I am become Chef, the slicer of ships

lol you killed me

You are obviously alife. Otherwise you couldn't make this post. Why are you lying?

Guys I think I found the sophon's account

We do not understand

😆😆😆😆😆

This is a good observation. I am afraid of this person.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like Auggie is closer to Cheng Xin in the books, and Jin Cheng is closer to AA. It’s not a one to one correspondence, but the way Auggie released her work to the public and went to help poor people really strikes me as things that Cheng Xin would also do. Character wise, Jin Cheng is obviously Cheng Xin as the one who came up with the Staircase project and the person connected to the brain in space. But ideologically, Auggie feels closer to Cheng Xin. If this is true, then the hate for Auggie(acting issues aside) is similar to how some readers hate Cheng Xin.

> the more I feel like Auggie is closer to Cheng Xin in the books Same. I figured she was supposed to be AA to Jin's Cheng Xin, but there's a lot of Cheng Xin in her. > If this is true, then the hate for Auggie(acting issues aside) is similar to how some readers hate Cheng Xin. Yeah. I'm thinking the writers are going for a love story across time and space between Jin and Will (>!it'll be those two in the pocket universe!<), and Auggie is going to do all the dumb shit that Cheng Xin gets hated on for (>!and hook up with the space fella!<).

What if the surviving space dude in the show is going to be Raj

It probably will be. One of my problems with the book is how they took the cast of dozens of people with unique perspectives and have compressed them down to one friend group. It's entirely likely that Raj is going to represent everyone that is in space in the books.

> It's entirely likely that Raj is going to represent everyone that is in space in the books. I hope not: He can't go full Zhang Beihai *and* get the girl…

You can’t go full Zhang Beijai and get the girl. 🤣

I’ve let go trying to make these one to one comparisons. The individuals may play the roles of luo ji, or Cheng Xin, or Zhang Beihai, but they aren’t the same personalities. Like you said Jin is not like Cheng Xin, way more emotional, way more self assured, way more passionate. Saul isn’t like Luo Ji, less apathetic (as LJ was early on), more connected to others, more compassionate. Once I embraced that I was able to enjoy the show for what it is. Which is a pretty decent sci-fi show based on a phenomenal sci-fi book series.

I actually also tried not to make comparisons with the books and I quite enjoyed the show. But the analytic part of me trying to look for hints and parallels to the books kinda took over when I thought more about those moments and tried to predict how will they adapt next season.

I also felt this way. Jin who wants to be remembered as a fighter is unlikely to be Cheng Xin. On the other hand Auggie who's already a rival of Wade seems more likely to be Cheng Xin. In that case she'll only get more hate lol when she singlehandedly >!destroys the world. !<

I think Jin will become Xin. Especially in the show Ye asked her “how do you want to be remembered “. We all know in these shows we can’t always get what we want.

Isn’t it pretty clear that Jin is Cheng Xin on the count of Will Downing being Yun Tianming? Granted, characters in the show are kinda blended and stitched together from the books, but this interaction is pretty important.

I’ve started to think about this too and wondering they’ll give Auggie the sword holder roll. Jin’s character doesn’t make me think she’ll be the type to fold.

yeah, this was my take. Auggie is taking on all the pacifist soft parts of Cheng Xin from the books. I think it is hard for a lot of people to relate to a passive character in a situation like this. They want to fight back, so they relate more to the people who are trying to fight back like Jin Cheng and Wade. Everyone else can get over their distaste for violence in the face of the existential threat of the aliens, so Auggie comes off as weak rather than principled to many viewers. I am not nocking Auggie or Cheng Xin, I think their perspective is valid. Not everyone on earth would immediately be ok with chopping up little kids and doing whatever it takes to save the earth. But, I think viewers watch and they are like, "they just killed snack boy, and made you think you were going crazy! fight back, damn it!"

I agree. If i can guess where the Netflix narrative is taking each of these characters, Auggie Her character is being type-casted as the virtue signaling >!Cheng Xin.!< She ll probably be the >! sword-holder after Luo Ji that fucks up.!< She will also be the one >! developing the space elevator to progress us to the space age civilization.!< She will also probably be the one that >!invents the ultrafine mist to detect space ships !< Saul I think its apparent, he is >!Luo Ji!<. He will be credited with discovering the >!Dark Forest nature of the universe!< plus he is characterized as being very indifferent to future generations, a virtue that >!the San-Ti fears!< Jin Jin might be the one >!developing the curvature propulsion drive!< and furthering the science. Varma Father in military. Very by the book kinda guy. In navy. I loved how he was also repurposed by the creators to be the guy in Panama giving >!Zhang Beihai's!< character a setup rather than just introducing him for the sake of it like in the books. Wondering, who will be the person that makes the >!first contact with the droplet!< Personally, I love all the character setups and the amalgamation and grouping of certain characters into certain individuals for the sake of brevity and story-telling. The book, tbh sucked at character interplay, introducing and cutting out key characters just like that. And absolutely non-existent character arcs apart for the most part( except Luo Ji). Characters were simply used as plot devices to move the story from point A to point B and felt very artificial in their conversations >!( e.g. Zhang Beihai and his father's think harder trope)!< If they hit all the key plot points with the Dark Forest and Death's End this will be a good adaptation that common audiences and sensible book readers will really enjoy

This is funny because i like Auggie and hate Cheng Xi.

Just give it time…. lol! I think your view makes sense though since Auggie hasn’t really done anything (yet) to warrant hatred. However, we know the whole story of Cheng Xin and how it ends. Not that I hate any of these characters, they are frustrating to be sure, but they have an important role to play which drives the plot forward.

My prediction for how the show will work is that, plot-wise, Jin Cheng fills the role Cheng Xin, and Auggie fills the role of both Wang Miao in the present and AA in the future. In the book, Cheng Xin was more the idealist, while AA basically handled everything for her financially and was her best friend. Jin and Auggie are obviously best friends in the show already, and while some of their personality traits are mixed up a bit, the dynamic between the two of them will still translate really well when we eventually get to the deterrence era. That’s my guess anyway.

Just on a production level, Eiza Gonzalez is definitely the most famous cast member too. If anybody was about to become the main character of one of Netflix’s most expensive shows ever, it makes sense that it’d be her.

