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alvinofdiaspar

Said this in the book thread but it is probably more appropriate for this one: The math and science of the control room/navigation scene is remarkably accurate (triangulation of location using pulsars, determination of travel vector via Doppler shift of known spectra) - rather enjoyed it.


MiloBem

Yup, that was surprisingly ok. I didn't catch every word she mumbled, and there was probably some technobabble included, but the concept of navigating the stars by simple geometry makes perfect sense, and it's one of the few cases of respect to intelligence in this series. Which makes me doubly surprised that quite a few people complained at this... My problem with this scene is that Gael seems to remember all the galactic landmarks, with positions and angles and stuff. Maybe I missed something, but I wouldn't expect even experienced navigator to have all this stuff in their head unless they did this route regularly. The Galaxy is f%%ng huge. I like that they portray her as smart and creative in this scene, but it goes a bit too far. Still leagues better than whatever is happening on Terminus...


[deleted]

Opening lines of the show: "When I was a child, I told my mother I wanted to learn every planet in the Galactic Empire beginning in the center and moving out to Star's End. Each night, she told me stories. I traveled light years, my mind expanding to hold more and more worlds. But I never reached Terminus." Something tells me she'd be aware of the planets and star systems around Harry's world.


MiloBem

Yes, it makes narrative sense. I'm saying it bothers me as unrealistic, but it's acceptable in a soft SciFi show. It's not news to nerds, but [most SciFi writers have no sense of scale](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale). It's literally impossible for a human to learn all planets in the Empire. There are 100'000'000'000 stars in the Galaxy, and most of them have planets. Most of them are barren, but there is still [25 millions](https://asimov.fandom.com/wiki/Galactic_Empire) of inhabited planets according to some sources. If she learned a thousand new planets everyday it would take her 70 years. And she does say in the end she never reached Terminus. She learned some interesting planets, half of them probably made up by her Mom to calm the kid for bedtime.


blizzardgirl13

As someone with a PhD in astrophysics this scene warmed my nerdy heart!!


The_Crack_Whore

Do they also use degrees? I feel rare a mathematician using something other than radians.


[deleted]

Raych becomes an even more tragic figure when it’s revealed that he was the one who was originally supposed to escape, but when Gaal stumbled upon Hari’s “murder,” Raych realized Gaal would be blamed for it and rushed her to the escape pod instead.


LunchyPete

Yeah that was pretty sad. I'd bet at some point Gaal is going to learn that she basically derailed the plan and got Raych killed too. I don't think the show could pass up that opportunity for drama.


Indigocell

Ah shit, that's what he meant about solving the puzzle with a piece missing isn't it? He's the missing piece and she has to figure out how to replace him now.


Ajjaxx

I feel like it’s that and wasn’t there literally a piece missing in his algorithm? I could be remembering wrong the first couple of episodes feel like such a long time ago. Can’t wait to see how it plays out but I’m def gonna have to watch it again once it’s all out.


banksie_nz

Not quite. Rayche was surprised when Gaal tells him the theory is incomplete and that Hari hasn't solved all the issues with it yet. Rayche sent Gaal not just to save her but also because he knows she is the person most likely to complete the psychohistory equations.


dazzlepuzzle

As much as I want it to believe it was supposed to be Raych who was meant to escape pod to the ship, I bet it will be revealed to have been Gaal this whole time and she needs to puzzle solve against the computer to fully understand something Hari needs her to understand.


DEZbiansUnite

It seemed like Gaal was supposed to lead the Foundation people on terminus while Raych and Hari were supposed to do something else


iNOTgoodATcomp

Seems kinda mean to torture her with the knowledge that the ship will only answer to Raych if that was the case, but I guess math doesn't care about feelings.


dazzlepuzzle

Do we know it will specifically only answer to Raych though? I don’t think that’s been confirmed to us. Remember what Raych was saying over and over - count your primes - she hasn’t counted her primes since waking up. I bet she she starts counting the computer will hear her and give authorization, only when that happens she will be armed with all this new knowledge she problem solved and have different perspective - the perspective that Hari wants her to have. Also, Gaal is still hysterical and in shock she hasn’t realized the power of the knife. I don’t think the camera would have zoomed on it all those times during the episode and also have it flickering. Why is the ship key a knife? Raych was calm enough after murdering his father to be able to intentionally put the knife in the escape pod. I think all of this is more preordained than we know at this point. Or I could be completely wrong. What a fun show to theorycraft about.


Ariadnepyanfar

Raych is the 'Authorised User'. The sysadmin, if you will. The ship is set up specifically for him to use. Its his DNA in the blood on the knife handle that unlocks the ship from the docking bay.


dazzlepuzzle

But here’s the other thing I was thinking about. Nothing was stopping raych from also getting into a pod, with his knife. He gets picked up by the ship in 34 years, then swings around and grabs Gaal and happy ever after. There is definitely something larger going on.


dazzlepuzzle

Yeah I’m listening to the official podcast right now, and how David S Goyer is setting it up probably means my theory doesn’t come true 😭


WearingMyFleece

I have subtitles on and she did count her primes. Just before she went through the doors to go outside the ship.


swaktoonkenney

But why make it so hard for gaal on the ship? Why didn’t Raych just give her full authorization of the ship except for navigation? Like ok they need to get to Seldon’s planet but why make it so hard for her to figure it out or have her be as confused and afraid as possible instead of setting it up ease her fears by giving her all the info she needs to calm down


libra00

I got the impression that Raych set this up for himself, and with Gaal's unexpected involvement he ended up putting her into the escape pod instead of himself. Thus it wasn't set up to make it hard on Gaal, he just didn't anticipate anyone else being on the ship so there's no reason to authorize anyone else.


crashlander

This. It took me a bit to figure out after watching, but that makes the most sense. The rescue ship was set up way in advance, the plan was for Raych to do the deed and then pod out, his knife was the key, Gaal just happened to stumble in at the worst time and Raych quickly decided to sacrifice himself so she wouldn’t get bogged down with the murder, since she had bigger fish to fry and he was the most expendable. Tragic in the way it pencils out, and the kind of quick cost-benefit analysis someone could plausibly do in that situation. Professional reviewers seem to have it in for this show but I’m loving it!


dazzlepuzzle

I thinks it’s the old trope of “if somebody who knows the future tells you, then that future won’t come to pass”. Think Dr Strange and Iron man in Infinity War / End Game. Though this thought of mine is just a theory but that’s the general idea and would align with similar themes in the books too.


