Altered Carbon
- Thread starter Kovaks
- Start date
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Jozu
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 6,984
- 6,295
Poe is awesome.
I also thought the actor that plays Quellcrist Falconer did a wonderful job. She wasnt annoying, and was very convincing in her ultra killer persona.
As a black woman, 95 % of the time this would fail or be annoying. She pulled it off though. Coil head lady did not, not even close. She was probably the worse actor out of the entire cast.
The governor has a sweet ass too.
I also thought the actor that plays Quellcrist Falconer did a wonderful job. She wasnt annoying, and was very convincing in her ultra killer persona.
As a black woman, 95 % of the time this would fail or be annoying. She pulled it off though. Coil head lady did not, not even close. She was probably the worse actor out of the entire cast.
The governor has a sweet ass too.
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Burns
Avatar of War Slayer
- 7,439
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I would rate it about the same as last season, quality wise. Although, since it's not as new, some of it's flaws may stand out a bit more.
My biggest issue was that it felt like the writers had DBZ syndrome, where the fights had to try to top everything that came before, and it was a bit cheesy at times. I could see this going the way of the Marco Polo TV show, where the action sequences get so ludicrous, it really ruins it (for me).
My biggest issue was that it felt like the writers had DBZ syndrome, where the fights had to try to top everything that came before, and it was a bit cheesy at times. I could see this going the way of the Marco Polo TV show, where the action sequences get so ludicrous, it really ruins it (for me).
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ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
- 8,257
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They never really specify exactly what the mechanism behind the interstellar communication really is, other than it's essentially extremely expensive and most normies don't or can't really ever use the needlecast stuff to "'travel" off world. There's some brief hand waving about the power required to send the data transmissions but not much more detail beyond that.
The "martians" or whatever they were presumably had actual FTL travel, and the communication systems are built off that, but they were never able to reverse engineer any kind of actual travel system out of it.
Sterling
El Presidente
- 13,092
- 8,067
Martians = Elders? or whatever? I guess handwaving is better than coming up with some total bullshit reason.
ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
- 8,257
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Yea, they aren't really sure what they even were. They are a bit more of a thing in the books, as there are like ruins of old bases/cities, some abandoned spacecraft left from them even.
They have been gone for apparently hundreds or thousands of years though and they don't have any idea why, they just kind of find all the wreckage while trying to colonize the closest habitable worlds. Harlans world for example is orbited by like a huge array of automated alien war machines that blast anything past a certain size/velocity out of the sky, except for like one tiny hole at a specific point that the original Harlan found to land the first colony ship. I haven't finished S2 yet to know if they get in to all that or not though?
The only info you get about the hypercast system though is that it's somewhat alien tech based and requires enormous amounts of energy, otherwise it's mostly just magic to allow for the clone-based world to function the way he wanted it to.
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Zapatta
Krugman's Fax Machine
- 80,749
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They didnt need FTL travel in books. They could 'Needlecast' the consciousness from a stack across the galaxy and upload into a local sleeve. Kovacs biggest 'skills' was not going schizo getting downloaded all the time into unfamiliar body and adapting to it quickly. Its part of what makes an Envoy an Envoy. In the books not all sleeves were created equal, some had bio-upgrades and enhanced genes to be better than an off the shelf human. Lotta sensory upgrades.
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Zapatta
Krugman's Fax Machine
- 80,749
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IIRC the Needlecast tech and Stack tech was reverse engineered from abandoned Martian 'artifacts' scattered all over the galaxy and abandoned. Martians could bend space time with portals. Book 2 was all about scavenging Martian tech
iannis
Musty Nester
- 31,351
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Maybe something like Orson Card's "Ansible" idea. It's bunk, but the idea was entangled particles that were spread to FTL distances and manipulated. You can use it to transfer information but not anything else.
Good enough for science fiction, not good enough for physicists.
Good enough for science fiction, not good enough for physicists.
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Sterling
El Presidente
- 13,092
- 8,067
I mean I'm aware of all of this. I was just curious if they explained the tech for needlecasting etc at all. Sounds like it wasn't which is probably better than coming up with some real stupid shit that would just make no actual sense.
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Zapatta
Krugman's Fax Machine
- 80,749
- 422,461
One of the interesting angles in the books is Envoys would needlecast in as a small force to a planet and use their 'empathy' skills to manipulate locals to their side and build a local guerrilla army to put down insurrections. This was faster than bringing warships into orbit.
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Zapatta
Krugman's Fax Machine
- 80,749
- 422,461
One of the few authors who didnt fuck up the concept of FTL travel was Peter F Hamilton in the Commonwealth series. A lot of time was spent on the back story of how the tech came about and the expansion across the galaxy. He managed to have it happen over 100s of years and still include some the same characters across the whole arc. That series is as good as the Kovacs books imo.
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ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
- 8,257
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This is the major failing of the show to me. I have no idea what they gained by making the Envoys in to Quellist supersoldiers? It just muddles up the story and undermines the entire theme of the rebellion.
The Envoys were the jackboot of the Protectorate, used to put down rebellions like Quells, and were capable of projecting military force across distances previously thought not possible. That made Kovachs defecting a really big fuckin deal, but instead we're stuck with CTAC just being generic stormtroopers?
They also basically gloss over the concept of sleeve sickness in a big way, or just ignore it entirely when convenient so the impact of Envoys is greatly reduced.
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rhinohelix
Dental Dammer
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- 5,004
This was meh/ok to good, I'm sorry they skipped another book in the series to go right to the end of the books. I should put this on my list to read, as the world seems great. The actor playing Poe and the character are amazing; The "side" cast and Kinneman was my favorite bit about the first season and while they preserved the best bits of that by bringing back all of those actors in one way or the other, the "new" team, although not bad, didn't gel for me in the same way. Mackie was better than I thought he would be, to be honest; I really like him but didn't have super high hopes for him in this role but he did ok. His delivery varied from scene to scene, sometimes I would see Takeshi Kovacs and sometimes I would see "CUT THE CHECK".
I was kind of disappointed in the story, which offered no surprises; all of the twists you could see coming in the first episode. Really, neither did last season but it was new, so it was harder to suss out. I had hoped they would do something different with (main CTAC guy) but I guess narratively that was as much as for which could be hoped given his previous actions. I am hoping for a season 3 but with no books and the way they left it, I am now not sure that is going to happen. Here's to hoping people tune in and we get one.
I was kind of disappointed in the story, which offered no surprises; all of the twists you could see coming in the first episode. Really, neither did last season but it was new, so it was harder to suss out. I had hoped they would do something different with (main CTAC guy) but I guess narratively that was as much as for which could be hoped given his previous actions. I am hoping for a season 3 but with no books and the way they left it, I am now not sure that is going to happen. Here's to hoping people tune in and we get one.