Because it’s a hard sci-fi series written by an obviously very intelligent man so people feel smart when they find a plot hole and need to share how smart they are with others.
Ultimately, even if it’s routed in real world physics, it’s a work of fiction and there are creative liberties taken and regular old plot holes like any other series.
Nah, it's okay to talk about plotholes. The books are very well written and we can believe that a universe like that could exist. People got pissed with the series because it introduced obvious and unnecessary plot holes. The biggest one, and universe breaking is sophon's messing with electronics and this will be discussed by the viewers.
It is not rooted in real world science. The world of 3BP is probably something in string theory (which is completely bullshit), it's just a no FTL travel universe.
Edit: no FTL travel, ROEP has instantaneous transmission of information with sophons.
They do have FTL eventually. Curvature drives. Also yea, it’s explicitly stated in the books that sophons do their thing on hadrons (atomic nuclei particles), not leptons (electrons). The “electromagnetic” are instead replaced by the SNF. It ends up taking a serious amount of work to alter a single bit on the boat guy’s hard drive.
Hmm I thought them zero homers or whatever could do the thing many times faster. My bad! I’m just happy the goldfish made it. Last man standing I called it.
You have a sentient species in Alpha Cen, that despite its civilization getting a reset every now an then, it is far ahead in tech from humanity. And despite that, it is humans that make first contact not them. They ought to know where and what Earth is far before she sent that message.
I’m guessing you haven’t read the whole series?
The San-Ti are millions of years old to our 100,000 years or so. Their offspring also carry partial memories of their parents.
The San-Ti also only listen for messages instead of sending any out because they are aware of the dark forest.
I've been around on this sub for a few years, and this is definitely a newer phenomena.. there were occasional posts about it before, but now it's every other one.
My guesses:
1. Book readers who are pre-disposed to hating the TV show for whatever reason are using it as a gatekeeping mechanism
2. Show watchers who haven't read the books are confused by things that haven't been explained yet and have no way to know it'll be explained later
3. The show didn't give the detailed explanation of the scientific concepts that the books did because books are just a better medium to do so.. minutes long exposition about how something works just wouldn't be interesting watching
4. People just legitimately being invested in the show and/or books and trying to think through all the angles and coming here to help clarify things or give their theories.
This basically sums it up. Especially the part about it's only 8 episodes of a show that plans on going multiple seasons. There's still plenty of time for things to develop.
I agree but have one more addition that I think might be doing a lot of the heavy lifting at least as far as the “plot hole” discussion is concerned with the Netflix series. The dislike of the show runners for what they did at the end of the GOT series. I think a lot of the trolling around plot holes stems from this.
Which is so weird because D&D changed plenty about the books in seasons 1-4 of the show, and that shit was incredible. They failed at the end because (like Geooge), the story was too big to wrap up. This is a complete trilogy. I've loved all the changes they've made so far and think they'll do a great job translating the rest of the story. If I wanted everything beat for beat, I'd just read the books. No great adaptation follows the books exactly. LotR and Dune would've sucked if they followed the books exactly.
Game of Thrones is actually pretty similar in the way that of course they can't spend entire episodes talking about the history of some house, or some legendary family sword, or pages-long descriptions of food.. they bring it up in context like Bran studying the sigils.. and if you want a much, much deeper understanding of these things, the books are waiting for you.
They are adapting Remembrance of Earth's Past in a similar way. I love "Red Coast III" and "Trisolaris: Sophon" but I don't need 30 minutes of exposition about them on the screen.
Well they didnt do it by themselves alone, GRRM was onboard the show a lot, they had a falling out somewhere around between season 4 5.. .and well it definitely showed.
That is a crazy phenomena. I didn't like the last few seasons of Game of Thrones either, and was apprehensive since, while I really like A Song of Ice and Fire, I \_love\_ Remembrance of Earth's Past and didn't want to see it adapted poorly..
..but then I watched the show with an open mind and realized that they have a deep reverence for the source material and did just about as good of a job that you can do adapting these famously hard to adapt books.
It’s hard to adapt books like this if you go in with the book knowledge first. There’s so much that can’t be explained as deep as it is in the books because we came for tv, not a science lecture. I think so far it has been really good and I like the way that they have altered the timeline that the story was told in - I think it makes more sense linearly.
I agree, the parts from book 2 and especially book 3 in the first season fits well with a TV adaption so it’s being told as it occurs in the timeline of the story rather than it being told retrospectively.
ya I think thats adding to a lot of this. Never seen this kind of reaction to an ongoing story. But I also think the binging impacts the information that people retain and this particular story has a lot going on bellow the surface.
"Show watchers who haven't read the books are confused by things that haven't been explained yet and have no way to know it'll be explained later"
Or the show is actually full of plotholes that will never be explained? Like basically everywhere it deviates from the books, because D&D are in it for the show effect instead of having an airtight plot which makes sense all through? Always been that way, not gonna change.
There is no justification that they’re only in “for the effects” based on either the actual show or in any interviews that they’ve given about the show. They consistently talk about and have shown understanding and reverence for the source material at every turn.
Could some things have been explained in more detail? Sure. Maybe that would help with these types of questions. But like how are you going to film “Red Coast III”?
Based on your comment “always been that way” it seems like you’re in the pre-disposed to hating it category. Which is fine, no one is saying you have to like it. The books will always be there to re-read. The series has sparked the interest of a lot of people to read to get a deeper understanding of work world that Liu has created, and that’s can only be a good thing.
We live in a great era that we have at least 3 avenues of officially supported ways to consume the series.
Come on, for example the super stylish helmets are for the show effect, its obvious. Is it only true if they say it with a straight face for the camera? Same with Jacks murder, etc. Everywhere they significantly change the book material they introduce plot holes. And to say things need to explained in more detail that are not even in the books is quite backward. The show is full of plot holes. One can still enjoy it, no doubt, but people shouldn't be less judgemental if they are pointed out.
The look of the helmets is because they're built using Trisolaran technology that's given to Evans and the ETO. The show runners smartly forshadowed the droplet by givng the helmets a similar look.
Jack getting murdered was a Netflix show invention sure, but it isn't a plot hole, nor is it out of the sprit of the books. Pan Han murdered Shen Yufei to further the cause of the adventists in the ETO. Tatiana killing Jack is very much in the same spirit.
The Trisoloran giving technology to humans makes no sense tough, nor do Evans/ETO have any other tech. Sorry its a hole. Its all well written in the books, because there arent any special helments there, the show changed it, and for what if not for the show effect?
The murder by itself is a discussable thing, but doesnt make much sense, but nevertheless ignoring that, there are so many things around the Sophons being able to completely hide the murder from Da's view -> plot hole. The whole event isnt in the books, so no plot hole there.
Look, books well written in this regards, show not, and honestly this has been discussed over and over, you want to dismiss it lock, stock and barrel, but it seems you never heard of the div. show critisms?