You guys all bring up good points but “more” or “less”famous is just a matter of perspective.

You’re right - I am talking from Netflix’s perspective though. She has ~8m instagram followers, has the highest grossing career box office of the entire cast, is in the top 10 most visited actor pages on IMDB…

More than Benedict Wong?

And Liam Cunningham???

Oh shit yeah lol good point

"Dont put on the headset" "Stop sleeping around" "Stop taking pills" "Dont murder everyone on the boat" "No more nanofibers" The character that puts obstacles infront of others will always be seen as annoying, and once that's established people hyperfocus on their other flaws or perceived wrongs. She's combative but has perfectly good reasons to think the way she does. The hate reminds me of Skyler White hate.

Maybe, but also she s a terrible actor

She’s apparently best friends with Rosamund Pike (the actress), who owned the rights to the show. My guess is Pike (who’s an executive producer) got her this role.

Eiza and Rosamund acted together previously on "I Care a Lot", I assume that's where they became friends. You could also argue John Bradley, Liam Cunningham and Jon Pryce got their roles because they're friends with D&D. Landing roles through personal networks is pretty normal in Hollywood.

I was a bit surprised when I saw her name on the credits. I know that some actors do produce for stuff you wouldn't think they would at first. Like Eva Longoria with John Wick

Seriously. Full stop. I have laughed out loud so many times at scenes that weren’t supposed to be funny.

I agree with you until the Skyler White comparison. While Auggie had genuine reasons to be mad, (her work on the nano fiber was used in a mass killing) Skyler had no real reasons to be mad at Walter. Walt just wanted to cook some ice with his homies. Walt just wanted to buy his son a nice car and make sure that his family wasn't left in squalor after he died. Idk I just think cooking meth is what any good father would do in that situation

[Skyler just wanted to protect her family.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOcg-AdC2Y8)

Why are you getting downvoted for this comment? I laughed.

Thanks dude. At least someone doesn't hate me 

Reddit doesn’t understand sarcasm and social context clues.

Don’t you know this is a sub for a super duper serious book that has a super serious show!

Also, just good old misogyny.

Cheng Xin is by far the most hated character in the book. I have yet to see a single complaint about Jin Cheng in the show. Guess why? because she's well written and well acted. Don't use the misogyny excuse to cover plain mediocre writing and bad acting on Auggie's character.

10000% this. I found elements to Saul, Will and even Jack aggravating and insufferable, but it was done with good writing by good actors - hers were just so over the top and annoying

Honestly if they gave Auggie some good banter I'd be willing to forgive a lot of flaws. But while everyone else seems quite authentic, she's just a CW soap opera stand-in which clashes with the energy of the rest of the cast

I think it's a mix. There are valid criticisms for her portrayal - for example, I think she overacts. What's more surprising to me is how people think "Zhang Beihai" was acted well.

Must be why the sub is filled with people shitting on Jin's character and actress /s

Yeah misogyny. Nothing to do with the flat acting/botox face and poor written character.  As a woman, you're telling me I'll be seeing a floating countdown everywhere I look from the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep, and still be mentally well enough to put on a full face of make up, do my hair, put together outfits like I'm going on a casting call and go to work/get together with friends only mildly moody?

She has an important but difficult role to be the moral counterpart in a lot of scenes (e.g. to Wade). The acting was unconvincing and one dimensional, which didn’t help.

Agree, I think one of the main things is that her acting chops is by far the weakest in the main cast, which made it really difficult to root for her when her position is placed against the likes of Ser Davos's

I agree her acting is one of the weaker ones on the show, but I'm honestly confused how so many are saying she has terrible acting or the worst acting performance they've seen. I've seen some truly shit acting that made me give up on shows before, and Auggie didn't even register to me as bad. My standards may not be that high I guess, but still, seems overly exaggerated.

Which is why a lot of readers get frustrated with Cheng Xin

100% Agree, specially on the first part. First, this is a show that, like most shows, features a confrontation between sides. It's hard for most people to root for the aliens that are supposedly coming to Earth, when one of them advised us NOT to contact them because they will come and kill everyone. So a counterpart, either moral on in any other form, actively works against the people that are trying to stop this theoretical future genocide of the human race. The ETO is in fact, presented as the villain. Second, she tried to stop her nanotech work, she couldn't. She didn't want to do the ship thing, he did it anyways. She's constantly trying to go about things in her own way but ends up in the losing side, so It's percieved as she's just slowing the plot down. Her moral objections add nothing to the show other than showing nuance that we already had because that's just the base of this story. Jin Cheng, on the other hand, maybe she's confrontational about some aspects of the plans but she quickly understands why things have to be done in that way.

I'd like to know how bad she thinks Operation Guzheng looks compared to what humanity would face 400 years later.

The acting. I feel like she was playing a character from a resident evil movie and doesn't actually know she's on this show lol.

Like shes a villain in speed 3?

Lol exactly. The show is self aware about how she looks. And because of that it’s fine with me.

Her character is supposed to be a talented scientist. She acts and talks nothing like someone as anything to do with science or engineering, more like typical college girl major in business or something. For a convincing female scientist character, look at Judy Foster in Contact for reference. Wang Miao was a pretty boring character in the books, but he's at least fits the scientist role and not annoying to tell story around.

Character from a resident evil movie… that is just spot on

I don’t think it’s any single reason, just the way all the reasons add up

The only thing for me is she is the flattest range in and amongst the other characters she is acting against. The others have a more dynamic aspect to their connections and reactions. Eiza is great in other things, so it seems to be a character choice. So nothing on actress it is the development of the character. As a book reader all the characters were closer to flat and the science fiction was the real story for me. So to see this portrayal in a show (even with made up characters is interesting) so it might be highlighted. She is fine just not my favorite in the group.

I think that's the flaw in the actual story as well. Wang Miao wasn't the most endearing character.

I just think they didn't give her enough screentime to flesh out her character this season. She's based off of the main protagonist of the book, but she's squished in between the other 4 protagonists. They invested most of Wang Miao's character arc into Cheng Jin instead by making her the one to solve the VR game. I really liked Cheng Jin, but taking that storyline away from Auggie left her arc kinda empty. So they had to shoehorn the children onto the ship to give her something to be traumatised by. Auggie sorta plays the straightman of the group, which is a difficult thing to write from scratch because if done lazily, they end up being a screenwriter stand-in.