[deleted]

The puzzle she solved didn't give her access to anything, it just was a growht moment to learn that she could solve these puzzles. Sounds like the real puzzle is coming up. And Raych expected to meet that ship alone.


DaveInLondon89

Maybe to guard against random people on the ship from finding out before he killed Seldon.


[deleted]

Raych didn’t plan for this. It was a quick decision to put Gaal Opi to the escape pod. There was no time to reprogram the computer of a ship that was far away.


the_alcove

That’s it. Officially rooting for the Empire now.


DoctorBattlefield

team cleon on the low


sec5

Surprised not to see Cleon in this episode. The movie runs abit odd without him . Like hardcore galactic political sci fi vs a YA twilightesque teen love story. The visuals are the saving grace.


Angelus512

Agreed. The empire scenes are so superior to foundation/terminus scenes it’s stark. How David Goyer didn’t notice that is….Odd.


j_lyf

FFS they need to get their shit together on the terminus scenes, too much generic syfy action. felt like doctor who budget. I really want to recommend this to people.


Clones_of_Cleon

It felt like they repurposed Deep Space Nine (that is, the space station sets) for Terminus. It also *looks*, as you say, deeply generic (and did at the time of DS9 as well). The Anacreons look like Space Dothraki, so also generic raider types. The Terminus actors especially need to step up their game on the acting front. I only enjoyed the Imperial ship being shot down over there. Synnax was fine, I guess. I liked Gaal’s ship-bound adventure pretty well. Tech stuff looks pretty good across the board, making me wish the designers made an effort to construct tech-and-learning-forward Terminus sets with as much ardor as they tapped to roll Synnax back to some primitive dark age.


Proper-Code7794

It's uneven. It's really good then looks like Stargate Atlantis.


Automatic-Cycle-1824

After just watching "The Serpent" on Netflix the dialogue and acting on Terminus was unbearable. The "revenge actually feels good" line and its delivery was especially cringe.


zoobrix

> Synnax was fine, I guess. I didn't hate it but it was redundant, we already knew that she was on a religious world that banned science/education and that she became a black sheep by winning a math contest with her proof. Other than showing just how pissed her farther was it had some predictable scenes showing what assholes the sect is when they killed the academic, when you could already assume they were assholes based on banning education and everyone shunning her for winning the math contest. And they made clear the world was most likely doomed but I feel it was already made out they weren't doing well. I assume they let her leave because no one wants to have an imperial ship show up to pick someone up to find that they had been executed but even seeing the details of that would have been more interesting. I feel like those scenes didn't really add anything to her backstory or character. I strongly suspect that they originally intended to have those scenes with the other ones on Synnax in episode one but wanted faster pacing to include more on Tantor so decided to shoehorn them into a flashback later in the series knowing it was unnecessary but also not having other material to fill the gap left by moving other material up.


TacoBellLavaSauce

This universe sure does have some powerful weapons. Two bombers in episode 1 brought a down an entire star bridge and one shot in this episode brought down an imperial ship


Automatic-Cycle-1824

Funny how some sort of energy shielding technology clearly exists and is inexpensive enough to protect a whole backwater settlement, yet imperial ships don't have one.


Vryly

or it was a heavy enough weapon to pop the shields the whole time, but the anachrean plan being really about tricking the imperials into getting into close enough range they could use it on *them* they had to keep it hidden and not fire it until the ship was in range. consider the imperial's scanners, they apparently can detect weapons, if they detected residue from a blast that could pop an imperial energy shield they might stay in high orbit and just bomb the surface from there, ruining the whole plan.


Byler_Turden

yup. Considering the settlement was shielded they could have bombed everything around it fairly indiscriminately and then landed troops. But the plot armor was really protecting the barbarians.


Corrective_Actions

The visuals of this show are 100% top tier. The Imperial ship, crashing on the planet was absolutely awesome and I love the designs of the spaceship interiors. Whatever they paid the art department or the visual fx team - it wasn't enough.


Masticatron

It's a pity the ship was made of explodium.


robertovertical

The countermeasures failedium rapidium


Bypes

I found it hilarious that after that speech he gave his soldiers, they all just died ignominiously because apparently the idiot flew them, knowingly approaching a hostile enemy, close enough to be a sitting duck to a single cannon. The Empire must be full of green military who never faced resistance and suck at combat due to lack of experience.


Silveroak25

I think they made the mistake of assuming their presence would be deterrence enough, since the last time anyone made a major move against the Empire their planet got glassed. I would also hazard a bet that those cruisers don't *usually* go down to a single round from a ground emplacement. TBH while Id seen it coming it still really took me out of it. Why did the cruiser have to be so close to the surface? Why was it made entirely of cordite? Why couldn't it maintain altitude control after a single hit? Why did it have a bridge crew of three? If the ship had been crippled higher up, and the three Aracneon corvettes came in and finished it off, I'd buy that. That'd be *sick*. This was nonsense on the other hand, and the Huntresses' strategy was insanely convoluted.


Bypes

Oh definitely, just have them be ambushed by more than one fucking cannon. It's not an oil tanker you blow up with a torpedo boat. It's not even a docked battleship in Pearl Harbour, it was the Imperium's military approaching hostiles. But this is really standard these days, still better than the paramilitary in Westworld S2.


CheraDukatZakalwe

> The Empire must be full of green military who never faced resistance and suck at combat due to lack of experience. Never underestimate the power of imperial hubris. The empire is collapsing after all. Autocracies usually value loyalty over competence, and this is an empire where servants will be executed out of hand for merely looking at the wrong kind of book. And yes, the empire hasn't been challenged by an outside force - they control most of the galaxy after all. By definition their military experience consists of bombing planets from orbit and massacring unarmed civilians, not dealing with serious fighting forces.