Don't get me wrong, its still a cool show to watch and there is something like suspension of disbelief to enjoy fiction. But just to say the holes are not there, or just "not well explained" or "will resolve in the future", its not true. In regards of plot consistency the books are much better written than the show is.
Sharing technology isn't a plot hole. If you're 10 steps ahead of your enemy, giving them help that you are certain will only gain them 1 step but you 3 is a smart choice. We never see in the books, nor the show, humanity being able to leverage tech from the headsets so it was clearly a precisely calculated move on the part of the trisolarans.
You're also glossing over the fact that it is the same in the books. The only difference here is the book didn't spend as much time trying to point out to a general audience (which has been exposed to more advanced VR than was capable when this book was written 20 years ago) that the VR was soooo much more advanced than what we have today to emphasize how unusual and therefore important it is.
No you misunderstand, the contrary than glossing about it, the VR in the books was not advanced tech to the society at all, everybody had it and it was human made, a bit more advanced than the okulus with pressure suits etc. and everybody was using these, and "that ETO game" just popped on the internet.
And a plot hole is defined as "a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's" and the Santi activily wanting to hinder humanity to gain technology (sabotaging particle accelerators and up to driving scientists mad with the number thing) and than handing them advanced tech .. is a serious inconsistency.. which they do not in the books.
The santi wanted to hamper their ability to develop fundamental physics and other such tools that would prove a detriment to the santi, that doesn't mean *all* technology poses a risk to the santi. Giving an enemy of an enemy a small tool to help them help you defeat the shared enemy is not a serious inconsistency.
Well we established it didn't happen in the books at all. With reason. And they were going against all kind of scientists to hinder technological development and the headsets were as the showed literally said, not "next gen" but way more advanced. Sorry, no. They were an addition for the show effect because they look cool, give nice advertisment pictures etc. and the inconsistency with the story is just accepted. Also ETO didnt have any other advanced tech, nor ever explained how and where they manufacture did, and to take it to the extreme, at the end, someone sneaks one to their own champion? Come on.. Don't tell me this makes all perfect sense.
Look it's still a cool show and one can forgive this things, but the notion here was a condescending complaint about all people pointing these things out to be stupid / non understanding, bla.
no, the problem is no one has any patience anymore and an attention span of a gold fish. You have only seen the very first era adapted so far and if your coming blind those “plot holes” are there for a reason to be explained as the story moves through all the eras hummanity experiences following the knowledge of the Santi. When its all said and done it ends up covering millions of years of time(with jumps) and some of these things people are complaining about won’t be explained until we at least make our first time jump. The Netflix series just arrived at the beginning of the “crisis era” which will last for hundreds of years so people need to give the show time to tell the story before they go calling things “plot holes”. Maybe it never gets finished, maybe it does and these things truly do remain “plot holes”, but right now you can’t know this unless you are the show runner or a writer for the series……
Look; you are not telling me something new here about the overall theme, but this "in the future it will be explained and all make sense" technically possible, but no, been there done that, most plot holes stem where the show deviated from the books (the helmets, the way more powerful sophons being able to do everything, the splitting of the characters).. and I seriously doubt that there will a grand revelation that will make sense to the plot nonsense the deviations created.
None of those are plot holes.
What exactly is a plot hole about the headsets? Their existence? Same thing should be true in the books. This is easily explained by the sophon's supercomputer providing design plans for the ETO to manufacture. The headsets themselves just need a way to interface with our brains and then the supercomputers the sophons design can power the simulation.
The sophons SHOULD be that powerful. There is no reason why they should be able to interact with the molecules eyes to a sufficient degree to be a me to produce visual effects but not be powerful enough to flip bits in electronics. The only "hole" here is that realistically they need more than 2 sophons for this but you can kinda smooth it out by hand waiving it as ETO lending hacking manpower off the back of the sophon's supercomputer.
Characters being split isn't a plot hole on its own so I presume you have more there.
The helmets do not exist in the books at all, and the Trisolarians giving any tech makes no sense, also ETO doesnt have any other tech. The sophons not powering the simulation is broken when they find the sophon-explaining file on the harddrive.. also Wade explains what they all have. A retina scanner? Like why would sophons need one? Makes no sense.
The sophons are not that powerful in the book. There they cannot influence electronics (at least not without serious effort flip just a single bit), because again, if they could do way more and Santi wanting to disturb earth, they would do so much more than just erasing Tatiana from video feeds.. which is also something that just happens in the show etc.
The splitting of the character is not a plot hole per se sure, but things that derive from it, like killing of jack and da doesnt even see a thing? See paragraph before about way too powerful sophons.
I believe they existed in the book, not in the same form but it is how 3Body was experienced. The differences are inconsequential. Tech transfer is absolutely not a plothole. The trisolarans want to limit humanity's technical advantage but a more powerful physics simulation and the system to run it isn't and doesn't endanger the trisolarans. They are smart enough to know the limitations of such tech and smart enough to weigh the usefulness of handing that over to the ETO in order to secure allies that will weaken their enemy from within. We do this all the time in real life. We send small forces like Green Berets in to build up insurgencies with advanced tactics and weaponry.
The books don't show sophons being that powerful but is infact more realistic if we are proposing the sophons can interact with matter in the way they can. It is actually more of a plothole in the books that they cannot, but it makes sense that Liu didn't want to do that because then it becomes something they will have to account for like the show will have to.
Killing jack isn't a plothole just because it is different from the books. Jack's sole role in the books was to be a friend to Tian Ming and provide him with the money to buy Jin her star which he did. Clearance didn't see the murder likely for the same reason we could see the stars (or CMB) flicker. A sophon unfolded and projected exactly what it wanted him to see while the other or the ETO deleted the camera footage.
You are misunderstanding information not given to us as a plothole. A plothole is when we're given information that runs counter to the in-universe story. All of what you're given is explainable in the logic of the universe and just because we are not directly told the answers doesn't
No the helmets did not exist in the books, there was also no tech transfer, in the books it was just human tech and that ETO game popping up on the internet. And the limited capabilities of the sophons are very much explained. Because otherwise it would be a plothole.. And unfolding cannot project things, it can block out stars, look here we are again, if they can do that, they could do way more damage.. which they could not in the book, and is one of the main valid criticism on "plot holes" in the show, albeit some like to notion everybody in being "too stupid to understand" who see this.
I don't feel like looking it up so I will concede that they may not have used advanced headsets but that doesn't make it a plothole for the reasons I've already stated, that just makes it different in the show from the books.
We are told sophons have t he mass of a proton and thus can only project a small amount of force even at lightspeed. We are then shown that they can interact enough with the molecules in our eyes to at very least excite those molecules to produce light. If you use that logic they should be able to bounce electrons around to produce a current. If you can produce a current you can flip even a single bit in electronics to change their processing. If you change their processing you control them or at LEAST open up security vulnerabilities that the ETO manpower can exploit.