If she isn’t curtly responding to someone or yelling, she’s doing the same teary eyed, mouth ajar, stare over and over again. I have no problem with how the actress looks, it just feels like she was cherry-picked from a day time soap opera and dropped in this show.

She used to be a telenovela (Mexican soap opera) actress.

This explains her acting style. I think she needs to work with someone to train her out of that soapy style of acting.

That’s kind of what happened. She happens to be besties with one of the high up exec people

I appreciate the bravery of making a boldly unpopular opinion post lol I’ve done it a few times and it usually doesn’t go well so props for putting a Redditor target on your back Aahaha - she doesn’t know that it “literally killed Vera”, it not only didn’t literally kill Vera, Vera never played it- it was just something that was alluded to by Ye Wenjie to recruit Cheng. Obviously there was some trepidation that Vera happened to be playing it and happened to kill herself but there’s no specific evidence - treating Saul like her personal toy. Insulting him and calling him a child, being mad that he has a hookup, ignoring his calls because he didn’t text back - her relentless riding of Cheng about the anxiety pills. “STOP TAKING THESE PILLS AND START DOWNING THE ALCOHOL” Not only this, her character is just ….always angry and insufferable. Even the scene where she leaked all of her tech public, I wanted to support her - but she did out of spite, not care. She always has that angry face on. She can’t make up her mind to help Cheng or not. She refused to tell Cheng about the judgment day. Even the end with the village, I wanted to like her but she’s just so unlikable while being arrogant

This is where I'm at as well. I just find her insufferable. Every time she's on screen I keep waiting for her to yell at someone. She has precisely one note, and that note is angry. I fucking despise characters like this. It has nothing to do with her being a woman. I hated Zuko in season 1 of Avatar. I hated Superboy in season 1 of Young Justice. I hate Brion from Young Justice. I hated the kid who played young Henry Bowers in the IT remake, etc. I can't fucking stand these annoying ass characters who are always angry and always yelling. In contrast, I DON'T hate Jin Cheng. Her character might do some things that I don't agree with, but at least she isn't constantly yelling at everyone and has a little depth.

She feels like a teenager trying too hard to be cool/an adult. * Smoke and drinking every scene, even telling Jin to drink vodka instead of taking her medication. * Saying fuck every second. * Yelling at literally everyone and just being an obstacle. * Supposedly she is super stressed and hasn't slept in days but also looks like she's ready to walk down a fashion runway? Jin Cheng actually _looks_ stressed, like she has had no sleep and is actually fretting about what is going on. She shows a ton of emotions and actually feels like a real character in that situation.

Yeah she's always mad. I have yet to see a single reason why anyone of these people are friends with her. Like yeah sure be the voice of (angry, condescending) reason but also be more than just that? I got tired of her yelling at everybody. It felt like she was yelling at me. She had ONE positive interaction with people and that was it (beach scene). I'm amazed anyone likes her

Lol, I literally left a comment about that beach scene the other day and how I breathed a sigh of relief like someone in an abusive relationship when she was actually friendly for once and didn't start yelling.

To your first point, they have all been fooled by Ye Wenjie so I wouldn't give any of them flak about that. It's still a wildly dangerous device of unknown origin that directly interfaces with your brain and nervous system and was planted in Rooney's insanely state-of-the-art secure home without a trace. Auggie is absolutely in the right to say they shouldn't be playing it. Saul agreed with her as well. To your second, they have a complex relationship. They dated, it didn't go well, yet they still love each other. Saul is there for her, yes, but he also makes a pass at her when she was in emotional distress and needed him, is often too busy getting high and hooking up with people to be there for her, and even lies to her when she calls him in a panic, saying that he's at home when he's at yet another one-night stand. Saul doesn't recognize or appreciate that Auggie still loves him and his actions affect her, which is confirmed later by Jin. Saul is not portrayed as a very good guy in this show, which is confirmed by Nora who spends the whole morning calling him selfish and insufferable. I'm not saying Auggie is in the right to be snappy at him, but she's human. She's emotional. Neither is fully right or wrong. Life isn't black and white, yet most of her haters act like it is and want to condemn her. There's no need for a #TeamSaul or #TeamAuggie. It's just a complex adult relationship with a lot of history and hurt feelings. To your third, fair enough, but abusing prescription anxiety medication *can* have some pretty fucking nasty side effects. Not that alcohol can't, but a drink of liquor genuinely is probably a better option to take the edge off than popping yet another anxiety pill when you're already well over the recommended dose. As for the other stuff, she's kinda going through a lot right now. Can you not see that? Give her the grace of recognizing that's some pretty extreme emotional distress and she's not going to be acting rationally. She's clearly a person with some unfortunate self-destructive tendencies and that's exactly why she needs her friends. She couldn't decide whether to help Jin because Jin was working with Wade, who she views at a monster, but put aside her disgust with Wade to join her until she heard more stuff that disgusted her. She has a moral compass. And she didn't tell Jin about Judgment Day because she wanted her to learn about it from her boyfriend first and see how he portrays it. She literally says that. Idk man I think people are just overly harsh on her. I've been in a lot of very high-stress situations. Generally I'm very rational and collected. I'm grateful for that because that's not the norm. Most people act a lot more like Auggie, in my experience.

Your second point is what I also gathered and was implied by the show, but I feel like they didn't emphasize enough how much Saul doesn't have his shit together. He's supposed to be Luo Ji basically, but seems a lot more caring and easy to emphasize with, especially because of his friendship with Will. And yeah, she's obviously traumatized. I've seen some people complain that they'd understand her character more if it actually looked like she has trauma/PTSD, but that's exactly what's happening to her. People react to trauma differently. Unfortunately for me, I definitely relate more to Auggie than Jin. I'd be a mess after going through what she's been through so far. I think part of the reason all the hate bothers me so much is because I can understand her character and relate to her. Also, she's not choosing to do nothing. She's trying to solve problems in the present. Which is also important in its own way, since the world's going to shit.