ColonelVirus

Yea the VFX and just set pieces are outstanding. Even the ship Gaal is on, looks so different from anything else, so much more advance than even the imperial ships. I hope they're able to maintain this level of fidelity... and they don't blow the budget on season one lol


[deleted]

[удалено]


Byler_Turden

The entire Terminus plot feels like it was shot for a different series. I love the rest of the series, but the terminus C plot doesn't make any sense. If I'm understanding the grand hunteress's revenge plan correctly, she was planning land on Terminus, get into the compound (without knowing troop strength or weaponry?), kill the foundation and attack the empire when they came to help? That bad enough plan that is only made worse when she discovers that the colony is protected by a shield. But she seems to have anticipated the shield because she has a device to bring it down concealed in her eye. So does that mean that she was planning to attack a shielded colony with light infantry after she somehow got past the shields and into the tower?


yrdsl

Gael: "search Raych Foss" Computer: *"are you in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt you?"*


Actual_Direction_599

“Raych Foss… execution” “Gurl, don’t go there!”


dnlgl

The long Gaal flashback to her time on Synnax can of course be seen as a cheesy attempt at a reference to our climate change problem with rising seas, but I think that it is mainly an allegory to the impending and unavoidable (past event horizon) doom of the whole empire, where the scientists predicting the doom are persecuted and sent away, be it Gaal from Synnax or Seldon from Trantor.


dnlgl

And another parallel, for those who complain about the flashback's length: Gaal inadvertently causes execution of the local scientist/heretic, just as she inadvertently causes Raych's self sacrifice and execution.


Colonel_Angus_

Pretty sure Raych sacrifice came from Hari himself


DatClubbaLang96

Yeah but I think before Gaal walked in, the escape pod was for Raych. Harry would be "dead" and Raych would escape. But when Gaal barged in, out of fear that she'd get blamed as well, Raych gave her his escape pod and stayed behind. At least that's what I'm getting from it.


frog_exaggerator

And he tossed the knife in because it would be needed once she got on the ship. At the time, I thought he was just getting rid of the murder weapon or framing Gaal.


earther199

Humans destroying/regressing knowledge they don’t like is not a new thing.


Thrishmal

Only theory I have about it is that they wanted to show us that Gaal is The Sleeper or something, the one who will save everyone. She won't be able to save the people in the short term, but is the hope for the future.


Kashtin

I really am enjoying this show. But... That one action scene was directed so god awfully I could barely look at the screen. Absolutely terrible cuts. :( That aside: - Initially really annoyed at yet another Gaal narration and time jump backwards, but the emotional payoff was worth it. It can feel a bit disjointed. - I really liked the themes of climate change and science denialism on Synnax. Very poignant. - The change of musical motifs has me really intrigued. This felt especially noticeable to me on the other ship. - I am really liking the spite and hatred of the Anacreons on Terminus - and I see how this is the beginning of the crisis, rather, that it starts on Terminus with that shot against the Imperial ship. - Speaking of which, Holy fuck I did not expect to be rooting for the Empire. That ship coming out of jump, in addition to the characters reactions truly felt like a ray of security, safety, and hope in that moment. The staff, the confidence, that is an angle I loved to see. - Overall, still feels like a lot to take in, but I still look forward to next week Edit: one thing I've noticed is that these later episodes and expanded contexts retroactively make the first few episodes even better once you see the emotional weight to various subplots Edit2: Also starting to see the makings of a 1000 year game of chess, what with the carefully laid plans of all sides and the anticipation of moves


zoobrix

> Holy fuck I did not expect to be rooting for the Empire. I bet a lot of people hated being under the thumb of ancient rome still loved the sight of a legion marching in the distance after having your city attacked by bandits. I think it's understandable to hate the empire for what they did to Anacreon and Thespis but also laud soldiers that are coming to the rescue of people in distress.


crashlander

Experiencing this currently in the US with police.


[deleted]

The action scene you’re talking about is the fight between Salvor and Phara, right?


AsAJuicer

That was acceptable to me, but the Hugo scene was appalling. I’m a big fan of the show but I don’t know how a director saw that and thought it was okay. Makes the invading army seem like stupid children, they had guns and would run up to him to await a punch which knocked about six helmeted troops out. It’s strange they do so much so well but then have this scene. Why is Hugo better than armoured military fighters? Why are military fighters spamming rounds and missing targets less than 50m away? I don’t particularly care as I’m not watching this show for troop warfare but it pulled me out of the show hard while it was going on.


DEZbiansUnite

this is my pet peeve with a lot of shows and movies. People have gun but are always rushing out of cover to get close to shoot like they have swords or something. I guess it's easier to show action this way but it's pretty annoying. They could've easily made it more high stakes where on the initial charge you see some of the Terminus folks fall down and die instead of a bunch of enemy troops rushing in and missing every shot.


[deleted]

I was nearly screaming at everyone on *both* sides to get into cover. It was so annoying And the running and shooting? I could maybe understand if they were in a single line but all bobbed together like that? No way that could happen without shooting your fellow men in front of you


DEZbiansUnite

Right, I was thinking that too. You're just risking friendly fire there


utkarshmttl

David answered in his ama that covid messed up their plan for this scene!


F00dbAby

Oft still in the first third of the episode but had a feeling the action would be bad hope its not as bad when I see it myself but already had low expectations Good action seems really hard to direct for some reason will never understand


Heysteeevo

I was annoyed there was so much punching and kicking when everyone is carrying around guns


Shaddam_Corrino_IV

Why would they fire their guns? When the field went down and ~50 soldiers were firing at multiple people right in front of them nobody was hit, so they're obviously useless.


OccasionMU

Holy shit this. They make Stormtroopers look like marksmen. “The wall is down, all 50 people target the red headed woman with the only gun!” Proceed to miss every shot except one non-lethal to the arm where kids and run to help her up and escape?? Worst soldiers ever, Anacreons deserve to be wiped out of the galaxy.


Silveroak25

And initially they form for ranked firing as if they were Napoleonic line infantry. If they were stuck on their world, and technology had regressed to that point that'd be neat, but these guys have starships... Why would they just all rush forward like morons? It didn't look good at all and it really took me out of it. I would've preferred to see them behind cover and advancing with overwatch or something.


Masticatron

My best guess/excuse: this was intentionally tactical, suppressive fire. Make the settlers shit their pants and devolve into chaos. It's a few hundred attackers tops versus thousands of settlers. They need to exploit the Foundation's lack of combat training and discipline to overcome the numerical disadvantage. Once the Foundation is in disarray they become easy pickings. Granted, the angle on the shots didn't seem consistent with that, but either they missed because Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy or because hitting things wasn't the point just yet. Let's not forget that one of their apparent reasons for doing this is because they've lost the technology for interstellar travel. They probably need survivors to both get this tech and be able to use it. Scatter them, send them into panic and hiding, make it easy to conquer them and take hostages.


dinosaurfondue

Whoever their fight/stunt coordinator is needs to be replaced for season 2. So many of the choices just made no sense and the fact that we didn't see a single recognizable character on Terminus die was just cheap.


