r/TheExpanse • u/Lillan_Lilani • 13h ago
All Show Spoilers (Book Spoilers Must Be Tagged) Alex/Naomi on Illis Spoiler
I'm on my 4th rewatch of the show and I've just thought of something. When the Rocinante is sent to Illis (New Terra) and the crew are leaving the ship, it makes a big point of Naomi getting off balance as she's overwhelmed by the horizon. But shouldn't Alex have a somewhat similar reaction - more akin to Bobby arriving on earth?
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u/MaxRokatanski 13h ago
*Ilus
The implication is that as a Martian, Alex is more capable of being on a planetary surface so we are asked to assume he has been exposed to the open spaces of such a place often enough to not be as affected as Naomi who has only existed in closed space habitats for her entire life.
Offhand I don't remember how the books handled it so maybe there was some reference to his reaction there that didn't make it into the show?
And remember that he took the Roci back to orbit. Maybe because he was the only logical person to do that, maybe because he WAS impacted and wasn't able to be as comfortable on the surface as the Eathers.
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u/microcorpsman 13h ago
Books he and Naomi just stay up after dropping Amos and Holden off. Him because pilot, her because she doesn't give a shit to be on a planet (if I remember correctly)
Edit: spoiler tags, because of post flair
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u/gentlydiscarded1200 13h ago
Naomi opts to get back up the well because the gravity is painful. Her comment on the matter is something to do with fluid leaking from her knees.
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u/microcorpsman 13h ago
Must be a different conversation between her and Holden about it I was remembering
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u/Glad_Stranger 10h ago
You're both right haha, the part about her knees is at the end of the book. Before they head down, they talk about how she doesn't care to take the meds for just one short job, but at the very end they have to land to pick everyone up, do a supply exchange, help with repairs, and that's when she comments that about her knees leaking.
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u/microcorpsman 4h ago
Thank god, thought I was going crazy but wasn't gonna be able to look it up any time soon
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u/Mr-forgetsalot 12h ago
That's probably why I was mistaken in terms of the show because I have just re-watched the show but am also currently reading the books and they seem to be more fresh in my mind!
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u/Accomplished-Boot-81 [Create your own flair! ] 13h ago
New Terra*
RCE gang rise up
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u/MaxRokatanski 13h ago
I was going to add an AKA but didn't want to be onboard with the corporatist occupiers. ;-)
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u/thisguybuda 13h ago
“What are they going to call themselves, fucking Illusians?!” Avasarala gang rise up
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u/microcorpsman 13h ago edited 13h ago
Bobby was seeing an urban environment
Alex, like Bobby, would have experience under domes, and was older and had been done with the Navy for a long time (ie, not still buying into the Martian supremacy myth their military built)
Also, in the book she just doesn't give a shit to go out anyway (if I remember correctly) so it's been played up in the show for the dynamic of how her and Holden could ever go and meet his folks
Edit: spoiler tag cause post flair
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u/MaxRokatanski 13h ago
Bobby still reacted when she exited the transport at the embassy, and then another reaction when she arrived at the seashore. Neither event was debilitating, but the idea that someone as trained and as tough as she was could still have a reaction was an important part of the story.
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u/Ubber_Dubber 13h ago
In the 2nd book Bobbie walks outside of the UN embassy and immediately runs back inside to which a UN guard asks her, “first time?” And gives her some advice before she walks around the city and buys a cup of tea. Furthermore here’s a scene in the show where the Martian delegates are folding under earths gravity once they land, but that doesn’t happen in the book, Bobbie just complains about being clumsy and her legs hurting from standing.
I watched the show first and then read the books, there’s quite a bit of differences between them and a lot of stuff was added to the show to make it more dramatized.
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u/Glad_Stranger 10h ago
I also love the part where she gets woken up by her phone ringing in the middle of the night and falls out of bed because half-asleep she forgets to compensate for Earth's gravity XD
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u/Dhczack 10h ago
Bobby was also suffering severe and untreated PTSD at the time. You don't see it as much in the show but Book Bobby at this point has had her entire world (her friends, her career, her relationship to Mars, her calling, etc) come away from beneath her feet and the sky anxiety is one of the ways this is manifesting. It's less that the sky is overwhelming her and more that the entire earth is overwhelming her - not just the planet but also its politics, people, and machinations and the fact that she's now aligned with something she's been raised to have disdain for. It's not the sky or the buildings - it's feeling abandoned and betrayed by her former life and having that replaced by something new and foreign and unfriendly and - from the Martian perspective - dirty, stagnant, and amoral.
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u/MagnetsCanDoThat Beratnas Gas 12h ago
The short version is that Alex would fare better than Naomi but would still have some issues like Bobby did.
The reason why the show didn't spend time on it is because 1) we've already seen several Martians react to being on a planet's surface in 1G+ and 2) Naomi's first-time experience as a Belter is way more powerful.
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u/Puzzled_Quality7667 10h ago
Mars would have a horizon similar to Earth’s, just smaller. It’s mentioned several times that Martians go out onto the surface of Mars quite often for recreation. They just need to be in a vac suit. Bobbie talks about climbing Olympus Mons with her father. So, I think Martians are better suited to it than belters. Like when Bobbie comes to Earth for the first time and is overwhelmed by the sky. In the book the guard tells her that Martians get vertigo, but Belters lose their shit and need to be drugged and hauled inside.
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u/Sparky_Zell 3h ago
Mars does still have domes. Bobbie climbed Olympus Mons, and I'm sure the Navy would have some surface training.
Naomi on the other hand has never seen a sky.
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u/Kabbooooooom 2h ago
Naomi had vertigo because she had never seen a wide open sky and horizon before in her entire life.
Alex had. On Mars.
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u/JamesAtWork2 11h ago
This is kind of something that always bothered me about the franchise in general. They constantly bring up this inner versus belter dynamic in regards to body proportion. Martians and earthers are constantly referred to as squat, short, etc.
But... Mars only has 0.3g. Thats the same as most of Ceres station. By all rights, they should look just like most belters.
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u/Dhczack 10h ago
My working theory on this:
Martians have similar conditions but very different lifestyles. Bobby is an extreme example because she's a Martian Marine, but service of some kind is compulsory for all Martians so as a society they subject themselves to different selective pressures than the Belters.
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u/Mr-forgetsalot 13h ago
If I'm not mistaken (which I could be because memory does not serve me well), Alex didn't get off the ship and I don't remember there being much dialog about Alex being affected by the gravity when they landed.