is they took indigenous wives. If a guy's an in-law then you're a lot more chill towards him. Face it, Jean marries local Indian maiden. Father of the bride is happy they have strong kids. Jean helps the local tribe when fishing. They are your in-laws, *you're going to have to be chill* .
I am worried that you put "science" as more moral than religion, it's not. People are corrupt all over. Scientists lie and cheat all the time. Nothing is perfect and all institutions have their issues. Look at the 2024 American college system: it's collapsing. Harvard University is full of people who plagiarize one another's work. Modern colleges BRAG they practice discrimination on race. If colleges were subject to the same "hostile workplace" standards of 1998 then they could be sued for the horrible way they treat men in 2024.
Ye Wenjie is somehow like Anakin Skywalker. They ain't pure evil. And what they did are not entirely their fault. They made a deadly choice at the critical moment and there is no turning back.
And 1 more similarity, with a little spoiler:
They both redeemed themselves at the final moment of their lives. (For Ye, it's the conversation with Soul which makes him a wallfacer)
I really wished she schooled him on cosmic sociology in that moment instead of the joke
@@beegest_yoshi I think her best choice is to tell the dark forest theory directly to Wade. And Wade will definitely has the balls and power to execute the deterrence to SanTi.
Wade doesn't show up in the original novel until the 3rd book. So she told the theory to Luo Ji before she is captured. While in the TV show, Wade directly interrogated Ye. She has no reason to tell it to Soul, who looks pretty unlikely to use the information correctly. I think it's a bug on the story lol
Welcome to the Dark Forrest theory, a potential solution to the Fermi Paradox.
The universe is dark and full of terrors.
¿debemos rezarle al señor de la luz?
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilisation is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound.
I watched this episode right before sleeping. It was not a great night. Amazing scene, loved it.
it's not about asking for help, she did that because of revenge regarding her family and the world in which she end up living in. the message is just a way to express her hatred toward everything and everyone.
deep down she know that what she's doing could bring ruin to everything and everyone. maybe she even want that. so to her it's actually a win win situation no matter what they do, she'd still win. damn, that's crazy.
The Cultural Revolution scene is by far the scariest.
Nah... it's disguised anti-China propaganda by the American producers .
can't find it on YT anywhere... Strange.
Nah... it's the Judgement Day scene .
cancel culture with extra steps
they were really serious about killing birds.
This scene gave me the most goosebumps
Fr it freaked me out a bit
Wenjie is one of the most detestable but sympathetic villains I’ve ever seen.
The scene reminded me of "The Guardian" podcast, where various academics pondered on the ods of humanity surviving the coming decades. What struck me was the observation that we like to imagine that our civilisation can only be threatened by outside factors. Think Hollywood style asteroid impacts or all the alien invasions, of which this series, is another example. The truth is that climate change is far likelier civilisation killer, but it doesn't make for an attention grabbing blockbuster.
If anything, the San-Ti should hurry up. Humanity doesn't have 400 years.
She wasn't a traitor in the book. She just asked for help because she thought humanity couldn't take care of itself anymore and needed a guide. She thought an advanced civilization would be wise and caring and an invasion would be positive.
I get why she sent it. Some people think one should be patriotic no matter what but what if you're country is failing you despite holding one of the better jobs you don't have good housing, you can't afford to raise a family you pretty much just work and none of the politicians you can elect will make things better. At that point you might be desperate for a change, any change and if someone tries to overthrow you're failing leaders you don't stand in their way. As Martin Luther King once said ignoring peaceful protests lead to less peaceful protests and the only way to stop something like this from happening is to improve the average person's life. Whats chilling about this scene is its more realistic than most sci fi movies. I study science as a hobby and I'm not sure its a good idea to broadcast messages into space whenever a more advanced species encounters a less advanced species it doesn't work out well for the less advanced species. However radio signals weaken with distance and unless we made our radios alot more powerful I don't think they would travel light years.
maybe this isn't covered in the netflix series (they had to condense a lot of storyline into a 8 episodes), but Ye Wenjie discovers a way to bounce radio waves of a particular frequency and power off the sun. The first contact is through experimenting with this method, the second contact is in this scene
MLK was a socialist lmao
@@SirSpinach this was covered
Zine Tseng is so unfathomably beautiful. Her portrayal of Ye Wenjie is so powerful this gives me chills. The shot of her looking through the telescope with her eyes covered is beyond haunting. I can't stop thinking about this.
the novel said the crosshair is not aimed at the center of the sun, but the edge, so that when the signal reaches the sun 8 minutes later, it would hit the center of the sun.