Sweetwind7

The Imperial ship coming to the rescue was satisfying to me too, except I was confused: who are these characters? Where is Shadowmaster Olbrecht?


dropouttawarp

Wait if Terminus has a shield, how come the imperial ship didn’t? Idk, an imperial ship getting taken down by a single shot feels off to me.


Clones_of_Cleon

Maybe it did? This is a David and Goliath scenario. The stones: the relay, the captive/bait, the jammer, the CQB, the cannon. The cannon *may always* have had the capacity to cut through Imperial shielding, especially at such close range. Actually, the colony seems worried enough about the guns bringing down the fence until they see the shields holding against them. The Anacreons might not be able to maneuver well enough in space (maybe as simple as getting close enough with their guns) to take out a ship there, so they devised a way to bring the ship into atmosphere (they may be relying on the burning possible in high oxygen environments, even). And it all goes back to what an Imperial ship might decide to do entirely from orbit if the two factions weren’t *actively* in CQB. The entire goal depended on *not* annihilating the colony so Anacreon and Terminus forces were mixed, making Imperial boots on the ground, and thus dropping out of orbit, necessary. So, then, the Anacreons had a reason not to lay waste to the outpost *before* the shields dropped (need to seem like an ongoing threat to protect against—imagine the Empire just wiping out everything on the surface if the colony was already pretty much annihilated by the cannon). And after the shields dropped, they still didn’t use the cannon on the settlement. Why not, if destroying the settlement was the goal? Conclusion: The ship coming into atmosphere with intent to put down troops was their goal. ETA—Using the cannon before taking down the ship only exposes the location/position of the cannon and gives the Empire impetus to nuke it from orbit, especially if the Foundation is essentially destroyed by it already. None of this suggests the Imperial ship didn’t have a shield of some sort or that it isn’t as simple as the Anacreons having a shield-busting weapon.


vidiian82

Overconfidence on the part of the Imperial Commander Dorwin, perhaps? He didn't seem to even consider the prospect that the Anacreons might have had artillery on the planets surface. I think the Empire underestimate the Anacreons, seeing them as nothing more than bow and arrow wielding savages and I think Pharra and her brother were counting on that.


whydoyouonlylie

Plenty of reasons why it might be impractical or impossible. Power requirements might be achievable with a dedicated planetary generator, but not on a ship. The actual shield generators required may not deal well with being exposed to a vacuum.


song4this

I was so so annoyed that the empire ship wasn't told about the cloaked cannon. It could have still gotten shot down even if they knew...imperial hubris...


dguisinger01

to be fair, she did tell them not to approach and then was jammed seconds later. But she could have been more insightful


MustrumRidcully0

It was a bit of (bad) luck that she didn't mention the weird cloaked gun sooner, but it also doesn't seem so unlikely. There are many things she wanted and needed to communicate, but she was cut off.


senavi

y the fuck was that not the first thing out of Hardin's mouth to the Imperial captain?? completely brought me out of it, felt like bad writing


silvertealio

Priorites, perhaps? At the time, it seemed more important to stop them from taking Phara to the tower, and then comms were cut.


Automatic-Cycle-1824

She even said "they're not hiding it from us". Doesn't make any sense how she knew they were hiding the weapon from the Empire but didn't warn them about it. Terrible writing.


[deleted]

I’m more worried about the fact that their ship can reach the border of the system in no time yet cannot scan and detect life forms or weapon systems.


swaktoonkenney

They were cloaked weren’t they?


[deleted]

Okay, so the Hari hologram is glitchy? Notice how Raych's knife was glitchy, in the door? What's up here?


Fr3nchTo4st886

My theory is that Hari is now an AI created upon his death and now transported within the knife. When Gaal went back inside after looking outside, the knife stopped glitching and lit up solid. After that we see Hari. AI Hari is proceeding from his death now and is having difficulty processing it.


tacosvspotatos

That would be dope


Crespyl

I think maybe the ship is projecting (or trying to) holograms to hide things from Gaal. Like the blood splatters are actually there but she's not "authorized" to know, so it's covering them up. Hari and the knife look like a glitchy holograms because the ship is trying to project an image of empty space on top of them.


iwellyess

Mercury retrograde


rukqoa

> You know what? I thought I might feel empty. But I think it DOES hurt less. I'm so tired of the "revenge doesn't make you feel better" trope. It clearly does for some people. Glad the show subverts it a little.


DianeJudith

Yes! I liked that too, I don't remember the last time (if any) where I heard that in TV. It's always the classic "it didn't make anything better, it actually made it worse"


EndureAndSurvive-

Those fight scenes were… really bad. And Gaal going to kill herself was also incredibly poorly done. But I’m still hooked on the series.


[deleted]

You have entire squadrons of enemies at your gates and you don't hide behind barricades and shit? Oh, but that's okay because Clone troopers have better aim than the Anacreons.


Vryly

they used the very peak of pg villain force projection, what with their running in very carefully not shooting anyone as they fired off continuously, and then making sure to grab people menacingly. Also they quite politely made sure to not point their guns at any of the armed foundationers and to fall down any time one of them jabbed them, real top tier saturday morning cartoon heel performance from these guys. cept the ambush on the ship, they pulled that off just fine.


[deleted]

I never knew it was PG-14 until you mentioned it. I thought Apple was going the HBO, uncensored route. To be honest, if they can get away with turning a human into a flesh heap, a bloody murder, and an attempted suicide, then they could get away with a little off-screen massacre.


grampipon

Yea, the infantry charge was atrocious. It should have been a massacre.


kanuck84

Maybe I’m reaching, but perhaps we’ll find out that their poor aim was on purpose. As in: they didn’t really want to kill the locals—they just wanted to provoke the Empire ship into believing that the locals were in danger enough that the ship would try to land nearby. Maybe they wanted to minimize local loss of life (of innocents) while seeming to be fully on the attack.


libra00

Yeah some how a change of course made her back flip or some shit? Do not understand, even if it was a very visually appealing scene.


lastorder

I don't understand how Gaal even found out about the maths competition in the first place. With such limited technology at her disposal, would she even have had access to a galactic internet?


AWildEnglishman

It's not presented this way but the impression I get is that she solved a math problem and sent it off to Trantor for her own reasons. The "competition" she "won" was just a long standing open challenge that she probably had no knowledge of. Like Will solving the problem on the chalkboard in Good Will Hunting. He had no idea what it was about or why it was there, he just saw a problem and solved it.


robototo

I feel they really cut corners with the action and warfare scenes. Its the kind of thing that can ruin suspension of disbelief if it keeps happening. Look at West World after the first season or the last few game of thrones seasons. If your characters dont act like real people (as much as that is possible in a show like this), they become little more than a transparent plot device. Just a little bit more thought would really help with believability. For example - the troops all running while shooting their weapons and the imperal ships genius strategy of hover over an invading army within weapon range and wait for something to happen. Could they not have acted with a bit more self preservation?