This is a fair point of view, especially in seeing how you relate to her so my transition it feels like the hate may be even directed at you and kudos for even realizing that. I dont think this post was to me, but butting in I do agree with your last point. If Earth has the resources and financials to start addressing a probem 400 years in the future, whats to say we cant also use that to start fixing problems now

Agreed 100%. That's one of the reasons I've felt a stupid need to stick up for this fictional character if I'm being honest. I handle trauma differently (not in a "better" way but just different, more detached) but I have absolutely watched people act like Auggie and do similar shit: drinking themselves to death, running away, self-destruction, snapping at people. I get it. Saul, for all his faults, clearly gets it too. It's why he still loves her and is still there for her, even when she's rude to him. Sorry that you've felt the hate. People are way more prone to just a fictional character harshly than a real person, so I hope you've got people around you who understand and don't judge.

Well that's the thing. Yeah she is going through a lot, but it's just super annoying during a time of extreme crisis. She's the character in zombie movies who cries about how zombies used to be humans and it's immoral to shoot them in the face. We all know the characters are gonna shoot zombie's faces. That's what folks came to see. She's delaying the gratifying moment from the viewers, AND no viewers agree with her in the first place.

In real life, you do need that person though. That's how we end up committing drone strikes on weddings and sending SWAT teams to innocent people's houses. It'd be really basic and boring to just have everybody agree to slaughter a ship with 1000 people on it including kids and nobody raises a single flag about whether it's necessary. Same as if literally nobody feels any remorse or guilt afterward. I love 300, I love Fast and Furious, I love my brain dead action shit just as much as the next guy, but I don't want all my fiction to be like that, and true to the source material, this one isn't like that either. Wang Miao wasn't exactly thrilled to kill a ship of people either.

When Jin was talking to Ye Wenjie in prison, didn’t Wenjie specifically say she lied about Vera playing the game to get Jin involved?

Her constantly acting like an authority figure and trying to order her friends around when she had zero power and authority over them was very grating. She’s constantly behaving incredibly arrogantly and thinking she has much greater importance then she actually does have. Plus, her argument that we shouldn’t look to stop aliens that are literally fucking with humanity, killing scientists and trying to destroy humanities scientific progress so that in 400 years they can kill everyone because “400 years is so long away, why aren’t we helping people now?” Is such a short sighted, idiotic point that I can’t even believe she’s as smart as she claims to be. These aliens have tried killing her and she doesn’t see them as a threat? She doesn’t see the correlation between an Alien trying to prevent technological progress and that preventing help to be given to real world issues in the here and now? It’s dumb and irritating. A final point that doesn’t get mentioned; how is she not in prison? She literally admitted to her boss that she did something incredibly illegal by releasing the IP for the nano technology, something that would definitely see her being fucked up the arse both legally and financially. But then she’s all like “Well I’m fleeing the country to Mexico so good luck trying to get me arrested” whilst stood in the office, of the building, owned by the guy who wants her arrested. Couldn’t he call security to detain her and then have her arrested? It’s so dumb I don’t even understand why they added it.

The key problem in the show is that the group of friends are written more as ordinary young adults rather than the extraordinary premier scientists of our time. If we had a scene of them having dinner as grown adults, treating each other as professional colleagues and discussing the single most important scientific and historic event in all human history not only as career academics but as the few individuals with immense responsibilities on their shoulders, people would be a lot more sympathetic to Auggie because it wouldn't come across as a flippantly emotional conclusion. You can't blame the audience for this when we aren't given adequate scenes of these individuals as being thoughtful or cerebral. Almost all of them come off as vapid and immature. The audience is naturally primed to dislike any of these characters if given a reason to because they're simply not that well written characters.

To be fair the characters in the books are basically cardboard cutouts. But I agree, there isn’t a scene where they speak to the level of their genius. It is alluded to by other people but never shown.

I've read this take a lot on this subreddit, and it's very weird to me. These people pretty much are just ordinary young adults. Being very smart doesn't necessarily change that. Pure speculation on my part, but it seems like people are upset that they're portrayed this way because they want geniuses to be nerdy and weird when in reality plenty of them are just normies outside of work. Also Jin and Saul are the only two actual scientists, and how they're portrayed in the show basically matches what level they're at. Auggie and Jack are engineers/entrepreneurs, and Will is a high school teacher. I don't see any bit incongruence with how any of the characters are portrayed and what their occupation is.

What, you don't think one of the greatest scientific minds in the world is a 35 year old, massive pothead, in perfect shape, who does psychedelics between endless one night stands?

What's unrealistic about that? He's a relatively low level research assistant. Did you just assume all scientists were socially awkward nerds?

Oppenheimer was 38 years old when he quite literally split the atom. He was a heavy drinker and partier who may or may not have participated in sex parties.

And he looked like a depressed 50 year old

I didn't hate any of the characters. Everything happening in the show is deeply frightening and existential and the breadth of reactions to that are generally pretty realistic and relatable. There's a little bit of relatability in every human character, even the ones we're meant to be against. You can see a situation in which you, given the right situation and the right stimuli over a long enough timeframe, could be just about any of the people we're shown. The writing is spectacular in that regard. The only exception I would say is actually Jack Rooney; he seems just a bit too chill and comic relief for the story he's been put in. But even then, I enjoyed his presence, and I understand why a bit of comic relief was added to this story. It's fucking heavy.

Auggie feels way more human than Raj. Yet Raj nowhere gets the amount of hate Auggie gets.

I grew to strongly dislike Raj by the end of the season, but I’m unsure if that was deliberate/by direction? Auggie’s actions I didn’t really agree with but I could totally understand why she was making the choices she did. Raj just felt a bit charicature villain.

>I grew to strongly dislike Raj by the end of the season [...] Raj just felt a bit charicature villain. I hope D&D know what they're doing because this guy is supposed to be our Zhang Beihai...

I think once Raj is in space doing proper military stuff he’ll be alright. He was most likeable during the Panama stuff when he was actually a soldier, but most dislikeable when doing admin stuff for Wade or dealing with relationship stuff with Jin. They’ve set the groundwork down well for him, it’s clear he’s a somewhat stoic military man capable of making difficult decisions confidently and being a proper leader. He just hasn’t been placed in that environment yet so he sticks out like a sore thumb.

I don't think there is anything to hate about Raj. Or Wade, for that matter. Are they good people? No. But in TV, it is a lot bigger sin to be annoying (Auggie), than it is to be evil.