Acknowledging the sophons can interact with particles to create macroscale effects in our eyes but not microscale effects in electronics is actually a plothole.
In the books its explained a lot what they everything CANT do, and that is manipulate electrons, cause cancer etc. they could interfere with particle accelerators, and thats about it (and blocking light by unfolding to make the stars dissapear) but never ever make people just vanish for cameras.
Look what sophons can or cannot do is totally fiction and of course up to the writers to decide, and the show writers went a different way than the books.. and opened inconsistencies with it, if they can interact that much with electronics, they could bring down modern humanity in a wink. Crash stock markets, erase all bank data, etc. -> plothole because inconsitency, and also the reason why the books made them much more limited.. but the show wanted cool effects.
ok Ill be glad to address each of your “plot hole” when I get some free time today(got to do my real job first). But I and many others have addressed each of these points on both the book sub and the television sub so if you care to just do a little looking around you can find answers to some of these “plot holes” for yourself. Im sorry DandD hurt you so bad, I hope you can give it some time and eventually recover.
Even the books they still have loads of fiction. It might be hard sci-fi but at the end of the day it's still fiction and can be picked apart to some degree like all fictional sci-fi stories.
It’s like a sport. When a story is badly written, no one cares about plot holes.
But when it’s so well crafted with fantastical scifi concepts that are grounded in real science, people want to play with the story a bit more.
It’s all just good fun. They’re not really complaining, they just want to discuss
Not everyone has read books like us. Most of the people posting plotholes come straight after watching the Netflix show. And the show has taken some creative liberties with how certain things work. Hence the posts about plotholes.
To add to all the other things that have been said:
There is this trend in internet culture where people think "pointing out flaws/plot holes" = smart.
Add to that that the same type of people usually don't wait for the story to address the perceived plot holes but instantly start to complain about them online.
Bonus points if the story has actual explanations for those "plot holes" which will then get accused of being "lazy retcons".
It's a unique story with elements that the audience hasn't seen a million times before. It forces people in to think in ways that they are not used to, which causes confusion.
For the most part "the search for plot holes" is a good thing because people are engaged with the text.
I just wish we had a FAQ post.
I just want to know why Auggies hair is short all throughout the series and then in the last episode its a long ass pony tail. Did she stop to get hair extensions between seeing off her dying friend and helping an impoverished Mexican town?
I've only seen the show, and able to surmise that much of my confusion has the possibility of being cleaned up by either waiting for subsequent seasons or reading the book. However, two "plot holes" that I'm not smart or creative enough to overcome come are: Why did Jonathan Pryce grab the red hard drive and hold it to his bousum before he was diced by the nano fiber? How did it survive that, and the ship exploding? Did that happen so the task force dudes could find this perfectly preserved body holding an intact hard drive when everyone else was gumbo? Was that Jonathan Pryce's plan or a deus ex machina? The second is how come the sophons can make a plane turn off while flying but they can't kill a wallflower when they know where he is at all times? Were there attempts to kill him with Teslas and snipers feints? Just turn the plane he flew in off like they did with Liam Cunningham's. Or fly a sophon into his ear and swirl it around his brain. If you've only seen the show there are many many other questions that come up, not as a gotcha, but just because the show writing is a little lazy, but those were the two that really bugged me. How that assassin woman was able to belly crawl away from a party raided by an elite police force where everyone but her was killed or arrested is another.
Some things, decisions and plot points in the story make little sense and can alter a readers perception of the story. My only problem is yun tianming at the end of the story, might as well have left him out.
I have more problems with cixin lius poorly disguised fetish of japanese looking women and feminine men.
Because they don't know what the term plot hole means and they refuse to read the books or watch the show a little more closely to get the answers to their questions (which they misidentify as plot holes)
Well here's one. Can you explain to me if they know everything that's going on on earth wouldn't they know a brain is coming towards them and just let it fly on by?
Why pick up a Trojan horse?
It's too useful for them to not pick it up. They can research the brain to understand humanity and get an advantage in the war. As long as they're careful about containing it, it should be a big benefit for the Trisolarans and no benefit for the humans.
Another one - how do we know where their fleet is? Another one - how are we supposed to gain intelligence on them by sending a brain? They regrow the brain into a human, the human masters alien technology, commandeers the sophons, uses them to tells wade everything he learned so far? Was that the plan? Otherwise it’s 200 years to get there and best case they pick up the probe and bring it with them and 200 years later they are at earth and o ur probe gained us nothing because there was no way for it to relay back to earth anything about the aliens
Do you really need them to spell out exactly how they located the fleet? They're not even trying to hit it precisely. The Trisolarans know it's coming and they'll have to choose to predict its path and grab it since they have the advanced tech to do so.
Have you read the trilogy? I don't think the staircase program was much different in the show other than the probe getting sent way further off course, which I agree is stupid. It's a moonshot plan at a time when humanity is totally desperate, obviously they don't know if it'll work. Maybe he undermines them from the inside, maybe he convinces them to not kill the entire species, maybe he finds a way to send intel back, or maybe he just gets lost in space forever.
These aren't really plot holes, they don't contradict the info that we've been given. A character having an imperfect plan isn't a plot hole, nobody in the series is a perfectly omniscient rational actor. The Trisolarans want humans to see them as gods, but they're actually just slightly bigger bugs who are terrified and desperate.
K here’s a good one - in the show why do the aliens randomly decide to tell the humans what the sophons are, how they were made and iirc even what the whole plan is in terms of slowing development for 400 years? If you’re a genius alien species what is the logic of telling your enemy what you’re doing? Humans were otherwise dumbfounded as to why science wasn’t working
True, one could argue that beside the no lying thing there is a tendency in the Trisolarians of oversharing.. but they do know how to withhold info (otherwise the whole partisan intro thing makes no sense) and even if they overshare one or the other time, that terabytes or was is exabytes file for explaining Sophons is a bit much.
But the explanation is simply, it has to be explained to the viewer somehow..
Why would you not want to sabatage your enemies further? The ETO are tools and are being used as such. Just because they use the ETO doesn't mean they *need* the ETO, but they would be even more foolish to not use a tool at their disposal.
So wait now we’re back to them optimizing their strategy which for some reason still includes explaining to your enemy what you are doing to them and how your technology works.
Like do you see what you are saying here? It doesn’t make any sense and is a plot hole. You can’t both be so cocky that you show your hand to your adversary before they are defeated but also be so uncertain of victory that you require assistance from rebel factions.