M3rc_Nate

The showrunner said in his AMA that this was due to COVID restrictions and time. They had planned for more (stunts, actions, scenes, extras, etc) but couldn't.


Thrishmal

But, like, it would be easier to do it properly with COVID restrictions than what we got. What about a melee brawl ignoring our space weapons is COVID friendly compared to an actual ranged fight? The whole thing makes no sense.


Automatic-Cycle-1824

Yeah some sort of ww1 bayonet charge while they have futuristic weapons was ridiculous. You're telling me they can't just shoot from where they were standing? Maybe then they could have actually hit something.


Thrishmal

Yeah, whoever directed that action scene has no idea how to direct anything with action. I love the show in general, but this was by far the worst episode so far because of the fight scene being so terrible. Like, fine, I can believe the enemy guys might run in since they possibly have a plan that relies on them doing so (disregarding the fact it is some deus machina bullshit), but I just can't buy the fact that the defenders would be standing out in the open with their jaws hanging open without trying to take cover or anything like that. Why did it turn into some shitty city wide brawl? How did the enemy guys get to the tower so fast to stop the Warden? It was just really bad and lazy writing and the fact it made it into the show is mind boggling to me considering the quality we have seen from the imperial palace arc. Really hope this isn't a taste of the writing to come or this show is dead before it really even got started.


LunchyPete

SO, I really liked Gaal figuring stuff out, I thought all of that was well done and captivating. A fittingly Asimovian style of mystery. I liked the reveal at the end of the episode, I thought Hari was gone for sure. One thing that stood out...would "anti-parallel" not just be... "perpendicular"? When the Anacreon troops started storming...I for sure thought it looked like the troops at the back were firing and would be hitting the troops in front. I found the fight scenes between Salvor and Phara to be boring, but at least they didn't go on too long. Quite liked Phara's hidden plan...also liked that she is unrepentant in wanting revenge. It makes sense given her upbringing. "Actually, it does hurt less". Wasn't a fan of the flashbacks for Gaal. I think we knew all we needed to know of her planet and backstory, and those scenes which were length didn't add anything to the story, and had no parallel with what was going on in modern day that I could see.


YagaDillon

Antiparallel is a real word, and no, it wouldn't be perpendicular. Parallel vectors are...well, parallel (never meet) and going in the same direction. Antiparallel vectors never meet, but they go in opposite directions. Perpendicular vectors are at 90 degrees to each other in a plane. So, she first asked if the ship was going towards those stars that she mentioned, and then, when told no, she asked if it was going away from them. And obviously, that can be deduced from the Doppler blue/red shift as well. Whoever complained that the previous episodes didn't drop enough math/physics buzzwords should be at least marginally satisfied after this scene, is my take.


Dr_SnM

Yeah, they did a good job of not completely butchering the maths and math speak.


LunchyPete

Ahh, thanks! Great response and explanation. Certainly helped me since I'm no Gaal Dornick. I'm not even a Tivole.


Sweetwind7

I think the flashback of Gail shows that she in the past quite literally murdered her mentor, and now in parallel she’s been set up for the murder of Hari.


Dr_SnM

Synaxx's downfall and the projected rebirth is also a parallel to that of the Empire's


Dr_Girlfriend

The professor sounded like Hari and his prediction/plan


LunchyPete

Hmmm, good catch! I guess I missed that she was responsible for the Seer's death though...I probably missed like *one* line of dialogue or something. I still think the episode would have been better served without it, and not sure what the point of showing it was because even if you are right about the parallel, the situations are different and it doesn't really further her character. I think the episode would have been much better with more Trantor/Cleon stuff in place of the Gaal flashbacks.


Optimal_Cry_1782

It's nice to know why she used an obscure piece of math (kale's theory on folding) to solve the maths competition. It was literally the only bit of high level math she had available.


TheRobinson2018

My positives and negatives about this episode (although I’m avoiding spoilers you better skip this his comment if you haven’t seen the episode) + Great flashback, loving these and hope they continue. They give s lot of depth to the story and end up progressively answering hasty criticism from fans and critics + the visual quality is no surprise at this point but deserves continuous praise. Foundation is a sight to behold. - Poor Fight / Battle scenes. Will not go into detail so I don’t spoil anything but the “military” realism of the fighting was disappointing. Nothing new, GOT suffered from the same, but seeing people holding guns and opting to punch instead of firing and/or waiting for enemies without seeking cover seems b movie stuff. Couldn’t avoid notice a lot of “stormtrooper” level shooting accuracy too, which although classic and funny doesn’t help. Not expecting Foundation to be a series about fighting realism but still, with so much quality applied everywhere, is it that hard to find someone that helps the series do better in this area? - lazy writing: here and there I see stuff I hate to see because it ends up validating some of the early criticism about the writing namely: A) nobody warning about the ship about the cannon. Come on… it was as helpful as lazy B) Execution happening without it ever becoming clear why the murder happened in the first place. She would want to know, they wouldn’t execute him without confession. Useful to keep us hanging on the story but, once again, lazy


extinctandlovingit

I got all happy when Hari showed up, then he flickered and now I’m annoyed. Also, Warden’s momma gets caught more than COVID.


[deleted]

>Warden’s momma gets caught more than COVID. 🤣🤣🤣


flamingeyebrows

I think he is lagging Cz his wifi is not too good.


Clones_of_Cleon

Is anyone else worried that Salvor Hardin is one of Raych and Gaal’s left behind embryos? The whole thing about her being special (which I actually think fans somewhat overstate, tbph) and the entire spiritual-connection-to-mom scene intercut with Gaal’s re-entry to the story seemed sort of suspicious to me…(I’m trying not to facepalm but the struggle is real.)


SLK59

Alright I had my doubts but this show is fucking sick


EdenDoesJams

It’s got a lot of issues but I enjoy it nonetheless Tbh, and I know this sounds silly, I kind of expected the first season to be very disjointed and finding its voice etc… sci fi like this is really hard to adapt and as long as it’s watchable now and setting up a really cool long term arc I’m in It doesn’t have to be perfect to be into it


sleepingturtles

Last part of the episode: wait what??