This scene was in morning so her aiming for the centre is already at the edge due to refraction of atmosphere.
The kind of detail any TV scriptwriter worth their salt would discard to make for a tighter plot...
yea but her aiming at the center just looks better i suppose
People claiming she's evil and made bad decision because she's "a woman".. Uh.. Are we reading the same book? She is so desensitised, traumatised by the red revolution that took away her sister, father's lives and changes her mother. Humanity are always violent with each other.. And her action to let them know our position probably was a causality of the murders and violence she endured, witnessed unnecessarily. The first scene where her father was tortured was scarier than any of the alien scenes.
exactly
It's that and her concern for the ecological damage being done around her. It's why she wants the San-Ti to take the planet away from us before it's too late to save it.
Way to somehow blame "women" over the f*cking cultural revolution
Also don't forget about the scene with the one-armed Red Guard earlier in this episode. You would think someone who now has gone through her own nightmare in 1960's China would be able to now sympathize with Ye, even just a little. But no, the Red Guard revealed an even darker layer of how evil humanity can be.
@@CylonLaband if it turned out the San-Ti was a more benevolent race in the same way there are technologically advanced, she would've been hailed as a savior of humanity.
Reasonable decision, even though a bad one at the same time
In the book I really could not disagree with her logic. Conversely, I really *hated* the eco-warriors who took the tri-solarian side. They were generally not a lot different that ANTIFA malcontents, spoilt rich kids.
Even within the confines of China, no one could've known if there would come a time that China was gonna ever be stable during Mao's reign.
In some ways, Ye was tempted at the thought of having power at any cost (same as Mike Evans)
Ye and Evans is probably partly inspired from China's current leader Xi Jinping, whose dad was also persecuted in a "struggle session" during the cultural revolution.
Reasonable my ass. She deserves capital punishment on spot for this
This scene is synonymous to the fact that if you’re in a jungle and whether it’s wise to call out. Anyone, anything can hear your call. Find out where you live and then come knocking, friendly or not.
This is probably the most realistic thing to happen in real life which is terrifying to think about
This show Is absolutely beautiful, screw the haters !!..hope there’s 4 more seasons to the conclusion
There's only three books in the series (plus one spin-off which some don't consider canon). I imagine there'll be no more than 2 extra seasons if they intend to do one book per season.
For all those, telling she should not have sent. Given if the situation was real, it would have been picked from a dozen locations, there would be dozens of people who would respond to such messages, i am talking about Scientist, Let alone normal individuals.
Yeah exactly.... one of many flaws in Mr. Liu Cixin in his triplet of the 3 body problem books...
in this fiction, she figured out using the Sun as the amplifier...
you think there were tons of Satellites listening for alien broadcasts in the 1960s? No
@@thefalconflameand it could've been figured out by anyone who stumbled upon Ye's research paper as well.
No. Men would have acted rationally.
Rewatched this 3 times cos it was so eerie and well done
At this moment can I say that the whole book is based on the three waring faction story of classic Chinese history
It's amazing how far the consequences eventually go...
“So anyway, I started answering.”
I haven't gotten full body chills from a piece of media in years
But my god
The way how the message was so simple and terrifying from the pacifist genuinely dropped my jaw and gave me those full body chills.
Derek Tsang, and especially Cixin Liu are masters of storytelling
I love how she pushed all the keys to ampilify the signal to the max.... I WOULD have personally not only sent it once, I would have been there everyday boosting the signal over and over and over again
I just finished the first book - how crazy is that a human presses the button to destroy her species, while the listener on the other side responds to save humankind. In the end, humans betray their own kind. Can't wait to read the other two books and watch this series.
I love Ye Wenjie!
The actress is so good. I think her scenes in the show were the most interesting to watch 🤩
'The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.'
seeing this and learning being in Space is like a universal Cold War where if they locate you, you probably get destroyed makes you think if it was a good idea for the Voyager to send that Golden plate in 1977 , maybe it was a blessing the universe is so big we will never contact anything.