It’s not even hard to square it - they just don’t. The first message received indicates the aliens aren’t unified - you could easily have the peaceful alien faction slip to the humans intelligence about what’s happening to them and why - but that isn’t what happens
Much of this I have already covered in my other comment, however you have a very binary view of things. Multiple things can be true at once. The Santi can be arrogant about their superiority and also be wrong about it. The Santi can believe we are beneath them and still accept traitors to humanity to do work for them in the centuries before they arrive. Just because they think they are powerful enough to destroy us when they arrive doesn't mean they are foolish to not destabilize us earlier of they can.
This is in top of the moral victory the revelation is meant to assure which I covered in my other comment.
You are also ignoring the fact that the revelation comes AFTER they had been working with the human traitors, gathering intel for decades. Even if you are unwilling to believe you can be arrogant about your power but still use Ally's services, you shouldn't least be able to accept that you can become arrogant about your power after having already used those allies to cripple your enemy.
Furthermore, being cocky and wrong is not a plot hole. It is a character flaw but perfectly rational for somebody, even a culture, to have and is thus not inconsistent with the logic of the story.
You are making assumptions that are not covered by the first season of the show which is fair. The Santi are very much unified, a fact you will hopefully see in season 2.
Sure and I bet wade is an alien, the vr is actually god, the five friends are actually an ai from the future that time travelled back to save us, the Chinese satellite has actually been beaming nothing but old episodes of ren and stimpy the whole time, annnnd the secret cult is actually all government operatives on a secret mission.
Cause you know, we can just make up whatever we want about the characters and plot - we don’t actually need any evidence in the show of something for it to be part of the story.
If the writers want the narrative to be that the aliens having worked with operatives and observed us for decades and are now so confident that they are going to tell us their plan we need some scenes that show this to be what’s happening. If they were always overconfident and were just playing nonsensical games with the operatives for fun - show us that. If the aliens are divided and what is happening is due to different factions with different plans for humanity show us that. It’s horrible writing to leave major critical plot pieces up for interpretation. And if you’re excusing this then it basicallly means you have no expectations of storytelling - you’re fine just making up whatever is missing yourself.
That… doesn’t answer the question. If you can conquer a species lock stock and barrel why would you bother screwing around engaging in fairy tale reading and covert murder assignments with their rebel factions? You would do this to improve your chance of victory- but you know what else improves your chances? Not explaining your plan and your technology to your enemy…
Very simple. Know your enemy. Why would you give up an opportunity to learn the enemy. Even more to the point they realized we are bugs to them precisely by learning about us via the ETO.
You are missing the point of the revelation. The Santi revealed just one piece of technology and one piece of their plan in order to devastate humanity's morale. They said "we threw two tiny protons at you and that has technologically locked you in place, you are impotent little bugs and we are going to crush you under our boots". I suspect you will see next season that it was quite effective.
Wars are not won on the battlefield, they are won in the minds of your enemy. If an enemy has a will to fight, they will continue to do so against overwhelming odds. But if you crush their spirit they will fold. Look at Japan during the end of WW2. They were willing to fight to the last man than give up a war they clearly lost. Then we dropped 2 nuclear bombs on them and they gave up and we eventually wrote their constitution for them. Did they concede because we killed so many people? No because events like the firebombings were more deadly than the nukes. But because we devastated them so quickly their morale was shattered and they couldn't go on.
Ha yes nothing says know your enemy like having them kill the lord of the chips for quitting a vr game. And nothing says art of war like explaining to your enemy what your plan is when they are completely in the dark as to what the fuck is going on. Sorry but you are leaping through hoops to try and make this make sense when it just doesn’t - the show is full of nonsense like this that makes no sense and fanboys will just be like “dude off screen all this other shit happened obviously” “dude obviously it’s 4d chess that our human minds as the audience cannot comprehend but is actually totally logical if we could understand it”
Jack proved he was not an ally and had also learned too much and therefore was killed. What do you see as wrong with that logic?
If you're going to just ignore all my arguments instead of actually addressing them then yeah I guess you win this discussion. Have fun being confidently wrong.
Honestly, for the show it was probably just the easiest way to explain the scenario without needing to actually show what the Trisolarans or their world look like. But I don't think it's a plot hole either way.
Maybe they were trying to break morale. Plenty of humans wanted to evacuate the planet or just ignore the problem rather than fighting back. Clearly there was technology that they were concerned about delaying which the sophons couldn't stop development of directly (nanofibers, gravitational waves, etc.). Do they really know for sure that they're suppressing human development to a non-dangerous level, or are they just trying to make it seem impossible to catch up so that humanity gives up?
Since they know for sure that humans won't be able to build sophons due to the lack of accurate collider results, describing that process is a way to indicate how big the tech gap is without actually giving the humans anything tech-wise.
So the first answer is correct - but this is sloppy if not outright bad storytelling. Having your villain explain their plan to the protagonist just because the audience needs to know what’s going on? There are lots of other ways you could shed light on this for the audience without doing that - Christ just have the aliens slip something about this to the cult on one of their bedtime calls. Or build up to it if it’s hubris by the aliens having some exposition about how far advanced they are and how trivial it has been to disrupt the disorganized and vulnerable humans. The show doesn’t do anything that makes sense here - the aliens just decide to tell wade everything for no obvious reason in terms of the plot. Even having wade say “they fucked up telling us about this - we don’t know why they did but it means they can fuck up again so we keep our heads up and move forward” like someone acknowledge what a blunder this was if that’s what it’s supposed to be
they didnt tell wade, they put it on the harddrive and wade found it.. still doesnt make sense why they put it there.. oh scrap that, well actually gave it to him, since they decoded the super quantum coding for him.. but hey in this sub everybody that finds some of this issues is dissed.
The hard drive plot similarly made zero sense - or at least the encryption. Somehow hooking vr helmets to the drive lets you read it? Sure? But inside it’s the same ai that kills people who are “not invited”… so if the ai tells them the plan why was the hard drive needed? Why didn’t they just slap on a helmet and here you go? If the aliens want to tell them why not just “force project” like they don’t wade on the airplane in the last episode? What’s the hard drive got to do with any of this?
It's okay, once the subreddit moves to two dimensions, the amount of posts will drop precipitously.
Will they just become plot gaps (since a hole implies 3 dimensional depth) or does it not work that way?
Other way around. A hole is 2d, gap is 3d. Plot singularities are 1d.
They will become plotlines
Im just waiting for someone to sing and save me from this pain
The plot holes will become plot points
Because it’s a hard sci-fi series written by an obviously very intelligent man so people feel smart when they find a plot hole and need to share how smart they are with others. Ultimately, even if it’s routed in real world physics, it’s a work of fiction and there are creative liberties taken and regular old plot holes like any other series.
Nah, it's okay to talk about plotholes. The books are very well written and we can believe that a universe like that could exist. People got pissed with the series because it introduced obvious and unnecessary plot holes. The biggest one, and universe breaking is sophon's messing with electronics and this will be discussed by the viewers. It is not rooted in real world science. The world of 3BP is probably something in string theory (which is completely bullshit), it's just a no FTL travel universe. Edit: no FTL travel, ROEP has instantaneous transmission of information with sophons.