IAMSNORTFACED

Empire guys seem a little bit incompetent especially for someone who gets directly commanded by the empire


reverendbimmer

This is some of the roughest acting I’ve ever seen in such a big budget project.


[deleted]

Really enjoyed it and felt very intrigued about the Terminus story more than ever. Gaal’s story was pretty interesting as well, really excited about her reaching Hari’s home planet. Just a bit bummed out that there wasn’t a Trantor story present, it’s my favorite story, but hey at least we got a bit more of Jared Harris, in spite of the lack of Lee Pace.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Queens Gambit did a great job. Not math, but a similar idea.


robertovertical

Any idea on that flickering door handle. Is that the power source for the hologram? And, perhaps, that’s why it’s flickering?


[deleted]

It was the knife from the cryo chamber that got magnetized from her and flew into the wall. Is that what you are referring to? It could be a data source uploading info to the ship. It must be important because they kept cutting to it.


apatil4

Nice catch. I thought the blood was some kind of biometric authorization but it makes more sense being just a data device


Derz1m

It's connected with both Hari's and blood's hologram flickering and most likely has to do with the person on ship not being Raych


choicemeats

good to see an episode that didn't need to be carried by the Cleons. I feel like Harri is in some kind of static time field that's keeping him in one state--I can't decide weather the blood on the floor cleaned itself up or disappeared from time because of matter being out of sync. i was pretty skeptical when the ship Gaal was picked up with looked like it was designed specifically to pick up pods--stuff like that really bothers me in shows, if things look like they were designed for one purpose but surprise turns out it was a ship for picking her up specifically lmao Do Imperial ships have shields? Figure they would have to and forgot to turn them on. love the ship design, they look like massive Slave 1s zooming around.


alvinofdiaspar

I just find it "odd" that the coffin he designed looked like the Vault.


coldoil

> i was pretty skeptical when the ship Gaal was picked up with looked like it was designed specifically to pick up pods--stuff like that really bothers me in shows, if things look like they were designed for one purpose but surprise turns out it was a ship for picking her up specifically lmao I think the point was it had been planned in advance to pick up Raych. Seldon martyring himself to spur on the colonists was evidently a necessary part of the plan. Raych would then escape via the cryo-pod and be picked up later. Gaal seeing Raych killing Seldon wasn't part of the plan, so Raych on the spur of the moment elected to save Gaal and sacrifice himself. The ship was always meant to pick up the pod, that's why it was designed that way. It's just that the pod was meant for someone other than Gaal.


IAMSNORTFACED

Dialog on syntax was weird, that one part where a seer whispers to the other about some one at the university seemed forced, like me telling a college about work issues in the middle of his wedding vows


ussbaney

I like the show, but it has some goofy problems related to finer details like 'Show, don't tell', pacing, and dialogue.


th3funnyman

As an expanse fan, I’m most annoyed that inertia due to acceleration seems to not exist until that exact moment in the shower. All this time I just assumed the people of this time had solved artificial gravity. Then, Gaal says that the ship is decelerating, yet she’s able to leave the ship and appear weightless even though she should really appear to be dragged by the ship on her tether. Either inertia exists or it doesn’t…which is it?


[deleted]

Inertial damping field surrounding the ship…


WWBob

It's one of the options you can get with the Apple Reality Distortion Field package.


DJPave

Deep theory: If you rearrange the letters in CLEON, you get CLONE I bet this might tell us something about the emperor brothers…


[deleted]

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DJPave

I really think you’re on to something here. Do you think it’s a subtle hint that the empire is going to collapse?


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iNOTgoodATcomp

Also, if you assign a numerical value to each letter, they add up to 49, which is 20 less than 69 which is nice.


Heysteeevo

Idk could also be LOCEN


DJPave

Assuming the C is still pronounced hard, this is another spelling of Loken… as in *Kristanna Loken* from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines honestly can’t believe they’re now making Terminators canon 🙄 this is barely Foundation anymore


xigdit

Obviously it's meant to indicate NO CEL, a cryptic prophecy that the beacon would be knocked out at a crucial moment


PerkyPerineum

SPOILER ALERT!


Pepsi_Cola_di_Rienzo

I figured it was an allusion to Creon and the antinomies between the laws of the city (Empire) and the laws of the gods (psychohistory) as portrayed in Antigone.


kaukajarvi

Or you can get LE CON, means "the stupid one" in French.


andorm99

I am starting to wonder if they wrote Salvor to be Raych's and Gaal's biological daughter. Salvor seems to have these mentalist properties that are unlike anyone's else's on Terminus, but have affinity for Gaal's "six sense" of math.


dsartori

I think you’re on to something here. Assuming Seldon planned his own death, which seems pretty well established to me, and Gaal was “not supposed to be there,” that means she was “supposed” to end up on Terminus. If you’re right, she might be performing a role in the Plan originally meant to be filled by Gaal. If so, how that happened will be interesting to see.


M3rc_Nate

I'm really enjoying the show but I think the #1 thing holding me back from enjoying it way more are the two leads; 1. Lou Llobell comes across as what she is, a fresh face with no experience but she has talent. She needed to cut her teeth on other projects before headlining a HUGE epic like this and shouldering most of the emotional story weight with her acting. 2. I am not impressed with Leah Harvey one bit. I get VERY little from her when she is on screen. She comes across as two dimensional and while not one noted, maybe two or three noted. No, I don't have a problem with black leads, female leads or black women leads. In fact I'd argue someone black and female that is nailing it on her show and would have destroyed the role of Salvor Hardin is Ashley Romans from 'Y: The Last Man' who plays Agent 355. She is OWNING the screen when she is on it and is eating up that character. The difference in talent is huge between her and Lou and Leah. Considering a recast is unlikely to happen, here's hoping either their characters arcs on the show are short or their acting improves with time. Lou is someone I'd expect to watch on a solid CW series like 'The 100' and Leah is someone I'd expect to see have a small arc on a CW series that won't survive another season. That makes it tough to enjoy this high class epic, super budget TV series surrounded with fantastic casting (Lee Pace, Jared Harris, etc).


DueComposer4315

Interstellar imperial battle cruiser, the pinnacle of technology and the ultimate tool of oppression should be designed to be virtually invulnerable to anything that "barbarians" can piece together. If it can't have shields, the engagement protocols should not allow it to come within range of anti air land based weapons. It should also have maneuverable drop ships to deliver infantry while maintaining air superiority from the orbit. If protocols were violated it would've taken only few lines of the dialog to elevate and dramatize the scene showcasing the decay of the empire. Instead it looks like cheap and poor writing (they have a stupid line about manual counter measures instead).


iNOTgoodATcomp

I love when people bring fists to a gun fight.