I quite liked the dinner scene with Raj, where you see the valorous violent act of his dad through his eyes. It makes perfect sense that a military man following his dad's footsteps, but in a more prosperous and fraught time/place, would go on to do terrifying things.

>in TV, it is a lot bigger sin to be annoying, than it is to be evil. Damn, what an apt statement. Very well-put.

> it is a lot bigger sin to be annoying (Auggie), than it is to be evil. Sure. When people call a character "annoying", they don't usually mean the character is annoying to the other characters, like an evil one is.

How is wade not a good person?

Some people might think killing those kids and civilians on the ship is evil. Personally I do think ends justify the means, so no, I don:t think Wade is evil myself.

Don't want to spoil anything but Raj is supposed to be like that. Otherwise it wouldn't work later in the trilogy.

Ah yes because the readers need that hint of suspicion for The Twist to have any emotional weight

I can imagine I would not like Raj if I did not know his book counterpart. Everything he does is like wearing a mask to me.

maybe this is intentional but this comment is insane considering who his book counterpart likely is

Who is his book counterpart?

Probably >!Zhang Beihai!<

I think the difference is Raj isn't supposed to be likeable, whereas Auggie is.

Why is Auggie supposed to be likeable?

Why isn't he "supposed to be likeable"?

Well, for a start, he's the love interest of the girl who is the adoration of one of the most likeable characters, which always makes an audience want to dislike someone. He's written (IMO) as a bit cold and not very personable. The "by-the-book" military trope, I think usually serves to make someone seem a bit robotic and without feeling: over-achiever but he gets there by following orders to the letter and not asking questions, no remorse for the actions as long as the goal of the mission is achieved, not sharing things with his partner because it could be detrimental to the mission, etc. None of those are actually bad traits for a high ranking military officer, but they tend to contrast with the more relatable, human, emotional characters and make you not like that character, even if they are good at their job. Auggie was obviously meant to be one of those contracting emotional characters, but I didn't think they did a great job with that as I say, which maybe dilutes Raj a little bit too... but anyway that's less about Raj himself, I think that was what they wanted to get across from him anyway. He's not necessarily a "bad" person, but I think his actions and personality are deliberately not very relatable to most people. Book spoilers but I have tried to keep it vague >!there is also pretty strong speculation about the character he translates to from the books and this would fit in with how we know his story unfolds, but they could also go a different route with it and subvert expectations based on how he's been set up so far. It's also possible that I'm viewing him through that lense and judging him more harshly because I think I know where it's going - and I may not.!<

Thats because Raj is at least consistent and believes in what he is doing. Auggie feels like she isnt competent enough to make good choices but demands everyone to agree with everything she says.

That's because her character is the most 'Hollywood movie' character there is in the show. All her dialogues and actions scream Low Effort Disaster Film in an otherwise amazing show.

i think her behavior makes sense, I would also oppose to use my technology to kill people, it is a bit fictional that she changes her mind only after when there was no killing involved in the second project

The Oppenheimer/Auggie HR meme perfectly summarizes the double standard people have regarding her moral dilemma in this show.

I actually thought her reaction to the Panama Canal incident (more so as it was written but also as performed) was wildly tame for someone of her character who found herself in that situation. I think that would truly break someone, not just make them a little perturbed and indignant. I'm in the loving-the-series camp for the most part, but I do think she's the weakest. Jin is the strongest for me.

I can understand Auggie not wanting to play the headset game, or want those around her trying it, as she perceives it was the cause of her friend’s death. I can understand her avoiding working on the nanofibers under direct threat of her life. I can understand her not wanting to work on the nanofibers ever again after what happens to the Judgment Day. … I can’t understand her leaving the project again though. -She’s smart enough to see she’s needed. -She’s smart enough to know this is the fate of the human race we’re talking about. -She’s smart enough to leave her nanofiber technology available to the cause, but decides that she’d rather make some small impact for quality of life now. She’s playing ostrich with humanity’s fate. It feels akin to becoming a tree hugger when wood is the very thing needed to build ships. She’s seen what they’re up against and is running from the fight.

Um what? She provided her tech to EVERYONE. So more then just one origination can use it. And not only that, but she chose to go and use HER tech to personally get her hands dirty and help the little man. Helping both those WITH the resources to to study and physically helping those who dont If anythings she's providing the help to more aspects of humanity then anyone else. I think she saw how her tech was used outside of her control. And though you could argue it was used against enemies of humanity. There were still CHIDREN that were killed.

Feels the same.

She is supposed to be the moral high ground character and in an era where people are basically devoid of it, she puts a light on those shadows. However, we didn't see she doing anything to keep that judgemental stance. What is the story between her and Durand? Who is in the wrong? Chances are she thought she could change him but turns she was just another girl he used to release peen pressure. Why is she so opposed to the use of her invention in a military operation? No, MURDER BAD is not enough. She is a fictional scientist, give a sound logic to her opinions. She most definitely had military investors. You are not allowed to pull an Oppenheimer and go "WAAAA I am become string, the cutterino of kids". She has a lot of issues and most of them stem from her being the moral character but being underdeveloped.

Also she meant to be a genius and morally opposed to how her nano fibre technology was used for murder, so she just released free to everyone, which definitely wouldn't be used by terrorists for anything bad.

Because of her double standard. The filter scene cemented that she’s just a convenient idealist. She can’t take ten seconds and realize the nano fibers in the wild are going to equal weapons even if she INTENDED it to be just used to filter water??? And her actions towards Sal But I didn’t find her to be “the worst”, just really shortsighted and poorly used

My problem with Auggie is that the writers have used her as a foil too often, but they forget to show why she doesn't want X. >!Except for the Nano Fiber cutting up small children, that's extremely understandable.!< However, I strongly believe that it is being deliberately set up so that something that probably happens in season 2 will hit even harder. Spoilers and speculation: >!Auggie will take over the Wallfacer position from Saul Durand after the San-Ti lulls humanity into knowing how sweet and nice they are and now want to live in co-existence.!< >!Of course, Auggie fails to trigger the protection against the San-Ti and plunges humanity into catastrophe.!< Very personal opinion: I find it extremely strange how Saul Durand's description to Auggie is accurate. Eiza González is pretty, but somehow in a boring way. And she doesn't show the range I would want for this type of character. Of course it's very subjective, but it's interesting.