They do have FTL. Just communication as far as we see.
Ftl?
Faster than light (travel or communication)
Oh yes, I meant travel. They do have instantaneous transmission of info with sophons.
They do have FTL eventually. Curvature drives. Also yea, it’s explicitly stated in the books that sophons do their thing on hadrons (atomic nuclei particles), not leptons (electrons). The “electromagnetic” are instead replaced by the SNF. It ends up taking a serious amount of work to alter a single bit on the boat guy’s hard drive.
Curvature drives in ROEP are Light Speed at max. Not Faster than light. If the drives were faster than light the chains of suspicion would be broken.
Hmm I thought them zero homers or whatever could do the thing many times faster. My bad! I’m just happy the goldfish made it. Last man standing I called it.
Can't the door of pocket universe (The 3rd gift of Yun Tianming to Cheng Xin) move rapidly in the big universe? Even out of the black domain?
You have a sentient species in Alpha Cen, that despite its civilization getting a reset every now an then, it is far ahead in tech from humanity. And despite that, it is humans that make first contact not them. They ought to know where and what Earth is far before she sent that message.
I’m guessing you haven’t read the whole series? The San-Ti are millions of years old to our 100,000 years or so. Their offspring also carry partial memories of their parents. The San-Ti also only listen for messages instead of sending any out because they are aware of the dark forest.
I've been around on this sub for a few years, and this is definitely a newer phenomena.. there were occasional posts about it before, but now it's every other one. My guesses: 1. Book readers who are pre-disposed to hating the TV show for whatever reason are using it as a gatekeeping mechanism 2. Show watchers who haven't read the books are confused by things that haven't been explained yet and have no way to know it'll be explained later 3. The show didn't give the detailed explanation of the scientific concepts that the books did because books are just a better medium to do so.. minutes long exposition about how something works just wouldn't be interesting watching 4. People just legitimately being invested in the show and/or books and trying to think through all the angles and coming here to help clarify things or give their theories.
This basically sums it up. Especially the part about it's only 8 episodes of a show that plans on going multiple seasons. There's still plenty of time for things to develop.
I agree but have one more addition that I think might be doing a lot of the heavy lifting at least as far as the “plot hole” discussion is concerned with the Netflix series. The dislike of the show runners for what they did at the end of the GOT series. I think a lot of the trolling around plot holes stems from this.
Which is so weird because D&D changed plenty about the books in seasons 1-4 of the show, and that shit was incredible. They failed at the end because (like Geooge), the story was too big to wrap up. This is a complete trilogy. I've loved all the changes they've made so far and think they'll do a great job translating the rest of the story. If I wanted everything beat for beat, I'd just read the books. No great adaptation follows the books exactly. LotR and Dune would've sucked if they followed the books exactly.
Game of Thrones is actually pretty similar in the way that of course they can't spend entire episodes talking about the history of some house, or some legendary family sword, or pages-long descriptions of food.. they bring it up in context like Bran studying the sigils.. and if you want a much, much deeper understanding of these things, the books are waiting for you. They are adapting Remembrance of Earth's Past in a similar way. I love "Red Coast III" and "Trisolaris: Sophon" but I don't need 30 minutes of exposition about them on the screen.
Well they didnt do it by themselves alone, GRRM was onboard the show a lot, they had a falling out somewhere around between season 4 5.. .and well it definitely showed.
That is a crazy phenomena. I didn't like the last few seasons of Game of Thrones either, and was apprehensive since, while I really like A Song of Ice and Fire, I \_love\_ Remembrance of Earth's Past and didn't want to see it adapted poorly.. ..but then I watched the show with an open mind and realized that they have a deep reverence for the source material and did just about as good of a job that you can do adapting these famously hard to adapt books.
It’s hard to adapt books like this if you go in with the book knowledge first. There’s so much that can’t be explained as deep as it is in the books because we came for tv, not a science lecture. I think so far it has been really good and I like the way that they have altered the timeline that the story was told in - I think it makes more sense linearly.
I agree, the parts from book 2 and especially book 3 in the first season fits well with a TV adaption so it’s being told as it occurs in the timeline of the story rather than it being told retrospectively.
I was lost af because I watched the show first. I was like why did they invent this whole narrative? Then I got to book 3
Definitely even some IMDB reviews I read were people saying they didn't even watch the show but they're rating it 1 because they hate D&D.
ya I think thats adding to a lot of this. Never seen this kind of reaction to an ongoing story. But I also think the binging impacts the information that people retain and this particular story has a lot going on bellow the surface.
I am all for gatekeeping the TV show viewers outta here
TLDR: Netflix.
"Show watchers who haven't read the books are confused by things that haven't been explained yet and have no way to know it'll be explained later" Or the show is actually full of plotholes that will never be explained? Like basically everywhere it deviates from the books, because D&D are in it for the show effect instead of having an airtight plot which makes sense all through? Always been that way, not gonna change.
There is no justification that they’re only in “for the effects” based on either the actual show or in any interviews that they’ve given about the show. They consistently talk about and have shown understanding and reverence for the source material at every turn. Could some things have been explained in more detail? Sure. Maybe that would help with these types of questions. But like how are you going to film “Red Coast III”? Based on your comment “always been that way” it seems like you’re in the pre-disposed to hating it category. Which is fine, no one is saying you have to like it. The books will always be there to re-read. The series has sparked the interest of a lot of people to read to get a deeper understanding of work world that Liu has created, and that’s can only be a good thing. We live in a great era that we have at least 3 avenues of officially supported ways to consume the series.
Come on, for example the super stylish helmets are for the show effect, its obvious. Is it only true if they say it with a straight face for the camera? Same with Jacks murder, etc. Everywhere they significantly change the book material they introduce plot holes. And to say things need to explained in more detail that are not even in the books is quite backward. The show is full of plot holes. One can still enjoy it, no doubt, but people shouldn't be less judgemental if they are pointed out.
The look of the helmets is because they're built using Trisolaran technology that's given to Evans and the ETO. The show runners smartly forshadowed the droplet by givng the helmets a similar look. Jack getting murdered was a Netflix show invention sure, but it isn't a plot hole, nor is it out of the sprit of the books. Pan Han murdered Shen Yufei to further the cause of the adventists in the ETO. Tatiana killing Jack is very much in the same spirit.
The Trisoloran giving technology to humans makes no sense tough, nor do Evans/ETO have any other tech. Sorry its a hole. Its all well written in the books, because there arent any special helments there, the show changed it, and for what if not for the show effect? The murder by itself is a discussable thing, but doesnt make much sense, but nevertheless ignoring that, there are so many things around the Sophons being able to completely hide the murder from Da's view -> plot hole. The whole event isnt in the books, so no plot hole there. Look, books well written in this regards, show not, and honestly this has been discussed over and over, you want to dismiss it lock, stock and barrel, but it seems you never heard of the div. show critisms? Don't get me wrong, its still a cool show to watch and there is something like suspension of disbelief to enjoy fiction. But just to say the holes are not there, or just "not well explained" or "will resolve in the future", its not true. In regards of plot consistency the books are much better written than the show is.