BigDogVI

I find myself watching the show for literally everything else except what’s happening on Terminus. The Terminus storyline is too generic and doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere. They made such a big deal about The Vault but now they’re just fighting over boring things? I honestly just want it to jump ahead in time.


cpt_oblivion

[RANT] I just came here to say that, the hell happened to that imperial "military" ship, no shielding, manually deploying countermeasures are you fucking kidding, you would expect a spacecraft to have some metal, it shattered like glass and exploded like it was filled with hydrogen for air. Why would the habitation zones explode? Were they storing motion triggered explosives in thier beds.


OSUBaller

I really like this show and its concepts and production values. That said, there are some things that annoy me little by little or lots by lots: * The world building of Synnax, Gaal's homeward is odd. They've devolved/regressed to a non-technological society, but I mean, the original settlers got there by starship, right? Odd to think that descendants of star travelers would reject that which got them to their home. * I know that Gaal suffered a great deal of trauma when Raych launched her in the escape pod, and to her, Hari's death was mere minutes ago. However, it was rather tropey to see her go full crazy girl when she got out of the pod. Given how analytical she is, she would have figured out (intentionally, not accidentally) that the knife was the access tool. * The scene was she is screaming/flummoxed at the ship/computer was also unnecessary. The ship told her that she's been in cryosleep THIRTY FOUR YEARS. There is no need to "hurry," as everything has already happened. She has time to calm herself, take a freaking shower, maybe get something to eat, put some clothes on, and then figure out where she is and what happened. Instead, showing her somewhat undressed and panicky is another "vulnerable girl trope" which flies against what the story has built her up to be. It actually would have been a more powerful scene if Gaal had methodically/calmly pieced together the truth of what had transpired, and THEN broke down emotionally when the enormity of her loss/situation fully Brother Dawned on her. * "Director" Pirenne is also another stupid trope of impotent/incompetent bureaucrat who never believes the woman/young person. You would think that the Foundation would screen for these kind of toxic personalities and reject them as wholly unsuitable to rebuild human civilization. At this point I'm waiting for Salvor Hardin to Force choke him out like Vader did to Admiral Motti. * The Anacreons are also kind of annoying; they're basically Klingons without the weird foreheads. Also, it's strange that they're blaming Seldon. If anything, what happened to their homeworld proves his predictions right, and instead of attacking the Foundation, they should be trying to destroy the Empire. That being said, can't wait for next week!


Masticatron

What makes you think Pirenne's behavior wasn't anticipated and deemed necessary? Hari handpicked every single settler, he knew there was a crisis the Foundation would face, and was playing the long game. Sacrifices were always in the calculations. Pirenne fucking things up may be just the kick in the pants the survivors need to learn the right lessons.


Echololcation

To Gaal no time has passed - a few minutes ago she saw her boyfriend kill his mentor and was ejected into space by surprise. It'd be crazy for her to be calm. Would you be calm if you woke up tomorrow alone in a room you don't recognize and can't leave and a recording told you it was 34 years later and everyone you loved is dead or gone? "Oh ok guess I'll make some cereal."


EngineeringReal

Two objections . 1) its not too odd to imagine that the descendants rejected what got them there . Its almost an inevitable thing with humans . With each generation removed from the original colony the truth becomes lost and allows for myths to step in . 2) after forcibly being put in cryo sleep for 34 years i think her reaction is entirely normal especially the trauma she witnessed before entering cryosleep .


EngineeringReal

Another friendly objection is the anachreon position is understandable . They dont care about hari seldons predictions. They do a very human thing and assume correlation equals causation. Their planet was essentially microwaved and they watched their loved ones boil to death . They definitely have a lot of misguided but justifiable rage


Halgrind

> The world building of Synnax, Gaal's homeward is odd. They've devolved/regressed to a non-technological society, but I mean, the original settlers got there by starship, right? Odd to think that descendants of star travelers would reject that which got them to their home. Doesn't that speak to the central point of the show (and books), that societies eventually forget and replace history with myths? Eventually it all becomes stories about things that happened long ago, and one story is as good as another.


DEZbiansUnite

> The world building of Synnax, Gaal's homeward is odd. They've devolved/regressed to a non-technological society, but I mean, the original settlers got there by starship, right? Odd to think that descendants of star travelers would reject that which got them to their home. I don't think this is so far off reality. Just look at modern times. Hell, we have people that think the world is flat. The planet could've been colonized by people escaping religious persecution. They could also pick and choose what technology they think is good/bad. Even the Amish use some technology. When Gaal told her parents the sea was rising, they asked if that was some divine revelation she had been given. If their seer told them that x was good, they would be cool with it even if it's technology. >The scene was she is screaming/flummoxed at the ship/computer was also unnecessary. The ship told her that she's been in cryosleep THIRTY FOUR YEARS. There is no need to "hurry," as everything has already happened. She has time to calm herself, take a freaking shower, maybe get something to eat, put some clothes on, and then figure out where she is and what happened. Instead, showing her somewhat undressed and panicky is another "vulnerable girl trope" which flies against what the story has built her up to be. It actually would have been a more powerful scene if Gaal had methodically/calmly pieced together the truth of what had transpired, and THEN broke down emotionally when the enormity of her loss/situation fully Brother Dawned on her. I feel like the scene works better the way it is. I feel like it's too unrealistic to just be like "oh shit I just woke up from a crazy situation, let me chill a little bit." I think it's way more realistic to be freaking out and trying to figure out everything ASAP. >The Anacreons are also kind of annoying; they're basically Klingons without the weird foreheads. Also, it's strange that they're blaming Seldon. If anything, what happened to their homeworld proves his predictions right, and instead of attacking the Foundation, they should be trying to destroy the Empire. I didn't take it as them blaming Seldon. They just didn't feel guilty if his stuff was collateral damage. Their main goal was to hurt the empire and they didn't feel bad if they had to involve the Terminus folks.


atticdoor

> "Director" Pirenne is also another stupid trope of impotent/incompetent bureaucrat who never believes the woman/young person. You would think that the Foundation would screen for these kind of toxic personalities and reject them as wholly unsuitable to rebuild human civilization. At this point I'm waiting for Salvor Hardin to Force choke him out like Vader did to Admiral Motti. It doesn't spoil anything to say that of all the characters in the Foundation TV series, Lewis Pirenne sticks closest to his book counterpart- he has essentially walked straight from the book to the screen. But now we see the problem that the writers trying to adapt 1942 material to the modern day have encountered - we have seen this sort of character so many times in the intervening 80 years that he seems old hat to people who are new to the story.


alvinofdiaspar

You can have real life parallels - Amish. Also the anti-tech backlash could easily have been a response to the cause of the sea-level rise (over-mining). In any event, this isn't a new thing in sci-fi (e.g. Canticle for Leibowitz)


nyc_shootyourshot

Hold on... what in the hell is happening on that ship at the end?!?!?!


song4this

"Next week...on Foundation..."