I hope to god we aren't sending anymore signals out in space anymore, if there is anything out there they more thank likely will be malevonent
The ultimate example of "should I text him?"
perfect example of the wrong person being in the wrong place at the wrong time
Little by little the night turns around
Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn
Lotuses lean on each other in yearning
Under the eaves the swallow is resting
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Over the mountain watching the watcher
Breaking the darkness waking the grapevine
One inch of love is one inch of shadow
Love is the shadow that ripens the wine
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
The best scene in the show for me, the actress' facial expressions are great, as is the eerie message
Can't wait for dual vector foil scene 😊
Ah, singer's business card
WE GETTING COMPRESSED INTO THE 2ND DIMENSION WITH THIS ONE!!!!! 🗣🗣🗣
the A4 sheet of paper
This was my favorite scene from the show. The suspense.
"The worst they can say, is no"
I remember reading this scene pretty much beat for beat in the book and I could NOT believe she pressed the button!
Love this show! I am a sucker for good Sci-fi
“Ye opened the document, and for the first time, a human read a message from another world.”
-Three Body Problem, Red Coast VI
This was the moment Tseng Zine became Rosalind Chao
What an amazing scene. My second favorite from the show, after the "We are afraid of you" scene.
Incredible scene!
Personal circumstances, however tragic and brutal will never excuse putting the rest of humanity in unknown danger by taking such a stupid risk and guaranting a certain portion of humanity dying, the moment she chose to hit the button she was no better than her tormentors. She was nuts and a total villain. Great actress, like terrific, cos she really pissed me off. But the show highlights that academic intelligence doesn't equate to wisdom or emotional maturity.
Even the aliens punctuate properly, unlike most humans on the internet.
It's the Internet, not an English assignment
Probably the best scene in the show for me
The Ultimate betrayal of humanity
Nah, humanity betrayed her first
id betry humanity to
"I will help you conquer this world" is crazy 😂
Hot take: Ye actually saved humanity by contacting the trisolarans, because with the trisolar crisis humanity has to consider that maybe alien civilizations aren't motivated by a universal code of conduct
Nope. Ye doomed humanity. I read the book series. The Trisolarians don't kill off earth. Another set of Aliens find out about the Trisolarian location, blow apart their sun, defeat a secondary Trisolarian fleet in an evacuation, then they destroy our solar system by reducing it down to two dimensions.
@@Easy-Eight That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that even before the crisis, humanity had the widespread belief that if an alien civilization was advanced technologically, it definitely had a superior moral compass. This mindset wasn’t likely to change as the years went on, but then the Trisolar crisis happened and humanity had to contend with the idea that being superior technologically didn’t mean being superior morally.
You'd like the books
@@necosupr I did, actually. I read all of them, finished Death's End last summer.
@@opasailor I'm reading Death's end rn, half way done, it's awesome. The whole cold war part was awesome as hell.
This is how i feel when i send an email to my boss, cc HR as well
This is an 'should I bite the apple or not' moment.
2:20 Lol they really tried to do a deep, introspective moment here, but they made it like ten seconds shorter than it should have been.
The intro music to this show always reminds me of the intro music to Westworld.
A shame they weren't able to include the brief segment in the book where they include the perspective of the San Ti that sent the warning.
*Book Spoilers*
It wasn't out of altruism as one would hope. Much like Ye this San Ti's life was miserable, stuck in a small room searching for signals from intelligent life. But when he got Red Coast broadcast he realized it wouldn't improve his life. In fact if San Ti leadership learned of it they would cut down on the number of communication positions including his. Low level but highly specialized, aka no chance of finding other work. And San Ti over a certain age who don't have a job and/have a mate are executed as a population control measure.
So to keep his precarious position necessary and also "make his life glow a little" it send earth a warning so it was at least an informed choice.
Unfortunately he didn't realize this warning would be read by the ultimate doomer.
This scene is truly horrifying.
But unlike anything requiring a buttload of manpower, she's alone. Like, a single person doing a seemingly trivial task, sending a radio signal, is setting in motion the end of humanity.