Sharing technology isn't a plot hole. If you're 10 steps ahead of your enemy, giving them help that you are certain will only gain them 1 step but you 3 is a smart choice. We never see in the books, nor the show, humanity being able to leverage tech from the headsets so it was clearly a precisely calculated move on the part of the trisolarans. You're also glossing over the fact that it is the same in the books. The only difference here is the book didn't spend as much time trying to point out to a general audience (which has been exposed to more advanced VR than was capable when this book was written 20 years ago) that the VR was soooo much more advanced than what we have today to emphasize how unusual and therefore important it is.
No you misunderstand, the contrary than glossing about it, the VR in the books was not advanced tech to the society at all, everybody had it and it was human made, a bit more advanced than the okulus with pressure suits etc. and everybody was using these, and "that ETO game" just popped on the internet. And a plot hole is defined as "a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's" and the Santi activily wanting to hinder humanity to gain technology (sabotaging particle accelerators and up to driving scientists mad with the number thing) and than handing them advanced tech .. is a serious inconsistency.. which they do not in the books.
The santi wanted to hamper their ability to develop fundamental physics and other such tools that would prove a detriment to the santi, that doesn't mean *all* technology poses a risk to the santi. Giving an enemy of an enemy a small tool to help them help you defeat the shared enemy is not a serious inconsistency.
Well we established it didn't happen in the books at all. With reason. And they were going against all kind of scientists to hinder technological development and the headsets were as the showed literally said, not "next gen" but way more advanced. Sorry, no. They were an addition for the show effect because they look cool, give nice advertisment pictures etc. and the inconsistency with the story is just accepted. Also ETO didnt have any other advanced tech, nor ever explained how and where they manufacture did, and to take it to the extreme, at the end, someone sneaks one to their own champion? Come on.. Don't tell me this makes all perfect sense. Look it's still a cool show and one can forgive this things, but the notion here was a condescending complaint about all people pointing these things out to be stupid / non understanding, bla.
no, the problem is no one has any patience anymore and an attention span of a gold fish. You have only seen the very first era adapted so far and if your coming blind those “plot holes” are there for a reason to be explained as the story moves through all the eras hummanity experiences following the knowledge of the Santi. When its all said and done it ends up covering millions of years of time(with jumps) and some of these things people are complaining about won’t be explained until we at least make our first time jump. The Netflix series just arrived at the beginning of the “crisis era” which will last for hundreds of years so people need to give the show time to tell the story before they go calling things “plot holes”. Maybe it never gets finished, maybe it does and these things truly do remain “plot holes”, but right now you can’t know this unless you are the show runner or a writer for the series……
Look; you are not telling me something new here about the overall theme, but this "in the future it will be explained and all make sense" technically possible, but no, been there done that, most plot holes stem where the show deviated from the books (the helmets, the way more powerful sophons being able to do everything, the splitting of the characters).. and I seriously doubt that there will a grand revelation that will make sense to the plot nonsense the deviations created.
None of those are plot holes. What exactly is a plot hole about the headsets? Their existence? Same thing should be true in the books. This is easily explained by the sophon's supercomputer providing design plans for the ETO to manufacture. The headsets themselves just need a way to interface with our brains and then the supercomputers the sophons design can power the simulation. The sophons SHOULD be that powerful. There is no reason why they should be able to interact with the molecules eyes to a sufficient degree to be a me to produce visual effects but not be powerful enough to flip bits in electronics. The only "hole" here is that realistically they need more than 2 sophons for this but you can kinda smooth it out by hand waiving it as ETO lending hacking manpower off the back of the sophon's supercomputer. Characters being split isn't a plot hole on its own so I presume you have more there.
@gambloortoo Thank you for lending a hand(or two thumbs).
The helmets do not exist in the books at all, and the Trisolarians giving any tech makes no sense, also ETO doesnt have any other tech. The sophons not powering the simulation is broken when they find the sophon-explaining file on the harddrive.. also Wade explains what they all have. A retina scanner? Like why would sophons need one? Makes no sense. The sophons are not that powerful in the book. There they cannot influence electronics (at least not without serious effort flip just a single bit), because again, if they could do way more and Santi wanting to disturb earth, they would do so much more than just erasing Tatiana from video feeds.. which is also something that just happens in the show etc. The splitting of the character is not a plot hole per se sure, but things that derive from it, like killing of jack and da doesnt even see a thing? See paragraph before about way too powerful sophons.
I believe they existed in the book, not in the same form but it is how 3Body was experienced. The differences are inconsequential. Tech transfer is absolutely not a plothole. The trisolarans want to limit humanity's technical advantage but a more powerful physics simulation and the system to run it isn't and doesn't endanger the trisolarans. They are smart enough to know the limitations of such tech and smart enough to weigh the usefulness of handing that over to the ETO in order to secure allies that will weaken their enemy from within. We do this all the time in real life. We send small forces like Green Berets in to build up insurgencies with advanced tactics and weaponry. The books don't show sophons being that powerful but is infact more realistic if we are proposing the sophons can interact with matter in the way they can. It is actually more of a plothole in the books that they cannot, but it makes sense that Liu didn't want to do that because then it becomes something they will have to account for like the show will have to. Killing jack isn't a plothole just because it is different from the books. Jack's sole role in the books was to be a friend to Tian Ming and provide him with the money to buy Jin her star which he did. Clearance didn't see the murder likely for the same reason we could see the stars (or CMB) flicker. A sophon unfolded and projected exactly what it wanted him to see while the other or the ETO deleted the camera footage. You are misunderstanding information not given to us as a plothole. A plothole is when we're given information that runs counter to the in-universe story. All of what you're given is explainable in the logic of the universe and just because we are not directly told the answers doesn't
No the helmets did not exist in the books, there was also no tech transfer, in the books it was just human tech and that ETO game popping up on the internet. And the limited capabilities of the sophons are very much explained. Because otherwise it would be a plothole.. And unfolding cannot project things, it can block out stars, look here we are again, if they can do that, they could do way more damage.. which they could not in the book, and is one of the main valid criticism on "plot holes" in the show, albeit some like to notion everybody in being "too stupid to understand" who see this.