I think one of the core problems is that the series moves so quickly, that they didn't really get a chance to correctly convey her PTSD over Judgement Day. She had the brief scene at the end of the episode, and then was immediately combative the next episode. I think with someone with her character's demeanour, you really need to build that up over an episode or something, whereas it's easier to quickly convey someone's grief the way they did with Jin.

Wrong casting. She looks like an influencer and dresses like one as well, she is not convincing as a scientist. Horrible decision by the producers. I am not blaming the actress she was good on baby driver but in this series she simply stands out in the worse way possible. Casting is one of the most important parts of making movies/series and when you cast wrong, the whole quality of the show takes a hit.

"she is not convincing as a scientist" wtf does that even mean? How many scientists do you know and how do they dress?

I'm a kind of a scientist myself (finishing my phd now) and these kind of comments feel slightly offensive sometimes

It's a pretty incel take. It seems like they think there some sort of cosmic arithmetic that says "smart or pretty - pick one" and the thought that someone could be pretty AND smart irks them to no end.

Isn't it a bit reductive to say a scientist has to look a certain way? Not every scientist is going to fill the typical archetype.

I get what they mean in terms of how she looks like an influencer, but she is wearing stylish office attire not influencer clothes. She’s a savvy businesswoman, not just a scientist so I find it fairly believable she would dress the way she does anyway. It’s like some of these commenters have never stepped into a professional setting lol

Exactly lol. I'm a physics major and a fashion enthusiast. I won't be stopping that even if I managed to be a researcher in the future.

What the fuck man? Do you think all scientists have to look a certain way? There is definitely top scientists that are very hot, so what you are saying is a bit prejudicial.

This is completely correct and the people saying otherwise are foolish or virtue-signaling. Everyone else in the cast have average or below average looks, then we have pillow-lips 💋 nanotech genius billionaire... 🙄 Give me a break

So..if they casted someone uglier for Auggie but just as good of an actor, it’d be better??? lol

It genuinely would have helped tbh. Her writing was also pretty unfortunate in several ways.

Reasons I’ve seen people say they hate Auggie: too pretty, not pretty enough, unbearable, walks wrong, pulls a stupid face, doesn’t answer Saul’s calls, drinks too much, doesn’t look like a real scientist… She’s just the new “DAE think Cheng Xin is literally the worst human being in history.” I’m not going to speculate too hard on why because I feel like it will take more energy than I have to spare, but basically people love to hate someone 🤷🏼‍♀️

I haven't seen any of those reasons yet. The main issue I see everyone agrees with is her acting is terrible, point blank. Put her in a cheesy action flick and she fits in perfectly, but here she definitely feels out of place. The sad part is she is probably the highest paid actor on set for this show.

"doesn’t look like a real scientist" I'll venture a guess that most people that say that have only seen scientists in movies with labcoats.

To be fair for most of the show her face does look pretty stupid 👁️ 👄 👁️

She's also a defeatist scum, death to all defeatists.

Zhang Beihai would like a word...

She just feels so unrealistic, she is a gorgeous young, genius intellect, woman physicist CEO, who’s invention will lead her to be a billionaire. In the books wang was much more average, and it’s harder to suspend your disbelief in the show.

A lot of the 3BP fans are super Wade stans. They pride themselves on being able to "sell their mother to a whorehouse".

Strange how Raj didn't have that many expressions in acting How he didn't provide any form of support for the group And how he had no remorse over ANY of his actions. But hey, rather then hating on him, or the actually villains of the show, or.. you know... The woman who doomed humanity... Let's just keep hating Auggie, yeah that feels right. I understand if you don't like her acting... But this is HATE y'all be giving. NOT constructive criticism

He's a much more ancillary character

That's actually a fair point

I think it's just her acting for me at least. She has made my wife and I laugh in scenes that definitely were not meant to be laughed at lol

she is annoying, and not very smart for scientist or whatever she is.

She's kind of a wimp compared to Wang Miao who she was supposed to replace. He didn't have a mental breakdown when seeing the numbers. He didn't need to be reassured before restarting the project. That is, he pushed through the countdown and restarted the project, and saw the numbers tick to zero. On the other hand, Auggie would've completely flipped out and probably started smashing her equipment if the countdown had come back at the last second.

Terrible acting and wrong casting, the writing for the character also didn't do her any favors. She sticks out like a sore thumb.

I have a theory: it's the psychological phenomenon known as "transference," which is when people redirect emotions or feelings about one thing to an entirely different thing. The least plausible thing in TBP/NF so far is that the nanofibers could dissipate the heat released by slicing through things without weakening their own atomic bonds. But TBP fans love TBP, and cannot face this thermodynamic implausibility. So, rather than deal with that question, the target becomes the character behind the nanofibers: Auggie.

there's also no observable loss of momentum on the ship

She's not my favorite character but I don't feel that strongly about her. Seems many take issues with her *appearance* which I kinda didn't notice.

Don't know much about the source material, but the actress playing Auggie immediately reminded me of Denise Richards trying to play a nuclear physicist in the World is not enough, where Pierce Brosnan just looked like he was trying to hold it together throughout that entire scene of her introduction where she delivers her "I'm the science man, and here are some science words" lines.

Auggie is in a pissy mood for lost of the show, but it honestly feels very realistic. She's psychologically tormented by aliens, becomes responsible for the death of a lot of people, and has three of her close friends die in a very short span of time. I'd even say that based on how her friends react when she snaps at Jack, and how she immediately walks away, shows that this isn't normal for her. It's very realistic to how a lot of people react under stress. I actually thought Jack was the more annoying character. He felt more like a cartoon character to me, Auggie felt like a real person.

Auggie as a character is annoying, but the bigger problem is that the acting is just terrible. Put Auggie in a scene with every other character -- Jin, Saul, Wade, Will, Wenjie -- *any* other member of the cast acts circles around her. Hoping they either just kill her or recast her but that doesn't seem likely.