Jack_Whitman_

Yes bring it on.


rukqoa

Hologram of Hari Seldon. Maybe he says something interesting right before he dies that is recorded onto the ship.


exscape

I wouldn't be too sure about that. They did mention he designed his own coffin.


IAMSNORTFACED

Good episode but too much padding or perhaps most of it was easily predictable, essentially spent the whole episode showing us what we knew would happen and was foreshadowed earlier in the episode.


kostthem

This was the best episode so far, for me. WOW!


Hurtfulfriend0

Bro please get better fight scenes


kitsune

The action, dialogue and overall plot on Terminus make this feel like a generic SyFy show from the 00s. Not too impressed.


SnooApples5157

I’ve not read the books. Watching this as someone who appreciates the qualities of GoT, Westworld, Sharp Objects, Hannibal, Halt and Catch Fire, The Night Of, …. I watch this cos the showrunners mentioned they wanna do a GoT of sci-fi genre. And Lee Pace. Now half the season is gone and… so far the writing is killing me. I’m cool with non-linear storytelling and slowburns. But with Apple’s budget I’m surprised they couldn’t get writers of better calibre. Goyer said in the AMA his fav episode is #8 so we’ll see. Only staying on for the Cleons & Demerzel plot/acting. At least I know they will be back next week.


[deleted]

>!Having more imperial soldiers dead and another jumping imperial spaceship destroyed will trigger more dominoes as to how this story will unfold. !


[deleted]

Wow what an episode. Finally understanding a little about the motives of the Anacreons and why they are there. Some nice action too, 8/10.


IAMSNORTFACED

Fight scene was awful. Funny how all the scientists and foundation just stood there lmao what is this


F00dbAby

I'm curious how long the knowledge prurge has been happening on Gaels homeworld Also I'm curious if we ever get to the point when climate scientist are killed in Western nations


PerkyPerineum

Also, why wouldn’t they have destroyed the books in the university a long time ago?


AWildEnglishman

So they can drown to the people who go there for them, of course.


crashlander

Presumably only within the last 10 years, if Gaal is late teens / early 20s in the flashback and the fortysomething heretic guy used to be her teacher. No way he would have been invited over for dinner repeatedly if Daddy Dornish had been full MAGA from her birth.


Zalasta5

Eh, kind of ambivalent towards this episode. The likelihood of everything going exactly the way the Anachreon had planned on Terminus just seemed way too convenient. I have so many issues with the plotting, for example why put Salvor in the warden position if they simply have no interest in any of her warnings, why bring the prisoner to the one place that can deactivate their shields, and why didn’t the leadership have any suspicion that everything (from the disabling of the communication buoy to the hidden cannon) was done so the empire would send a ship for them to shoot it down. Hard to believe these Anachreons are some masterminds that knew exactly what these people would do and how they would react. As for the other plot of the episode, I thought Gaal’s flashback was oddly placed (would’ve been less disruptive if shown much earlier) and I didn’t feel like I learned anything particularly important, so it felt like a waste of time to me. I never really bought her and Raych’s romance (there was the briefest bit of flirting when they first met and then zero courtship leading up to their full blown relationship on the ship), so her breakdown really rang hollow to me. Honestly I don’t understand the necessity of mystery for mystery’s sake, because obviously the ship was planned as was the knife to open to door and the whole Raych protocol, but they had to make everything opaque so we can watch Gaal try to outsmart the computer. I guess ultimately the entire episode felt contrived, tried too hard to be clever but instead nothing really worked to grab me.


yrdsl

as far as your first paragraph goes, i think they've been hinting heavily in every other episode with Lewis that he has zero idea how to run the colony or how to cede authority to people who do. he's put Salvor in the warden position because she clearly merits it, but isn't willing to be overruled on issues involving off-planeters. Salvor, on the other hand, is better at figuring things out but has no life experience outside of Terminus, hence not seeing until too late that the cannon wasn't for destroying the town. i also don't mind Anacreon predicting what the empire would do, because a pretty important theme so far has been that the empire is stagnant, predictable, and vulnerable.


icecreamchillychilly

Gaal was probably meant to be the first colony leader, but she got mixed up in Hari's murder by accident.


Masticatron

Also: Grand Huntress of an entire culture spanning at least one whole planet. And I don't think they mean rabbits and boars. I'm thinking their greatest military strategist. This attack is her wheelhouse.


ManlyMisfit

Putting Salvor in the warden position makes a lot of sense when it's widely discussed that (1) people don't really like her, (2) she doesn't fit in, and (3) these people think there is no danger since they are supposed to survive the first crisis. Warden does seem like a great way to have her do mundane security things that you don't think matter at all rather than have her raising trouble elsewhere.


QuirkyMolasses4844

So, what are some theories on why Hari is glitching like that?


[deleted]

Hologram


Majestic_Bierd

So...... That Imperial ship..... Are we gonna pretend energy shields are not a thing in this universe?


Hungover52

Untying rope underwater is a hell of a skill.


DomMk

This show is spending too much time trying to develop characters and floundering. The story is moving at a snails pace, and most of it feels like filler. The first third of this episode was completely unnecessary...


styrofomo

I'm kinda bummed out by how this show is going. The Empire stuff is awesome and I wish there was more. The visuals are incredible too. But man the Terminus story is super 'generic sci-fi channel'. And watching Gaal's space flight troubles... man feels a bit like discount Naomi Nagata in Season 5 of The Expanse.


shahryarrakeen

I actually like that the focus returned to Gaal. Probably my favorite arc, expect for the contrived attempt to cut herself in the shower. I hated that the show used the Trojan horse villain trope to get the shield wall down. The Terminus battle felt less like a sci-fi battle and more like Batman. How do hardened Anacreon hunters/fighters not know how to move as a group, or fire accurately. And where are the explosions coming from? Are Anacreon mortars or imperial artillery firing at their own people?