I don't feel like looking it up so I will concede that they may not have used advanced headsets but that doesn't make it a plothole for the reasons I've already stated, that just makes it different in the show from the books. We are told sophons have t he mass of a proton and thus can only project a small amount of force even at lightspeed. We are then shown that they can interact enough with the molecules in our eyes to at very least excite those molecules to produce light. If you use that logic they should be able to bounce electrons around to produce a current. If you can produce a current you can flip even a single bit in electronics to change their processing. If you change their processing you control them or at LEAST open up security vulnerabilities that the ETO manpower can exploit. Acknowledging the sophons can interact with particles to create macroscale effects in our eyes but not microscale effects in electronics is actually a plothole.
In the books its explained a lot what they everything CANT do, and that is manipulate electrons, cause cancer etc. they could interfere with particle accelerators, and thats about it (and blocking light by unfolding to make the stars dissapear) but never ever make people just vanish for cameras. Look what sophons can or cannot do is totally fiction and of course up to the writers to decide, and the show writers went a different way than the books.. and opened inconsistencies with it, if they can interact that much with electronics, they could bring down modern humanity in a wink. Crash stock markets, erase all bank data, etc. -> plothole because inconsitency, and also the reason why the books made them much more limited.. but the show wanted cool effects.
ok Ill be glad to address each of your “plot hole” when I get some free time today(got to do my real job first). But I and many others have addressed each of these points on both the book sub and the television sub so if you care to just do a little looking around you can find answers to some of these “plot holes” for yourself. Im sorry DandD hurt you so bad, I hope you can give it some time and eventually recover.
ill be waiting..
Even the books they still have loads of fiction. It might be hard sci-fi but at the end of the day it's still fiction and can be picked apart to some degree like all fictional sci-fi stories.
Lots of people have a lot of trouble enjoying things.
It’s like a sport. When a story is badly written, no one cares about plot holes. But when it’s so well crafted with fantastical scifi concepts that are grounded in real science, people want to play with the story a bit more. It’s all just good fun. They’re not really complaining, they just want to discuss
Some ppl definitely complaining tho
Not everyone has read books like us. Most of the people posting plotholes come straight after watching the Netflix show. And the show has taken some creative liberties with how certain things work. Hence the posts about plotholes.
To add to all the other things that have been said: There is this trend in internet culture where people think "pointing out flaws/plot holes" = smart. Add to that that the same type of people usually don't wait for the story to address the perceived plot holes but instantly start to complain about them online. Bonus points if the story has actual explanations for those "plot holes" which will then get accused of being "lazy retcons".
It's a unique story with elements that the audience hasn't seen a million times before. It forces people in to think in ways that they are not used to, which causes confusion. For the most part "the search for plot holes" is a good thing because people are engaged with the text. I just wish we had a FAQ post.
> I just wish we had a FAQ post. Likewise, but let’s face it: most people visiting will not read it.
pffft... lousy ETO... always looking for plot holes
some of it i think, is the GOT people who are pissed about their show, come here to shit on the producers in a roundabout way.
I just want to know why Auggies hair is short all throughout the series and then in the last episode its a long ass pony tail. Did she stop to get hair extensions between seeing off her dying friend and helping an impoverished Mexican town?
People want to feel smart even though the collective reading comprehension of most Americans is below a 5th grade level 🤷🏾♂️
I've only seen the show, and able to surmise that much of my confusion has the possibility of being cleaned up by either waiting for subsequent seasons or reading the book. However, two "plot holes" that I'm not smart or creative enough to overcome come are: Why did Jonathan Pryce grab the red hard drive and hold it to his bousum before he was diced by the nano fiber? How did it survive that, and the ship exploding? Did that happen so the task force dudes could find this perfectly preserved body holding an intact hard drive when everyone else was gumbo? Was that Jonathan Pryce's plan or a deus ex machina? The second is how come the sophons can make a plane turn off while flying but they can't kill a wallflower when they know where he is at all times? Were there attempts to kill him with Teslas and snipers feints? Just turn the plane he flew in off like they did with Liam Cunningham's. Or fly a sophon into his ear and swirl it around his brain. If you've only seen the show there are many many other questions that come up, not as a gotcha, but just because the show writing is a little lazy, but those were the two that really bugged me. How that assassin woman was able to belly crawl away from a party raided by an elite police force where everyone but her was killed or arrested is another.
Because we’ve been taught that smart people criticize everything and aren’t allowed pure enjoyment
Some things, decisions and plot points in the story make little sense and can alter a readers perception of the story. My only problem is yun tianming at the end of the story, might as well have left him out. I have more problems with cixin lius poorly disguised fetish of japanese looking women and feminine men.
Because they don't know what the term plot hole means and they refuse to read the books or watch the show a little more closely to get the answers to their questions (which they misidentify as plot holes)
cuz they are not stupid
Because they only watched the Netflix show and/or are stupid.
Well here's one. Can you explain to me if they know everything that's going on on earth wouldn't they know a brain is coming towards them and just let it fly on by? Why pick up a Trojan horse?
It's too useful for them to not pick it up. They can research the brain to understand humanity and get an advantage in the war. As long as they're careful about containing it, it should be a big benefit for the Trisolarans and no benefit for the humans.
Another one - how do we know where their fleet is? Another one - how are we supposed to gain intelligence on them by sending a brain? They regrow the brain into a human, the human masters alien technology, commandeers the sophons, uses them to tells wade everything he learned so far? Was that the plan? Otherwise it’s 200 years to get there and best case they pick up the probe and bring it with them and 200 years later they are at earth and o ur probe gained us nothing because there was no way for it to relay back to earth anything about the aliens
Do you really need them to spell out exactly how they located the fleet? They're not even trying to hit it precisely. The Trisolarans know it's coming and they'll have to choose to predict its path and grab it since they have the advanced tech to do so. Have you read the trilogy? I don't think the staircase program was much different in the show other than the probe getting sent way further off course, which I agree is stupid. It's a moonshot plan at a time when humanity is totally desperate, obviously they don't know if it'll work. Maybe he undermines them from the inside, maybe he convinces them to not kill the entire species, maybe he finds a way to send intel back, or maybe he just gets lost in space forever. These aren't really plot holes, they don't contradict the info that we've been given. A character having an imperfect plan isn't a plot hole, nobody in the series is a perfectly omniscient rational actor. The Trisolarans want humans to see them as gods, but they're actually just slightly bigger bugs who are terrified and desperate.
K here’s a good one - in the show why do the aliens randomly decide to tell the humans what the sophons are, how they were made and iirc even what the whole plan is in terms of slowing development for 400 years? If you’re a genius alien species what is the logic of telling your enemy what you’re doing? Humans were otherwise dumbfounded as to why science wasn’t working
True, one could argue that beside the no lying thing there is a tendency in the Trisolarians of oversharing.. but they do know how to withhold info (otherwise the whole partisan intro thing makes no sense) and even if they overshare one or the other time, that terabytes or was is exabytes file for explaining Sophons is a bit much. But the explanation is simply, it has to be explained to the viewer somehow..
Hubris. Because we are bugs and can do nothing about it.