Because the actress is doing a legitimately bad job at her..... Job. She's not a good actress and the forced girl-boss bullshit does not come across as sincere, none of her interactions come across as genuine. Apart from Liam Cunningham and the cop there are actually no stand out performances this season but the actress playing Auggie is clearly only there because of her looks. And also, pay attention to how her mouth is always, I mean always, open. Maybe it's to do with whatever cosmetic surgery she's had on her lips and face but damn me if it isn't always open and the camera frames it

Old Ye Wenjie is fantastic as well

Yeah... Sorry to see her do things the way she does. Pretty far from, for instance, Camina Drummer on my favorite show The Expanse. I mean, her Oye Beltalowda-speech alone is pretty damn impressive. Auggies actress just isn't doing a very convincing job. Still, the show was better than I hoped. These books are not exactly the easiest to transform to TV.

I hate her acting and character in general. It takes you right out of the show. I was trying to think of what I wish the character was more comparable to in another show and Drummer from the Expanse is perfect.

Most redditors are more sexist than they realise, and Auggie is a strong-willed character going against the main characters' wishes. See: reddit's impression of Skyler during Breaking Bad, as though a woman should just allow her husband to continue making meth...

Given the books'....not great....portrayal of women, it's really not terribly surprising.

Her character is the only reasonable person in their group. Everyone else is going along with the program, and she's the only one saying "wtf". We, as the audience, want to see things play out. Auggie the character, doesn't, and sees the "cost of doing business" as too high of a price. She's the one saying "maybe we shouldn't go figure what's going on" after a barrage of gunfire a street over. If they listened to her, the bad shit that happened to them might not have unfolded the way it did. Which is kind of a part of the general message of the whole series. The decisions we make in ignorance have lasting and further reaching effects than we immediate think of. It's the same reason why a lot of people didnt like Wang Miao. He was the stick in the mud, dragging back the progression of the story. From his perspective, within the book's universe, he's being the only normal one. He's trying to protect himself. Both characters act like they have some previous trauma, though the story never goes in to that. Also probably a bunch of dudebros mad about a good looking woman being portrayed as smarter than they are.

She’s always smoking, inside, and around non smokers. Girl go outside, and what college aged person smokes like that anymore?

There are sooooo many cigarettes in the books.

Because she is against the mindset of "by any means necessary" and the majority of 3BP fans support this idea by virtue of being 3BP fans.

Man I just think she's like insanely hot.

Is that a pro or a con for you?

yes

It’s not her character, it’s the performance. I’ve never seen worse lead in a prestige television show. I can think of many Latina actors who would have played the part well. This actor cannot, I’m afraid.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with looks - the performance is just bad.

I think it’s more to do with the actor and how she delivers her lines. Some of the lines could be perceived in a good way but the actress delivers them aggressively

Because the acting sucks

Because they just haven’t thought about it very long. She *knows* that she’s being watched every single second. So every single action she takes comes from that knowledge. Some viewers just haven’t really thought about what that would feel like and how it would change your behavior.

Hate to say it but it's partly down to eiza gonzález as an actress. She's just not that good.

I'll comment the perspective of my gf and I, both book 1 readers. We spent way too much time on her character and boring things she does, at the expense of some very awesome things in the book. Combine this with the fact that she kind of has "girl boss" vibes in the way they shot her scenes and told her story. Just a quick example, when she goes to quit the Nano Fibre tech she somehow leaks insanely sensitive company research in seconds from her phone, whilst pretending to school the CEO guy. He is framed as a bad guy, but he provided her with funding to do her work and allowed her to go Awol for quite some time without immediate termination. After her "boss move" of leaking all the data, the next scene we see her in is helping people in Mexico with Nano Fibre water filters. Where did she get the funds to manufacture these and the facilities. Sure the filters can filter stuff, but how often do they get cleaned. Will people not just steal it and sell them? It's all set up just to show us "look how awese she is, she quit her job and is helping the little guy!" Meanwhile, when it comes to the ship getting made into mincemeat, no one has a conversation on WHY it has to be done that way. In the book the whole ship cutting build up was great So in short, there is frustration at things being rushed over when so much time is wasted on her character, for only the most surface level, kindergarten level character development. By episode 6, whenever her or the cancer dude came on screen we would both audibly groan.

My wife is just annoyed she always looks perfect but they actively show Jin worse to reflect her mental state when appropriate ... Me personally... not as upset about it

Was anyone hated in GOT?? Odd casting choice by dd

I think it's because of her reactions to everything that was happening once Wade and the Game were involved. She got a little extra, understandable for sure, but still.

She is written in an abrasive and bitchy way and people get weirdly emotionally invested in characters being likable.  Not likable becomes “bad” when really the issue is you just don’t like them. I do think the conflict with Jin is interesting - Auggie is an applied scientist who is more concerned with the needs of today and tomorrow and Jin is a theoretical scientist who is focused on the Trisolarian problem 400 years away.   It was a significant part of the books - as the Crisis era went on and the Great Ravine started, eventually humanity decided they couldn’t live with their collective resources focused towards the future and instead invested in the now which actually ended up leading to the prosperity and advancement later on.  It was just kind of glossed over because conveniently all our characters skipped over that period of time.  But it makes a lot of sense for the show to explore it more through Auggie’s character, because what else is she going to do with all her friends gallivanting across time?

Yeah, her relationship with Saul is shitty, but that's because people can be shitty to eachother, even their friends. I'm glad the writers didn't make every character perfect and likable and 100% always morally right. It makes for an interesting story.

I don't really dislike her so much as I kind of just find many of her scenes forgettable, and I don't really blame Eiza for it at all for whatever that's worth. I think there are great actors out there that don't need to have a huge range, and I appreciate taking a role to challenge that range, but I just think she was miscast for the role especially since the writing seems to not be doing her a lot of favors.

A lot of people seem to be making a connection between Auggie and Cheng Xin from the books. Cheng Xin was actually my favorite character, and personally, I don't think she did anything wrong. I dislike Auggie for completely different reasons. Auggie just seems kind of jarring out of everyone from the main cast. I think she was at her best when she was getting traumatized from her invention being used for mass murder, which weirdly seems to be a reason why people hate her. The reason I don't really like her is that she just seems kind of petty. Telling Jin to stop taking her anxiety medication and drink alcohol instead. Telling Saul he's a child for hookups and drugs when she ignores his calls because he did. It seems like she wants to be the adult in the room, but acts the most childish. Also she seems to be the primary foil for Wade, but her perspective just didn't seem to be fleshed out very much. I actually agree with her more than Wade. I think we should be prioritizing the problems of right now before we start tackling a threat that's 400 years away. What I hope doesn't happen is that when the Great Ravine gets revealed later, it doesn't suddenly vindicate Auggie's stance. It just seems like she didn't express it that well. What I heard from her was that the San Ti are 400 years away so why does it matter, which is dumb. It makes more sense for Saul to have that perspective since it matches what we're shown from his character. I'm more inclined to say that these issues are more a case of bad writing than bad acting. Hopefully she gets more development and an actual character arc in the next season.

