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There’s even chaos-theoretic vague gestures in one of the books, where Hari is trying to fix late stage problems with the theory. But perhaps the most revealing thing is that even the original trilogy is primarily about the *second* foundation which is the more powerful one.
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If you know the history you realize that 2nd foundation comes from the same zeitgeist tendencies that gave rise, via Campbell’s other protege, L. Ron Hubbard, to Scientology! Ie in real life, Asimov was arguably Campbell’s first foundation, Hubbard was second.
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People also misunderstand Asimovian heroism. The protagonists are Everyman types, but they’re NOT helpless. Asimov drew from the same Competent Man tradition that Heinlein and others in Campbellverse did.
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In fact, Asimov once rewrote a story about a man who discovered he could float but is not believed, to have a high-agency Asimovian-competent-man redemption because he was dissatisfied with the original draft that had a helpless ending. I can’t remember the name of the story.
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In Foundation erase itself, heroism is not absent, it just appears as kinda ironic after-the-fact in-universe mythologization. Salvor is a Competent Man when we meet him live but a legend a few centuries later. Etc.
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Related: there isn’t even a consistent What Would Asimov Think lens on this. Even if you aren’t in the Barthesian death-of-the-author camp like I am, Asimov himself clearly shifted his view of what the story was about multiple times.
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Don’t forget, the original story was 3 long magazine short stories. Pure pantsing, not plotting. It inherited some grand narrative arciness from Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, but otherwise was made up in a shitposty way as the prolific guy was racing to log the words.
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Rome history buffs too overstate their influence of Gibbon. A far bigger influence was Cold War 1950s-80s milieu. Including nuclear war, which is critical to the plot. It’s the reason the Spacer/Settler schism happens, earth is abandoned, and robots except for Daneel disappear.
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Pebble in the Sky originally had a “bad physics” nuclear fallout premise that was later corrected while being retconned into Foundation timeline in Robots and Enterprise as the result of an “ultimate weapon” by Spacers to make earth uninhabitable. Asimov explains it in a preface.
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In fact the entire Asimoverse is the result of prolific pantsing coupled with masterful retconning. It’s not conceived as an organic whole like LOTR or Harry Potter. It kinda grew like slime mold around his influences. A fox larping hedgehog. An Austrian in Keynesian clothing.
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Cleon is basically doing the tropey emperor-walkabout-incognito thing in this bit. Okay as interpolation but a bit dull. Luminism as a religion feels vaguely Ursula-Le-Guin-ish. Mythology of 3 goddesses, cyclic time etc.
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I honestly don’t get the complaining. I’m a huge Asimov fan/nerd and I’m enjoying every minute of this.
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The last bit with Demerzel and Helima mildly bothers me. Zeroth vs First law conflicts are vaguely implied in the books, but this was so on the nose… but the extreme emotion is an interesting way to cash out law-conflict stresses. In the original robot books you just get stasis.
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Aside: Laura Dirn does an excellent interpretation of Demerzel/Daneel. I hope they do flashbacks all the way back to Lije Bailey. Presumably played by a different actor since we know from the books that Daneel is basically a robotic Ship of Theseus.
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Gonna link this here for those looking to get properly educated in Asimoverse
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Most people don’t realize Foundation is not 3 books but like 14 Caves of Steel Naked Sun Robots of Dawn Robots and Empire Pebble in the Sky Stars, Like Dust Currents of Space Prelude Forward Foundation Foundation and Empire Second Foundation Foundations Edge Foundation and Earth
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Episode 9 finally kinda gets back to book plot. Vault opening handled in an interestingly updated way. Cleons plot on Trantor is a bit strange.
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Ep. 10 pulled a bit of an ex machina stunt to resolve a plot line but I’m inclined to forgive it. My first prediction is now slightly more right but second prediction is wrong.
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Got this one mostly wrong —- Salvor is not a mentallist. Little boy with knife is obviously Raych. Second foundation is in the house obviously. Hugo is the obvious candidate.
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c4d65e5e0bfec17b0b73281e711438604c45bd8b6be226aafa75e0a984134fe6
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Overall, excellent. I really liked the last scene with Demerzel, and they’ve cued up a different actor playing Daneel next season nicely, a la Doctor Who regenerations. Cleons plot has been satisfyingly blown up in a way that underlines a nice “change is the only constant” note
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Didn’t quite like how they played vault-Hari, but I did like how vault itself acquired a backstory. I think Ghost of Hari is too sentient. Makes for better TV, but weakens punch of recordings. But they’ve cued up his being fallible. Ghost Hari will not like the Mule in Season 2.
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Like the setup of the Second Foundation though. In the books, that’s never really described, besides a vague line of descent indicated between Stettin Palver/Wanda Seldon and Preem Palver in Second Foundation. This Synnax setup is more of a story, and nothing significant changes.
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