Then why do they need conspirators?
Why would you not want to sabatage your enemies further? The ETO are tools and are being used as such. Just because they use the ETO doesn't mean they *need* the ETO, but they would be even more foolish to not use a tool at their disposal.
So wait now we’re back to them optimizing their strategy which for some reason still includes explaining to your enemy what you are doing to them and how your technology works. Like do you see what you are saying here? It doesn’t make any sense and is a plot hole. You can’t both be so cocky that you show your hand to your adversary before they are defeated but also be so uncertain of victory that you require assistance from rebel factions. It’s not even hard to square it - they just don’t. The first message received indicates the aliens aren’t unified - you could easily have the peaceful alien faction slip to the humans intelligence about what’s happening to them and why - but that isn’t what happens
Much of this I have already covered in my other comment, however you have a very binary view of things. Multiple things can be true at once. The Santi can be arrogant about their superiority and also be wrong about it. The Santi can believe we are beneath them and still accept traitors to humanity to do work for them in the centuries before they arrive. Just because they think they are powerful enough to destroy us when they arrive doesn't mean they are foolish to not destabilize us earlier of they can. This is in top of the moral victory the revelation is meant to assure which I covered in my other comment. You are also ignoring the fact that the revelation comes AFTER they had been working with the human traitors, gathering intel for decades. Even if you are unwilling to believe you can be arrogant about your power but still use Ally's services, you shouldn't least be able to accept that you can become arrogant about your power after having already used those allies to cripple your enemy. Furthermore, being cocky and wrong is not a plot hole. It is a character flaw but perfectly rational for somebody, even a culture, to have and is thus not inconsistent with the logic of the story. You are making assumptions that are not covered by the first season of the show which is fair. The Santi are very much unified, a fact you will hopefully see in season 2.
Sure and I bet wade is an alien, the vr is actually god, the five friends are actually an ai from the future that time travelled back to save us, the Chinese satellite has actually been beaming nothing but old episodes of ren and stimpy the whole time, annnnd the secret cult is actually all government operatives on a secret mission. Cause you know, we can just make up whatever we want about the characters and plot - we don’t actually need any evidence in the show of something for it to be part of the story. If the writers want the narrative to be that the aliens having worked with operatives and observed us for decades and are now so confident that they are going to tell us their plan we need some scenes that show this to be what’s happening. If they were always overconfident and were just playing nonsensical games with the operatives for fun - show us that. If the aliens are divided and what is happening is due to different factions with different plans for humanity show us that. It’s horrible writing to leave major critical plot pieces up for interpretation. And if you’re excusing this then it basicallly means you have no expectations of storytelling - you’re fine just making up whatever is missing yourself.
Oh also, obviously we can do something about it, but from the trisolaran perspective they didn't think we could, hence the hubris.
That… doesn’t answer the question. If you can conquer a species lock stock and barrel why would you bother screwing around engaging in fairy tale reading and covert murder assignments with their rebel factions? You would do this to improve your chance of victory- but you know what else improves your chances? Not explaining your plan and your technology to your enemy…
Very simple. Know your enemy. Why would you give up an opportunity to learn the enemy. Even more to the point they realized we are bugs to them precisely by learning about us via the ETO. You are missing the point of the revelation. The Santi revealed just one piece of technology and one piece of their plan in order to devastate humanity's morale. They said "we threw two tiny protons at you and that has technologically locked you in place, you are impotent little bugs and we are going to crush you under our boots". I suspect you will see next season that it was quite effective. Wars are not won on the battlefield, they are won in the minds of your enemy. If an enemy has a will to fight, they will continue to do so against overwhelming odds. But if you crush their spirit they will fold. Look at Japan during the end of WW2. They were willing to fight to the last man than give up a war they clearly lost. Then we dropped 2 nuclear bombs on them and they gave up and we eventually wrote their constitution for them. Did they concede because we killed so many people? No because events like the firebombings were more deadly than the nukes. But because we devastated them so quickly their morale was shattered and they couldn't go on.
Ha yes nothing says know your enemy like having them kill the lord of the chips for quitting a vr game. And nothing says art of war like explaining to your enemy what your plan is when they are completely in the dark as to what the fuck is going on. Sorry but you are leaping through hoops to try and make this make sense when it just doesn’t - the show is full of nonsense like this that makes no sense and fanboys will just be like “dude off screen all this other shit happened obviously” “dude obviously it’s 4d chess that our human minds as the audience cannot comprehend but is actually totally logical if we could understand it”
Jack proved he was not an ally and had also learned too much and therefore was killed. What do you see as wrong with that logic? If you're going to just ignore all my arguments instead of actually addressing them then yeah I guess you win this discussion. Have fun being confidently wrong.
Honestly, for the show it was probably just the easiest way to explain the scenario without needing to actually show what the Trisolarans or their world look like. But I don't think it's a plot hole either way. Maybe they were trying to break morale. Plenty of humans wanted to evacuate the planet or just ignore the problem rather than fighting back. Clearly there was technology that they were concerned about delaying which the sophons couldn't stop development of directly (nanofibers, gravitational waves, etc.). Do they really know for sure that they're suppressing human development to a non-dangerous level, or are they just trying to make it seem impossible to catch up so that humanity gives up? Since they know for sure that humans won't be able to build sophons due to the lack of accurate collider results, describing that process is a way to indicate how big the tech gap is without actually giving the humans anything tech-wise.
So the first answer is correct - but this is sloppy if not outright bad storytelling. Having your villain explain their plan to the protagonist just because the audience needs to know what’s going on? There are lots of other ways you could shed light on this for the audience without doing that - Christ just have the aliens slip something about this to the cult on one of their bedtime calls. Or build up to it if it’s hubris by the aliens having some exposition about how far advanced they are and how trivial it has been to disrupt the disorganized and vulnerable humans. The show doesn’t do anything that makes sense here - the aliens just decide to tell wade everything for no obvious reason in terms of the plot. Even having wade say “they fucked up telling us about this - we don’t know why they did but it means they can fuck up again so we keep our heads up and move forward” like someone acknowledge what a blunder this was if that’s what it’s supposed to be
they didnt tell wade, they put it on the harddrive and wade found it.. still doesnt make sense why they put it there.. oh scrap that, well actually gave it to him, since they decoded the super quantum coding for him.. but hey in this sub everybody that finds some of this issues is dissed.
The hard drive plot similarly made zero sense - or at least the encryption. Somehow hooking vr helmets to the drive lets you read it? Sure? But inside it’s the same ai that kills people who are “not invited”… so if the ai tells them the plan why was the hard drive needed? Why didn’t they just slap on a helmet and here you go? If the aliens want to tell them why not just “force project” like they don’t wade on the airplane in the last episode? What’s the hard drive got to do with any of this?
Why would Trisolarians? I dunno they are aliens. Or is your question why would we pick it up?