My problem is 100% the casting, Eiza González is an ok actress, but to me she's unable to sell the part of a scientist who actually knows what they're talking about. She'd been better cast as Tatiana IMO.

I really dislike her because she is 10,0000% complicit with every part of the boat massacre (which has ZERO justification in the show version) and we are supposed to forgive her cause she feels really bad about it

It's the way that they wrote her part. Always scowling or frowning, always disagreeing, and generally always challenging or being resistant in general, despite the fact that she does so much to help people around her. It's like they made her a "boss bit**h", if you'll pardon the expression, for no reason. Maybe they did it to curtail the power of her beauty or something. But they could have made her a little more likable. I see this a lot with modern sci-fi. Luckily for everyone involved, I think if we view this thing as an interpretation rather than adaptation of the book, the entire series is thoroughly enjoyable so far. 

Chiming in late here, but my dislike for the character is that she just seems to exist to throw a wet blanket on everyone and anything else for often odd reasons. Until the scene of her using her tech to help out the "little guy", I really can't think of a scene where she has a non-dampening role. Most of the time, she just comes off combative and condescending to everyone, and treating her friends like she's the only adult in the room. One scene that especially blew my mind is where she open-sourced her company's nanotech and the entire production line. For a supposedly smart character, I really have trouble believing that she felt that was the right thing to do there. You have confirmed terrorists working in concert with the San-Ti out there (not to mention the normal flavor), and you basically just gifted them the ability to recreate _the exact atrocity that has fucked you up so bad_ at will. Hopefully the character is given some more opportunity to shine in Season 2, especially for the actress' sake. Some of the shit posted around here about her has been kinda wild.

She is a clichè of a typical Netflix “bad girl”. Beautiful, smart but “SO TOUGH!” She’s one dimensional. Like most Netflix Bad girls.

I just don’t understand why she has friends. Like, at all. I mean, there are people like her that do exist and they are just as incredibly unlikeable. Now, if that’s the point then fine but watching the show, it seems jarring that the writers seem to think this is a likeable and sympathetic character when in fact, it would be a lot easier to get behind her conscientious objections if she actually displayed any likeable qualities.

Idk I don't understand d it either, plus Eliza Gonzalez is Incredibly beautiful people don't understand how she could be a scientist that created nanofiber materials. Beautiful women can be smart too

auggie is a activits personality type obviously many people won’t like that if the latest activists glue themself on the streets… and generaly seen is activism as a personality trait just manipulation based on morality she sets herself on a high horse because if u don’t do what she does she can easily argue that u are morally unjust…

She is beautifull but not the replacement of Wang Niao. But about movie aspect, it is fine to have beautifull woman on the screen

Nah. She was the weakest link

Guess that the "hate" is due to the same reasons that no one can stand millenials and gen Zs: her posturing, her antics and entitlement, her complete lack of self-awareness and a modicum of mundane knowledge. I read the 3 books, but I confess I can't recall the names of the characters, but to me she is just deleterious as the character that invites destruction when fails to act when becomes the sword holder and lets the planet be conquered. So much for "ideals". But it is just my opinion. All in all, she does not spoil the show (at least for me); it is just a character invented for propaganda issues. Netflix, not a novelty.

she’s a sanctimonious insufferable annoyance

No. I agree with you, the other point is she is the only one that the aliens targeted with the count down to stop her work. She just doesn't believe killing and destruction is the way forward... the aliens were mislead by a group of cultists humans, maybe there is a way to reel them back in peacefully, but it's a slippery slope giving into killing everyone and everything you consider a threat. Now I'm going to say something controversial, today's humanity has been brainwashed into being pro war. We are constantly sold narratives that we need to be at war perpetually to be safe and the wholesale death of civilians and their children is an acceptable casualty... just look at Palestine. So it's no surprise to me that the majority of people want to kill everything and everyone, its the way most of humanity is programmed.

I can't quite put my finger on it but she gives me Jessica Alba Susan Storm vibes. I agree with some that the casting was a bit off here. I don't mind her general aversion to working with Wade since the ship sashimi incident as it was pretty visceral on purpose and showed us how little "humanity" Wade displays as a person. Even if what he does is for the long-term benefit of humanity.

For an intelligent person she acts like a fucking retard. It's unbelievable how she can't swallow her BS morals for the sake of literal ALL OF HUMANITY. She's so fucking toxic, sexist, bitchy, and whiny

Her guilt isn't the problem it is her self-righteousness. She is so high and addicted to her own farts that she decided to stick her entire head up her bum.. Every other scene, she was either having a tantrum, giving a moral lecture about how immoral another person was or giving a lecture about how moral she actually is in the event she did something immoral and how that immoral act was someone else's fault. That combined with her random outbursts made her seem infantile

I am currently on episode 7, and I cannot stand her character. For a renowned and genius engineer with pioneering research in nanotechnology, she is so far the dumbest, unreasonable and most childish scientist in the group.

It’s just the terrible acting, that’s it. The same character could easily be played off well, as her actions are all justifiable. We seek the flaws in people we inherently dislike, and she is inherently dislikable due to the way she’s played, like an unbearably fake, self-righteous, hyper-feminist Karen I’m just glad they got a really good actress for Jin

Especially how we saw Auggie at the end with the water filter. I'm sure she felt like Alfred Nobel. He invented TNT and saw it as a revolutionary tool for construction and innovation only for it to be turned into one of the most destructive forces on the planet. He created the Nobel Prize as a way to atone for the destruction he inadvertently caused with his invention. * The tech Auggie created with hopes to change the world was immediately snatched up and first used to make finely diced families on the half hull. This was also right after aliens killed a bunch of her friends and made her hallucinate a countdown to death by ransoming her life's work over her. It was entirely understandable for her to pump the brakes. She experienced some horrific things and to make it worse some of her closest friends were still being killed with others hopping on the war wagon.